Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/132

118 FEDERAL REPORTBB. �that "No. 8, E. 3, " in the tax act, was intended to describe a township of that number in that range, and the letters and figures there found would be as intelligible to him, as easily understood by him, as if the entry had been written out at fuU length instead of being abbreviated, �Another objection to the taxes for eveiy year (excepting three included in the last deed) is that they were laid on the entire township of 23,040 acres, and that, while the full tax waa assessed on the 23,040, it was collected only from the ownera of the 22,040, thereby exonerating the 1,000 acres of public lands; as, for instance, a tax of $11.60 assessed onthis town- ship in 1841 was laid on 23,040 acres, valued at $4,000, but the whole $11.60 was apparently collected from only the 22,040, including the portion sold for the non-payment of taxes. �Property belonging to the state is not ordinarily subject to taxation, but if the state, by its legislature, sees fit to include, in a valuation for the purposes of taxation, its own property, together with that belonging to individuals, and assessea thereon a tax, and afterwards collects the entire tax from the individual owners by a sale of their portion of the estate, as forfeited for the non-payment of the entire tax, it may be questionable whether the individual owner bas thereby lost his estate; but, as there are other difficulties which, in the opinion of the court, are fatal to the title of the defendant, it is not necessary for the court to pass upon this objection. �In every year's taxes are included a large number of lots, the fee of which waa then in the state, but the equitable interest thereto was ia the holders of these certificates. It is claimed that these lots were not subject to taxation, but in the opinion of the court the legislative resolve vested in the holders of the certificates an interest in their respective lots, Vhich, at the pleasure of the legislature, could be subjected to taxation, and this objection, therefore, is not sustained. �By chapter 723, Statutes of 1836, it was made the duty of the state treasurer to cause an assessment of a state tax on any township or tract of land not taxable by the assessors of any town or organized plantation, to be published in the ����