minutes of the board, to furnish the aggregate amount of convict labor provided for in the written contract. These allegations can only be construed to mean that the board agreed to continue to furnish convict labor to plaintiff until the aggregate amount specified in the contract should be supplied. The only difference between this case and that of McConnell v. Ark. Brick & Mfg. Co., supra, is that the latter was a suit to prevent an attempted rescission and breach of the written contract of February 3, 1899, as amended in writing on July 31, 1899, while the present suit is one to restrain an attempted breach of said amended contract as further amended subsequently by the alleged additional agreement of the Penitentiary Board, entered on the minutes thereof, to make good the deficit in the aggregate amount of convict labor agreed to be furnished. The contract and each of the alleged amendments thereto were based on the same character of consideration, viz: the mutual undertakings of the contracting parties. The present suit, as was the McConnell case, is plainly one to restrain an attempted breach by the Penitentiary Board of a contract alleged to have been entered into by that board for the State of Arkansas whereby convict labor should be furnished to the plaintiff; the question at issue in each of the cases being whether or not the contract was a valid and subsisting one, and whether such suit was one against the State.
The first and only question necessary for us to determine in this case is whether or not this is a suit against the State; for, if it is, then the chancery court was wholly without jurisdiction to proceed, and all orders and judgments attempted to be rendered therein were void. In the matter of Ayres, 123 U. S. 443. A sovereign State cannot be sued except by its own consent; and such consent is expressly withheld by the Constitution of this State. Art. 5, § 19.
The question whether a suit is one against a State is not necessarily determined by reference to the parties to the record. If the State is the real party in interest, though only its officers and agents are parties, then it is in effect a suit against the State, and falls within the rule of prohibition. Poindexter v. Greenhow, 114 U. S. 270; Hagood v. Southern, 117 U. S. 32; In the matter of Ayres, 123 U. S. 443; Pennoyer v. McConnaughy, 140 U. S. 1; Fitts v. McGehee, 172 U. S. 516; Farmers
