Opinion of the Court.

specifying both the sections reserved to the United States and those granted to the State under that act, would not thereby fix and identify lands which had been mentioned but not identified, in a different and prior act, and which were not referred to in any way in the map filed under the act of 1827. No lines showing the boundary of a strip ninety feet wide on each side of the canal were ever placed on the map which was filed in the Treasury Department in 1829, the only map which was ever filed there. That map showed the proposed route and also the sections granted to the State and those reserved to the United States, and the right of way along the route would be taken to be for a canal of the proposed width as stated in the acts of the General Assembly, and which width was accepted and acquiesced in by Congress and the Government.

It was not until 1848, eleven years after the work of construction was commenced and a year after the completion of the canal, as is stated by counsel for plaintiffs in error in his brief, that a survey was made of the ninety feet strip on each side of the canal from one end to the other, and the lines of that survey marked on maps under the directions of the canal commissioners, and the maps and profiles of the survey filed in the office of the state canal commissioners, but not with the Commissioner of the General Land Office or in the Treasury Department at Washington. This action of the canal commissioners was a mere ex parte assertion made by state officials upon their own maps, nearly twenty years after the filing of the map in the Treasury Department, indicating a possible claim of right on behalf of the State, but never laid down on any map filed in Washington.

The differences between the two acts in question and their inconsistent provisions are noticeable. That of 1822 provides for the use of land through the whole of the public domain ninety feet wide on each side of the canal. That of the act of 1827 grants a quantity of land equal to one half of five sections in width on each side of such canal, and reserves each alternate section to the United States, etc. In the sections reserved, therefore, no title to or use of the ninety feet on each side of

Opinion of the Court.

the canal is given, while in the alternate sections not reserved to the United States the whole title is granted to the State. The third section of the act of 1827 gives power to sell and give title in fee to the land granted, while the act of 1822 grants no title, and provides for resuming possession of the land if at any time the same is not used for a canal. The filing of a map under the act of 1827 would clearly not be a fulfilment of the provisions as to the filing made in the act of 1822.

The Congressional act of 1827, nevertheless, implies by its language and subject-matter the consent of Congress to a right of way through the public lands, and the subsequent state act of 1829, in the eleventh section, showed the width of the canal contemplated, which was the same as the prior and repealed act of 1825 provides for. Of course, a towpath would be added. These two acts show the intention of the parties to proceed thereafter with reference to the act of 1827 and not under that of 1822. Work was not in fact commenced until in 1837.

When Congress under the act of 1827 granted the alternate sections to the State throughout the whole length of the public domain, in aid of the construction of the canal, it also granted by a plain implication the right of way through the reserved sections, for it cannot be presumed the Government was granting all these alternate sections to the State for the purpose avowed, and yet meant to withhold the right to pass through the sections reserved to the United States along the route of the proposed canal. But the implication would not extend to the ninety feet on each side. It would extend to the land necessary to be used for the canal of the width contemplated, and that had been asserted in an act of the general assembly in 1825 and was subsequently reiterated in another act of that body (1829).

Upon all the facts in the case it is plain that the act of 1822 was mutually abandoned by the parties so far as concerned the land grant after the passage of the act of 1827, and that the right of way through the reserved sections was treated and regarded as impliedly granted by the latter act, under which the larger grant was made, and that the map was filed under that act, and none was ever filed under the act of 1822. The State

Syllabus.

never took title to the strip of land ninety feet wide on each side of the route of the canal through the public lands, so far as related to the sections reserved to the United States by the act of 1827, of which section ten herein involved was one.

It is not a question of forfeiture of the grant under the act of 1822. There was no forfeiture; it was a mutual abandonment of that act for the act of 1827. Taking all the facts into consideration, the State never acquired an absolute title to the ninety feet strip, as by the language of the act of 1822 the use only was granted, and it required a subsequent filing of a map as provided for in that act before the right to the use was acquired and made definite and fixed as to any particular land, and before that time arrived the act of 1827 was passed, which was to a certain extent inconsistent with the former act, and the State in fact thenceforth proceeded under the later act and filed its map thereunder and constructed the canal with reference thereto.

We think the judgment of the Supreme Court of Illinois was right, and it is therefore

Affirmed.

ST. PAUL GAS LIGHT CO. v. ST. PAUL.

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA.

No. 183. Argued March 21, 1901.-Decided April 15, 1901.

A by-law or ordinance of a municipal corporation may be such an exercise of legislative power, delegated by the legislature as a political subdivision of the State, having all the force of law within the limits of the municipality, that it may properly be considered as a law, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States.

In this case, as no legislative act is shown to exist, from the enforcement of which an impairment of the obligations of such a contract did or could result, it follows that the record involves solely an interpretation of the contract, and therefore presents no controversy within the jurisdiction of this court.

Statement of the Case.

THE charter of the St. Paul Gas Light Company was granted in 1856, and it expires in 1907. The corporation was empowered to construct a plant to supply the city of St. Paul and its inhabitants with illuminating gas. It may be assumed, for the purposes of the question arising on this record, that the corporation discharged its duties properly under its charter, and that from the time the charter became operative the company has lighted the city in accordance with the contracts made for that purpose from time to time with the municipal authorities. The charter did not purport to engage permanently with the company for lighting the city, but provided for agreements to be entered into on that subject with the city for successive periods, and from the beginning of the charter the parties did so stipulate for a specified time, a new contract supervening upon the termination of an expired one. It may also be assumed for the purposes of this case that the rights which the corporation asserts on this record were not foreclosed by any of the contracts which it made, at different periods, with the city. The question which here arises concerns only section 9 of the charter, which is as follows:

"SEC. 9. That it shall be the duty of the St. Paul Gas Light Company to prosecute the works necessary to the lighting the the whole city and suburbs with gas, and to lay their pipes in every and all directions, whenever the board of directors shall be satisfied that the expenses thereon shall be counterbalanced by the income accruing from the sales of gas. It shall also be their duty to put the gas works into successful operation as soon as practicable: Provided, That whenever the corporation of the city of St. Paul shall, by resolution of the board of alder men, direct lamps to be erected and lighted in the streets of the city, the company shall make contract therefor, and furnish and provide, lay, set up and keep in good repair, at their own proper expense and charge, the street posts and lamps, and their pipes and meters, all to be of the best quality of work and material now in use. In consideration whereof, the said corporation of the city shall pay quarterly to the St. Paul Gas Light Company an interest of eight per centum per annum on the amount of the sum of the original cost of said street

Statement of the Case.

lamps and lamp posts, gas meters and gas pipes, and the cost of laying and erecting the same. But said company shall not be bound to lay every pipe in such places where the proceeds from the sale of gas light would not be sufficient to defray the expenses of furnishing the same."

Under the foregoing section the gas company, by direction of the city, constructed street lamps, and up to January 1, 1897, they numbered 3362. The interest on the cost of these lamps, at the rate fixed by section 9, was regularly paid by the city up to January 1, 1897. About, or shortly after that date, in certain portions of the city, the use of electricity for lighting the streets was by direction of the municipality substituted for gas, and hence the street gas lamps in those portions of the city which were lighted by electricity were no longer used. It is fairly to be deduced from the record that either by its original charter or by amendments thereto the gas company was empowered to supply electricity as well as gas, and in virtue of this power it constructed an electrical plant and contracted with the city to supply the electric lights in those portions of the city where the use of gas had been dispensed with. The gas company asserted its right to recover from the city the interest on the cost of placing in position the lamps, the use of which had been discontinued under the circumstances just above stated. The city denied its obligation to pay interest on account of the cost of these lamps. As the result of this disagreement the city, in 1897, passed the following ordinance:

"Resolved, That the St. Paul Gas Light Company be and it is hereby required forthwith to remove the gas street lamp posts in that portion of the city now lighted by electric light under contract with said company, and which said lamps have been discontinued by order of the board of public works.

"Resolved, further, That the board of public works is hereby required to transmit to the city comptroller a statement showing the number and location of said gas street lamp posts not now in service in said electric light district above referred to, and that from and after the passage of this resolution no interest be paid by the city of St. Paul to said St. Paul Gas Light