Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/131

 ^ODQVON p. BUBLEIGH. 117 �of the State tax for 1849, '50, '51, '52, and '53, and of the ' coiinty tax for the same years, certified to the treaSurer ac- cording to law. The deed states that the notices were duly published in the papers accoïding to statute requirements. �In Clarkc v. Strickland, 2 Curtis, 493, the question was dis- cussed whether an uninhabited township of land, owned in severalty by different proprietors, was rightfuUy included in a tax act which made no provision for a valuation of the land of the different owners, and no apportionment of the tax, as as is required by the constitution of Maine. For satisfactory reasons, there presented, the question was not then passed upon by the court. The same reasons exist in the present cause, and there will be no expression of any opinion upon that question. �The objection is strongly pressed by the tenants that no tax was laid on "township No. 8, in tha third range," as it is said aU the tax acts describe the estate taxed simply as "No. 8, E. 3," which is unintelligible. This is hardly a correct description of what appears in the tax acts, as, in the first place, the estate is always located in the county of Aroostooki and, secendly, the whole entry is "No. 8, E. 3, do. do. do."-^ these words "do." being placed directly under the entry "W. of E. line of state," thereby clearly declaring that "No. 8, E. 3," was situated in the county ot Aroostook and west of the east line of the state. On reference to the tax acts, as far back as 1821, it will clearly appear that these "cabalistic let- ters and terms, " to use the language of the learned counsal for the tenant, were then employ ed by the legislature in describ- ing townships to be taxed ; as, for instance, in fixing the taxes that year for Washington county, which then included the present county of Aroostook, there will be found the foUowing entry : "County of Washington, No. 1, first range 9, 65-100 ;" "No. 6, 5, 72-100;" and the same course, it is belle ved, bas been adopted in every tax act since that year. Thes3 "signa and cabalistic letters," from a usage of more than 50 years, bave acquired a well-known signification, and there is not an individual in this state, who bas ever had an interest in an acre of wild land, who, for an instant, could entertain a doubt ����