Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/303

 cretion, are authorized to vote, give opinions, or perform other executive functions involving official discretion, and with respect to matters pending before them, or which may be brought before them. This offense was a grave offense at common law, and is made felony, and very severely punished by said section. On the other hand, § 6303 defines a mere misdemeanor and one which does not include the moral turpitude involved in the act of corrupting and perverting official discretion. The acts referred to in § 6303 are, in themselves, necessarily lawful, official acts, and, as to such acts, the statute, for good reasons, declares that the officer who performs them shall not be stimulated or induced to act by any “emolument,” “gratuity,” or "reward," outside of fees. From this it follows that § 6303 is not a duplicate of § 6300, as suggested by counsel’s brief, but, on the contrary, refers to another class of offenses, viz., to cases where an executive officer who is not intrusted with official discretion asks or receives a bonus, not as a fee, but asa gratuity independent of fees, and as an extra inducement for the performance of an official act, which act is in itself lawful. The question of the legality of the claim for the use of the team, as a valid contract, enforceable against the county, is not now before us, and we do not pass upon it. But the facts surrounding this case seem to warrant us in saying that "it is a well-established and salutary doctrine that he who is intrusted with the business of others cannot be allowed to make such business an object of pecuniary profit to himself." See 1 Dill. Mun. Corp. § 444. Upon the grounds above stated, the judgment of the court below must be reversed, and the action dismissed. Such will be the order. All concur.

, Plaintiff and Respondent, v., Defendant and Appellant.

1. Municipal Corporation—Publication of Ordinance.

Under the provisions in the general town incorporation law, (§ 1043, Comp. Laws,) which provides that “every by-law, ordinance, or regulation, unless in case of emergency, shall be published in a newspaper in