Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/370

 OCTOBER TERM, 1907. Opinion o/the Oourt. 209 U. 8. with the Constitution and laws of the United States, and this is the question we now present.'- Plaintiff in error, however, ?eros to. broaden his conrela- tions here,' and attacks the construction of the state statutes made in Commonwea/th v. Rosenfie/d Brothers, and urges either a different construction than there made, or a disregard of that construction, as constituting extortion against him, or as depriving him of his property without due process of la. The basis of the contention is that he had paid taxes demanded of him under a different construction and received the receipt therefor, and that the State is estopped to nmke further de- mands upon him. The hardship .of his situation is strongly presented. He was mqnired, he urges, to report for assess- merit and pay *,xes on property belonging to another. He made the report and pad all the taxes demanded of him. Hav- ing completely discharged his legal obligations, as he. sup - poed, he delivered the property to its owner and lost the lien which the statute gave him, and which constituted the legal justification, as he contends, of the charge upon him, and he is now subjected to liability for interest and penalties for which he has no security or power to enforce reimbursement: new demand is made upon him, he says, "special in its char- acter and retroactive in its effect, in violation of the constitu- tion of the State of Kentucky and of the Fourteenth Amend- merit of the Constitution of the United States." But these contentions, so far as they rest upon a supposed change in the law, vere rejected in Commonwealth v. Rosenfidd Brothers, supra, the court deciding that interest was due under the law of 1892, under which the taxes were demanded and paid, and as well ss under the law of 1902. A summary of te statutory provisions will make cleax the de- cisior. �05 of the Compiled Statutes of 1894 requires "every owner or proprietor of a bonded warehouse" to make a report between certain dates to the auditor of public accounts of the kind and quantity of spirits in such warehouse on the fifteenth day of September. The auditor of public accounts is required

�