Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/388

 362 OCTOBER TER, 1907, Op/nion of the Court. 09 U. . as hereinafter in this section prescribed, and shall also annul and forfeit all the privileges and immunities granted by this contract, including the right to locate and keep its freight depot south of Clay street," etc. The railway company, it is averred, complied with the act and now insists upon its exemption from taxation. The complainant, the' Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Company, consolidated, on October 24, 1892, with the Louis- ville, New Orleans and Texas Railway Company, and in this consoXidation undertook to acquire for the appellant the ex- emption from taxation under the contract of August 11, 1885, hereinbefore referred to. The learned counsel for the appellant concedes that. unless this case can be distinguished in principle from Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railway Company v..Adams, 180 U.S. 1, the decree of the Circuit Court must be affirmed. The Adams case came here on writ of error to review the judgment of the Supreme Court of Mississippi in the same case. 77 Mississippi, 194. The Mississippi court, whose judgment was affirmed in this court, held that a grant of exemption from taxation to a railroad company was void under the constitu- tion of 1869 of that State, and that the organization of a con- solidated company under the constitution of 1890 cut off an exemption from taxation granted to a constituent company prior to the adoption of that-constitution. This iudgment was affirmed, as we have said, in this court which, speaking by Mr. Justice Brovn, held that the consolidation of October 24, 1892, created a new corporation, and that while it might be true that the exemption in question would pass to the. con- soildated company by the terms of the legislation under re- view, yet when the constitutional provision of 1890 took effect the consolidated corporation, organized under that constitu- tion, was no longer entitled to the exemption. That constitu- tion contained certain clause which were then under review,  follows: "SEC. 180. All existing charters or grants of corporate

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