Anderson v. Brewster. should be said that the law might prove unnecessarily severe, and might sometimes do injustice, without fault in the sufferer, it might well be replied, said the court, that such considerations might very properly be addressed to the legislature, but not to the judiciary; they go to the expediency of the law, and not to its constitutionality. Mr. Justice Christiancy, in a concurring opinion, considered at length the specific objection that the law was unconstitutional, in that it authorized the taking of one man's property for the debt of another. But that particular provision of the law was pronounced to be not a new one as applied to the collection of taxes, and to be much older than the constitution. It has prevailed for a long period. in the state of New York, and its constitutionality seems never to have been questioned in that state. See Sheldon v. Van Buskirk,, 2 N. Y. 473. The same principle holds in the state of Vermont, and where a constable has failed to make return, and pay over taxes, the sheriff, on an extent, if unable to find property of the constable, "may levy and collect the same of any inhabitant of the township," who is to have his action against the township for the amount. But the general assembly, under section 18 of the schedule to the constitution, as one of the means of providing against the evils resulting from the traffic in intoxicating liquors, has deemed it proper to assess the business of those engaged in such traffic, and to provide that the assessment shall operate as a lien upon the real property on and in which such business is conducted. Invoking the aid of the taxing power, if we regard these provisions of the statute as also an exercise of the police power of the state, there was, in our judgment, ample authority to create a lien on the premises of the plaintiff in error for the payment of the assessment on the tenant's business. If a tenant engages in a business which, by causing intemperance, pauperism, and crime, becomes a proper subject for the exertion of the police power of the state, the legislature may with propriety include the premises of the Anderson v. Brewster. lessor, which sustain and derive profit and advantage from the subject-matter upon which such power is exerted. It is a settled principle," says Chief Justice Shaw, "growing out of the nature of well ordered civil society, that every holder of property, however absolute and unqualified may be his title, holds it under the implied liability that his use of it may be so regulated that it shall not be injurious to the rights of the community." Commonwealth v. Alger, 7 Cush. 84. For over thirty years it has been the settled policy of this state to hold any building or premises, rented or leased to another, to be used or occupied for the sale of intoxicating liquors, contrary to law, liable for all damages assessed against the lessee thereof, for violations of the laws regulating such traffic. S. & C. 1434. Such liability is continued in section 4364 of the Revised Statutes, and the premises may be sold to pay all fines, costs, and damages assessed against any person occupying the same. species of legislation, involving in liability both lessor and lessee for damages resulting from the business of the latter to third persons, has frequently come under judicial examination, without its constitutionality being seriously called into question, and may find cumulative sanction in the well recognized police power granted to the general assembly in the schedule to the constitution. Zink v. Grant, 25 Ohio St. 352; Justice v. Lowe, 26 Ohio St. 372; Bowers v. Pomeroy, 21 Ohio St. 184; Schultz v. The Stute, 32 Ohio St. 276. This The existence of the lien under consideration need not work to the detriment of the owner of real property. If he leases property adapted to the business contemplated in the statute, he may stipulate with his lessee for an indemnity against any loss accruing to him from the statutory lien. He is presumed to take cognizance of the general laws of the state that are in force. And if, with eyes open, he provides a building or premises for another to conduct a business marked by the constitution and laws as a source of evil, and opposed to public policy, he should not be permitted to evade the operation of the statute. Anderson v. Brewster. If the alienation of the real estate becomes less feasible on account of the statutory lien, the owner who has executed a lease after the passage of the statute has himself invited the lien. The able and learned opinion pronounced by Minshall, J., in Adler v. Whitbeck, ante, p. 539, renders it unnecessary to consider at any length the direct bearing of section 2, article 12, of the constitution, on the assessment upon the business of trafficking in intoxicating liquors, which is made to operate as a lien upon the real property. It is well understood that this section is not a grant of power, but a regulation or limitation rather, of the taxing power comprised in the general legislative power of the state vested in the general assembly. While, however, it furnishes the governing principle for taxes for general revenue, by providing that laws shall be passed taxing by a uniform rule all moneys, credits, investments in bonds, stocks, joint stock companies, or otherwise, and also all real and personal property, according to its true value in money, it does not cover the whole domain of taxation. In the taxation of property for general revenue, equality and uniformity must constitute the guiding rule, but it was not intended to so impair the ability of the legislature to promote the public good as to preclude it from all modes of raising money by taxation or assessment, not in strict conformity with the second section of the twelfth article. In raising general revenue to meet the necessities of government, certain designated kinds of property are required to be taxed by a certain rule; but, subject to the limitations. contained in the constitution, the power to impose taxes reaches to trades or occupations, in any of the modes known and practiced prior to the constitution of 1851. Cooley on Constitutional Limitations, * 479; Western Union Telegraph Co. v. Mayer, 28 Ohio St. 521. Accordingly, the general assembly, while observing the required rule of uniformity in taxing the kinds of property designated, has frequently, by virtue of the general legislative power granted it by the constitution, exercised a Anderson v. Brewster. supervisory power over various branches of business, and imposed upon them assessments for exceptional and special purposes. Among other examples of this which might be adduced is the assessment upon the business of gas companies and manufacturers of mineral or petroleum oil. In The Cincinnati Gas L. & C. Co. v. The State, 18 Ohio St. 237, it was held that a pro rata assessment, according to valuation, on the property of the gas companies of the state, to pay the salary of the state inspector and other expenses of his office, was not in violation of the constitutional provision for taxing property according to a uniform rule. Acting upon this principle, the legislature has authorized the state inspector of oils to demand and receive from the owner or party for whom he performs the inspection a certain sum for every package or cask, and all fees so accruing are made a lien on the oil inspected. Indeed, a denial to the general assembly of the right to impose an assessment as prescribed in the Dow law would be inconsistent with the raising of moneys from licenses of any kind, inspection charges, or other kindred methods. But, not only had the general assembly authority to make this assessment upon the liquor traffic, as being invested with all the legislative powers of the state, but by the schedule to the constitution it is permitted and in duty bound, we think, to use any or all of these powers, not expressly or by necessary implication prohibited, in providing against the evils resulting from such traffic. And if, in the exercise of its judgment and discretion, the legislature sees fit to impose a burden on the traffic in the shape of a tax, for the purpose of diminishing those evils, it does not come within the province of this court to review its action in selecting such means. There is another branch of this case which seems so free from doubt, that there would be no call for its consideration were it not that it finds a place among the issues set forth in the record. We refer to the contention, that the lien is illegal, because the assessment on the business of the liquor traffic is in violation of section 18 of the schedule Anderson v. Brewster. to the constitution, which provides that "no license to traffic in intoxicating liquors shall hereafter be granted in this state." The act of April 5, 1882, known as the Pond law, was declared by a majority of the court, in State v. Hipp, 38 Ohio St. 199, to be, in its operation and effect, a license within the inhibition of the constitution, so far as it required every person engaged in the traffic in intoxicating liquors to pay a specified sum of money annually, and execute a bond, with the further requirement that the person who engaged in such traffic without having executed the bond, or after his bond was adjudged forfeited, should be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. And the act of April 17, 1883, commonly called the Scott law, was also held by a majority of the court, in Butzman v. Whitbeck, 42 Ohio St. 223, to be in effect a license law, so far as it enacted that whoever should engage or continue in such traffic upon land or premises not owned by him, without the written. consent of the owner thereof, should be held guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to be punished by fine or imprisonment or both, at the discretion of the court. Neither of these characteristic features of the two preceding statutes is embodied in the Dow law, and, so far as yet discovered, it went from the legislature with none of the objectionable features of a license. A license in law may be simply and well defined as a permission, but it is a permission given by some competent authority to do an act which, without the permission, would not be legal. Bouvier's Law Dict.; Youngblood v. Sexton, 32 Mich. 406. The Dow law does not hold out permission. to engage in the traffic in intoxicating liquors, nor stamp it with illegality, nor prescribe a condition precedent upon which one may have the right to carry on such business. It repeals that portion of section 6941 of the Revised. Statutes which forbids the sale of intoxicating liquors to be drank in or upon the building or premises where sold; and if one chooses to engage in the traffic, he must do so subject to the burden which is afterward imposed upon his business. If he fails to pay the assessment thereon, his |