130 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Feb. 1,

authority for an expenditure of money to contest a law of the
State, or an election to be held under it, such objects are for-
eign to the purposes and objects of a municipal body, as crea-
ted by the Legislature.

By some legal writers, the connection of the State and a pub-
lic corporation, is compared to the relation which exists be-
tween a parent and a child, the mere mention of which rejects
the idea that a hostile element should be imparted, by which
the controling power of the former should be resisted by the
latter.

The only clause of the charter which it is possible to dis-
tort, to give the power, is in these words, "They may pass
ordinances for preserving order, securing property and per-
sons from violence, danger or destruction, protecting the pub-
lic and city property, rights and privileges, from waste or en-
croachment, and promoting the great interests and insuring
the good government of the city."

We do not conceive that this recital contains or was intend-
ed to contain the right or authority, to divert the funds in
the city treasury, to any such object; corporations have de-
fined and limited powers, and are not permitted to enter into
implications or presumptions, to enlarge the powers not di-
rectly given.

The third subject is what Legislation may be necessary ?

The committee would prefer remitting this portion of the
inquiry to the Senate, not desiring to influence any Senator
in a course he may have marked out for himself, but they
deem it practicable to say, that the corporation being entirely
under the control of the Legislature, and but an agent or
creature of the law, to effect the purposes of its creation, the
power exists in the General Assembly to forbid by law, under
certain penalties, the diversion of the funds to an improper
use; as bodies politic are not subject to criminal prosecution,
the penalties could be imposed upon the officers and agents,
who may misapply or permit to be misapplied, the funds in
the Treasury.

The last inquiry is to the legal liability of the State for
any expenses incurred in the recent removal of the police
commissioners of Baltimore city.

The power of the Legislature to direct payment of the ex-
pences referred to is unquestioned; all power not delegated
to the General Government, and not prohibited by the Con-
stitution of the State or Bill of Rights, remains inherent in
the people, and consequently in the Legislature as their rep-
resentatives, and when a question of power is raised, the solu-
tion of it is found, not in what has been granted, but in
what has been prohibited. This theory of the State Govern-
ment is recognized distinctly by the Supreme Court of our