[Art. 3] LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT 83

This section referred to in construing art. 4, sec. 26, and in holding the official bond
of a clerk liable for the salaries of his deputies. State use of Smith v. Turner, 101 Md. 588.
See art. 24, An. Code.
See notes to sec. 52.

Sec. 46. The General Assembly shall have power to receive from the
United States any grant or donation of land, money, or securities for any
purpose designated by the United States, and shall administer or distribute
the same according to the conditions of the said grant.

Sec. 47. The General Assembly shall make provisions for all cases of
contested elections of any of the officers, not herein provided for.

Since a statute passed in pursuance of this section provided that contested elections
for comptroller should be decided by the house of delegates, and since in this case it
had been decided by the house in favor of the appellee, an injunction restraining him
from exercising the powers and duties of comptroller was properly refused. The Gover-
nor was only entitled to fill a vacancy in the office of comptroller until the party de-
clared to be entitled to the office should duly qualify. The Constitution should be
construed as a whole. State v. Jarrett, 17 Md. 327.

In the light of this section and of the legislation adopted in pursuance thereof, a
court of equity has no jurisdiction to hear and determine a contest in regard to an
election of officers; neither has it jurisdiction by a proceeding in the nature of quo
warranto to try the title to an office, since jurisdiction in the latter proceeding be-
longs to a court of law. Hamilton v. Carroll, 82 Md. 338.

Secs. 181 and 182 of art. 33 of the An. Code, held to be still in force under this
section—see notes to secs. 181 and 182 of art. 33. Anderson v. Levely, 58 Md. 201.

This section referred to in construing art. 5, sec. 2, and art. 4, sec. 11—see notes
thereto. Groome v. Gwinn, 43 Md. 628.

Sec. 48. Corporations may be formed under general laws, but shall not
be created by special act, except for municipal purposes and except in cases
where no general Laws exist, providing for the creation of corporations of
the same general character as the corporation proposed to be created, and
any act of incorporation passed in violation of this section shall be void;
all charters granted or adopted in pursuance of this section, and all charters
heretofore granted and created subject to repeal or modification, may be al-
tered from time to time, or be repealed; provided, nothing herein contained
shall be construed to extend to banks or the incorporation thereof; the
General Assembly shall not alter or amend the charter of any corporation
existing at the time of the adoption of this Article, or pass any other general
or special Law for the benefit of such corporation except upon the con-
dition that such corporation shall surrender all claim to exemption from
taxation or from the repeal or modification of its charter, and that such
corporation shall thereafter hold its charter subject to the provisions of this
Constitution; and any corporation chartered by this State which shall
accept, use, enjoy or in anywise avail itself of any rights, privileges, or
advantages that may hereafter be granted or conferred by any general or
special Act, shall be conclusively presumed to have thereby surrendered
any exemption from taxation to which it may be entitled under its charter,
and shall be thereafter subject to taxation as if no such exemption has been
granted by its charter. ¹

Charters.

Under this section, it is beyond the power of the legislature to grant to a corpora-
tion an irrepealable exemption from taxation; hence the act of 1880, ch. 16, passed
to adjust all pending controversies between the state and the Northern Central Rail-
road Company, although supported by a valuable consideration, was subject to repeal,
since it undertook to limit the taxes to be paid by the railroad company. The act of
1880 held to have been repealed by the act of 1890, ch. 559—see art. 81, sec. 95, of the
An. Code, and notes thereto. State v. Northern Central R. Co., 90 Md. 447 (affirmed
in 187 U. S. 258). And see Washington Hospital v. Mealy, 121 Md. 282.

¹ Thus amended by the act of 1890, ch. 195, ratified November 3, 1891.