Opinion of the Justices

To the Senate of New Hampshire:

The undersigned have received an attested copy of a resolution adopted by your honorable body at the June session, 1889, requiring our opinions on a question raised by a claim of the Boston Maine Railroad for the repayment of a tax paid by that company under protest.

Section 5 of c. 13, General Laws, provides that no "act incorporating, chartering, or renewing the corporate powers of any railroad . . . company" shall be enrolled, or published, or have the force of law, until the payment into the state treasury of "fifty cents per thousand on the largest amount of…