The State vs. Thomas E. Leonard.

use, in the sense of the Code, section 4706, which defines the offense.

The objection is without merit. The Code, section 4706, enacts that, if any person charged with the safekeeping, collection and disbursement of money or property belonging to the State or any county, use any part of said money or property, by loan, investment, or otherwise, without authority of law, or convert any part thereof to his own use, in any way whatever, he is guilty of embezzlement.

Failing and refusing to pay over the money to his successor in office, is, unexplained, evidence of a conversion of the money to his own use, and if proved, will establish the allegation of the indictment that he did embezzle and convert the money to his own use. Failing and refusing to deliver a chattel, upon demand of the person entitled to possession, is evidence of conversion, in the civil action of trover.

Of course, proof may he made by the defendant, of facts relieving the failure and refusal to pay, of its felonious character.

The intent of the Legislature was, to make such failure and refusal embezzlement, and, as such, punishable. This is manifest, from the fact that the Legislature has made, by section 4712, of the Code, the fraudulent appropriation of money or property, by any person in whose hands, or under whose control it may be, by his position as clerk, agent, factor or bailee, or on any other contract or trust, by which he was bound to deliver or return the thing received, or its

Memphis Gas-light Company vs. The State.

proceeds, a fraudulent breach of trust, and a felony, punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary.

The duty of the Court is, to enforce the criminal law, and not to search for unnatural circumstances for pretexts or means to screen offenders from the punishment due to their crimes.

The demurrer in this case was not well taken, and the judgment of the Court below, will be reversed, and the prisoner remanded for trial on the indictment.

MEMPHIS GAS-LIGHT COMPANY vs. THE STATE.

1. TAXABLE PROPERTY. Gas pipe laid through the streets of a city are a part of the manufactory. Pipes belonging to a gas company laid through the streets of a city, by permission of the corporate authorities, do not become the property of the city, or a part of the realty. They are personal property, and belong to the gas company, and are a part of the usual and necessary appliances of such an establishment, without which the gas manufactured could not be preserved or delivered to the

consumer.

2. SAME.

Gas pipes liable to taxation. The pipes of a gas company used by them, to convey the gas from the place where manufactured to the consumers, are liable to be assessed for taxation. See Code, sec. 541.

FROM MEMPHIS.

At the

Term, 1868, there was a judgment against the Memphis Gas-light Company for taxes

Memphis Gas-light Company vs. The State.

assessed upon their gas-pipes, laid through the streets of Memphis to convey gas to the consumers of the gas manufactured by the company; from which they appealed. Judge JAMES O. PIERCE, presiding.

W. Y. C. HUMES and POSTON, for the company.

WM. M. RANDOLPH, for the State.

GEORGE ANDREWS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question in this case, is, whether the Memphis Gas-light Company is liable for a tax upon the assessed valuation of the main and service pipes, owned and used by it for the purpose of conveying and distributing the gas manufactured by the company, through the City of Memphis.

The right to tax this property is claimed under sec. 541 of the Code, which provides that, "all saw, grist, and other mills, distilleries, breweries, founderies, forges, establishments for mining, quarrying, making gins or carriages, and other manufacturing establishments," shall be taxable.

If the pipes laid down by this company are properly to be considered as part of a "manufacturing establishment," then the tax in question is properly assessed. It is not denied that the lot actually occupied by the works of the company, with its buildings, furnaces, reservoirs and fixtures, is liable to taxation under the above recited provisions of the statute, but it is insisted that the pipes used for conveying the

Memphis Gas-light Company vs. The State.

manufactured gas to the consumers, and laid down, not upon the land of the company, but through and under the public streets of the city, are not a part of the manufacturing establishment.

Pipes laid through the streets of the city, in the manner above mentioned, by permission of the corporate authorities, do not become the property of the city, or a part of the realty. They are personal property, and the property of the company.

In order that a particular article or class of articles should constitute a part of a manufacturing establishment, it is not essential that they be actually employed in the process of manufacture. The establishment includes, also, all the usual and necessary appliances for storing, measuring, weighing, packing, and delivering the manufactured article, after the process of manufacture is completed. Thus the tanks or reservoirs, and the principal meter of a gas company, used for storing and measuring the gas preparatory to its distribution to the consumers, are a part of the manufacturing establishment, though they are not at all employed in the process of manufacture. And this fact would not be otherwise, though such reservoir and meter might be located upon the premises of others, and at a distance from the place of actual manufacture. They are a part of the usual and necessary appliances of such an establishment, and without which the gas manufactured could not be preserved or delivered the consumer.

to

The Memphis Gas-light Company is a corporation created for the purpose of manufacturing, and of deliv

E. W. Porter et als. vs. John R. Jones.

ering illuminating gas to the citizens of Memphis. The delivery in a particular mode is as much within the purpose of its creation, as the manufacture; and from the nature of the article manufactured, the apparatus for delivery is merely an extension and continuation of the apparatus for manufacture-both belong to the establishment. Of course this does not include pipes owned by the city, or by private persons, and into which the gas company deliver the gas for consumption. The appliances of the establishment go no further than the apparatus for manufacture and delivery: See 37 Vt., 622, cited in 1 Am. Law Rev., 361.

It follows that the property mentioned in the record in this cause was properly assessed for taxation, and it must be so certified."

E. W. PORTER et als. vs. JOHN R. JONES.

1. COMPOUNDING A FELONY. Promissory notes, or other obligations given for, are absolutely void. Compounding a felony, by our statutes, is a crime, punishable by imprisonment in the county jail or penitentiary; and, if a promissory note, or other obligation for money or property, be given as a consideration for such compounding of a felony, it will be absolutely void.

2. SAME. Cancellation of void instruments by Courts of Equity. The jurisdiction of courts of equity to order the cancellation of void instru