54, 59. "The legislature may constitutionally pass a general law in relation to a particular place. Scott v. Willson, 3 N.H. 321; State v. Noyes 30 N.H. 279." Charter of Manchester, 47 N.H. 277, 279.

Second, decisions in this state have long sustained the right of the Legislature to pass local legislation to alleviate local problems. Scott v. Willson, 3 N.H. 321, 328; Charter of Manchester, 47 N.H. 277; State v. Griffin, 69 N.H. 1, 29. See also, Shirley v. Commission, 100 N.H. 294; Salsburg v. Maryland, 346 U.S. 545.

The Connecticut river is by nature a public highway. Scott v. Willson, 3 N.H. 321; Thompson v. Co., 64 N.H. 548; Barnes v. Heath (unpublished opinion); Gould Waters, ss. 107-109; Ang. High., ss. 55, 56, 67-72. Recognizing the public character of its waters, the legislature provided (s. 19, c. 135, G. L.) that no owner or occupier of any mill-dam or water-power shall acquire by prescription any right against the state or the public to impede or in any way injure navigation, etc., in any of the waters of the state.

At most, the statute under which the assessment was made simply acts upon and affects property which may be the subject of commerce. But a tax on property that may be the subject of commerce under congressional regulation is not a tax on commerce, but on property (Scott v. Willson, 3 N.H. 321, 326, Cool. Tax. 62); neither is a tax on property that has been the subject of such commerce, where it is taxed only as property, and in common with all other property within the state. Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419; Purvear v. Commonwealth, 5 Wall. 475, 479; Waring v. The Mayor, 8 Wall. 110.

The objection here is, not that the law "does not extend to all places," but that it "does not extend to all persons" of the same class. Scott v. Willson, 3 N.H. 321; Opinion of Justices, 4 N.H. 572-574. 2.

In the ordinance of 1787 the following language is found: "The navigable waters leading into the Mississippi and St. Lawrence shall be common highways and forever free." In Scott v. Willson ( 3 N.H. 321) it was held that the Connecticut river was a public highway. In volume 3 of Kent's Commentaries (sub. 3, *432) it is said: "Every thoroughfare which is used by the public, and is, in the language of the English books, 'common to all the king's subjects,' is a highway, whether it be a carriageway, a horseway, a footway, or a navigable river.