Opinion of the Court. making due allowance, when part only of a tract has been taken, for any deduction already made, in the assessment of damages for such taking, "on account of the benefit to the remainder of the tract," reasonably, if not necessarily, imply that the assessment is to be proportional to the benefit, and not to the market value or any other test; and are equivalent to the words in the Rock Creek Park Act, directing lands in the District of Columbia to be assessed, "as nearly as may be, in proportion to the benefits resulting to such real estate." Act of September 27, 1890, c. 1001, § 6; 26 Stat. 493; Shoemaker v. United States, above cited. In support of the judgment below, much reliance was placed upon the opinion of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, delivered by Chief Justice Beasley, in State v. Hudson County Commissioners, 8 Vroom (37 N. J. Law), 12. But the statute there held unconstitutional left it wholly uncertain whether the cost of the public improvement, or only an undefined part thereof, should be assessed upon the owners of lands benefited; and directed the amount assessed to be apportioned among several townships, without prescribing or indicating any rule of apportionment. Some expressions in the opinion, if wrested from their context, can hardly be reconciled with the decisions of this court, above cited, or with the judgment of the Court of Errors of New Jersey, delivered by Chief Justice Beasley, in a later case, adjudging a statute to be constitutional, which directed the expenses of improving certain public roads to be estimated by commissioners, and to be by them assessed upon lands found by them to be benefited, in proportion to, and to the extent of, the benefit received, and the rest of the expense to be assessed upon the county. State v. Road Commission ers, 13 Vroom (42 N. J. Law), 608. It was objected to the validity of section 15, that it commits the assessment of benefits upon lands, whether within or without the particular subdivision, benefited by the establishment of a new highway, to "the same jury" which estimates the compensation or damages, under the previous sections, for taking lands within the subdivision for the purpose of the highway. Some confusion has perhaps arisen from designating Opinion of the Court. the tribunal of seven men, which is to estimate the damages and to assess the benefits, as "a jury," when it is in truth an inquest or commission, appointed by the court under authority of the act of Congress, and differing from an ordinary jury in consisting of less than twelve persons, and in not being required to act with unanimity. American Publishing Co. v. Fisher, 166 U. S. 464; Springville v. Thomas, 166 U. S. 474. By the Constitution of the United States, the estimate of the just compensation for property taken for the public use, under the right of eminent domain, is not required to be made by a jury; but may be entrusted by Congress to commissioners appointed by a court or by the executive, or to an inquest consisting of more or fewer men than an ordinary jury. Custiss v. Georgetown & Alexandria Turnpike Co., 6 Cranch, 233; Secombe v. Railroad Co., 23 Wall. 108, 117, 118; United States v. Jones, 109 U. S. 513, 519; Shoemaker v. United States, 147 U. S. 282, 300, 301; Long Island Co. v. Brooklyn, 166 U. S. 685. Likewise, in the matter of assessing benefits, under the right of taxation, it is within the discretion of the legislature, as shown by the authorities already referred to upon this subject, to commit the ascertainment of the lands to be assessed, as well as the apportionment of the assessment among the different parcels, to the determination of commissioners appointed as the legislature may prescribe. See also People v. Buffalo, 147 N. Y. 675. Whether the estimate of damages and the assessment of benefits shall be entrusted to the same or to different commissioners, is a matter wholly within the decision of the legislature, as justice and convenience may appear to it to require. And there are many precedents for entrusting the performance of both duties to the same persons. Act of March 3, 1809, c. 30, § 4, above cited, 2 Stat. 538; Cooley on Taxation, (2d ed.) 612; In re Pittsburgh District, 2 W. & S. 320; In re Amsterdam Common Council, 126 N. Y. 158. It was suggested in argument that section 11, authorizing a deduction of benefits in assessing damages, and section 15, authorizing an assessment for benefits, both fail to make it VOL. CLXVII-38 Opinion of the Court. certain what benefits are intended, and may subject the landowner to a double assessment. But, upon a view of all the provisions relating to these matters, the reasonable construction is that the benefits to be taken into consideration and deducted, in estimating the compensation or damages under sections 10, 11 and 13, are the special and direct benefits which the appropriation of part of a tract of land for a highway may cause to the remainder of the tract; and that the benefits for which an assessment is to be made under section 15, upon such remainders and upon all other lands benefited, are the general benefits accruing to all lands in the neighborhood from the establishment of the highway; and section 15 carefully guards against the possibility of a double assessment, by directing the jury, in assessing benefits under this section, "to make due allowance for the amount, if any, which shall have been deducted from the value of the part taken, on account of the benefit to the remainder of the tract." Both the award of damages and the assessment of benefits are to be made by the jury of seven under the supervision of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia; neither is conclusive upon the parties until confirmed by that court; and both are subject to revision in matter of law by the Court of Appeals. The instructions given at the trial upon the proper elements of benefits in either stage or aspect of the case have not been, and could not be, brought before this court for revision the jurisdiction of this court being limited by section 17 of the act of 1893, as amended by the act of January 21, 1896, c. 5, to the determination of the question whether the act of 1893, or any part thereof, is unconstitutional. All the parties to these proceedings had due notice of the assessment of benefits under section 15, as well as of the assessment of damages under the earlier sections, by the publication of notice, in accordance with section 8, warning them to attend the court, "and to continue in attendance until the court shall have made a final order in the premises." If the lands of any other persons should be sought to be assessed for benefits. under section 15, notice would be required to them by the provision thereof that "the proceedings of the court and the Opinion of the Court. jury, in making assessments for benefits under this section, shall conform as nearly as is practicable to the foregoing provisions of this act relating to the assessment of damages." The objection that the owners of lands assessed for benefits under these proceedings will be left liable to be assessed anew under future proceedings for establishing other highways in other subdivisions is without force. Whenever it has been provided by a general law that a part of the expense of establishing any highway shall be assessed upon all lands in the neighborhood benefited thereby, it may often happen that the same land may be benefited by each of two highways laid out at successive periods of time, and be liable to be assessed accordingly. Take a simple example by way of illustration: Suppose a highway is laid out from north to south, increasing the value of the lands through which it runs and of all other lands in the neighborhood, and assessments of a portion of the cost are made upon all such lands and collected; and another highway is subsequently laid out from east to west, crossing the first highway at right angles; it may well happen that thereby the same, or some of the same, parcels of land benefited by the first highway, may be further increased in value, in common with other lands in the neighborhood, by the laying out of the second highway; and, to the extent to which they are so increased in value, they may justly and lawfully be subjected to a new assessment. The like result may take place when a highway, established at first through one subdivision only, is afterwards extended through another subdivision. Objection was made to that part of section 15, which provides that the assessment, when confirmed by the court, shall be a lien upon the land and be collected like other taxes, and "be payable in five equal annual instalments, with interest at the rate of four per centum per annum from the date of the confirmation of the assessment by the court." But it is within the commonly exercised and indisputable power of the legislature to make taxes of any kind, assessed upon real estate, payable forthwith, and an immediate lien thereon. In the leading case of Davidson v. New Orleans, the objection that the assess Opinion of the Court. ment was actually made before, instead of after, the work was done, was held to be untenable; and Mr. Justice Miller, speaking for this court, said: "As a question of wisdomof judicious economy - it would seem better in this, as in other works which require the expenditure of large sums of money, to secure the means of payment before becoming involved in the enterprise." 96 U. S. 100. In coming to the conclusion that both section 11 and section 15 are in all respects constitutional, we do not find it necessary to invoke the familiar rule of construction, well expressed in Chief Justice Alvey's opinion in the present case as follows: "Every reasonable intendment should be indulged in order to maintain the act in its entirety, and if there be any reasonable mode of construction by which the entire act, and every provision thereof, may be sustained, as against a mere plausible construction tending to a contrary result, the former mode of construction must prevail. It is only when no other reasonable construction can be supported, that an act of Congress, or any part of it, can be declared to be unconstitutional and void, or invalid for any cause." 8 App. D. C. 421, 422. The objections taken in argument to the constitutionality of other parts of the act may be more briefly disposed of. The recording of the map under section 2 does not constitute a taking of any land, nor in any way interfere with the owner's use and enjoyment thereof. The provision of that section that after the map has been recorded, no further subdivision, not in conformity with the map, shall be admitted to record, goes no farther than the earlier acts of Congress of January 12, 1809, c. 8, and August 27, 1888, c. 916, cited at the beginning of this opinion; and is clearly within the authority of Congress to prevent anything being placed upon the public records, which may tend to defeat its object of securing uniformity in the entire system of highways in the District. The provision of section 3, giving to any deed or will, duly recorded, which refers to the subdivision made by the map, the same effect as if such subdivision had been made and recorded by the grantor or testator, tends to promote the same object, and |