The requirement of due process of law does not necessitate judicial proceedings to determine the amount of tax to be paid by each person and to enforce the tax as against his property. (See Kentucky Railroad Tax Cases. Also see below, § 257.) The usual method of assessment and levy for the purpose of determining the amount of tax to be paid, and of seizure and sale to enforce such payment, if the tax becomes delinquent, are themselves due process of law. But there must be a procedure of some kind to fix the valuation of the property for the purposes of taxation, and some apportionment of taxes on the basis of such valuation, and the taxpayer must have some kind of notice to enable him to pay before his property is seized. The ordinary public taxes which are based on property owned are usually apportioned by means of an assessment of the value of the property, made by proper officers, for determining the amount belonging to each taxpayer; and following the assessment there is usually a levy made by some proper board or tribunal which determines the amount which each property owner must pay in order that the desired aggregate sum of public money shall be raised. As to the general public taxes which are levied in accordance with law on assessments regularly provided for, the law itself constitutes sufficient notice, and the taxpayer is bound to ascertain the sum required of him and pay it within the time required by the general statutes; but as to special taxes for public improvements and the like, the taxpayer is entitled to some specific notice of the proceeding in which it is to be determined whether he or his property is within the class subject to the tax, and of the amount which he is required to pay, so that he shall have opportunity to make payment. On failure to pay either a general or a special tax, the property of the taxpayer may be seized and sold; but he may by judicial proceedings question the validity of the tax sought to be exacted.