Section 59. It is familiar law that the legislature, in the absence of constitutional restrictions, may not only fix the boundaries of municipal corporations when incorporated, but enlarge or diminish the same at its pleasure as the public convenience and interests seem to require; and this power may be exercised with or without the consent of the inhabitants of the territory affected, although modern legislation favors the submission of the question of the extension or reduction of municipal boundaries to a vote of the inhabitants of the territory to be affected thereby.

The legislature may and frequently does place the matter in the hands of the municipality affected or some appropriate board.5

Where the legislature, by direct legislation, exercises its powers to enlarge or diminish municipal boundaries, it may annex any lands which it deems proper to be included within the limits of the municipality, but where the legislature delegates its powers, it is usually restricted to contiguous and adjoining lands.6

Where two municipal corporations are consolidated, or where a new corporation is created out of an old, the legislature usually provides for an equitable adjustment.7

5 Blanchard vs. Bissell, 11 Ohio St., 960. It is competent for the legislature to provide that the authority of a city shall not be extended over territory newly annexed thereto but upon the expressed consent of the people. Morford vs. Un-ger, 8 Iowa, 82; Graham vs. Greenville, 67 Tex., 62.

6 Delphi vs. Startzman, 104 Ind., 343. 7 Graham vs. Springfield, 21 Me.,

61: "Where a municipality is dissolved and its territory is divided and annexed to two others by a legislative act, unless the legislature regulate the rights and duties of the two latter corporations, they succeed to all the property and immunities of the extinguished municipality, and become liable for all the debts previously contracted by it, and are vested with the power to raise revenue wherewith to pay them by levying taxes upon the property transferred and the persons residing within the annexed territory." Town of Mt.