Section 87. While it is true that the public highways are for the use of the general public, it is at the same time true that the legislature is a representative of the public at large. As such representative, it may grant the use or supervision and control over the highways to a municipal corporation, so long as the highways are not diverted to some use, substantially different from that for which they were originally intended. The municipal corporations of the State are the mere creatures of the State, and exist by the authority of the legislature and subject to its control. Hence, when a city or incorporated town holds a street for the benefit of the public, it holds it for the benefit of that entire public, of which the legislature is the representative.

1 Dillon on Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.), Sec. 656.

2 Dillon on Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.), Par. 666.