Section 50. Where a municipal corporation acquires property in its private and proprietary character, such property is invested with all the security of the private rights of the individual, but it is otherwise where the property is held as an agency of the State government for the performance of strictly public duties, in which latter case the legislature possesses unlimited control.

"A municipal corporation is an agency to regulate and administer the internal concerns of a locality, but duties may be imposed on it not local in their nature, so that it possesses two classes of rights, public and private. In respect to the one class, it is merely the agent of the State, subject to its control; in respect to the other, it is the agent of the inhabitants of the place, and maintains the character and relations of individuals, and is not subject to the absolute control of the legislature. Of this class is the right to acquire, hold, and dispose of property."3