Section 114. It is well established that municipal corporations may license and regulate particular occupations and prohibit unlicensed persons from pursuing them. This authority to license is generally recognized as coming under the head of police powers, and the amount of the license fee usually conforms to the expense incident to the police regulation thereof.

While the charter may confer upon the city council the power to require a license for the carrying on of certain occupations, yet this is a power which necessarily remains dormant until called into activity by some appropriate ordinance. Such an ordinance is necessary to enable the city authorities to act in the premises.

12 Hydes vs. Joyes, 4 Bush (Ken.), 464; Moore et al. vs. City of Chicago, 60 III., 243; Davis vs. Reed, 65 N. Y., 566.

In the case of The People, etc., vs. The Village of Crotty, 93 III., 180, the court said: "Without the adoption of a general ordinance on the subject, authorizing the issuing of licenses, and specifying who shall issue them, the length of time they shall run, the amount to be paid by the applicant, the time and manner of payment, etc., the village authorities are powerless to issue license to anyone."