The right to tax depending upon the actual or constructive presence within the jurisdiction of the property taxed, and the tax thus operating in rem rather than in personam against the owner, it follows that, strictly speaking, the owner, not domiciled in the State, cannot be made personally liable for the tax.23 Thus in Dewey v. City of Des Moines,24 decided in 1899, was held void a state statute authorizing special assessments for local improvements and attempting to make non-resident lot owners personally liable for such assessments, the court saying: "The principle which renders void a statute providing for the personal liability of a non-resident to pay a tax of this nature is the same which prevents a State from taking jurisdiction through its courts by virtue of a statute, over a non-resident not served with process within the State, to enforce a mere personal liability, and where no property of the non-resident has been seized or brought under the control of the court. ... A judgment, without personal service against a non-resident, is only good so far as it affects the property which is taken or brought under the control of the court or other tribunal in an ordinary action to enforce a personal liability, and no jurisdiction is thereby acquired over the person of a non-resident further than respects the property so taken. This is as true in the case of an assessment against a non-resident of such a nature as this one as in the case of a more formal judgment"

In Corry v. Baltimore,25 decided in 1905, a law of Maryland was upheld which provided that stock in domestic corporations held by non-residents might be taxed, the tax to be paid by the corporations, which corporations were to have a lien upon the stock and a right of personal action against the non-resident stockholders to recover from them the amounts so paid. This law had, however, been construed by the Maryland courts, and this construction was accepted by the United States Supreme Court, to be, in reality, not a tax upon the stock as property, but a reasonable regulation upon the right to acquire the stock of the corporations which the State had created.26

23 So far as a tax operates upon persons, domiciliation in the State is the test. The terms "residents"' and "inhabitants" when used in tax laws are. therefore, generally to be construed as referring to persons domiciled in the State.

24 173 U. S. 193; 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 379; 43 L. ed. 665.

25 196 U. S. 466; 25 Sup. Ct. 297; 49 L. ed. 556.