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Syllabus

Constitutional law — Special and local legislation — Poor law — Act of March 6, 1903, P. L. 18. Those parts of the Act of March 6, 1903, P. L. 18, which provide for the relief of the needy, sick and indigent persons who have no known legal settlement within the commonwealth, at the expense of the county where relief is required, do not contravene sec, 7, art. Ill of the constitution, relating to special and local legislation regulating the affairs of municipalities. The fact that the operation of the Act of June 4, 1879, P. L. 78, led to a diversity of method of accomplishing the same result in this class of cases, is not a valid reason for declaring the act of 1903 a local and special law; nor is it special because it divides paupers into two classes, namely, those without a settlement in this state, or whose settlement is unknown, and those who have a settlement, and establishes a different rule as to the relief of each class. There is no constitutional requirement of uniformity in legislation, except in taxation. The mandate of the constitution is negative, that laws on certain subjects shall not be local or special. That means that they must be general, and the uniformity which is discussed in the decisions is not a necessary requirement, but only a test of the generality which the constitution commands.