At common law, of course, a man or a set of men, who happen to be neighbors, would have had no right to take my land for a private way, or for drainage or irrigation purposes, however beneficial to their land; still less to take water from my stream across my land to their fields. But this precise thing can be done in an increasing number of States, although it has been held unconstitutional in the courts of one or two of the far Western States, and has even yet not been decided by the Supreme Court of the United States as to the powers of the Federal government. Under the broad definition given in Idaho and Wyoming, you can probably take land to establish a municipal coal-yard, or dispensary, or anything else that the legislature might suppose to be for the general health or benefit of the people. Yet a hotel company would not, as yet, be considered a public use, nor, probably, a private recreation park. And land taken for one use may be subjected to other and totally distinct uses without giving any new right of damages, as was decided in Massachusetts, at least, when land given or taken for an ordinary city street was afterward occupied by a steam railroad. A notable limitation on the use of streets, however, we find imposed by the statutes of New York and many other States, which provide that no railway shall be placed therein without the consent of a majority of the property owners or abutters. There is frequent legislation providing that the betterment taxes collected in case of public improvement shall not exceed the damages given for the property actually taken. In the last two or three years there has been an extension of the doctrine, authorizing cities and towns to take more land than is actually needed, for the purpose of convenience, or in order to get a better bargain, and then sell the surplus; but such laws may be unconstitutional.