Jersey, (City of Camden v. Allen, 2 Dutch. 398,) in holding that the payment of taxes could not be enforced by an action of debt, where the statute provided any other method of recovery, say: "A tax, in its essential characteristics, is not a debt, nor in the nature of a debt. A tax is an impost levied by authority of government upon its citizens or subjects for the support of the state. It is not founded on contract or agreement. It operates in invitum."
But, aside from this, section 5106 must be construed in connection with the provisions of section 5101, Although a tax is not a debt, it is a provable claim, for the payment of which the bankrupt estate is liable, and the object of this section is to fix the relative priority of claims and to designate the order in which they shall be satisfied in full. It provides for the payment (1) of the fees and costs of the proceedings in bankruptcy; (2) for all debts due to the United States, and all taxes and assessments under the laws thereof; (3) for all debts due to the state in which the proceedings are pending, and all taxes and assessments made under state laws; (4) for the wages due to operatives and servants within the limitations specified; and (5) for all debts due to any persons who by the laws of the United States are entitled to priority; and then, as if to guard against any misconstruction or wrongful interpretation of these provisions, and especially against the construction contended for by the counsel of the petitioner in this case, the congress adds: "But nothing contained in this title shall interfere with the assessment and collection of taxes by the authority of the United States, or any state."
The city of Rahway, in attempting to collect the personal taxes due from the bankrupt, is proceeding under the authority of the laws of the state of New Jersey, and is not to be restrained from so doing by anything contained in the sections quoted and commented on above, or by any other sections of the title. U. S. v. Herron, 20 Wall. 256. The highest duty of citizenship is the prompt payment of taxes, whether national, state, county or municipal, although it would often seem that no duty is so grudgingly performed. In the contemplation
