of.” The obligation thrown upon the legislature is a moral obligation only. Cooley, Const. Lim. (4th Ed.) 100. It follows, then, on relator’s theory, that the constitutional convention, which sought to give the state absolute prohibition, in fact gave it untrammeled liquor traffic, and provided that such untrammeled traffic should continue indefinitely, unless some legislature, to be elected in the future, should voluntarily elect to check the flood of intoxicants that the constitution turned loose upon the state. Such a conclusion is so at variance with all past legislation on the subject, so at variance with the declared wish of the voters of the state, so at variance with the intent and expectation of the framers of our constitution, that this court ought not to reach it, unless forced thereto by the clear rules of construction, or the obvious meaning of the language employed. It is clear that if chapter 26, Laws 1879, be repealed, such repeal is by implication, and not by express terms. Repeals by implication are not favored in law. Gordon v. People, 44 Mich. 485, 7 N. W. Rep. 69; Connors v. Iron Co., 54 Mich. 168, 19 N. W. Rep. 938; Phillips v. Council Bluffs, 63 Iowa, 576, 19 N. W. Rep. 672. Still, it is a well-settled rule that where the subsequent statute covers the same ground, and the entire ground, covered by the prior statute, and is a complete law in itself, that the subsequent statute repeals the former by implication. U. S. v. Tynen, 11 Wall. 88; Fraser v. Alexander, 75 Cal. 153, 16 Pac. Rep. 757; Schneider v. Staples, 28 N. W. Rep. 145. It is equally well settled that if such subsequent statute do not cover the entire ground covered by the former, or be not a complete law in itself, no repeal by implication will follow. Breitung v. Lindauer, 37 Mich. 217; U. S. v. Tynen, supra.
In the light of these elementary principles, we will examine the question of the repeal of the license law in force when North Dakota became a state. Our statutory definition of “law” is in substance in accord with that by Sir William Blackstone, to-wit, “a rule of civil conduct, prescribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is right and prohibiting what is wrong.” 1 Blackstone Comm. 53. And Blackstone, in his introduction to his Commentaries, (book 1, p. 53,) says: “It remains, therefore, only to consider in what manner the law is said to ascer-
