Hunsaker

Murray, C. J., concurred.

The plaintiff obtained a mandamus compelling the defendant, as Treasurer of Contra Costa County, to pay him the amount of certain warrants on the County Treasury, drawn by the proper authority in the year 1853.

The defense set up is, that by an Act passed February, 1855, to fund the debt of Contra Costa County, it is specially provided that all indebtedness accruing or to accrue up to April, 1855, may be funded— that all balances in the Treasury at the- end of the fiscal year shall be transferred to the credit of the Sinking Fund, and that it shall not be lawful for the County Treasurer to pay or liquidate any of the indebtedness of said county which accrued prior to the first day of February, 1855, in any other manner than in the Act provided—-that is by funding.

This defense is complete, unless as is maintained by the plaintiff—the last cited provision of the Act is unconstitutional. In order to sustain this position, it is charged that the Act impairs the obligation of contracts. It is difficult to see how, by the act in question, the obligation of the contract is at all impaired; on the contrary, the obligation to pay is fully acknowledged, and the…