Soule

Mr. Justice Terry concurred.

The thirty-second section of the charter of San Francisco provides, that “ the Common Council shall not make or permit to accrue any debt or liability which in the aggregate, with all the former debts or liabilities, exclusive of the funded debts, shall exceed the sum of $25,000 over and above the annual estimated revenue • of the city at the time of incurring such debt or liability.”

The question submitted for our consideration is whether the floating debt of the city prior to the passage of the charter, is to be taken into computation in making up the indebtedness, or whether this provision is to be extended to the debts thereafter contracted. At the date of the adoption of this charter, the indebtedness of the city far exceeded the *143 sum of twenty-five thousand dollars over the estimated annual revenue, so that if it was designed that this section, should operate upon passed indebtedness, and was not intended as a rule for the future, the moment the charter became a law, the municipal government ceased to exist, for want of power to contract for necessary expenses.

Much stress is laid on the fact, that the same Legislature passed an Act to…