Counts

— This is an original application to this court, on the petition of Mariposa County, for a writ of mandate to the treasurer of said county, com *16 manding him to sell and dispose of, according to law, bonds of Mariposa County, alleged to have been issued in accordance with section 37 of the County Government Act (Stats. 1883, p. 311), for the purpose of constructing two public wagon-roads in said county. An alternative writ issued, and the case stands upon a general demurrer to the petition.

The section of the County Government Act above referred to is as follows : —

The petition shows that on the seventh day of May, 1888, the board, in regular session, passed and adopted the following orders: —

*20 In view of the object of the statute in requiring a specification of the purpose for which indebtedness is to be created, what is the substantial difference between a specification of the purpose to construct one road of twenty miles in length, and an equally definite specification of a purpose to construct two roads, each of ten •miles in length? Would not the electors be as well informed as to the particular purpose in one case as in the other?

The only attempted answer to this…