Stevenson

This is an application for a writ of mandamus to be directed to the defendant as state con *650 troller, commanding him to draw a warrant on the state treasurer for the sum of $125, to which amount petitioner claims' he is entitled by virtue of the provisions of an act of the legislature approved March 31, 1891. The act is entitled “An act for the relief of Jonathan D. Stevenson, and to appropriate money therefor,” and so far as necessary to be stated here, it is as follows: —

The answer of the defendant alleges that petitioner never at any time had or has “any claim of any kind or nature whatsoever against the state of California for services rendered, or for any other thing done, had, or performed by the said Jonathan Stevenson, or for anything of value furnished to the state of California,” and that the appropriation made by the said act of the legislature was intended as a gift to the petitioner.

The answer then proceeds in an informal way to allege that prior to the admission of California as a state, the petitioner expended money and performed services “ in surveying and preparing charts of the bay of Suisun and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers,” and, in substance,…