Ex parte Mason

The petitioner is held in the custody of the sheriff of Merced county, by virtue of having been arrested upon a warrant issued by a justice of the peace, on the complaint of one Turner that the petitioner was guilty of the crime of “ carrying on a business for the carrying on of which a license is required by a law of this state, without taking out or procuring the license prescribed by such law; that is to say, said crime was committed as follows, and not otherwise: The said E. C. Mason did, on the ninth day of September, 1883, at and in the county of Merced, state of California, willfully and unlawfully engage in the business of selling whiskey, a spirituous liquor, and did then and there sell whiskey in said business for purposes other than medicinal, and for the purposes of being drunk by the purchaser as a beverage, and at said time there was in full force and effect an ordinance of the county of Merced.” (Then setting forth a copy of the entire ordinance.)

In Merced County v. Helm and Nolan, just decided, ante, p. 159, the sufficiency of the same ordinance was involved, and we there held that the ordinance is a revenue measure which purports to have been adopted under the…