Marsh

This is a suit by a taxpayer to enjoin the defendants from appropriating public funds of the county for the purchase of ballot-boxes and the payment of other expenses involved in carrying out the provisions of the act of March 27,1895, commonly known as the primary election law (Stats. 1895, p. 207). The claim of the plaintiff is that the act is local and special, and, therefore, unconstitutional and void. This contention was sustained by the superior court of Los Angeles, and the injunction granted. Defendants appeal from the judgment.

There can be no question that the act is local and special, since, by its terms, it is to “ apply to, take effect in, and be in force only in counties of the first and second classes,” that is to say, in San Francisco and Los Angeles. (Stats. 1895, sec. 26, p. 218.)

The constitution allows the classification of counties according to population for the purpose of regulating the compensation of county officers in proportion to their duties (Const., art. XI, sec. 5), and for that purpose a classification has been established under which San Francisco falls into the first class and Los Angeles falls into the second class. But the fact that these and…