. 19 and 20 6, 1889 be upheld, it must be only as an exception to a general rule applicable only in peculiar cases, of which the present is not one. "Again, if the binding force of Muller v. Railway Co. be admitted, the question put to defendant was improper in not confining the witness to a period near the time at which the value was to be ascertained. "Upon cross-examination, where great latitude is allowed. for the purpose of testing witnesses, questions of this character are conceded on all hands to be allowable. The questions put upon cross-examination of defendant's witnesses and objected to were proper. Great liberality is properly extended in such cross-examinations, and for the purpose of testing the knowledge, judgment or bias of the witness, the liberality is wisely exercised. In such cases, and for such purposes, much must be left to the discretion. of the trial court and it is only for an abuse of discretion that its action should be impugned. The witnesses, Pinther, Ames and Blee, should have been allowed to testify as to the market value of the property. They were not experts in the severe sense of the term but showed such knowledge and experience as to values of land in that neighborhood as entitled the defendant to their opinions. [Penn, & N. Y. R. R. Co. v. Bunnell, 81 Pa. St. 426; Robertson v. Knapp, 35 N. Y. 92; LeRoy & W. R. R. Co. v. Hawk, 39 Kan. 638; Shattuck v. Stoneham R. R. Co., 6 Allen, Mass. 117; People v. Sanford, 43 Cal. 32; San Diego Land, etc. v. Neale, 78 Cal. 77.”] SECTION 19. The treasurer shall pay such warrants out of the appropri ate fund, and not otherwise, in the order of their presentation; provided, that warrants for land or improvements taken or damaged shall have priority over warrants for charges and expenses, and the treasurer shall see that sufficient money is and remains in the fund to pay all warrants of the first class before paying any of the second. [Statutes 1889, page 76.] SECTION 20. If after the sale of the property for delinquent assessments there should be a deficiency, and there should be unreasonable delay in collecting the same, or if for the purpose of equalizing the assessments, supplying a deficiency, or for any cause it appears desirable, the commissioners may so report to the city council, who may order them to make a supplementary assessment and report the same in manner and form as the original, and subject to the same procedure. If by reason of such supplementary assessment, or for any cause, there should be at any time a surplus, the city council may appropriate the same and declare a dividend pro rata to the parties paying the same, and they, upon demand, shall have the right to have the amount of such pro rata dividends refunded to them, or credited upon any subsequent assessment for taxes made against said parties in favor of said city. [Statutes 1889, page 76.] SECTION 21. If any title attempted to be acquired by virtue of this act shall be found to be defective from any cause, the city council may again institute proceedings to acquire the cause as in this act provided, or otherwise, or may authorize the commissioners to purchase the same and include the cost thereof in a supplementary assessment as provided in the last section. [Statutes 1889, page 76.] SECTION 22. If the city council deem it proper that the boundaries of the districts of lands to be affected and assessed to pay the damages, cost, and expenses of any work or improvement under this act, shall include the whole city, then the commissioners appointed shall proceed in a summary manner to purchase the lands to be taken or condemned from the owners and claimants thereof. If said commissioners and the owners and claimants cannot agree upon the price to be paid for said lands, they shall proceed to view and value the same, and shall thereupon make a summary report to the city council. Upon final confirmation of the report, the city council, if there be not sufficient money available in the city treasury, shall cause the cost and expenses of the contemplated public improvement to be assessed upon the whole of the taxable property of said city, and to be included in and form part of the next general assessment roll of said city, and with like effect in all respects as if the same formed a part of the city, state and county taxes; and when the same shall have been collected the said city council shall cause the land required to be paid for or the value thereof tendered, and the said contemplated public improvement to be forthwith made and completed. All the provisions of the preceding sections not in conflict with this section shall be applicable thereto. [Stat utes 1889, page 76.] SECTION 23. 1. The words "work" and "improvement," as used in this act, shall include all work mentioned in section one of this act. 2. In case there is no daily or weekly or semi-weekly newspapers printed and circulated in the city, then such notices as are herein required to be published in a newspaper shall be posted and kept posted for the length of time required herein for the publication of the same in a weekly newspaper, in three of the most public places in such city. Proof of the publication or posting of any notice provided for herein shall be made by affidavit of the owner, publisher or clerk of the newspaper, or of the poster of the notice. 3. The word "municipality" and the word "city" shall be understood and so construed as to include all corporations heretofore organized and now existing, or hereafter organized, for municipal purpose. 4. The term street superintendent and superintendent of streets, as used in this act, shall be understood and so construed as to include, and are hereby declared to include, any person or officer whose duty it is, under the law, to have the care or charge of the streets, or the improvement thereof, in any city. In all those cities where there is no street superintendent or superintendent of streets, the city council thereof is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint a suitable person to discharge the duties herein laid down as those of street superintendent or superintendent of streets; and all the provisions hereof applicable to the street superintendent or superintendent of streets shall apply to such persons so appointed. 5. The term "city council" is hereby declared to include any body or . 21 to 25 of 6, 1889 board which, under the law, is the legislative department of the government of any city. 6. The term "clerk" and "city clerk," as used in this act, is hereby declared to include any person or officer who shall be clerk of said city council. 7. The term "treasurer" or "city treasurer," as used in this act, shall include any person or officer who shall have charge and make payment of the city funds. 8. No publications or notice other than that provided for in this act shall be necessary to give validity to any proceedings had thereunder. [Statutes 1889, page 77.] SECTION 24. The proceedings in any work or improvement, such as is provided for in this act, already commenced and now progressing under any other act now in force, or by virtue of any ordinance passed by any city council or board of supervisors of any city, county, or city and county, by virtue of any other act now in force, may, from any stage of such proceedings already commenced and now progressing, be continued under this act by resolution of the city council. The said work or improvement may then be conducted under the provisions of this act with full force and effect in all respects, from the stage of such proceedings under such other acts or ordinances at and from which such resolution shall declare an election or intention to have said work or improvement cease under such other act or ordinance and continue under this act; and from such election so made, all proceeding theretofore had under such other act or ordinance are hereby ratified, confirmed, and made valid, and it shall be unnecessary to renew or conduct over again proceedings had under such other act or ordinance. This section shall not apply to any work or improvement proceedings in which were commenced more than eighteen months prior to the passage of this act. [Statutes 1889, page 77.] * * * * * * * * The subject of section 24 providing that "the proceedings in any work or improvement, such as is provided for in this act, already commenced and now progressing under any other act may from any stage of such proceedings be continued under this act," is sufficiently expressed in the title of the act to render such provision of section 24 valid. [City and County of San Francisco v. Kiernan, 33 Pac. Rep. 721.] It was not necessary, immediately upon the passage of the act of March 6, 1889, to declare the intention of proceeding thereunder, but discretion might be used in determining the stage at which the change should be made. (Id.) See said case of City and County of Francisco v. Kiernan for what constitutes a commencement of proceedings, within the meaning of the above section of the act [section 24 of the act of March 6, 1889,] providing that any work or improvement commenced within eighteen months before its passage may be continued under this act. SECTION 25. The provisions of this act shall be liberally construed to promote the objects thereof. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. [Statutes 1889, page 78.] Street Opening Act of March 23, 1893. An act to provide for laying out, opening, extending, widening, straightening, diverging, curving, contracting, or closing up, in whole or in part, any street, square, lane, alley, court or place, within municipalities, or cities, and cities and counties, of forty thousand inhabitants or over, and to condemn and acquire any and all land and property necessary or convenient for that purpose. [Approved March 23, 1893. Statutes 1893, p. 220.] The people of the state of California, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Be it enacted: Whenever the public interest or convenience may require, the city council of any municipality, or cities, and cities and counties, containing over forty thousand inhabitants, shall have full power to order, and upon the petition of the owners of a majority of the frontage to be taken for said purpose shall order, the opening, extending, widening straightening, diverging, curving, contracting, or closing up, in whole or in part,of any street, square, lane, alley, court or place within the bounds of such city, and shall condemn and acquire any and all lands necessary or convenient for that purpose. [Statutes 1893, p. 220.] This street opening act of March 23, 1893, differs from the street opening act of March 6, 1889, principally in this: The act of March 6, 1889, applies to all municipalities, regardless of population, whereas, the provisions of the act of March 23, 1893, are confined to municipalities containing forty thousand inhabitants or over. Also the act of March 23, 1893-section 1 thereof-authorizes the city councils to order more and different kinds of work than the act of March 6, 1893. The machinery provided by the act of March 23, 1893, for doing the work or improvements authorized by that act, is substantially the same as the machinery provided by the act of March 6, 1889, for accomplishing its purposes. And therefore, the cases cited. in the notes to the act of March 6, 1889, will not be repeated here, but, if the act of March 23, 1893, be constitutional for any purpose, and proceedings be had there under, the reader is referred to the notes to the act of March 6, 1889, [supra page 241, et seq.] since they are likewise applicable to this act of March 23, 1893. Until the constitutionality of this act of March 23, 1893, is decided by our Supreme Court, no definite statement in respect thereto, can safely be made. be made. But this much is certain: It is a very serious question whether or not the act of March 23, 1893, is not violative of subdivisions 7 and 33 of section 25 of article IV of the constitution, which are as follows: "The legislature shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: * Seventh: Authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or vacating roads, highways, streets, alleys, town plats, parks, cemeteries, graveyards, or public grounds not owned by the state. * * * * * Thirty-third: In all other cases where a general law can be made applicable." The question then is: Is the act of March 23, 1893, a local or special law? In view of the contrariety of opinion upon this subject, it would not be wise to attempt to define the meaning of the terms "local" and "special" laws. But it may be possible to determine whether or not the act of March 23, 1893, is a local or special law within the meaning of those terms as applied to analogous cases. It is also a serious question as to whether the act is not violative of section 11 of article I of the constitution, which provides that "all laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation." In City of Pasadena v. Stimson, 91 Cal. 251, Mr. Chief Justice Beatty said: "Although a law is general and constitutional when it applies equally to all persons embraced in a class founded upon some natural or intrinsic or constitutional distinction, it is not general or constitutional if it confers particular privileges or imposes peculiar disabilities or burdensome conditions, in the exercise of a common right, upon a class of persons arbitrarily selected from the general body of those who stand in precisely the same relation to the subject of the law." In Earl v. S. F. Board of Education, 55 Cal. 489, it was held that the Traylor act, "An act to add a new section to the Political Code, * * * relating to cities and counties having 100,000 inhabitants or more," was local and special, and unconstitutional. Mr. Justice Myrick, in his concurring opinion in this case, page 495, said: "Subdivision 20, section 25, article IV, prohibits the passage of special or local laws, changing county seats. Could it be said not to be special legislation to pass a law changing county seats of all counties having more than one hundred thousand inhabitants, and prescrib ing another mode for counties having a less population?" Therefore, while the Traylor act might have been considered special and local legislation because made applicable |