The people of the township of Pana voted almost unanimously for the donation to pay which the bonds in this case were issued. There is no pretense of any fraud in their issue. It is not disputed that the railroad company complied on its part with all the conditions upon which the bonds were to be issued to it, or that the township has received all it bargained for in consideration of the issue of the bonds. The bonds were registered in the office of the auditor of public accounts, where no bonds could be registered according to law unless the election authorizing the donation for which the bonds were issued had been held in pursuance of the statute, and the sworn certificate of the supervisor of the township to that effect had been filed with the auditor. The township has paid the interest on the bonds for three years. Under these circumstances, if the bonds and coupons are in the hands of bona fide holders for value, the defenses through which the township can escape liability will be reduced to narrow limits. The charter of the Illinois Southeastern Railway Company declared that any town in any county under township organization might donate to said company any amount not to exceed $30,000. The question is raised by the first assignment of error whether this limit was removed by the amendatory act of February 24, 1869. We think it was.
Section 10 of the act last named is an entire revision of sections 9 and 10 of the original charter of the company. The original charter authorized townships only to make donations to the railroad company, and it required that the railroad, or some part of it or its branches, should be completed before the donation was paid. It did not authorize the issue of bonds to pay the donations, but required the assessment and collection of a tax upon all the taxable property of the town for that purpose.
The amendatory act authorized noy only townships, but also villages, cities, and counties along the route of the railroad to make donations to the company. It prescribed an entirely different condition precedent to the making of a donation, and required the issue of bonds to pay the donation when made, and it did not require the completion of the railroad, or any part of it, before the bonds were issued. It did not limit the amount which might be donated to $30,000, but declared that if a majority of the votes cast at the election provided for by the act should be in favor of donation, the corporate authorities of the village, city, county, or township, as the case might be, should donate to the company the amount so voted at said election, and issue bonds in payment thereof. It thus appears that the section 10 of the amendatory act covered the entire subject embraced by sections 9 and 10 of the original act. It related to the same railroad company; it prescribed different methods of procedure in reference to the same subject, and embraced entirely new provisions, thus plainly showing that it was intended as a substitute, pro tanto, for the original act. Section 10 of the amendatory act, therefore, operated as a repeal by implication of sections 9 and 10 of the original act, and removed the restriction limiting to $30,000 the amount which could be donated by a township to the railroad company. U.S. v. Tynen, 11 Wall. 88; Henderson's Tobacco, Id. 652; Murdock v. Memphis, 20 Wall. 590; King v. Cornell, [1 SUP. CT. REP. 312,] decided at the present term.
The next question raised by the assignments of error relates to the power of the township of Pana, under the circumstances of this case, to issue the bonds in question. This court has decided in the case of Harter v. Kernochan, 103 U.S. 562, that bonds issued by the township of Harter, dated April 1, 1880, signed by the supervisor and countersigned by the clerk of the township, reciting that they were issued in pursuance of the acts of February 25, 1867, and February 24, 1869, which are the acts relied on in this case, and in pursuance of an election of the legal voters of the township held on November 10, 1868, were valid obligations of the township.
The power of the township of Pana, under the same acts, to issue bonds to pay its donation to the same railroad company, is, therefore, settled beyond dispute, unless what the plaintiff in error insists was a defect in the method of conducting the election by which the donation was voted, is fatal to the authority of the officers of the township to issue the bonds. This defect was that the election was presided over and the returns made, not by the supervisor, assessor, and collector of the township, ex officio judges of elections, but by a moderator chosen by the electors present.