John Marshall Harlan

“ As the counting must have been by individuals, not by a court, the requirement that the county clerk and county judge should perform that duty, and that the latter should cause the result to be entered on the records of the court, does not, we think, show an intention to invest the county court with any discretion whatever in ordering the election, or in issuing the bonds, or in levying taxes to pay the bonds, and interest thereon. In the absence of that discretion, it is the duty of the county court, held by the presiding judge alone, to levy the required tax. ”

“ It is clear that the levying and collection of a tax to meet a county subscription to the stock of a railroad company is not a business connected with the laying of the county levy, or with appropriations of money out of such levy. But it is insisted that it is a matter relating to the 'fiscal affairs' of the county, and is 'financial business of the county,' the control or management of which belongs, under the law, to the county court, composed of the presiding judge and the justices of the peace. ”

“ Upon this point there seems to be a settled course of decision in the highest court of Kentucky; and upon such a subject, as the organization or composition of a tribunal established by the fundamental law of the state, those decisions are, at least, entitled to great weight. ”