bill in form, be ratified, confirmed, established and made obligatory on said city of Bridgeport, and the citizens thereof, in the same manner, and to the same extent, as if all the powers necessary to give full force and validity to the said proceedings of said city, had been expressly and specifically conferred upon said city by their charter.

2. That full power and authority be and the same is hereby granted to said city, at any legal meeting of the same to be specially warned for that purpose, according to law, to adopt such other measures, as in the opinion of said meeting, shall be necessary and proper to carry into effect, in a manner most conducive to the interests of said city, the proceedings of said city heretofore had, with respect to said railroad, as in this bill in form is specified, and to provide for the payment of said subscriptions, and the expenses and negotiation of said loans, notes, certificates or scrip, or such other loans, notes, certificates, scrip or other securities as said city shall at such meeting authorize, order or direct, to secure the object contemplated by said subscriptions. And said city shall be held liable and bound to pay such installments on said stock, as may from time to time be assessed according to the charter of said company. And said installments, and the notes, certificates, scrip or other securities, which have been or may be issued as aforesaid, shall be obligatory on said city, to all intents and purposes, and may be enforced and collected in the same manner, and to the same extent, that debts lawfully contracted by towns. in this state are enforced under the existing laws of the state.

Provided, nevertheless, that this resolution shall not take effect until the same shall have been submitted to and approved by the freemen of the city of Bridgeport, at a corporate meeting legally warned for that purpose, and the evidence of their assent to the same transmitted to the secretary of this state, to be by him recorded.

AN ACT TO AID IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD.

PASSED 1889.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened, SEC. 1. There shall be annually appointed by the general assembly two commissioners on the Housatonic railroad, whose duty it shall be at least once in each year, and oftener if they shall deem necessary, to examine the said road and all the books and accounts of said company, and report to the general assembly annually the amount which they shall ascertain to have been actually expended by said company in the construction of said road; and said company shall pay said commissioners a reasonable compensation for their services; and if either of said commissioners shall die or resign, or refuse to accept the said appointment, the vacancy so occasioned shall be filled by the appointment (by the person administering the office of governor) of some person to hold said office of commissioner till the rising of the next general assembly.

SEC. 2. Said company are hereby authorized and empowered to issue

bills or notes of the corporation, signed by the president and countersigned by the treasurer thereof, promising the payment of money to any person or order or bearer, which bills or notes shall be obligatory on the corporation, according to the tenor thereof, and shall be assignable, according to the customs of merchants and the laws relating to inland bills of exchange. Provided, however, that all bills or notes issued as aforesaid, shall be approved by said commissioners, which approval shall appear on said bills; and that the whole amount of such bills at any time outstanding against the company shall never exceed one-fourth of the amount which shall at that time have been actually expended by said company in the construction of said railroad.

SEC. 3. The whole stock, franchise and income of said company, and all real estate which now is or hereafter may be owned by said company, and all personal estate which may be owned by said company at the time of any failure to pay any such note, shall be and is hereby declared to be pledged and mortgaged to the commissioners to be appointed by virtue of this act, and to their successors in the said office, as security for the redemption and payment of all notes which shall be issued by said company by virtue of this act; and in case said company shall, at any time hereafter, on lawful demand, during the hours of business, at a place of business of said company, to be always kept open for that purpose, in the city of Bridgeport, fail to redeem in the lawful money of the United States any note issued by said company, by virtue of the provisions of this act, according to the tenor thereof, the holder of such note, making such demand, may cause the same to be protested for non-payment, by a notary public, in the usual manner; and the said commissioners, on receiving such protest, shall forthwith give notice in writing to said company to pay the same; and if said company shall omit to do so for twenty days after such notice, said commissioners shall immediately thereupon (unless they shall be satisfied that there is good and legal defense against the payment of such note or notes) give notice in two or more newspapers printed in this state, that all the notes so issued by said company will be redeemed out of the property pledged in their hands as aforesaid, for the security of the same." And the said commissioners shall thereupon proceed to sell or dispose of (in such manner as they shall judge most for the interest of the holders of such notes) so much of the stock or real or personal estate of said company as shall be necessary to pay and redeem all of the said notes which shall at that time be outstanding against said company, together with the cost and expense attending such sale, and out of the proceeds of such sale to pay to the holders of such notes the amount thereof, with interest from the time of the demand and failure to pay as aforesaid.

SEC. 4. This act shall not take effect in regard to said company till the stockholders thereof, at a legal meeting called for that purpose, shall have assented to the provisions of the same; and the said act may be at any time altered, amended or repealed by the general assembly.

AMENDING THE CHARTER OF THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD COMPANY.

PASSED 1841.

Resolved by this Assembly, That the Housatonic Railroad Company be and they hereby are fully authorized and empowered to extend their road by a double tract from the present southern termination thereof, as now constructed, the same being a few feet southerly of the western abutment of the Bridgeport bridge, in the city of Bridgeport, along the margin of the Bridgeport harbor to the southern boundary of said city, and that said company be clothed with the same authority for such extension as they now are in regard to the construction of the other portions of said road; and that said company be liable to the same conditions, liabilities and restrictions in regard to assessment and payment of damages to individuals as are provided in their charter regarding the construction of the main track of said road.

AN ACT IN ADDITION TO AN ACT, ENTITLED "AN ACT TO AID IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD."

PASSED 1842.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened, SEC. 1. That whenever the commissioners of the Housatonic railroad, appointed under the act of 1839, shall be required to redeem the notes by them approved, they are hereby authorized to sell undivided equal parts of the property, by law pledged for their redemption, as well as shares of the stock of said company, and the avails of such sale or sales, as well as the net income of the business of said road, to apply to the payment of the same.

SEC. 2. The notes of said corporation which said commissioners are authorized to approve, may be made payable at a rate of interest not exceeding seven per cent.

Be it further enacted, SEC. 3. That so much of the act passed at the May session of the general assembly, 1839, to which this is an addition, as confers banking privileges on said company, except so far forth as relates to the notes of said company, already issued and approved, or that may hereafter be issued and approved, at any time on or before the first Monday in June, 1844, as renewals thereof, be and the same is hereby repealed.

Nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to confer banking privileges on said company, except as herein above excepted.

AN ACT IN ADDITION TO AN ACT, ENTITLED “AN ACT TO AID IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD."

PASSED 1843.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened, SEC. 1. That the commissioners appointed upon said road, pursuant to the act to which this is in addition, shall, before entering upon the duties of their appointment, give bond to the treasurer of this state in the sum of forty thousand dollars, with one or more sufficient sureties, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duties as commissioners as aforesaid, which said bond shall be approved by one of the judges of the superior court before the same shall be effectual; and a failure to give such bond within thirty days after the rising of this assembly, shall be deemed a refusal to accept said appointment.

SEC. 2. Before said bond shall be approved by such judge, five days' notice shall be given to the president of said corporation to appear before said judge, at such time and place as shall be designated, to be heard relative to the sufficiency of the proposed sureties on such bond.

SEC. 3. In case of a breach of said bond, suit may be brought in the name of such treasurer in any county where either of the obligors reside, for the benefit of all persons interested in the subject matter thereof.

AN ACT RELATING TO THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD COMPANY.

PASSED 1843.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Assembly convened, SEC. 1. That the Housatonic Railroad Company be and it is hereby authorized, for the purpose of discharging its liabilities, to sell or dispose of all or any part of its surplus and forfeited stock, in such way and at such rates and on such terms as shall be determined on by the stockholders of said company, at a special meeting to be called for that purpose by the board of directors, notice of which meeting, signed by the secretary, shall be given by publication thereof, at least ten days inclusive before the day of holding such meeting, in the newspapers published in Bridgeport and Litchfield. Provided, that no part of said surplus and forfeited stock shall be sold at a less rate than fifty dollars per share, and that the amount of such sales shall be sufficient to redeem the whole amount of notes outstanding against said company, certified by the commissioners on said road; and that the avails of such sales shall be placed in the hands of said commissioners, and be by them applied to the redemption of such certified paper; and provided further, that such sale shall be made and completed on or before the first day of September

next.

And be it further enacted, SEC. 2. That the purchasers of so much of said surplus and forfeited stock as shall be sold in pursuance of this act,

shall be entitled to a dividend of three and a half per cent., annually, payable in semi-annual dividends out of the net earnings of said road, before any dividend shall be declared or paid to the other stockholders of said company.

Be it further enacted, SEC. 3. That in case said stock of said company is not disposed of prior to said first day of September, as herein before provided, and said company shall not at that time have redeemed the entire amount of certified paper issued by said company, or provided for the same to the satisfaction of the holders thereof, it shall be the duty of the commissioners on said road to sell for cash, on or before the first day of December next, the whole of the property vested in them for the redemption of said certified paper, or so much thereof as shall be necessary to redeem the same, agreeably to the provisions of the acts now in force relating to said Housatonic Railroad Company, and shall forthwith apply the avails to the redemption of said paper.

And be it further enacted, SEC. 4. That in the event of a sale of the property of said company, or any part thereof, by the commissioners, by virtue of the provision of the act, entitled "An act to aid in the construction of the Housatonic Railroad," and the act in addition thereto, the purchasers thereof shall have the ri ht to organize a company according to the provisions of a statute law of this state, entitled "An act relating to Joint Stock Corporations," entitled to all the privileges and subject to all the liabilities specified in said act. The capital stock of said company may consist of any number of shares, of one hundred dollars each, not exceeding the capital stock of the Housatonic Railroad Company.

Be it further enacted, SEC. 5. That so much of the act passed May, 1839, or of any other act, as authorizes said Housatonic Railroad Company to issue notes payable on demand, intended for circulation, or to utter, issue or emit any bill of credit, or make or endorse any bond, promissory writing or note, bill of exchange or order, to be issued as a general currency or medium of trade as in lieu of money, be and the same is hereby repealed; and this act may at any time be altered, amended or repealed by the general assembly.

AUTHORIZING THE HOUSATONIC RAILROAD COMPANY TO DISPOSE OF SURPLUS STOCK.

PASSED 1844.

Upon the petition of the Housatonic Railroad Company, showing to this assembly that said company has at its disposal about seven thousand shares of its capital stock, a part of which has never been subscribed for or taken up, and a part of which, though subscribed for, has not been paid for, but is forfeited or liable to be forfeited for non-payment of installments, praying for leave to sell said stock for the purpose of discharging the liabilities of said company, as per petition on file:

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Resolved by this Assembly, That said Housatonic Railroad Company be and is hereby authorized to sell or dispose of all or any part of said