holding, and working, a line, or lines, of telegraph in this state, or beyond the limits thereof, or partly within this state and partly beyond the limits thereof, upon the terms and conditions, and subject to the liabilities prescribed in this chapter. [Amendment, approved April 4, 1861, 84; took effect immediately.]

Sec. 147. Such persons, under their hands and seal, shall make a certificate which shall specify

First-The corporate name of the company.

Second-The general route of the principal line, or lines, of telegraph, designating the principal points to be connected thereby. Third-The amount of the capital stock of the company and the number of shares into which the same shall be divided.

Fourth-The names and places of residence of the principal shareholders, and the number of shares subscribed for by each.

Fifth-The period of the existence of said company, not to exceed fifty years.

Which certificate shall be proved, or acknowledged, and filed in the office of the county clerk of the county in which one of the principal offices of said company shall be established, and a copy or duplicate thereof filed in the office of the Secretary of State; provided, that any telegraph company, formed, or to be formed, under the laws of this state, may, with the consent of the persons holding two-thirds of the issued stock of said company, continue its corporate existence, or become reincorporated, under the same, or a different name, and may, in its new certificate, provide for the construction, owning, holding, controlling, and working, of the same, or other, lines of telegraph, or both, and for any other matters connected therewith that may be proper for the convenient carrying out of the purposes of said company; which certificate shall also state the number of shares and amount of the capital stock of said company, and shall be signed by the president and secretary of the company, and proved, or acknowledged, and filed as herein before pro vided; and the new company shall thereupon succeed to all the debts and liabilities, and all the rights, franchises, and property, of the old company. [Amendment, approved April 4, 1861, 84; took effect immediately.]

Sec. 148. Upon complying with the provisions of the last preceding section, such company shall be, and remain, a body corporate by the name designated in said certificate; and a copy of said eertificate, duly certified by the clerk of the county where the same is filed, or by the Secretary of State, may be used in all courts and places for and against said corporation. [Amendment, approved April 4, 1861, 84; took effect immediately.]

Sec. 149. Such company shall have power to purchase, take, receive, hold, use, and vend to others to be used, any patent, or patents for telegraphing, and any and all rights thereunder; to purchase, take, receive, hold, and maintain, any and all rights, privileges, and franchises, relating to the business of telegraphing: to make, receive by assignment, or ratify, any contract, or agreement, for the building, maintaining, controlling, or working, of any line, or lines, of telegraph; to construct, purchase, lease, take, receive, hold, control, and work, any lines for telegraphing, whether within the state of Californis, or bevond the limits thereof, and to purchase, take, lease, hold, own, use, and occupy, any personal, estate, rights, property, telegraph lines, grants, franchises, and privileges, that may be proper, or convenient, for the complete transaction of its business; or for effectually and conveniently carrying out the objects and purposes of said company. It shall also have power to

or real

appoint such directors, officers, and agents, and to make such rules, regulations, and by-laws, as may be necessary, or proper, in the transaction of its business and not inconsistent with the laws of this state, or of the United States. [Amendment, approved April 4, 1861, 84; took effect immediately.]

See. 150. Such association is authorized to construct lines of telegraph along and upon any road or highway, or across any of the waters or any lands within the limits of this state, by the appropriation of any trees. growing by nature or by the erection of the necessary fixtures, including posts, piers or abutments, for sustaining the wires of said lines; provided the same shall not be so constructed as to incommode the public use of said road or highway, or injuriously interrupt the navigation of said waters; nor shall this' chapter be so construed as to authorize the construction of any bridge across any of the navigable waters of this state. [Amendment, approved April 2, 1857, 171.]

Sec. 151. If any person over whose lands said lines shall pass, upon which posts, piers or abutments shall be placed, or standing trees appropriated, shall consider himself aggrieved or damaged thereby, it shall be the duty of the county court of the county within which such lands are, on the application of such person, and on notice of such application being served on the president or any director of such association, to appoint three discreet and disinterested persons as commissioners, who shall severally take an oath before any person authorized to administer oaths, faithfully and impartially to perform the duties required of them by this chapter; and it shall be the duty of said commissioners, or a majority of them, to make a just and equitable appraisal of all the loss or damage sustained by said applicant by reason of said lines, posts, piers, or abutments, or appropriation of standing trees, dupli cate of which said appraisement shall be reduced to writing and signed by said commissioners, or a majority of them; one copy shall be delivered to the applicant, and the other to the president or any director or officer of said association or corporation on demand; and in case any damage shall be adjudged to said applicant, the association or corporation shall pay the amount thereof, with the costs of said appraisal, said costs to be set forth and liquidated with the damage appraised, and said commissioners shall receive for their services such compensation as the county judge may award, to be paid in like manner as the costs and damages appraised. But in no case shall the person feeling himself injured or aggrieved, be entitled to any damage when application is not made to the county court within three months after the erection of said telegraph lines across the lands of such person. [Amendment, approved April 2, 1857, 171.]

Sec. 152. Any person who shall unlawfully and intentionally injure, molest, or destroy any of said lines, post, piers, or abutments, or the materials or property belonging thereto, shall, on conviction thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail, not exceeding one year; or both, at the discretion of the court before which the conviction shall be had.

Sec. 153. It shall be lawful for any association of persons organized under this chapter, by their articles of association, to provide for an increase of their capital, and the number of the association.

Sec. 154. It shall be the duty of any company owning, or working, any telegraph line in this state, on the payment of the usual

charges therefor, as established by said company, to receive all dispatches from any individual, or person, and to transmit the same with impartiality and good faith to the person, or persons, to whom the same may be directed; and for any neglect or refusal so to do, such company shall forfeit the sum of five hundred dollars, to be recovered, with costs of suit, by the person desiring to send the same. [Amendment, approved April 4, 1861, 84; took effect immendiately.]*

An act to amend and supplemental to "An act to authorize the formation of corporations for the construction of plank and turnpike roads, passed May 12, 1853.'' [An act concerning corporations, passed April 22, 1850.]†

[Approved April 2, 1857; Stats. 1857, p. 171.]

[Section 1 contains the amendments to sections 150 and 151 of the act of 1850 therein inserted.]

Sec. 2. Any person or persons, who shall willfully or maliciously break, injure, or destroy a subaqueous telegraph cable, crossing any of the waters of this state, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in any sum not less than five hundred nor more than ten thou sand dollars, to which may be added imprisonment in the state prison, for any term not less than one year, nor more than five at the discretion of the court. Such persons so offending, or any person who shall break, injure, or destroy, through neglect or want of proper care, said subaqueous cable, shall also be held liable for full damages arising from the injury or destruction of the same; and any ship, steamer, or other vessel which, by dragging its anchor or otherwise, shall, in any manner damage or destroy said subaqueous cable, upon proof that proper care and discretion were not used by the master of said vessel, or person commanding or having charge of such vessel, at the time the said injury or destruction took place, shall be held responsible for all damages, and the person commanding or having the said vessel in charge, at the time said injuries to said cable were sustained, shall be subject to the fine and imprisonment hereinbe fore provided.

Sec. 3.

Before any association formed for telegraph purposes shall be entitled to the benefits of section second of this act, they shall cause to be erected at the commencement and termination of said subaqueous cable, on the shores of the water such cable underlies, suitable monuments, one on each shore, indicating the place of said cable, and shall also cause to be published, in a public newspaper having a fair circulation, on and about the waters crossed by said cable, a public notice setting forth a description of

*Section 155 was repealed by section 7 of "An act concerning telegraphic messages, and to secure secrecy and fidelity in the transmission thereof," approved May 14, 1861, 380; which act was repealed by section 23 of "An act for the regulation of the telegraph, and to secure secrecy and fidelity in the transmission of telegraphic messages, approved April 18, 1862, 288.

There is an evident mistake in the title of this act. It is amendatory of and supplemental to the sixth chapter of the act of 1850 concerning corporations, and not of the act of 1853, concerning plank and turnpike road corporations.

said monuments, together with the termination and course of said cable. Such notice shall be published at least one month, and it is herein provided, that no association for telegraph purposes shall be entitled to the benefits of section second of this act, unless said subaqueous cable be not less than two miles from the center of shipping, in the port of San Francisco.

An act to amend "An act concerning corporations, passed April 22, 1850.''

[Approved April 4, 1861;. Stats. 1861, p. 84.]

[Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 contains the amendments to sections 146, 147, 148, 149, and 154 of the act of 1850, therein inserted.] Sec. 6. Any telegraph company, may at any time, with the consent of the persons holding two-thirds of the issued stock of said company, sell, lease, assign, transfer, and convey, any rights, privileges, franchises, and property, of said company, except its corporate franchise.

Sec. 7. This act shall take effect immediately, and its provisions shall apply as well to telegraph companies already formed as to those hereafter to be formed.

TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES.

[An act concerning telegraphic messages, and to secure secrecy and fidelity in the transmission thereof, approved May 14, 1861, 380, was repealed by the following act.]

An act for the regulation of the telegraph, and to secure secrecy and fidelity in the transmission of telegraphic messages.

[Approved April 18, 1862; Stats. 1862, p. 288.]

Section 1. If any officer, agent, operator, clerk, or employee, of any telegraph company, or any other person, shall willfully divulge, to any other person than the party from whom the same was received, or to whom the same is addressed, or his agent or attorney, any message, received or sent, or intended to be sent, over any telegraph line, or the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such message, or any part thereof, or shall willfully alter any such message, by adding thereto, or omitting therefrom, any word or words, figure or figures, so as to materially change the sense, purport, or meaning, of such message, to the injury of the person sending, or desiring to send, the same, or to whom the same was directed, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine, not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court; provided, that when numerals or words of number occur in any message, the operator or clerk, sending or receiving, may express the same in words, or figures, or in both words and figures, and such fact shall not be deemed an alteration of the message, nor in any manner affect its genuineness, force, or validity.

Sec. 2. If any agent, operator, or employee, in any telegraph office, or any other person, shall, knowingly and willfully, send by telegraph, to any person or persons, any false or forged message, purporting to be from such telegraph office, or from any other person, or shall willfully deliver, or cause to be delivered, to any person, any such message, falsely purporting to have been received by telegraph, or if any person or persons shall furnish, or conspire to furnish, or cause to be furnished, to any such agent, operator, or employee, to be so sent by telegraph, or to be so delivered, any such message, knowing the same to be false or forged, with the intent to deceive, injure, or defraud, any individual, partnership, or corporation, or the public, the person or persons so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine, not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 3. If any agent, operator, or employee, in any telegraph of fice, shall, in any way, use or appropriate any information derived by him from any private message or messages, passing through his hands, and addressed to any other person or persons, or in any other manner acquired by him by reason of his trust as such agent, operator, or employee, or shall trade or speculate upon any such information, so obtained, or, in any manner, turn, or attempt to turn, the same to his own account, profit, or advantage, the person so of fending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished by a fine, not to exceed one thousand dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court, and shall also be liable, in treble damages, to the party aggrieved, for all loss or injury sustained by reason of such wrongful act.

Sec. 4. If any agent, operator, or employee, in any telegraph of fice, shall, unreasonably and willfully, refuse or neglect to send any message, received at such office for transmission, or shall, unreasonably and willfully, postpone the same out of its order, or shall, unreasonably and willfully, refuse or neglect to deliver any message received by telegraph, the person so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and may be punished by a fine, not to exceed five hundred dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court; provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to require any message to be received, transmitted, or delivered, unless the charges thereon shall have been paid or tendered, nor to require the sending, receiving, or delivery, of any message, counseling, aiding, abetting, or encouraging, treason against the government of the United States, or of this state, or other resistance to the lawful authority, or any message calculated to further any fraudulent plan or purpose, or to instigate or encourage the perpetration of any unlawful act, or to facilitate the escape of any criminal or person accused of crime.

Sec. 5. If any person not connected with any telegraph office, shall, without the authority or consent of the person or persons to whom the same may be directed, willfully or unlawfully open any sealed envelope, inclosing a telegraphic message, and addressed to any other person or persons, with the purpose of learning the contents of such message, or shall fraudulently represent any other person or persons, and thereby procure to be delivered to himself any telegraphie message addressed to such other person or persons, with the intent to use, destroy, or detain, the same, from the person or