Title to lands

XI. That in the absence of any written contract between the said Com- A. D. 1858.
pany and the owner or owners of land through which the said Rail Road may
be constructed, in relation to such land, it shall be presumed that the land upon taken for road.
which the said Rail Road may be constructed, together with one hundred feet
on each side of the centre of said road, has been granted to the said Com-
pany by the owner or owners thereof, and the said Company shall have good
right and title to the same, (and shall have, hold and enjoy the same,) unto
them and their successors so long as the same may be used only for the pur-
pose of the said road, and no longer, unless the person or persons to whom any
right or title of such lands, tenements or hereditaments descend or come,
shall prosecute the same within ten years next after the construction of such
part or portion of the said road as may be constructed upon the lands of the
person or persons so having or acquiring such right to the title as aforesaid;
and if any person or persons to whom any right or title to such lands, tene-
ments or hereditaments belong or shall hereafter descend or come, do not pro-
secute the same within five years next after the construction of the part of
the said road upon the lands of the person or persons so having or acquiring
such right or title as aforesaid, then he or they, and all claiming under him or
them, shall be forever barred to recover the same; Provided, That nothing
herein contained shall affect the right of feme coverts, infants, or persons
beyond seas, until two years after the removal of their respective disa-
bilities.

XII. That all lands not heretofore granted to any person, nor appropriated
by law to the use of the State, within one mile from the centre of the main
track of the said road that may be constructed, be, and they are hereby
vested in the said Company and their successors, so long as the same may be
used for the purpose of the said road, and no longer.

Ungranted lands vested in Company.

riers.

as

XIII. That the said Company shall at all times have the exclusive right Rights
of conveyance or transportation of persons, merchandise and produce over the common car-
Rail Road to be by them constructed, while they see fit to exercise the ex-
clusive right; and the said Company are hereby authorized to fix and deter-
mine upon such rates of charge for the transportation of persons, merchan-
dise and produce as to them shall seem necessary and proper to secure a rea-
sonable and adequate return upon the capital invested. The said Company
may, when they see fit, let or farm out all or any part of their exclusive right
of transportation of persons, merchandise and produce, with their privileges,
any individual or individuals or other Company, and for such terms as may
be agreed upon, and the said Company, in the exercise of their right of con-
veyance and transportation of persons or property, and the persons so taking

to

A. D. 1853. from the Company the right of conveyance or transportation, so far as they

act on the same, shall be regarded as common carriers; and the said Company may use or employ any sections of their proposed Rail Road before the whole shall be completed, which may afford public accommodations for their conveyance of persons, merchandise and produce, and the said Company shall have power to take, at the storehouses they may establish or annex to the said Rail Road, all goods, wares, merchandise and produce intended for transportation or conveyance, prescribe the rules of priority, and charge such reasonable prices and compensation for storage and labor as they may by regulations establish, (which regulations they shall publish,) or as may be agreed upon with the owners.

XIV. That whenever the said Company shall see fit to farm out as aforePower to said, to any other person or persons or body corporate, any part of their exregulate vehiclusive right of conveyance and transportation, or shall deem it expedient to cles to be used on Road. open the said Rail Road or any part thereof to public use, they shall and may adopt and enforce any necessary rules and regulations, and have power to prescribe the construction and size or burthen of all carriages and vehicles, and the materials of which they shall be made, that shall be permitted to be used or pass on the said Rail Road, and the locomotive power that shall be used with them.

intruding on

Road.

XV. That if any person or persons shall intrude upon said Rail Road or Fines and any part thereof, by any manner or use thereof, or of the rights or privileges penalties for connected therewith, without the permission or contrary to the will of the said Company, he, she or they shall forfeit to the Company all the vehicles, articles and animals that may be so intentionally introduced and used thereon, and the same may be seized by the Company or its agents, or recovered by a suit at law; and, moreover, the person or persons so intruding, shall and may be indicted as for a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, be fined or imprisoned, in the discretion of the Court of Sessions, in the District in which he, she or they shall be tried and convicted; and if any person shall wilfully and maliciously destroy, or in any manner hurt, damage, injure or obstruct the said Rail Road, or any vehicle, edifice, right or privilege granted by this Act, and constructed and employed under the authority thereof, such person, so offending, shall be liable to be indicted as for a misdemeanor therefor, and on conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned not more than six months, and be fined not more than five hundred nor less than twenty dollars, and shall be further liable to pay to the said Company any damages occasioned by the said injury, and all expenses of repairing the same. The one half of all fines that may be imposed by the Court, under this Act, shall be paid to the in

former, and the other half to the said Company. The provisions of this sec- A. D. 1853.
tion shall be extended as well to the owners of the lands through which the
said road may be constructed as to other persons, and no owner or other per-
son claiming under him or her shall avoid the said provisions by the plea of
liberum tenementum, or any other plea whatever.

Limit of

XVI. That the right to make, keep up and use the said Rail Road, and the conveyance and transportation thereupon, shall vest and continue in the charter, said Company for and during the term of thirty-six years, to be computed from the time of the corporate existence of the Company; Provided, That the subscription of stock in the said Company be filled up to the amount of eight thousand shares within eighteen months from the passing of this Act,、 and the said Rail Road be commenced within two years, and be completed within ten years after the shares shall be subscribed.

Proviso.

Pres. & Directors to appoint agents,

XVII. That after the President and Directors shall be elected as aforesaid, it shall always be in the power of the President and Directors of the Company, at a meeting of the Board, a majority being present, to nominate &c. and appoint a Secretary, Treasurer and all other officers, agents and servants that they may deem necessary, or that may be prescribed in the by-laws of said Company, and to remove the same at pleasure, and also to require and take from all the officers, agents and servants such bond or bonds and security, as the Board or the by-laws may prescribe for securing the fidelity, obedience and accountability of said officers, agents and servants, and their punctual surrender and delivery of all moneys and property on the termination of their offices by resignation, removal or expiration of their term.

XVIII. That the President and Directors, by an order signed by the President, shall have power to draw from Banks all such sums of money as may have been received by the different sets of Commissioners for the first payment by subscribers upon their subscriptions of stock as before provided, except the sums for such shares as may be cancelled and thrown out upon adjustment of the shares, in case of over subscription, which shall be drawn and repaid to the subscribers of such shares by the Commissioners respectively, before whom such subscriptions were made, immediately upon notification to said Commissioners of such adjustment.

Power to draw money.

XIX. That every subscriber or holder of stock in said Company shall pay Instalments. to the Company the amount of the shares by him or her subscribed or held, in such instalments, not exceeding five dollars on each share at one time, and at such periods, with intervals of not less than sixty days, as shall be prescribed and called for by the Directors, of which periods of payments and the sums required the Board of Directors shall cause public notice to be given

A. D. 1853. for at least four weeks previous to such periods of payment, by advertisement in one of the gazettes published at Columbia, and on failure of any subscriber or stockholder to pay up any instalments so called for by the Directors, the shares upon which default shall be made, together with any past payments thereon, shall be forfeited to the Company, and be appropriated as they shall see fit. And the said Company shall and may prescribe, in and by their bylaws, rules and regulations, the mode of issuing the evidence of shares of stock, and the manner, terms and conditions of assigning shares of the stock. XX. That if any stockholder shall fail to pay the instalment required of Forfeiture of him on his share or shares, within one month after the same shall have been shares of de

scribers.

linquent sub- advertised in one or more newspapers published in this State, it shall and may be lawful for the President and Directors, or a majority of them, to sell at public auction, and convey to the purchaser, the share or shares of such stock. holder so failing or refusing, giving twenty days' notice of the time and place of sale; and after retaining the sum due, and all the expenses incident on the sale out of the proceeds, shall pay the surplus to the former owner or his legal representatives or assignees. And any purchaser of the stock of the Company under the sale of the President and Directors, as aforesaid, shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as the original proprietor, and no sale by the original proprietor of stock or his assignees shall release the original proprietor from his obligation to the Company to pay the whole amount of his subscription. And in addition to the foregoing remedy, the President and Directors may proceed by action of assumpsit or debt in any of the courts of law for the recovery of the instalments due and not paid by any delinquent subscriber or stockholder, or his assignee, who shall not pay the same on requisition made in manner and form as aforesaid.

XXI. That if the said Company determine to increase their capital stock, Increase of by additional assessments on the original shares as herein before provided, stock. the sums so assessed shall be called for in such instalments, at such periods and such notices, and not otherwise, as are provided in the nineteenth section of this Act, and the failure to pay up such assessments shall induce a forfeiture to the Company, in like manner as provided in said section, of the shares of stock on which default shall be made.

of

Direction
the Company.

XXII. That the President and Directors shall be styled the Direction of Powers of the Company, and shall have power to call for all instalments, declare all dividends of profits, make all contracts and agreements in behalf of the Company, and to do and perform all other lawful acts and deeds which, by the by-laws of the corporation, they may be authorized and required to do and perform; and the acts or contracts of the Direction, authorized by the signatures

e

of the President and Secretary, shall be binding on the Company without A, D. 1853:
seal. The Direction shall not exceed in their contracts the amount of the
capital in the Company, and in case they do so, the President and Directors,
who are present at the meeting when such contracts exceeding the capital Liability.
shall be made, shall be jointly and severally liable for the excess, as well to
the contractors as to the Company; Provided, That any one may discharge
himself from such liability by voting against such contracts, causing such vote
to be recorded in the minutes of the Direction, and giving notice thereof to
the next general meeting of the stockholders. The Direction shall keep
regular minutes of all their meetings and of the acts there done, and they
shall make a full report of the state of the Company and of its affairs to a
general meeting of the stockholders, at least once in every year, and oftener,
if so directed by the by-laws, and they shall have power to call a general
meeting of the stockholders, when they may deem it expedient, and the Com
pany may provide in their by-laws for occasional meetings of the stockholders,
and prescribe the mode of calling the same.

Persons exempt from

militia and jury duty,

XXIII. That the following officers and persons, while in the actual employment of the said Company, shall be exempt from the performance of ordinary militia duty, and from service on juries, viz: The Chief Engineer and Assistant Engineers, the Commissioners and Superintending Officer, the Secretary and the Treasurer of the Directors, the Keepers of Depositories, the Guards stationed on the road to protect it from injury, (not exceeding one white man to every five miles,) and such persons as may be actually employed in working the locomotive engines and traveling with cars for the purpose of attending to the transportation of passengers or goods on the said road, not exceeding one white engineer and his white assistant to each engine, and one *«* * white person to each passenger car, and to every five cars for the transporta→

tion of goods.

from 41st sec

XXIV. That the said Newberry and Chester Rail Road Company shall Exempted be and is hereby excepted from the provisions of the forty-first section of an tion of Act of Act entitled "An Act to incorporate certain Villages, Societies and Compa. 1841. nies, and to renew and amend certain charters heretofore granted, and to establish the principles on which charters of incorporations will hereafter be granted," ratified on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one; but nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt the said Company from the provisions of the said forty-first section, upon any future grant, renewal or modification of their charter.

XXV. That the said Company, if they agree upon the terms of union,