being payable January 1, 1878. These new bonds were to be secured by a first mortgage on the property of the company, and exchanged for old bonds at certain specified rates. The old bonds of 1871 were to be exchanged for new at the rate of one dollar of principal of the old for one dollar of the new, nothing being given either for the pastdue coupons or the extension bonds executed under the arrangement in December, 1873. The proposed issue of bonds was large enough to take up all the old indebtedness at the rates proposed, whether bonded or otherwise, and leave a surplus, to be used for acquiring further equipment, and for such other purposes of the company as the direct. ors might find necessary. This scheme was formerly assented to by the holders of 108,132 shares of the capital stock out of 150,000; by the holders of the bonds of 1871 to the amount of $7,332,000 out o $8,703,000; and by the holders of $1,590,000 of the second series of bonds out of $2,029,000 then outstanding. Upon the representation of these facts to the parliament of Canada the "Canada Southern arrangement act, 1878," was passed and assented to in the queen's name on the sixteenth of April, 1878. This statute, after reciting the scheme of arrangement, with the causes that led to it, and that it had been assented to by the holders of more than two-thirds of the shares of the capital stock of the company, and by the holders of more than three-fourths of the two classes of bonds, enacted that the scheme be authorized and approved; that the new bonds be a first charge "over all the undertaking, railway works, rolling stock, and other plant" of the company; and that the new bonds be used for the purposes contemplated by the arrangement, including the payment of the floating debt. Section 4 is as follows:

*"4. The scheme, subject to the conditions and provisos in this act contained, shall be deemed to have been assented to by all the holders of the original first mortgage bonds of the company secured by the said recited indenture of the fifteenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and seventy, and of all coupons and bonds for interest thereon, and also by all the holders of the second mortgage bonds of the company secured by the said recited indenture of the fifteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, and of all coupons thereon, and also by all the shareholders of the Canada Southern Railway Company, and the hereinbefore recited arrangement shall be binding upon all the said holders of the first and second mortgage bonds and coupons, and bonds for interest thereon, respectively, and upon all the shareholders of the company."

Under the arrangement thus authorized the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company executed the proposed guaranty, and the scheme was otherwise carried into effect.

The several defendants in error are, and always have been, citizens of the state of New York, and were, at the time the scheme of arrangement was entered into and confirmed by the parliament of Canada, the holders and owners of certain of the bonds of 1871, and of certain extension bonds, these last having been delivered to them respectively at the Union Trust Company in the city of New York,

where the exchanges were made, in December, 1873. Neither of the defendants in error assented in fact to the scheme of arrangement, and they did not take part in the appointment of the joint committee. Their extension bonds have never been paid, neither have the coupons on their bonds of 1871, which fell due on the first of July, 1875, and since, though demanded. The company has been at all times ready and willing to issue and deliver to them the full number of new bonds, with the guaranty of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company attached, that they would be entitled to receive under the scheme of arrangement.

These suits were brought on the extension bonds and past-due coupons. The company pleaded the scheme of arrangement as a defense, and at the trial tendered the new bonds in exchange for the old. The circuit court decided that the arrangement was not a bar to the actions, and gave judgments in each of them against the company for the full amount of extension bonds and coupons sued for. To reverse these judgments the present writs of error were brought. Two questions are presented for our consideration: (1) Whether the “arrangement act" is valid in Canada, and had the effect of binding nonassenting bondholders within the dominion by the terms of the scheme; and (2) whether, if it did have that effect in Canada, the courts of the United States should give it the same effect as against citizens of the United States whose rights accrued before its passage.

1. There is no constitutional prohibition in Canada against the passage of laws impairing the obligation of contracts, and the parliament of the dominion had, in 1878, exclusive legislative authority over the corporation, and the general subjects of bankruptcy and insolvency in that jurisdiction. As to all matters within its authority, the dominion parliament has "plenary legislative powers as large and of the same nature as those of the imperal parliament." City of Fredericton v. The Queen, 3 Can. Sup. Ct. 559. On the twentieth of August, 1867, the parliament of Great Britain passed the "railway companies act, 1867." 2 St. 1332; 30, 31, Vict. c. 127. This act provides, among other things, for the preparation of "schemes of arrangement" between railway companies unable to meet their engagements and their creditors, which can be filed in the court of chancery, accompanied by a declaration in writing, under the seal of the com pany and verified by the oaths of the directors, to the effect that the company is unable to meet its engagements with its creditors. Notice of the filing of such a scheme must be published in the Gazette, and the scheme is to be deemed assented to by the holders of mortgages. bonds, debenture stock, rent-charges, and preference shares, when assented to in writing by the holders of three-fourths in value of each class of security, and by the ordinary shareholders when assented to at an extraordinary general meeting specially called for that purpose. Provision is then made for an application to the court by the company for a confirmation of the scheme. Notice of this application must be

published in the Gazette, and, after hearing, the court, if satisfied that no sufficient objection to the scheme has been established, may confirm it.

Section 18 is as follows:

"The scheme, when confirmed, shall be enrolled in the court, and thenceforth the same shall be binding and effectual to all intents, and the provisions thereof shall, against and in favor of the company and all parties assenting thereto or bound thereby, have the like effect as if they had been enacted by parliament."

This act, it is apparent, was not passed to provide, for the first time, a way in which insolvent and embarrassed railway companies might settle and adjust their affairs, but to authorize the court of chancery to do what had before been done by parliament. Lord CAIRNS, L. J., said of it in Cambrian Railways Company's Scheme, L. R. 3 Ch. 294:

"Hitherto such companies, if they desired to raise further capital to meet their engagements, have been forced to go to parliament for a special act enabling them to offer such advantages, by way of preference or priority, to persons furnishing new capital as would lead to its being obtained. And parliament, in dealing with such applications, has been in the habit of considering how far the arrangements proposed, as to such new capital, were assented to or dissented from by those who might be considered as the proprietors of the existing capital of the company, either as shareholders or bondholders. The object of the present act * * appears to be to dispense with a special application to parliament of the kind I have described, and to give a parliamentary sanction to a scheme filed in the court of chancery, and confirmed by the court, and assented to by certain majorities of shareholders, and of holders of debentures and securities ejusdem generis."

*And even now in England special acts are passed whenever the provisions of the general act are not such as are needed to meet the wants of a particular company. A special act of this kind was considered in London Financial Ass'n v. Wrexham, M. & C. Q. Ry. Co. L. R. 18 Eq. 566.

In Canada no general statute like that in England has been enacted, but the old English practice of passing a special act in each particular case prevails, and OSLER, J., said in Jones v. Canada Cent. Ry. Co. 46 U. C. Q. B. 261, "our statute books are full" of legislation of the kind. The particular question in that case was whether, after the establishment of the dominion government, the provincial parliaments had authority to pass laws with reference to provincial corporations which would operate upon debentures payable in England, and held by persons residing there, but it was not suggested, either by the court or counsel, that a statute of the kind, passed by the dominion parliament in reference to a dominion corporation, would not be valid as a law. So far as we are advised, the parliamentary au thority for such legislation has never been doubted either in England or Canada. Many cases are reported in which such statutes were under consideration, but in no one of them has it been intimated that the power was even questionable.

In Gilfillan v. Union Canal Co., [ante, 304,] at the present term, it was said that holders of bonds and other obligations issued by large corporations for sale in the market, and secured by mortgages to trustees, or otherwise, have, by fair implication, certain contract relations with each other. In England, we infer from what was said by Lord CAIRNS in Cambrian Railways Company's Scheme, supra, they are considered as in a sense part proprietors of the existing capital of the company, and dealt with by parliament and the courts accordingly. They are not there, any more than here, corporators, and thus necessarily, in the absence of fraud or undue influence, bound by the will of the majority as to matters within the scope of the corporate powers, but they are interested in the administration of a trust which has been created for their common benefit. Ordinarily their ultimate security depends in a large degree on the success of the work in which the corporation is engaged, and it is not uncommon for differences of opinion to exist as to what ought to be done for the promotion of their mutual interests. In the absence of statutory authority, or some provision in the instrument which establishes the trust, nothing can be done by a majority, however large, which will bind a minority without their consent. Hence, it seems to be eminently proper that where the legislative power exists some statutory provision should be made for binding the minority in a reasonable way by the will of the majority; and unless, as is the case in the states of the United States, the passage of laws impairing the obligation of contracts is forbidden, we see no good reason why such provision may not be made in respect to existing as well as prospective obligations. The nature of securities of this class is such that the right of legislative supervision for the good of all, unless restrained by some constitutional prohibition, seems almost necessarily to form one of their ingredients, and when insolvency is threatened, and the interests of the public as well as creditors are imperiled by the financial embarassments of the corporation, a reasonable "scheme of arrangement" may, in our opinion, as well be legalized as an ordinary "composition in bankruptcy." In fact such "arrangement acts" are a species of bankrupt acts. Their object is to enable corporations, cre ated for the good of the public, to relieve themselves from financial embarassments by appropriating their property to the settlement and adjustment of their affairs, so that they may accomplish the purposes for which they were incorporated. The necessity for such legislation is clearly shown in the preamble to the Grand Trunk arrangement act, 1862, passed by the parliament of the province of Canada on the ninth of June, 1862, before the establishment of the dominion government, and which is in these words:

"Whereas, the interest on all the bonds of the Grand Trunk Railway Company of Canada is in arrear, as well as the rent of the railways leased to it, and the company has also become indebted, both in Canada and in England, on simple contract, to various persons and corporations, and several of the

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creditors have obtained judgment against it, and much litigation is now pending; and whereas, the keeping open of the railway traffic, which is of the utmost importance to the interests of the province, is thereby imperiled, and the terms of a compromise have been provisionally settled between the different classes of creditors and the company, but in order to facilitate and give effect to such compromise the interference of the legislature of the province is necessary.”

The confirmation and legalization of "a scheme of arrangement" under such circumstances is no more than is done in bankruptcy when a "composition" agreement with the bankrupt debtor, if assented to by the required majority of creditors, is made binding on the non-assenting minority. In no just sense do such governmental regulations deprive a person of his property without due process of law. They simply require each individual to so conduct himself for the general good as not unnecessarily to injure another. Bankrupt laws have been in force in England for more than three centuries, and they had their origin in the Roman law. The constitution expressly empowers the congress of the United States to establish such laws. Every member of a political community must necessarily part with some of the rights which, as an individual, not affected by his relation to others, he might have retained. Such concessions make up the consideration he gives for the obligation of the body politic to protect him in life, liberty, and property. Bankrupt laws, whatever may be the form they assume, are of that character.

2. That the laws of a country have no extraterritorial force is an axiom of international jurisprudence, but things done in one country under the authority of law may be of binding effect in another country. The obligor of the bonds and coupons here sued on was a corporation created for a public purpose; that is to say, to build, maintain, and work a railway in Canada. It had its corporate home in Canada, and was subject to the exclusive legislative authority of the Dominion parliament. It had no power to borrow money or incur debts except for completing, maintaining, and working its railway. •The bonds taken by the defendants in error showed on their face that they were part of a series amounting in the aggregate to a very large sum of money, and that they were secured by a trust mortgage on the railway of the company, its lands, tolls, revenues, etc. In this way the defendants in error, when they bought their bonds, were, in legal effect, informed that they were entering into contract relations, not only with a foreign corporation created for a public purpose, and carrying on its business within a foreign jurisdiction, but with the holders of other bonds of the same series, who were relying equally with themselves for their ultimate security on a mortgage of property devoted to a public use, situated entirely within the territory of a foreign government. A corporation "must dwell in the place of its creation, and cannot migrate to another sovereignty," (Bank of Augusta