[1847, 269; 1848, 143; 1851, 123.] Chap. 178 AN ACT to extend the Agricultural Branch Railroad, and concerning the Where it may be extended. May unite with Fitchburg and road. Be it enacted, &c., as follows: same. SECTION 1. The Agricultural Branch Railroad Company is hereby authorized to extend its railroad from a point at its present terminus in Northborough, and through the south-westerly part of Berlin, and the northerly part of Boylston, and through or near the southerly part of Lancaster, and through the town of Clinton to some convenient point on the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad, in the town of Sterling. SECTION 2. The said company may also enter their said Worcester Rail- railroad upon and unite the same with the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad, by proper turnouts and switches, in Sterling, and may use said Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad, under the provisions and restrictions of the laws relating to railroads. How it may cross Worcester and SECTION 3. The said Agricultural Branch Railroad may Nashua Railroad. Cross the tracks of the Worcester and Nashua Railroad in Sterling or Clinton, at the same grade with said Worcester and Nashua Railroad, or over the same, as said company may elect; and if they shall elect to cross said railroad at grade, they shall at their own expense erect and provide for the proper working of a suitable signal. And if said company shall elect to cross over the Worcester and Nashua Railroad, they shall do so by a suitable bridge, so constructed as to give to said Worcester and Nashua Railroad a clear space of at least seventeen feet in height above the tops of the rails of said railroad, and at least eight feet in width each side of the centre line of the track of said railroad. Privileges, benefits, liabilities. May increase capital stock. under par. SECTION 4. The said company, in the extension of said railroad through the limits aforenamed, shall be entitled to all the privileges and benefits, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities, set forth in the several acts relating to railroad corporations. SECTION 5. The said company is hereby authorized, for the purpose of constructing the above extension, to increase its capital stock by the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, which shall be divided into shares of one hundred No share issued dollars each, and no share shall be issued under this act for less than one hundred dollars, to be actually paid in on each share. SECTION 6. The said company is hereby authorized to divide their road into three sections, to wit. The first section to embrace that part of the road from Framingham to Northborough; the second section to extend from Northborough to Clinton; the third section to extend from Clinton to the terminus of said road at the Fitchburg and Worcester May divide into three sections. section $150,000. $200,000. Railroad in Sterling. The capital required to build the Capital for first first section shall be one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; and two hundred thousand dollars shall be the capital of the Second section second section; and one hundred thousand dollars shall be Third section the capital of the third section; and the said company may $100,000. proceed to build either of said sections when the capital required therefor shall have been subscribed. Before either Certificate. of said sections shall be commenced, a certificate shall be filed in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth, subscribed and sworn to by the president of the said company and a majority of the directors, stating that all the stock named for the section proposed to be built, has been subscribed by responsible parties, and that twenty per cent. of Twenty per cent. the par value of each and every share of such portion of phare to be the stock has been actually paid into the treasury of the company. SECTION 7. If the said company shall not file the location Location of the said extension within one year, or shall not complete the said extension within three years from the passage of this act, then so much thereof as relates to said extension shall be null and void. paid. completion. repealed. and SECTION 8. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with Inconsistent acts this are hereby repealed. [1852, 251; 1853, 185; 1856, 243; 1857, 102; 1859, 12.] May 5, 1852. Chap. 179 AN ACT to incorporate the Chelsea Gas Light Company. Be it enacted, &c., as follows: SECTION 1. N. W. Turner, Isaac Stebbins, and Erastus Corporators. Rugg, their associates and successors, are hereby made a corporation by the name of the Chelsea Gas Light Company, for the purpose of manufacturing and selling gas in the town of Chelsea, with all the powers and privileges, and Powers and dusubject to all the duties, liabilities, and restrictions, set forth in the thirty-eighth and forty-fourth chapters of the Revised Statutes. ties. in streets, &c. SECTION 2. Said corporation, with the consent of the May open ground selectmen of the town of Chelsea, shall have power and authority to open the ground in any part of the streets, lanes, and highways, in the said town, for the purpose of sinking and repairing such pipes and conductors as it may be necessary to sink for the purpose aforesaid; and the said shall put the corporation, after opening the ground in such streets, lanes, or highways, shall be held to put the same again into repair, under the penalty of being prosecuted for a nuisance: pro- Proviso. vided, that the said selectmen for the time being shall at all times have the power to regulate, restrict, and control, the acts and doings of the said corporation which may in same in repair. No stock issued less than par. any manner affect the health, safety, and convenience, of the inhabitants of said town. SECTION 3. No shares in the capital stock of the said corporation shall be issued for a less sum or amount, to be paid in on each, than the par value of the shares which shall first be issued. SECTION 4. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. May 5, 1852. [1852, 300.] [1832, 143; 1833, 192; R. S. 87.] Chap. 181 AN ACT for the better establishment of the Police Court of the City of Newburyport. Exclusive jurisdiction. Salary of standing justice. Standing justice to be clerk, and exhibit annual account of amount received. Bond. Board of accounts, how conand duty. Be it enacted, &c., as follows: SECTION 1. The police court of the city of Newburyport shall, from and after the time this act takes effect, have exclusive jurisdiction of all crimes and offences committed. within the limits of said city, whereof justices of the peace may now, or hereafter, legally take cognizance. SECTION 2. The standing justice of said court shall, hereafter, receive from the city of Newburyport an annual salary, the amount of which shall, from time to time, be determined by the city council, but said salary shall not be less than four hundred nor more than eight hundred dollars, and shall be paid in quarterly payments; which salary shall be in full for his services both as clerk and justice, and for the occasional services of the special justices hereof, who shall be paid by said standing justice, out of his salary, the same fees that justices of the peace receive in like cases. SECTION 3. The standing justice shall perform the duties of clerk, and, as such, shall exhibit once a year to the board of accounts hereinafter established, a true and particular account of the costs, fines, forfeitures, and of all other moneys, received by him for blanks, copies, or otherwise, which account, if approved by said board, shall be delivered by the justice to the treasurer of Newburyport, to be by him safely filed and kept. The said justice shall give a bond, with a surety or sureties, to the acceptance of the city council, for the faithful performance of the duties of his office as clerk. SECTION 4. The mayor of the city of Newburyport and stituted,-power the county treasurer of the county of Essex shall constitute a board of accounts, with the power and the duty to examine and allow, or disallow, all bills of costs, accounts, and charges, which may appertain to the course of proceedings in said police court; and a certificate of such examination and allowance shall be indorsed by the said board on the accounts exhibited, and shall be addressed to the public officer by or to whom such charges, fees, and expenses, may be payable by law. The members of said board of accounts shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the city of Newburyport, the sum of three dollars for each and every day which shall be devoted to the duties hereby assigned to them. be paid to city. SECTION 5. All the fees received by said standing justice Fees and costs to in the course of his judicial proceedings, both civil and criminal, with all the costs in criminal prosecutions which have been taxed, certified and allowed, and the fines and forfeitures which inure to the benefit of the city of Newburyport, shall be collected by said justice in the mode prescribed by law for justices of the peace in like cases, and shall be by him, once a quarter, accounted for in detail, and paid over to the treasurer of the city of Newburyport, whose duty it shall be to pay, from the costs so received, the officers, witnesses, and other persons whose fees have been taxed, certified, and allowed by said justice. to make annual SECTION 6. The said standing justice shall, annually, in Standing justice the month of January, make a report to the city council of report in JanuNewburyport, which report shall set forth every criminal ary. complaint made in the police court, the name of the person accused, the description of the offence alleged, and the decision of the court in each case, with the full costs incident thereto. SECTION 7. The jurisdiction of the police court of the Jurisdiction. city of Newburyport shall not be limited by reason of any interest on the part of the justices of said court in the payment of fines and costs into the treasury of the city of Newburyport, or of the county of Essex. SECTION 8. The costs taxed, allowed, and certified by the Costs taxed, &c., special justice shall be paid to the standing justice. SECTION 9. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. [1854, 323; 1855, 321.] May 5, 1852. by special justice paid to standing justice. AN ACT confirming the election of Municipal Officers of Ward Eight in Chap. 182 Be it enacted, &c., as follows: the City of Lynn. firmed. The election of municipal officers at a meeting of the Election of 8th inhabitants of ward eight, in the city of Lynn, held on the March, 1852, coneighth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, shall be valid in law; and all the officers elected at that meeting shall have and exercise, during the time for which they were respectively chosen, all the powers and shall perform all the duties prescribed by law to the offices unto which they were respectively chosen. May 5, 1852. Chap. 183 AN ACT to authorize the Methodist Episcopal Church and Society in Authorized to sell land leased in perpetuity. Proceeds of sale, how invested. 'plied. Monson to sell certain Real Estate. Be it enacted, &c., as follows: SECTION 1. The Methodist Episcopal Church and Society in Monson is hereby authorized to sell at public or private sale, at such time or times as it may judge best, a certain tract or parcel of land, lying in said Monson, and containing about thirty acres, more or less, it being the same leased to said society in perpetuity by Abel Jennings, late of said Monson, on the sixteenth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; and the treasurer of said society for the time being is authorized to execute and deliver a deed or deeds to convey the same in fee simple or otherwise. SECTION 2. The proceeds of the sale of said property shall be invested in such manner as the trustees of said society Tucome how ap- shall direct: provided, that the income, rents, and profits only, arising from said proceeds and investment or investments shall accrue to, and be applied to the use, support, interest, and benefit of said church and society forever. SECTION 3. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. May 5, 1852. Chap. 184 AN ACT to confirm certain acts done by John A. Judd, as Justice of the Be it enacted, &c., as follows: Acts made valid. Peace. All acts done by John A. Judd, of Westhampton, in the county of Hampshire, as a Justice of the Peace within and for the county of Hampshire, between the sixteenth day of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, and the sixteenth day of February, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, shall be and they hereby are made valid and confirmed to the same extent as they would have been valid, had he been during that interval, duly qualified to discharge the duties of the said office. May 5, 1852. [1852, 145.] Chap. 190 AN ACT in addition to an Act to incorporate the Union Mutual Marine When to take effect Chap. 192 Corporators The act to incorporate the Union Mutual Marine Insurance Company, approved on the twenty-fourth day of April of the present year, shall take effect from and after the passage of this act. May 7, 1852. AN Aer to incorporate the Horn Pond Branch Railroad Company. Be it enacted, $e., as follows: SECTION 1. Jacob Pierce, Bowen Buckman, Adolphus Davis, their associates and successors, are hereby made a |