(not to exceed two cents per mile for each passenger transported under such contracts), subject to the following or similar provisions: First. It shall be the duty of the railroad commissioner, as soon after the passage of this act as possible, to determine the most direct and practicable route from each courthouse by which to convey persons to the penitentiary and the several asylums, and shall file a copy of the schedule of routes determined upon with the auditor of public accounts, superintendent of the penitentiary, and the superintendents of the several insane and other asylums, and shall notify the clerks of the several counties in the State of the route determined upon from their respective courthouses to the penitentiary, insane, and other asylums. The clerk of the court in which sentence is passed, in addition to the papers usually furnished the sheriff or other officer charged with conveying the prisoner to the penitentiary, shall furnish the said officer a transportation certificate, under seal of the court, stating the number and names of persons entitled to transportation for each part or line of railroad, or other transportation company's line, over which the said sheriff or other officer will necessarily pass in conveying the prisoner or prisoners to the penitentiary, Upon the presentation of the sheriff, or other officer charged with the care of a lunatic, of the proper papers, the clerk shall issue a like certificate of transportation to convey said officer, guard, and patient to the asylum in which the patient is to be received: provided, that in all cases such transportation certificate shall be given over the route authorized by the railroad commissioner. The auditor of public accounts shall issue to the sheriff, or other officer presenting the receipt of the superintendent of the penitentiary, for a prisoner duly delivered at that institution, a similar transportation certificate, which shall entitle the sheriff and other guard to transportation back to the county from which the prisoner was brought. It shall be the duty of the superintendents of the several asylums to furnish sheriffs or other officers delivering patients at their respective institutions, with like certificates. The superintendent of the penitentiary, in lieu of the mileage now allowed discharged convicts, shall furnish them with like transportation the distance they are entitled to, over any road or transportion line embraced in the schedule furnished by the railroad commissioner. All certificates shall be in the form prescribed by the railroad commissioner, and approved by the several transportation companies in their respective contracts, and shall be taken up by the conductor or other agent authorized by the said transportation companies to collect fare, as other tickets or fares are collected by them. The said certificates shall be presented by the transportation companies holding the same, either monthly or quarterly, as may be determined upon by the said companies and railroad commissioner, to the auditor of public accounts, who shall examine and pay the same, as other claims against the State are audited and settled. After contracts shall have been made under this act, no mileage shall be allowed any sheriff or other officer charged with conveying prisoners to the penitentiary or patients to an asylum, for any distance that be travels or shall travel on a railroad or transportation company, under the provisions of this act.

2. That the contracts heretofore or hereafter made under the provisions of the first section of this act, may be renewed or extended for such time as the railroad commissoner, with the approval of the governor, shall deem to the interest or advantage of the State. The superintendent of each of the several lunatic asylums of the State is hereby authorized and directed, when practicable, to send a proper guard for each patient destined for the asylum under his management : provided, that when the said superintendent deems it as well for the patient and

more economical for the State, he is hereby empowered to authorize any friend of the patient of responsibility and character to guard and conduct such patient to the asylum, and shall furnish the party so appointed for the said purpose, a certificate which shall entitle him to the passes usually furnished sheriff or other officer; and upon presentation of said paper to the clerk of the county, city, or corporation in which the patient resides, the said clerk shall furnish the said person to convey said patient to the asylum the usual certificates of transportation: provided further, that the said superintendent shall allow the party appointed under this provision only the actual necessary expenses incured by him or them in conveying to the asylum said patient, and in cases in which neither of the above mentioned arrangement for guarding and conducting the insane to asylum shall be expedient or advisable, the sheriff or other guard as heretofore shall conduct insane persons to the asylum and shall be allowed actual necessary expenses in discharging this duty, and also one dollar per day to the sheriff or other officer for each day actually occupied in this service.

3. This act shall be in force from its passage.

An ACT to require the Railroad Commissioner to cause to be printed and conspicuously posted at railroad depots and stations certain portions of the railroad laws of the commonwealth, with proper explanations thereof, and suggestions thereasto, for the benefit of the public.

Approved March 28, 1879.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That it shall be the duty of the railroad commissioner to cause to be printed and posted in conspicuous places at each depot and station of the several railroad, corporations in the commonwealth, such portions of the statutes regulating the tolls of such railroad corporations, and otherwise prescribing their duties, as to such railroad commissioner may seem proper, together with such explanations thereof, and suggestions thereasto, as will inform the public of their rights under such statutes, and will, in the judgment of such commissioner, best enable any person who may complain of any violation of such statutes, to have such violation thereof properly inquired into and punished, 2. This act shall be in force from its passage.

An ACT to regulate the Collection of Charges for the Transportation by Canal, Steamboat, and Railroad companies.

Approved April 2, 1879.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That any steamboat, canal, or railroad company, doing the business of a common carrier within the limits of the State, shall, at the time of the delivery of any freight shipped or transported over the line of such company, furnish to the owner or consignee thereof, or the agent

of such owner or consignee, a bill plainly stating the class to which said freight belongs, the weight thereof, and the rate charged for transporting the same.

2. Any steamboat, canal, or railroad company that shall fail or refuse to deliver to the consignee a bill, as herein before required, when the freight is delivered, shall forfeit three times the amount of the said freight charges, to be recovered, upon motion, before any justice of the peace or court of the county or corporation wherein the freight is delivered. If any such company shall fail or refuse to furnish said bill as herein before required, the said company shall not have the right to receive any charges for transporting such freight, and shall not have the right to retain the same; and if the said company shall receive said charges without furnishing said bill, the same may be recovered by warrant or suit before any justice or court of the county or corporation wherein the freight is delivered, having jurisdiction of like amounts in any civil proceeding.

3. Any officer or agent of such company so receiving said charges of transportation without furnishing such bill, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof, shall be fined not exceeding twenty dollars.

4. It shall be the duty of the railroad commissioner, upon the passage of this act, to furnish to the superintendent of each railroad, and to the president of each steamboat and canal company doing business in this State as aforesaid, a copy of this act.

5. This act shall be in force on and after July first, eighteen hundred and seventy-nine.

I respectfully call your attention to sections forty-eight and forty-nine of chapter 61, of the Code of 1873, which require the railroad companies to report to the board of public works; to section fifty, where the same board is authorized and directed to prescribe the forms, &c., to be used by the railroad companies in making their annual reports; to section fifty, requiring the said board to have the said reports printed in tabular form. Section fifty-three prescribes that any railroad company refusing or neglecting to make the report required by section fifty, shall be liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars, and it shall be the duty of the board of public works to sue for the said penalty in the name of the commonwealth.

In section nine of the act creating the office of railroad commissioner, it is provided, that "the railroad commissioner shall make an annual report to the legislature of his doings, including such statements, facts, and explanations as will disclose the actual working of the system of railroad transportation, in its bearing upon the business and prosperity of the commonwealth; and such suggestions as to the general railroad policy of the commonwealth, or as to any part thereof, or as to the conditions, affairs, or conduct of any railroad corporations as may seem to him appropriate, with a special report of all accidents, and the causes thereof, for the preceding year.”

Section ten of the same act, says: "The said commissioner shall require the annual returns to be made by railroad companies, in manner and form, and at the time now provided for by law, and shall be authorized to require returns to be made of such other matters as he may deem expedient. When the return received from any corporation is defective or probably erroneous, the commissioner shall notify the corporation to amend the same within fifteen days. The commissioner shall prepare such tables and abstracts of all the returns as he shall deem expedient, and his annual report shall be transmitted to the governor of the commonwealth on or before the first Wednesday in January in each year, to be laid before the

legislature. The originals of the return or returns as amended, subscribed, and sworn to by the directors of the corporations, shall be preserved in the office of the commissioner."

It is not clear but that the railroad companies are required to make report both to the board of public works and to your commissioner. I can find nothing in the act creating the office of railroad commissioner repealing sections forty-eight and forty-nine, chapter sixty-one, Code eighteen hundred and seventy-three, requiring the railroad companies to report to the board of public works, which board now assesses for taxation the railroad property within the State. The only allusion to the annual reports of the railroad companies in the act approved March thirtyfirst, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, is in section ten, which says: "The said commissioner shall require the annual returns to be made by the railroad companies in manner and form, and at the time now provided by law."

If the words "manner and form" be so construed (as they have been, for the board of public works have not sent out the blank forms, as required by section fifty, chapter sixty-one, Code eighteen hundred and seventy-three,) as to relieve the railroad companies from the necessity of reporting to the said board, then there is no penalty prescribed if the railroads refuse or neglect to report to the railroad commissioner. But if they refuse or neglect to report to the board of public works, then, under section fifty-three, chapter sixty-one, Code eighteen hundred and seventy-three, the road so refusing or neglecting is liable to a penalty of five hundred dollars; and under that section the board of public works is required to sue for the said penalty in the name of the commonwealth.

I respectfully suggest that the powers and duties that clothe the board of public works by virtue of sections 48, 49, 50, 52, 53 and 54, be placed with the railroad commissioner of this State.

I call your attention to section 23, as amended and re-enacted in Acts of 1874-5, relating to the transportation of freight and passengers beyond the limits of the State. If your commissioner ever had jurisdiction over this interstate traffic and travel, (see case of Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific railroad company vs. The people of the State of Illinois, a synopsis of which case is given in this report,) that jurisdiction is now given under the interstate commerce bill to the railroad commissioners of the United States. See section thirty-one, chapter sixty-one, Code eighteen hundred and seventy-three.

Section three of the act creating the office of railroad commissioner, provides that : “Whenever, in the judgment of the railroad commissioner, it shall appear that any such corporation has violated any laws, or neglected in any respect or particular to comply with the terms of its charter, or with the provisions of any of the laws of the commonwealth, especially in regard to the connections with other railroads, the rates of toll and the time schedule, he shall give notice thereof, in writing, to such corporation; and if the violation or neglect is continued, after such notice, the commissioner shall make report of the facts to the Board of Public Works, and such board shall, if upon inquiry into such facts it deems it proper or necessary, direct the said commissioner to make application to a circuit court, or a judge thereof, in vacation, for an injunction to restrain the company complained of, from further continuing to violate the law or the terms of its charter." It is suggested that the above section be so amended that instead of the words "make application to a circuit court or judge thereof, in vacation," the following be inserted: "make application to the circuit court of the city of Richmond, or the judge thereof, in vacation, or to the circuit court or judge thereof, in vacation, of the county where the cause of action arose."

There are several reasons for this change. It gives your commissioner option to try the case either in the circuit court of the city of Richmond, or in the circuit court having jurisdiction over the county where the cause of action arose, according to the convenience of the case. Second, if the circuit court of the city of Richmond be given jurisdiction, then the attorney-general will appear for the State. Being of the opinion that the law does not make it the duty of the attorneygeneral to appear in the courts of the commonwealth in which these cases must now be prosecuted, and there being no provision of law for the employment of other counsel, is a third reason why this change should be made. Just here I will mention that in one case in which I have found it necessary to obtain an injunetion, Mr. Ayres, the attorney-general, recognizing the difficulties, kindly agreed to represent the State.

The work done by this oflice in the past year is better evidenced by the correspondence than by a statement from me. There have been many complaints made, a large number of which do not appear in the correspondence, as I have always endeavored to adjust these matters when it was possible, without having the complaint in writing. Always when necessary, or when the complainant did not appear in person in my office, I have required the complaint to be submitted in writing. Every question that has been decided, the railroads have acquiesced in, with the exception of the Atlantic and Danville. (See correspondence).

There was a complaint against the Atlantic and Danville railroad of a discrimination against the steamer Carrie. Upon investigation, I thought the complaint well founded, and so advised the president of the Atlantic and Danville railroad company. To this letter he paid no attention. I then obtained an injunction restraining the said railroad company from a further violation of law. I have also called the attention of the attorney-general to Acts of eighteen hundred and seventy-four-seventy-five, page four hundred and forty-four, section twenty-six, that he may proceed against this company for the sum of five hundred dollars, the amount forfeited to the State for violation of section twenty-four, page twohundred and sixty-three, Acts eighteen hundred and seventy-eight-seventy-nine. The Meherrin Valley railroad company made no report to this office for last year. I reported the same to the Board of Public Works, who sued in the name of the commonwealth in the circuit court of the city of Richmond, and obtained judgment against the road in the sum of five hundred dollars. But it appearing that no notice had been served on the trustees of said road, but notice had been served on A. W. Jones, as president, who in fact was not the president, the judgment upon motion of the Board of Public Works, was set aside. While this action of the Board was correct and proper, and with my approbation, yet the trustees of this road were not entirely without fault. Mr. A. W. Jones has been reported as the president of the Meherrin Valley railroad company, and is still so reported in Poor's Manual, the standard authority upon railroad matters. The law is plain. It was the duty of the trustees to advise this office of their appointment, then the blank forms would have been sent to them and not to A. W. Jones, the reported president.

Under Acts of eighteen hundred and seventy-seven-seventy-eight, and eighteen hundred and seventy-eight-seventy-nine, I have entered into contracts for the term of two years with a majority of the railroads in this State for the transportation of convicts and their guards, and lunatics and their guards to and from the penitentiary and the respective asylums, at two cents per mile. Some of the roads have not signed the contracts as yet, but I am certain a majority will agree to