There seems, then, to be no doubt the directors will conform, henceforth, to the votes of the stockholders, which require them to divide the income regularly, and apply the surplus over six per cent to improvements the principal of which will be the gradual exchange of the fifty-pound rail for one of greater weight. There is no haste in accomplishing this, as the route is not a freight line, and the present rail admits of a speed of thirty-five miles per hour. With regulur six or seven per cent dividends the stock must go to par.

It is now nearly all settled down for a permanent investment. Instead of being a foot-ball for brokers, floating from hand to hand, as it was a few years since, it is now held by strong men, and rarely finds its way into the market, where, from its rarity, it is scarcely known. Once or twice a month a few shares only are sold at $24 to $28 per share. The bonds, however, occasionally appear in the Philadelphia Market, where they command the price of State Fives-now 92 to 93 per cent.

The courage and perseverance of the stockholders, who have continued to hold this stock through adverse times, entitle them to their reward.

The income for June, 1850, has been...
Against for June, 1849..

THE RAILROAD LAW OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

$55,623 68
45,267 21

We publish below a correct copy of an act of the Legislature of New Hampshire in amendment of the laws of that State in relation to railroad corporations.* The most complete law in relation to the formation, regulation, &c., of railroad corporations passed the Legislature of New York, April 2, 1850. Its great length compels us to postpone its publication for the present, but we hope to have it in our power to comply with the solicitations of several of our most respectable subscribers by publishing it entire in an early number of the Merchants' Magazine :—

AN ACT IN AMENDMENT OF THE LAWS IN RELATION TO RAILROAD CORPORATIONS.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatines in General Court convened, That no person shall be allowed to pass or be carried over any railroad in this State without first paying the customary fare, excepting the stockholders going to and returning from the annual or any special meeting of said railroad corporation; the directors, treasurer and clerk of said company on their own road, the superintendent and conductor of such road and such other roads as shall have a business connection and contract with such road, persons actually engaged in running the cars, in charge of baggage or in repairing the road, or persons in charge of freight forwarded by express, in pursuance of a contract with the corporation, or in charge of the mail, or accompanying their own freight on a freight train. Provided, however, that if any person shall apply to the president, superintendent, conductor, or a ticket-master of any road for permission to pass free, and it shall appear that such person is poor or in misfortune, and unable to pay the usual fare, and that it is necessary such person should pass over the road, it shall be lawful for such president, superintendent, conductor, or ticket-master to give such person a written permit to pass free over such road, and such permit may include the wife and children of such poor person. A record of all such permits shall be made by the person giving the same, which shall at all times be open to the inspection of the stockholders, and a return thereof made at the annual meeting.

* The American Railway Times comments with great severity, but with equal justice, on some of the provisions of this law, "in relation to railroad corporations." In reference to the first section of the bill, the Times says:-

"The section in reference to 'free passes' is the most arrant nonsense, and to our mind the Legislature had no more business to legislate concerning it than they had to regulate the same matter regarding stage-coaches, baggage-wagons, and other means of conveyance. The Legislature would seem to say that the officers and directors of railway companies have no knowledge of their business, and lack the necessary discretion to regulate the affairs of their different trusts. We can see a great

many ways that the roads themselves will be losers by this folly of over-legislation, and even the State itself. To our mind the whole railway legislation of New Hampshire, excepting the adoption of a system of returns, used by Massachusetts, is one mass of inconsistencies. They make meat of one and flesh of another of the companies, with reference to the issue of bonds and preferred stock, and by the folly of restricting them from the use of any discretion with regard to the granting of 'free passes.' Had the Legislature ordered the different companies to publish weekly or monthly statements of their earnings and expenses, it would have been vastly of more practical use."

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the conductor on each railroad, immediately after the cars start on their road, to examine the tickets of the passengers, to ascertain if all have purchased tickets, and examine the tickets of all persons entering the cars by the way, and if any person who is not hereby excepted is found who has no ticket, to require such person forthwith to pay the usual fare over such road, or such part of it as the person proposes to travel, and in case of neglect or refusal to pay, it shall be the duty of the conductor to cause the train to be stopped, and the person or persons so neglecting or refusing to pay to leave the train, and in case of refusal it shall be lawful for said conductor to use such force as may be necessary to remove such person from the train, and the conductor shall have the same power to command assistance in removing such person as sheriffs by law have when serving process, and under the same penalty in case of refusal. Any person refusing to pay the fare, and refusing to leave the train as aforesaid, shall be liable to a fine of ten dollars.

SEC. 3. Any conductor who shall refuse to perform the duties required of him by this act, or any president, director, superintendent, ticket-master, or conductor who shall pass or knowingly allow any person to pass or be carried over their road, or furnish any person with a ticket to pass over their road in violation of the first section of this act, shall be punished by fine not less than ten dollars nor more than one hundred dollars.

SEC. 4. Every railroad corporation in this State shall, in the month of August in each year, agree upon and fix their rate of tariffs of toll for the transportation of freight and passengers over their road. The toll shall be rated by the mile for each passenger, and by the ton per mile on freight, except timber, lumber, bark, and wood, which may be rated by the thousand feet, or by the cord per mile. Such corporation shall, on the first day of September in each year, post up at all the stations and depots on their road, a copy of such rates or tariffs of tolls, and shall cause said copy to remain so posted through the year. They shall also post up a statement of the whole cost of freight per ton, thousand, or cord, and the fare of each passenger over their road between the several stations on their own road, and between the stations on their own road and other roads for which they assume to execute any agency or joint contract, whether within or without this State. Such corporation shall not for one year after the rates of toll are posted as aforesaid, or until after sixty days notice has been given, charge or receive any higher rates of toll, fare, or freight than shall be fixed upon and posted as aforesaid.

SEC. 5. Every railroad corporation in this State shall make and maintain all necessary cattle-guards, cattle-passes, and farm-crossings, for the convenience and safety of the land owners along the line of their road, and in case the corporation and land owner cannot agree upon the place, number, or manner in which such guards, passes, or crossings should be constructed, the land owner may by petition apply to three disinterested justices of the peace, two of whom shall be of the quorum, neither of whom shall be resident in the same town with the applicant, or who shall have been previously advised with by the petitioners in relation to the matter to be submitted, who shall notify the parties by giving each at least fifteen days' notice in writing of the time and place they will meet to consider said petition, and shall examine and determine the place or places where such passes, guards, or farm-crossings, and the time in which the same shall be constructed, and make a report thereof in writing, and file a copy of their report with the town clerk of the town where said land is situated; and in case the corporation shall refuse or neglect for sixty days after the report is filed as aforesaid, and after the time fixed for building the same by said justices, to construct passes, guards, and crossings, agreeably to the report made as aforesaid, they shall be liable to a fine of five hundred dollars, and a fine of one hundred for each month they shall refuse or neglect to construct the same, after the expiration of the said sixty days. Provided, that the said justices to whom said land owner shall apply as aforesaid shall be selected as follows:-One by the land owner, one by the railroad corporation, and the third by the two first, selected as aforesaid; and if said railroad corporation shall refuse to select one of said justices, it shall be the duty of the selectmen of the town in which the land is situated to name the person in behalf of said corporation. Provided, however, that the provisions of this section shall not apply in any case where the corporation have settled with the land owner in relation to such guards, passes, and farm-crossings.

SEC. 6. That whenever any railroad company shall unreasonably neglect or refuse to establish reasonable and proper depots or stopping-places for the public accommodation after being thereto requested, the persons aggrieved thereby may by petition

represent their said grievance to the Governor, who shall refer the same to the railroad commissioners, and if said commissioners shall, after hearing the several parties, be of opinion that such railroad company have unreasonably neglected or refused to establish such depots or reasonable or proper stopping places, they shall in writing declare what such railroad company ought to do in the premises, and fix and order the time when the same shall be done, and make their return to the Secretary of State; and if said company shall neglect or refuse to comply with such order they shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every month's neglect, to any petitioner for such accommodation who may sue for the same. The fees of said commissioners and other reasonable expenses of the petitioners shall be taxed by said commissioners, and in cases where they determine that such railroad company have thus neglected and refused to make such necessary accommodation for the public, the same shall be paid by such company, and may be recovered in the name of such petitioners by action for money laid out and expended.

SEC. 7. If the life of any person not in the employment of the corporation shall be lost by reason of the negligence or carelessness of the proprietor or proprietors of any railroad, or by the unfitness, or gross negligence, or by the carelessness of their servants or agents in this State, such proprietor or proprietors shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars nor less than five hundred dollars, to be recovered by indictment to the use of the executor or administrator of the deceased person, for the benefit of his widow and heirs, one moity thereof to go to the widow and the other to the children of the deceased; but if there shall be no children, the whole shall go to the widow, and if no widow, to his heirs, according to the law regulating the distribution of intestate personal estate among heirs.

SEC. 8. No contract between two or more railroad corporations for the use of their roads shall be legal or binding on either party unless such contract shall be sanctioned in writing by the railroad commissioners and approved by the Governor and Council. And in no case shall such contract be for a longer term than five years, and no such use of another road shall be allowed unless by contract in writing executed by both parties, and a copy filed with the Secretary of State.

SEC. 9. The treasurer and clerk of any railroad corporation in the State, except such whose road is connected with a railroad in some other State by the acts of two or more States, shall reside within this State, and all the books, papers, and funds of said corporation, with the foregoing exceptions, shall be kept therein, or shall provide for the payment of all dividends to the stockholders in this State at the place of business of the corporation in this State.

SEC. 10. The directors of every railroad corporation shall from year to year make report to the Legislature, under oath, of their acts and doings, receipts and expenditures under the provisions of their charter, which report shall be made in the month of May in each year, and shall contain full information upon the several items hereafter enumerated, to wit:

Return of the capital stock; increase of capital since last report; capital paid in per last report; capital paid in since last report; total amount of capital stock paid in; funded debt per last report; funded debt paid since last report; funded debt, increase of since last report; total present amount of funded debt; floating debt per last report; floating debt paid since last report; floating debt, increase of since last report; total present amount of floating debt; average rate of interest per annum paid during the year; maximum amount of debt for each month during the year, viz: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.

COST OF ROAD AND EQUIPMENT.-For graduation and masonry per last report; for graduation and masonry paid during the past year; total amount expended for graduation and masonry; for wooden bridges per last report; for wooden bridges paid during the past year; total amount expended for wooden bridges; for superstructure, including iron, per last report; for superstructure, including iron, paid during the past year; total amount expended for superstructure, including iron; for stations, buildings, and fixtures, per last report; for stations, buildings, and fixtures paid during the past year; total amount expended for stations, buildings, and fixtures; for land, land damages, and fences per last report; for land, land damages, and fences paid during the past year; total amount expended for land, land damages, and fences; for locomotives per last report; for locomotives paid during the past year; total amount expended for locomotives; for passenger and baggage cars per last report; for passenger and baggage cars paid during the past year; total amount expended for passenger and baggage

cars; for merchandise cars per last report; for merchandise cars paid during the past year; total amount expended for merchandise cars; for engineering per last report; for engineering paid during the past year; total amount expended for engineering; for agencies and other expenses per last report; for agencies and other expenses paid during the past year; total amount expended for agencies and other expenses; total cost of road and equipment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF ROAD.-Length of road; length of single main track; length of double main track; length of branches owned by the company, stating whether they have single or double track; aggregate length of sidings and other tracks, excepting main track and branches; weight of rail per yard in main road; weight of rail per yard in branch road, specify the different weights per yard; maximum grade, with its length, in main road; maximum grade, with its length, in branch roads; average grade per mile of main road; total rise and fall in the main road; total rise and fall in the branch roads; shortest radius of curvature, with length of curve, in main roads; shortest radius of curvature, with length of curve, in branch roads; total degrees of curvature in main road; total degrees of enrvature in branch roads; total length of straight line in main road; total length of straight line in branches; aggregate length of wooden truss bridges; aggregate length of all other wooden bridges; aggregate length of stone and iron bridges; whole length of road unfenced on both sides; number of public ways crossed at grade; number of railroads crossed at grade; remarks; way stations for express trains; way stations for accommodation trains; flag stations; whole number of way stations; whole number of flag stations.

DOINGS DURING THE YEAR.-Miles run by passenger trains; miles run by freight trains; miles run by other trains; total miles run; number of passengers carried in the cars; number of passengers carried one mile; number of tons of merchandise carried in the cars; number of tons of merchandise carried one mile; number of passengers carried one mile to and from other roads; number of tons of merchandise carried one mile to and from other roads; rate of speed adopted for express passenger trains, including stops; average rate of speed actually attained by the express passenger trains, including stops and detentions; rate of speed adopted for accommodations trains; rate of speed actually attained by accommodation trains, including stops and detentions; average rate of speed actually attained by special trains, including stops and detentions; average rate of speed adopted for freight trains, including stops and detentions; estimated weight, in tons, of passenger cars (not including passengers) hauled one mile; estimated weight, in tons, of merchandise cars (not including freight)

hauled one mile.

EXPENDITURES FOR WORKING THE ROAD.-For repairs of road, maintenance of way, exclusive of wooden bridges and renewals of iron; for repairs of wooden bridges; for renewals of iron, including laying down; for wages of switchmen, average per month; for wages of gate-keepers, average per month; for wages of signal-men, average per month; for wages of watchmen, average per month; for wages of conductors, average per month; for wages of ticket-masters, average per month; number of men employed, exclusive of those engaged in construction; for removing ice and snow, (this item to include all labor, tools, repairs, and extra steam-power used;) for repairs of fences, gates, houses for signal-men, gate-keepers, switchmen, tool houses; total for maintenance of way. MOTIVE-POWER and cars.─For repairs of locomotives; for new locomotives to cover depreciation; for repairs of passenger cars; for new passenger cars to cover depreciation; for repairs of merchandise cars; for new merchandise cars to cover depreciation; for repairs of gravel and other cars; total for maintenance of motive-power and cars; number of engines; number of passenger cars; number of merchandise cars; number of gravel cars.

MISCELLANEOUS.-For fuel used by engines during the year, namely, wood and coal; for oil used by engines and cars; for waste and other material for cleaning; for salaries, wages, and incidental expenses chargeable to passenger department; for salaries, wages, and incidental expenses chargeable to freight department; for gratuities and damages; for taxes and insurance; for ferries; for repairs of station buildings, fixtures, furniture; for amount paid other companies in tolls for passengers and freight carried on their roads, specifying each company and the amount to each; for amount paid other companies as rent for use of their roads, specifying each company and the amount to each; for salary of president; for office expenses; for salary of treasurer; office expenses; for salary of superintendent; for office expenses; number of legal counsel retained, and amount paid them; number of actions in court each year in which the corporation is a party, the expense of each action, the nature of the controversy, and the

amount in question; all other expenses not included in the foregoing items; total miscellaneous; total expenditure for working the road.

INCOME DURING THE YEAR. For passengers-1. On main road, including branches owned by company. 2. To and from other roads, specifying what, and amount from each. For freight-1. On main road and branches owned by company. 2. To and from other connecting roads, and amount from each; United States mails; rents; interest; from all other sources; total income; net earnings, after deducting expenses. DIVIDENDS.-Per cent, total; surplus not divided; surplus last year; total surplus. ESTIMATED DEPRECIATION BEYOND THE RENEWALS, NAMELY:-Road and bridges; buildings; engines and cars.

ESTIMATED INCREASED VALUE BEYOND DEPRECIATION, NAMELY:-Road and bridges; buildings; engines and cars.

NUMBER OF FREE PASSENGERS THE LAST YEAR, NAMELY:-Number of directors and officers (except superintendent) of the corporation when not engaged in the immediate management of the cars and care of the road; number of persons connected with and in the employment of other corporations; number of other persons, except stockholders when attending meetings of the corporation.

SEC. 11. If any railroad corporation shall violate any of the provisions of this act, or shall permit any such violation, for which violation no mode of punishment is provided, such corporation shall be liable to an action upon the case in the name of any party injured thereby, to recover his damage, and shall also be liable to indictment and fine not exceeding one thousand dollars for each offense. And if any officer, agent, or servant of any railroad corporation shall knowingly violate any of the provisions of this act, where no other remedy is provided against such officer, agent, or servant, he shall be liable to indictment and fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, according to the nature and aggravation of the offense.

SEC. 12. Each passenger over any railroad shall be entitled to have taken with him by the same train, as part consideration of the fare paid by him, a reasonable amount of personal baggage, exclusive of specie and bills: Provided, that no road shall be required to carry such baggage to an amount valued beyond one hundred dollars, without notice being given and extra charges paid for such risk and liability, and such corporation shall be liable for the safe transportation and delivery of all such baggage at the station for which the same was received, or for the payment of the value thereof, if they neglect or refuse to pay for such baggage as aforesaid, on demand, after the expiration of said thirty days.

SEC. 13. Whenever any land may have been or shall be entered upon and taken for the construction of a railroad, any party shall appear entitled to any estate, right, or interest in or charge affecting said land which was not adjusted by purchase or appraisal thereof at the time of the laying out and construction of said road, in such cases said land, on petition to the railroad commissioners, may be laid out and appraised in the same way and manner as is provided for the original laying out and appraisal of land, and if the road is in operation, it shall not be obstructed in the use of said land after written application has been made to the commissioners to lay out the same, and notice thereof has been served on the land holders, until such appraisal shall be made.

SEC. 14. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of August next.

A SYSTEM OF GENERAL NIGHT SIGNALS.

We are indebted to WILLIAM WINTHROP, Esq., United States Consul at Malta, for a pamphlet entitled "System of Night Signals for the use of Her Majesty's Ships and Squadrons, and adapted to Merchant Ships, English and Foreign, Yachts, Military Stations, Railroads, Inland Communications, Light-houses, &c." By Mitchel Thompson, surgeon H. M. Ship Odir. The very inadequate and defective state of night signals induced Dr. Thompson to make an effort to provide a remedy, in order, if possible, to render the means of communication by night less difficult, and more extensive. The British system is now so limited, that not more than twenty signals can be made satisfactorily, without either rockets or guns. The system, as laid down by drawings in this work, has, it appears, been examined and tested by Admiral Sir William Parker, Bart., Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean squadron, and that distinguished navigator acknowledges its utility and importance. The system is clearly explained, and in addition to the approval of Admiral Parker, it is commended by a number of officers in the British navy. The copy received at the office of the Merchants' Magazine is at the service of any of our friends, who may take an interest in the subject.