Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/693

 686 FKSEBAIi BBPOBTEB. �or more of the time -which the bonds had to run had expîred, so that the period might be wholly inadequate în which to pro- vide a sufficient sinking fund for paying the bonds when due, and that this indicates that the lien was not intended as security merely for payment by the company to the state by means of a sinking fund in the manner provided. A statute must be construed from the stand-point, — the circumstances and surroundings of the law-makers, — when it was enacted; and it would be unjust and repugnant to reason and common experience to assume that the legislature passed the act in the expectation that the roads would never be finished, or would not be completed within a reasonable time. Besides, section 12 reserved to the state ample powers to make such modifi- cations in relation to the time for the sinking fund to com- mence, and the per cent, annually to be paid into that fund, as wotdd fully protect the interests of the state against delay on the part of the railroad company. �Whatever might be said in regard to the evidence adduced in these cases of contemporaneous construction, through the utterances of state officiais in public documents, the action of any department of the state govemment, or otherwise, there is, in the judgment of the court, nothing to change the views which bave been expressed. �Chamberlain v. St. P. e S. C. B. Co., 92 U. S. 299, was decided upon a statute and upon facts similar to those in the present cases, and is very instructive. The state of Minnesota, by a constitutional amendment, provided fdr an issue of its bonds as a loan to the Southern Minnesota Eailroad Company, and required such company to convey the lands in question "in trust for the better security of the treasury of the state from loss on said bonds," and further provided that if the borrow- ing company should make default in payment of either the principal or interest of the bonds issued by the state, the gov- ernor should proceed to sell the lands held in trust by the state. The company accordingly executed a trust convey- ance of the lands to the state, conditioned for the payment of the principal and interest of the bonds issued to that com- jany. The company made default in the payment of interest. ����