Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/666

 654. FEDERAL REPORTER. �How a delegation of power to declare what is just and rea- sonable could be more plain and explicit, it is diflScult to see. It is not conferred on the courts; the railroad companies bave no part or lot in the decision of the question; but the consti- tution declares "it is hereby conferred on the general assem- bly." But even when there is no such oonstitutional pro- vision as exists in this state, it bas been held that "where property bas been clothed with a public interest, the legislature may fix a limit to that which shall in law be reasonable for its use. This limit binds the courts as well as the people. If it bas been improperly fixed, the legislature, not the courts, must be appealed to for the change." Peik v. Chicago, etc., Ihj. Co. 94 U. S., 1,64; Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 113. �Looking, therefore, at the several clauses of the constitu- tion which bear upon the subject, it cannot be said by the railroad companies that an attempt by the legislature to pre- scribe reasonable rates for the transportation of freights and fares is a revocation of any of their special privileges or im- munities. In my .judgment the clause of the constitution now under consideration was not meant to limit the power of the legislature over the subject of freights and fares, which is fully treated in section 11, art. 14, but was intended to pro- tect the incorporators and creditors of the corporation from the results which at common law foUowed the revocation of the charter of an incorporated company, which were that its realty reverted to the graptors and its personalty escheated to the state. �The complainant alleges that when the bonds and the mortgage to secure the. same, subject to which the defendant company bought the railroad and other property of the Atlan- tic & Gulf Company, were executed, the state of Georgia was tlje^owner of 10,000 shares of the stock of the latter company, ajid this stock voted in favor of the issue of the bonds and the execution of thei mortgage; that the bonds bore 7 per cent, annually, and are to fall due July 1, 1877; that the property was conveyed bythe mortgage or trust deed to a trustee, with t^e power upon default of the payment of inter- est to take possession and operate the road and pay first ����