Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/854

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of the legislature of this commonwealth to the said act of the legislature of Virginia, is given and granted upon the further express conditions, that any mesne process which may be issued against the said company, may be served on any toll-gatherer, director, or other officer of the company; and such service shall be held good, valid, and effectual, as a service of such process upon the said Ohio and Chesapeake Canal Company; and that said company shall annually report to the legislature of Pennsylvania, the progress they may make in constructing the said canal; and also an annual abstract of their accounts, certified by the oath of the president of the said company, showing the amount of capital stock actually paid in, and the sums deposited with the treasurer for contingent and current expenses, and the profits which may have accrued, and the dividends made or declared during the preceding year.

Whereas it is represented that the General Assembly of the commonwealth of Maryland hath passed, at their present session, an act entitled “An act further to amend the act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company,” in the words following, to wit:

“Whereas it is represented to this General Assembly, that it may tend greatly to the promotion of the object of the original act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, to authorize a subscription for its stock by aliens; and doubts have arisen, whether, under said act, such stock may be held by others than citizens of the United States; and whether the stock of said company is to be regarded as real or personal property:—

1. “Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That it shall and may be lawful for the commissioners for the time being, and for the president and directors of the said company, whensoever the same shall be duly organized, agreeably to the provisions of the original act aforesaid, to receive subscriptions for any number of shares of the capital stock of said company, from any alien or aliens, who are hereby declared competent to hold the same; and, if in their judgment it be necessary, to appoint an agent or agents to visit Europe for that purpose.

2. “And be it enacted, That the shares of the capital stock of the said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, shall be deemed and taken to be personal estate, and as such to be liable to be assigned and transferred: Provided, That it shall not be lawful for any stockholder in said company to assign any share or shares, by him or her held, unless it be in person, or by attorney, upon the books of said company: And provided, also, That no transfer or assignment shall be made, except for one or more whole share or shares, and not for any part of such share or shares; and that no share or shares shall at any time be assigned or transferred, or held in trust for the use and benefit, or in the name of another, whereby the said president and directors, or stockholders, of the said company, or any of them, shall or may be challenged or made to answer concerning any such trust; but that every person appearing as aforesaid to be stockholders, shall, as to others of the said company, be, to every intent, taken absolutely as such; but as between any trustee, and the person for whose benefit any trust shall be created, the common remedy may be pursued.

3. “And be it enacted, That the words ‘nor any payment demanded within any year from the commencement of the work,’ inserted into the proviso to the fifth section of the original act incorporating the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, passed the twenty-seventh day of January, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, by the General Assembly of Virginia, and subsequently confirmed by the General Assembly of Maryland, be, and the same are hereby repealed and expunged from the aforesaid proviso; and henceforth the said proviso shall be construed in the same manner, and have the same effect, as if the afore-recited words had never been recited therein.

4. “And be it enacted, That this act shall commence and be in force as soon as it shall have received the assent of the legislature of Virginia, of the Congress of the United States, of the Potowmac Company, and of the stockholders of the said Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, to be given at their first general meeting after the passage of this act.