11. The Governor may thereupon, by an order in council, Governor in approve or reject the said report, whether the same be amended Council may or not by the said municipal council, or modify or amend the same in such manner as he deems expedient;

approve, reject or amend.

with or without

12. If, by the said order in council, the said report be ap- Proclamation, proved, with or without amendments, then the Governor may if approved, issue a proclamation under his hand and seal, declaring the amendments. name to be given, and defining the limits to be ascribed, to such tract of land, as a separate municipality;

Effect of Pro

when it shall

take effect.

13. From the first day of January next after the expiration of the two months immediately following the date of the said pro- clamation and clamation, the tract of land, the limits whereof have been so defined, shall be detached from the local municipality whereof it theretofore formed part, and its inhabitants shall be a corporation or body politic, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, by the name of "The Corporation of the Town or Village of (as the case may be) (insert the name of the

town or village);

14. The said proclamation shall be published in the Canada Publication of Gazette, and at least two copies of such proclamation, duly Proclamation. certified by the provincial secretary, shall be by him sent to the

county council, whose duty it shall be to give public notice

thereof;

15. No tract of land shall be erected into a town munici- Towns must pality unless it be shewn by the report of the Special Superin- contain 3,000 tendent that there are at least three thousand inhabitants within

such tract;

souls.

souls may be

16. The Governor may, upon due proof that the number of Village coninhabitants in any village, previously incorporated as such, taining 3,000 amounts to three thousand souls, issue a proclamation made a town. creating such village a town municipality;

17. The municipal council of any parish or township muni- Council of the cipality may hold their sessions in any town or village within parish, &c., the limits of such parish or township after the erection of such may still te held in town or town or village into a separate municipality, as well as before; village.

18. Every town, borough or village, forming a separate mu- Towns and nicipality immediately before the first day of July, one thousand villages being municipalities eight hundred and fifty-five, shall continue to exist as a separate when the Act municipality within the limits it then had, until the same was passed to are changed under the foregoing provisions;

18 V. c. 101

continue such.

cipality, if ne

19. But upon a petition presented by at least two thirds of Union with the assessable inhabitants of any town, borough or village. another munibeing on the day last aforesaid, or having been thereafter erected cessary. into a separate municipality, the Governor may issue a proclamation uniting such town, borough or village to some adjoining local municipality, if he is satisfied that such union will promote the interests of such town, borough or village ;

When the Proclamation un

20. But no proclamation for uniting a town or village munider sub-section cipality to some adjoining local municipality shall have any force or effect until the first day of January next after the expiration of the two months immediately following the date of such proclamation;

18 shall take

effect

Warden to

cause Council

lors to be elect ed, and Council organized.

Formation of

villages by

21. The warden of the county in which any newly erected town or village municipality is situate, shall cause an election of councillors to be had, and shall organize the council thereof so soon as the proclamation erecting the same takes effect, notwithstanding that such time be not the year and month fixed by this Act for holding the general elections of local councillors; but the councillors so elected shall remain in office until the next general election of councillors, and thereafter until their successors have entered into office and no longer.

UNINCORPORATED VILLAGES.

37. Whenever there are, within the limits of a local municiunincorporated pality, at least forty inhabited houses erected within a space By-laws of the not exceeding sixty superficial arpents, the council of such Local Councils. local municipality shall, upon Petition of at least two thirds of the

Moneys to be paid over to Treasurer of new County Council, and how applied.

proprietors residing within such space, pass a By-law defining the limits of such tract and recognizing its existence as an unincorporated village, under such name as they may please to assign thereto; and from and after the date of the publication of any such By-law, the local council shall have the same power and authority to make By-laws for such unincorporated village, as the council of any incorporated town or village,erected under this Act.

PROPERTY AND DEBTS OF FORMER MUNICIPALITIES.

38. All moneys which on the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, were or ought to have been in the hands of the secretary-treasurer of any municipality, and which belonged to any municipality which then ceased to exist, shall be paid into the hands of the secretary-treasurer of the county in which the place where the sittings of the council of such municipality were held is situate, and shall be at the disposal of the council of the said county, to be applied first to the discharge of the debts and expenses of the municipality which so ceased to exist, and afterwards to the discharge of those which the said county council may have itself contracted; -saving the recourse County, saved. of any other county of which any part may have been within the municipality so ceasing to exist, for a share of such moneys proportionate to the population of such part as compared with that of the whole municipality so ceasing to exist:

Recourse of any other

Recovery of

such money if

2. The county council shall have a right of action, for the recovery and payment of all such moneys as aforesaid; and not paid over. the said moneys shall be afterwards employed or paid by the

secretary-treasurer

secretary-treasurer according to the order which he receives from the county council, in pursuance of the provisions aforesaid;

&c., due, &c.

3. All assessments or rates of any kind whatsoever, which, Assessments, on the day last aforesaid, were due to any such municipality ceasing to exist, shall belong respectively and shall be paid to the local municipality within the limits of which they were imposed, in the same manner as if the said assessments or rates had been imposed in the said local municipality by and in virtue of this Act;

vid municipa

consolidated.

4. From and after the first day of July, one thousand Transfer of eight hundred and fifty-five, all the property, moveable property of aswell as immoveable, which then belonged to any muni- lities to those cipality ceasing to exist, has belonged to the County under this Act municipality created by and in virtue of the Lower Canada and the Acts Municipal and Road Act of 1855, within which the place, where the sittings of the council of the municipality ceasing to exist were held, is situate, in the same manner as if the said property had been acquired by the last mentioned county municipality; saving the recourse of any other county of which Recourse of any part may have been within the municipality so ceasing to other municipalities, saved. exist, for a share of the value of such property proportionate to the population of such part as compared with that of the whole municipality so ceasing to exist;

forced.

5. The debts, contracts and agreements of any municipality Debts, conwhich ceased to exist by the coming into force of the Lower tracts, &c., of municipalities Canada Municipal and Road Act of 1855, became there- ceasing under after the debts, contracts and agreements of and shall be the Act 18 V. c. 100, by what recoverable or enforceable by or from the county in which municipality to the place where the sittings of the council of the muni- be paid or encipality so ceasing to exist were held, is situate, in the same. manner as if the said debts had been contracted by and the said contracts and agreements had been entered into by the latter municipality, saving the recourse of such county to Recourse arecover from any other county within the limits of which any gainst other inunicipalities. part of the municipality ceasing to exist was situate, a share of any sum paid in discharge of any such debt, proportionate to the population of such part of such municipality as compared with the whole population thereof;-And it shall be lawful for any county council to cause a rate or rates to be levied on the assessable properties in any locality within such county forming a separate municipality, or part of a municipality, or parts of several municipalities, for the payment of any debt or debts contracted or work or works done for the advantage of any such locality by any county or parish municipality heretofore existing, or upon the whole county if the debt or debts was or were contracted or such work or works performed for the benefit of the whole county;-and every such rate may be Rates to be lele vied for the satisfaction of any equitable claim, whether such vied for disdebts were contracted or such works performed according to debis. charging such the formalities required by law or not;

Population, how determined.

Papers relative

to Road law

be delivered, and to whom.

6. The population referred to in this section shall be that established by the census taken in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

DELIVERY OF PAPERS, &C.

39. Every person who formerly held the office of grand to voyer, or any municipal office under any Act or law relating to the municipal or road system, and the heirs, testamentary executors or curators of any such officer who is dead or absent from Lower Canada, was bound to deliver to the secretarytreasurer of the municipal council of the county to which they relate, within fifteen days after the first of July, one thousand eight hundred and fifty five,-or if such secretary-treasurer was not then appointed, within eight days of his appointment,all books, registers, procès-verbaux répartitions, assessment rolls, resolutions, copies of judgment, maps, plans, returns and other documents and papers in his or their possession, or under his or their control, relating to such ffice, to remain deposited and of record in the office of the council and in the custody of the secretary-treasurer:

Action to compel such delivery.

Enforcing judgment in such action.

Certain documents to be furnished to a new town or

village.

2. The secretary-treasurer of each county council has had and shall have a right to take possession of all and every such books, papers and other things wherever he can find the same, in the event of their not being delivered to him by the proper officer or person within the delay hereinbefore allowed, and has also had and shall have a right of action to recover, in the name of the Municipality, the same with damages, as indemnity to the Municipality, and costs, before any circuit court, by saisie revendication or otherwise from such officer or from his heirs, executors or curators, or from any other person having possession thereof:-And judgment in every such action by which delivery or the payment of damages or both has been ordered, may be enforced by contrainte par corps against the person condemned, according to the laws in force in such cases in Lower Canada, if by the declaration such contrainte is demanded;

3. Any town or village municipality may demand from the council of the municipality from which such town or village has been separated, or from the council of any other munici– pality which has them in its possession, and such council shall, on such demand, give up to such town or village municipality, all documents or papers of any kind whatsoever, relating exclusively to the territory included in such village or town municipality, and shall allow the secretary-treasurer of such village or town municipality, or other officer appointed for that purpose, to take copies of such parts of all other documents as relate to such territory, without any further fee than for the certificate of the authenticity of such copies;

4. Every municipal officer, whether elected or appointed, Officer going shall, within eight days from the day on which he ceases to out to deliver hold such office, deliver to his successor in office, if then elected up every thing belonging to or appointed, or if not, within eight days after the election or his office. appointment of such successor, all moneys, keys, books, papers and insignia belonging to such office;

5. If any such officer dies or absents himself from Lower Obligations of Canada, or removes his domicile out of the County without his heirs or rehaving delivered up all such moneys, keys, books, papers and presentatives. insignia, it shall be the duty of his heirs or other legal representatives to deliver the same to his successor in office within one month from his death, from his departure from Lower Canada, or from the removal of his domicile out of the County;

poration in case

6. And in every such case the Municipal Corporation Remedy of the shall, besides all other legal remedies, have a right of action Municipal Corbefore the circuit court, either by saisie revendication, or of default. otherwise, to recover from such officer or from his legal representatives, or any other person in possession of the same, all such moneys, keys, books or insignia, with costs and damages, for the benefit of the municipality;-and every judgment rendered in any such action may be enforced by contrainte par corps against the person condemned, according to the laws in force, in such cases, in Lower Canada, if by the declaration such contrainte is demanded.

SECOND PART.

ROADS, BRIDGES AND OTHER PUBLIC WORKS.

CLASSIFICATION AND GENERAL PROVISIONS APPLICable to THEM.

40. Roads, bridges and other public works shall, for the Roads, &e., to purposes of this Act, be divided into three classes:

be classified.

2. Provincial works,-comprising all roads, bridges and other Provincial public works made and held by the provincial government; works.

3. County works,-comprising all roads, bridges and other County works. public works made or maintained at the expense of a county or of several counties, or of the inhabitants or any number of the inhabitants of more than one local municipality in a County; and

4. Local works,-comprising all roads, bridges and other Local works. public works made or maintained at the expense of any one local municipality, or of the inhabitants of any portion thereof;