operate forfeiture of charter. Total amount limited. demand, in specie, at any such place, of any such notes or bills of the Bank, shall, if the time of suspension extend to sixty days, consecutively or at intervals within any twelve consecutive months, operate as, and be a forfeiture of the Incorporation, and of all the privileges of the Incorporation of the Bank. XXV. The total amount of the bank-notes and bills of the of Bank-notes, Bank, of all values, in circulation at any one time, shall never exceed the aggregate amount of the paid up capital stock of the Bank, and the gold and silver coin and bullion, and debentures or other securities, reckoned at par, issued or guaranteed by the Government under the authority of the LegisAnd of those lature of this Province, on hand; and of those bank-notes and under £1 each. bills in circulation at any one time, not more than one fifth of the said aggregate amount shall be in bank-notes or bills under None to be un- the nominal value of one pound currency each; but no bankder5 shillings. note or bill of the Bank, under the nominal value of five shillings, shall be issued or put in circulation. Total liabilities of the Bank limited. Penalty on Directors in case of excess. XXVI. The total amount of the debts of the Bank shall, at no time, exceed three times the aggregate amount of the paid up capital stock, and the deposits in specie and Government securities for money; and in case of excess, the Bank shall forfeit their Incorporation, and all the privileges thereof; and the Directors under whose administration the excess shall happen, shall be liable, jointly and severally, for the same, in their private capacities, as well to the Shareholders, as to the creditors of the Bank; and an action or actions in this behalf may be brought against the Directors, or any one or more of them, and the heirs, executors and administrators of the Directors, or any one or more of them, and be prosecuted to judgment and execution according to law; but such action or actions shall not exempt the Bank, or the lands and tenements, goods and chattels of the Bank, from being also liable for the excess: Proviso: Di- Provided always, that if any Director, present at the time of rectors giving contracting any such excess of debt, do forthwith, or if any Director absent at the time of contracting any such excess of certain time debt, do within two days after he shall have obtained a knowmay free them ledge thereof, enter on the minutes or register of proceedings such penalty; of the Directors, his protest against the same, and do, within but not from eight days thereafter, publish such protest in at least two newsShareholders. papers published in the city of Montreal, such Director may thereby, and not otherwise, exonerate and discharge himself, his heirs, executors and adininistrators, from the liability aforesaid, any thing herein contained, or any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding; but such publication shall not exonerate any Director from his liability as a Shareholder. a certain no tice within a selves from liabilities as Liabilities of limited. XXVII. In the event of the property and assets of the Bank Shareholders, becoming insufficient to satisfy the liabilities thereof, the Shareholders, in their private or natural capacities, shall be liable for the deficiency, but to no greater extent than double the amount amount of the paid up capital, that is to say the liability of crued before XXVIII. The Bank are hereby declared liable for all the Bank to have debts and liabilities of the several corporations and association the rights and mentioned in the thirtieth section of the Act of Incorporation in liabilities acthe first section of this Act mentioned; and are also hereby 4 & 5 V. c. 98. empowered, in their own corporate name, to recover and hold, as their own, all the property, real and personal, of the said corporations and association, and all the debts remaining due thereto respectively; the said corporations and association being hereby declared to have been and to be, respectively, merged in the corporation by the said Act of Incorporation and this Act constituted. lished. information. XXIX. Within the first three weeks of every month, the Monthly stateDirectors shåll make up and publish in the Canada Gazette, ments to be and shall, if required, also transmit to the Governor, a statement made and pubof the assets and liabilities of the Bank on the last day of the preceding month, in the form of the Schedule B hereunto annexed, and if at any time required by the Governor, shall verify any such statement by the production of the balancesheets from which the same shall have been compiled; and Governor may furthermore, shall, when required, furnish the Governor with require further such further information respecting the state and proceedings of the Bank, and of the several Branches and Agencies thereof, as the Governor may reasonably see fit to call for: Provided Proviso. always, that the balance-sheets, and the further information so furnished shall be held by the Governor to have been, and to be so furnished, in strict confidence that the same shall not be divulged or made public, and that nothing herein contained shall authorize the Directors to make known to the Governor, the private account of any person having dealings with the Bank. lend money, XXX. The Bank shall not, at any time whatever, directly or Bank not to indirectly, advance or lend to, or for the use of, any foreign &c., to any Prince, Power or State, any sum or sums of money, or any foreign state. securities for money; and if any such unlawful advance or loan be made, then, and from the time of making the same, the Bank, as a Corporation, shall be dissolved, and all the powers, authorities, rights, privileges and advantages hereby granted, shall cease and determine; any thing in the aforesaid Act of Incorporation or in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding. XXXI. It shall be the duty of the Directors of the Bank to One tenth of invest, and keep invested at all times, in Debentures of this the paid up capital to be Province, invested in Provincial debentures. Penalty for default. What shall be Province, payable within the same, or secured on the Consolidated Municipal Loan Fund, one tenth part of the whole paid up Capital of the Bank, and to make a return of the numbers and amount of such Debentures, verified by the oaths and signatures of the President and Chief Cashier or Manager of the Bank, to the Inspector General, in the month of January of each year, under the penalty of the forfeiture of the Charter of the Bank, in default of such investment and return. XXXII. The several public notices by this Act required to Public Notice. be given, shall be given by advertisement in two or more of the newspapers published in the City of Montreal, and in the official newspaper called The Canada Gazette. Search may be made for counterfeit notes or ma terfeiting. XXXIII. On complaint made upon the oath of one credible person, to the effect that there is just cause to suspect that any person is or has been concerned in making or counterfeiting terial for coun- any bank-notes or bills of the Bank, any Magistrate may, by warrant under his hand, cause the dwelling-house, room, workshop, out-house or other building, yard, garden or other place, where such person shall be suspected of carrying on such making or counterfeiting, to be searched; and all such counterfeit bank-notes and bills, and all such plates, dies, rollingpresses, tools, instruments and materials used in, or apparently adapted to, the making or counterfeiting of bank-notes or bills, as shall be found therein or thereon, shall forthwith be carried before the same, or any other Magistrate, who shall cause them to be secured and produced upon any prosecution in relation thereto in a Court of Justice, and the same, after being so produced in evidence, shall be defaced or destroyed, or otherwise disposed of, at the discretion of the Court. Recital. Names of per sonsauthorized to sign Banknotes may be impressed by machinery, and the netes valid, &c. XXXIV. And whereas it may be deemed expedient, that the name or names of the person or persons intrusted and authorized by the Bank to sign bank-notes and bills on behalf of the Bank, should be impressed by machinery, in such form as may from time to time be adopted by the Bank, instead of being subscribed in the hand-writing of such person or persons respectively; And whereas doubts might arise respecting the validity of such notes and bills: Be it therefore further declared and enacted, that all bank-notes and bills of the Bank of Montreal, whereon the name or names of any person or persons intrusted or authorized to sign such notes or bills on behalf of the Bank, shall or may,become impressed by machinery provided for that purpose by or with the authority of the Bank, shall be and be taken to be good and valid, to all intents and purposes as if such notes and bills had been subscribed in the proper hand-writing of the person or persons intrusted and authorized by the Bank to sign the same respectively, and shall be deemed and taken to be bank-notes. or bills within the meaning of all laws and statutes whatever; and shall and may be described as bank-notes or bills, in all indictments and all civil or criminal proceedings whatsoever; any law, statute or usage to the contrary notwithstanding. XXXV. This Act shall be a Public Act, and shall be called Public Act. and known as The Charter of the Bank of Montreal; and the Short Title, Interpretation Act shall be applicable thereto. &c. XXXVI. The Act of Incorporation mentioned in the first Repeal of insection of this Act, and the several Acts subsequently passed consistent in amendment of, or in addition to the same, in so far as they are enactments, repugnant to, or inconsistent with this Act, are hereby repealed. XXXVII. This Act shall be and remain in force until the Duration of first day of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and this Act. seventy; and from that time until the end of the then next Session of the Parliament of this Province, and no longer. shillings, currency, amounting to the sum of pounds shillings) in the Capital Stock of the Bank of Montreal, subject to the rules and regulations of the Bank. Witness my (or our) (hand or hands) at the said Bank, this hundred and day of in the year one thousand eight (Signature.) I (or we) do hereby accept the shares above transferred. Witness my (or our) (hand or hands) at the Bank, this day of one thousand eight hundred and (Signature.) SCHEDULE B Referred to in the foregoing Act. Return of the average amount of Liabilities and Assets of the 18 LIABILITIES. Promissory Notes in circulation not bearing interest.... £ Balances due to other Banks.... Cash deposits, not bearing interest..... Cash deposits, bearing interest.... 19 £ .£ £ Other Debts due to the Bank, not included under the foregoing heads..... Total Assets.... .£ £ Preamble. Capital of 18 V. c. 47, increased. CAP. LXXVII. An Act to amend the Act to incorporate the Quebec and St. Francis Mining and Exploring Company. [Assented to 19th June, 1856.] WHEREAS the Quebec and St. Francis Mining and Exploring Company have prayed for certain amendments to their Charter, and for a reduction of their Capital Stock, to facilitate their operations, and it is expedient to grant the prayer of their Petition: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, enacts as follows: I. The Capital Stock which the said Company are authorized Company in to hold in and by the Act of the now last Session, intituled, corporated by An Act to incorporate the Quebec and St. Francis Mining and Exploring Company, is hereby reduced to twenty-seven thousand pounds currency, divided into thirty-six thousand shares of fifteen shillings each: Provided always, that the said Capital Stock may be increased to fifty-four thousand pounds in the manner provided in the eighth section of the said Act as amended by this Act. Proviso. Section 8 of II. The said eighth Section is hereby amended by substitutthe said Act, ing the words "twenty-seven" for the words "thirty-six," and the words "fifty-four" for the words "seventy-two," wherever they occur in the said section. amended. Section 12 of amended. III. The twelfth Section of the said Act is hereby amended the said Act, by striking out the words, "not less than three nor more than five," where they occur in the said Section, and by substituting therefor the words "a qualified person, or two, three, four or five," and by inserting after the words "next following Section" in the said Section, the words, "and to fill any such vacancies as there may then be, from any other cause, in the number "of Directors, so that the number of the Directors of the said "Company shall be not less than three nor more than five." |