Carriages of greater weight than four tons that where any such application shall have been made by any railway company to the lords of the said committee, upon which application any such certificate shall have been refused, the directors of such railway company shall, if required by the lords of the said committee, repay to the party resisting such application any expenses which he or they may have incurred in resisting such application. XVI. And whereas by various acts relating to railways it is enacted, that no carriage or waggon shall carry or bear at any one time upon the railway (including the weight of may be used such carriage) more than four tons, and experience has on railways. shown that it is in many cases more conducive to safety to use a heavier description of carriage or waggon upon railways than was originally contemplated; be it therefore enacted, that every provision contained in any such act or acts respectively limiting the weight to be carried or borne at any one time in any carriage or waggon upon any railway (including the weight of such carriage or waggon) to four tons shall be and the same is hereby repealed, and that, notwithstanding any thing in any aut contained, it shall be lawful for any railway company to use and to permit to be used upon any railway carriages or waggons carrying or bearing (including the weight of such carriage) a greater weight than four tons, subject to such regulations as may from time to time be made and be in force pursuant to any act or acts of parliament already or hereafter to be passed in that behalf. Punishment XVII. And whereas by the said recited act for regulatof persons ing railways, provision is made for the punishment of servemployed on railways ants of railway companies guilty of misconduct, and it is gulity of mis- expedient to extend such provision; be it enacted that it conduct. shall be lawful for any officer or agent of any railway company, or for any special constable duly appointed, and all such persons as they may call to their assistance, to seize and detain any engine driver, waggon driver, guard, porter, servant, or other person employed by the said or by any other railway company, or by any other company or person, in conducting traffic upon the railway belonging to the said company, or in repairing and maintaining the works of the said railway, who shall be found drunk while so employed upon the said railway, who shall commit any offence against any of the bye-laws, rules, or regulations of the said company, or who shall wilfully, maliciously, or negligently do or omit to do any act whereby the life or limb of any person passing along or being upon such railway or the works thereof respectively shall be or might be injured or endan gered, or whereby the passage of any engines, carriages, or trains shall be or might be obstructed or impeded, and to convey such engine driver, guard, porter, servant, or other person so offending, or any person counselling, aiding, or assisting in such offence, with all convenient despatch before some justice of the peace for the place within which such offence shall be committed, without any other warrant or authority than this act; and every such person so offending, and every person counselling, aiding, or assisting therein, as aforesaid, shall, when convicted upon the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses before such justice as aforesaid (who is hereby authorized and required, upon complaint to him made upon oath, without information in writing, to take cognizance thereof, and to act summarily in the premises), in the discretion of such justice, be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding two calendar months, or, in the like discretion of such justice, shall for every such offence forfeit to her Majesty any sum not exceeding ten pounds, and in default of payment thereof shall be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, as aforesaid, for such period, not exceeding two calendar months, as such justice shall appoint, such commitment to be determined on payment of the amount of the penalty; and every such penalty shall be returned to the next ensuing court of quarter sessions in the usual manner. Scotland. XVIII. That, in all cases in which by the present or the Sheriffs to said recited act for regulating railways it is provided that have juris. offenders shall be taken before one or more justices of the diction in peace for the place within which the offence was committed, it shall be lawful, in case the offence is committed in Scotland, to take such offenders before the sheriff of the county, or other magistrate acting for the district within which such offence shall be committed, or where such offender shall be apprehended, without any warrant or authority other than this act; and such sheriff or magistrate is hereby empowered and required, on the application of the railway company, to proceed in all respects as if the words "sheriff or magistrate" had been substituted for the word "justice" in the said acts, and shall be entitled summarily, and without a jury, to execute the powers thereby and hereby committed to him. XIX. That all notices, returns, and other documents Communicarequired by this act or by the said recited act to be given to tions to and or laid before the lords of the said committee shall be deli- from the vered at or sent by the post to the office of the lords of the board of said committee; and all notices, requisitions, orders, regu- service of trade, and on railway company. notices, &c. lations, appointments, certificates, certified copies, and other documents in writing, signed by one of the secretaries of the said committee, or by some officer appointed for that purpose by the lords of the said committee, and purporting to be made by the lords of the said committee, shall, for the purposes of this and of the said recited act, be deemed to have been made by the lords of the said committee, and that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, without proof of the authority of the person signing the same or of the signature thereto; and service of the same at one of the terminal offices of any railway company on the secretary or clerk of the said company, or by sending the same by post addressed to him at such office, shall be deemed good service upon the said company. Railway be settled XX. That whenever it shall be necessary to move any of companies the officers or soldiers of her Majesty's forces of the line, shall convey ordnance corps, marines, militia, or the police force, by military and police forces any railway, the directors thereof shall and are hereby reat prices to quired to permit such forces respectively, with their baggage, stores, arms, ammunition, and other necessaries and things to be conveyed at the usual hours of starting, at such prices or upon such conditions as may from time to time be contracted for between the secretary at war and such railway companies for the conveyance of such forces, on the production of a route or order for their conveyance signed by the proper authorities. Meaning of the words and "Com pany." XXI. That, whenever the word "Railway" is used in this or in the said recited act it shall be construed to apply "Railway" to all railways used or intended to be used for the conveyance of passengers in or upon carriages drawn or impelled by the power of steam or by any other mechanical power; and whenever the word "Company" is used in this or in the said recited act it shall be construed to extend to and include the proprietors for the time being of any such railway, whether a body corporate or individuals, and their lessees, executors, administrators, and assigns,, unless in either of the above cases the subject or context be repugnant to such construction. Application XXII. That all penalties under this act, for the appliof penalties cation of which no special provision is made, shall be recovered in the name and for the use of her Majesty, in the manner provided by the said recited act for regulating railways. Act may be XXIII. That this act may be amended or repealed by repealed this any act to be passed in the present session of parliament. session. 7 & 8 VICT. c. 85. An Act to attach certain Conditions to the Construction years from struction of exceed 107. may revise WHEREAS it is expedient that the concession of powers for the establishment of new lines of railway should be subjected to such conditions as are hereinafter contained for the benefit of the public: Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if at any time after the end of twenty-one years from and If after 21 after the first day of January next after the passing of any the passing act of the present or of any future session of parliament of the act for the construction of any new line of passenger railway, for the conwhether such new line be a trunk, branch, or junction line, any future and whether such new line be constructed by a new com- railway, the pany incorporated for the purpose or by any existing com- profits shall pany, the clear annual profits divisible upon the subscribed per cent., and paid up capital stock of the said railway, upon the ave- the Treasury rage of the three then last preceding years, shall equal or the scale of exceed the rate of ten pounds for every hundred pounds of tolls, and fix such paid up capital stock, it shall be lawful for the lords a new scale. commissioners of her Majesty's treasury, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, upon giving to the said company three calendar months notice in writing of their intention so to do, to revise the scale of tolls, fares and charges limited by the act or acts relating to the said railway, and to fix such new scale of tolls, fares, and charges applicable to such different classes and kinds of passengers, goods and other traffic on such railway, as in the judgment of the said lords commissioners, assuming the same quantities and kinds of traffic to continue, shall be likely to reduce the said divisible profits to the said rate of ten pounds in the hundred: Provided always, that no such revised scale shall take effect, Proviso. unless accompanied by a guarantee to subsist as long as any such revised scale of tolls, fares and charges shall be in force, that the said divisible profits, in case of any deficiency therein, shall be annually made good to the said rate of ten Option of purchase of future rail. way. Proviso. Existing to be sub pounds for every hundred pounds of such capital stock: Provided also, that such revised scale shall not be again revised or such guarantee withdrawn, otherwise than with the consent of the company, for the further period of twenty one years. II. That whatever may be the rate of divisible profits on any such railway, it shall be lawful for the said lords commissioners, if they shall think fit, subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, at any time after the expiration of the said term of twenty-one years, to purchase any such railway, with all its hereditaments, stock and appurtenances, in the name and on behalf of her Majesty, upon giving to the said company three calendar months notice in writing of their intention, and upon payment of a sum equal to twenty-five years purchase of the said annual divisible profits, estimated on the average of the three then next preceding years: Provided that if the average rate of profits for the said three years shall be less than the rate of ten pounds in the hundred, it shall be lawful for the company, if they shall be of opinion that the said rate of twenty-five years purchase of the said average profits is an inadequate rate of purchase of such railway, reference being had to the prospects thereof, to require that it shall be left to arbitration, in case of difference, to determine what (if any) additional amount of purchase money shall be paid to the said company: Provided also, that such option of purchase shall not be exercised, except with the consent of the company, while any such revised scale of tolls, fares, and charges shall be in force. III. Provided always, that the option of revision or purrailways not chase shall not be applied to any railway made or authorized jected to the to be made by any act previous to the present session; options. and that no branch or extension of less than five miles in Reservation to parlia ment of the considera length of any such line of railway shall be taken to be a new railway within the provisions of this act; and that the said option of purchase shall not be exercised as regards any branch or extension of any railway, without including such railway in the purchase, in case the proprietors thereof shall require that the same be so included. IV. And whereas it is expedient that the policy of revision or purchase shall in no manner be prejudged by the provisions of this act, but should remain for the future contion of future sideration of the legislature, upon grounds of general and policy in re- national policy: And whereas it is not the intention of this said options. act that under the said powers of revision or purchase, if gard to the called into use, the public resources should be employed to sustain an undue competition against any independent com |