Chap. 44.—An ACT Chartering the Fredericksburg and Northern Neck
Railroad. )

In force April 8, 1870.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
W. R. Mason, T. G. Pollock, Edward T. Taylor, Walter Camp-
bell, R. H. Catlett, J. K. Anderson, H. B. Hoomes, C. M.
Braxton, C. W. Wallace, G. E. Alsop, A. Pratt, A. L. Carter,
Samuel Downing, Wm. T. Chase, Edwin Betts, L. B. Burgess,
A. J. Brent, Richard H. Lyell,S. W. Balderson, Thomas Jones,
R. L. T. Beale, B. F. Brown, W. W. Walker, Robert J. Wash-
ington, George N. Carter, J. B. Jett, and J. J. Mason, together
with such ofher parties as may hereafter be associated with
them, be and they are hereby incorporated and made a body
politic and corporate by the name and style of The Fredericks-
burg and Northern Neck Railway Company, for the purpose
of constructing a railway from a point at or near Fredericks-
burg to some point on the Potomac river, in the county of
King George or Westmoreland, or on Chesapeake bay, in
Northumberland or Lancaster, as the surveys of the company
may determine. The capital stock of the company shall not
exceed one million of dollars, and shall be divided into shares
of one hundred dollars each. When one hundred thousand
dollars thereof are subscribed, the subscribers may organize
the company and exercise the functions of a corporation in ac-
cordance with the provisions applicable thereto in the Code
and statutes of Virginia: provided, that in order to secure the
rights and franchises contained in this charter, sucH organiza-
tion shall be perfected and the construction of the road com-
menced within five years from the passage of this act; and the
directors of said company, or a majority of them, shall, by and
with the consent of the stockholders in general meeting as-
sembled, have power to borrow money for the purposes of
this act, and to issue proper certificates of such loans, and to
pledge the property of the company, by mortgage or other-
wise, for the payment of the same and the interest that may
accrue thereon: provided, the said railway shall be open
to the use of any railway company heretofore or hereafter
chartered by the state of Virginia, and the engines and trains
of any such company may pass over it upon such terms and
according to such schedule as may be agreed upon with the
said Fredericksburg and Northern Neck railway company,
or in case of any failure to agree thereon, upon such terms and
according to such schedule as the board of public works of
Virginia may, from time to time, prescribe.

2. It shall be lawful for the said company to receive in lieu
of money in payment of subscriptions to the said capital stock,
land to the extent of thirty thousand acres, which land shall
be taken by said company in payment of said subscription at
such valuation as may be agreed upon by said company and
the party desiring to make such payment.

The said company may receive and hold all real estate con-
veyed to them in payment of subscriptions to the capital stock
thereof, and may sell, lease, mortgage, or encumber the same
in such manner as said company may deem best.

It shall be lawful for each of the counties of King George,
Westmoreland, Richmond, Northumberland, and Lancaster, at
the first general election for county officers after the passage
of this act, to submit according to sections forty-six, forty-
seven, and forty-eight of chapter sixty-one of the Code of 1860
to a vote of the people of each of the said counties respect-
ively, the question whether they will subscribe the sum of
twenty-five thousand dollars each to the capital stock of said
company, and if the people of any or all of said counties decide
by the requisite majority in favor of such subscription, then it
shall be lawful for the court, according to the provisions of
section fifty of chapter sixty-one of the Code of 1860, to pro-
vide for the payment of the same.

3: This act shall be in force from its passage.