Chap. 82.—An ACT to authorize the legal Voters of certain Counties
to vote upon the question of Negotiating a Loan or Loans, and to issue
Bonds for and in the nameof said Counties, for the pur of estab-
lishing a Steamboat Line between the Landings on the Rappahannock
River and the City of Baltimore, Maryland, or Norfolk, or both.

Approved March 6, 1874.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful for the county courts of the following coun-
ties, to-wit: Caroline, Essex, Middlesex, King George, Spot-
sylvania, Westmoreland, Richmond, and Lancaster, to make
an order requiring the judges of election at each voting pre-
cinct in said counties to open a poll at the general election
on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and sev-
enty-four, and take the sense of the legal voters of each of
said counties, whether such county shall negotiate a loan or
loans, and issue county bonds to secure the same, for the pur-
pose of establishing a steamboat line between the landin
on Rappahannock river and Baltimore, or Norfolk, or both.
The said order shall state the maximum proposed to be bor-
rowed by said county.

2. At said general election, each of said voters who shall
approve the issuing of said county bonds shall deposit a ticket
or ballot on which shall be written or printed the words “For
issuing county bonds;” and each of said voters who shall be
opposed to issuing said bonds shall deposit a ticket or ballot
on which shall be written or printed the words “Against issu-
ing county bonds.”
3. That immediately after closing the polls, the judges of 5
election at the several voting precincts shall counf’the bal- ®
lots deposited at such election, and shall make return, within
thirty days after such election, to the judge of such county
court, of the number of votes cast for issuing county bonds R
and the number of votes cast against issuing county bonds, "
and shall also return to and deposit with the clerk of such
court, in separate packages, the ballots for and against issu-
ing said bonds; and it shall be the duty of said judge to cause
the ballots to be counted, to correct the polls, and ascertain
and certify the result of such election, and to cause the same
to be entered in the proper record book of such county; and
if it shall appear that three-fifths of the votes cast at such z
election, a majority of the voters being property-holders, and +
a majority of the registered voters of the county, are in favor
of issuing the bonds, such judge shall forthwith enter of record
an order requiring the supervisors of the county to meet at c
a time and place named in the order, to carry out the wishes 4
of said voters. The sheriff shall promptly summon the su- —
pervisors in pursuance of said order.

4. If a majority of the whole number of supervisors be g
present at the time and place so designated, they shall pro- P
ceed to act; if not, they shall adjourn from time to time till
&@ majority are present. The said supervisors, a majority of
the whole number being present, shall have power to deter-
mine what amount of money shall be borrowed, not exceed- f
ing the maximum aforesaid, and shall enter of record the
amount agreed upon; said bonds may be either registered or ¢
with coupons attached, as said board of supervisors may pre- >
scribe.

5. Whenever a company shall be incorporated and made a g
body politic, for the purpose of establishing a steamboat line >
from the landings on the Rappahannock river and the city of r
Baltimore, or Norfolk, or both, it shall be lawful for the super- »
visors of said counties to subscribe the said bonds as a part
of the capital stock of said company; and for the purpose of
paying the quotas on said stock as they may be called for, or
the instalments of such subscriptions as they may fall due,
the board of supervisors of each county may appoint an
agent or agents to negotiate a loan or loans; and at the time 4
the board of supervisors makes its levy for such county, it
may levy on all the lands and other subjects liable to state y
tax or county levy in such county, such tax to pay the amount >
of such subscription or of such loan or loans as may be au-
thorized and the interest thereon, or to pay the interest on
the bonds of the county so issued, and to create a sinking g,
fand to redeem the principal thereof, as said supervisors may 4
deem necessary or proper; and from year to year it shall
repeat such assessments till debt and interest be fully paid.

6. The right to stock in any such incorporated company, §
subscribed by either of said counties under the authority of f
this act, shall vest in such county, and the board of super-
visors of such county shall have power from time to time to
appoint proxies to represent the stock in the meetings of
the stockholders of the company, and alsv an agent to col-
lect the dividends on its stock, which dividends, when col-
lected, shall be applied annually in diminution of the county
levy. °

7. After the first day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-
four, it shall be lawful for the supervisors (by their agents or
attorneys) of those counties in which the sense of the legal
voters has been ascertained to be in favor of issuing county
bonds, to make application to the circuit court of either of
said counties, or the judge thereof in vacation, for a charter
of incorporation; and said circuit court, or the judge thereof,
Shall have full power to grant a charter of incorporation, upon
such terms as may be adjudged reasonable.

8. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby repealed.

9. This act shall be in force from its passage.