The act which authorizes the undertaking constitutes the company a corporation, the members of which are responsible only to the extent of their respective shares. In the act, the names of the first directors are given; it is also stated who are first to retire, and how elections are to be conducted. A director must possess a prescribed affibunt of stock. The directors are empowered to appoint from their number a chairman and deputy-chairman. They likewise have the appointment of secretary, traffic-managers, and other paid officials. The directors themselves profess to give their services without any species of remuneration; but the shareholders usually vote a small sum to be put at their disposal, adequate to meet absolutely necessary expenses. Where the duties are very onerous, a special allowance per annum is voted to the chairman. It is likewiss1 customary for the directors to have free passes over the line, which privilege is also enjoyed by the secretary and some other officials. In some instances, a fre„ pass for a day is given to the shareholders to enable them to attend the stated half-yearly or special meetings. The principal business at the ha] f-yearly meetings is the reading and approval of the " report" of the directors. As the report is always printed and circulated pre viously, all are prepared to discuss its merits.
The crganization of the present railway system has not depended on the private acts authorizing the several undertakings. There is now a body of general railway law, springing from a 'mintier of public acts, which have from time to time received the grave consideration of the legislature. These statutes date from 1838 onwards; some of the more important were passed in 1845; among these were several comprehen sive statutes, including " The Companies Clauses Consolidation Act," and " The Com panies Clauses Consolidation (Scotland) Act;" also " Railway and Lands Clauses Con i,olitlation Act ;" to which supplementary acts were added in 1863 (see Bigg's General Rail way Acts). Among the diversity of matters treated of are as follows—obligations as to carrying mails, and conveyance of troops and police; regulations as to gates at level crossings, signals, and junctions; penalties for obstructing engines or railway officers, and trespassing on lines; limitations of gradients and curves; gauge; time within which railway must be made; notices to he given to board of trade before line can be opened, and not to be opened without authority, after due examination of works; returns to board of trade as to accidents; maintaining of fences; making of sidings for fanning and other purposes; one cheap train to be run each way daily; rules for registering and trans ferring shares; voting according to ratio of shares held; payment of poor-rates and pub lic assessments; leasing of lines; agreements to work lines; surrender of shares; author-, by to buy, hire, and use steam-vessels; etc.
Besides these public acts, there is a code of regulations as regards the mode of com mencing and carrying railway bills through the houses of parliament. This code, embodied in a work issued annually, is styled Standing Orders of the Lords and COMMOIiS relative to Private Bills (1 vol. 12mo, issued by Waterlow and Sons, Westminster). With this, all parties engaged in procuring railway acts require to be well acquainted, for neg lect of any of the prescribed forms is almost certain to be fatal. We give the following as specimens of "standing orders": Notices of applications for acts to be advertised in October or November; plans, sections, and books of reference to be lodged with the clerk of the peace or sheriff-clerk of county for public inspection, on or before Nov. 30 often an immense struggle up till last moment to get this done]; petitions for act stat ing particulars to be lodged at the private bill office of the house of commons on or before Dec. 23; on or before same date, copy of proposed bill to be lodged with board of trade; on or before Dec. 31, declarations, lists of owners, lessees, and occupiers, also estimate of expense. to be deposited iu private bill office; a sum not less than eight per cent of the estimated expense to be deposited with the court of chancery, England, an officer of the court of exchequer, Scotland, or court of chancery, Ireland, previous to Jan. 15; examination of petitions to commence on Jan. 18; if promoters do not appear after a notice of seven clear days, examiners may throw out petition; certification by examiners whether standing orders have been complied with; bill submitted to select committee; proceedings in opposed bills; report of board of trade on bill; report of hoard of admiralty on bill, should any tidal .or navigable river be proposed to be inter fered with; preamble of bill proved or otherwise; bill to give power for future revision by parliament, etc. There are equally explicit standing orders as regards the house of lords, whose chairman of committees subjects all private bills to a sifting examination. Whatever, therefore, may have been the negligence of the government at the outset, railway legislation has latterly received a painful degree of attention. As marking a desire for simplifying procedure and lessening expenses, parliament passed an act, 1864, giving the board of trade po•er to authorize bills for a smaller class of railways. pro vided they were unopposed—a concession which may promote a minor but useful kind of branch-lines.