1850. ATT.-GEN. บ. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CO. power upon the said railway, or any other railway communicating therewith; or to carry passengers, cattle, or goods by means thereof, and to charge for the same the rates therein referred to; and the Act contained regulations for the luggage carried by passengers, and for the carriage of small parcels, and the charges for small distances. (The case then set out the 174th section (a).) By another Act, 6 Will. 4, c. xxxviii. intituled “An Act to alter the line of the Great Western Railway, and to amend the Act relating thereto," certain enactments were made and passed, whereby the Great Western Railway Company were authorised to alter and vary the line of their railway in the particulars therein expressed; and such Act contains various clauses and provisions relating thereto. By another Act, 1 Vict. c. xcii, intituled "An Act to enable the Great Western Railway Company to extend the line of such railway, and for other purposes relating thereto," the said Company were authorised, in the manner and subject to the restrictions and regulations therein provided, to extend the line of the said railway to the basin of the Paddington Canal at Paddington, and to levy certain additional or increased rates and tolls for the passengers and goods conveyed upon or along the said extended line of railway or any part thereof, in lieu of the rates or tolls authorised to be demanded by the said first-recited Act, not exceeding the rates or tolls expressed in the now stating Act. Under the provisions and powers contained in the said Act of Parliament, the Great Western Railway, with such (a) Sect. 174 enacts, "That it shall be lawful for the said Company, from time to time, as they shall think fit, to reduce all or any of the rates or tolls by this Act authorised to be taken, and to take the reduced rates; and afterwards from time to time again to raise the same or any of them, and then to take such higher rates, so that the same respectively shall not at any time exceed the amount by this Act authorised." alteration and extension of the line thereof as authorised by the said secondly and thirdly-mentioned Acts, was completed and has been carried on by the said Great Western Railway Company, from time to time, down to the present time, in respect of the carriage of passengers and goods carried on and over the said Great Western Railway, and the various stages or parts thereof, who have charged and taken from the passengers and other persons using the said railway, rates, tolls, and charges not exceeding those authorised by the said first and thirdly-mentioned Acts. The Great Western Railway Company, prior to the passing of the next hereinafter-mentioned Act, had, under the authority of Parliament, become the purchasers of the undertaking known as the Oxford and Rugby Railway. By the 9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxxxvii. which received the Royal Assent on the 3rd of August, 1846, and was intituled "An Act for making a Railway from Birmingham to join the Lines of the proposed Oxford and Rugby, and Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railways, and to be called The Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway," after enacting, amongst other things, that in citing that Act it should be sufficient to use the expression "The Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway Act, 1846," it was enacted:[The case then set out sections 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, and 71 (a).] (a) Sect. 64 enacts, "That the maximum rate of charge to be made by the Company, for the conveyance of passengers upon the said railway including the tolls for the use of the railway and of carriages, and for locomotive power, and every other expense incidental to such conveyance, shall not exceed the followVOL. V. M M ing sums" (Then follows a scale Sect. 65. "And with respect 1850. ATT.-GEN. v. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CO. 1850. ATT.-GEN. V. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY Co. The several rates, by the last-stated Act authorised to passengers and goods, were be taken in respect both of and every expense incidental to Sect. 66. "Provided always, Sect. 67. " Provided further and be it enacted, that nothing herein contained shall be held to prevent the said Company from taking any increased charge, over and above the charges hereinbefore limited, for the conveyance of goods of any description, by agreement with the owners of, or persons in charge of, such goods, either in respect of the conveyance thereof by passenger trains, or by reason of any other special service performed by the said Company in relation thereto." Sect. 68 enacts, "That it shall be lawful for the Company to let on lease the railways hereby authorised to be made, or any part thereof respectively, to the Great Western Railway Company, for such term of years and on such conditions as may be mutually agreed on; and it shall be lawful for the said Great Western Railway Company, with the approbation of three-fifths of the shareholders in such last-mentioned Company present, personally or by proxy, in general meeting especially convened for the purpose, to accept and take such lease." Sect. 69 enacts, "That it shall also be lawful for the Company hereby incorporated, by and with the authority of three-fifths of the votes of the proprietors who may be present, either personally or by proxy, at some general meeting specially convened for the purpose, to sell and transfer to the said Great Western Railway Company, and for such last-mentioned Company, by and with the like authority on the part of the proprie tors thereof, to purchase the railways by this Act authorised to be made, or any part thereof, or any share or interest therein, and whether before or after the completion thereof; and on completion of such purchase, (of which completion a transfer or conveyance, duly stamped for denoting the payment of the full and proper stamp duty by law payable in respect of the purchase money, and under the corporate seal of the Company hereby incorporated, shall be sufficient evidence), the said Great Western Railway Company may have and hold the said railways, or the part thereof, or the share therein rates in most instances below and less than the rates which were authorised to be taken by the Great Western Railway use, purchased by them, and exercise, and enjoy, or participate in the use, exercise, and enjoy ment of all or any of the rights, powers, and privileges, conferred by this Act on the Company hereby incorporated in relation thereto; and for such purpose it shall be lawful for the Great Western Railway Company, if they see fit, by and with such authority as aforesaid, to create such additional number of shares in the undertaking of the Great Western Railway, and to borrow upon mortgage such a sum of money as may be necessary for completing such purchase, &c.; and from and after such purchase as aforesaid, if any such shall take place, the railways by this Act authorised to be made, or such of them, or such part or parts thereof respectively as may be so purchased by the said Great Western Railway Company, shall thenceforth be and become amalgamated with, and shall form part of the undertaking belonging to such last-named Company; and from thenceforth all the provisions, directions, penalties, forfeitures, payments, exemptions, remedies, regulations, rules, clauses, matters, and things contained in this Act or the said recited Acts relating to the railways hereby authorised to be made, which may so become amalgamated with the Great Western Railway, shall, with reference to all such railways, works, matters, and things as might have been made or done by the Company hereby incorporated, be applied and applicable to the said Great Western Railway Company, their officers, agents, and servants, in every respect as if the said Great Western Railway Company had been in every case in this Act written or referred to in lieu and stead of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway Company." Sect. 70. "Provided always and be it enacted, that no lease or sale of the said railway to the Great Western Railway Company under the powers hereinbefore contained shall take effect, unless and until the maximum tolls and charges on the said Great Western Railway shall have been reduced by Parliament to the same scale as, or to a scale not exceeding, the tolls and charges which the Company hereby incorporated are by this Act empowered to take on the railway hereby authorised. Provided, nevertheless, that if the said railway shall not be purchased or rented by the said Great Western Railway Company, under the provisions hereinbefore contained, it shall be lawful for the said last-mentioned Company to use the railway hereby authorised, on such terms and subject to such regulations, and on payment of such rates and tolls not exceeding the rates and tolls by this Act directed, as may be agreed on between the said Companies, or, in the event of 1850. ATT.-GEN. v. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY Co. 1850. ATT.-GEN. v. GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY CO. Company, in respect both of passengers and goods on the By the 9 & 10 Vict. c. cccxxxviii. intituled, "An Act for making a Railway into Birmingham in extension of the proposed Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway," which also received the Royal Assent on the 3rd of August, 1846, after reciting (among other things) that a bill, being the bill which was passed into law under the title of the said "Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway Act, 1846," was then pending before Parliament, and that the making of a railway diverging from the proposed line of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway, at or near Adderleystreet, in the borough of Birmingham and county of Warwick, and terminating at or near Great Charles-street in the parish of Birmingham, would be of public advantage; it was thereby enacted (amongst other things), that, in citing that Act, it should be sufficient to use the expression "The Birmingham and Oxford Junction (Birmingham Extension) Railway Act, 1846;" and it was thereby enacted, that the persons therein named, and all other persons and corporations, who had already subscribed or should there difference between them, as may Sect. 71 enacts, "That it shall tions as may be mutually agreed on between them; and any contract or agreement made before the passing of this Act for all or any of the purposes aforesaid by the provisional committee of the Company hereby incorporated and the directors of the said Great Western Railway, with the sanction of any general meeting of the said last-mentioned Company, shall be as valid and binding in every respect as if made subsequently to the passing of this Act, and in conformity with the provi sions hereof." |