Statement of the Case. one year after the completion of the first section should not work a discontinuance as to said company of the benefits of the general act of January 30, 1854, or of any other general or special laws relative to railroads, "if said company shall have completed their second and third sections, amounting to at least fifty miles, at the expiration of two years after the construction of said first section." Special Laws, 1856, 259, 260. By another special act passed February 4, 1858, c. 86; it was, among other things, provided that the failure of the company to complete the third section of its road by July 30, 1858, should not work a discontinuance as to the company of the benefits of the act of January 30, 1854, or any other general laws.in reference to railroads, if the company should complete the third section by July 30, 1859, and that on the completion of subsequent sections of twenty-five miles annually after July 30, 1859, or fifty miles every two years, "said company shall be entitled to sixteen sections of land per mile, as contemplated in said last-mentioned act, for each section so completed;" and "that the benefits of the provisions in the general laws shall only inure to the said company while said laws shall remain in force." Special Laws, 1858, 94, 95. By still another special act, approved February 8, 1861, c. 13, any failure to complete the fourth and fifth sections was condoned, and the company given until January 30, 1863, in which to complete those sections. Special Laws, 1861, 11, 12. When the civil war began in 1861, the company had completed and had in operation its main line for about eighty miles from the terminus at Houston. January 11, 1862, the legislature passed two general acts, continuing in force all laws granting lands to railway companies and extending the time in which they were required to construct certain parts of their lines until two years after the close of the war. These acts provided that the president and directors of this railway company should, before the provisions of the acts might extend to the benefit of the company, pass a resolution restoring the original bona fide stockholders of the company to the rights, privileges and immunities to which they were entitled previous Statement of the Case. to the sale of the road as mentioned in the acts, provided the stockholders should pay into the treasury of the company ten per cent upon their stock on or before the expiration of the extension of time provided, or otherwise should forfeit their rights, privileges and property interests as stockholders. Laws, 1862, c. 69, pp. 43, 44, 46, 47. The resolution required by these acts was duly passed by the company. On September 21, 1866, a special act was passed, entitled "An act granting lands to the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company," by which a specific grant was made to that company "of sixteen sections of land, of six hundred and forty acres each, for every mile of road it has constructed, or may construct, and put in running order, 'in accordance with the provisions of the charter of said railroad company;"" provided that the lands theretofore received under the general act of January 30, 1854, should be deducted from the grant thus made, and that the certificates issued on the first three sections should "be included in the terms, benefits and conditions of this act as if issued by virtue of its provisions;" and that the company should construct and put in running order a section of twenty-five miles of additional road to that now built, within one year from January 1, 1867, or fifty miles within two years from that date; and that the road should be put in running order to Bryant's station by September 1, 1867. Provision was made for the inspection of the road from time to time as sections should be completed, and for the issue and location of certificates and the survey of the lands thereby granted. Special Laws, 1866, c. 10, pp. 33, 34. November 13, 1866, a general law was passed whereby the grant of sixteen sections per mile under prior laws was continued for ten years from that date. Laws, 1866, c. 174, p. 212. This act also provided that "all tap roads over twenty-five miles long shall be entitled to the benefits of this act." By the constitution of 1869; Art. 12, § 43, the statutes of limitation of civil suits were declared suspended by the act of secession of January 28, 1861, and to be considered as suspended until the acceptance of that constitution by Congress, which acceptance occurred March 30, 1870. Statement of the Case. The Washington County Railroad Company was incorporated by a special act approved February 2, 1856, and was invested "with the right of locating, constructing, owning and maintaining a railway commencing at such point on the trunk of the Galveston and Red River Railroad as said corporation shall deem most suitable, crossing the Brazos River within the limits of Washington County, and then running by the most suitable and direct line to Brenham in said county." Special Laws, 1856, 49. This railroad company was organized and thereafter constructed and put in running order from a junction with the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company at Hempstead, thence directly towards the city of Austin to Brenham, a distance of twenty-five miles. Some time prior to August 29, 1868, the Houston and Texas. Central Railway Company purchased the Washington County Railroad at foreclosure sale. On that day the convention which had assembled to frame a new constitution, and which did frame the constitution adopted in 1869, passed an ordinance, reciting that the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company had become the owner, by purchase, of the Washington County Railroad; that both of said companies were indebted to the State for sums borrowed from the special school fund; and that the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company desired to extend the Washington County branch to the city of Austin as soon as it could be done, and to extend its main line to Red River; and it was declared "that the Washington County Railroad is hereby made and declared to be a branch of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, and shall henceforth be known and called the "Western Branch of the Houston and Texas Central Railway,' and shall be controlled and managed by said Houston and Texas Central Railway Company, and the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company shall have the right to extend said western branch of their road from the town of Brenham, in Washington County, to the city of Austin, in Travis County, by the most eligible route as near an air line as may be practicable." The same convention also passed, December 23, 1868, a Statement of the Case. "declaration for the relief of the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company," which provided that the company should not suffer "any forfeiture of any rights secured to it by existing laws by reason of the failure of said company to construct and put in running order their said railway to the town of Calvert, in Robertson County, by the first day of January, A.D. 1869, as required by the act of the 21st of September, A.D. 1866, provided said railway shall be constructed and put in good running order for the use of the public, to the said town of Calvert, by the first day of April, A.D. 1869." The constitution framed by this convention was adopted by a vote of the people, at an election held November 30 to December 3, 1869, and was accepted by Congress March 30, 1870, 16 Stat. 80, c. 39. Section 6, article X, of that constitution, read as follows: "The legislature shall not hereafter grant lands to any person or persons, nor shall any certificates for land be sold at the land office, except to actual settlers upon the same, and in lots not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres." August 15, 1870, the legislature of Texas passed a special act entitled "An act for the relief of the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company," which recited substantially the same matters as were recited in the declaration of the convention, and provided in section 1 as follows: "That the Washington County Railroad is hereby made and declared to be, to all intents and purposes in law, a part of the Houston and Texas Central Railway, and shall be under the control and management of the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company in like manner as every other part of said railway, and the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company shall have the right to build and extend the part of its railway heretofore known as the Washington County Railroad' from the town of Brenham, in the county of Washington, to the city of Austin, in the county of Travis, by the most eligible route to be selected by engineers of the company; and the said company shall also have the right to build a branch road diverging from the main trunk at some point in Navarro County and striking Red River at such point as will Statement of the Case. enable such railway company to make a connection with any railroad which may be built to said river from the northward; and the said Houston and Texas Central Railway Company, by reason of the construction of said railway from the town of Brenham to the city of Austin, and by reason of the construction of said branch from Navarro County to Red River, shall have and enjoy all the rights, privileges, grants and benefits that are now, or may at any time hereafter, be secured to any railroad company in the State of Texas by any general law of the State, and shall be subject, in respect of said railway and said branch, to all the duties and responsibilities imposed upon the said Houston and Texas Central Railway Company by its charter and by other laws of the State." Section 4 read thus: "No forfeiture of any of the rights or privileges secured to it by existing laws shall be enforced against the said Houston and Texas Central Railway Company, by reason of its failure to comply with the conditions as to construction, imposed by the first section of the act of the twenty-first of September, A.D. 1866, entitled 'An act granting lands to the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company;' but the said company shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges secured to it by existing laws, the same as if the conditions embraced in the first section of the said act of the twenty-first of September, A.D. 1866, had been, in all respects, complied with; provided that the land grant to said company shall cease, unless the said company shall complete their main trunk, east of the Brazos River, to Richland Creek, in Navarro County, within twelve months from the first day of October, A.D. 1870, and shall also complete their road to the city of Austin within two years after the passage of this act." Special Laws, 1870, 325. The company completed its road to the city of Austin December 25, 1871, and completed its main line to Richland Creek, September 26, 1871. Section 6 of article X of the constitution of 1869 was amended as of March 19, 1873, so as to authorize the legislature to grant lands for purposes of internal improvement. Thereupon the legislature of Texas passed many special laws |