LAW OF RAILWAYS AS DETERMINED BY THE COURTS AND STATUTES OF ENGLAND BY CHARLES FISK BEACH, JR. OF THE NEW YORK BAR. AUTHOR OF "COMMENTARIES ON THE LAW OF RECEIVERS." "THE LAW OF CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE," "WILLS," ETC., LAW JOURNAL." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. SAN FRANCISCO: BANCROFT-WHITNEY COMPANY, 1890. ARVARD COLLEG OCT 23 1906 LIBRARY Prof, De, Taussig COPYRIGHT, 1890, BY BANCROFT-WHITNEY COMPANY. 35-128 TO THE HONOURABLE SIMON STERNE, OF THE BAR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. MY DEAR MR. STERNE: In placing your name upon the initial page of a work upon the American and English law of railways, I have at once gratified a sentiment and made a payment on account of a personal and professional obligation. I have also, as it seems to me, conformed at the same time in some sort to the fitness of things. My essay is, moreover, dignified by the superscription of a name peculiarly identified for all time to come with the history, development, and progress of the American railway. I know of no man here or abroad who knows more of the subject, or appreciates more keenly its difficulties, or comprehends more broadly the scheme, or divines more wisely the future. Counting your friendship among my most valued possessions, I am, Sir, cordially and respectfully yours, CHARLES F. BEACH, JR. PREFACE. I HAVE proposed to myself in the preparation of these volumes the production of a work which shall supplement rather than supplant the other American and English treatises upon the subject. There is, perhaps, very little reason for the publication at this time of another conventional treatise on railway law; especial attention has, therefore, been given here to such branches of the general law of railways as seem to have been lightly or inadequately treated elsewhere. I have considered in much detail so much of the law of corporations as is applicable to railways, and I have endeavored to present fully the law of railway finance, including that of railway securities and the foreclosure of railway mortgages. The law of interstate commerce is, I believe, exhaustively set forth, and there is, in that connection, included a discussion of the several questions that have come prominently to the front since the enactment of the federal statute of February 4, 1887, entitled "An act to regulate commerce." The law of carriers, on the contrary, and (v) |