1838 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 31

thereupon appoint a commission of three disinterested
and competent persons, who shall have power and whose
duty it shall be to ascertain and fix a fair and just rate
to be paid by the said companies in substitution for the
rate fixed by said ordinance to be paid annually by the
said companies to the Mayor and City Council of Balti-
more, if any greater rate than that fixed by said ordi-
nance is, in their judgment, a fair and proper rate to be
paid by the said companies, and the rate so fixed shall
be in all respects as binding and obligatory upon the
said companies as if it had been fixed in the said ordi-
nance, and the Governor shall fix the compensation to be
paid to said persons, one-half of which shall be paid by
the said companies and the other half by the Mayor and
City Council of Baltimore.

"Sec. 3. And be it farther enacted, That nothing in this
Act shall be construed as to give to the telephone com-
panies therein mentioned any greater rights than those
described in the Ordinance of the Mayor and City Coun-
cil of Baltimore, No. 41, approved May 9, 1889; and all
further exercise of such rights by said companies is here-
by made dependent upon the acceptance by the said com-
panies of this Act within thirty days from its approval,
and the filing of a certificate of said acceptance in the
office of the Secretary of State.

"Sec. 4. And be it enacted, That this Act shall take
effect from the date of its passage. "

The question being upon concurring in the Senate
amendment,

Mr. Duncan moved, that the matter be indefinitely
postponed.

Which motion prevailed, the vote by yeas and nays
being as follows:

AFFIRMATIVE.

Messrs.

Garner, Kimble, Lehmayer,
Norris, of Kent, Perkins, Latrobe,
Ditty, Contee, Curtis,
Krems, Dudley, of Q. A., Duncan,
Feldmeyer, Norman, Cover,
Simmons, Lakin, Real,