CHAP.
XVII.
Subscribers
incorporated,
&c.
President,
&c. may agree,
&c. |
either of them, at a place called The Trap, as aforesaid; which subscriptions
shall be made personally, or by power of attorney, and shall be made in
current
money of the United States, but may be paid in foreign silver or gold coin
of
the same value; that the said books shall be opened for receiving subscriptions
on
the first day of May next, and continue open till the first day of August
thereafter,
and no longer, except the subscription that may be opened at Easton, as
aforesaid, which, if the whole capital hereafter mentioned shall not be
subscribed
for at the places above mentioned, shall be kept open until the whole of
the said
capital shall be subscribed; and after the said first day of August, there
shall be
a general meeting of the subscribers personally, or by agent or attorney,
at
Easton, on the Wednesday after the second Tuesday of September thereafter,
of
which meeting notice shall be given by the said managers, or any four of
them,
in one of the Baltimore and the Easton and George-town news-papers, at
least
one month next before the said meeting, and such meeting shall and may
be continued
from day to day until the business is finished; and the acting managers
at
the time and place aforesaid, shall lay before such of the subscribers
as shall meet
according to the said notice, the books by them respectively kept, containing
the
state of the said subscriptions; and a just and true list of all the subscribers,
with
the sum subscribed by each, shall be made out and returned by the said
managers,
or any four or more of them, under their hands, into the general court
of the
eastern shore, to be there recorded, and in case more than eleven thousand
dollars
shall be subscribed, then the same shall be reduced to that sum by the
said
managers, or a majority of them, by beginning at and striking off a share
from
the largest subscription or subscriptions, and continuing to strike off
a share from
all subscriptions under the largest and above one share, until the sum
is reduced
to the aforesaid capital, or until a share is taken from all subscriptions
above one
share, and lots shall be drawn between subscribers of equal sums, to determine
the numbers in which such subscribers shall stand on a list to be made
for striking
off as aforesaid, and if the sum remaining still exceeds the capital, then
to strike
off by the same rule until the sum subscribed is reduced to the capital
aforesaid,
or all subscriptions are reduced to one share, and if there still be an
excess, then
lots to be drawn to determine the subscribers who are to be excluded to
reduce
the subscriptions to the capital aforesaid, which striking off shall be
certified in
the list aforesaid; and the said capital sum shall be reckoned and divided
into two
hundred and twenty shares of fifty dollars each, of which every person
subscribing,
and not excluded by the mode of striking off as aforesaid, shall have a
right and be entitled to one or more whole shares so subscribed for and
ascertained
as aforesaid.
III. And be it
enacted, That in case the capital
aforesaid shall be subscribed
as aforesaid, the said subscribers, and their heirs and assigns, from the
time of
the said first meeting, shall be, and are hereby declared to be, incorporated
into a company, by the name of the Pocomoke Company, and may sue and be
sued as such, and such of the said subscribers as shall be present at the
said
meeting, or a majority of them,
are hereby empowered and required to elect a
president, and four directors, for conducting the said undertaking, and
managing
all the said company's business and concerns, for and during such time,
not
exceeding three years, as the said subscribers, or a majority of them,
shall think
fit; and in counting the votes of all general meetings of the said company,
each
vote for every five shares above ten, by him or her held at the time in
the said
company, and any proprietor, by writing under his or her hand, executed
before
two witnesses, may depute any other member or proprietor to vote and act
as
proxy for him or her at any general meeting.
IV. And
be it enacted, That the said
president and directors so elected, and
their successors, or a majority of them assembled, shall have full power
and
authority to agree with any person or persons, on behalf of the said company,
to
cut such canals, and erect such locks, and perform such other works, as
they
shall judge necessary for opening, improving and extending, the navigation
of
the said river from Snow-Hill to Mitchell's Bridge, and also as far as
the division. |
