396 CAROLINE COUNTY. [ART. 6.

BAIL ROADS.

172. Whenever any seven or more free white persons, citizens
of the "United States, and a majority of them citizens of Caroline
county, are associated together, or mean to associate together,
for the purpose of building a rail road, to commence at or near
Tatter's Landing, and to connect with the Delaware Bail Road,
chartered by the Delaware Legislature, starting at Farmington,
Delaware, within the limits of said county, and shall be desirous
to acquire and enjoy the powers and immunities of a corporation
or body politic, such persons may prepare and execute under
their hands and seals an instrument of writing, specifying
therein the objects, articles, conditions, and name, style or title
under which they associated, or mean to associate, and the same
present to the judge of the Circuit Court for said county, and the
instrument of writing shall be acknowledged before and certified
by said judge, in the same manner as conveyances of real estate,
and the said judge shall further direct said instrument to be
recorded in the office for the recording of deeds in said county,
and the same shall be recorded in the land records of said county,
and on said instrument being so recorded, the persons so asso-
ciated, or meaning to associate, shall, according to the objects,
articles, conditions and •provisions in said instrument set forth
and contained, become and be a corporation or body politic, in
law and in fact, by the name, style and title set forth in said
instrument, and by that name shall have succession, and be able
to sue and be sued, and shall have power to make, have and use
a common seal, and the same to break, alter and renew at plea-
sure, and to make and establish all proper by-laws and regula-
tions for the government of said corporation, and the manage-
ment of its affairs; Provided, said by-laws and regulations, or
any of them, shall not be repugnant to the Constitution and laws
of the State, and to the instrument on which said corporation is
formed or established.

173. Every corporation established by virtue of the preceding
section, shall be capable, according to the terms and conditions
of the instrument upon which it may be formed, to purchase and
hold any kind of property, real and personal, and the same to
employ, use and dispose of, according to the articles, objects and
conditions of its charter; but no corporation so formed shall in
any manner or in any capacity hold or possess at one time pro-
perty to an amount or value exceeding in the aggregate the sum
of fifty thousand dollars.