CORPORATIONS. 747

An. Code, sec. 281. 1904, sec. 263. 1888, see. 176. 1876, ch. 242, sec. 20.

216. Each and every railroad company incorporated under this article,
shall annually, in the month of January, make a full report of the con-
dition of its affairs to the comptroller, showing the amount of the capital
stock of such company; the gross amount of tolls or receipts, during the
previous year; the cost of repairs and incidental expenses; the net amount
of profits, and the dividends made, with such other facts as may be neces-
sary to a full statement of the affairs and condition of such road; and the
comptroller shall present an abstract copy of such report to the general
assembly at each session thereof.

An. Code, sec. 282. 1904, sec. 264. 1888, sec. 177. 1876, ch. 242, sec. 21.

217. Whenever the line of any railroad company now existing, or which
may hereafter organize under this article, shall cross any canal, or any navi-
gable water, the said company shall file with the board of public works the
plan of the bridge and other fixtures for crossing such canal or navigable
water, designating the place of crossing; and if the said board shall approve
of such plan, it shall notify such company in writing, of such approval; but
if the said board shall disapprove such plan, or fail to approve the same
within twenty days from the filing thereof, then it shall be lawful for
such company to apply to the circuit court, or any judge thereof in vacation;
and upon reasonable notice being given to the members of the board of
public works, said court or judge shall, upon good cause shown, appoint a
competent, disinterested engineer, not a resident of any county through
which said road passes, to examine such crossing and to prescribe the plan
and condition thereof, so as not to impede navigation; and such engineer
shall, within twenty days from his appointment, make his return to the
circuit court for the county where such crossing is to be made, subject to
exception by either party; and thereupon the court shall, at the next term
after the filing of said return proceed to examine the same, and unless good
cause is shown shall approve and confirm the same, and such order of con-
firmation shall be sufficient authority for the erection, use and occupancy of
such bridge in .accordance with such plan; provided, that no railroad com-
pany shall be authorized to construct any permanent bridge over any canal
of this State, which shall be less than twelve feet in the clear above the top
water-line of said canal, and the piers and abutments of such bridge shall
be placed so as not in any manner to contract the width of the canal, or
interfere with free passage on the towing-path.

The purpose of this section was not to grant the power to railway companies
incorporated under this article to bridge navigable streams, but to regulate the
method of constructing bridges by companies having the right to build them. This
section construed in connection with sec. 158—see notes thereto. Dundalk, etc.,
Co. v. Governor Smith, 97 Md. 178.

Where the property of a canal company is being administered by a court of
equity, no appeal lies from an order of that court granting leave to a railroad com-
pany to erect a proposed bridge subject to the payment of such damages as the
canal company might thereby sustain. Chesapeake, etc., Canal Co. v. Western
Md. R. R. Co., 99 Md. 572.

See sec. 158.