ELIHU E. JACKSON, ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

193-

CHAPTER 185.

AN ACT to authorize the Chesapeake and Ohio canal company

to lease its canal and all its works to the Washington and Cum-

berland railroad company, and to waive and release all the liens

of this State upon said canal and all its property in favor of

said lessee.

WHEREAS, there are now due by the Chesapeake and Ohio

canal company more than five hundred and ninety thousand dol-

lars of principal and accrued coupons on the repair bonds, issued

by said company in pursuance of the act of eighteen hundred

and seventy-eight, chapter fifty-eight, and also large sums for
work and labor done and repairs put upon said canal amounting to

seventy thousand dollars or thereabouts; and also a judgment for

Preamble.

about thirty thousand dollars upon the wharf property of said

canal company at Cumberland, upon which execution may be

issued at any moment, and also sixteen hundred and ninety-nine

thousand five hundred dollars of preferred construction bonds

issued under the act of eighteen hundred and forty-four, chapter

two hundred and eighty-one, with interest thereon since Janaury

first, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, amounting in all, principal

and interest, to four millions two hundred and fifty thousand

dollars, or thereabouts; and

WHEREAS, the holders of the majority of said repair bonds

issued under said act of eighteen hundred and seventy-eight,

chapter fifty-eight, have taken legal proceedings to obtain pos-

session of said canal and all its works, and to sell the same under

the mortgage given by said canal company as authorized by said

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act of eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, chapter fifty-eight,

and the holders of said bonds issued under said act of eighteen

hundred and forty-four, chapter two hundred and eighty-one,

have taken similar proceedings for the appointment of receivers

to manage and operate said canal; and

WHEREAS, by the freshets of May and June, eighteen hundred

and eighty-nine, the canal was so damaged and washed away that

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navigation thereon has since that time been altogether suspended

and the business of the company totally destroyed; and

WHEREAS, the said canal company is wholly without means

or credit to raise upon any terms or conditions whatever, the sum

necessary to restore and repair the said canal and put it in condi-

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tion for navigation, such sum being estimated at not less than

two hundred thousand dollars, and all efforts to raise such sum

since said disastrous freshets have entirely failed; and

WHEREAS, since the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight,

the said canal company has not been able to earn enough revenue

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