928 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Apl. 3,

St. Mary's, Charles and Calvert counties, of which amount
the sum of one hundred and seventy-three thousand dollars
was for the purpose of aiding the construction of a railroad
in St. Mary's county. At the same session an Act (chap.
310) was passed appropriating ten thousand dollars of the
above amount to make a survey of a railroad from some point
in Prince George's county, through Prince George's, Charles
and St. Mary's counties, to Point Lookout. The Southern
Maryland Railroad Company was chartered March 20th,
1868, (chap. 150,) for the purpose of constructing a railroad
from some point in Prince George's county to Point Look-
out. By Section 10 of this Act, the sum of "two dollars"
was required to be paid upon each share of the capital stock
of the Company, and the residue in such installments as the
Board of Directors from time to time might require. Every
stockholder of the Company was put upon an equality in rela-
tion to payments to be made on their respective shares of stock
on the 3d day of January, 1873, the County Commissioners of
St. Mary's county, (as authorized by the Act of 1868, chap-
ter 454,) passed a resolution recommending the State Treas
urer to subscribe "to the capital stock of the Southern
Maryland Railroad Company to the above amount of $163,-
000, in pun-uance of said Act." Messrs. Asa A. Lawrence
and A. C Tennison, both County Commissioners of St.
Mary's county, of the date of the recommendation, testified
that the said County Commissioners were induced to make
this recommendation from the fact that the Southern Mary-
land Railroad Company was then at work upon its road;
that Samuel 8. Smoot represented his ability to construct it,
and further, because, under the safeguards of the Act of
1868, chapter 454, the Comptroller and Treasurer of the State,
were lodged with the discretion to see that the provisions of
said Act should be complied with by the Company before
any money could be drawn from the State Treasury.

The provisions of the Act of 1868, chapter 454, are plain
and unequivocal. The suhsciiption could be made by the
State Treasurer, only upon his being satisfied that bona fide
subscriptions to the capital stock of the Company, by others
than the State of Maryland, had been actually made to the
$173,000. The following is the language of the Act: "And
as soon as it shall appear to the Treasurer of this State, In
the affidavit of the President of any Railroad Company now
chartered, or which may hereafter be chartered in such coun-
ties respectively, that bona fide subscription to the capital
stock of any such Company, equal in amount to the sum by
this Act authorized, and directed to be given to such county
shall be actually made, either in bond or money, the Treas-
urer of this State shall be, and he is hereby authorized and