82

SAMUEL STEVENS, Jr. ESQUIRE, GOVERNOR.

Dec. Ses. 1823

' and Directors may hereafter allow and establish according to the pro-
visions of this act.

Vacancy
rate of tolls;
collection of
tolls.

; 10. And be it enacted, That if the commissioners hereby required
to be appointed shall die, resign or refuse to act, the vacancy occasion-
ed thereby shall be filled by the same authority by which the original
appointment was made; and 'the person or persons appointed to fill
such vacancy shall have all the power and authority which was vest-
ed in the commissioner whose place he shall be appointed to supply,
and when any part of the canal aforesaid shall have been completed
according to the true intent and meaning of this act, the President
and Directors of the company hereby created, shall have power and it
shall be their duty to ordain and establish a rate of tolls to be paid upon
boats, vessels, rafts, or other property, passing on the part of the canal
so completed, and so from time to time,as part or parts shall be comple-
ted, and until the Eastern section thereof shall be finished up to the
mouth of Savage River or Creek, and thereafter until the entire canal
shall have been finished according to the true intent and meaning of
this act, for the collection of which tolls, the President and Directors
shall have power to establish so many tolls houses, and at their plea-
sure to appoint and remove so many collectors and at such places, as
from time to time they may judge expedient; and the said President,
and Directors shall have full authority, subject to the discretion and
control of a majority in interest of the stockholders represented in
general meeting, to regulate and fix a tariff of tolls not exceeding an
average of two cents per ton per mile, and so to adjust the said tolls
in relation to the capacity or burthen of the boats and the dimensions
of the rafts passing the locks of the said canal, as to promote economy
of water and time in the navigation thereof.

Dividends
apportioned
and applied;
loan authoris-
ed.

; 11. And be it enacted, That the President and Directors shall an-
nually or semi-annually, declare and make such dividend of the nett
profits from the tolls to be received according to the provisions of this
act, and from the other resources of the company, as they may deem
advisable after deducting therefrom the necessary current, and the
probable contingent expenses to be divided among the proprietors of
the stock of the said company in proportion to their respective shares
in manner following, that is to say, it such nett profits shall not exceed
ten per cent on the amount of shares which shall have been paid for
in. current money of the United States, and expended on the Eastern
section of the said canal, then the whole thereof shall be divided
among the holders of such shares in proportion to their respective
shares; but if such nett profits shall exceed the rate of ten per cent per
annum in any year on such amount of stock, then the surplus shall be
divided among such stockholders as shall have paid for their shares
in certificates of the debt of the Potomac Company until they shall
therefrom have received a dividend of six per cent; and if a surplus
vet remain the same shall be divided among the stockholders who
shall have paid for their shares in certificates of the stock of the Poto-
mac Company, until they shall receive therefrom a dividend of six per
cent per annum on such shares; and if a surplus still remain, so long
as the Western section of the canal shall remain unfinished, such sur-
plus shall be applied from time to time to the construction and com-
pletion thereof in such mode as the President and Directors, under
such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the constitution of
the United States or of the several states aforesaid, as the stockhol-
ders or a majority thereof in general meeting, may prescribe, until