for such passengers to be landed at such place so designated by the commissioners of emigration.

§ 7. The commissioners of emigration shall have authority to purchase, lease, construct and occupy such wharves, piers, and other accommodations in the city of New York, as may be necessary for the accommodation of emigrant passengers for the purposes mentioned in the last preceding section.

§ 8. Whenever the health officer shall give notice in writing to the owner or owners, consignee or consignees, master, commander or persons having charge of any vessel having emigrant passengers on board such vessel, to land such passengers at any pier or place in the city of New York designated specially by the commissioners of emigration for the landing of emigrant passengers, it shall not be lawful to land such passengers at any other pier or place, and the owners and master of any vessel from which passengers shall be landed, in violation of the provisions of this section, shall be subject to a penalty of five hundred dollars for each and every violation thereof, to be sued for and recovered, with costs of suit, in the name of the commissioners of emigration, in any court having cognizance thereof; the said penalty when recovered to be applied and used by the said commissioners for the purposes for which said commissioners are constituted.

§ 9. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

10. This act shall take effect immediately.

Chap. 478.

AN ACT authorizing a change of the grade of railroads in certain cases.

Passed April 14, 1855.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Whenever the grade of any railroad shall be changed under the direction of the canal commissioners, at any point where such road crosses, or shall cross any canal, or canal feeder, except in the city of Buffalo, it shall be lawful for the directors of the company owning such railroads to alter the grade of such road, on each, or either side of the place where such change shall have been so made by order of the canal commissioners, for such distance and in such

manner as the said directors may deem necessary. And the directors of any railroad company shall also be authorized at any time, to change the grade of any part of their road except in the city of Buf falo, in such manner as they may deem necessary to avoid accidents, and to facilitate the use of such road; any and all damages arising from such alteration to be appraised in same manner as provided in the act entitled "An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations, and to regulate the same;" and in the several acts amendatory thereof.

Chap. 499.

AN ACT in relation to the stealing and forging of railroad

tickets.

Passed April 14, 1855. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Every person who shall be convicted of stealing, taking and carrying away any railroad passenger ticket or tickets, prepared for sale to passengers, previous to or after the sale thereof, being the personal property of any railroad company, or of any other corporation or corporations, or of any person or persons, shall be adjudged guilty of grand or petit larceny, as prescribed in the next following section.

§ 2. If the price or prices authorized to be charged for such ticket or tickets, on a sale thereof, shall exceed the sum of twenty-five dollars, such price or prices shall be deemed the value of such ticket or tickets, and the offense of stealing, taking and carrying away the same, shall be adjudged grand larceny, and the person convicted of the same shall be imprisoned in a state prison for a term not exceeding five years; but if such price or prices shall only amount to twentyfive dollars or under, the offense of stealing, taking and carrying away such ticket or tickets, shall be adjudged guilty of petit larceny, and the person convicted of the same shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

§ 3. Railroad passenger tickets of any railroad company, as well before the same shall have been issued to its receivers or other agents for sale as after, and whether indorsed by such receivers or other

agents or not, are to be deemed railroad tickets within the meaning of this act.

§4. Every person who shall be convicted of having forged, counterfeited or falsely altered any railroad ticket mentioned or referred to in either of the preceding sections of this act, or of having sold, exchanged or delivered for any consideration, any such forged or counterfeited railroad tickets, knowing the same to be forged or counterfeited, with intent to injure or defraud, or of having offered any such forged or counterfeited railroad ticket for sale, exchange or delivery, for any consideration, with the like knowledge and intent, or of having received any such forged or counterfeited railroad ticket upon a sale, exchange or delivery, for any consideration, with the like knowledge and intent, shall be adjudged guilty of forgery in the third degree, and shall be punished in like manner as is prescribed by law in cases of conviction of forgery in the third degree.

§ 5. Every person who shall have in his possession any such forged or counterfeited railroad ticket as mentioned or referred to in the next preceding section, knowing the same to be forged, counterfeited or falsely altered, with intention to injure or defraud by uttering the same as true or false, or by causing the same to be uttered, or by the use of the same to procure a passage in the cars of the railroad company by which such ticket purports to have been issued, shall be subject to the punishment provided by law for forgery in the fourth degree.

§ 6. This act shall take effect immediately.

Chap. 185.

AN ACT to prevent extortion by railroad companies.

Passed March 27, 1857.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Any railroad company which shall ask and receive a greater rate of fare than that allowed by law, shall forfeit fifty dollars, which sum may be recovered, together with the excess so received, by the party paying the same; but it shall be lawful, and not construed as extortion, for any railroad company to take the legal rate of fare for one mile for any fractional distance less than a mile. § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.

Chap. 444.

AN ACT further to amend the act entitled "An act to authorize the formation of railroad corporations, and to regulate the same," passed April second, eighteen hundred and fifty. Passed April 14, 1857.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. It shall be lawful for any mortgagee of any railroad and the franchises thereof, to become the purchaser of the same, at any sale thereof under the mortgage, upon foreclosure by advertisement, or under a judgment or decree, or otherwise, and to hold and convey the same, with all the rights and privileges belonging thereto or connected therewith.

§ 2. Whenever there shall be one or more of the estates enumerated in article one of title two of chapter one of the second part of the Revised Statutes, entitled "Of the creation and division of estates," in any land required by any railroad company for the purpose of its incorporation, such company may acquire such estate and land by means of the special proceedings authorized by the act hereby amended. In every such case the railroad company, in addition to the statements now required by said act, shall set forth and state in its petition the facts in relation to any such estate, and the person, persons or class of person, then in being or not in being, who are or may become entitled, in any contingency, to any estate as aforesaid in such land, and may pray that such estate may be acquired, and such persons may be bound by the said proceedings; and thereupon the court to whom such petition is presented, if there be no attorney appearing in their behalf shall appoint some competent and disinterested attorney or officer of the court to appear in such proceedings and represent the rights, interests and estate of the person, persons, or class of persons aforesaid in any such land, and to protect the same, on the appraisal and proceedings aforesaid; and it shall be the duty of the court, on or after the confirmation of the report of appraisal, to ascertain by such report, or by a reference for that purpose, or otherwise, in its discretion, the rights, interests and estates of such person, persons or class of persons, in the land so appraised, and in the compensation awarded therefor, and to make an order determining the amount or share of such compensation to which such person, persons or class of persons are, or may become, entitled on account of

such estate, as the same shall arise or become vested in them respectively, and to direct, and to provide for the payment, investment or securing thereof, for the benefit of the person, persons or class of persons aforesaid, who are, or may in the contingency upon which such estate arises, become entitled thereto; upon the company paying or securing such amount or share, in the manner directed by such order of the court, it shall be deemed to have acquired, and shall be vested with the estate which such person, persons or class of persons have, or may be entitled to in said land, and they shall be barred of and from all right or claim in and to such land. Any railroad corporation in this state may acquire the title in fee, by the special proceedings herein before mentioned, to any land which it may require for roadway and for necessary buildings, depots and freight grounds.

§ 3. Every railroad company which shall have had unclaimed freight or baggage not perishable, in its possession for the period of at least one year, may proceed and sell the same at public auction, after giving notice to that effect in the state paper once a week for not less than four weeks, and for a like period in a newspaper other than the state paper, published at the place designated for the sale, and also in one published in the city of New York. (Said notice shall contain, as near as practicable, a description of such freight or baggage, the place and time when left, together with the name of the owner of the freight, or person to whom consigned, if the same be known.) All moneys arising from the sale of freight or baggage as aforesaid, after deducting therefrom charges and expenses for transportation, storage, advertising, commissions for selling the property, and the amount previously paid for the loss or non-delivery of freight or baggage, shall be deposited by the company making such sale, accompanied with a report thereof, and proofs of advertisement, with the comptroller, for the benefit of the general fund of the state, and shall be held by him in trust for reclamation by the persons entitled, or who may become entitled, to receive the same. No sale as herein provided shall be valid unless a copy of the notice above specified shall be served upon the comptroller for at least two weeks prior to the time designated for such sale.

§ 4. In case such unclaimed freight or baggage shall, in its nature, be perishable, then the same may be sold as soon as it can be, at the best terms that can be obtained.

§ 5. This act shall take effect immediately.