making any such alteration or extension, the like consent or approval; and if such work shall be commenced or completed, or be altered, extended, or constructed contrary to the provisions of this act, it shall be lawful for the said lord high admiral, or the said commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, to abate, alter, and remove the same, and to restore the site thereof to its former condition, at the cost and charge of the company, and the amount thereof shall be a debt due from the company to the Crown, and be recoverable accordingly with costs of suit.

XLVII. If at any time or times it shall be deemed expedient by the lord high admiral of the United Kingdom, or the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, to order a local survey and examination of any work hereby authorized in, over, or affecting any tidal or navigable water or river, or within three miles seaward of the shores of Great Britain and Ireland, or of the intended site of such works, the company shall defray the costs of every such local survey and examination, and the amount thereof shall be a debt due to her, Majesty from the company, and if not paid upon demand, may be recovered as a debt due to the Crown, with the costs of suit, or may be recovered with costs as a penalty is, or may be recoverable from the company.

XLVIII. If any work hereby authorized in, under, over, through, or across any tidal water or navigable river, or within three miles seaward of any of the shores of Great Britain and Ireland, or if any portion of any work which affects, or may affect, any such water or river or shores, or access thereto, shall be abandoned or suffered to fall into disuse or decay, it shall be lawful for the lord high admiral, or the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, to abate and remove the same, or such part or parts thereof as he or they may at any time or times deem fit and proper, and to restore the site thereof to its former condition at the cost and charge of the company, and the amount thereof shall be a debt due from the company to the Crown, and be recoverable accordingly with costs of suit.

XLIX. The company shall be authorized and empowered to enter into and make with the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, and all other companies and persons now or at any time hereafter owning or working any electric telegraphs or other telegraphic communication, whether within the United Kingdom or not, and with any one or more of them, such agreements or arrangements for the working or using of any line of electric or other telegraphs in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, and whether sub-marine or not, or for the through or onward transmission of messages and intelligence requiring to be transmitted by or along any line of telegraph of any such other company or person as well as those of the company hereby incorporated, and for the payment or apportionment of the rates or charges to be made for such use, or for such through or onward transmission, or any services connected therewith, and generally as to the terms on which the lines of telegraph of this company, and of the other companies and persons respectively, are to be worked in connexion, as the parties to any such agreement or arrangement may from time to time agree on and determine.

I. The company may agree with the original grantee of any letters patent granted to any person for any inventions or improvements, or additions to inventions of electric telegraphs, or of the apparatus thereof, or of the giving or transmitting of signals, or of the regulating the transmitting or applying of electric currents or other processes for the purposes of telegraphic communication, or which may be available for the purposes of the company, or with any person in whom, for the time being, any such patent and privileges, or any part thereof, may be vested for the granting to them of the license or permission to use the privileges or any of them granted by the said letters patent, and may accordingly purchase and become entitled to the same, and accept such grant upon such terms and conditions as they in any such case agree on.

may

LI.-In case the company shall, in pursuance of the acts of Parliament, 5 and 6 William IV, chapter 83, or the 7 and 8 Victoria, chapter 69, or of "The Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852," obtain the leave of her Majesty's attorney general or solicitor general for England or Ireland, or of her Majesty's lord advocate or solicitor general for Scotland, to enter at the office in the last mentioned act prescribed in that behalf any dislaimer of any part of either the title of the invention mentioned or comprised in any letters patent belonging to the company, or of any part of the specification of any such invention, or to enter in such office a memorandum of any alteration in any such title or specification as aforesaid, such disclaimer or memorandum of alteration may be made under the seal of the company and signed by two directors of the company, and when so made may, in pursuance of such leave as aforesaid, be entered, filed and enrolled according to the provisions of the said acts respectively, and no acknowledgment of any such disclaimer or memorandum of alteration shall be necessary previous to the enrolment thereof.

LII. The company shall be entitled to demand, receive, and recover from all persons from whom any messages or signals shall be transmitted by the company by means of any telegraph belonging to them, or under their control, such reasonable charges as they shall think fit; and such charges may be demanded and taken either by them, or on their behalf by any other company or person by or along whose line of telegraph such messages or signals shall be transmitted, before passing to and being transmitted by and along any line of telegraph of the company, and payment of any such charges may be required to be made before the transmission of such messages and signals respectively: Provided always, That if by and under any agreement or arrangement for the time being in force, made under the powers hereinafter contained with the lords of her Majesty's treasury, the company shall have bound themselves to demand and receive from the persons transmitting messages and signals by their lines of telegraph certain charges for such transmission, they shall demand, receive, and recover those charges only, and no others; and if they shall have so bound themselves to demand and receive from such persons charges not exceeding certain maximum charges, they shall not be entitled to demand, receive or recover for the transmission of such messages and Rep. No. 313-2

signals by their lines of telegraph charges greater than such maximum charges.

LIII. The company shall also be entitled to demand, receive and recover from all persons for whom they shall undertake to transmit and shall transmit any messages or signals along any line of telegraph of any other company or person after the transmission thereof by and along any of their own lines of telegraph the through charges as fixed for the time being, under any such agreements or arrangements for through transmission as aforesaid, or if there shall not be a fixed through charge, then, in addition to the charges of this company, to demand, receive and recover on behalf of such other companies or persons the further charges for such message or signal which may be payable to such other companies or persons, and no more, for the transmission of the said messages or signals over the lines of telegraph of such last mentioned companies or persons, respectively; and such through charges or additional charges (as the case may be) may also be demanded and required to be paid before the transmission of such messages and signals, respectively.

LIV. The use of the company's lines of telegraph and of all other lines of telegraph in the United Kingdom which they may for the time being have the right to use shall, subject to the rights of priority hereinafter mentioned, and the company's right of priority for their own purposes, and subject also to such reasonable regulations as may from time to time be made by the company, be open for the sending and receiving of messages by all persons alike, without favor or preference; and subject to such priority and reasonable regulations, respectively, all messages and signals shall be transmitted and delivered according to the order of time in which they shall have been received by the com

pany.

LV. All lines of telegraph constructed or worked by the company shall at all reasonable times be open for the transmission of intelligence for her Majesty, or on her Majesty's service; and the company shall receive, transmit, and deliver all such messages and signals as shall from time to time be tendered for transmission for her Majesty, or on her Majesty's service.

LVI. All messages and signals sent or forwarded for transmission and delivery for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service shall have priority over all other messages whatsoever, and it shall be imperative on the company, their officers, and servants, to transmit and deliver such messages and signals accordingly, and to suspend the transmission of all or any other messages until the said messages and signals shall first have been transmitted: Provided always, That the company may, in consideration of a guarantee or subsidy granted or secured by the government of the United States, equal in rate or amount to that granted by or on behalf of her Majesty's government, grant and extend to the government of the United States the like priority for intelligence, on and for their service over all other messages and signals whatsoever, except those for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service, and after they shall have so done, and shall have notified their having so done to the lords commissioners of her. Majesty's treasury, the messages and signals on the service of the government of the United

States shall thenceforward be entitled to, and shall have, during the continuance in force of any such guarantee or subsidy, the like priority as messages and signals for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service over those of all other persons whatsoever, and thenceforward messages and signals for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service, and those on the service of the government of the United States, shall, as between themselves, have no right of priority, but be transmitted and delivered respectively in the order of time in which they may be respectively tendered for transmission and delivery.

LVII. The lords commissioners of her Majesty's treasury may make and enter into, on behalf of her Majesty and of all departments of her Majesty's government, such agreements or arrangements with the company as to the rates or charges to be paid to the company for the use of their lines of telegraph, and for the assistance of their officers and servants, in the transmission and delivery of messages for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service, and may introduce into any such agreements or arrangements such terms and provisions as to the amount of the rates and charges to be demanded as well from her Majesty as from the public at large, and as to securing to the company a minimum annual payment for the transmission and delivery of messages and signals for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service, and generally in relation thereto, as they may think proper and may be able to agree on; and all agreements and arrangements which, before the passing of this act, were made and entered into between the said lords commissioners and the original company, shall be and are hereby ratified and confirmed so far and to such extent as they would have been good and valid if made and entered into after the passing of this act between the said lords commissioners and the company under the above power, and shall, as from the time of the passing of this act, be to such extent good and binding agreements and arrangements respectively between the said lords commissioners and the company hereby incorporated.

LVIII. When there shall be no agreement or arrangement in force as to the amount of such remuneration as aforesaid, the company shall be entitled to such reasonable remuneration for the use of their lines of telegraph, and the assistance of their officers and servants, for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service as aforesaid, as shall be determined by arbitration in the manner hereinafter provided; but the company shall not be entitled to refuse or delay to transmit or deliver any messages or signals for her Majesty or on her Majesty's service by reason of such remuneration not having been then agreed on or determined.

LIX. Every such matter to be determined by arbitration, as in the last section mentioned, shall be referred to the award of two persons, one to be named by the said lords commissioners, and the other by the company; and if such two arbitrators cannot agree as to the amount of such remuneration, then to the umpirage of some third person to be appointed by such two first named persons previously to their entering on the inquiry, and the said award or umpirage shall be binding and conclusive on all parties thereto.

LX. In any such reference, each of the parties thereto shall nomi

1

nate their arbitrator within fourteen days after notice from the other party requiring such nomination, or, in default, the arbitrator appointed by the party giving such notice shall act as sole arbitrator, and the matter to be determined shall be left to the umpire in case the arbitrators shall not have made their award within three months after the appointment of the one of them last appointed; and if any umpire shall not make his award within three months after the matter shall have been left to him, then a new umpire shall be appointed by the arbitrators, who shall, in like manner, make his award within three calendar months from his appointment, or be superseded, and so toties quoties.

LXI. It shall be lawful for the company, whether or not they shall grant to the government of the United States any such priority as aforesaid, from time to time to make and enter into agreements and arrangements with that government for the transmission of messages and signals, on the service of that government, and as to the rates and charges, or the other remuneration in respect thereof.

LXII. At all times from and after the period of twenty-five years, from the opening of the said lines of telegraphic communication for the transmission of messages, whenever one of her Majesty's principal secretaries of state for the time being shall be of opinion that circumstances render it expedient to vest in her Majesty's government the control of the operations of the company, it shall be lawful for such secretary of state, by warrant under his hand, to cause possession to be taken of all the telegraphs and telegraphic apparatus of the various stations of the company, their licensees or assigns, for the space of one week from the date of such warrant, for the purpose of preventing any communication being made or signals given, save such as shall be directed and authorized by any such secretary of state, and also by further successive warrants to cause possession of the said telegraphs and telegraphic apparatus to be retained from week to week, so long as any such secretary of state shall deem such possession expedient for the public service: Provided, always, That for every week during which possession shall be so retained, the company, their licensees or assigns, shall receive from and be paid by the lords commissioners of her Majesty's treasury the same amount of profits as the company would have made in case they had continued the working of the said telegraphs, such profits to be computed upon an average of the weekly profits of the company for three months immediately preceding the issuing of the first of the said warrants.

LXIII. If any person in the employment of the company shall wilfully or negligently omit or delay to transmit or deliver any message or signal, or shall wilfully or negligently do any matter or thing whereby the transmission or delivery of any message or signal shall not take place, or shall be delayed or prevented, or shall wilfully or negligently omit to perform any act, matter, or thing, by reason whereof any message or signal shall not be transmitted or delivered, or shall be delayed in its transmission or delivery, every such person shall, for every such offence, forfeit a sum of money not exceeding twenty pounds.

LXIV. If any person shall wilfully remove, destroy, or damage any