We have not the least doubt, however, that as soon as the central line of roads is reconstructed, with a heavy rail, it will be enabled to realize a profit at reduced rates. The increased speed and reduced rates together, will command an additional number of passengers, sufficient to compensate for the reduction. Nay, we are inclined to the opinion that even now, the fare may be somewhat reduced on the line, without injury to the income. Though the experiment of reduced rates was not successful in 1843, we believe it might be in 1847. The completion of railroads through Ohio, and some other western improvements, are calculated to throw a greater amount of travel upon this line; and a reduction might now be made, not with the idea of taking travellers from the canal, but to increase the amount of local travel and long travel. In our judgment, it would be both good policy and for the interest of this central line, before the close of the present season, to make arrangements to carry at somewhat reduced rates for the ensuing season. This would show the public that they are really seeking to find the true medium rate of fare. The business of 1846 will show, probably, an advance upon the receipts of the previous year of more than 20 per cent. The prospect of the business for the year 1847, is still better.

The great obstacle to a voluntary reduction in the rate of fare is the number of corporations in this line of road. They cannot always act in harmony, and the experiment of a reduction is not satisfactory, unless all join in it. The Utica and Schenectady company, have, since April, reduced their passenger fare one-third. Their gross receipts of the present year will probably not quite equal their receipts of the previous year, though very nearly so, while the gross receipts of the other companies will exceed the receipts of the previous year, by probably more than 20 per cent. These facts indicate that a reduction to three cents per mile through the whole line would give an amount of receipts equal to that of 1845.

There would be many advantages in amalgamating the different corporations in this line into a single corporation. There would be no want of harmony in the management; there would not be the same failures to connect, which are so frequently complained of; there would not be the same diverse interests; there would not be the same difficulties in the management of freight which now exist. It would not be difficult to make this consolidation upon equitable principles. It could not of course be done without the consent of the greater part of all the stockholders, and could not be done without legislative sanction. It is a measure that we think both the stockholders and legislature should encourage.

There is an opinion entertained somewhat extensively that these rail. roads should be permitted freely to carry freight at all seasons of the year, without the payment of any tolls to the State. We cannot concur in such cpinion. As long as the State of New York is heavily in debt for the

construction of her canals, and as long as a direct tax is necessary to pay the interest of such debt, it seems quite right that the canal revenue should be guarded from any inroads by any competing lines. If, under such exemption from tolls, the railroads should carry large amounts of freight, it would, by just so much, impair the canal revenue, and render a tax to meet the canal debt just so much the more necessary. The carriage of property by railroads, in the winter, when the canals are closed, may, however, with great propriety, be made free from the payment of tolls to the State. The amount so transported will be comparatively small. It will consist, to a considerable extent, of fresh provisions, poultry, and articles of that character, which would otherwise not be transported at all. It is of great benefit to the public to have this transportation open. The col lection of the tolls to the State is attended with some trouble and embar. rassment. These tolls are small in amount,-the whole tolls of a winter not exceeding two days tolls upon the canal, in the active part of the season, and are, comparatively, not worth looking after, and might, with great propriety, be relinquished.

The business transacted upon the railroads in New York, as well as upon the railroads in Massachusetts, in 1846, affords every encouragement to railroad enterprise. There have been an increased number of passengers an increased traffic-increased earnings. This would naturally stimulate the construction of new roads; and, under the fostering care of a judicious legislation, the State of New York might be covered with an iron net-work of permanently constructed railroads, developing its resources, facilitating its traffic, and ministering to its wealth. The completion of these various works would be the effective coercion to accommodation, speed, and cheapness. Under a legislative policy which should deter capitalists from railroad investments, the State of New York would fall quite behind her New England neighbors in the means of transacting business afforded by permanently constructed railroads. She would be arrested in the noble career open to her ere she had well entered upon it, and would be unable to reconstruct the present work, or enter upon any new enterprise. The whole State has a deep interest in the legislative policy which the State of New York shall adopt, and every one should throw in the weight of his influence to give it a wise and judicious direction.

Art. IV.-COMMERCIAL CODE OF SPAIN.

NUMBER II.

THE LAW OF CARRIERS BY SEA.*

WE continue the translation of the law of Spain in relation to common carriers. The present article includes all classes of carriers by maritime transportation. This division of our subject relates to affreightments and their obligations.

DCCXXXVII.

In every contract of affreightment, (del fletamento,) express mention shall be made of each one of the following circumstances:—

1. The class, name, and burthen of the vessel.

For the Law of Carriers by Land, translated from the Commercial Code of Spain, see Merchants' Magazine for September, 1846, (Vol. XV., No. 3.)

2. Its flag and port of its registration.

3. The name, calling, and domicile, of the captain.

4. The name, calling, and domicile, of the ship's husband, (naviero,) should he make the contract of affreightment.

5. The name, calling, and domicile, of the freighter (fletador,) of the ship, and, if he acts by commission, then the name, calling, and domicile of the person for whose account he makes the contract.

6. The port of loading and of the discharge of the vessel.

7. The capacity, number of tons, or weight of measurement, which shall be respectively laden and received on board.

8. The freight (flete,) or money to be paid the owner of the ship for the transportation of the goods, whether in a gross amount for a voyage, or for so much by the month, or for the number of feet or space to be occupied, either by the weight or the measurement of the goods of which the cargo shall consist.

9. The sum of money to be given to the captain for his primage.

10. The days agreed on for the loading and discharge of the vessel. 11. These days being finished and run out, then the lay days, and the days of demurrage, which are to be counted, and what is to be paid for each one of said days.

Lastly, there shall be comprehended in the contract all the especial agreements which the parties may make.

DCCXXXVIII.

In order that the contracts of affreightment shall be judicially binding, such contracts must be reduced to writing, in a policy of affreightment, of which each one of the contracting parties shall receive a copy, signed by the whole of them. When any one of the contracting parties does not know how to write, two witnesses shall sign the contract with his name.

DCCXXXIX.

If the cargo shall have begun to be received, notwithstanding the contract of affreightment has not been solemnized in due form, the contract shall be celebrated according to that which may result from the invoice or bill of lading, which document shall be the only authority by which the rights and obligations of the naviero, the captain, and the freighter, shall be fixed in relation to the cargo.

DCCXL.

The policy of affreightment shall have full faith in judicial proceedings at all times when the contract is made with the intervention of a ship broker, he certifying the signatures of the parties contracting to be authentic, and that they were made in his presence.

DCCXLI.

If a discord should result between the policies of affreightment which the parties shall produce, that shall be taken as the true policy which agrees with the one which the broker shall reserve in his register.

DCCXLII.

Likewise the policies of affreightment shall have full faith even when a broker has not intervened in the contract, should the contracting parties acknowledge that they have made their signatures to the policies.

DCCXLIII.

No broker having intervened in the contract of affreightment, nor the authenticity of the signatures of the contracting parties having been acknowledged, the doubt which may arise in the execution of the contract

shall be adjudicated upon according to the merits of the proofs which each party litigating may produce in support of his pretension or claim.

DCCXLIV.

If the time in which the loading and unloading of the vessel is to be performed, shall not appear from the policy of the affreightment, in the place where it shall be discharged, that policy shall govern which may be in use in the port where each one of the operations, respectively, may be performed.

DCCXLV.

The time in any place for the loading and unloading of the vessel hav. ing run out, and there being no express contract fixing the indemnification for demurrage, the captain shall have the right to demand the extra days and demurrage which may have transpired without loading or unloading the vessel; and when the termination of the demurrage shall have been completed, if the delay shall arise because the cargo has not been placed alongside of the vessel, he may rescind the contract of affreightment, demanding one-half of the freight money agreed on, and if the delay shoul arise in the consignee not receiving the cargo, he shall apply to th tribunal of commerce in the place, and in case there is none there, to th royal ordinary judge, so that he may provide a place of deposit for th cargo.

DCCXLVI.

If there should be deception or error in the capacity stated of the vessel, the freighter or merchant who hires the vessel, shall have the option to rescind the contract of affreightment; or he may have a reduction in the freight agreed upon in proportion to the cargo which the vessel shall have failed to receive, and the master or owner (fletante,) of the ship shall indemnify the shipper for the damages which the master or owners shall have occasioned.

DCCXLVII.

Neither error nor deceit shall be imputed to the application of the preceding rule when the difference between the capacity of the vessel manifested to the freighter or merchant, (fletador,) and its true tonnage, does not exceed part of the gross amount, nor when the tonnage manifestea is the same as appears by the matriculation or registration of the vessel, although the freighter shall never be obliged to pay more freight tha:. what corresponds to the true tonnage of the vessel.

DCCXLVIII.

The freighter can rescind the contract when the true flag of the vesse. has been concealed from him, and if, from the results of such deception there should happen a confiscation, augmentation of duties, or other damage to his cargo, the master or owners shall be obliged to indemnify the

merchant.

DCCXLIX.

The vessel being sold after having been freighted, the new proprietor can load her on his own account if the freighter or merchant has not commenced loading the vessel before such sale was made, it being at the charge of the seller to make indemnification for all the damages which may result from not having complied with the affreightment contracted ; the new owner not loading the vessel on his own account, the contract pending shall be carried into effect, and he may claim against the seller the damage which may result to him if the seller does not make known

to him the contract of affreightment pending at the time of concerting the sale of the vessel. When the vessel has once begun to be loaded on account of the freighter, the contract of affreightment which the seller had made, shall be complied with in all its parts, without prejudice of the indemnification to which he may be liable in favor of the purchaser.

DCCL.

Even when the captain has exercised his faculties by contracting an affreightment, in contravention to the orders which the naviero may have given him, the same shall be carried into effect, according to the terms agreed upon, without prejudice to the rights of the naviero against the captain for the damages which the naviero may receive for the abuse which the captain has made of his functions.

DCCLI.

The tonnage of the vessel not being sufficient to fulfil the contract of affreightment made with the different shippers, the preference shall be given to him who may have introduced a cargo into the ship, and the rest shall obtain their place according to the order of the dates of their contracts. There being no priority in the dates, they shall load pro rata the amount of weight and measurement which each one may have marked in his contract, the carrier being obliged, in both cases, to indemnify the freighters for the damages which they may receive from the want of a fulfilment of their contracts.

DCCLII.

The vessel being freighted entire, the freighter can oblige the captain to set sail on the voyage as soon as a cargo shall be received on board, the time being favorable, and no insuperable event happening to impede the sailing of the vessel.

DCCLIII.

In a partial affreightment, the captain cannot refuse to commence his voyage in eight days after he shall have received on board of his vessel three-fourths of the cargo corresponding to the tonnage of the vessel.

DCCLIV.

After the carrier (fletante,) shall have received one part of his cargo, he shall not be exempt from continuing to load his cargo on account of the same owner, or of other shippers, at equal prices and conditions, or proportions, to those which he had agreed with respect to the cargo which he may have received, if no contract shall be encountered more advantageous. And should the carrier not be willing to agree with the person wishing to put on board more cargo, the person who has shipped cargo on board, (cargador,) can oblige the carrier to make sail with the cargo which he shall have received on board.

DCCLV.

A captain who, after having taken on board any part of his cargo, shall not find sufficient to complete three parts out of five, corresponding to the tonnage of his vessel, can employ for transporting it, another ship, surveyed and declared fit for the same voyage; the expenses which shall occur by the transhipment of the cargo, and the increase in the price of the freight, shall be on the account of the master.

If he shall not find the proportions for making such a subrogation or transhipment, he shall commence his voyage within the time and at the place which he shall have bound himself by contract; and in case of not having made any express contract on the subject, he shall commence his voyage within thirty days after he has begun to take the cargo.