The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1859-07-20
The Vermont and Canada Rail-
road.


road.
1t will be recollected, by those who
gave attention to the doings of the Legis-
lature at its last session, that the subject
Of extending the charter of The Vt. l. G. R,
r. was prominent among the three or four
prominent questions of the session, and that
it was disposed Of in manner, which If the
terms are fully complied with, should be
satisfactory to all concerned. Recent de.
velopmeuts indicate that the company do
not intend to comply with the require.
ments of the Legislature, and as this is a
subject of no little interest to Western
Vermont we have been requested to give
distinct statement of the points of the case.
The charter Of said route was given in
1915, on the condition that the Company
should, within thirteen years, cause con.
nection to be made between it and the
Rutland 4 Burlington Road, from the
village OF Burlington to 1--WE think some
point in the town of Milton, and the man.
agement of the road to be such as to place
the two main lines through the State on
an equal footing, as it regards passengers
and freight from the v & G. R. r. A
failure thus to comply involved forfeiture
Of its charter, by which the property in
the road would become the property of
the State. At the last session, when the
thirteen years wos about to expire, the
time was extended four years under certain
conditions that the road should be
surveyed and certain sums of money ex.
pended within periods Of time specified.
The action of the company since, to with.
10 a short time, has been such as to war.
rant the expectation that it would proceed
in good faith to a compliance with the
acquisitions of the act, which was promptly
accepted by the Directors.
Recent developments, however, admit
the belief that the company will not pro-
coed, out will look to the Legislature for
other terms We will here quote from
the Burlington Free Press which says:
1t seems, however, that the old game
is to be played over again, if we are
rightly informed Of the doings at a special
meeting of the stockholders, held at North.
field, few days ago-a meeting called to
consider the report of sort of committee
of Stockholders and Trustees, appointed
to see what could be done to end divers
oin:s Of disagreement between the Trus-
tees of the Vermont Central and the Di.
rectots of the Vermont and Cana da. At
this meeting, few wealthy Stockholders,
or the representatives of few, from
abroad, who held controlling number of
shares and proxies in their hands, cooly
proceeded, by stack vot", to oisallow the
proceedings of the Directors of the Yer.
mont and Canada, carrying out the re.
quirements of the act Of 1858, and to
forbid them to take any further steps in
that direction. Furthermore, they entered
upon plan to bring the next Legislature
to undo the acts of last year under a
pretense of nabiI'ty 10 ger The moncy
needed to comply with any of the requisi.
tions of that act which should make NEG.
essary the expenditure of any noticeable
sum Of money. They did this, although
the directors said expressly, at t e meeting
that they toere at0a,e of no serious diE
6culty in raising Mc necessory means,
except phat had came and a0ouid come
from obstacles III, ot00 in their wng 5v
tile parties 10 This neto movemenf,-a
movement whose object is to Illustrate the
objects of the act of 1858, and to leave
the rights Of the public at the m, rcy OF
the same corps of managers, who had so
long shown that they cared nothing for
those rights, but only for their own pock-
cts"
"What we have learned of the late
Mortified meeting satisfesus that the men
engaged in this new operation have vet
faith in their power to caJole, frighten, or
mislead the leg 'slature into doing what
the proper interests of the public the prin-
ciples of sound legislation, and an honor
able compliance with chartered obligations
forbid them to do. On how good grounds
their faith rests few months will snow.
1t is not, however, a faith without works.
We have reason 10 believe their agencies
are already at work to secure if possible
the election of men to the next legislature
who will aid them in their measures. We
trust that their success in this work in this
region of the State, at least, will be small"
We have trusted that the railroad de.
rangements, for which the State has be.
come famous, were now to give place to
order and justice, and hesitate now to be.
lieve that the Legislature is again to be.
sieged as it was last session, but VIC shall
soon see.