election shall hold their offices to and including Tuesday next after that appointed by law for holding the election, next succeeding that at which they were chosen. If an election of directors shall not be held on the day prescribed by this chapter for holding the same, the directors in office on that day shall hold their offices until their successors shall be elected; but after the expiration of their regular term of office, as prescribed by this section, they shall be incapable of doing any act as such directors, except such as may be necessary to give effect to an election of directors.

Sec. 160. When any bridge corporation shall be desirious of constructing a bridge, or any part thereof, in any county, it shall apply to the court of sessions of such county, at any regular term thereof, for authority to construct such bridge, of which application such corporation shall give notice by publishing the same in at least two public newspapers, from time to time; a copy of the articles of association of such corporation, certified to by the surveyor general of this state, or by the clerk of the court where such articles are filed, shall be attached to and filed with the application. No such corporation shall be authorized to bridge any stream in any manner that will prevent, endanger, or obstruct the passage of any vessel or steamboat, where the same is navigable by vessels or steamboats. [Amendment passed April 22, 1851, p. 426.]

Sec. 161. If, after hearing such application, such court shall be of opinion that the public interest will be promoted by the construction of such bridge on the proposed site, it may, if the court of sessions shall assent thereto, by an order to be entered in its minutes, authorize such company to construct such bridge as shall have been specified in the application, which shall be particularly de scribed in such order. Such corporation shall cause a copy of such order, certified by the clerk of the court, with a copy of such application, to be recorded in the clerk's office of such county, before it shall proceed to do any act by virtue thereof; and such court shall cause such application, when it shall have finally acted on the same, to be filed at the expense of the corporation, with all the other papers relating thereto, or to the proceedings of said court thereon, in the office of the clerk of the county in which it shall have been made. Any corporation formed under this chapter may use, in such manner as such court shall prescribe, so much of any public highway, on either side of any stream, as may be necessary for the construction and maintenance of such bridge and toll-houses.

Sec. 162. In case any bridge shall be constructed under the provisions of this chapter, over any stream navigable by rafts, it shall be the duty of the corporation constructing such bridge, at all times to keep the channel of said stream both above and below said bridge, free and clear from all deposits in any way prejudicial to the navigation thereof, which may be formed or occasioned by the erection of such bridge.

Sec. 163. Any corporation organized under the provisions of this chapter, which shall construct any bridge over any stream navigable by rafts as hereinbefore provided, shall be liable to pay all persons who may be unnecessarily or unreasonably hindered or delayed in passing such bridge; all damages which they shall sustain thereby to be recovered with cost of suit.

Sec. 164. Every bridge constructed by virtue of this chapter, shall be built with a good and substantial railing or siding, at least four and a half feet high. Whenever such bridge shall be completed, and a certificate signed by the county judge of the county in which such bridge is situated, or if such bridge shall be located in

more than one county, by the county judge of each of such counties, and such certificate filed in the office of the clerk of such county, or of each of said counties, if such bridge shall be located in more than one county, that such bridge is constructed and completed in a manner safe and convenient for the public use, the directors may direct a toll-gate at such bridge, and demand and receive such sum as shall be from time to time prescribed by the court of the county or counties where the bridge is located.

Sec. 165. No tolls shall be collected for crossing any bridge constructed by any corporation formed under this chapter, from any person going to or from public worship; or to or from a funeral; or to or from school; or to or from a town meeting or election at which he is entitled to vote, for the purpose of giving such vote, and returning therefrom; or to or from a military parade which he is by law required to attend; or to or from any court which he shall be required to attend as a juror or a witness; or to or from his legally required work upon any public highway.

Sec. 166. The directors of any incorporation formed under this chapter, may require payment of the stockholders of the sum subscribed to the capital stock, at such times, and in such proportions, and on such conditions, as they shall see fit, under the penalty of the forfeiture of their stock and all previous payments thereon; and they shall give notice of the payments thus required, and of the place and time when and where the same are to be made, at least thirty days previous to the time fixed for the payment of the same, for the time and in the manner hereinbefore prescribed for giving notice of the election of directors, and by sending such notice to such stockholder by mail, directed to him at his usual place of residence.

Sec. 167. The shares of any corporation formed under this chapter, shall be deemed personal property, and may be transferred in such manner as shall be prescribed by the by-laws of such corporation; and the directors of every such corporation may, at any time, with the consent of a majority in amount of the stockholders in such corporation, provide for such increase of the capital stock thereof as may be necessary for the completion or reconstruction of such bridge; and the certificate of the amount of any such increase, within thirty days thereafter shall be filed in the offices of the surveyor general and the clerk or clerks of the county or counties in which such bridge is located which certificate shall be authenticated by the signatures and oaths of a majority of said directors. Sec. 168. So much of any such bridge or toll-house, constructed by virtue of this chapter, as shall be within any town, city, or village, shall be liable to taxation in such town, city, or village, as real estate.

Sec. 169. Every company incorporated under this chapter, shall cease to be a body corporate:

First-If, within six months from their filing their articles of association, they shall not have commenced the construction of their bridge, and actually expended thereon at least ten per cent of the capital stock of such company.

Second-If, within three years from the filing of such articles of association, such bridge shall not be completed according to the provisions of this chapter.

Third-If, in case the bridge of such company shall be destroyed, it shall not be reconstructed within three years thereafter.

Sec. 170. It shall be the duty of the president and secretary of every corporation formed under this chapter, to report annually

to the surveyor general and the county clerk where the papers are filed, under oath, the cost of their bridge; the amount of all moneys expended; the amount of their capital stock, and how much paid in, and how much actually expended; the amount received during the year for tolls, and from all other sources, stating each separately; the amount of dividends made, and the amount of indebtedness of such company, specifying the object for which the indebtedness accrued; and such other particulars in respect to the business affairs of such corporation as the said surveyor general, or the legislature, or either branch thereof, require to be so reported.

Sec. 171. When any bridge may be in process of construction by private subscriptions, at the time of the passage of this chapter, the subscribers may organize into a corporation pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, with the same power and privileges as if such bridge had not been so commenced.

Sec. 172. All companies formed under this chapter shall at all times be subject to visitation and examination by an officer or agent, in pursuance of law, or by the legislature, or by a committee appointed by either house thereof.

Sec. 173. Every report required to be made by the one hundred and seventieth section of this chapter shall be made in the month of January in each year, and shall show, in respect to the particulars required therein to be set forth, the affairs and business of the corporation making the same, at the close of the year ending on the thirty-first day of December next preceding the time of making the same, and shall be published in the nearest newspaper four weeks; and every corporation formed under this chapter, which shall neglect to make such report as is thereby required, shall forfeit to the people of this state, for every such neglect, the sum of two hundred dollars; and for every week such corporation shall neglect to make such report, after the expiration of the time within which it is required, as aforesaid, to make the same, it shall forfeit, as aforesaid, the further sum of fifty dollars. The surveyor general shall report to the attorney general every such forfeiture, by whom the same shall be sued for and recovered, with the costs, in the name of the people; and the certificate of the said surveyor general, of any such neglect, shall be presumptive evidence thereof; and if any such river, watercourse, or lake, now so navigable, shall hereafter be rendered navigable up stream, by vessels or steamboats, power to require such bridge to be altered or removed is reserved to the legislature.

[Section 174 was repealed by act passed March 17, 1851, p. 424.]

ARTICLE XV.

RELIGIOUS, SOCIAL, BENEVOLENT, AND LEARNED ASSOCIATIONS.

An act concerning corporations.

[Passed April 22, 1850; Stats. 1850, p. 347.]

Sec. 175. It shall be lawful for all churches, congregations, religious, moral, beneficial, literary, or scientific associations or societies, by such rules or methods as their rules, regulations, or discipline may direct, to appoint or elect any number, not less than three nor more than fifteen, as trustees or directors, to take charge of the estate and property belonging thereto, and to transact all affairs rela

tive to the temporalities thereof; and all vacancies that may thereafter take place, by death, resignation, or otherwise, of any of the trustees, may be filled by election or appointment in the same manner; provided, that no such election or appointment to fill a vacancy shall take effect until a certificate of such election or appointment, as provided in the next section, shall have been filed with the county clerk, in which the original certificate of incorporation shall have been filed. [Amendment of March 26, 1870, page 402, supersedes the amendment passed at the June session, approved February 1, 1870, p. 46.]

Sec. 176. Upon the appointment or election of such trustees or directors, a certificate of such appointment or election shall be executed by the person or persons making the appointment, or the judges holding the election, stating the names of the trustees or directors. The name by which said corporation shall thereafter forever be called and known, shall be particularly mentioned and specified in the certificate made at the first election or appointment of trustees or directors. [Amendment approved April 8, 1862, p. 125.] Sec. 177. Such certificate shall be acknowledged by the person making the same, or proved by a subscribing witness thereto, before some officer authorized to take acknowledgment of deeds, and recorded, and together with the certificate of such acknowledgment or proof, by the clerk of the county within which such church, congregation, religious, moral, beneficial, literary, or scientific society or association shall be situated.

Sec. 178. Such corporation may have a common seal, and may alter the same at pleasure. A majority of the whole number of trustees or directors shall form a board for the transaction of business, and they may take into their possession and custody all the temporalities of such corporation or association, whether the same shall consist of real or personal estate, and whether given, granted, or devised, directly or indirectly, to such association or corporation, or to any person or persons, for their use; and, in the name of such corporation, may sue and be sued, may recover and hold, all the debts, demands, rights, and privileges, all the churches, burying-places, halls, schoolhouses, hospitals, or other buildings, all the estate and appurtenances belonging to such corporation or association. They may have, lease, improve the same, erect all houses and buildings that are necessary to carry out the object of the association or corporation, and perform all duties imposed on them by the regulations, rules, or discipline of such organization. [Amendment approved April 8, 1862, p. 125.]

Sec. 179. It shall be lawful for the district court, within and for the county in which any such corporation shall have been constituted, on the application of such corporation, and on its satisfactorily appearing to such court by competent proof, by affidavit or otherwise, that due notice, by personal service, or by publication in some newspaper, as the said court or judge thereof shall direct, has been given to all persons interested in the matter, and that it will be to the benefit, interest, and advantage of such church, congregation, religious, moral, beneficial, literary, or scientific association or society, to make an order for the sale or mortgage of any real estate belonging to such corporation, or for the confirmation of any contract under which a valid lien may attach to said property; and it shall be lawful for any member of such church, congregation, association, or society, to oppose, by affidavit or otherwise, the granting of such order; and it shall be lawful for said court, at the time of making such order, directing the execution of a mortgage, also to make a further order, allowing such corporation to make and deliver with such mortgage

a bond or promissory note, under the corporate seal, and in the corporate name of such corporation, as evidence of the indebtedness, to secure which such mortgage is directed to be made; and it shall be the duty of said court, when granting such order or orders, to direct therein the application of the moneys arising from such sale, or procured under such contract or upon such security as it shall be made to appear to said court would be for the interest and advantage of such church, congregation, association, or society. [Amendment approved March 7, 1859, p. 87.]

Sec. 180. Every corporation of the character aforesaid, heretofore incorporated in pursuance of law, and not since dissolved, shall be and is hereby established and confirmed, and shall be known by the rame mentioned and specified in its certificate of association, as the lame by which the trustees shall be called; but the board of trustees or directors may, at any time, make a certificate, under the hands of a majority of them, particularly stating and designating the name by which said incorporation or association shall thereafter be called and known, which certificate shall be acknowledged by the persons executing the same, before some officer authorized to take the aeknowledgment of deeds, and shall be recorded in the office of the clerk of the county where the original certificate was recorded, and also in the county in which said church or association meet for the transaction of business; and the name so designated shall thereafter be the name of said corporation. And in case of the dissolution of any such corporation, or any corporation hereafter to be formed in pursuance of the provisions of this chapter, for any cause whatever, the same may be incorporated under the provisions of this chapter at any time within six years after such dissolution, and thereupon all the estate, real and personal, formerly belonging to the same, and not lawfully disposed of, shall vest in said corporation, as if there had been no such dissolution. [Amendment approved April 8, 1862, p. 125.]

Sec. 181. Such corporation may accept, receive, purchase, and hold real estate; and all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments that have been, or may hereafter be, lawfully conveyed, by devise, gift, grant, purchase, or otherwise, to any person or persons, as trustee or trustees, for the use of said corporation or association, shall descend, with the improvements, upon the death of such person or persons, trustee or trustees, unless otherwise expressly provided in such devise, conveyance, or deed of trust, to said corporation; provided, that the amount of real estate held by any such corporation, or association, shall never exceed the amount named in the following seetion. [Amendment approved April 8, 1862, p. 1255.]

Sec. 182. The real estate held by the trustees in trust for such organization shall in no case exceed four whole lots in a town or city, or twenty acres in the country, nor shall the annual increase of such real and personal property held in trust by them exceed the sum of twenty thousand dollars; provided, that the grand lodge of the ancient order of Free and Accepted Masons, in this state, or any subordinate lodge thereof, and the Society of California Pioneers, may acquire and hold such property, real and personal, as may be deemed necessary by the proper authorities thereof to carry out the charitable purposes of said grand lodge, or subordinate lodges, or said Society of California Pioneers, or for the establishment and endowment of a college, school or schools, libraries, cabinets, and other literary and scientific objects in said state, and for the necessary use and ceremonies of said order and of said society, and may sue and be sued, and have a common seal, and such other general powers as