riers fairly and impartially. As has been said by other courts, the State has endowed them with a portion of its sovereignty in giving them the right of eminent domain. By virtue of this power they take the lands of the citizen against his will, and can, if need be, demolish his house. Is it supposed these great powers were granted merely for the private gain of the corporations? On the contrary, we all know the companies were created for the public good. The object of the Legislature was to add to the means of travel and commerce." And the Supreme Court maintains that railway corporations are common carriers, and subject to all the obligations imposed upon common carriers at common law, both upon the ground that the Legislature so intended in creating the corporations, and that the corporators contracted to be common carriers when they accepted the charters. The Court, in the cases from which I quote, concede that the charters of railway corporations are contracts between the corporators and the State, which neither party can annul or change without the consent of the other, and that such contracts impose reciprocal obligations. In one case the Court say: "We hold simply that it [meaning a railway corporation] must perform all those duties of a common carrier to which it knew it would be liable when it sought and obtained its charter." "The company can make such rules and contracts as it pleases, not inconsistent with its duties as common carrier, but it can go no farther; and any general language its charter may contain must necessarily be construed with that limitation." "But the charter was granted to promote the convenience of commerce, and it is the constant duty of the respondent to adopt its agencies to that end. It can be permitted to establish no custom inconsistent with its charter." And, in a late case, the Court said: "Can any one suppose it was merely to enrich and aggrandize the stockholders and the officers of these companies that the people through their representatives, have granted. such liberal charters. On the contrary, we all know that the grant of such powers were conferred to advance the public interest as the first and great object. But to accomplish this great purpose, it was found necessary to enlist private enterprise and capital. And to call it forth for the accomplishment of the end, rights, privileges, and immunities had to be conferred and secured to those who would embark in the construction and operation of these roads. Hence in these charters the rights and duties of the companies are expressed or implied. When created bodies corporate, they became invested with the right to construct and use their roads to transport both persons and property over their lines and to receive compensation for the same. And when these bodies accept their charters, it is with the implied understanding that they will fairly perform the duties. of public common carriers of both persons and property. These are duties they owe to the public and it was in consideration that they would be performed that this charter was granted." These decisions cover the whole ground of the controvrsy between the people and the railway carriers, and they define "the legal rights and legal duties of persons whose business and employment it is to receive, transport, and discharge passengers and freight on and by railways," to be the rights and duties of common carriers at common law, and they maintain the vested rights of the public under the charter contracts between the railroad companies and the State, to insist that such companies shall be held to a complete performance of all the obligations which the law has attached to that relation. i I have referred to some of the rules of the common law relating to the duties of common carriers, and will add that the common law is but "the body of principles and usages and rules the product of wisdom, counsel, experience and observation of many ages of wise and observing men." And it materially adds to the value of these principles, usages and rules, that they rest for their support upon reason and justice, that they are not limited in their operation to any one or more of the States, but are in force wherever reason rules and justice are regarded. They defy power and spurn corruption. They may be disregarded, but cannot be destroyed or changed. They regulate the carrying trade of the ocean and the great lakes and rivers, and in their application will be found the solution of what is aptly called the "railway problem." RAILWAY LAW IN ILLINOIS. CHAPTER I. THE RAILWAY SITUATION. § 1. Illinois in relation to the railroad question. 2. Facts and law intertwined. 3. Railroads and the code of civilization. 4. Railroads a modern improvement. 5. The pioneer lines. 6. Extent, cost and earnings of railroads in general. 7. Private enterprise; public donations. 8. Congressional bond subsidy policy. 9. The first land grant; BREESE, DOUGLAS. 10. Mode of procedure. 11. Amount of railway land grants. 12. The States benefitted. 13. Corruption and subsidy. 14. Railway anticipations. 15. The science of railroading. 16. Methods of railway operation. 17. Primitive idea; toll-roads. 18. Governmental control. 19. Railway interdependence and comity. 21. Regulation by competition. 22. Mutual benefits of competition. 23. Illinois railway legislation of 1873. 24. Agitation; Antagonism; Adjustment. § 1. Illinois has something over six thousand miles of railroad, which is more than any other state in the Union has. Their cost, with equipments, was about two hundred and forty million dollars. The collection into one volume of the laws relating to an interest so vast is a matter of great convenience and greater importance. Those laws are scattered through the legislation of a quarter century, and the decisions, not only of this state, but of other states and the United States, covering a wide range of legal literature. § 2. Before entering upon a detailed analysis of the subject in hand it will be of interest to take a general survey of the field. Facts and law are so intertwined that such a survey is indispensible. 83. Although the railroads themselves are novel, and all legislation in regard to them essentially experimental, the great body of laws applicable to them are as old as well regulated commerce. The equitable principles which govern the relations of a common carrier to the public form a cardinal feature of what might fitly be termed the code of civilization. A clear understanding of the whole subject would require thorough study of the history and laws of commerce in all times and lands. Our historical inquiry must necessarily be cursory, and strictly confined to the one method of carrying on traffic between different places, which has come into existence within the memory of many, and has already attained overshadowing proportions. § 4. Delving among the rubbish of the past could unearth no railway relic half a century old. If some of the ancients had tramways with groved vehicles they had no knowledge of steam as a motive power. The Appian way of Rome was doubtless the best road of any considerable length ever built prior to the railroad constructed in England in the year 1829. That |