If it is necessary for your memorialists to justify themselves, or to apologise to the Legislature for an act so common in all railroad management, and done by your memorialists as they conceived to be their perfect right to do, and their duty to the trust represented by them, they would respectfully set forth the following, as some of the reasons for their action:

It was deemed by your memorialists to be of the highest interest to the trust they represent, as well as of great importance to the public, to establish a convenient and reliable through line between the West and Boston by taking from and delivering to the New York Central Railroad and the Erie Canal at Schenectady, a part of the immense business which arrives at that point. This route between the West and Boston would diminish the distance from that via Troy and Rutland to Boston, by twenty-one miles.

By tapping this business at Schenectady, a competition with rival routes to Boston from Troy would be in a good degree avoided, and an invitation to business and to travel between the East and the West, afforded by this shorter route, would be extended, which would inure to the benefit of the Rutland & Burlington road, by all the amount of additional business and travel induced thereby between Saratoga, Rutland and Bellows Falls and Brattleboro. In order to secure this increase of business, it was necessary to enter into a co-operative arrangement with the Rensselaer & Saratoga company, which owned the railroad from Saratoga to Schenectady, and owned all the lines of railroad leading south and west from Rutland except the Western Vermont line.

It seemed to your memorialists the more necessary to establish this through line at this time, in order that the same might become known and well established in public estimation, and that the course of trade might get to running in this direction before the Troy and Boston Railroad, after the expiration of its lease of the Western Vermont road, should be placed in a position of complete hostility to the Rutland & Burlington road, by the adoption of the tunnel route, or the continued use of the route via North Adams to Boston from Troy.

Again, it was not practicable to make and maintain with the Troy & Boston company any sufficient or reliable line as between the West and Boston, or between New York and Burlington, by reason of the inadequate supply of locomotives and cars, the Troy & Boston company having scarcely if any more than sufficient to do its local business, and being obliged to rely upon other railroads for those facilities. There was also a deficiency of both locomotives and cars upon the Rutland & Burlington road for the doing of its proper business, andą it had none to lend, without an equivalent in kind, which the Troy & Boston company could not furnish. By the consolidation of the Rensselaer & Saratoga and the Rutland & Wash-f ington companies, the former come into possession of all the rolling stock of the latter, of which the Troy & Boston company had before that time, by some arrangement, availed itself for doing its business. This arrangement gave to the Rensselaer & Saratoga company thirty-one locomotives, six hundred freight cars, and forty-seven passenger cars, which became available to the Rutland & Burlington road in its business, while the Troy and Boston company had only twelve engines, one hundred and eighty-five freight cars, and nine pas senger cars. For years the Troy & Boston company has been unable or unwilling to allow its freight cars to pass East of Rutland, which required the unlading and reloading at Rutland of freight arriving in the Troy & Boston cars, over the Western Vermont road and destined for the East, and had given your memorialists notice that it would not contribute towards the expenses of maintaining an agency for the East and West line,unless the Rutland & Burlington would bind itself by contract to send all its through business East and West and North and South over the Western Vermont and Troy & Boston roads. It was clearly impossible for your memorialists, with their present inadequate supply of locomotives and cars, to divide their resources and establish and operate two through lives, and they were obliged to elect and make their arrangements with that company which could afford them those essential facilities in which they were lacking; or else to sacrifice the interests of the trust they had in charge, out of a chivalrous regard to the interests of a foreign corporation,* which could give nothing in return, and which, in its management of a Vermont road, had hitherto failed to secure general confidence or favor.

The result of this arrangement with the Rensselaer & Saratoga has been very largely to increase the business and income of the Rutland & Burlington road, and to furnish much better and more reliable facilities for travel and business.

Your memorialists might urge other reasons for making the arrangement with the Rensse laer & Saratoga-reasons growing out of the character of the management of the Western *! Vermont road by the Troy & Boston company, of which it may be sufficient to say, that this management has been illiberal, capricious, unreliable, and in every way embarrassing to your memorialists in the management of the trust they have in charge; while at the same time the public has been burdened by narrower rules of business and higher fares than by any other railroad in Vermont; a result explainable by the fact, that of all the railroads in Vermont, the Western Vermont road alone, is now run solely in a foreign interest.

It is true that the practice of your memorialists, since said arrangement, has been as to two of its day trains from the north, to leave a car at Center Rutland, containing the passen gers destined for Whitehall, Saratoga, Troy, New York and the West; and the conductors are required to, and do make proclamation, in order to prevent any misunderstanding by the passengers. After leaving this car the train proceeds at once to Rutland depot, and makes a connection with the Western Vermont road; passengers who wish to take this road have only to remain in that part of the train proceeding to Rutland. This car is left at Center Rutland in order to save two miles unnecessary travel to the Rutland depot, and the same in return, thereby reducing the distance from Center Rutland to Troy to seven miles against the Rensselaer & Saratoga, and two miles in favor of the Rutland & Washington road, as compared with the Western Vermont and Troy & Boston roads from Rutland. But no person by this or any of our arrangements, is compelled “against his wishes," to take the one route rather than the other to Troy. The Troy & Boston company has ticket offices established at

Burlington and Montreal, and its tickets are sold over its line at offices along the Central and Ogdensburgh Railroad, the company paying a commission to its agents for selling such tickets, rather than offering an inducement to the public to travel its route by a reduction of its fares. Tickets sold at these points by the Troy & Boston company over its line to Troy, have in no case been refused to be received of the passengers over the Rensselaer & Saratoga road, and your memorialists understand that the Troy & Boston has hitherto received of its passengers like tickets issued for passage over the Rensselaer & Saratoga road. Both routes are equally open to all who choose to travel either.

It is also true, that by the time-tables as at present arranged, the Troy & Boston train from Rutland, by one of the daily trains, running as an express, making but four stops and running the whole distance, eighty-four miles, in two hours and forty-five minutes, would arrive at Troy some fifty-five minutes earlier than the Rensselaer & Saratoga. But the latter train arrives in Troy in season to connect with both the Harlem and Hudson River trains for New York, and connects both at Troy and Schenectady with the evening trains going West over the New York Central. Troy is but a way-station for the great amount of travel which passes over both the lines in question; and what advantage is it to the traveler to New York, or the West, to lounge in the depot at Troy for an hour, waiting for the starting of the train which shall take him to his destination?

It is true, also, that by the time-tables, as at present arranged, one of the Troy & Boston trains reaches Rutland an hour and a half earlier than the Rensselaer & Saratoga. But this train is run by the Troy & Boston company like the other, as an express train, making but three or four stops between Troy and Rutland. But to what end, as this train connects with nothing at Rutland, unless to show at what unnecessary speed over an imperfect track its train can be run, and so make a point before the Legislature as against your memorialists in connection with the Rensselaer & Saratoga, it is difficult to see. The Rensselaer & Saratoga trains are run with all that speed which, in the judgment of your memorialists, is consistent with the proper use of the road, and safety to the traveling public; and since by an earlier arrival at Rutland, nothing could be gained for through travel, your memorialists trust, that so long as the business of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad is connected with the management of the Rensselaer & Saratoga, that road will enter into no insane strife with the Troy & Boston, to determine which can run the fastest and yet bring in its passengers, poradventure, alive.

It is true, that, at some times heretofore, during the summer season, the train from New York and Troy reaching Rutland in the afternoon, has been so run as to connect with the Vermont Central at Burlington, and thus reach Montreal the same night. Your memorialists are not responsible for any change is this respect. By a change in the time of leaving New York by the Hudson River to some half hour later, and by the time-tables as arranged by the Troy & Boston and the Vermont Central Railroads, only two hours and five minutes was left for the Rutland & Burlington road, including the change at Rutland and all necessary stops on the way, to make its connections with the Vermont Central at Burlington, a distance of sixty-seven miles. In case the Troy & Boston train was behind time, as sometimes happened, this, too brief a time under any circumstances, became quite too short for the occasion.

Your memorialists endeavored to gain further time by an arrangement with the Vermont Central to delay the departure of its train from Burlington, but were unable to do so. After trying the experiment of making this connection for some two or three weeks, and after frequently failing, with their best endeavors to make the connections at Burlington, your memorialists abandoned it as wholly impracticable, as it involved the necessity of running their trains at a speed which was perilous to life, and ruinous to the road and its machinery. Under the present arrangement of the night trains, the passenger starts from New York two hours earlier, makes a sure connection at Burlington, which under the old arrangement was quite uncertain, reaching Montreal at the same time as under the former arrangement, and rides at far less peril of life and limb.

It is not true, that your memorialists have ever refused to take the sleeping ear at Rutland from the Troy & Boston company, and draw it over the Rutland & Burlington road as formerly. It was the manager of the Troy & Boston company, and not your memorialists, who obliged the passengers in his sleeping car to get up and dress at Rutland a little after midnight and take another car," your memorialists then being ready and willing and expectIng" to take along the sleeping car as formerly."

It is not true, that your memorialists have refused to take the freight cars arriving at Rutland and transport them on to Bellows Falls towards Boston for no other reason than that they reach Rutland by the Western Vermont instead of the Rensselaer & Saratoga roads." No such reason has influenced your memorialists in the matter referred to in the document in question; but their road is open to all business which may come to it from any quarter on reasonable terms, and they desire all such, to the extent of the road's capacity.

The matter referred to can only be this:-Your memorialists had been accustomed to pay all back charges on freight arriving at Rutland, and had made large advances therefor, amounting sometimes to $75,000 per month. Your memorialists had observed, that the Troy & Boston company had been accustomed to send its most valuable and highest priced freights to Boston by way of North Adams, and to send to Boston via Rutland its less profitable freights, some of which were billed through at such very low rates as not to pay the expense of hauling. This became a matter of complaint on the part of the roads with which the Rutland & Burlington is connected, leading to Boston. Accordingly your memorialists gave notice to the manager of the Troy & Boston road, that they could not any longer take such freights at such prices, nor advance the back charges; but they would forward the goods, collecting all charges and deducing their own proper charges for freight therefrom, and accounting for the balance. Without reply to this notice in any way, certain cars of freight

arrived at Rutland over the Troy & Boston and Western Vermont roads, and were temporarily set by the Troy & Boston employees upon the tracks of the Rutland & Burlington road, but before your memorialists had opportunity to act in the matter, or to take the cars, they were drawn off upon he tracks of the Troy & Boston company, and were never in fact delivered to your memorialists.

But notwithstanding such notice, not to disappoint shippers and interfere with contracts already made, your memorialists have continued to do this business as formerly, taking their pro rata compensation.

It is a remarkable peculiarity of the document in question, that its author is unable to cite or state a single fact which tends to show that any person along the line of the Western Vermont road, or any citizen of Vermont has suffered any loss, or even inconvenience, from the arrangements of your memorialists with the Rensselaer & Saratoga roads. Every man along the line of the Western Vermont road has had his goods and his person carried when and where he pleased, and at as cheap a rate as the Troy & Boston chose to impose, and if he has been borne along more swiftly than over other roads, let him rejoice in that. The greivances complained of, as set forth, are only such as affect, in the present tense, the gains of the Troy & Boston corporation; while, as bearing upon the interests of the people along the line of the Western Vermont road, they are not claimed to be presently oppressive, but they are set forth by way of anticipation and apprehension of what may happen in the future, and indirectly, from an inadequacy of income from through business to support and keep the road in operation, these fears in the judgment of your memorialists, are wholly groundless. This very respectable committee and the good people along the line of the Western Vermont road and the present proprietor of that road, have meantime the satisfaction of knowing that the Troy & Boston is bound to run the road for some fitteen months longer, paying the stipulated rent, and that the less its track is worn by a through business in which these people have no share or interest, the more valuable will be the property both to its owner and the public when the Troy & Boston company shall be obliged to restore it.

Whenever that day shall come, and the Bennington and Rutland road shall fall under the care and management of a Vermont interest, your memorialists indulge the hope that such arrangements may be made between all these great interests as shall be mutually satisfactory, and be at the same time satisfactory to the public-an arrangement which your memorialists see no difficulty in affecting, and which they will gladly favor.

In the mean time your memorialists respectfully protest against the measures of supposed relief suggested in the document in question,

lat. As unnecessary.

2d. As unjust to the trust which your memorialists represent.

3d. As an unwise interference with that discretion and liberty of action in the management of a business which has private interests and responsibilities, as well as public relations -undertaking to determine by law how and with what parties railroad managers shall make their contracts; whom they shall trust; to what extent of imposition they shall submit; and what sacrifices to themselves and the public they shall undergo; or rather determining that they shall trust all alike, and submit to all impositions and sacrifices without resistance-an undertaking involving the necessity of fixing, by legislation, the prices of doing business, of adjusting the time-tables of all the railroads in Vermont, and elsewhere, and direcing how inany trains shall be run, and at what precise times and what connections be made with the trains of other roads. The thing is as impossible of execution as it is undesirable to attempt. Trustees under the Second Deed of Trust,

EDWIN A. BIRCHARD, of the Rutland & Burlington Railroad Company.

JOHN B. PAGE,

Rutland, October 25, 1865.

RESOLVES OF THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS ON THE SUBJECT OF FISHERIES.

(Referred to on Page 88 of the Journal.)

Resolved, That his Excellency, the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the council, is authorized to appoint two commissioners, whose duty it shall be to cause observations to be made, during the months of May and June, of the height of the water upon the crests of the dams at Lowell, Lawrence and Holyoke, the heights of the flash boards upon said dams, respectively, the right of the owners to maintain such flash boards, and if they are uniformly maintained thereon during said months; also to ascertain the extent and degree of the discoloration of the water of said rivers below said dams, caused by the discharge of dye stuffs and other noxious matter therein from the manufactories, and the effects of such matter upon the water and the fish inhabiting the same; and further to make inquiries and ascertain the best mode of constructing fish ways over said dams, the expense of the same, and such further facts touching fish-ways and their usefulness in aiding the passage of fish over obstructions, as said commissioners may deem useful or expedient.

Resolved, That said commissioners communicate with such commissioners as may be appointed by the states of New Hampshire and Vermont, upon the subject embraced in these resolutions; ascertain the legislation which has, from time to time, taken place in those states concerning the erection of dams in either of said rivers, and the height of said dams respectively, if fish ways suitable for the passage of shad and salmon exist in said dams, or any of them, and if said states possess the right to maintain, or cause to be maintained, suitable fishways for the passage of such fish up said rivers to their sources, or to any and what extent. Resolved, That said commissioners ascertain, so far as practicable, the supply of shad and salmon in said rivers previous to any obstructions being placed therein, when such supply began to fail, and the causes generally assigned for such failure, with such further information touching the value of the fisheries and the habits of the fish as may be attainable.

Resolved, That said commissioners make a report of their doings to the governor and council on or before the first day of December next.

Resolved, That the obligation of the Essex company to rebuild a fish-way in their dam on Merrimac River, in accordance with their charter and the prescription of the county comInissioners of Essex county, be suspended until the first day of July, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.

Resolved, That his Excellency, the Governor, be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the governors of the states of New Hampshire and Vermont.

RESOLVES OF THE LEGISLATURE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ON THE SUBJECT OF FISHERIES.

(Referred to on Page 88 of the Journal.)

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives and General Court convened :

That the attention of the state of Connecticut be respectfully invited to the subject of the improvident destruction of the shad in the Connecticut river, and especially near its mouth, by means of gill-nets and otherwise, and that the state be earnestly requested, as matter of comity between sister states, to so regulate the fishing in that river as to allow the free and unobstructed passage of all kinds of sea-fish into it, during such portion of the time as will be sufficient to stock the upper waters of that river and its tributaries with a reasonable supply of fish.

Resolved, That his Excellency, the Governor, be requested to transmit to the governor of the state of Connecticut, and also of the states of Massachusetts and Vermont, copies of these resolutions, with a request that they be laid before their respective legislatures.