LAWS OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK, PASSED AT THE SEVENTY-SECOND SESSION OF THE LEGIS- Chapter 1. AN ACT to incorporate the trustees of the Astor Library. Passed January 18, 1849. The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: created. § 1. The mayor of the city of New-York for the time being in Corporation respect to his office, and Washington Irving, William B. Astor, Daniel Lord, James G. King, Joseph G. Cogswell, Fitzgreen Halleck, Samuel B. Ruggles, Samuel Ward, Charles A. Bristed and their successors, are hereby created and declared to be à body corporate, by the name and style of "The Trustees of the Name and Astor Library;" by which name they and their successors may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, contract and be contracted with, and be known in all courts and places whatever, and may also have a common seal, and change and alter the same at pleasure. style. trustees. § 2. The direction and management of the affairs of the said Affairs to be corporation, and the control and disposal of its property and funds managed by shall be vested in the said trustees and their successors. The number of such trustees shall be eleven: and they are hereby empowered, 1. To receive from the executors of the will of John Jacob To receive $400,000 Astor, as recorded with the codicils thereto annexed, in the office from the of the surrogate of the city and county of New-York, the sum of executors of four hundred thousand dollars, by him therein bequeathed for the J. J. Astor. To erect building To purchase books. To invest the residue of the money. expenditure, establishment of a public library in said city; including in said sum the price of the site, selected for the said library, on the easterly side of La Fayette Place in said city, as authorised by the said testator; which site, with its appurtenances, the said corporation is hereby empowered to take and hold in fee simple for the purpose of the said library, and on condition to be applied and used therefor. . 2. To expend a portion of the said sum, not exceeding seventy. five thousand dollars, in erecting and maintaining upon the said site a building suitable for a public library. 3. To expend a further amount, not exceeding one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, in the purchase of books, maps, charts, models, drawings, paintings, engravings, casts, statues, furniture, and other things appertaining to a library for general use. 4. To invest the residue of said sum of four hundred thousand dollars as a fund for paying the value of the site of the building and for maintaining and gradually increasing the said library, and to defray the necessary expenses of taking care of the same, and of the accommodation of persons consulting the library. And in case the income of the fund shall at any time exceed the amounts which the said trustees may find useful to expend for the purposes above named and particularised, then to expend such surplus in procuring public lectures to be delivered in connection with the library, upon useful subjects of literature, philosopy, science, history, and the fine arts, or in promoting in any other mode the objects of the institution as above expressed. To direct the 5. To direct the expenditure of the funds, and the investment, investment safekeeping and management thereof, and of the property and and manage-effects of the said corporation; also to make such ordinances and ment funds. Library to be free of expense. Funds how to be invest ed. regulations from time to time, as the said trustees may think proper for the good order and convenience of those who may resort to the library or use the same; to make such by-laws as may be necessary and convenient in conducting the business of the said corporation; to appoint, direct, control, and at their pleasure remove a superintendent of the library and all librarians and other persons necessary to be employed about the same, and in general to have and use all powers and authority necessary for promoting the objects of the institution as expressed in the said will and codicils of the said John Jacob Astor. § 3. The said library shall be accessible at all reasonable hours and times for general use, free of expense to persons resorting thereto, subject only to such control and regulations as the said trustees from time to time may exercise and establish for general convenience. § 4. All investments of the funds of the said corporation shall be made in bonds secured by mortgage of productive real estate, or in the public debt of the United States, or of the States of the Union, or of the city of New-York, or of portions thereof in any of those modes, except that in the investment in said public debts preference shall be given according to the order in which they are herein above named. subject to § 5. The said corporation shall be subject to the visitation of Corporation any courts of justice which now are or hereafter may be thereunto visitation of empowered, for the purpose of preventing and redressing any mismanagement, waste, or breach of trust. courts. elect a presi § 6. The said trustees shall elect one of their number to preside Trustees to over their board, who shall hold such office during their pleasure, dent and seand they may also appoint and at any time remove a secretary cretary, &c. and any other officers which their business may require. The acts of a majority of the trustees at any meeting duly notified according to the by-laws, shall be valid. Any vacancies in the number of said trustees occurring by death, resignation, incapacity or removal from this state, shall be filled by persons to be appointed by the remaining trustees or a majority of them, except that the mayor of the city of New-York, during his continuance in office, shall always be a trustee. The trustees shall not receive To receive any compensation for their services, except that if any one of their no pay. number shall at any time be superintendent, he may receive compensation as such. and hold § 7. The said corporation may take and hold any additional May take donations, grants, devises or bequests, which may be made in donations. further support of the said library, or the lectures or literary and scientific objects connected therewith. exempt from be insured. § 8. The property, real and personal, of the said corporation, The proshall be exempt from taxation, in the same manner as that of the typer other incorporated public libraries of this state and it shall be taxation and the duty of the said trustees to effect such insurances as can be obtained upon such buildings and library, and other property against loss by fire or otherwise, and pay the expense thereof out of the fund described in the fourth sub-division of section second of this act. made. § 9. The said trustees shall in the month of January in every Annual reyear make a report to the Legislature for the year ending on the port to be thirty-first day of December preceding, of the condition of the said library, of the funds and other property of the corporation and of its receipts and expenditures during such year. trustees. § 10. If any debts of the said corporation lawfully contracted, Liability of shall not be paid out of its funds when due, the trustees shall be individually liable for such funds to the creditors in such cases, and to such extent as they would be if not incorporated. Calls may be made on stockholders. Provision in case of ne such calls. Chap. 2. AN ACT to provide for the filling up of the stock of the Fireman's Insurance Company of the city of Albany, and reducing the number of its directors. Passed January 18, 1849. The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: § 1. It shall be lawful for the Fireman's Insurance Company of the city of Albany, the capital of which has been impaired by losses, occasioned by the fire on the seventeenth day of August last, within one year after the passing of this act, to make calls upon the stockholders for such amounts as will make their capital equal to the sum fixed in the charter of the company, as necessary to commence and carry on their business. § 2. In case any stockholder shall refuse or neglect to pay such glect or re- calls after notice personally given, or by advertisement, (in such fusal to pay time and manner as one of the justices of the supreme court residing in the city of Albany shall approve,) it shall be lawful for such corporation to require the return of the original certificates of stock held by such stockholder, and in lieu thereof to issue new certificates for such number of shares as the said stockholder may be entitled to, in the proportion that the ascertained value of the funds of said corporation may be found to bear to the said capital of the said corporation, paying for fractional parts or shares, and to create new stock to be paid for or secured by such bonds and mortgages or stocks required by their charter, and issue certificates therefor, sufficient to make up the said capital of the said corporation. Vacancies how to be filled. Right to repeal. § 3. The powers of the board of directors to fill vacaney or vacancies for the remainder of the year, in case of the death, resignation or inability to serve of any director is hereby suspended until the number of directors shall be reduced to thirteen. The directors to be appointed annually, shall not exceed the number in office, at the time of the first publication of the notice of the election, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen, which shall thereafter be the number of directors; and hereafter seven of the directors shall be a quorum for the transaction of business; all parts of the said charter inconsistent herewith, and also the provisions therein requiring a majority of the directors to be firemen, are hereby repealed. § 4. This act shall take effect immediately: and the Legislature may at any time alter, modify or repeal the same. Chap. 3. AN ACT to provide for the construction of a bridge across the Passed January 18, 1849, "three-fifths being present." The People of the State of New-York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: county. § 1. The board of supervisors of the county of Chautauque are Money to be raised by hereby required at their next annual meeting, to cause to be levied tax in Chauand collected upon the taxable property of said county the sum tauque of one thousand dollars, for the purpose of constructing a bridge across the Cattaraugus creek at upper Irving; and the board of supervisors of the county of Erie are hereby required at their In Erie next annual meeting, to cause to be levied and collected upon the taxable property of said county of Erie, or of such towns and wards thereof, and in such proportions as they shall deem just and equitable, for the purpose of constructing said bridge, the sum of one thousand dollars. county. commissi oners. § 2. Orson Styles of the county of Chautauque, and Job South- Building wick, and Joseph L. Christy of the county of Erie, are appointed commissioners to superintend the building of said bridge and expend the money hereby provided, in such manner as they may deem most expedient; and upon their orders the county treasurers of the said counties shall pay to them the money as from time to time the same may be required for the construction of said bridge; and in case the whole of said sums hereby provided to be raised is not required for said bridge, equal sums shall be drawn from the treasurers of said counties, and the remainder of said sums be credited to the towns in the proportions in which they were collected by the treasurers. Their bond. §3. The said commissioners shall receive from the money provided by this act, for the time actually employed by them in the execution of their duties, the sum of one dollar and a quarter a day; and before they enter upon their duties they shall execute To give and deposit with the county treasurer of the county in which he or they may live, a bond, satisfactory to him, conditioned for the faithful performance of their trust, and they shall from time to time account to the board of supervisors of each of said counties for the moneys received by them under this act, when required by said boards. pay. |