V HAY v. ALEXANDRIA as W. B. G0. 17
city, on the Potomac river. It is less than four miles long, but it is
the important link which connects all railroads north with all rail-
roads south of the Potomac river, which lie east of the Blue ridge
mountains. The width of ground originally condemned for its con-
struction was 50 feet. Its original track was laid on the east side of
this strip of land. It lies wholly in the county of Alexandria, Vir-
ginia. The company owning it was chartered on February 27, 1854.
Acts Assembly Va. 1853-54, c. 63, p. 41. Its financial condition
has always been exceptionally feeble, and its affairs and transactions
have been the subject of varied and continued litigation in all courts
in which they were cognizable. On the nineteenth of April, 1855,
this company, having determined to issue bonds for raising money
with which to build and equip its road; and the city of Washington
having agreed to guarantee the payment of a portion of the bonds,
the company executed a trust deed conveying its franchises, road,
and property to J. H. and A. T. Bradley as trustees, for the purpose
of securing the city in its guarantee. Owing to some imperfection in
this deed a second or.e ratifying and confirming it was executed on
the tenth of July, 1857, and recorded in the Alexandria county court
on the twenty·third of July, 1857. The guarantee of the city of
Washington was given by authority of an act of its board of alder-
men and board of common council passed February 8, 1855, expressly
conferring it. It is averred in the briefs of counsel that this act of
the Washington councils was ultra vines, inasmuch as the charter of
the city then in force, (that of May 17, 1848,) in its tenth section ‘
contains the following conditional provision :
" The corporation shall not have power to increase the present fundeddebt
of the corporation either by borrowing money or otherwise, unless it shall be
agreed to do so by two-thirds of the legal voters of the said city at an annual
election."
No such vote was ever taken. Some years after this guarantee
was given, when the bonds matured for payment, the corporation of
Washington paid them, principal and interest, and now holds them,
having cancelled and cut out its own signature to the bonds.
On the thirty-nrst of December, 1856, the Alexandria & Washing-
ton Railroad Company executed to I. L. Kinzer, as trustee, a trust
deed conveying all its works and property to secure a bond of some
$15,000 to the holders thereof who were the firm in Alexandria of
Fowle, Snowden & Co. This deed was recorded on the third of April,
1857, nearly four months in advance of the Bradley deed. It was
acknowleged before and certified by William H. Fowle, as notary _
public, who was one of the directors of the company and a member A.
of the firm of Fowle, Snowden & Co. Walter Lennox, hereafter to
be mentioned, was also a director of the company and was present
at the execution of the Kinzer deed. Both Fowle & Lennox, as well A
as Snowden, of the firm of Fowle, Snowden & Co., had been directors
of thelcompany at, and cognizant of, the execution of the previous
v.20,no.1-—-2