Chap. 0251 An Act authorizing the erection of a Second Hospital for the Insane. 

BE it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :

Sect. 1. His excellency the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, is hereby authorized and empowered to appoint a board of three commissioners, who shall purchase an eligible site in such section of the Commonwealth as the said commissioners may deem expedient, and cause to be erected thereon a suitable hospital for the care and cure of the insane ; the accommodations of such hospital to be sufficient for two hundred and fifty patients, a superintendent and steward, their families, and all the necessary subordinate officers ; and the said commissioners shall have power to make all contracts and employ all agents necessary to carry into effect the powers hereinbefore granted: provided, that the aggregate amount of expenses and liabilities, incurred by virtue of the said powers, shall not exceed the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. And the said commissioners shall present all their accounts to the governor and council, to be by them audited and allowed, from time to time, as they shall deem proper.

Sect. 2. In order to defray any expenses incurred in pursuance of the preceding section, or to repay any sums borrowed as hereinafter authorized, the treasurer is hereby empowered, under the direction of the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, to issue scrip, or certificates of debt, in the name and behalf of the Commonwealth, and under his signature and the seal of the Commonwealth, to an amount not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, bearing an interest of five per cent., payable semiannually, on the first days of April and October, with warrants for the interest attached thereto, signed by the treasurer, which scrip or certificates shall be redeemable on the first day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and shall be countersigned by the governor of the Commonwealth, and be deemed a pledge of the faith and credit of the Commonwealth for the redemption thereof. And the treasurer may, under the direction of the governor and council, dispose of any portion of the said scrip at any price not less than its original par value.

Sect. 3. Such surplus of the Western Railroad Stock Sinking Fund as may remain after the redemption of the stock issued by the Commonwealth to defray the amount of its subscription as a stockholder of the Western Railroad, together with one-half of the proceeds of such public lands in the state of Maine as may be sold after the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, shall constitute a sinking fund for the redemption of the scrip issued as hereinbefore authorized, until such fund shall amount, with all interest accrued thereon, to the sum of one hundred thousand dollars.

Sect. 4. The treasurer, under the direction of the governor and council, may borrow, in anticipation of the issue of any of the scrip authorized as above, of any of the banks of this Commonwealth, or of any corporations or individuals, such sums as may be necessary for any of the purposes of this act: provided, that the whole amount borrowed by authority hereof, and remaining \mpaid, shall at no time exceed the amount of one hundred thousand dollars.   [Approved by the Governor, May 24, 1851.]