Act of Incorporation.

AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN. Passed March 15, 1859.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate.and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1. The members of the Mercantile Library Association of the City of Brooklyn, and all persons who shall hereafter be associated with them, are hereby created a body corporate by the name of the "MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN," for the purpose of establishing and maintaining a library, reading-room, literary and scientific lectures and classes, and other means for promoting mutual improvement, with power for such purpose to take by purchase, devise, or otherwise, and to hold, transfer, mortgage, and convey, real and personal property; and also further to take, hold, and convey all such books, cabinets, library furniture, and apparatus as may be necessary for attaining the objects and carrying into effect the purposes of the said corporation, not to exceed in the aggregate of real and personal property the value or sum of one hundred thousand dollars.

Section 2. The control and disposal of the funds, property, and estate, and the direction and management of the affairs of the said corporation, shall be vested in a Board of Fourteen Directors, of which Board the President, Vice-President, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, and Treasurer, shall be members; all of whom, and three Inspectors to serve at the next succeeding election, shall be elected annually at the time and in the manner provided for by the Constitution of the said corporation, and shall hold office until their successors shall be elected.

Section 3. The Board of Directors, including the officers of the said Association at the time of the passage of this act, shall continue to hold their said respective offices of the Directors and officers of the corporation hereby created, until the annual election, to be held on the Thursday next succeeding the last Thursday in March, eighteen hundred and sixty: and all property, real or personal, funds, or securities now held by the said Directors or officers, or either or any of them, or any other person or persons, in trust for the said Association or for use and benefit of the same, shall, by virtue of this act, vest in and become the property of, and may be sued for and recovered in the name of, the corporation hereby created; and the said corporation shall assume and be liable for all contracts, agreements, and liabilities which have been entered into or incurred previous to the passage of this act by the Directors or officers of the said Association, or either or any of them, lawfully acting in behalf of the said Association.

Section 4. All vacancies in the Board of Directors or any of the officers of the said corporation, which may from time to time happen, shall be filled as the said corporation shall, in and by its Constitution, direct and appoint.

Section 5. The estate, property, and funds of the said corporation shall be devoted solely to the general purposes and objects specified in the first section of this act; and while so used, all of said property, except the real estate of the said corporation, shall be exempt from taxation.

Section 6. The said corporation shall possess the powers and be subject to the provisions and liabilities of the third title of the eighteenth chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes.

Section 7. This act shall take effect immediately.