1890, Pamph. L., p. 489). State, Duke Pros, v. Central N. J. Teleph. Co., 53 N. J. L. 341, 3 Am. Elec. Cas. 546, 21 Atl. 460, 547 et seq. In New York the Telegraph Law has been frequently amended, down to 1890, when an act (Laws 1890, c. 566, art. 8, § 100) was passed expressly including telephone companies and which was intended to embrace all electrical companies organized or which might organize under the Laws 1848 (chaps. 37, 40 and 265), as well also as other amendatory laws relating to or expressly including telephone or other electrical companies. See Barnard's Electrical Law of New York, Table of Statutes, pp. xxiii to xxvi, and § 24. In Nevada all telephone companies are subject to the restrictions and entitled to the privileges provided for in "An act to provide for constructing and maintaining telegraph lines in the State of Nevada." Approved February 9, 1866 (Stat. Nev. 1897, c. 23, § 1, p. 28). In North Carolina telephone companies and lines have the rights and privileges and are subject to the regulations prescribed for telegraph companies and lines in c. 49 of the Code (Pub. Laws N. Carolina, 1899, p. 216). In Ohio the provisions of the Telegraph Act (title 2, c. 4, Bates Annot. Ohio St. 1906, §§ 3454-3470) apply to telephone companies (Id., § 3471), and "every such company shall have the same powers and be subject to the same restrictions as are herein prescribed for magnetic telegraph companies," and this includes discrimination and eminent domain. State, Amer. Union Teleg. Co. v. Bell Teleph. Co., 36 Ohio St. 296, 1 Am. Elec. Cas. 299. Cited State, Webster v. Nebraska Teleph. Co., 17 Neb. 126, 22 N. W. 237, 1 Am. Elec. Cas. 700, 703. But see as to discrimination, State, Baltimore & Ohio Teleg. Co. v. The Bell Teleph. Co. (U. S. C. C., E. Dist., Mo., 1885), 23 Fed. 539. In South Carolina every corporation engaged in transmitting telegraphic messages is a telegraph company, and same statute (taxation) includes telephone companies (S. Carolina Laws, 1898, pp. 713, 714). In Tennessee telephone companies are within the Electric Act (Code Tenn., § 1787). In Virginia the statute (Code 1887, §§ 1287–1290), as to construction, maintenance, etc., on roads, streets and over waters includes telephone companies. 22 $ 12. Importance of telegraph and telephone. Both the telegraph and telephone have become almost indispensable as 66 a matter of public convenience and necessity. And an evidence of the value of the telegraph as a governmental and commercial instrumentality exists in the various acts of Congress, aiding this vehicle of public intelligence.2 "It may be safely said that there are thousands of persons, senders of messages, who are daily subjected to danger of loss by reason of delay or error in the transmission of telegraph messages, to one who, in the early history of the English law, relied upon the services of the common carrier." 3 "The electric telegraph marks an epoch in the progress of time. In a little more than a quarter of a century it has changed the habits of business and become one of the necessities of commerce. It is indispensable as a means of inter-communication, but especially is it so in commercial transactions. The statistics of the business show that more than 80 per cent. of all the messages sent by telegraph related to commerce. Goods are sold and money paid upon telegraphic orders, contracts are made by telegraphic correspondence, cargoes secured, and the movements of ships directed. The telegraphic announcement of the markets abroad regulates prices at home, and a prudent merchant rarely enters upon an important transaction without using the telegraph freely to secure information. It is not only important to the people, but to the Government. means of it the heads of the departments in Washington are kept in close communication with all their various agencies at home and abroad, and can know at almost any hour what is * * * 1 Illinois: Tyler V. Western Union Teleg. Co., 60 Ill. 421, 1 Am. Elec. Cas. 14, 26. Indiana: Hockett v. State, 105 Ind. 250, 257, 2 Am. Elec. Cas. 1, 7, 8, 5 N. E. 188, per Niblack, C. J.; Central Union Teleph. Co. v. Swoveland, 14 Ind. App. 341, 6 Am. Elec. Cas. 679, 689, 690, 42 N. E. 1035, per Reinhard, J. Maine: Bartlett V. Western Union Teleg. Co., 62 Me. 209, 1 Am. Elec. Cas. 45, 48, 52, per Danforth, J. Maryland: Chesapeake & Potomac Teleg. Co., etc. v. By The Baltimore & Ohio Teleg. Co., 2 See c. 3 herein. 3 Western Un. Teleg. Co. v. Allen, 66 Miss. 549, 6 So. 461, 3 Am. Elec. Cas. 676, 680, per Cooper, J. 4 This was in 1877. transpiring anywhere that affects the interest they have in charge."5 * * * 8 § 13. Nature of telegraph - Generally - Postal service.It is declared in a Georgia case that "the business of telegraphing consists merely in receiving orders for work and labor, and executing them. The sender of a message gives an order for certain work to be done, and the telegraph company undertakes to do it." Again it has been said that "communication by telegraph is commerce as well as in the nature of postal service," and that "with few exceptions imposed by public exigency, it is governed by the law of the mail. Messages must be sent in the order of their handing in, without favor or partiality, without delay, and without reference to the value of the interests to be affected." So again, “There is no such analogy between the transmission of communications by mail and their transmission by telegraph, as would justify the application to the latter of the principles which obtain respect to the former, and certainly penal statutes in relation to the one cannot by the courts be declared applicable to the other." In another case it is declared of the system of telegraphy that "unlike any industry or enterprise that had ever been in use before (it) may justly be considered and treated as standing alone, a system unto itself. The nearest approach to any similar enterprise is the system of carrying letters by mail; but as this has been taken in charge and performed by the United States Government since its inception, and its acts or omissions cannot be subject of judicial inquiry, we can find no precedent in this country to aid in the solution of the questions that are directing the courts. with 9 * * Any attempt to apply to such a novel system legal principles adapted to pursuits and occupations which are dissimilar in their nature, and designed for the accomplishment of different purposes must naturally result in failure and confusion." 10 But the functions of the telegraph differ from those of the post-office in many respects. In the former there is more liability to error owing to atmospheric changes, thunder storms and other natural and uncontrollable causes, preventing absolute and entire accuracy, even though the greatest care be exercised, and the most skillful servants and agents, and the most effective apparatus, at present known, be employed. Again, it is the writen missive itself which is sent through the post-office to the address thereon - there is a physical transfer of the thing itself. In the case of the telegraph, while the message is delivered to the telegraph company for transmission, yet the operator undertakes to transcribe a message written according to one method of notation in characters entirely different, and he is separated by distance from the paper from which he writes, so that he cannot at the time discern or correct any mistakes, but must have the copy sent back to compare with the message given for transmission. 11 In England, the Telegraph Act 12 provides "that the Postmaster-General, by him 10 The Western Un. Teleg. Co. v. Hyer, 22 Fla. 637, 2 Am. Elec. Cas. 484, 490, 491, 1 So. 129, per the chief justice, a case of delay of a cipher telegram, the duty of the company, and damages. 11 Primrose v. Western Un. Teleg. Co., 154 U. S. 1, 5 Am. Elec. Cas. 809, 823, per Mr. Justice Gray, quoting from Passmore v. Western Un. Teleg. Co., 78 Penn. St. 242, 1 Am. Elec. Cas. 172, 173, per Hare, P. J. The former case was one of an unrepeated message, the right to limit liability and error in a cipher despatch. The latter case was one of limitation of liability for error or delay in unrepeated message. 12 1869 (32 and 33 Vict., 73). "The expression 'telegraph acts' includes the Telegraph Act, 1863, the Telegraph Act Amendment Act, 1866, the Telegraph Act, 1868, the Telegraph Act, 1869, the Telegraph Act, 1870, this act and any acts or parts of acts incorporated with such acts or referred to therein, any or either of them, and such several acts may be cited together as "The Telegraph Acts, 1863 to 1878," Telegraph Act 1878, 41 and 42 Vict., c. 76. For other acts relating to telegraphs, telephones and submarine cables see The Post Office (Protection) Act 1884, 47 and 48 Vict. c. 76. The Submarine Telegraph Act, 1885, 48 and 49 Vict. c. 49, The Telegraph Act, 1885, 48 and 49 Vict. c. 58, being "An act to amend the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to |