Texas Mexican Railway Co. v. Jarvis

Citations

• 69 Tex. 527
• 7 S.W. 210
• 1888 Tex. LEXIS 891

Syllabus

<p>1. Public Domain. — Land included within the bounds of a grant emanating from the government of Spain in 1767, and situated in Texas, is not subject to appropriation by land certificates issued by the State.</p> <p>2. Founding OP Laredo. — The town of Laredo was founded in 1767 by a commission appointed by the Marquis of Croix, then Viceroy of New Spain. That commission apportioned the lands that should be held in common, surveyed the town, apportioned the land to he held in private right, designated the grounds for public use, fixed the town exidos, provided for the organization of municipal government, and established porciones of land outside of the exidos for the benefit of such as might receive them.</p> <p>3. Location op Laredo in 1767. — The visita general of that commission shows that sixty-four porciones were then surveyed, and that the town of Laredo was located on both sides of the Rio Grande, on lands then presumably within the then province of Nuevo Santander.</p> <p>4 Preamble to Act op Legislation. — The preamble to a legislative act may be looked to in order to ascertain, when doubtful, the general purpose of the act, and may he regarded as the legislative declaration of the existence of a fact therein recited.</p> <p>5. Same. — The preamble to the act of April 24,1871 (Paschal’s Digest, page 1191), reveals its general purpose to have been to obtain and preserve evidence of at least the extent of old grants in the localities mentioned in the act, which were not archived in the general land office, and which the Legislature did not believe could be obtained elsewhere than in the archives at Laredo and the other towns mentioned in the act.</p> <p>6. Case Reviewed. — The decision in the State vs. Cuellar, 47 Texas, was rendered before the adoption of the Revised Statutes and under a rule of evidence more restrictive as applicable to archives than that which now exists.</p> <p>7. Evidence — Copies.—The copy of a testimonio of the visita general, which