and ferries. Although the State transfers to an individual or
a company its right to maintain a ferry or to build and maintain a
turnpike, and to compensate itself for its outlay by the collection of
tolls, the ferry and turnpike nevertheless remain highways, subject to
the control of the State.

The railroad partakes of two natures, that of a highway and that of a
common carrier. Railroad companies therefore enjoy the privileges and
assume the duties of both. The State justly exercises in behalf of such
companies the right of eminent domain, _i. e._, the right of the
sovereign to apply private property to public use; but it cannot
rightfully appropriate private property for private use, even if legal
compensation were to be made for it. It is only upon the theory that
railroads are highways, constructed for the public good and subject to
public control, that the State has authorized railroad companies to take
private property for their own use by paying for it a reasonable
compensation. A railroad may even take possession of and intersect a
public road for the purpose of carrying on its functions. But while the
sovereign may exercise the right of eminent domain, it cannot delegate
it to any individual or number of individuals, except to its agents,
performing its functions and being bound to comply with any rule which
may be prescribed for the public good. Under the common law the
individual is entitled to as full use of the railroad as he is of the
common highway. If he is not allowed to put on his own vehicle, this
restriction is simply due to the fact that the people believe that the
business can be done most safely, most economically and most
efficiently by one company or a limited number of companies operating
the road for a reasonable compensation. Nor does this restriction differ
materially from that which the law has placed upon the use of the common
road. Without legislative sanction no one has a right to put upon it a
team of elephants or a locomotive and train of cars, or other strange
motors, and thereby obstruct the public travel. These restrictions might
be removed by the legislative power, and there is also no doubt that
under the common law the State has the right to permit the independent
use of the railroad track by any person having motive power and cars
adapted to it. The persons and freight transported on the railroad are
taxed to maintain it, while in the case of the common road this tax is
place