All general laws relating to the taking of land for railroad purposes and to the location and construction of railroads, shall be applicable to and govern the proceedings in the taking and exchange of lands and property, and in the making of any new locations under the provisions of the foregoing sections, except that instead of the county commissioners three disinterested persons shall be appointed by the supreme judicial court for the county of Suffolk as a board of commissioners to determine the values of the lands and property so taken and exchanged or over which any such location may be made, and to adjudicate the damages to be paid by any of the others upon the taking, exchange or locations aforesaid, from whose decision an appeal shall be to a jury in behalf of either party, as provided by law in the case of lands taken for railroad purposes. Any sum of money received by the Fitchburg Railroad in said interchange of stations and tracks above the expense of necessary alterations shall be applied to procuring new terminal facilities and making improvements on said road or may be applied to the reduction of the capital stock of the Fitchburg Railroad Company in such manner as may be agreed between the Fitchburg Railroad Company and said board of trustees. SECT. 19. This act shall take effect upon its passage. SPEECH. MR. PRESIDENT: I am deeply impressed with the great importance of the question now before us for consideration. It is not local, not sectional, nor political, but a question that affects more or less directly the industrial, the mercantile, the manufacturing, and the commercial interests of the whole Commonwealth. The proper solution of this great problem rests with us, as the representatives of the people; and it is a responsibility of no ordinary importance, and one that should control our serious and earnest attention and our candid and best judgment, unbiased by any local or personal interest, with a solemn regard to our oaths to support and maintain the constitutional rights of the people of the Commonwealth. Stern convictions of duty alone induce me to address this honorable body on this occasion--duty that I feel incumbent upon me, Mr. President, from the honored position that I received at your hands. It is well known that I neither have or make any claims as a public speaker, and I must ask your indulgence for being somewhat dependent upon my notes in presenting to you an honest statement of my own convictions of this great question, having no other interest to serve but the State and her people. This important subject involves directly the whole question of the railroad policy of this Commonwealth; and here in Massachusetts the proper direction of the railroad policy is even more important than at the West, where it now engages the public attention almost to the exclusion of other interests.