the Legislature, and all statutes must be construed
according to the intention of the body enacting them."'

Therefore, in giving construction to the general
railroad act, before the amendment of 1886, supra, it
could hardly be claimed, even under the most general
power contained in section 25, that there was any
right intended to be conferred upon railroad cor-
porations to take either the canal lands of the
State or the lands upon which stand the Capitol
and the armories and prisons of the State, and
lands of like character, which would, it seems to me,
have included the lands in actual use and neces-
sary for the purposes of the State reservation at
Niagara. At any rate I do not think that the
exception of these lands, together with the Con-
course lands on Coney Island by the act of 1866,
which may have been done out of more abundant
caution, can be said to have operated as a grant to
take the other lands mentioned by mere force of the
legal maxim, " expressio unius est exclusio alterius."

Before concluding this report it is proper that I
should call the attention of the commissioners to an
opinion of the Attorney -General, found at page 137
of the printed proceedings of this board for the
year 1888.
