“ Although the obligations of such a contract are protected by the Federal Constitution from impairment by the state, the contract itself is not property, which, as such, can be transferred by the owner to another, because, being personal to him with whom it was made, it is incapable of assignment. The person with whom the contract is made by the state may continue to enjoy its benefits unmolested as long as he chooses, but there his rights end, and he cannot, by any form of conveyance, transmit the contract or its benefits to a successor. ”

“ It is insisted that this is not a case of transfer of an exemption; that the rules governing transfer are not applicable here; that the Brighton Railroad has not ceased to exist as a corporation; that it has been merely joined by merger with the Rochester Railroad, which controls it by stock holdings, and operates it by virtue of its franchises; and that, therefore, the Rochester Railroad may claim and enjoy the exemption of the Brighton Railroad in its behalf in respect of its property. ”

“ That question would be presented if the Brighton Railroad, instead of a successor in title, were claiming an exemption. Here a corporation deriving its right to exist under the act of 1884 is asserting an exemption from a duty imposed upon it by the law which created it. The authorities are numerous and conclusive that no corporation can receive, by transfer from another, an exemption from taxation or governmental regulation which is inconsistent with its own charter or with the Constitution or laws of the state then applicable ”

“ The court held that the powers, rights, and privileges granted to the Cheraw & Darlington Railroad Company were those contained in the amendment of the charter, as well as those contained in the original charter, and said, by Mr. Justice Hunt: 'All the 'privileges,' as well as powers and rights, of the prior company, were granted to the latter. A more important or more comprehensive privilege than a perpetual immunity from taxation can scarcely be imagined. ”

“ The meaning is not enlarged, as faintly suggested, by the expression in the statute that they are to be held by the successor 'fully and entirely, and without change and diminution,'-words of unnecessary emphasis, without which all included in 'estate, property, rights, rivileges, and franchises' would pass, and with which nothing more could pass. On the contrary, it appears, as clearly as it did in the Phoenix Fire Insurance Company Case, that the legislature intended to use the words 'rights, franchises, and privileges' in the restricted sense. ”

“ The foregoing considerations would be conclusive of the case were it not that the plaintiff in error takes another position, which, if tenable, would avoid the result reached by either course of reasoning. ”