When the company shall intend to apply for the consent of two justices, as herein-before provided, so as to authorize them to carry the railway across any highway other than a public carriage road on the level, they shall, fourteen days at least previous to the holding of the petty sessions at which such application is intended to be made, cause notice of such intended application to be given in some newspaper circulating in the county, and also to be affixed upon the door of the parish church of the parish in which such crossing is intended to be made, or, if there be no such church, some other place to which notices are usually affixed; and if it appear to any two or more justices acting for the district in which such highway at the proposed crossing thereof is situate, and assembled in petty sessions, after such notice as aforesaid, that the railway can, consistently with a due regard to the public safety and convenience, be carried across such highway on the level, it shall be lawful for such justices to consent that the same may be so carried accordingly.