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Tract. Md.
Hist. Soc.
Bound with
Votes and
Proceedings
Nov. 1770;
also printed
in Maryland
Gazette
Dec. 13, 1770
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Whereas it appears to this General Assembly, that there hath been
for many Years past, a Westerly Variation of the Compass, and that
it is found, by Experiments, that the said Variation hath been, for at
least Forty Years past, and still is, decreasing, or that the Direction
of the Needle hath inclined and approached, and still doth incline
and approach towards the true North Point, at about the Rate of
Three Minutes in One Year, or One Degree in Twenty Years; by
Means whereof, if the Needle is alone regarded, every Survey will
be continually changing its Place, and no Tract of Land heretofore
surveyed within this Province, can be again surveyed or run out,
agreeable to its ancient Location; from whence great Contentions
must arise among the People of this Province, and Landed Property
be rendered altogether precarious: For Remedy, whereof, and the
better to ascertain the true Situation of any Tract of Land, according
to the original running or laying out thereof;
Be it enacted, by the Right Honourable the Lord Proprietary, bv
and with the Advice and Consent of his Lordship's Governor, and
the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, and the Authority of
the same, That the Decrease of Variation or Inclination, and Ap-
proach of the Needle, from the Westward towards the true North
Point, shall be estimated and taken, to have been, for at least Forty
Years past, at the Rate or Quantity of Three Minutes in every One
Year, or One Degree in every Twenty Years; and that, in running
the Lines or Courses of all Lands in this Province, surveyed and
laid out within Forty Years next before the Time of the first Experi-
ment and Observation of the Variation, by this Act directed, so far
as the Limits of such Tract, or Tracts of Land, depend on Course
and Distance only, there shall be an Allowance made for Variation,
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