624 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 3,

of any cost or charges in settling the questions involved in
the aforesaid resolutions, or to authorize the Governor to em-
ploy counsel in the discussion before said court."

This question was tested in the case of "The Visitors and
Governors of Saint John's College vs. the State of Mary-
land," and is reported in loth Maryland Reports, page 332.

The decision was rendered February 7, 1860. The Court
decided as follows :

1st. That the annual appropriation of £1750, made by the
19th section of the Act of 1784, chapter 37, constituted, un-
der all the circumstances of the case, a contract on the part
of the State which could not be legally repealed by the Act
of 1805, chapter 85.

2d. That the Act of 1805, chapter 85, was a violation of
the 10th section of the 1st Article of the Constitution of the
United States, which declares that no State shall pass any
law impairing the obligation of contracts.

3d. That the Act of 1784, chapter 37, with the circum-
stances of the case, constitutes such a contract as would, if
entered into between individual citizens, be legally binding
upon them.

On the ground of this decision, the Board of Visitors pro-
posed, by judicial proceedings, to recover the arrearages con-
sidered by them to be legally due the College, under the
terms of the original compact, in 1784, between the Legisla-
ture and the founders of the institution.

This gave rise to the case of the Visitors and Governors of
Saint John's College by the Comptroller and Treasurer of the
State of Maryland, which was decided on the 29th November,
1865, and is reported in 23d Maryland Reports, page 629.

In this case the court decided that the Visitors and Govern-
ors, by accepting the partial payment under the resolution of
1832, No. 41, had forfeited their legal right to recover the
said arrearages.

From this decision the Visitors and Governors, determined
to take an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States,.
it being in the opinion of many eminent counsel that the
judgment of the Court of Appeals was erroneous, and initi-
atory steps were taken to accomplish that object. The
amount of arrearages believed to be due the College, under
the Act of 1784, being estimated at two hundred thousand
dollars.

Before, however, determining to take this course, the Vis-
itors and Governors laid before the Legislature of 1866 a me-
morial, setting forth fully their claims against the State,