1868.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 847

Thus it is seen, that this company, whose Act of incorpora-
tion was passed by the General Assembly of Maryland, of
1867, under the stern protest of the Cecil and Harford dele-
gations on this floor, have been, and now are, guilty of the
most palpable infractions of the very same Act which they so
urgently begged the Legislature of this State to grant for
their especial benefit. Such is our opinion.

But we have not relied entirely on our own opinions:
these have come to us from the plain letter and reading of
the law. We have availed ourselves of eminent legal ad-
vice, and upon this we base this report. Such advice war-
rants us in the conclusion that the Cecil and Harford Coun-
ties Boom Company have violated their corporate powers and
franchises.

But there is another branch of the subject which we deem
it necessary to notice, to-wit : Under the Act incorporating
the aforesaid boom company, the said company are empow-
ered to condemn, generally, the shores of the Susquehanna
River and its neighboring streams. This, our people look
upon as a most wanton innovation on the rights of the
owners of such shore property : to take away such property
against the wish and consent of its owners, for the sole ben-
efit and advantage of a mere private corporation, who for the
most part are non-residents of this State, and whose votes
control its management, thus to enable the said corporation
to monopolize these shores for its own use against all compe-
tition, as well as to shut out all others from the use of such
shores, either for business or pleasure, seems to be so shock-
ing a violation of the common rights of the people as to
warrant the hope and belief that this General Assembly will
make haste to correct the abuse.

We have introduced a bill, through our Chairman, to meet
this branch of the subject, as well as to correct the violations
of law already perpetrated by the Cecil and Harford counties
Boom Company, and it was our wish to cover our whole duty
in the provisions and presentation of the said bill, but the
points to be met and explained were so numerous that we
have considered it better to make as full a report as time and
the circumstances would allow. Indeed, we have thought it
our duty, as a special committee appointed by the Honorable

Speaker of this House, to investigate the subject-matter here
in contained, and as the representatives of the two counties

most interested in the same, to give as full a report of the
facts in the case as possible.

This is the "Grand Inquest" of the State of Maryland,

and it is to this grand inquest that the people look for pro-