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THE BELLONA COMPANY'S CASE. 4fS
-such was the nature of the manufactory, and the hazard of carry-
ing it on, that workmen could not be procured to carry it on,
if subjected to the increased hazard, consequent upon such a
thoroughfare as a public rail road running near or through the
works; that the construction of the road as located, would be
destructive, and in violation of the plaintiffs' chartered rights; that
it might be located in a different way, so as to avoid any collision
with the works of the plaintiffs, and at very little, if any, additional
expense to the defendants; that the Legislature of Maryland had
no right or power, of themselves and for the use of the public, to
interfere, in any way, with the chartered rights of the plaintiffs,
much less to authorize any subsequent private corporation to take,
for their private benefit, any portion of the rights to which the
plaintiffs were entitled, under their prior incorporation; but that no
such authority was, in fact, conferred, or designed to be conferred
upon the defendants by their act of incorporation; their whole
power to take lands for their use, against the will of the proprietors,
being limited to the case of individual proprietors, and not embrac-
ing the case of lands held by any previously incorporated com-
panies, such as those belonging to the plaintiffs. Whereupon the
plaintiffs prayed, that the defendants might be enjoined from mak-
ing their road as located over the lands of the plaintiffs.
25th August, 1831.—KELL, Associate Judge,—Let injunction
issue as prayed; to be dissolved on the 5th of September on mo-
tion therefor; unless the complainants satisfy the court, by affida-
vits, which they are hereby authorized to take before a justice of
the peace, that the rail road can be located as suggested by com-
plainants, or the same be admitted by the answers of the defen-
dants. The affidavits to be taken upon two days notice to the
opposite party or their solicitor.
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Under this order the depositions of several witnesses were taken,
returned, and filed. And on the 14th of September, 1831, the
defendants put in their answer, in which they admit, that the acts
for incorporating such a company, as the plaintiffs claim to be,
were passed by the Legislature, as set forth in the bill; but they do
not admit, that the actual incorporation of the plaintiffs ever did
follow from those acts; or if it did, that they now have any exis-
tence as a body politic; on the contrary, they aver and believe,
that James Beatty, of the city of Baltimore, is the sole, and only
proprietor of the property known as the Bellona Gunpowder Com-
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