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466 BALTIMORE v. McKIM.
be his imperative duty to smother no reasonable or plausible claim,
or to withhold it from the deliberate examination of the ordinary
and regular courts of justice, (p)
Some time after Baltimore had been laid out as a town the
Legislature passed a law, by which a considerable addition was
made to it; and, among other things, it was declared, that certain
commissioners, seven in number, appointed to see the present and
former acts, relating to the towns before mentioned, Baltimore and
Jones' towns, put in execution; and cause them to be carefully
surveyed by their outlines, therein including the branch, to wit:
Jones' Falls, over which the bridge is built; and shall, from time
to time, for preventing disputes, cause all the lots taken up and
improved, or that shall thereafter be taken up, &c. to be regularly
surveyed, substantially and fairly bounded and numbered. And
all after purchasers of lots, whether before or after the passing of
this act, shall be deemed to be within the said town; provided
their lots be within the outlines thereof; and shall have as good
estate in their lots, as if taken up, improved, and paid for under
the original laws erecting the said towns. And that all improve-
ments of what kind soever, either wharves, houses, or other build-
ings, that have or shall be made out of the water, or where it
usually flows, shall, as an encouragement to such improvers, be
forever deemed the right, title and inheritance of such improvers,
their heirs and assigns forever, (q)
This law, it is obvious, according to the principles of justice,
applicable to the subjects of which it speaks, can only be so con-
strued as to authorize the owners of lots bounded by the tide of
the basin to acquire a right to vacant land without applying to the
Land Office, and without paying for it the stipulated price of
vacant land. It operates as a legislative grant, for and in consi-
deration of certain improvements, from which material and impor-
tant benefits would result to the public. And the improvements
being the consideration upon the formation of which alone the
state parts with its right to the soil covered by the waters of the
basin; it is clear, that no right can vest under it, until the speci-
fied improvements have been completed; for, if they should be left
in an unfinished condition, it would amount to an abandonment of
the right to acquire a title in that manner, (r) This, however, is
(p) Johnson v.. Hawn, Land Ho. Assis. 418.—-(q) 1745, ch. 9; 1836, ch. 63.—
(r) Giraud's Lessee v. Hughes, 1 G. & J. 249.
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