RESOLUTIONS. 1831.

grant were sufficiently guarded by natural boundaries and
signs, it was evidently intended to be better defined at some
other time by ascertaining their precise situation. Your
committee believe that it will clearly appear from a subse-
quent part of this report, that the stream commonly known
by the name of the south branch of the Potomac, flows
from the first fountain having the greatest extent to the west,
and is indeed Potomac proper, and the north branch is but
a tributary of that noble river. Not knowing exactly what
would be the effect of the calls of Baltimore's charter, the
King abundantly explained them, as well as all other words
for the benefit of his favorite in the 22d section, in which
all his courts and judicatories are instructed to give the
whole grant such interpretation as should be most beneficial
and profitable to the grantee. And by starting the meridian
so as to strike the first fountain of the South Branch, would
have increased the proprietaries domain, according to an
estimate of the late William Cook, four hundred and sixty
two thousand four hundred and eighty acres of land. If
therefore the south branch of the Potomac, by actual sur-
vey, should have been found not only flowing from the first
fountain having the greatest relative extent to the west, but
actually yielding to Baltimore an increased extent of domain
of four hundred and sixty two thousand four hundred and
eighty acres of land, more than he could have obtained by
running a meridian to the first fountain of the North Branch,
your committee believe it is scarcely possible for the human
mind to doubt, that the whole country north of the South
Branch, was originally included in Baltimore's charter. If
this should be demonstrated by the facts submitted in this
report, it will follow that the meridian for the western limit
of the charter, ought to have struck the first fountain of the
South Branch, it having the greatest relative extent to the
west, thence verging towards the south unto the further bank
of said river, and following the same for the southern limit
on the westward south.

2. In regard to the information sought by the second re-
solution, your committee believe and respectfully report,
that the southern and western limits of the country, as de-
fined by the original charter from the King of Great Bri-
tian to Lord Baltimore, ought now to be the southern and
western limits of this state, if viewed as a strict matter of
right in an adversary proceeding against our sister state of
Virginia. The right to grant the eminent domain by the
King of Great Britain to Lord Baltimore, at the date of
the charter, was incontestable, and although it was the source
of some dissatisfaction amongst the colonists of Virginia,