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owner and master, was arrested for dredging in Maryland
waters. The justice of the peace before whom the pro-
ceeding was instituted condemned her, but on appeal to
the County Court the judgment was reversed. The record
does not show the grounds of the condemnation or the
reasons of the reversal; but Tyler himself deposes from
memory that he was finally cleared on the testimony of
two old men, who swore to a State line running across
Smith's Island, about three-quarters of a mile above Horse
Hammock and over the bay to the mouth of the Anna-
messex, which would throw the docks in quo of the offense
within the jurisdiction of Virginia. If we assume that the
issue, the evidence, and the legal reasons of the judgment
are correctly reported by an unlearned man a quarter of a
century after the trial, the inference is a fair one that the
court of Somerset county believed the line to be where the
witnesses said it was, and not at Home Hammock on one
side of Tangier sound or at Watkins Point on the other.
But are we now bound to accept that evidence as infallibly
true? If it were delivered before us in the pending cause
by the witnesses themselves we would take it at its worth.
Its probative force is certainly not increased by being
fished up from the oblivion of twenty five-years and pro-
duced to us at second hand. We do not understand that
anybody supposes the judgment itself to be binding as a
determination of the subject-matter between the two States.
The traditionary line of Tyler's grandfather and old Mr.
Lawson must stand or fall by the natural strength of the
facts which support and oppose it. Now, it is perfectly.
ascertained that Virginia in 1851 did not pretend to have
any claim on Smith's Island, above Horse Hammock, nor
within -the limits of Somerset county on the bay shore
above Watkins Point. This record of the Fashion case,
considered as evidence of a line at Annamessex, is illegal,
insufficient, and unsatisfactory, while the proofs which
show that in truth the line was at Watkins Point are
irresistible and overwhelming.
If we are right thus far it follows that the original line
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