Judicial History 25 The Supreme Court held that no wharfage rights re mained connected with the use and enjoyment of those lands. One argument had been that the seventh article of the Compact had guaranteed wharfage rights. That article reads The citizens of each state, respectively, shall have full property in the shores of the Potomac River ad joining their lands, with all emoluments and advan tages thereunto belonging, and the privilege of making and carrying out wharves and other improvements, so as not to obstruct or injure the navigation of the river .... The Court held, however, that its decision denied no right that could be claimed under the Compact, for the com plainant here did not own the shore of the river, to which wharfage rights might be appurtenant. Because of this jurisdictional fact, therefore, the court gave no further consideration to the Compact. G. Biscoe v. Maryland (1888). Biscoe was indicted in St. Mary's County, for a murder committed on the Potomac River opposite the county (68 Md. 294) . He raised the question whether St. Mary's County properly could have jurisdiction of the offense. He was citing an old act of 1695 (ch. 13, May Session) which had declared the bound ary of St. Mary's County to run with the shore of the Potomac, but not to include any part of the river itself. The Court of Appeals ruled that St. Mary's County had jurisdiction to bring in the indictment. In its opinion it mentioned the grant of territory to Lord Baltimore, which included the entire river, and also that for two hundred years this county had taken jurisdiction over offenses com mitted on the river, with no objection having previously been raised. And, continued the Court, The exercise of this jurisdiction was recognized by the Legislature in ratifying the Compact made with the State of Virginia, for although jurisdiction was in a certain class of offenses conceded to that state, yet it provided that offenses committed by citizens of |
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