26 The Compact of 1785 Maryland against its own citizens, should be tried by the courts of this State having jurisdiction over such offenses. And it is well known that the county courts of the several counties lying on the Potomac, at that time exercised a common law jurisdiction over offenses committed on its waters opposite such coun ties. We have then by the Act of 1785, ch. 1 a recogni tion of the jurisdiction of these counties over offenses committed on the Potomac River, if any such recogni tion be needed. The Court held, then, that the counties of Maryland adjacent to the Potomac River have a common law juris diction over offenses committed on the river opposite their shores, and that the Compact had confirmed this jurisdic tion. H. Ex parte Marsh et al (1893). Marsh, Wharton, and Nelson, all citizens of Maryland, were in this case in the Federal Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking by writ of habeas corpus to be discharged from the custody of Virginia officials (57 Fed. 719) . Wharton and Nelson had been taking oysters in Pocomoke Sound, within the limits of Virginia; they carried an appeal up to the Supreme Court (see Wharton v. Wise, which fol lows), so that the ruling of the lower court as to them need not be covered. Marsh had been dredging in Tangier Sound, also clearly within the limits of Virginia, in waters where the Virginia statutes permitted tonging only. He claimed to be entitled to be tried in a Maryland court, by virtue of Article 10 of the Compact. Article 10 had provided, among other things, for the punishment of "all piracies, crimes or offenses" committed on parts of the Chesapeake Bay or of the Pocomoke River, where the line of division between the two states "may be doubtful." Any such act, it said, "committed on the said parts of Chesapeake Bay and Pocomoke River, by any citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia, or of the |
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