trustees, the several tracts of land which were to constitute the territory of the city of Washington. That of Notley Young was dated June 29, 1791, and conveyed, in fee-simple, "all the lands of him, the said Notley Young," therein described, to have and to hold, "with their appurtenances," in consideration "of the uses and trusts" therein mentioned, and "to and for the special trusts following, and no other:"

"That all the lands hereby bargained and sold, or such part thereof as may be thought necessary or proper to be laid out, together with other lands within the said limits, for a federal city, with such streets, squares, parcels, and lots as the president of the United States for the time being shall approve; and that the said Thomas Beall of George and John M. Gantt, or the survivor of them, or the heirs of such survivor, shall convey to the commissioners for the time being, appointed by virtue of the act of Congress entitled 'An act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the government of the United States,' and their successors, for the use of the United States forever, all the said streets and such of the said squares, parcels, and lots as the president shall deem proper, for the use of the United States; and that, as to the residue of said lots into which the said lands hereby bargained and sold shall have been laid off and divided, that a fair and equal division of them shall be made; and if no other mode of division shall be agreed on, by consent of the said Notley Young and the commissioners for the time being, then such residue of the said lots shall be divided, every other lot alternate to the said Notley Young; and it shall in that event be determined by lot whether the said Notley Young shall begin with the lot of the least number laid out on the said lands or the following number; and all the said lots which may in any manner be divided or assigned to the said Notley Young shall thereupon, together with any part of the said bargained and sold lands, if any, which shall not have been laid out on the said city, be conveyed by the said Thomas Beall of George and John M. Gantt, or the survivor of them, or the heirs of such survivor, to him, the said Notley Young, his heirs and assigns," etc.

It was also stipulated therein that the said Beall and Gantt should, at the request of the president of the United States, convey all or any of said lands which should not then have been conveyed in execution of the trusts aforesaid, to such persons as he should appoint, in feesimple, subject to the trusts remaining to be executed, and to the end that the same might be perfected. Accordingly, on October 3, 1796, the president requested Beall and Gantt to convey all the unconveyed residue of the land granted by Notley Young to Scott, Thornton, and White, then commissioners, appointed under the act of July 16, 1790, "in fee-simple, subject to the trusts yet remaining to be executed;" and on November 30, 1796, Beall and Gantt accordingly conveyed by deed in fee-simple to the commissioners last named. In the mean time, however, the plan of the city had been adopted and promulgated, on maps of which were laid out the squares, lots, public grounds, and streets; and on October 18, 1794, a division had been made between Notley Young and the commissioners, in execution of the trusts of the deed from him to Beall and Gantt, of which square No. 504 fell to the public and square No. 472 to Notley Young. No deed was made

by Beall and Gantt to Notley Young for square No. 472, but on January 13, 1797, the commissioners recorded in their book, which by law they were authorized to keep for that purpose, their certificate that they and Young had agreed "that the whole of the same square shall remain to the said Notley Young agreeably to the deed of trust concerning lands in the said city," and attached thereto a plat of the square, its boundaries as follows: "Bounded on the north by L street, four hundred and seventy-nine feet four inches; the south by M street south, three hundred and fifty-seven feet three inches; the east by Sixth street west, two hundred and eighty-nine feet ten inches; the southwest by Water street, three hundred and fourteen feet three inches,"as per return dated December 24, 1793. A similar entry and record were made in respect to square 504, the plat of which shows a subdivision of the entire square into lots, of which five, lot No. 13 being one of them, front on Water street, running back to an alley which separates them from all the other lots in the square. The legal title to this, and other squares allotted to the public, passed to the commissioners of the district by the deed from Beall and Gantt; and the legal estate to square 472 and the others allotted to Notley Young, vested in him in fee-simple, by virtue of the certificates recorded in the commissioners' book, under a law of Maryland, of December 28, 1793, (Burch, Dig. 224,) which gave effect to it, "according to the import of such certificates." A similar certificate was made and recorded October 18, 1794, to the effect that James Greenleaf had become the purchaser of 857 lots, for which he had fully paid, the legal title to which in fee-simple had vested in him, and among them is enumerated square 504. The plaintiffs claim lot 13 in that square under Greenleaf's title.

It has been observed that both squares, No. 472 and No. 504, are bounded on the south-west by Water street. This street was designated, on the adopted plan of the city, as occupying the whole line of the river front, and separating the line of the squares from the river for the entire distance from Fourteenth street to the arsenal. It is alleged in the bill in respect to this street that there was traced on the map of the city "but a single line denoting its general course and direction; that the dimensions of said Water street, until the adoption, on the twenty-second day of February, 1839, of the certain plan of one William Elliott, as hereinafter more particularly mentioned, were never defined by law; and that the said Water street was never, in fact, laid out and made in the said city until some time after the close of the recent civil war; that before the commencement of said civil war one high bluff or cliff extended along the bank of said river, in said city of Washington, from Sixth street west to Fourteenth street west; that to the edge thereof the said bluff or cliff, between the points aforesaid, was in the actual use and enjoyment of the owners of the land which it bounded towards the said river; that public travel between the two streets last above mentioned, along the

said river, could only be accomplished by passing over a sandy beach, and then only when the tide was low; and that what is now the path of Water street, between the two streets aforesaid, was and has been made and fashioned by cutting down the said cliff or bluff and filling in the said stream adjacent thereto."

These allegations, in substance, are admitted in the answer to be true, with the qualification that the. width of the street was left undefined because it constituted the whole space between the line of the squares and the river, whatever that might be determined to be from time to time, but that the commissioners, on March 22, 1796, made an order directing it to be laid out 80 feet in width, from square 1079 to square east of square 1025, and to "run out the squares next to the water and prepare them for division," and that it was so designated on maps of the city in 1803. If not, the inference is all the stronger that the whole space south of the line of the lots was intended to be the property and for the use of the public. Barclay v. Howell's Lessees, 6 Pet. 504. In Rowan's Ex'rs v. Portland, 8 B. Mon. 232-239, that inference was declared to be the legal result of such a state of facts. It is quite certain that such a space was designated on the official map of the city as originally adopted, the division and sale of the squares and lots being made in reference to it. What the legal effect of that fact is we shall hereafter inquire, and while we do not consider it to be qualified by the circumstances set forth as to the actual history of the street as made and used, they perhaps sufficiently account for the doubt and confusion in which the questions of right brought to issue in this litigation seem, for so long a period, to have been involved. The transaction between Notley Young and the public authorities, as evidenced by the documents. and circumstances thus far set forth, was equivalent in its result to a conveyance by him to the United States in fee-simple of all his land. described, with its appurtenances, and a conveyance back by the United States to him of square No. 472, and to Greenleaf of square No. 504, bounded and described as above set forth, leaving in the United States an estate in fee-simple, absolute for all purposes, in the strip of land designated as Water street, intervening between the line of the squares as laid out and the Potomac river.

The very point as to the nature of this title was decided in the case of Van Ness v. The Mayor, etc., of Washington, 4 Pet. 232. It was there said by Mr. Justice STORY, delivering the opinion of the court, (page 285:)

"Here we have a solemn instrument embodying the final intentions and agreements of the parties, without any allegations of mistake, and we are to construe that instrument according to the legal import of its terms. Now, upon such legal import, there do not seem grounds for any reasonable doubt. The streets and public squares are declared to be conveyed for the use of the United States forever.' These are the very words which by law are required to vest an absolute unconditional fee-simple in the United States. They are

the appropriate terms of art, if we may so say, to express an unlimited use in the government. If the government were to purchase a lot of land for any general purpose, they are the very words which the conveyance would adopt in order to grant an unlimited fee to the use of the government. There are no other words or references in the instrument which control in any manner the natural meaning of them. There are no objects avowed on the face of it which imply any limitation. How, then, can the court defeat the legal meaning and resort to a conjectural intent?”

It was accordingly decided in that case that the ownership of the land over which the streets in the city of Washington had been laid out on the original plan was vested by the deeds of the proprietors in the United States so completely and unconditionally that congress might lawfully dispose of it to private persons, or otherwise convert it to any use whatever. It was also decided in that case that the legal effect of the final instrument which defined and declared the intentions and rights of the parties, could not be modified or controlled by proof any of preliminary negotiations or agreement. "The general rule of law is," said the court, "that all preliminary negotiations and agreements are to be deemed merged in the final settled instruments executed by the parties, unless a clear mistake be established." This applies not only to the formal deeds from Notley Young to Beall and Gantt, and from them to the commissioners, but also to the certificates and plats made and recorded by the latter, which, under the Maryland act of December 28, 1793, (Burch, Dig. 224,) "shall be sufficient and effectual to rest the legal estate in the purchasers, their heirs and assigns, according to the import of such certificates, without any deed or formal conveyance." It is under and according to these certificates, granted to Notley Young and Greenleaf that the plaintiffs derive their title; and parol evidence to contradict, vary, or explain them is no more to be admitted than if they were formal conveyances. Williams v. Ingell, 21 Pick. 288. For this reason we reject, as without legal value, the book called "Division Book No. 1," referred to as showing a list of the squares and lots assigned to Notley Young in the division, and containing an entry as to square 472 as having a water front of 314 feet 3 inches. It is not well authenticated as a contemporary and original book, and is not one which it was the official duty of the commissioners to keep. However convenient, therefore, it may be as a book of reference for examiners of title in facilitating searches, it has not the quality of a public record.

What effect upon the riparian rights of Notley Young would have resulted from the creation of a perpetual easement for a public way over Water street by a grant to the United States to that use alone, the title and right of possession in the soil for all other purposes remaining in the original proprietor, it is unnecessary to discuss. The decisive circumstance in the present case is that the United States became the riparian proprietor, and succeeded to all the riparian rights of Notley Young, by becoming the owner in fee-simple absolute

of the strip of land that adjoined the river and intervened between it, and what remained to the original proprietor, Notley Young, after that conveyance; and the successors to his title had no other or greater rights in Water street, or the land on which it was laid out and eventually made, than any other individual members of the public. While it remained a street it was subject to their use as a highway merely, over which to pass and repass, and without the consent of the United States, as proprietor, was subject to no private use whatever. The right of wharfage remained appurtenant to it, because, as land adjacent to the river that right was annexed to it by law and could be exercised on it by the proprietor, but was severed by the severance of the title from the remainder of the original tract, to the whole of which it had formerly pertained.

In reference to the squares and lots lying north of the street, it may be said of the wharfage right claimed, as was said in Linthicum v. Ray, 9 Wall. 241: "It is in no way connected with the enjoyment or use of the lot, and a right not thus connected cannot be annexed as an incident to land so as to become appurtenant to it." A riparian proprietor, in the language of Mr. Justice MILLER, in Yates v. Milwaukee, 10 Wall. 497-504, is one "whose land is bounded by a navigable stream;" and among the rights he is entitled to as such, are "access to the navigable part of the river from the front of his lot, the right to make a landing, wharf, or pier for his own use or for the use of the public, subject to such general rules and regulations as the legislature may see proper to impose for the protection of the rights of the public, whatever those may be." Weber v. Harbor Com'rs, 18 Wall. 57. In Massachusetts, where it is held that, by virtue of the ordinance of 1647, if lands be described as bounded by the sea, the grantee will hold the lands to low-water mark, so that he does not hold more than 100 rods below high-water mark, (Storer v. Freeman, 6 Mass. 435; Com. v. Charlestown, 1 Pick. 180;) yet it is also held that where an ancient location or grant by the proprietors of a township bounded the land granted by a way, which way adjoined the sea shore, the ordinance did not pass the flats on the other side of the way to the grantee. Codman v. Winslow, 10 Mass. 146. And in Maine it was decided that a grantee, bounded by high-water mark, is not a riparian proprietor, nor within the ordinance. Lapish v. Bangor, 8 Greenl. 85. In New Jersey it is spoken of as "the right of an owner of lands upon tide-waters to maintain his adjacency to it and to profit by this advantage," (Stevenson v. Paterson, etc., R. Co. 34 N. J. Law, 532556,) and as a right "in the riparian owner to preserve and improve the connection of his property with the navigable water." Keyport Case, 3 C. E. Green, 516. The riparian right "is the result of that full dominion which every one has over his own land, by which he is authorized to keep all others from coming upon it except upon his his own terms." Rowan's Ex'rs v. Portland, 8 B. Mon. 232. It is “a form of enjoyment of the land and of the river in connection with the