Opinion of the Court. In New Hampshire, a right in the shore has been recognized to belong to the owner of the adjoining upland, either by reason of its having once been under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, or by early and continued usage. Nudd v. Hobbs, 17 N. H. 524, 526; Clement v. Burns, 43 N. H. 609, 621; Concord Co. v. Robertson, 66 N. H. 1, 26, 27. In Rhode Island, the owners of land on tide water have no title below high water mark; but by long usage, apparently sanctioned by a colonial statute of 1707, they have been accorded the right to build wharves or other structures upon the flats in front of their lands, provided they do not impede navigation, and have not been prohibited by the legislature; and they may recover damages against one who, without authority from the legislature, fills up such flats so as to impair that right. Angell on Tide Waters, (2d ed.) 236, 237; Folsom v. Freeborn, 13 R. I. 200, 204, 210. It would seem, however, that the owner of the upland has no right of action against any one filling up the flats by authority of the State for any public purpose. Gerhard v. Seekonk Commissioners, 15 R. I. 334; Clark v. Providence, 16 R. I. 337. In Connecticut, also, the title in the land below high water mark is in the State. But by ancient usage, without any early legislation, the proprietor of the upland has the sole right, in the nature of a franchise, to wharf out and occupy the flats, even below low water mark, provided he does not interfere with navigation; and this right may be conveyed separately from the upland; and the fee in flats so reclaimed vests in him. Ladies' Seamen's Friend Society v. Halstead, 58 Conn. 144, 150-152; Prior v. Swartz, 62 Conn. 132, 136138. The exercise of this right is subject to all regulations the State may see fit to impose, by authorizing commissioners to establish harbor lines, or otherwise. State v. Sargent, 45 Conn. 358. But it has been intimated that it cannot be appropriated by the State to a different public use, without compensation. Farist Co. v. Bridgeport, 60 Conn. 278. In New York, it was long considered as settled law that the State succeeded to all the rights of the Crown and Par Opinion of the Court. liament of England in lands under tide waters, and that the owner of land bounded by a navigable river within the ebb and flow of the tide had no private title or right in the shore below high water mark, and was entitled to no compensation for the construction, under a grant from the legislature of the State, of a railroad along the shore between high and low water mark, cutting off all access from his land to the river, except across the railroad. Lansing v. Smith, 4 Wend. 9, 21; Gould v. Hudson River Railroad, 6 N. Y. 522; People v. Tibbetts, 19 N. Y. 523, 528; People v. Canal Appraisers, 33 N. Y. 461, 467; Langdon v. New York, 93 N. Y. 129, 144, 154-156; New York v. Hart, 95 N. Y. 443, 450, 451, 457; In re Staten Island Rapid Transit Co., 103 N. Y. 251, 260. The owner of the upland has no right to wharf out, without legislative authority; and titles granted in lands under tide water are subject to the right of the State to establish harbor lines. People v. Vanderbilt, 26 N. Y. 287, and 28 N. Y. 396; People v. New York & Staten Island Ferry, 68 N. Y. 71. The law of that State, as formerly understood, has been recently so far modified as to hold in accordance with the decision in Buccleuch v. Metropolitan Board of Works, L. R. 5 H. L. 418, and contrary to the decisions in Gould v. Hudson River Railroad, above cited, and in Stevens v. Paterson & Newark Railroad, 5 Vroom, (34 N. J. Law,) 532- that the owner of land bounded by tide water may maintain an action against a railroad corporation constructing its road by authority of the legislature so as to cut off his access to the water. Williams v. New York, 105 N. Y. 419, 436; Kane v. New York Elevated Railroad, 125 N. Y. 164, 184; Rumsey v. New York & New England Railroad, 133 N. Y. 79, and 136 N. Y. 543. The law of New Jersey upon this subject was recognized and clearly stated in a recent judgment of this court, in which a grant by commissioners under a statute of the State to a railroad corporation, of a tract of land below high water mark, was held to preclude a city from continuing over the flats a highway dedicated to the public by the owner of the upland. "In the examination of the effect to be given to Opinion of the Court. 6 the riparian laws of the State of New Jersey," said Mr. Justice Matthews, speaking for the court, "it is to be borne in mind that the lands below high water mark, constituting the shores and submerged lands of the navigable waters of the State, were, according to its laws, the property of the State as sovereign. Over these lands it had absolute and exclusive dominion, including the right to appropriate them. to such uses as might best serve its views of the public interest, subject to the power conferred by the Constitution upon Congress to regulate foreign and interstate commerce. The object of the legislation in question was evidently to define the relative rights of the State, representing the public sovereignty and interest, and of the owners of land bounded by high water mark." "The nature of the title in the State to lands under tide water was thoroughly considered by the Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey in the case of Stevens v. Paterson & Newark Railroad, 5 Vroom, (34 N. J. Law,) 532. It was there declared (p. 549) that all navigable waters within the territorial limits of the State, and the soil under such waters, belong in actual propriety to the public; that the riparian owner, by the common law, has no peculiar rights in this public domain as incidents of his estate; and that the privileges he possesses by the local custom or by force of the wharf act, to acquire such rights, can, before possession has been taken, be regulated or revoked at the will of the legislature. The result is that there is no legal obstacle to a grant by the legislature to the defendants of that part of the property of the public which lies in front of the lands of the plaintiff, and which is below high. water mark.' It was therefore held, in that case, that it was competent for the legislative power of the State to grant to a stranger lands constituting the shore of a navigable river under tide water, below high water mark, to be occupied and used with structures and improvements in such a manner as to cut off the access of the riparian owner from his land to the water, and that without making compensation to him for such loss." Hoboken v. Pennsylvania Railroad, (1887,) 124 U. S. 656, 688, 690, 691. Opinion of the Court. The arguments on both sides of that proposition, upon general principles, as well as under the law of New Jersey, are nowhere more strongly and fully stated than by Chief Justice Beasley delivering the opinion of the majority of the court, and by Chancellor Zabriskie speaking for the dissenting judges, in Stevens v. Paterson & Newark Railroad, above cited, decided in 1870. Two years later, Chancellor Zabriskie recognized it as settled by that case, "that the lands under water, including the shore on the tide waters of New Jersey, belong absolutely to the State, which has the power to grant them to any one, free from any right of the riparian owner in them." Pennsylvania Railroad v. New York & Long Branch Rail road, 8 C. E. Green, (23 N. J. Eq.) 157, 159. See also New York &c. Railroad v. Yard, 14 Vroom, (43 N. J. Law,) 632, 636; American Dock Co. v. Trustees of Public Schools, 12 Stewart, (39 N. J. Eq.) 409, 445. In Pennsylvania, likewise, upon the Revolution, the State succeeded to the rights, both of the Crown and of the Proprietors, in the navigable waters and the soil under them. Rundle v. Delaware & Raritan Canal, 14 How. 80, 90; Gilman v. Philadelphia, 3 Wall. 713, 726. But by the established law of the State, the owner of lands bounded by navigable water has the title in the soil between high and low water mark, subject to the public right of navigation, and to the authority of the legislature to make public improvements upon it, and to regulate his use of it. Tinicum Co. v. Carter, 61 Penn. St. 21, 30, 31; Wainwright v. McCullough, 63 Penn. St. 66, 74; Zug v. Commonwealth, 70 Penn. St. 138; Philadelphia v. Scott, 81 Penn. St. 80, 86; Wall v. Pittsburgh Harbor Co., 152 Penn. St. 427. In Delaware, as has been declared by its Supreme Court, "all navigable rivers within the State belong to the State, not merely in right of eminent domain, but in actual propriety." Bailey v. Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad, 4 Harrington, (Del.) 389, 395. And see Willson v. Blackbird Creek Co., 2 Pet. 245, 251. In Maryland, the owner of land bounded by tide water is authorized, according to various statutes beginning in 1745, to Opinion of the Court. build wharves or other improvements upon the flats in front of his land, and to acquire a right in the land so improved. Casey v. Inloes, 1 Gill, 430; Baltimore v. McKim, 3 Bland, 453; Goodsell v. Lawson, 42 Maryland, 348; Garitee v. Baltimore, 53 Maryland, 422; Horner v. Pleasants, 66 Maryland, 475; Potomac Steamboat Co. v. Upper Potomac Steamboat Co., 109 U. S. 672, 675, 684, in which the question was who was the riparian owner, and as such entitled to wharf out into the Potomac River in the District of Columbia under the authority to do so expressly conferred under the laws of Maryland in force in the District. This court, speaking by Mr. Justice Curtis, in affirming the right of the State of Maryland to protect the oyster fishery within its boundaries, said: "Whatever soil below low water mark is the subject of exclusive propriety and ownership belongs to the State on whose maritime border and within whose territory it lies, subject to any lawful grants of that soil by the State, or the sovereign power which governed its territory before the Declaration of Independence. But this soil is held by the State, not only subject to, but in some sense in trust for, the enjoyment of certain public rights, among which is the common liberty of taking fish, as well shell fish as floating fish." Smith v. Maryland, 18 How. 71, 74. The State of Virginia was held by this court, upon like grounds, to have the right to prohibit persons not citizens of the State from planting oysters in the soil covered by tide waters within the State, Chief Justice Waite saying: "The principle has long been settled in this court, that each State owns the beds of all tide waters within its jurisdiction, unless they have been granted away. In like manner, the States own the tide waters themselves, and the fish in them, so far as they are capable of ownership while running. For this purpose the State represents its people, and the ownership is that of the people in their united sovereignty. The title thus held is subject to the paramount right of navigation, the regulation of which, in respect to foreign and interstate commerce, has been granted to the United States." McCready v. Vir ginia, 94 U. S. 391, 394. In Virginia, by virtue of statutes |