of trade and population at points of vantage which is the essential condition of municipal growth. As Charles Calvert, third Baron Baltimore, wrote, in 1678:
"The principall place or Towne is called St. Maryes
. . . other places wee have none, that are called or
cann be called Townes. The people there not affecting
to build nere each other but soe as to have their [houses]
nere the watters for conveniencye of trade and their
Lands on each side of and behynde their houses, by
which it happens that in most places there are not ffifty
houses in the space of thirty myles. And for this reason
it is that they have been hitherto only able to divide this
Provynce into Countyes without being able to make any
subdivision into Parishes or Precincts which is a worke
not to be effected untill it shall please God to encrease
the number of the People and soe to alter their trade as
to make it necessary to build more close and to Lyve in
Townes."
When Lord Baltimore offered to the Lords
of Trade this explanation of the dearth of
municipal life in Maryland, he emphasized
precisely those facts which have distinguished
the political development of the South from
that of the North, and unwittingly explained
the late appearance upon the map of America
of the city which now perpetuates his family
name.
