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sioner for Maryland for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, resigned his office upon reviewing the report of General Barnard, and, calling into his counsels George Brown, the two in private faced the situation in which Baltimore was placed. Without hope of taking any advantage of the Potomac to gain the trade with the West, with New York and Pennsylvania fast outstripping Baltimore in trade and population and both pushing canals to the West, the outlook for Baltimore seemed unpromising indeed. These two energetic and daring men, in comparatively a moment's time, changed the whole complexion of affairs, and brought not only the eyes of the world to Baltimore but in very fact brought back to her the commercial prestige, so far as western trade was concerned, which she had enjoyed in the day of the stagecoach and freighter. On the twelfth of February, 1827, the plans of Thomas and Brown had gone so far that a meeting at the home of Mr. Thomas of over a score of Baltimore merchants and promoters was called "to take into consideration the best means of restoring to