of the second
branch of the council for a term of six years, three retiring every two
years. This board appoints a superintendent, six or more assistant
superintendents, and the teachers of the high schools and the Polytechnic
Institute, also the other teachers, but only according to the
superintendent's recommendation on the basis of merit.

_History_.--Baltimore was named in honour of the Lords Baltimore, the
founders of the province of Maryland, but no settlement was made here until
nearly 100 years after the planting of the colony; meanwhile at least two
other town-sites, on which it was hoped permanent towns might be
established, had received the same name, but nothing came of either.
Finally, however, while the provincial legislature was still engaged in the
practice of directing places to be laid out for towns, where, as events
proved there was nothing to give these towns more than a mere paper
existence, that body in 1729 directed seven commissioners to purchase 60
acres of land on the N. side of the Patapsco and lay it out in sixty equal
lots as the town of Baltimore. Three years later, at the instance of the
same body, Jones-Town (Old Town) was laid out on the opposite side of
Jones's Falls, and in 1745 these two towns were consolidated. About the
same time the resources of the interior, for which Baltimore was to become
a trade centre, were being rapidly developed by the Germans. Prior to 1752,
in which year there were only twenty-five houses with two hundred
inhabitants, the growth of the city had indeed been slow; but only a year
or two later wheat loaded in its harbour was for the first time shipped to
Scotland; during the war between the French and the English at this time
some of the unfortunate Acadians found new homes here; in 1767 Baltimore
was made the county seat; by the beginning of the War of Independence its
population had grown to 6755; and in 1780 it was made a port of entry. The
city early became an important shipping centre; during both the War of
Independence and the War of 1812 many privateers were sent out from it, and
in the interval between these wars, the ship-owners of Baltimore had their
share in the world's carrying trade, the "Baltimore clippers" becoming
famous. In 1797 Baltimore received its first charter, having been governed
until then from Annapolis and through commissions with very limited powers;
at the same time the Fells' Point settlement, founded about 1730 by William
Fells