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before these wants will be adequately supplied. While
other States are pressing forward, Maryland must not lag
behind; and it cannot be doubted that the results of her
great future may be hastened by timely and. vigorous legis-
lation. I would invite the earnest attention of the General
Assembly to this important subject, and urge, in view of the
large influx of foreign emigrants likely to arrive upon our
shores in the next few years, and the great advantage of
securing a fair proportion to our State, that the subject re-
ceive your earnest attention. It will be perceived that the
plan suggested involves little more than the necessary organ-
ization of the Board of Public works, as provided for in the
Constitution; and the immigration feature which it is in-
tended to embody, may be dispensed with whenever the
objects to be accomplished have been so for successful as to
render further effort in this direction no longer indispensable.
Any expense attending the establishment of this Board should
be made to fall rateably upon the receipts into the Treasury
of all the internal improvement Companies holding charters
from the State.
HARBOR OF BALTIMORE—SHIP CHANNEL—OCEAN
STEAMERS.
The transition through which we are new passing, and the
important geographical position of our State, as established by
the events and statistics of the last four years, both in the re—
lation in which we stand tothe seat of the Federal Government,
as well as our sister States, suggest the necessity for increased
effort in time new career upon which we are entering. The
central State upon the Atlantic coast, Maryland, has hereto-
fore claimed to be the first, in the facilities which she offers,
of comniercial interchange with the great Valley of the
Mississippi, and the remote States of tIme West; and certainly
stands at no disadvantage in the characteristics of climate,
soil, minerals, including coal and iron, watei' power, and
convenient egress to the more distant markets of our own and
other countries. More than ten years ago, while in charge
of your chief' work of Internal Improvement, I took occasion
to remark, in an address to the people of Baltimore, while
illustrating the effect of the system of Rail Roads, then being
projected, that "the geographical position of Baltimore, aided
by her cheap tonnage communication with the West, must
demonstrate that both New York and Boston will seek, as a
measure of economy, to form their combinations through her,
as the most advantageous, by which to supply the wants of
the great West and the Valley of the Mississippi." These
views have lost none of their practical weight. On time con-
trary, they have steadily grown in importance. It was no
part of my policy, at that early period, in any agency I may
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