8

to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, whose peculiar
position is such as to require the most vigilent foresight, to
guard against complications, which in the event of a transfer
of that work to parties not fully identified with our people,
might entail lasting injury upon a most valuable portion of
our State; I have reason to believe that, but for the difficulty
of securing any large amount of the Bonds of the State, a
proposition would have been submitted by the Baltimore and
Ohio Rail Road Company before this time for the cancella-
tion of an amount of our public securities upon terms which
would have justified action on the part of the Board of Public
Works in furtherance of this plan to reduce the public debt.

The collection of the State taxes in connection with the sub-
ject of the finances, especially in the City of Baltimore, re-
quires your early attention. Heretofore these taxes have been
collected by the City of Baltimore, through its officers without
charge. It has become indispensably necessary now, that the
State should be placed upon an independent footing in this re-
spect, and should take the earliest opportunity to establish a
Bureau of its own in the City of Baltimore, with officers, to
be paid such fixed commission upon their collections as may
be deemed just and reasonable. Under the present arrange-
ment the State is subjected to a heavy expense, and the tax
payers justly complain of the large commission charged upon
their dues. I commend this subject to your earliest attention
in justice both to the State and the tax-payer.

In closing this exhibit of the finances, I deem it but just, to
bear witness to the zealous, honest and faithful discharge of
the duties of this department, by the Comptroller, whose ear-
nest devotion to the trust confided to him and the friendly aid
and co-operation which I have always received at his hands,
entitle him to this recognition of hie services, on the eve of his
retirement to private life.

A BUILDING FOR STATE PURPOSES IN BALTIMORE

CITY.

The need of a suitable building in the City of Baltimore for
State purposes is seriously felt. An office for the collection of
State taxes must soon be provided. The Commissioner of Im-
migration, Board of Public Works, and Superintendent of
Public Instruction, are all under rent in different parts of the
city, with accommodation scarcely adequate to their wants.
Whether it would not be advisable to purchase a building in
some central location in which all the State officers could be
properly accommodated, not subject to be interfered with by
the fluctuations in rents or other contingencies, is a matter to
which I would invite your attention. I am satisfied that the
public interest would be facilitated by each an arrangement,
without increased expense to the State.