sioner of Immigration, and imposed upon that officer onerous
and important duties. The duties are doubtless well per-
formed, but the appropriation and compensation appears to
be altogether inadequate to the adoption of a full and com-
prehensive plan for the reception and accommodation of so
large a body of immigrants as is expected to arrive annually
in the port of Baltimore; and no provision whatever is made
for sending an agent to Europe, which the Committee believe
to be absolutely necessary to the successful working of the
Commission at home. First impressions and predilections
are strong and difficult to eradicate—and if the agent is suc-
cessful in creating an impression upon immigrants before em-
barking, favorable toMaryland, the first settlers will, by cor-
respondence and otherwise, draw after them a stream of im-
migration to fill up our sparce rural population—and suffi-
cient to occupy and improve every county and neighborhood
in the State. The Committee would therefore strongly re-
commend the appointment of an agent in Europe under the
direction of and to co-operate with the Commission at home.
There is one other point, although not directly connected
with the question of labor and imigration, yet so important
in its effect upon that subject, and the general wealth and
prosperity of the State, that your Committee beg leave to
present a few observations upon it. Tour Committee allude
to the subject of roads, turnpikes, canala, railroads, &c.
These afford the means of transporting the productions of
labor to market, and add to, or diminish the cost of labor,
according to the cheapness or dearness it costs to bring it
from the place of production to the place of sale. Whatever
cheapens the cost of transportation, cheapens the cost of pro-
duction, and consequently adds to the value of labor; hence
the great importance of opening, constructing and making
as perfect and useful as possible the roads and highways of
the State. These of every description which capital can be
found to build, it is obviously the interest and duty of the
State to foster and encourage by all necessary legislation. It
is difficult to find an individual or community that a good
road or highway has ever injured. On the contrary, their
benefits and advantages can only be counted by millions.
Not only millions of dollars have been gained by the intro-
duction of rpads, turnpikes, railways, &c., but what is more
valuable, the great saving of time they gain for the commu-
nity. Who can estimate the days, weeks and months gained
in the aggregate by the hundreds and .thousands of people
that are constantly passing over our railroads? Take, for
example, the Washington Branch Railroad, and compare it
with the slow stage coach of former days—then it took ten
hours to transport ten passengers per coach between the two
cities; now forty passengers per single car of a train of six
or eight are carried in two hours over the same distance.