1868.] OF THE SENATE. 285

to something over 7 1/3 per cent. The balance on which in-
terest is to be paid, is $802,000, 5 per cent, sterling debt,
incurred in 1838, for the benefit of the Susquehanna and
Tide Water Canal. The amount required to pay this interest,
without other costs, would he $40,100, whereas it costs the
State of Maryland to pay this interest (for the last financial
year) in London, including interest, exchange and commis-
sion, $61,553.50, or a fraction over 7 2/3 per cent.; while at this
very time there is standing to the credit of the sinking fund
$301,257.14 in cash and uninvested, $154.550.00 invested in
Baltimore 6 per cent, city stock, and $1,073,572.30 invested
in 5 per cent, currency stock, making in the aggregate held
by this fund, $1.529,379.44, which, including the portion of
it uninvested, yields to the State a fraction less than 4 per cent.

These figures clearly discover the advantage the State-
would derive from paying off these bonds by the application
of the cash, standing to the credit of the sinking fund, and?
by money to be made from the sale of such amount of the five
per cent, currency stock, as may he necessary. But as in the
present condition of exchange, this course would not be ex-
pedient, and especially as in the financial arrangements which
will probably be made to meet the requirements of the
Treasury, an advantageous investment may be found for the
§301,237.14 in the six per cent, bonds of the State, it will he
well to clothe the Comptroller and Treasurer with discretion-
ary power, under the direction of the Governor, either to
take up these bonds in the manner suggested at the earliest
day that the exchanges will admit of, or in the option of the
holder to receive them in exchange, at par, for an equal
amount of currency, six per cent, bonds, redeemable at the
pleasure of the State, within fifteen years, the interest to be
paid semi-annually.

The heavy arrearages due the State from collectors,
sheriffs, clerks, registers and others, and the mode of pro-
viding for their collection, have received the careful consider-
ation of your committee. These unpaid amounts are com-
posed of accummulations of interest, and monies collected
and unaccounted for in the hands of collecting agents ; they ex-
tend back to 1841, some to 1827, and running through a
series of years up to the 30th of September, 1867, amount ia
the aggregate to the sum of $849,451.46. At so remote a
period, no small portion of this amount will, with the most
sedulous efforts to secure it, be lost, and unless energetic means
be taken for its collection, the larger portion of it had as
well he stricken from the hooks of the Treasury. Your Com-
mittee therefore desire to impress on the Legislature the ne-
cessity of enacting a law which shall, through the Comptrol-
ler, direct the State's Attorneys in the several counties and
the city of Baltimore, to institute the most active measures
for the collection of these arrearages.