debt, which had, for so many years, been suffered to accumu-
late.

They found themselves embarrassed, however, in this desire
by controversies amongst the Bondholders touching the priori-
ties of the bonds by a bill of complaint filed in one of the Courts
in Baltimore city by the State of Virginia, which made it im-
possible for them to order any distribution which was entirely
satisfactory to everybody, until the meeting of the Board in
December last, when an agreement (being paper No. 4 here-
with submitted) was laid before them, which furnished what
was believed to be a basis of distribution assented to by all the
principal Bondholders who had taken part in the controversy,
and which had the merit, considered by the Board to be conclu-
sive, of being not only greatly advantageous to the State, but
also in conformity with the precedents heretofore set by the
Company, by paying coupons on preferred and repair bonds
without regard to priority and without objection until the filing
of the bill of complaint by the State of Virginia already
referred to.

Recognizing the equity and equality of the mode of distribu-
tion provided for by this agreement, and it being considered
highly desirable that the $ 160,000 then in the Company's pos-
session should be distributed without delay, the resolutions of
the 9th of December, 1869, were passed.

These resolutions contemplated and directed an immediate
payment to all who were included in the classes designated to
be paid. If they had been allowed to be carried out, a quarter
of a million dollars of the debt of the Company would have
been paid and cancelled by the appropriation of the $160,000,
set apart for them, and thus the State of Maryland as the holder
of the second lien upon the revenues of the Company, would
have been benefited to the extent of about $75,000, because by
this arrangement the principal of the coupons were only to be
paid without interest.

The account of the State of Virginia for the period covered
by the resolutions having been already settled and adjusted,
Counsel General Johnson on the 10th December, demanded
payment of the sum thus found to be due amounting to ($58,-
435) fifty-eight thousand four hundred and thirty-five dollars,
and it was accordingly paid to him.

Subsequently, in consequence of the removal then actually
taking place of the hooka, records and other papers of the Com-
pany from Washington to Annapolis, the Committee, by whom,
under the resolutions the sum appropriated to the Bondholders
was to be disbursed, finding it inconvenient if not impracticable
to complete, without a few days' delay, the arrangement for the
payment of the coupons in Baltimore where by the terms of the
Bonds they were payable, gave notice that they would be paid
on presentation at the office of Messrs. Brown & Song, on and