viii

The difference which the law designed to make between the
"Retail Liquor License" (or the license to sell in quantities
not less than a pint,) and the "Ordinary License' (the license
to sell in quantities less than a pint,) in many portions of the
State, is practically disregarded; the Store-keeper and Shop-
keeper, without professing to open, set up, or keep an " Or-
dinary," apply for and receive the Ordinary License.

The preliminary oath required of the applicant for License,
by the Act of 1858, is a most excellent provision; but great
inconvenience would be saved persons living.remote from the
Clerk's office if the law should be so amended as.to allow the
oath to be administered by a Justice of the Peace.

The recommendation, of my predecessor; that authority be
given the Comptroller to substitute a stamp for his signature
upon licenses furnished the Clerks by this office is hereby re-
newed. By such a provision the interest of the State could
not possibly suffer, and much useless labor would be dispensed
with.

It is gratifying to bear testimony to the promptness and ef-
ficiency manifested by the Clerks of the various Courts in
connection with this Department; but the Comptroller re-
grets to state that the late Clerk of the Circuit Court for Car-
oline County cannot be included in this number.

During the fiscal years 1856 and 185, no payments were
made by him into the Treasury. His accounts, properly cer-
tified, were from time to time sent to the State's Attorney for
that county, with instructions to institute immediate suit, and,
in the language of the law, " to prosecute with diligence and
effect." But these instructions were not complied with and
the promises of settlement repeatedly made by the State's
Attorney on behalf of the Clerk were not verified. At
length the Comptroller deemed it his duty, under the Act of
Assembly of 1854, ch. 196, to bring the subject to the notice
of the Grand Jury of that County; their action with regard
to the matter has not been authoritatively learned.

It is 'evident that the State would be benefitted by the pas-
sage of a law authorizing the Comptroller in cases of this
kind to place the accounts of defaulters in the hands of some