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Sections 2 and 3, to cause the State's means derived from
other sources, to be made applicable to the payment of the
interest on the, bonds issued, from time to time, by said
Company, and also to the payment of the principal of said
bonds. I do not^intend to be understood that the construc-
tions placed upon the Sections referred to, were improper
from the language used But the effect has been, that in
addition to the large sums invested in said road by the State,
and from which no return or revenue has ever been received,
except the one payment, the State's revenues derived from
other sources, have been used for the payment of the inter-
est, and redemption of the bonds of the Company.

Of the joint fares of the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Rail
Road Company, and the Washington Branch of the Balti-
more and Ohio Rail Road Company, seven-fifteenths of the
proportion of those fares to which the Washington Road is
entitled, have been set apart and passed to the credit of the
Annapolis and Elk Ridge Rail Road Company, under the
Act referred to, notwithstanding that there was nothing
received by the Treasury from either the one or the other
of those roads from these fares. The only interest the State
had in these fares, was the capitation of one-fifth of the fares
of passengers passing over the Washington Road, and this
is the only proportion of such fares ever paid to the State,
and which have been paid entirely by the Washington Road.

Thus, whilst the State was entitled to, and received only
the one-fifth of the proportion of the joint fares to which the
Washington Road was entitled, by the law in question,
seven-fifteenths of the proportion of the Washington Branch,
thereof, have been carried to the credit of the Annapolis and
Elk Ridge Rail Road Company, whilst not a dollar has been
received from either Company, except the capitation from the
Washington Road, on account of the joint fares. It is not
believed that the Legislature, in enacting Chapter 168, of
1841, intended to make the Treasury of the State tributary to
the Annapolis and Elk Ridge Rail Road Company, in addi-
tion to the large sums advanced by the State, for the con-
struction and equipment of the road, notwithstanding the
peculiarity of the phraseology of the Act alluded to.