X

The opinion is therefore confidently entertained, that the
entire present liabilities of the State on this account, may be
discharged with less than $350,000. The receipts into the
Treasury during the current fiscal year from ordinary sources
of revenue, will be fully adequate to the payment of this

amount, as well as to the settlement of ordinary demands

against the Treasury.

There may also he deducted from this estimate, the balance
of more than $50,000 remaining in the hands, of Bounty and
County Commissioners, and the City Register of Baltimore,
which will be returned to the Treasury. The Commissioners of
Queen Anne's county have already paid in $5,290, a portion
of the excess in their hands.

The attention of the General Assembly is respectfully called
to the necessity for some legislation providing for a settle-
ment with these officers.

The duties imposed upon this Office by the several Bounty
Acts, have been exceedingly onerous and complicated. The
many defects in the Acts referred to, together with the reck-
less action in several instances, of officers, in the authentica-
tion of claims, and in certifying to the identity of claimants,
greatly increased the difficulties surrounding the settlement
of these claims.

In.the disbursement of so large an amount, in sums rang-
ing from fifty to three hundred dollars, the hope was scarcely
entertained that this Office would be entirely successful in de-
feating fraudulent claims. Many were presented, but by the
exercise of care, and the use of other means in the possession
of the Office, they were generally detected; so that the amount
of fraudulent claims paid directly from this Department, does
not exceed two thousand dollars. In the year 1864, under
the provisions of the Acts of that year, a large sum was
placed in the hands of the County Commissioners of the sev-
eral counties, and the City Register of Baltimore, for the pay-
ment of bounty to white and free colored Volunteers. Pay-
ments of the bounty were made by them to colored Volun-
teers appearing on their rolls as free, who, as it was after-