COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. 11

is ready to transport passengers. This, though doing justice be-
tween the roads, would be an act of great injustice to the property
holders of the State, who must provide for the deficiency consequent
on the loss of this very important branch of revenue. I respect-
fully urge that the taxation of both Companies is equally as just to
the Companies themselves, as the relief of both, whereas the loss
to the Treasury, by the latter course, will be seriously felt.

STATE DEBT.

The funded debt of the State, as shown by Statement "J," amounts
in the aggregate to the sum of $12,436,718.68, on which the in-
terest is to be paid. Of this sum, $5,985,444.44 is sterling debt, on
which the interest is payable in London in gold and silver. The
State has available assets in entirely reliable stocks, to the amount
of $6,553,250.90, which offset an equal amount of the funded debt,
leaving $5,883,467.18, on which the interest must be provided by
taxation. A large amount of indebtedness to the State on the
part of various Companies and Institutions, as well as from
Collectors of Taxes, and other Officers whose accounts are in arrear,
may be made available by proper legislation to reduce the debt
probably to the extent of $1,500,000.00.

The debt of the State has been reduced during the fiscal year, by
the sale and exchange of the stock of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
Road Company, to the amount of $1,050,013.24.

Upon the assumption that judicious legislation will result in
realizing from the mass of indebtedness to the State, above men-
tioned, the sum of at least one and a half millions of dollars, the
real amount of debt for which the State may be said to have no
reliable offset, would be $4,383,467.78. The amount necessary to
meet the interest on this sum, and gradually to diminish the princi-
pal, can be raised without embarrassing the people of the State, or
any particular branch of industry, provided the taxation can be
borne by all the property, wealth and capital of the State, in pro-
portion to its true value and productiveness. If the Legislature
shall succeed in accomplishing this purpose by wise enactments, the
burdens which this amount of debt will entail on the aggregate of
wealth in the State, will scarcely be sensible to the people. The
fact that so large a portion of the productive wealth and capital of
the State has hitherto escaped its due share of the burdens of taxa-
tion, is a subject to which your attention is especially invited.
Nothing in my judgment can have a more paralysing effect upon
the value of property, and especially real estate, than the settled