COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. 23

057.55, and leaving, after payment of commissions, $61,543.45 in the
Treasury still liable to that purpose. The sale of this latter stock
was ordered by the Legislature, contrary to the judgment and ad-
vice of the Comptroller, and, although bringing a price apparently
advantageous to the State, I am still of the opinion that it would
have been better for the State to have taken up the old loan, by the
sale of a corresponding amount of the new issue, and to have re-
tained the stock until future developments should have manifested
its true value. No appropriation having been made for defraying
the expense of engraving and printing the new bonds authorised
under the Act of 1870, Chapter 275, I caused the same to be paid
out of the contingent fund of the Comptroller's office.
MARYLAND PENITENTIARY.

The large amount expended under the appropriations for the sup-
port of this Institution, suggests the propriety of considering if some
amendment cannot be made to the system which will be advanta-
geous to the State. It is doubted that the labor of so large a num-
ber of persons sentenced to confinement for short terms, and congre-
gated in one place, can be successfully turned to proper account.
Most of the convicts are incapable of anything more than ordinary
unskilled labor, and it is suggested that this could be turned to bet-
ter account in the counties where the convictions take place.

Instead of confinement in the Penitentiary, the punishment for
larceny and like offences might be changed to confinement at labor
in the county where the offence is committed. Whether this labor
could be best employed on public account, in improving the Public
Roads of the counties, (than which, in many of the counties, noth-
ing is more absolutely needed for the comfort and convenience of
the inhabitants,) or by contract with individuals, giving bond, to
employ the labor according to the sentence of the Court, and paying
a stipulated price to the State for the labor contracted for, is a ques-
tion which may well be considered. The labor of these convicts
ought to be utilized in some way, and it is suggested that it can be
employed on the Public Roads with more advantage than in any
other way.

At the same time confinement to labor on the Public Roads in
the county where the offence is committed, will be much more
effective as a punishment, and as a terror to the commission of
crime, than confinement in the Penitentiary.