COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. IX

loans, and preferring to issue bonds of the Defence Loan to the
amount absolutely necessary to make such payments, as autho-
rized by the Act of 1868, chapter 235. The extraordinary ex-
penses of the last Session of the General Assembly, and the
large appropriations made at that Session, made it necessary
for the Treasurer to issue $261,000 under this Act, in order to
reimburse the Treasury in time to provide for the payment of
the interest on the Public Debt.

The State has assets to the extent of $4,469,783.26, now
available, to offset so much of the Public Debt, leaving the
sum of $6,625,236.23 on which the interest has to be provided
by a direct charge on the Treasury. There is also a large
amount due the Treasury from collectors and other officers and
incorporated institutions, which, when collected, should go to
the extinguishment of so much of the Public Debt.

THE STATE'S INVESTMENTS.

Statement " I" gives in detail the productive and unproduc-
tive stocks in which the money of the State has been from time
to time invested. Of the various sums invested by the State ,
in the stock of Railroad Companies, the interest has been paid
in full by the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road Company alone.
The interest has also been punctually paid by the Columbia
and Port Deposit Rail Road Company, on the bonds of that Com-
pany held by the State. These two are the only investments of
the sort on which the State has sustained no loss. The advances
made by the State to the Companies, afterwards merged in the
Northern Central Railway Company, and to the Tide-Water
Canal Company, have been partially remunerative, and since .
the compromises made by the State with these Companies, no
further loss has occurred, and the Companies will no doubt ful-
fill the terms agreed upon hereafter, as they have done since
the agreements were made. The amounts invested in stocks
of the other Railroad Companies, may ultimately be available
to some extent, but a long time will probably elapse before
anything can be expected from most of them.

The large amounts expended in aid of the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal Company, had been looked upon sorrowfully for