COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. xxix

to transact business. When the stock of goods is not located in the
State, I recommend that a license to sell by samples in any part of the
State be granted bythe several Clerks, on the payment of one hun-
dred dollars for one year, on blanks to be furnished by the Comp-
troller as other license blanks are furnished.

COAL MINING COMPANIES.

The Act passed at January Session, 1872, to regulate the taxation
of Coal Mining Companies, was intended to levy a tax on the business
of mining coal in this State. A large amount of revenue had been
collected under its provisions by the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Rail
Road Company, but that Company refusing to pay the amount into
the Treasury, suit was brought to recover it, Judgment was ren-
dered against the State, in the Circuit Court for Allegany county, and
the case was taken to the Court of Appeals. The case was argued
before seven of the Judges, (Judge Brent being at the time ill at
his house,) and four of the Judges concurred in the opinion that said
tax so far as it affected coal intended to be shipped beyond the limits
of the State, was a lax on transportation, and the levying thereof con-
flicted with the power conferred by the Constitution of the United
States, on Congress to regulate commerce between the States, and with
foreign nations, and that said tax was therefore unconstitutional. The
same Judges also concurred in the further opinion, that the tax im-
posed by this Act, was a specific tax on coal as property, without
assessment of value, and so in conflict with the provision of the
Declaration of Rights of Maryland, requiring equality of taxation in
proportion to value. The other three Judges of the Court of Ap-
peals who sat in the case, dissented from this opinion. A bill was
then prepared to levy a tax: on the business of coal mining in this
State for State purposes, which would be free from the objections
urged against the former Act, and was introduced in the Senate, and
passed that Body, but owing to delays, failed to pass the House of
Delegates. I am firm in the conviction that a large majority of the
people of the State, demand that this branch of business should he
taxed as other productive and profitable interests, and I therefore pro-
pose to submit a bill to your Honorable Bodies at this Session for your
consideration. A tax of this sort exists upon coal mining in the State
of Pennsylvania, and realized in 1874, the sum of $162,685.84, as
appears by the report of the Auditor General of that State.

If the State of Maryland permits the coal to he exhausted without
receiving any revenue from it, the value of the lands as an assessable
basis will be gone. The prosecution of the business of coal mining