COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. XXI

Special Acts of Assembly have been passed, from time to
time, in various counties, devoting the Fines and Forfeitures
in those counties to county objects, such as the formation of
libraries, the expenses of indexing, &c., and in the Gity of
Baltimore, authorising the sheriff to appropriate them to
the payment of the expenses of attendance on the several
Courts. It does not seem just to the other counties, that
these special laws should be passed. It would appear to be
more in consonance with the spirit of the Constitution, that
a general law should be passed, either devoting the Fines
and Forfeitures in all the Counties, and City of Baltimore,
to county or city purposes, or what would perhaps be better,
to return to the former legislation, requiring all Fines and
Forfeitures to be paid into the State Treasury.

FOREIGN INSURANCE COMPANIES.

The revenue from licenses to Agents of Foreign Insurance
Companies, doing business in this State, is given in detail in
table "No. 13," amounting in the aggregate to the, sum of
$31,446.72.

The Act of 1876, Chapter 248, reducing the price of
licenses from $300.00, to $100.00 per annum, and making
the tax payable on the net receipts, instead of the gross
receipts of these companies, has had a disastrous effect upo&
the revenue from this source, diminishing its amount from
$72,042.15, iii 1875, to $23,999.61, in 1876, and to the sum
of $31,446.72, in 1877. The loss of these large sums to the
Treasury, in the last two years, has been indeed serious, and
with other losses, equally unexpected, will entail uppn this
General Assembly, the necessity of providing more revenge,

So far as this item is concerned, the best mode of effecting
the remedy, will be to repeal the Act of 1876, Chapter 248,
and to restore the law as it stood before the passage of that
Act, or with an amendment increasing the cost of the licenses
to $400.00, per annum.

Had I been consulted by the General Assembly in 1876,
in regard to the expediency of the change, I should certainly
have opposed the passage of the Act by which it was made.
It is argued by some, that the competition encouraged by the
change in the law will lessen the cost of insurance to the