xxii REPORT OF THE

insured, but if the cheapening of insurance is to be done by
diminishing its security and value, it cannot be wise to effect
it by this means. It would appear to be more wise to dis-
courage the admission of weak and unreliable companies
into the State, by requiring such terms as would not be
complied with, by any but safe and reliable companies, hav-
ing the character and means to insure safety to the people
insured. If the benefits from the alteration of the law
were to accrue entirely to the people of this State requiring
insurance, and not to the companies themselves, I am
satisfied those companies would not have labored so industri-
ously to procure the passage of the Act of 1876. The esti-
mates made in statement "C" for revenue from this source,
are founded on the supposition that the law will be restored
as it stood before the passage of the Act of 1876, Chapter
248.

I herewith transmit to the General Assembly, a copy of
the Report of the Insurance Commissioner, showing the
operations of his department for the past year, and the statis-
tics exhibiting the status of the several Insurance Companies
doing business in this State.

BALANCE OF STATE TAXES DUB AND UNPAID.

Table "No. 14" shows in detail the balance due from col-
lectors, for the year, 1877, at the end of the fiscal year,
amounting in the whole to the sum of $459,187.49.

Table "No. 16 " exhibits a list of balances due the Treasury,
exclusive of interest, at the end of the fiscal year, from
collectors in the several Counties, and from the City of Balti-
more, for a series of years, from 1843 to 1876, inclusive,
amounting in the aggregate to $583,270.51, of which the
sum of $384,848.17, is due from the City of Baltimore. It
will be noticed that the balance due from the City of Balti-
more, for the years from 1867, to 1874, are very small, and
the collections in that city on the levies of 1875, 1876 and
1877 are highly satisfactory, What is to be done with, the
large amounts due from the city for the years previous to
1866, is for the wisdom of the Legislature to decide. Some
of the amounts in this table, due from collectors in the