VI REPORT OF THE

operations of the Treasury Department during the fiscal
year ending the thirtieth of September 1878.

The last report of my immediate predecessor, made to the
Legislature on the first day of its session, January 2nd,
1878, gave a full and comprehensive view of the condition of
the State Treasury during and at the end of the previous
fiscal year, and stated that "the deficiency which must
accrue to the Treasury the (then) current year, unless
remedied in some way, will embarrass all the financial opera-
tions of the State." When I entered upon the duties of this
office, on the 22nd day of the same month, the Cash Book
showed that the entire balance in the Treasury was the sum
of $44,240.98 ; the general appropriation bill for the year
1877 had, as was customary, made the appropriations for the
support of the State Government for the year ending with
the calendar year on the 31st day of December 1877 ; the
Legislature was then entering upon the fourth week of its
session and had already drawn from the banks, for the per
diem of its members, more than enough to cover the above
balance ; so that practically tho Treasury officers were with-
out either the law or the funds with and by which to meet
the ordinary and current demands upon them for the sup-
port of the State Government, and were dependent upon,
the banks for immediate relief and looking to the faith of
the State and the power and will of the Legislature to
remedy the then depleted condition of the State Treasury.

This condition of things I assumed to be, as stated in my
predecessor's report, owing to "the loss to the Treasury from
the failure of accustomed receipts," and I have subsequently
realized that it is mainly due to that cause, but not to
that alone.

The system of financial legislation in the State of Maryland
has for years embodied in our organic law and our legislative
enactments the idea that especial funds must be raised for
and dedicated to special purposes, And that the General
Treasury must take care of itself.

It Has been and always will be utterly impossible to mam-
tain and support any Government legally, and at the same time