COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. vii

economically upon such a system ; and where it is imposed
by law, either organic or statute, upon the Financial and
Executive officers of the Government, they must either disre-
gard the credit of the Stato by adhering to the system, or
disregard the system by continually borrowing from one or
the other of these special funds to keep up the credit of the
State. Such an alternative may be and is keenly felt, by
those who have to face it, us embarrassing in the extreme;
and yet there has hardly been a day for many years that
the credit, faith and financial integrity of the State of
Maryland has not been maintained by her Financial and Ex-
ecutive Officers under just such embarrassment.

Take up any Comptroller's Report, and an examination of
its tables will verify this. I do not hesitate to use my own
tables for the purpose.

INDEBTEDNESS OF THE GENERAL TREASURY TO SPECIAL FUNDS
SEPTEMBER 30m, 1878.

To the "Oyster Fund" as shown by Statement H......$ 247,667 38

" " "Pub. School Tax" " "..... 217,140 75

" " Bounty Tax " " " " M...... .83, 757 74

Total............................................ $548,465 72

Balance in General Treasury as shown by Statement B... 204,165 88

Balance no-where........................ $344,299 84

Thus it is seen that there are according to law, and supr
posed to be in fact, I presume, by those who do not know to
the contrary, ia the Treasury to the credit of these special
funds five hundred and forty-eight thousand four hundred

and sixty-five dollars and seventy-two cents, and to the
credit of the General Treasury two hundred and four thou-
sand one hundred and sixty-five dollars and eighty-eight;
cents ; the actual and only balance being the balance ia t,be-
General Treasury and barely sufficient to meet the demands,
upon it for the first ten days of October.

.This simple exhibit is but a slight illustration. The
difficulty of such a system of accounts assumes larger propor-
tions under the reflection that to this comparatively small
deficiency, which may never perhaps be required to be made-