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construction of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and of
the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

The interest which the State has to-day in the Balti-
more & Ohio Railroad, and in the Chesapeake and
Ohio Canal, represents the sterling debt and furnishes
ample security to the creditors, to whom this debt is
due, without imposing any tax to provide a sinking
fund for its ultimate payment.

The State has in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
Company and its Washington Branch Railroad, stock
amounting at its face value to $1,518,615.70.

This stock pays annually to the State dividends
amounting to the sum of $113,116.96.

The interests of the State are identified with this
work, and the property interest which Maryland has
in this road should be retained. Holding these views, there is but one thing for the
State to do in relation to the maturing sterling debt,
and that is to have it refunded.

This can best be done by exchange. We have suc-
cessfully exchanged, over eighteen hundred thousand
dollars, of the debt of the State, in the past eighteen
months, at three per cent interest per annum, thereby
saving annually, over fifty-four thousand dollars a
year in interest.

We receive in interest from the State's investments
in the Baltimore & Ohio Eailroad Company, annually,
a sum almost sufficient, to pay the interest on a four
million loan, bearing only three per cent, per annum.

While it may not be an easy task at this moment of
time, to exchange a five per cent, bond and issue in-
stead, a bond bearing only three per cent, interest per
annum, yet, within the next year money may be more
plentiful , and now that the precedent has been set to
the amount of nearly two millions of dollars, it might
not be a difficult task to double that sum. The Eng-
lish capitalists, who hold a large portion of this debt,
are accustomed to low rates of interest.