1876.] OF THE SENATE. 431

vestments of the State in the Baltimore and Ohio Company,
have been a source of large direct revenue and profit, and its
great works have been universally recognized as of incalcula-
ble general advantage to the State.

Having thus laid before your Honorable Body, the history
of the financial relations of the State with the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad Company, and the facts connected with the
claim of the State for the one-fifth of the receipts of the pas-
senger fares of the Washington branch ; the Company there-
fore humbly submits to your Honorable Body, whether it
should not he relieved from the payment of the one-fifth of the
whole amount received from the transportation of passengers
on the Washinton branch, from the date when it rediaeed its
fares to the full extent of the said twenty per cent., after the
decision of the Superior Court, declaring such an exaction
illegal.

In order to show the honorable and equitable disposition
of the Company upon this entire subject, it solicits your at-
tention to the following statement, which was presented on
its behalf in the Senate of Maryland, on the 25th day of
March 1872. (See Senate Journal, 1872.)

The following statement was submitted:

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company asked the
State of Maryland to release it from the payment into the
State Treasury of the charge imposed upon sums received
from passengers transported over the Washington Branch
Road since the tenth day of December, 1870, the period at
which it reduced its fare between Baltimore and Washington,
and on all fares on the Washington Branch Road, in conse-
quence of the judgment of the Superior Court of Baltimore
city, rendered upon that day.

As a consideration for this release, the Company agree to
reduce its maximum rate of fare under its charter, between
Baltimore and Washington, from the sum of $2.50, fixed by
the Act of 1832, (chapter CLXXV.,) to $1.50.

The Company farther agree to pay at once into the Treas-
ury of the State the proportion of the passage money on the
Washington Branch Road claimed by the State, and ascer-
tained by judgment, to January 1st, 1870.

It also agreed to pay into the Treasury, before the 1st day
of July, 1872, the one-fifth of the receipts from passengers
on the Washington Branch Road, from January 1st, 1870,
to January 1st, 1871.

It also agreed to pay into the Treasury twenty-five thou-
sand dollars, in lieu of the charge upon passenger receipts
for the year ending January 1st, 1872.