846 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 30,

the Directors oi the Canal Company, but your Committee
deemed it to be its duty to continue the inquiry in that di-
rection. After the most searching investigation, no circum-
stance could be discovered which afforded the least founda-
tion for the charge.

Your Committee, therefore, deems it to be its duty to say
that it believes that the accusations made against the pre-
ferred bondholders and the President and Directors of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company was wholly false:
and it, takes pleasure in testifying to the complete vindica-
tion of the good name of those gentlemen in which this in-
vestigation has resulted.

Your Committee next proceeded to inquire whether the
purchases of material for the use of the Canal Company had
been economically made ; and whether any officer or em-
ployee of the Company had derive! any profit from such
purchases.

It certainly affords pleasure to your Committee to report
that a searching examination into these questions has con-
vinced your Committee that the President and Board of Di-
rectors have exercised in their matters a care and economy

as scrupulous as could have been practical by any merchant
in the conduct of his private affairs ; and that the prices
paid, in the absence of all other evidence, would suffice to
show that no officer or employee of the Canal Company could
possibly have derived any individual profits for such pur-
chases.

Tour Committee next examined the books of the Com-
pany, and tested them by examining under oath the Collec-
tors of toll on the Canal. They found that the returns
made by these Collectors and the books of the Company were
in exact accord.

Tour Committee next minutely examined the payments

and disbursements of the Company, and called for the vouch-
ers of the same. They found these arranged in perfect
order, easily accessible, in due form, and all certified by the
proper officer of the Company, and by the proper Committee

of the Company.

The work of your Committee in conducting its examination
has been made easy by the system observed in keeping the
accounts of the Company. Your Committee does not hesi-
tate to say that the accounts are kept in a form so clear and
intelligible that any accountant can readily test their cor-
rectness and that they may safely endure the strictest scru-
tiny, which may be applied to them.

Your Committee next examined with the minutest care