334 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS            [Feb. 11,

committee as to the expediency of granting said act of incor-
poration.

This road, (if constructed,) running parallel, as it does,
with the route of the Susquehanna and Tide Water Canal,
must necessarily tend to divert from the canal, much, if not
the greater part of the trade now enjoyed by it. If the under-
signed is correctly advised, the tolls collected in the most
prosperous years, have been inadequate to pay the interest to
the State, on the debt contracted for its construction, and to
keep it in repairs; and if the business of the canal is to be di-
minished in part or in the whole, the treasury of the State will
suffer to the extent of such diminution—as the canal is now
paying a nett revenue of from $60,000 to $70,000 annually.
It is well known that the State embarked, many years ago, in
a vast and expensive system of internal improvements, and
having early exhausted the means in her treasury, was com-
pelled to resort to the expedient of levying onerous direct
taxes, upon the land and personal property of her citizens
throughout the entire State, to enable her to meet the obliga-
tions incurred in the construction of them. These works,
traversing, as they do, the northern and eastern sections of
the State, the benefits conferred by them, are mainly, if not
exclusively, confined to those of our fellow citizens inhabit-
ing the same, while other parts of the State more remote, are
entirely excluded from a participation in the benefits so con-
ferred; yet this portion of the citizens of Maryland, have been
equally taxed, and borne an equal amount of the burdens im-
posed by their construction; wherefore the undersigned can-
not but believe that while this public burthen is still resting
upon the citizens of the State, it would be an act of great in-
justice to the southern portion of Maryland, for the Legisla-
ture to adopt the policy of chartering rival works to those
already constructed, and thereby lessen their productiveness,
and so perpetuate the present onerous system of taxation for
an indefinite period, if not forever. The undersigned would
beg leave further to remind the House, that this project was
before the last Legislature for its action, and that body doubt-
less, after having given the subject a due consideration, de-
termined to refuse the application for a charter.

All of which is most respectfully submitted,

F. B. F. Burgess,
Minority of Committee on Internal Improvements.

Mr. Goldsborough moved to refer said bill to the commit-
tee on Ways and Means ;

Which was determined in the negative.

Mr. Dail, from the committee on Claims, reported favor-
ably on the Senate bill entitled, an act to provide for the re-