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By the provisions of sections 34, 37, 39, 75, &c. of the
81st Article of the Code of General Laws, it was intended
to provide a uniform and secure system of collecting the
direct taxes. But notwithstanding the plain provisions of
these Sections, the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
have provided by ordinance, for an entirely different mode
of collecting these taxes, whereby the State is placed on a
different footing from that provided by its own laws, and
its security either weakened or wholly lost.

Section 75 of Article 81, requires that the Mayor and
City Council of Baltimore shall levy upon said City such
commission not exceeding ten per cent, on the amount
placed in the hands of the Collector to collect, as will
insure a speedy collection of the Taxes. Section 34, of the
same Article, requires the Collector to give bond to the
State of Maryland, in a penalty double the amount of
Taxes to be collected.

By the Ordinance of, the Mayor and City Council, the
Collector is made a salaried officer, and for about $2000
per year, is required to collect both State and City Taxes,
and the bond to be given by the Collector is for seventy-
five thousand dollars, whilst in the present year the Col-
lector has had over three hundred thousand dollars for the
State, and over one million of dollars for the City to col-
lect, which will show the wholly inadequate character of
the Bond given. Further, the Bond, when given, is to
the Mayor and City Council, and not to the State of Mary-
land, as provided by law, and the Collector being salaried,
instead of receiving a commission, leaves very heavy sums
uncollected in every case, when he is succeeded by another,
which latter refuses to collect the arrearages, unless he is
paid a commission by the State for so doing ; and the Col-
lector sets up a claim to commissions to be paid by the
State, upon all State Taxes collected by him after the first
of January, for the year for which he was appointed.

This action of the Mayor and City Council, by substi-
tuting their own Ordinance, for the law of the State, has
produced very heavy arrearages of State Taxes, which still
remain to be accounted for with the Treasury, as will be