REPORT OF THE

City of Baltimore, would be $188, 067. 31, ten per cent, of
which, if awarded to the office, would give it an annual in-
come of $18, 806. 73, or about five times its present cost to the
Treasury.

A third objection is, that the law does not authorise the
performance of the duties of the office to he inspected or con-
trolled by the Governor.

The Governor has no superintendence of the assessments
of property of any sort in the State, nor has such superin-
tendence ever been committed to the Executive by any assess-
ment law of which I have any knowledge. The appoint-
ment of assessors at the general assessments, has been con-
fided to the Governor, but the superintendence of the per-
formance of their duties under the law, has been placed in
the financial department of the State Government. Asses-
sors are not required to give bond, but only to take an oath
to compel a faithful performance of their duties. They re-
ceive no money, and therefore have only to exercise their
best judgment, subject to review and alteration by such
hoard of appeal as the law provides for that purpose.

It is precisely the same case with the State Tax Commis-
sioner, who is simply an assessor of the shares of stock of
corporations.

No charge has ever been made by anyone, so far as I am
advised, that the duties of the office have not been conscien-
tiously and intelligently performed, and with the most scru-
pulous desire, to do exact justice to the State and the corpo-
rations interested. In fact, I believe that all parties have
conceded that this is true.

It is, however, regarded as a useless office by all those who
are violently opposed to the equalization of taxation.

The office is merely in its infancy. Such an office has
proved of immense value in other States, and its usefulness
can he extended here, so as to make it of much greater value
to the people than it now is. The real reason for advocating
its discontinuance or the destruction of its efficiency, is a desire
to put a stop to the farther equalization of taxation, and to
silence the discussion before the Legislature of the sub-