STATE LIBRARY,

ANNAPOLIS, JANUARY 2, 1867.
To the Committee on the Library .
GENTLEMEN :

Soon after the adjournment of the General Assembly of
1865, I found, by a mistake, there had been no appropriation
made for paying the expenses of distributing the Laws,
Journals and Documents of that session. This expense had
to be paid out of my Library Contingent Fund, or not dis-
tribute the laws as required by law.

The meeting of the General Assembly in extra session last
winter imposed an additional heavy expenditure of the con-
tingent fund to pay freight, express charges and all other
charges incident on the session. The appropriation for sta-
tionery for the Departments being insufficient to meet the
demand, I was compelled to spend about three hundred
($300) dollars of my contingent fund to supply them.

These extra demands upon my contingent fund of course
were unexpected and unprovided for, and brought me over
one hundred ($100) dollars in debt for the year ending Jan-
uary 1st, 1866.

By the most rigid economy during the year just closed, I
paid all these extra expenses and the usual expenses of the
office, ancl have had some repairs done and improvements
made in the Library. All the alcoves have been shelved and
fitted up and some new furniture added, and I have a small
balance of nine hundred ($900) dollars to be carried forward
to the present year.

AUGMENTATION FUND.

This fund has been expended to the best advantage.. I
have visited Philadelphia in the purchase of law books, and
on all amounts except some inconsiderate bills have secured
a discount to the State of from twenty to twenty-five percent.

I have been greatly assisted in the selection of law books
by the Honorable Judges of the Court of Appeals, to whom
I am under special obligations, and to whom I refer you as
to the efficiency and faithfulness of the Librarian and his
Assistant.

The State Library, in its growing prosperity, ought to be
the pride of every Marylander. It now rates, I believe, in
size and numbers as the third in the United States, Why
should it not be the first in the Union ?