,

1846.

No. 1.

REPORT of Committee of Ways and Means.

The committee of ways and means, to whom was referred "so much of the Governor's message as relates to the finances of the State," with the accompanying documents from the Auditor General and State Treasurer, have had the same under attentive consideration, and respectfully report on the subject of the

Internal Improvement System, its resources, expenditures and debt.

At the time of the adoption of the constitution of this State, great importance was attached to the subject of Internal Improvement, arising in part, from the spirited examples of older States, and from a laudable desire to develope as rapidly as possible, the resources of our Peninsula. This feeling of the public mind was embodied in the 3d section of the 12th article of the constitution, as follows: "Internal Improvement shall be encouraged by the government of this State; and it shall be the duty of the Legislature, as soon as may be, to make provision by law for ascertaining the proper objects of improvement in relation to roads, canals, and navigable waters; and it shall be their duty to provide by law for an equal, systematic, economical application of the funds which may be appropriated to these objects."

Encouraged by this clause of the constitution, and stimulated by the peculiar spirit of the times, the Legislature of 1837 projecteď a magnificent system of Internal Improvement, accommodating every sec tion of our State, and embracing nearly 600 miles of railroads-upwards of 200 miles of canal, and the improvement of several rivers.

These works, according to the original estimates, were to cost about $10,000,000, but in all probability, they could not have been completed in a durable and substantial manner, for double that sum. The system was "equal," geographically speaking, but far from "economical," as time has fully shown.

The very magnitude of the scheme, when compared with the resources of the state at the time of its adoption, would excite surprise, did we not know that our young and ardent population, in common