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Report of the Committee of Ways and Means on so much of the Governor's Message as relates to the part-paid bonds of the State.

The Committee of Ways and Means, to whom was referred so much of the Annual Message of the Executive, as relates to the finances of the State, together with the report of the Auditor General, having had under consideration the recommendations and suggestions therein contained, in relation to the outstanding partpaid bonds of the State, submit herewith a bill on that subject. In doing so, the committee beg leave, in connection there with, to submit a few remarks explanatory of the circumstances, which, in their opinion, have rendered some further legislation on that subject necessary, or at least expedient.

At the time of the passage of the act of March 8th, 1843, in regard to our five million loan bonds, it was made known to the Legislature by a communication from one of the then State officers, accompanying the message of the Governor, by the reports of the directors and trustees of the United States Bank, and from other sources, that the whole of the $3,813,000 of part-paid bonds, together with $42,000 of those paid in full, had been hypothecated in Europe with certain creditors of the Bank, but were still the property of that institution, and held by the trustees as part of its asThe whole of said bonds, both the $3,813,000 of part-paid, and the $12,000 of full-paid bonds, amounting in all to $3,855,000, remained the property of the Bank, until June 9th, 1843, when, as appears by a letter from Morrison, Sons & Co., the London agents of the Bank, dated April 27, 1844, and to be found in Joint Document No. 15, 1845, said agents, upon the settlement of their accounts. with the Bank, took in satisfaction of the balance due them, the sum of $272,000 in Michigan bonds, being the amount of said

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