In this spirit was transmitted the draft of the bill now before you. In the same spirit the president and directors of the company have authorized me to accede to any reasonable modifications designed to protect the public.

This security to the public was represented to me to be the real object of those who appeared most jealous of the institution at the last and previous sessions.

Such, from its language, I inferred to be the object of the resolution of the two houses at the last session, appointing the committee of inquiry.

This security, it has been thought by myself and others, will be best furnished by the adoption of the amendments of the charter which have been proposed.

Similar provisions have been incorporated into the recent charters of monied institutions in those states where such incorporations are most jealously watched and restricted.

By these provisions each stockholder is made liable for all of the debts of the institution contracted while a stockholder or six months thereafter. It may here be remarked that two of the stockholders in the United States are known to be worth more than the whole capital stock of the company. Besides the additional security furnished by the personal responsibility of the stockholders, every transfer of stock is made public, thus exposing and anticipa ting any meditated fraud, by transfer to irresponsible stockholders, and every stockholder is made to have a vital interest both in maintaining the solvency of the institution, and in detecting any fraud or mismanagement.

The liabilities of the company, exclusive of policies of insurance, are restricted to the amount of its capital, under pain of forfeiture of its charter.

A failure to redeem any evidence of debt in legal coin, within ten days after presentation, also works a forfeiture of its charter.

The company is required to submit annually to the legislature a full statement of its affairs, under oath of its secretary, and will at all times be subject to examination by the legislature.

With these checks and safeguards, and the additional responsibility here offered, the public will have more abundant and complete security than is furnished by any other monied institution in the states.

I have the fullest confidence that these provisions will prove en

tirely satisfactory to all who seek only to protect the interests of the public, and who claim not the right, as legislators, to adjudicate private rights.

They have been offered by the company under a just sense of its obligations to the public, and in that spirit of deference and conciliation to the legislature which is perfectly compatible with a firm adherence to its undoubted rights.

It is hoped that they will be received and entertained in the same spirit in which it is proposed, and that your honorable bodies will not regard it as incompatible with a just sense of the dignity and prerogative of the legislature to agree upon some arrangement for the protection of the public, and refer all issues between the company and the public, relative to the extent and exercise of its chartered privileges, to a disinterested judicial tribunal.

All which is respectfully submitted,

ALEX. MITCHELL, Secretary.

[SEE JOURNAL, PAGE 237.]

ANNUAL REPORT

Of the Auditor; also, the Report of the Auditor and Treasurer of the Territory, in answer to a resolution concerning the indebtedness of the Territory.

REPORT of the Select Committee to which the Report of the Auditor and Treasurer was referred.

The select committee to whom was referred the report of the auditor and treasurer with instructions to consider the necessity of printing the same, respectfully submit

That the propriety and necessity of printing, may depend on the question whether the house will act on the subject, at its present session.

The report is said to be made "in compliance with law:" were this indeed true, and had their report been made to the assembly "on or before the eighth day of the session," according to express requirement of law, time would have been afforded to enable the house properly to consider and dispose of the weighty matters touching our finances. But the auditor, from motives unexplained, has withheld his report, in violation of law, till near the end of the session, thereby rendering it impossible, in the opinion of your committee, for want of time, for the assembly to take action on one of the most important matters of interest to the territory.

The committee recommend the printing of four hundred copies.

January 24, 1844.

Respectfully submitted,

A. G. ELLIS,

JONATHAN PARSONS,

AUDITOR'S REPORT.

AUDITOR'S OFFICE, January 23, 1844.

Balance of salary as Auditor,

I, Washington Bird, reg., Registering census of 1842,