Phenix Gazette

Correspondence of the Baltimore Patriot.

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 20, 1833.

A proposition of the President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, to be heard at the bar of the House, in explanation of the history and present condition of that great work, gave rise to a good deal of discussion in the House yesterday. After a number of ineffectual attempts, by various means, to defeat it, the resolution granting that indulgence was finally adopted, and leave was given Mr. Mercer to be heard at an extra session, at four o'clock this afternoon.

When the hour arrived, the galleries and lobbies of the House were crowded, the Senate, the public officers and ladies filling those parts of the hall not occupied by the members.

Mr. Mercer, in rising, said that had he known, before he made the application, that the indulgence he solicited was not usual in our Legislature, he should not have asked it. The peculiarity of his situation, and his duty towards those he represented, must be his apology. He then proceeded to give a rapid, elaborate, and lucid detail of the facts and circumstances, connected with the formation, history, present condition and claims of the Canal Company; and such an Explanation of the origin and state of the controversy between the two Companies, as, in my humble judgment, to convince any unbiassed mind of the justice, at least in a moral point of view, of his cause. He repelled with some warmth the imputation of disrespect to the State. He spoke about three hours, and was listened to with great attention.