Mr. THOMAS. I cannot allow the remark which the Gentfrom NewYork Mr. CONKLING] has just made to go before the House or the country without correction. At the very opening of my remarks I said that by permitting this committee now to make its report the House does not decide whether it is or is not in favor of a railroad from here to NewYork. A majority of the committee are ready to report that they consider it unwise and inexpedient to make a new railroad between here and NewYork. When the committee shall have made their report the Gentfrom Pennsylvania will have a right to move a substitute for that report and ask that the bill be acted upon by the House. The committee do not stille or cover up anything. The committee cannot take awa from the House its power to say, “ We will ta e up this bill and pass it into a law.” The committee do not contemplate anything of that kind. Let me statea sin, and more fully, what is the nature of the o jeotion which I now interpose to the appointment of 2 additional members of the committee. While this investigation was in progress the Legislature of Maryland was in session. The House of Delegates and the Senate, constituting that Legislature, passed resolutions on this subject, and delegated a committee to come before the committee of Congress and represent the wishes of that Legislature. The committee heard that delegation for several days. The boards of direction of the various railroads between NewYork and this city have been before this committee, and have replied to every interrogatory addressed to them. they have laid before us volumine us testimony. The resalt is that the majority of the committee are ready to present a report, not suppressing this bill, not taking it out of the power of the fnends of the bill to bring it u and test the sense of the House upon it. simply desire that the majority of the committee shall have the opportunity to present the result of their deliberations, reporting the bill with the recommendation that it be not passed, yet placing it subject to the action of the House. Iftwo additional members he now appointed, the committee will be obliged to go over the whole investigation a nin for the sake of those 2 new members. e must reassemble the committee of the Legislature of Maryland and the delegations representing the different railroad companies. We must reexamine the vo lumine us manuse ritcommnnications made to by. can any great object be ained by requirin that at our hands? The act is open, palpaliylc, known now to the whole House, and soon will be known through the in strumentality of our reports to the whole country, that a majority of the committee are of the Opinion it ought not to pass. Allwe ask is that that majority should be allowed to make report. That is all.