When the vessel employed is a Bremen ship, the payment shall be made by the Bremen Post Office, and when the vessel employed is a British ship, the payment shall be made by the British Post Office. The British Post Office shall reimburse the Bremen Post Office the amount paid by the latter upon letters forwarded in either direction, as well as the amount paid upon book packets forwarded from the United Kingdom to Bremen by a private ship belonging to Bremen.

On its side the Bremen Post Office shall reimburse the British Post Office the amount paid by the latter upon book packets forwarded from Bremen to the United Kingdom by a private ship belonging to the United Kingdom.

XIX. The Post Office of Bremen shall pay to the British Post Office for the conveyance across the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of book packets in transit which the British Post Office shall convey through its territory on account of the Post Office of Bremen, the sum of 5d. per Prussian pound, net weight..

The Post Office of Bremen shall further pay to the British Post Office for the sea conveyance of book packets which shall be conveyed, on account of the Post Office of Bremen, by British mail packets or by private ships leaving or arriving at the ports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the sum of 5d. per Prussian pound, net weight.

In consideration of the expense incurred by the British Post Office for the conveyance of mails across the Isthmus of Suez or the the Isthmus of Darien, the Post Office of Bremen shall further pay to the British Post Office for book packets which the Post Office of Bremen shall forward or receive by British mail packets and by way of either isthmus, viz.:

For the conveyance of book packets across the Isthmus of Suez, a transit rate of 4d. per Prussian pound, net weight.

For the conveyance of book packets across the Isthmus of Darien, a transit rate of 1s. per Prussian pound, net weight.

XX. Ordinary or registered letters and book packets mis-directed or mis-sent, shall be reciprocally returned without delay through the respective offices of exchange for the same weight and amount of postage at which they were charged by the despatching office to the other office.

The articles of a like nature addressed to persons who have changed their residence shall be mutually forwarded or returned, charged with the rate that would have been paid by the receivers.

XXI. Ordinary or registered letters and book packets exchanged in ordinary mails between the two Post Offices of Great

Britain and Bremen, which cannot be delivered, from whatever cause, shall be mutually returned at the expiration of every month. Such of those articles as shall have been charged in the accounts shall be returned for the amount of postage which was originally charged by the sending office.

Those which were sent paid to destination shall be returned without postage or charge.

XXII. The British Post Office and the Post Office of Bremen shall determine by mutual consent the direction of the correspondence reciprocally transmitted, and shall settle the arrangements relating to the form and the liquidation of the accounts arising out of the mutual transmission of correspondence, as well as every other matter of detail which may be necessary to ensure the execution of the stipulations contained in the present Convention.

The two offices shall have power to modify from time to time by mutual consent, the arrangements made in virtue of this Article, as well as those fixed by all the preceding Articles.

XXIII. Ordinary letters, registered letters, and book packets of every kind exchanged between the two Post Offices of Great Britain and Bremen, which shall have been paid to destination, or for some part of the distance beyond the territory of the despatching office, shall be marked in a conspicuous part of the address with an impression in red ink of a stamp intended to denote to the respective offices of exchange the extent of prepayment.

The stamp P.D. shall be impressed on ordinary or registered letters as well as on book packets which shall be prepaid to destination.

The stamp P.P. shall be impressed on ordinary letters as well as on book packets which shall be prepaid for some part of the distance beyond the territory of the despatching office.

XXIV. Each of the mails exchanged between the Post Offices of the two countries shall be accompanied by a letter bill in which the despatching office shall state the nature of the articles which the mail contains, and the amount of postage due to each office. The office to which the mail shall be forwarded shall acknowledge its receipt to the despatching office by return of post.

The letter bills and acknowledgments of receipt for the mails sent from the Post Office of London to the Post Offices of Bremen and Bremerhaven via Belgium, shall be according to the Form B annexed to the present Articles.

The letter bills and acknowledgments of receipt for the mails sent from the Post Office of London and Hull, to the Post Offices of Bremen and Bremerhaven, direct by private ship, shall be according to the Form C, annexed to the present Articles.

The letter bills and acknowledgments of receipt which the offices of Bremen and Bremerhaven shall use in their communications with the Post Offices of London and Hull, shall agree with the forms above described.

XXV. If it should happen on the usual days and hours for making up the mails that an office of exchange has not any letter to forward to the corresponding office, the despatching office shall nevertheless send, in the ordinary way, a mail which shall contain a blank letter bill.

XXVI. The British Post Office shall every month prepare separate accounts exhibiting the results of the transmission between the respective offices of exchange of the correspondence mutually exchanged. Such accounts shall be founded upon the acknowledgments of receipt of the respective offices during the month.

XXVII. The separate accounts described in the preceding Article shall be incorporated every month in general accounts showing the result of the transmission of the correspondence exchanged between the Post Office of Great Britain and the Post Office of Bremen.

XXVIII. The general accounts mentioned in the preceding Article shall be compared and settled by the two offices, and the balance shall be paid at the end of every quarter by that office which shall be found to be indebted to the other.

XXIX. The present Agreement shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1863, and shall continue in force until one of the two Contracting Parties shall have announced to the other, one year in advance, its intention to terminate it. During this last year the Agreement shall continue to be fully and entirely carried into effect without prejudice to the settlement of the accounts between the British and Bremen Offices after the expiration of the said term.

All the Agreements which now regulate the exchange of correspondence between the United Kingdom and Bremen, shall cease to have effect from the date of the day when the present Agreement shall be put into execution.

Done in duplicate at London, the 15th day of December, 1862.

(L.S.) ROWLAND HILL.

(L.S.) GEORGE J. GOSCHEN.

AGREEMENT between the British Government and the Viceroy of Egypt, relative to the Transmission of British Mails through Egypt.-Signed at Alexandria, June 16, 1858.

HER Britannic Majesty's Government having instructed John Green, Esq., Her Majesty's Consul at Alexandria, now acting as Her Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in Egypt, to regulate by a new Agreement with His Highness the Viceroy of Egypt, the transmission through Egypt of Her Majesty's mails to and from the East Indies, Her Majesty's other possessions and colonies, and such other countries as British mails are made up for, through Egypt;

And His Highness Said Pasha, the Viceroy of Egypt, having appointed for this purpose His Excellency Nubar Bey, Director of the Railway and Transit Administration;

The above named have agreed upon the following Articles:

ART. I. The Egyptian Government guarantees the safety of Her Majesty's mails while passing through Egypt, provided that the Viceroy remains entrusted with the full and uninterrupted power enjoyed by his father and his predecessors, especially that of confirming or commuting sentences of tribunals in criminal matters.

II. The Egyptian Government engages to convey from Alexandria to Suez, and from Suez to Alexandria, the British mails to and from the East Indies, Her Majesty's other possessions and colonies, and such other countries as British mails are made up for, through Egypt. Local mails shall also be carried between Alexandria, Cairo, and Suez.

III. The time occupied in conveying the mails from Alexandria to Suez, and vice versa, shall not, except under uncontrollable circumstances, exceed 24 hours; the hours to be computed from the time the mails are handed over the side of the British packets at Alexandria, up to their delivery on board the corresponding packets at Suez, and vice versa. But this arrangement is on the understanding that the packet from Southampton shall have arrived at Alexandria not less than 20 hours before that bringing the overland mail; and that the packet from Alexandria with the homeward mail shall sail for Southampton not less than 20 hours after that with the homeward overland mail.

Should such interval of 20 hours not be maintained, then, in every such case, the difference between 20 hours and the actual interval shall be added to the 24 hours to be allowed for each transit from packet to packet. Thus, if the interval be only 10 hours, 34 hours shall be allowed for the transit, and so on.

IV. When there is no separate arrival of the overland mail from Great Britain, or no separate despatch from Alexandria of [1861-62. LII.] 3 M