at $700 to $1,200. Vessels in Ordinary.-Columbus, 74; Delaware, Epervier, April 29, 1814,) $3,500; Six Clerks, &c., 74; Potomac, 44; Savannah, 44; Cyane, 20; Constellation, 36; Macedonian, 36; Vincennes, 20; Falmouth, 20; Fairfield, 20; Levant, 20; Yorktown, 16; Petrel, 1; Mississippi, (steamer) 10; Fulton, (steamer) 4; Cumberland, 44. Tenders. Steamers Engineer and Gen. Taylor. On the Stocks. -Alabama, 74 guns; Vermont, 74; Virginia, 74; New-York, 74; New-Orleans, 74, (at Sacket's Harbor, Lake Ontario,); Santee, 44; Sabine, 44; Saranac, 44; Susquehanna 44; Powhatan, 44; also 4 first-class steamers at Kittery, Me., Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Gosport. By comparing the above list of war ships with annexed lists of officers, a pretty correct judgment may be obtained as to the proportion they bear to each other. In 1842, in Congress, Mr. Fillmore "believed that there was no limitation on the appointing power with reference to the number of officers, or the grade to be given them; of course there was but little responsibility."There are some limits now. We have been unable to find any official list of the officers, crews, &c. of the several ships. The Bureau of Construction estimates the pay of officers and seamen for 1849 at $2,600,000, but says nothing as to the number of men and boys, nor how many are in each ship. Secretary of the Navy-JOHN Y. MASON, Vir ginia, $6,000. Chief Clerk, Robert W. Young, $2,000; other 11 Clerks, at $1,000 to $1,500. Estimate of ex penses of the Secretary's office for 1848-9, $24,790. BUREAU OF NAVY YARDS AND DOCKS. Chief, Commodore Joseph Smith, Ms., $3,500.Civil Engineer, W. P. S. Sanger, Ms., $2,000.Five Clerks, &c., $700 to $1,400; Six Civil Engineers, at New-York, &c., at $1,500 to $2,500 each; Six Agents, for preserving live oak, at $200 to $2,000 each. They asked a supply of $1,837,155 for 1849, including another $350,000 for the Dry Dock at Brooklyn. BUREAU OF ORDNANCE AND HYDROGRAPHY. Chief, Lewis Warrington, Va., (who took the SIXTY-EIGHT CAPTAINS. NAVY BUREAU OF CONSTRUCTION, EQUIPMENT, &C. Chief, Charles W. Skinner, Me., $3,000; Ten Clerks, &c., at $700 to $1,400. Engineer, C. W. Copeland, Con. (at New-York) $2,500. Chief Naval Constructor, Francis Grice, N. J., (Washington) $3,000. Naval Constructors, $2,300 each-S. M. Pook, Ms., (Boston); Benjamin F. Delano, Ms., (Portsmouth); Samuel Hartt, Ms., (New-York); Samuel T. Hartt, (Norfolk; C. G. Selfridge, Ms, (Pensacola); J. Lenthall, D. C, (Philadelphia.) They estimate the expenses of repairs for 1849, and fuel, at $2,500,000; and for the 4 first-class steamers on the stocks $1,200,000. They value the stores on hand at the Navy Yards, July 1, 1847, at $6,158,858, besides stores, value $1,940,558 under the care of the Ordnance Bureau. ENGINEER CORPS. Engineer-in-Chief, Charles H. Haswell, N.Y., $3,000. 7 Chief-Engineers, at $1,200 to $1,573. 49 Assistants, at $350 to $973 each. Naval Storekeepers, &c., 13 at $1,400 to $1,700 each at various stations. NAVY AGENTS AND THEIR STATIONS. Prosper M. Wetmore, Con., New-York; Joseph Hall, Boston; S. D. Patterson, Pa., Philadelphia; Joseph White, Ire., Baltimore; John M. Bell, Tenn., New-Orleans; W. Anderson, Va., Pensacola; O. Cohen, S.C., Savannah; Geo. Loyall, Va., Norfolk; S. Cushman, Me., Portsmouth, N.H.; W. B. Scott, Md., Washington; J. S. Watkins, Va., Memphis. BUREAU OF PROVISIONS AND CLOTHING. Chief, Gideon Welles, Con., $3,000. Six clerks, &c., $700 to $1,400 each Although Secretary Mason states that there are but 8,000 men in the Navy, this bureau makes estimates of provisions for 10,000, also for 1,018 officers in the sea service, and 1,113 marines, total, 4,427,815 rations at 20 cents, $885,563. BUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY. Chief, Thomas Harris, Pa., $2,500. Surgeon, clerks and messenger, $700 to $1,400 each. LIST. hugh, Va.; W. K. Latimer, Md.; Hiram Paulding, In Sept. 1847, Captains 68; natives of Va. 14, $67,500 66,500 is, doing nothing,) at $3,500... 31,500 †Jas. Barron, Va.; Chas. Stewart, Pa., (who took the Levant, Cyane, &c., 1814.) Jacob Jones, (who took the Frolic, Oct. 18, 1812.) Charles Morris, Con.; Lewis Warrington, Va; C. G. Ridgely, Md.; John Downes, Ms.; Stephen Cassin, Pa., (of the Ticonderoga, battle of Lake Champlain;) A. S. Wadsworth, Me.; George C. Read, Ire.; H. E. Ballard, Md.; Jesse Wilkinson, Va; T. Ap Catesby Jones, Va; W. Compton Bolton, Eng.; W. B. Shubrick, S. C.; Chas. W. Morgan, Va.; Lawrence Kearny, N.J.; F. A. Parker, Va.; E. R. McCall, S.C.; Dan. Turner, N.Y., (who commanded the Caledonia on Lake Erie, 1813;) *David. Conner, Pa.; *W. M. Hunter, Pa.; *J. D. Sloat, N.Y.; *Mat. C. Perry, R.L.; *C. W. Skinner, Me.; *John Thos. Newton, Va.; *Joseph Smith, Ms.; *Lawrence Rousseau, La.; *George W. Storer, N.H.; F. H. Gregory, N.H.; Philip F. Voorhees, N.J.; Ben. Cooper, do.; David Geisinger, Md.; R. F. Stockton, N.J.; Isaac Mckeever, Pa.; J. P. Zantzinger, do.; W. D. Salter, N.Y.; C. S. Macauley, Pa; Th. M. Newell, Ga.; E. A. F. Lavalette, and T. T. Webb, Va.; John Perceval, Ms.; J. H. Aulick, Va.; W. V. Taylor, R.I.; B. Dulany, Va.; S. H. Stringham. N.Y.; Isaac Mayo, Md.; W. Mervine, Pa.; Thomas Crabb, Md; Thomas Paine, R.I.; James Armstrong, Ky.; Jos. Smoot, Md.; S. L. Breese, N.Y.; Ben. Page, Eng.; John Gwinn, Md.; T. W. Wyman, Ms.; Andrew Fitz- the W.I., two of Ireland, one of Eng., one of Spain unemployed,) at $2,500...... NINETY-SEVEN COMMANDERS. 50,000 $235,865 Of whom ninety-six are natives of the U.S., and one of Ireland. Twenty-nine in Sea service, at $2,573......$74,617 † Was appointed Lieut. in March, 1798, and Capt. May 22,1799. Seventeen Lieutenants Com'ing, at $1,873..$31,841 Va., Adjutant; G. W. Walker, D. C., Paymaster; 154 do. in Sea service, $1,573.... ..242,242 Α. A. Nicholson, S. C., Quartermaster; S. Miller, 61 do. in Navy-yards, &c., $1,500...... .. 91,500 Ms., Lieut. Col. 4 Majors, 17 Captains, 24 First 93 do. waiting orders or on leave of absence (that is, ashore and unemployed,) $1,200..111,600 Now that the quarrel with Mexico is settled, the number of idle Lieutenants, at $1,200 a-year, will have greatly increased. ant do. 40. SURGEONS-Oct. 1847. Lieutenants, 23 Second Lieutenants. Natives of the United States, 72; Ireland, 1. $477,183 The pay of the Colonel is $75 per month, with 19 rations and allowances; and the sums paid under the name of rations vary. Ex. Doc. 1, Dec. 1847, has the estimate for 1848-9; 75 commissioned officers, pay and allowances, $66,746; 324 sergeants, corporals, drummers and fifers, $40,296; 2,000 privates, at $7 per month, $168,000; 81 offi cers' servants, at $8 50 per month, food and clothing, $8,262; extra rations to officers five years in army, $13,724. The income of the 75 commissioned officers in this corps, for a year, exceeds the income of 1,000 of the privates by $7,732. Surgeons 69; Passed Assistant do. 33; Assist- W.I., 1 Scot., 1 Spain. There are some 20 rates of income, from $650 a-year up to $2,700, with $73 for a ration, if on sea service. Suppose the average of the 142 to be $1,600, and we have $227,200 a-year of pay. Of the surgeons 14, and of the assistant do. 14, were unemployed, waiting orders' or absent on leave. This was in war times. Some were sick. TWENTY-FOUR CHAPLAINS. 18 at $1,200, on duty; 6 at $800, ashore, &c. SIXTY-FOUR PURSERS-Oct. 1847. NAVAL PENSIONS. Amount for 1846-7, $123,232. In Ex. Doc. 1. Dec. 1847, these allowances are given in full detail. A seaman's widow gets $6 a month; a Commander's widow, $30; a Lieutenant's widow, $25; a Captain's widow, $50; a Marine's widow, $3 50. Invalid seamen, $1 50 to $8 50 per month; a Commander, $30; 30; a Lieutenant, $25. It is just 3,500 to uphold those who are maimed and broken 3,000 down in the naval or military service. $3,500 3,000 3,000 Samuel Forrest, D.C., Ohio, 74 guns. Sterrett Ramsay, Pa., Navy-yd., Pensacola.. 2,500 NAVAL EXPENDITURE. From pages 314 to 321, of Ex. Doc. 7, Dec. 1847, we select the following particulars of payments "Pay and subsistence of the Navy;" both are blended in one item, and all we can learn is, that $2,847,445 were paid out, through certain pursers and navy agents, and that $1,523,253 remained in the hands of, we know not who, unexpended.How the public can judge of accounts thus presented we see not. Pay of Superintendents, $67,181, is next; then $746,329 for provisions; $144,848 $62,599 for clothing; Surgeons' necessaries $49,9,000 772; " increase, repair, armament and equipment 16,800 of the navy," $1,601,325; fuel for steam vessels, $170,648 $12,955. Navy Yards $727,278, of which $325,000 Natives of the U. S. 214; of Eng. 1, [Madison were laid out in New-York. Contingent expenses of the Navy, $541,000 (no particulars); books and maps, $34,811; relief bills, $113,881; Mexican hostilities, expended $2,450,095; pay, provisions, Rush); of S. A. 1. 223 MIDSHIPMEN-Oct. 1847. If in sea service $473 a-year; land do. $350; on subsistence, clothing, stores, "for the Marine shore unemployed $300. There were 65 at a corps," $294,052. Fuel, transportation, recruiting, naval school; 24 were "waiting preparatory ex- barracks, and contingencies, marine corps, $44,amination." On an average, probably, 223 were 572 In all $9,832,883 were paid out, and $3,receiving $380 each, including one ration to those 409,052 remained on hand, to another year's credit. at sea, $84,740. In Ex. Doc. 1, Dec. 1847, Secretary Mason adNatives of the U.S. 221; S. A. 1; Fr. 1. verts to the Act of 1846, increasing the navy to The Act of Aug. 1848, provides for the appoint- 10,000 men, and says its numbers in 1847 did not exment of 464 midshipmen, who are to be taken as ceed 8,000. We nowhere find an official stateequally as possible from each Congressional Dis- ment of the men on board each ship, but a trict, [many of which are far inland!] Whether clear account is given of the Marines and their this is the best mode to encourage and reward pay. capable young seamen, wherever born, is a matter of opinion. More than 180 passed-midshipmen may receive pay, under a suspension of the Act of March 3, 1845. Votes in Congress, August 3, 1848, for year 1848-9.-Improvements and repairs at Navy-yard, Portsmouth, Va., $55,551; do. at Boston, $97,351; do. at New-York, $106,000; Brooklyn Dry Dock, $350,000; for land to be bought near the Brooklyn Navy-yard and the Wallabout, $285,000; repairs, &c., Philadelphia, $14,500; do. at Norfolk, Va, $144,136; do. at Pensacola. $209,625; do. at Memphis, $174,038; at Sacket's Harbor, $2,000; $477,826 to uphold the Marine corps, on the peace establishment, which had it been 915, as in 1817, officers included, would make the cost $522 per man; improvements to naval school, Annapolis, $17,500; towards erecting floating dry docks at Philadelphia, Pensacola, and Kittery in Maine, $400,000. would be umpires. But the hardy sailor, to whom all hope of promotion is denied, is tried by a jury, not of his equals, but of his officers, who monopolize power, preferment, large incomes and high honors. This sort of trial, occasionally subjects seamen, the citizens of this Republic, to be publicly "Additional ranks in the Navy would be eminently useful as an instrument of discipline. The post-captain of to-day is precisely equal in rank to the oldest post-captain in the service. He feets his equality from the first moment flogged like a disobedient hound, but no commisthat be attains it, and at the same moment the disinclina- sioned or warrant officer is ever flogged for any tion to be commanded aud controlled by lus equal rises offence. with him. He will not willingly submit to learn as a In the N. Y. Evening Star of July 16, 1840, we scholar, what his own position authorizes him to teach.- find part of a note, written on board the North He looks to a separate command for himself; he begins to lay down systems of his own, and turns a deaf ear to the lessons of experience imparted by older heads, because they cannot claim any higher rank." The New-York Courier & Enquirer proposed one Admiral, four Vice-Admirals, and eight Rear Admirals, in 1842, to begin with, at an average increase of pay, each, of $2,000, or $26,000 additional, yearly. Are $6,500 a-year, in addition to higher rank, essential as means of securing respect, or of supporting the incumbent and his family? Soon after Congress declared our independence of Europe they resolved (Nov. 15, 1776) that the higher grades of rank of the naval officers be Admiral, Vice-Admiral, Rear-Admiral, Carolina, 74: "Respecting that man who was flogged here yesterday, he was seized up in the gangway and took 120 lashes with the cats, used by three boatswain's mates, without a flinch, and afterwards vowed revenge upon the authors of it, clenching his fists at the time and laughing as if nothing had taken place, and I think he is a very likely person to fulfil his promise. He has had, altogether, since his six years in the service, 1020 lashes." and Commodore, equal to those of General, ing them down and stamping upon them, and in Lieutenant-General, Major-General, and Briga dier-General, in the land service; but they never instruments of torture. There were eight specifiappointed an Adımiral. ent In 1842, Mr. Sprigg, in House of Rep. said, that "The case, as he had learned from officers of experience, was this: A midshipman, after receiving his appointment, went to sea for two or three years, and then had to wait on shore five or six years before he was made a Lieuten ant. The consequence was, that when he went to sea again, he had nearly forgotten what little he had learned. There were upward of 250 officers 'waiting orders' in 1841, and at that very time, when there was not enough to do for those already commission, 140 more were appointed." Mr. Elihu Burritt states, that from 1815 to 1823, EIGHT YEARS, there were 23 Captains whose average term of service was less than two years; 30 Commanders, a little over two; 172 Lieutenants less than three and a half. In 1845, three hundred and sixty-nine naval officers were on shore, unemployed, waiting orders. On Dec. 22, 1835, Judge Vanderpoel, in the House of Representatives, said, that A few years since, a commander in the Navy, now a post-captain, and in the receipt of $3,500 a-year, was tried on charges of oppression and cruelty, for striking the men with his fists, knockflicting illegal punishments with the cat and other cations, and ample proof, through the evidence of officers of undoubted reputation. His brother captains, of the Naval Court, sentenced him to three years' suspension without rank, which the Executive reduced to a year, through the influence of some members of the Court that found him guilty. Is this just and equitable? When Mr. Calhoun was Secretary of War, Congress caused some inquiry to be made relative to cases of wanton cruelty in the Army, and the publication of their Report produced for a time the best effects. Mr. C. greatly improved the practice in that Department. The case of the Somers is still fresh in the public mind, although the principal actors in that tragedy are no longer numbered with the living, and the floggings there proved, as well as in other trials of great interest, ought to have produced a change from a partial system to one that would duly check both officers and men. From sentences by Courts Martial, or proceedings like these on board the Somers, even if un"Commissions in the Army, in the time of peace, were, just, the U. S. District Court at New-York decidcomparatively, sinecures. Barring the toilsome and hon ed, in 1843, that parties aggrieved had no remedy orable expedition against Black Hawk, Ha and an occasional by an appeal to the Civil Tribunals, and refused chase atter a few retreating and predatory savages, what to "arraign the parties accused on a matter has your ariny done, or rather, what has it had to do, touching their lives;" nor did Congress interfere. since the peace of 1815? It had done all that had been Our naval system copies British usages not in acrequired of it, but it could, in the nature of things, have cordance with our Republican Institutions. Even but little or nothing to do. Not so with the Navy-our vast and growing commerce must be protected, the pirate must be driven from the ocean." Our commerce would be none the worse protected, were merit made the passport to naval promotion, and the sons and other relatives of persons in office allowed to take their chance as in the division of prize money, the whole of the "seamen, ordinary seamen, marines and boys," get but $35,000 among them, while the officers divide $65,000 where the prize taken is $100,000. naval apprentices, instead of being nearly the lieutenants, 150 midshipmen, with enough of suronly class allowed to rise in the service. NAVAL PUNISHMENTS AND REWARDS-COURTS The law allows a citizen-sailor to receive 100 lashes for an offence not capital, and any number more lashes for a capital offence, on verdict of a Court composed of 5 to 13 officers, without a jury; and although the Court happen to be divided into 7 ayes and 6 noes. The Act of Aug. 1848, requires an annual Report of the number of sailors flogged in each ship, stating the offence and how many lashes were inflicted. There would be more equity in such sentences were MERIT the only passport to naval promotion; for, in that case, officers who had once been common sailors, suffered their privations, and felt as they feel, The Act of April 21, 1806, reduced the Navy to a mere handful-13 captains, 9 commanders, 72 geons, pursers, &c.; no officer to get more than half pay unless on actual service; also 925 seamen and boys. The Navy now bears a far larger proportion to the whole population, and requires the utmost attention from Congress. Were rewards more plentiful and punishment less unequal in the Army and Navy, especially the latter, both services would be gainers in efficien cy. Von Müller, in vol. 1 of his Universal His tory, tells us, that in ancient Rome "The soldier who had saved the life of a citizen, who had killed his enemy, or maintained his post as long as the contest continued, obtained as his reward the civic crown. for his comrade as for the highest officer, and therefore the It was intended that each man should exert himself much same crown was the only reward for saving the life of the General. This badge was worn during life, and when a plebeian entered the theatre with it on his head, the sena tors arose from their seats, and the parents of the fortunate man obtained an exemption from all taxes. He who had saved the whole Army or the camp, obtained, by the de of the Senate and the people, the Crown of Grass. When the younger Decius, the Consul who fell heroically in the War of the Samnites, obtained this honor, he offered to the gods a hundred oxen." POST OFFICE Postmaster-General, CAVE JOHNSON, Ten., $6,000. Assistant Postmasters-General, Selah R. Hobbie, N. Y.; William J. Brown, Ky.; John Marrin, Ireland-$2,500 each. Chief Clerk, William H. Dundas, Va., $2,000. Clerks-3 at $1,600 each; 13 at $1,400; 19 at $1,200; 8 at $1,000; also 8 other persons. Of $167,045, paid in 1846-7, to clerks, &c. &c., (including P. O. Auditor's office,) $59,861 were for the above clerks, &c., and $3,058 for contingencies. Special Agents, &r., J. Holbrook, $1,700; L. G. Alexander, $1,790; D. Toler, $1,821; W. Tanner, $1,511; S. R. Hobbie, $1,185, (besides his salary.) Congress voted, July 10, 1848, for the Post Office service of 1848-9, $2,495,700; for transporting the mails within the Union to and from foreign ports, $455,000; compensation of Postmasters, $1,075,000; advertising, $35,000; mail bags, $25,000; blanks, $18,000; clerks in offices of Postmasters, $230,000, miscellaneous, $113,000. They also voted, Aug. 3, other $874,600, to defray the transportation of the U. S. Mail between New-York and Liverpool, New-York and New-Orleans, Havana and Chagres; and between Panama and Astoria, via San Diego, San Francisco, and Monterey. The latest annual report from the PostmasterGeneral shows, that there were, in July, 1847, mail routes of 153,818 miles in extent, by land and water, and the statutes of last session have added many thousands of miles additional, in Texas, &c. There are 3,659 mail contractors employed, also 186 route and local agents and mail messengers, 15,146 Postmasters, and thousands of clerks in offices, mail carriers, and persons occasionally employed, in printing, advertising, &c. &c. The expense of carrying the mails in 1846-7 was nearly two and a-half millions of dollars. Of letters passing through the mails at 5 cents each, there were 36,152,556; at 10 cents, 12,851,532; at 6 cents, 427,800; at 2 cents, 850,980; dropped 865,308; free (supposed) 5,000,000; dead letters, say 1,800,000.The revenue of the department, for 1846-7, was $3,945,893; the expenditure $3,979,571. If there is any detailed, intelligible statement of the revenue and charges, the compiler has not heard of it.Of $311,299 charged to the United States for official postages, $195,234 are in the Post Office Department. ELECTION OF POSTMASTERS BY THE PEOPLE. In times past, when a state officer displeased the people, he was often placed in a non-elective office by the party he acted with, or transferred to a post office or other appointment in the gift of the Federal authorities; men whom well-informed public opinion had proscribed, were thus provided for, and enabled to act efficiently for years against the popular will. The evil is lessened in this State, because more offices are made elective Why should Whigs not push forward and carry out their long talked-of reform of giving to the people the election of every Postmaster throughout the Union? If the people in their localities are capable of choosing their Presidents, Governors. Senators, Congressmen, Sheriff's, Surrogates, Judges, and Registrars of property, why not also their Postmasters? Very often, indeed, persons are selected at Washington in whom a majority of their fellow-citizens have no confidence; the Post Office is not seldom made the rendezvous for the politicians of the party in power, and the sus We are too sparing in this way. A brave seaman, who signalized himself on board the Ocean Monarch, has, it is true, obtained special marks of public approbation, but what gold could equal, to a true American, such lasting honors as the civic crown and crown of grass, or their equivalents? DEPARTMENT. picion is audibly expressed by all classes, from the President of the United States, downward, that in many instances public documents are injuriously withheld from their owners, and even private correspondence concealed, and personal confidence violated. What better remedy could be found for such complaints than to enable the qualified electors of every city, village and hamlet in the Union, to choose as their Postmaster the man in whom, from thorough personal knowledge, they had the highest degree of confidence, at the same time empowering the Postmaster-General to take proper sureties for fulfilment of the duties, as at present, and to remove incumbents for cause?Such a change would lessen the dangerous influence of the federal executive, and the corruption that may be practised through a cordon of interested, selfish officials, whose tenure of power is sometimes limited solely by the extent of their subservience to the electioneering schemes of unprincipled party chiefs. We would fain hope that some member will urge the adoption of the principle involved, upon Congress, and press the question to an early vote. We intend no personal censure on any individual Postmaster by these remarks. The Postmaster-general's remarks relative to "an organized corps" of politicians, in our 16,000 post-offices, we will try to find room for. CHEAP POSTAGE. The only reason known to us for giving the Federal Government the sole control of the mails, post offices, and newspaper and letter carrying, throughout the Union, is, to associate society for a common beneficial purpose, where its agents can perform the service required better, quicker, safer, nd cheaper, than any individual, private company, or single State could. If the community guarantee to every public servant or agent employed in, or by, the Post Office Department, a fair and moderate recompense for his or her services, out of the proceeds of the postage rates collected, what more is wanted than that these rates should be equitably proportioned, and high enough to meet the cost of the establishment, when prudently administered? To exact higher rates is either to encourage a profligate expenditure, or to raise a revenue, or rather trying to raise it, by increasing the difficulties of communication between one place and another, restricting the vast INLAND really free trade of the Union, burdening the letters of friendship, affection, business, innocent pleasure, and often, very often, of the poorer classes in the Far West with their friends in the old settlements, by a tax, calculated. as far as its operation extends, to work as injuriously to the public as steamboats, the telegraph, and locomotives, have worked for its good. Cheap postage benefits commerce, agriculture, home manufactures; helps to uphold ancient friendships; brings the distant places of a vast empire like ours closer together; gives new power to opinion, additional wings to useful knowledge; cheers the new settler in his wilderness; aids powerfully in the education of the whole people. One of the surest props of Government by the million, in the best sense of the term, is a well organized and efficient, yet economical Post Office Department. The easier it is to obtain tidings of what all public functionaries | square inches, when sent from the offices of publipossessed of delegated powers are doing, the cation, 1 cent per sheet, to any place not over 100 more promptly can public opinion ac act upon and miles distant, nt, or to any place in the State where influence their conduct, for the general welfare in published. If sent over 100 miles, and out of the an elective Government. State, 1 cents. [Letter and newspaper postages A reduction of the rates of postage, to 2 cents need not be pre-paid, except in such cases as we for paid and 4 cents for unpaid letters of half an have noted.] Circulars, pamphlets and ounce in weight, might not for several years meet papers should be so folded as that the Postmaster the annual expenditure, but it would eventually do so; and in the meantime the advantages to the American people which cheap inland postage would secure, are incalculable. When the 5 and 10 cent postage rates were adopted, very audible fears were expressed that the revenue would be materially injured, and efforts made by Mr. Cave Johnson, and the party about to resign power, to raise the rates once more. They failed, and now admit that the revenue meets the expenditure.So it would, probably, in a few years, at 2 cents unpaid or 4 cents paid. news can see what they are. If enveloped, they should be left open at the end. Postmasters are allowed $50 out of every $100 of newspaper and pamphlet postage they collect. They are no longer allowed to frank money-letters to editors from subscribers; they give receipts for money-the subscriber mails the receipt in a letter, which the Postmaster, where the editor lives, pays him the money for. No packet can be mailed which weighs more than 2 pounds. Bound books are not mailable matter; private expresses, for the conveyance of letters on post-routes, are prohibited. Exchanges of newspapers between editors pass free. Members of Congress may frank letters not weighing over 2 ounces. The rates on oz. letters conveyed between places in Oregon and California and places on the Atlantic, is 40 cents each; and between one Posttown and another in California, 12ł cents. POST OFFICE REVENUE-MAIL CARRIAGE. The Northern States defray by far the greater proportion of the cost of transporting the public mails. During the year 1846-7, it cost $256,464 to transport the mails through New-England; the revenue raised from postages was $443,648; the expense of mail transportation in New-York and Pennsylvania, was only $384,719; the revenue raised from postages in these two States, $746,933. Letters, per half-ounce, to Bremen, paid or unIn Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Georgia, paid, mailed at N.Y., 24c.; within 300 miles of on the other hand, $770,044 were paid for mail N.Y., 29c.; over 300 miles, 34c. per U.S. Mail transportation, while only $311,569 were raised as revenue at all the Post Offices in these five States. Alabama raises under $50,000 revenue, while over $136,000 are paid to convey the mails through it, and the new State of Texas raises but $8,246 in part of $24,102 expended. Wisconsin pays $56, 703 of postage, while its mail conveyance costs but $15,043; Iowa, even, is within $500 of meeting all charges. The United States Senators from South Carolina and other Southern States, were the chief opponents of cheap postage, when the 5 and 10 cent rates were adopted; yet the South, where education is discouraged, and hundreds of thousands of the white people are unable to read and write, throws the heavy burden of mail carriage upon the North and East. RATES OF INLAND POSTAGE. A letter, not exceeding half an ounce in weight, (avoirdupois,) sent not exceeding 300 miles, five cents-sent over 300 miles, ten cents, every oz. and any excess over every oz. the same rates RATES OF FOREIGN POSTAGE. Packets. If to Prussia, 12 cents additional; to Hamburg, 6c. do. If to Austria, 18; Bavaria, 22; Switzerland, 21; Egypt, 37; each additional, per t oz. letter. To Denmark, 22; Sweden, 39; St. Petersburg, Russia, 24; each additional, per oz. The postages payable on oz. letters by the British West India Mail Steamers, are, if for any British West India Island, 25 cents; for Martinique, Havana, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, or other island not British, 50 cents; for Chagres, Panama, Valparaiso, or any port on the Pacific, 75 cents; all letters for Havana, per steamers, are 25 cents. TREATY WITH GREAT BRITAIN.-Postage of a half-ounce letter, mailed at any Post-Office in the United States to any part of England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, 24 cents-which may be paid by the sender, or by the person to whom it is directed. It will be forwarded though not prepaid. Heavier letters in proportion. Letters may be mailed in Britain or Ireland for the U. S. on same terms, except that on any weight over 1 ounce and under 2 ounces, four rates are charged. of postage; and when advertised thrice in one Newspapers pay 4 cents each-2 when mailed newspaper, two cents per letter additional. Each drop letter, not to be mailed, two cents. All handbills or circulars, printed or lithographed, not exceeding one sheet, three cents each, and to be pre-paid. here, and 2 when received in Britain. On British journals the same rate. Letters to Brit. N. America are charged a rate equal to the U S. and Colonial rates combined-prepayment, after the details are arranged, is to be optional. Periodicals under 1 Ib. and other pamphlets under lb. each, pay one Each newspaper, not over 1,900 sq. in. when not mailed by the publishers, 3 cents, and to be pre-cent per ounce in the U. S., whether received paid. [This regulation unjustly exacts THREE from or to be sent to Britain or Ireland, beside an cents postage in advance on every newspaper additional charge in Britain. Merchants' printed bought from newsmen, or directed by individuals circulars, if printed as extra newspapers, will to their friends, if only sent from Albany to Troy, or Schenectady, while papers mailed at NewYork by the editors pass 500 miles, to Buffalo or beyond, for ONE cent, and only payable when taken out. The great principle of our Government is the diffusion of knowledge and the enforcement of equity; therefore this proviso should be modified. It bears unequally on the poorer classes of our citizens, whom it is our true interest to cherish, raise up and instruct.] paynewspaper postage here and in Britain. COMPENSATION TO POSTMASTERS. The following statement will show the sums paid over, at the offices named, to the U.S. as net revenue, and the compensation retained by each Postmaster for his trouble, during the year ending June 30, 1847: [EXPLANATION. The name of each Post Office is placed first, as Augusta; then the amount of the Postmaster's net compensation in Dollars, thus: '993;' and lastly, the net year's revenue, paid over to the U. S., thus; 1969. Clerk-hire is allowed a allowed at the offices marked with a (*) star] Maine. Augusta, 993-1,969; Bath, 1,001-2,061; Freeport, 251-252; Houlton, 405-300; Machias, 316-387; *†Portland, 2,000-3,001; Robbinston, 578 Any pamphlet or magazine, periodical, or other |