The Express.
London, England, 1855-04-23 00:00:00

FIRST REPORT OF THE
GENERLL.

The first report of the Postmaster• General has just
been issued. It is not so long ma the annual report of the

Postmaster-General of the United States, but it is an im-
portant and interesting document. Being the first report of
the kind issued by that functionary, it contains an historical
summary of the origin and growth of the British Peet•office,
and some curious particulars respecting It from early official
records found n St. Martin's le Grand. According to the
report, the present Post•offiee staff consists of 21,674
persons. The number of posteofiloes in the United King-
dom is 9,973. During last year 616 new post-offices,
free deliveries to 1,242 places, and a London day mail to 14
towns, were established. Mails are conveyed daily over
67,000 miles, at no average charge of fiid. per mile by rail-
way and nd. per mile by coach. The number of chargeable
letters which passed through the post last year was
443,000,000. Of these 103,000,000 were delivered in the
London district, and 210,900,000 passed through the London
office. The average weight of inland and colonial letters is
jos. each, and of foreign letters jos. each. 63,000,000
newspapers passed through the London office last year, the
average weight was 3101.; and 376,000 book packets,
the average weight of each lOos. There are 1,872
money order offices in the United Kingdom, eighty-
six of which were opened during last year. The
number of money orders granted during 1864 was
5,486,244 ; their total amount was 10,462,4111. 16s. 4d.,
and the profit on which, after paying expenses, was 18,6381.
The gross revenue from postage on letters and books and
commission on money orders last year was 2,889,0001., and
the gross expenditure 1,413,0001. Of this expenditure,
364,0001. was paid for conveyance of mails on railways, and
162,0001. for conveying them by coaches and carts. At the
close of last year 28 steam-ships, belonging to the five large
mail contract packet companies, were converted into war
transports. Owing to this the negotiations for setablishing

a monthly steam-packet communication to Australia,
via India, were stopped. The report states that a
postmaster, three assistant peatmuters, and
letter earrien, have been stationed in the Crimea ;
also eighteen horses and moles are specially employed for
the conveyance of mails there. During eight months
282,000 letters have been forwarded from England to the
seat of war through France, and 325,000 letters have
reached England from the seat of war by the same route.
About 10,000 letters are sent to the Crimea, and 2,600 are
received from thence monthly, by the long sea route. The
correspondence of our forces in the But presents an average
of 45,260 letters to, and 43,126 from, the seat of war in
each month. " A result," rays the report, "as gratifying
in respect of amount as those portions of it which meet
I the public eye generally prove to be in respect of
spirit, intelligence, and feeling." The Postmaster-General
has entered into a contract with several [railway companies
to pay a filed sum annually, and send mails by all their
trains. He laments that he is deterred often from lending
additional mails by railway even when this can be done
with little or no extra expense to the railway companies by
the unduly large demands of those companies and the dis-
proportionate awards which experience has shown to be
probable when the question is referred to arbitration. He
also laments that according to the present law he has
no power to enforce the stipulated speed or pane-
Wel arrival of mail trains. He fropoied a system
of mutual penalties between the Pat-efilce and rail-
way companies, for each party to be subjected to
for unpunctuality, but it wu:declined by the companies.
He offered to pay for a special mail train to Glasgow and
Edinburgh to ensure a better communication with the

north, Mil the railway companies refused to accede to it. A
mailer offer made to the Great Western Company to accele-
rate the communication with the west has been accepted.

The reason why the plan of sorting foreign and colonial
mails as board the mail packets has not been adopted has I
been owing, rye the report, to the heavy charge that '
would be made for the requisite space, and the '
objection of foreign merchants to the want of so-
rarity if the mail bags should be unsealed, and !
letters dealt with under eireunutaness which would not
admit of the application of the ordinary cheeks against the I
abase of seek a power. The age, character, Meth, and I
acquirements of every candidate for Post-alas employment
US sow required before be is appointed. A new code of
rules for the guidance of postmaaten is in preparation, and
all the rules that will be useful to the public will be printed
separately and distributed. According to the report, out of ,
thirty-two foreign nations there are only two—vin., Sweden
and Equador—in which no material internal postal improve-
meat has been made since the introduction into Great ,
Britain of the penny postage. In Bask, Spain, and Chili the
lowest inland postal rate has been reduced to less than 4d. In
France, the United States, Bavaria, Hanover, Portugal,
Sardinia, and Brasil, it has been reduced to less than 2d.,
and in Belgium and Denmark to a Id. In 32 foreign
sountries postage stamps have been introduced. Is three of
them prepayment of postage is compulsory, and in 12 others
prepayment has been encouraged. In 18 of the foreign
countriesin which the postal charges havebeen reduced the
gross postal receipts are equal to what they were before the
reduction. Special rewards are to be given for improve-
ments in the working of the Post-offiee department.
A. Liverpool clerk has had a gratuity of 2001.,
for devising a floating receiving-house, to admit
of letters for America being posted up to the
last moment of the sailing of the packet, and 6001. har been
given to an official for inventing improvements in the appa-
ratus for dropping and taking up letter hags without stop-
ping the trains. The Daily News a short time since, in
noticing the United States' annul report, pointed out the
accusations in that report of pall unfairness against
the British government and the British Post-offioe depart-
ment. These asossatioas were that the American corre-
spondence to and from Prance through England were
improperly excluded from the benefit of the postal treaty
between Great Britain and the United States; that an unfair
proportion of that oorrespondence wee sent serer the Atlantic
in British packets; that the treaty threw on the Mailed States
an unfair proportion of the burden of collecting the postage
for the two countries, and that treat Britain refused to fa-
! eilitata the transmission of peaphlets sad magazines be-
tween England sad America. To these encusations Lord
Canning, in his report, replies. He states that, with the
eonearreseet of Frames, the British government allowed the
Americo-French oorrespondenee to per through England
I spat the maw cosAiticas iiththat of all Wan Amnia% tsr-

I
respondence conveyed through this country; that, in fact, the
American eorresponience with France, as with all other
parts, was only subjected to the same postal rates as the cor-
respondence of British subjects having the same destination.
Some inooavenienee arises to the stisteriesu public with
regard to their correspondence with France, because the
United States government refuses to oonour with England
and France in an arrangement for the mode of collecting
the postage. If the United States (says Lord Canning)
were to concur in the arrangement, the rates in America and
France would be equalised, and then there would likewise
be no motive for sending Americo-French correspondent), in
preference by British packets. But America complains that
Ragland allows France to take 6d. from American subjects
for conveyance of a letter by a British packet, sad yet
America charges those subjects Bd. for the same ser-
vice performed by as American packet. The only way to
p t the public partiality to British packets is for
America to charge her own citizens the same low sea rate
'of 6d. for • letter conveyed by an American packet, as
France charge. her citizens for a letter conveyed by a
British packet. The reason why America collects more in-
ternational panne than England is that there are more
letters seat to America from England than to England from
America. As to the complaints about pamphlets and maga-
zines, Lord Canning states that he offered to include
pamphlets and magazine, in an international book postal
privilege which would far better assist the literary inter-
course of the two countries, and be more practicable than
the American proposition.
A report from the General Poet-office will for the future
appear annually. The Postmaster 0 I justly Matti
that the Poet-office service calls for courant expansion and
improvement; that publicity will be en advantage to the de-
partment, and have a good effect upon the working of many
of its branches; and that there is no depaktment, the busi-
. . . .. . . _ .

nem of which, if duly recorded, will furnish more striking
evidence of the prosperity and progress of the empire, whe-
ther as regards the increase of the general wealth, the grow-
ing importance cf the colonies, the improved education and
intelligence of some Chiles, or the stirrisg industry and
energy which is the national characteristic of all.