The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-15 00:00:00

shall continue to be the ease, the number and activity of
our troops will rather increase than ditniniah the evil, as the
Indians will naturally turn toward that country where they
encounter the least resistance. Yet these troops are neces-
sary to subdue them, and to compel them to make and ob-
serve treaties. Until this shall have been done, neither
country will enjoy any security from their attacks.
The Indians in California, who had previously appeared
of a peaceable character, and disposed to cultivate the
friendship of the whites, have recently committed several
it of hostility. As a large portico of the reinforcements
tent to the Mexican frontier w: rc drawn from the Pacific,
the military force now stationed there is considered entirely
inadtluat:. to its defence. It cannot be inereised, how-
ever, without an bureme of the army ; nod I ecain re-
commend that measure as indispensable to tile protZetion of
the frontier.

I incite your attention to the suggestions on this subject,
and on others connected with his department, in the report
of the tkcretary of War.
The appropriation for the support of the army during
the current tiw.al year, ending 30th Jun, next, were re-
duced far below the estimate submitted by the department.
The consequence of this reduction is a considerable defi-
ciency, to which I invite your early attention.
The expenditure of that department for the year ending
30th June last, were 9,00046.5,63 dols. The estimates for
the year commending Ist July next and ending June 30,
1853, are 7,893,775,83 dill.; showing a reduction of
1,161,492,74 dol..

. .
The B ,ard of Commissioners to whom the management
of the atfii,s of the Military Asylum created by the act of
3rd of )larch last was entrusted, have selected a site for
the estabiiehment of an asylum is the vieini y of this city,
whit's has been approved by me, subject to the production
of a satisfactory title.
The report of the Secretary of the Navy will exhibit the
condition of the public service under the sum rvisivn of
that deportment. Our naval force afloat during the present
year has been actively and usefully employed in giving pro-
tection toour wid.lysex tended and increasing commerce and
interests in various quarters of the globe, and our flag has
evervwhere afforded the security and received the respect
inspired by the jtastica and liberality of our intercourse, and
the dignity and power of the nation.
The expedition Coll2M.kitchd by Lieut. De navies, de-
spatched in ti tech of tie British commander, Sir John
ranklin, and his companions, in the Arctie Seas, returned
to Now York in the moils of Octoher, after having emit r-
gone great peril and suffering from an unknown noel dan-
gerous navigation, and the rigours of a northern chalet, ,
without any satisfactory information of the objects of their
soarer, but with new contributions to science and meta-
-1 tion from the unfeequenteil polar regions. The officers and
men of tire expeilition, having been all volunteer, for this
service, and having as conducted it as to meet the entire
approbation of etc Government, it is suggested as an act
of grace and generosity, that the stelae allowanees of extra
pay and emoluments be extended to them that were made
to the officers and men of like rating in the late exploring
expedition to the South Seas.
I earnestly ri commend to your attention the necessity of
reorganising the Naval Establishment, apportioning and
fixing the number of officers in each grade, providing some
mole of promotion to the higher grades of the navy, having
reference to merit and capacity, rather than seniority
or date of entry into the scree-, and fir retiring from
the effect:To list upon reduced pry those who may lie in-
competent to the performance of active petty. Ass measure
of economy as well as of efficiency in this nun of the service,
the provislin lest mentioned is eminently worthy of your
consideration.

The determination of the qwstions of relative rank be-
tween the sea officers and civil officers of the navy and
between officers of the army and nasy, in the various grades
of each, will also merit your attention. The failure to
provide any substitute, when corporal punishment was
abolished fur olfenccs in the navy, has occasioned the
cons ening of numerous courts-martial upon the arrival of
vesstds in port, and is believ«l to have had an injurious
' effect upon the discipline and efficiency of the service. Ta
moderate punishment from one grade to another is among
the humane reforms of the ay.; but to abolish one of sm-
. rity, which applied Sit genenilly to offences on ship-board,
and provide nothing in its dead, is to suppose a progress of
iinprovement in every individual among seamen which is
nut assumed by the legisl store in respect to any other class
of men. It is hoped that congress, in the gin lc oppertunity
alliortled by the pre-cut session, will thoroughly investigate
this important subject, and establish such modes of deter-
mining guilt, and such gradatiens of punishment as are
consistent with humanity and the personal rights of iadivi•
duals, and at the Brune time shall insure thu most energetic
and efficient performance of duty and the suppression of
crime in our ships of war.
. .

The stone duck in the Navy.y:rd at New York, which
was ten years in process of construction, has been so far
finished us to be surrendered up to the authorities of the
yard. The dry dock at Philadelphia is reported as com.
pleted, and is expected soon to be tested and delivered over
to the agents of the Government. That at Portsmouth,
New Hampshire is also nearly ready fur delivery; and a
contract has been concluded, nerve ably to the act of Con-
rem af. its last session, fur a flouting sectional dock on the
bay of San Francisco. 1 invite your attention to the re-
commendation of the Department totiehiu4 the establish-
ment of a navy yard in conjunction with this dock on the
Pacific. Such a station is highly neees,siry to the conve-
ni'nce and .IKetiveness of our abet iu that ocean, which
must be expected to increase with the growth of commerce
and the rapid extension of our whale fisheries over its
waters. _ _

The naval academy at Annapolis, under a revised and
improved system of regulations now atiOnis opportunities of
education and instruction to the pupils quite equal, it is
believed, for professional improvement, to those enjoyed by
the cadets in the military academy. A large class ul acting
midshipmen was received at the commencement of the last
academic term, and a practice-ship has been attached to
the inititutisn, to afford the amplest means for regular
in-Unction in seatuenship, as well as fur cruises during the
vacations of three or four months in each year.
The advantages of science in nautical affairs have rarely
been more strikingly illustrated than in the fact stated its
the Report of the Navy Department that by means of the
wind and current charts projected and prepared by Lieut.
Maury, the Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, the
passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific ports of our coun-
try has lace shortened by about 40 days.
the estimates for the support of the Navy and Marine
Corps, the ensuing tfiscal year, will be found to be 5,856,472
dole. 19c., the estimates or the current year being
6,900,621 doll.
The estimates for special objects under the control of this
department amount to 2,084,220 doll. 89c.„ against 2,210,980
dole. for the present year, the increase being occasioned by
the additional mail service on the Pacific coast and the con-
struction of the dock in California, authorised ut the last
session of Congress, and some slight additions under the
head of improvements and repairs in navy-yards, buildings,
and machinery.
I deem it of much importance to a just economy, and a
correct understanding of naval expenditure, that there
should be an entire separation of the appropriation for the
support of the naval service proper from those fur perma-
nent improvements at navy yards and stations, and from
ocean steam mail service, and other special objects assigned
to the supervision of this department.
The report of the Postmaster. General, herewith commu-
nicated, presents an interesting view of the progress, opera-
tions and condition of his department.
At the close of the last local year, the length of mail
routes within the United States was 196,290 miles; the an-
nual transportation thereon 63,272,2.52 miles, and the an-
nual cost of such transportation, 3,421,751 dots.
The length of the foreign mail routes is estimated at
18,319 miles; and the annual transportation thereon at
616,206 miles. Tae annual cost of the service is 1,472,187 dol-
lars, of which 444,937 dale. is paid by the Post-office depart-
ment, and 1,023,150 dole. is paid through the Navy depart-
ment.

The annual transportation within the 'United States (ex-
cluding the service in California and Oregon, which is
now for the first time reported and embrased in the tabu-
lar statements of the department) exceeds that of the
preceding year C,162,836 miles, at an increased cost of
647,110 dole
The whole number of post-offices in the United States,
on the 30th day of Juno Last, was 19,796. There were
1,698 post-offices established, and 256 discontinued, during
the year.
The gross revenues of tho department for the fiscal year,
including the appropriations for the franked matter of Con-
gress, of the departments, and officers of government, and
excluding the foreign postages, collected for and payable to
the British Post-office, amounted to 6,727,866 doffs. 78 c.
The expenditure■ fur the same period (excluding 20,599
dole. 49c. paid under an award of the auditor, in pursuance
of a resolution of the last Congress, for mail service on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1832 and 1833, and the
amount paid to the British Post-office for foreign postage*
collected for and payable to that office) amounted to
6,024,566 dots. 79c. ; leaving a balance of revenue over the
proper expenditures of the year of 703,299 doh. 99e.
The receipts fur postages during the year (excluding the
foreign postages collected for and paystle to the British
post-office) amounted to 6,34,5,747 dole. 2.c., being an in-
crease of 997,610 dots. 79e., or 18.65-100 per cent. over the
like receipts for the preceding year.
The reduction of postage, under the act of March last,
did not take effect until the commencement of the present
fiscal year. The accounts for the first quarter, under the
present operation of the reduced rates wil.: not be settled
before January next, and no reliable estimate of the receipts
for the prevent year can yet be made. It is believed, how-
ever, that they will fall far short of those of last year. The
surplus of the revenues now on hand is, however, so large
that no further appropriation from the treasury in aid of ,
the revenues of the department is required for the current
fiscal year; but an additional appropriation for the year
ending June 30, 16.53, will probably he found necessary
when the receipts of the first two quarters of the fiscal
year are fully ascertained.
In his Last annual retort the Postmaster-General recom-
mended a reduction of postage to rates whirls he deemed
as low as could be prudently adopted, unlese Congress was
prepared to appropriate from the treasury, fur the support '
of the department, a sum more than equivalent to the mail
services performed by it for the government. The recom-
mendations of the Postmaster-Oeueral, in - *. to letter

respect
ran and

postage, except on letters from and to _ . Oregon
were substantially adopted by the last Congress. He now,
recommends adherence to the present letter sates' and ad-
vises against a further reduction until justified by the re-
venue of the department.
He also recommends that the rates of postage on printed
matters be so revised as to render them more simple, and
more uniform in their operation upon all clams of printed
matter. I submit the recommendations of the report to
your favourable consideration.
The pnbl:c statutes of the United States have now been
accumulating for more than sixty years, and, interspersed
with private acts, an scattered through numerous volumes,