The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-17 00:00:00

marred by the charge of light money to our vessels where
we charge none. This removal of restrictions in our
commercial intercourse with other nations in the carry-
ing business, has not been prejudicial to our foreign
commercial marine. The burden of light money to
which our tonnago in the ports of G:-eat Britain and
other eotnmei•ciul nations is subject, should be removed
by mutual agreement, or countervailing leginlittion on
our part, and the tonnage duty now charged on our
vessels, in the ports of France and some other coun-
tries, and on their vessels in our parts, should, by like
mutual agreement he taken off and port charges equalised.
The existing tariff laws might be so modified, as to be
of more certain and easy execution, and to the-prevention
of that fluctuation in duties of which the manufacturers
nd the friends of protection complain. The greater
part of the revenue, nova collected, is from iron and
steel and manufactures of iron and steel, silk and tnann-
factures of silk, wool and manufactures of wool, hemp
and flax and the manufactures of hemp and flax, and the
manufactures of cotton, an] manufactures of which silk,
wool, hemp, flux, and cotton are component parts, and
brandies, wines and sugars. The import of these articles
for the fiscal year 1856 amounted to 166,089,379 dols.,
and the duties on them to 47,168,850,05, as per statement
No, 23 of this report.

THE PO3T.OPFICE.

From this document we find that :
The number of post-offices in the Union on the 30th of
June last was 25.662. Of these, 339 have an income
of over 1,000 dole. per annum, and the postmasters are
appointed by the President, subject to the confirmation of
the Senate. The total compensation of postmasters was,
for the last fiscal year, 2,102,890 dole. The number of
mail route coWractors was 6,372; of mail agents, 394,
and of mail messengers, 1,1013. The mail was carried
over 20,323 miles by railroad, over )4,951 miles in
steamboats, over 50,453 miles in coaches, and over
153,915 miles by inferior conveyances. The cost
of transportation for each mile travelled is, by railroad,
10.6 cents ; by steamboat, 20.3 c nts hy coach about 7
cents, and by inferior conveyances nearly 8 cents per
mile. The total cost of. mail transportation for the
current year, including the salaries of agents and messen-
gers, but excluding the ocean service, is 6,576,128
dollars. The Postmaster-General renews his complaint
of the large amount
.paid to the Panama railroad,
amounting for the last fiscal year to 141,308 dollars,. and
for the first quarter of the current fiscal year to 44,308
dollars. He recommends an act limiting the amount
to •be paid for the service to 50,000 dollars, and an
appropriation of 200,000 dollars toward a semi-monthly
mail, via Nicaragua and Tehuantepec, giving,
with the Panama route, a weekly mail to California,
The total expense of the Department for the last
fiscal year was 10,405,286 dollars. The entire revenue,
including the annual amount of 700,000 dais. for mail
service rendered the Government, was 7,620,821 dols.,
showing a deficit of 2,787,046, which considerably
exceeds the average of the preceding three years. The
expenditure for the current year is estimated at
10,658,678 dols. The revenue at 9,991,794. The aboli-
tion of the franking privilege is urged, or else that the
Department be allowed to charge the Government the
ordinary rates on franked matter ; also the abolition of
the fifty per cent. deduction on the postage of periodicals
paid in advance. With these changes, and the relief of
the department from the burden of the ocean mail
service, the Postmaster-General thinks that his depart-
ment would support itself.
As to the ocean mail steamers, the Postmaster.
General does not understand why some of them
should not start from other ports than New York
The obvious reason is that New Yolk is tho centre
at once of our foreign and of our domestic traffic,
and that so far as the support of the lino depends
upon passengers, New York has decided advantages
overall other ports. The failures which tho Post-
master mentions in case of the ocean mails carried
from New Orleans, are not much of an argument
for diffusing the sexvize. With respect to the
postal relations with Great Britain, the report says :
A proposition has been received from the British
Post office for a reduction of the postage between the
United States and Great Britain, from 24 to 12 cents the
single letter. In answer, this department has indicated
a willingness to accede to this proposal, provided the
transit charge on mails passing through England from
and to the United States is reduced to 121- cents an
mince, the price paid by that government for the con-
veyance of the British and Canada mails through the
United States. This department has been for years
endeavouring to have an abatement made in this
transit charge, which is considered excessive, and
in the presort instance the condition was rendered
necessary, inasmuch as a reduction on the United
States and British correspondence will involve also a
reduction of the sea postage on the United States and
Continental closed mails, the effect of which would be
greatly to reduce the receip's from the United States
mail steamship lines, unless there is a elrresponding
reduction in the British transit tax ; so that by lower
rates correspondence would be increased sufficiently to
prevent loss. So far as Great Britain is concerned, in
117 n event of a reduction simple, in the Atlantic postage,
it is not likely she would suffer any serious diminution
of her postal revenues, since she would doubtless be
compensated for any loss on that account by the
increased amount of transit postage she would realise
under such an arrangement. This condition was,
however, coupled with an offer on the part of this
Department to have the transit price for all closed mails
in both countri .s fixed at the uniform rate of 12,1 cents
an wince, concession which would secure to the British
and California and West India closed mails the right
of transit in some cases at one half, and in others at
only one quarter the price now charged under the treaty.
I was she more ready to make this concession, first,
because li regard it of *he highest importance that the
correspondence between this country and Europe should
be relieved from the onerous tax to which it is now
subjected, in order that the people on both sides of the
Atlantic, in their social and business intercourse, may be
as little trammeled as possible ; and, second, because it
is likewise very desirable, as well in foreign as in
domestic postal arrangements, that simplicity and uni-
formity should be observed. Arrangements have been
made between this department and the postal authorities
of Great Britain and Canada, providing for the registra-
tion of valuable letters transmitted between those
countries and the United States. The United States
registration fee is five cents, the same as on registered
letters destined to any place in this country. (The
articles of agreement are annexed.)