Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-02-09 00:00:00

THE AMERICAN DEAD LETTER OFFICE.

The New York Herald says :—" The report of the
Postmaster-General reveals some curious facts about
dead letters.' The whole number for the last year
is two and a half millions—an - accumulation which
could not take place under judicious regulations in the
department. Among the cause of dead letters is the
number of post-offices of the same name and close simi-
larity of names, even in the same state, and of post-
offices idttlleempswid, long, and difficult names. This
should be remedied by Congress at once. But in the
large majority of cases the caused of letters not reach- •
ing their destination lies with the writers them-
selves, either in misdirecting or illegibly directing
their communications ; and the migratory habits of the
people account for a portion of the balance. Of the
many letters restored to the writers during the year it
has been found that sixty per cent. of them were mis-
directed, held for postage, or addressed to transient
persons; and of letters containing valuable enclosures,
other than money, eighty per cent, became 'dead' from
the same causes. The whole number of registered
money letters sent to the dead office was 9,726,
of which 8,574 were subsequently delivered to the
owners. The whole amount of money received was
a$ m 450, u7nltB f amountenclo
,bills of exchange, -drafts, &c., amounted to upwards
surreetes reoedth etre etillers,mS4onely'l,43;u' such Theas
of two and a half millions of dollars. But
this is only the amount in such letters fairly accounted
for. How many such letters are plundered in the Post-
office there is no means of telling. The Postmaster-
General says, and he ought to know, that dead letters in
the Post-office are ' exposed to more or less danger.' As
the law now stands there is no provision made for the
restoration of dead letters not containing money or
valuable enclosures, though such letters may be of the
utmost importance, and involving, by their failure to
reach their destination or to come back to the writers, ,
thousands of dollars of loss or considerations more
weighty than money. The Postmaster has suggestions
to make to Congress whereby this defect may be remedied
in future. In _England all such letters are returned, if
the writers can be fOund."

It is stated in a letter from Pesth that the Austrian
au
rebt
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p. raaolil
hoi buoireitfned ngiaa
rtrtrhci
eie keepers
march
ti,sn
lic
aatniodo
familiar
national
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having
gai
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theirl
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pe
to the
of Western Europe from having been introduced by
Berlioz in his symphony of Faust.
NEW SYSTEM OF NAVAL WARPARE.—A paper was
read on Mondiiy night by Capt. Wheatley, R.N., at
the United Service Institution, on "A New System
of Building and Arming Ships of War, and the ad-
vantages of this improvement.", The plan proposed
by Captain Wheatley is to supersede large men-of-
war by the introduction of a class of ships of the
character of large gunboats, each carrying two guns
of large calibre. Capt. Wheatley takes for ,tho model
of his ships the fast-sailing vessels of the Indian seas,
which are built very fine fore and aft, and resembles
in form the yacht America that carried away the
prizes in our regattas. A ship of this shape of 1,800 or
2,000 tons burthen, he proposes to propel_ with paddle
and screw combined, and to arm with two guns of the
calibre of 16 inches, carrying a round solid shot weigh-
ing upwards of 4001 b., or a bolt of 1,000 lb. to be pro-
pelled by a charge of 76 lb. of powder. The fore and
aft parts of theshipsare.to be coated with plates of iron of
sufficient thickness to resist common shot, which would
rebound from the sloping bows without penetrating.
Six of these smaller ships, Captain Wheatley said,
would be-More than a match for three times the number
of three-deckers or large frigates; and, even allowing
the latter to have greater speed, they would be in-
evitably destroyed before they could come- to Close
quarters with the fore-and-afters, which during the
chase would always have their guns bearing with most
advantage on the enemy, whilst the latter would be
unable to fire any of their heavy guns.
PORTLAND, Feb. 6.—As a gang of convicts employed
in the Governinent quarries at Portland were proceeding •
to their work this morning, one of them discovered the
dead body of a man laid at the foot of a lofty piece of
rock in the vicinity of the crane at which they were about
tobe employed. The attention of the guard being called to
the.circumstance, an investigation immediately took place.
On inspecting the body it was foUnd to'be that of a ser-
beant of Marines, who had evidently lost his life from a
low on the head, by what means given is not at present
ascertainable. It was at first thought he must have fallen
from the rock above, but the position of the body
and further examination make it quite improbable that
this was the case. The difficulty of access to tho top of
this 'rock, and the fact that the poor fellow's cap was
found uninjured, although on his head, and over the
place which doubtless caused his death, has led many to
fear that foul play alone could have caused such a dread-
ful .result. To strengthen this idea, a soldier's leathern
belt was found under the body wfiich did not belong to
the deceased, and as be had on the previous after-
noon been seen in the company of one or two of them,
it will place the wearer of that belt in a very
critical position. It has been ascertained who that man
is, but it is not at present desirable to mention his name.
Another circumstance, also, would throw doubt on the
probability of the poor man's death being caused by
accident, and that is the fact of the blade of his sword
being missing. At present considerable mystery in-
volves the' case, but it is hoped the coroner's inquiry to-
morrow will throw sonic light on this sad affair. The
name of the _deceased is William Roberts, sergeant of
Marines on board her Majesty's ship . Edgar, now at
anchor in Portland harbour. •
" BROWN BESS" AND THE CHPSA: EXPEDITION.—To '
secure uniformity of ammunition, it is ordered that the
native force shall be armed with the smooth-bore musket,
such as is used by fin Indian regiments now serving in
China; and corps now armed with rifles are to have them
exchanged before embarkation for the old Brown Bess L—a
merciful weapon, which is warranted never to hit anything
it is aimed at.. The Chinese, on the contrary, have for a
longtime heenproviding themselves with arms'of precision;:
they were well supplied with them at the Peiho, and are said
to have largely increased their stock since that affair. The
contents of the Governor-General's order will be known to
the Mandarins long before the arrival of the expedition,
and they will not fail to profit by the advantage it offers
them. Ilow the cunning rogues will chuckle at the
simplicity of the barbarians, who are wilfully disarming
themselves in order that the Chinese may be able to pick
them off with impunity. There is a passage in the fourth
paragraph of Major Honner's despatch, describing his
successful
roperations against the Waghers, which fur- -
niches a practical comment on this extraordinary regula-
tion. The major states that the matchlock men quietly
stood looking at us, but beyond our fire (common
muskets)," and that Lieutenant Hallett was struck by
a matchlock ball at a distance of six hundred yards.
Fortunately, it lodged in the brass of his telescope. It
is hard to imagine why the order in question should
have been given at all, and still harder to believe that
it should have been given for the reason alleged, namely,
to secure uniformity of 'ammunition.—Homeward Mail.

THE EniNnunGn PO.ST-,OFFIcE.7-011 Monday after-
noon a large and influential meeting of the citizens of
Edinburgh was held for the purpose of memorialising
Government on the injustice and inexpediency of
delaying the arrangements already so far proceeded with
in the erection of a new General Post-office for Edin-
burgh, The gentlemen present represented nearly all
departments of public business and trade in the city.
The Lord-Provost, who presided, said, the recent depu-
tation from the Town Council to London found Lord
Elgin very willing, and even anxious, to receive informa-
tion upon thissubject which might guide the Government,
and concluded by stating his conviction that if the true
state of the case were fully laid befere the Chancellor of
the Exchequer and the Postmaster-General the pro-
posed transference to London would be seen to be such
as could not be entertained. Sir John M'Neill, G.C.8.,
in moving the first resolution, pointed out in a forcible
speech the prejudicial effect which the proposed arrange-
ment would have upon the public interests, while it
could not be felt as anything less than an outrage upon
the national feeling of Scotland. The other speakers
were Mr. Cowan, master of the Merchant Company ;
Mr. Duncan M'Laren, Professor Simpson, Mr. Brown
(Royal Bank), Mr. Pitt Dundas, Registrar-General for
Scotland. The following were the resolutions adopted:—

“That this meeting-sieWs with alarm the renewal of a pro-.
posal, which has been already reported against, to transfer from
Scotland to England the Accountant's branch of the Post-office
Department, and, believing 'that, as reported to Parliament in
1854, such a proceeding would affect injuriously the interests
of the country, they protest against the • proposal and the
proceeded so far in measures
ce under the powers conferred
forh centralisatione"Thater
theetterection
ivfiecarhn
nmi
et
;n,
aimplies."shatn
by the act'of 1851, there do not appear any grounds why the
arrangement then concluded should be now departed from,”
" That memorials in ternis of the preceding resolutions be for-
warded to the Chancellor of the "Exchequer and the Postmasiss-
General."

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS OF NEWS.—A measure, brought
forward by a supporter of the government, and carried"
by the necessary majority of the house (a clear majority
of the whole seventy-eight members), is a bill for
abolishing pensions to retiring ministers. The Consti-
tution Act set apart the sum of £4,000 for pensions
of retiring ministers, and made it subject to the pro-
visions in the English Act of Parliament on the same
subject. This gives a pension after two years' service,
but only on a somewhat humiliating declaration by the
claimant that he is needy and requires it. Some 14 or
15 persons who. came into office while the Act was in
force have served for various periods from 10 to 21
months, and certainly have inchoate rights under the
Act. The pension clause of the Constitution Act is
now repealed, and these inchoate rights are repudiated.
Two other measures affecting the constitution have
been introduced in the Lower House: 1, a bill to
enable the governor to dissolve the Legislative Council;
and 2, an address to the governor praying that a
sum be placed on the estimates for the payment of
members. The former has been rejected; the lattet.
will probably be agreed to. If a bill had been intro-
duced to provide for the payment of members it would
have been thrown out by the Legislative Council; by
placing the sum on the estimates, and introducing- it
into the Appropriation Act, the power of " the Lords"
to strike out the item is taken away. They can only
get rid of it by throwing out the Appropriation Act. A
resolution has been carried in the Assembly for an
address to her Majesty, praying for the establishment of
a branch of the Royal Mint in Victoria, with a requi-
sition that the sovereigns coined at this Mint be ac-
cepted as a legal tender throughout the British Empire.

COMMERCIAL CIRCULARS, CATALOGUES, &c.
GRIFFIN & /4,0.111 E,
(successors to CHARLES WILLMER,)
GENERAL PRINTERS,

Are in a position to execute, on the shortest notice, =A with
correctness, COMMERCIAL CIRCULARS, CATALOGUES,
&c.
PRINTING OFFICES, 15, SOUTH JOHN-STREET.

475. 6d.; and a few cases of white Perugia at 120 s. 12
casks Tartar : discoloured, 1225. 6d. to 1255. ; cream,
1325. to 1375. 6d. for inferior to 'fine ' • 2 tons Tartaric
Acid, Is. Hid. to Is. 320 bags Bengal Turmeric,
all faults, 14s. 3d. to 14s. 9d. for first-class, and sound at
16s. 10 bales Turkey Madder Roots, all faults, 40s.
Small sales coarse ground Philadelphia Bark, 9s. 28
chests garnet Shellac, 182 s. 6d. ; and button, 1565. 50
tons Gambier, to arrive, 175., rejecting sea damaged ;
and 20 tons, on the spot, at 17s. for heated. 100 tons
best seconds Brimstone, £8 17s. 6d. Sales of Nitrate of
Soda at 15s. 110 brls. Ashes : pots, 295. 6d ; pearls,
325. 100 cases Castor Oil, 6ad. to 61d. per lb. ; and 100
cases, to arrive, 61(1. 30 tons Cattle Bones, £4 17s. 6d.
to £5 ss. per ton.
OILS, &c.-Palm, £46 per ton. Tallow dearer ; 625.
the quotation for P.Y.C., 60s. 6d. paid for 25 casks
North American. and now 61s. asked. Olive steady at
late rates. 300 brls. of Rosin sold ; common at 4s. 6d.,
and low medium at ss. Spirits of Turpentine, 365. per
cwt.