The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-26 00:00:00

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7'llE POST- OFFID ' SERVielf drr.sesp.A 1,7,:b
UNIT Et) STATES. --,---77
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The United States P. etmaster-Generalreseinunal "Red ' : is •' '
port, delivered to Congress with the President's Mee-- ' '
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sage is, as usual, an elaborate document. Its static- :: ss
tics aid elucidations exhibit in a strong Wit the social's. •'- -s'
intellectual, and commercial progress of the great Res-
public. According to the Report, during the last year-.
upwards of 1,200 new pest-offices have beirkestabi
lished. The total increase in the mail route service'ie
1,500,000 miles. The increase of railroad mail route
service is 2,500,000 miles. The mail services on coaches
and in steam boats has decreased. Every state and
territory in the United States have been surveyed, and
post-office facilities duly apportioned to them. In Cali-
fornia, the mail route service has been increased 68,000
miles ; and in Utah 26,000 miles. Disputes still exist
between the United States Post-office and the railway
companies—the former complains that it pays more than
first-class freight for the conveyance of the mails.
It has no objection to pay first-class freight, accord-
ing to the bulk of the mails, the speed they are
conveyed, and the accommodation required. The
Great Western Company of Canada carries the United
States mail for 6/. a mile. Much inconvenience and
expense are incurred by the American Post-office de.
pertinent, owing to speculators without capital bidding
for and obtaining the eonveyance of mails, for the pur-
pose of selling the contracts to others. The letter cir-
culation system in the United States Post-office is to be
assimilated to that of England. Hitherto Ameeiceall
postmasters have sent letters to what forward offioss
they pleased, to be resorted, and sent on to their desUs .
nation ; but, for the future, proper forwarding offices
will be established for every post office in the States.
ppeonstdailture revenueabout is about ,
is 0
This is the most gigantic and useful reform that has
ever been attempted in the American Post-office. The
50'
about 7,000,000 dollars, and the
dollars.ex-
-oaoox:iniouof d
The increasers, thef re-
venueo
dollars,
pthosetawlhroelveeonfue fromtheincrueeawseephaaspearraiseanadfr opals
al letters,ph le
fora
and in-
crease
during 1854
is attributed to the activity of business operations'.
Nearlyhas
decreased.
It is calculated that the revenue of the Post-office
the
department for 1855 will be about 10,000,000 dollars,
and that the expenditure will be the same. Although
prepayment of postage is not compulsory, yet dur-
ing tho last three years there have bees issued and
sold postage stamps and. envelopes of five and a-half
millions of dollars value. The report recommends a still
further extension of the prepayment, in order to check
postmasters' accounts more effectually. It recommend.'
from th e English one, and will be more effective.
also a plan for registration of valuable letters. It is dif-
ferentlt provides tha,‘ receipts shall be given for valuable lettere
be kept for refere nee at the office for malng , that thee
separate
when posted, anel that duplicates of these receipts shall
ii
full address of such letters shall be entered on a t
post bill, which shai'l be copied at large upon an accoun
to be kept of registered letters sent. This post bill is to
be forwarded in a sealed envelope, separate from the
package of letters to wlnich it relates, and its receipt at
the office of its destination is to be acknowledged by a
duplicate thereof returnti to the office of mailing, marked
correct or otherwise, as it may be found on comparison.
It provides that at ths large offices valuable letters shall
be received at one win dow only, and that the receiving
clerk shall check therm to the register clerk, and he to the
mailing clerk. It is, i n short,§designed to fix responsis
bility and to furnish i tse ins which do not ne n" exist for
tracing a missing letter ' from the point of its resseption to
that of its disappearance. T. carry this plan ittto effect
it will be required that ns 'w and expensive blanks' be pre.
pared and distributed, an 'd that an increase& clerical
force be employed in the pr. Incipal post offices.
The English registration f leis 6d.; it is proposesi that
the American fee stall be 24, l. The cost of the Ala eri-
can ocean mail packet service is 400,0001. a year. This
includes the ocean mail packs t service between /st-ew
York and England, Havre, Br, smen, and Aspinwall ;
between Astoria and Pai.ama ; between Charlestowes
and Havannah ; and between ne w Orleans and Vera
Cruz. The report recommends, if sehe packet contracts
are not abolished, that the Government should regulate
'
the passenger fares, to prevent the evil effects of the
monopoly which the contracts giVe to companies. It
laments that Collins's, the American lite°, is more costly
than Cunard's British line ; but it admits that the Ame-
rican steamers carry the mails quicker than the English
ones. The negotiations with Great!: Britain respecting
the transit charges on correspondence' passing between
the United States and France throug h England have
failed. Upwards of six years ago a postal convention
was agreed to between the United States and Great
Britain, by which certain postal rates Vivre fixed on cor-
respondence passing to or from the United States and
other countries through England. Froiet this arrange.
ment French correspondence to and front the United
States was excluded. The excluding cause Nvas objected
to by Mr. Bancroft, but the British .Government
stated that it was necessary to prevent comfelaint from
France, and it was then agreed to. The report says
that Mr. Lawrence, who succeeded Mr. I:i.secroft,
found the statement of the British Government to be
incorrect. The United States claim that French
and American correspondence shall pass through
England, in closed mails, for 63c1. an ounce, the name
as 18 charged for British and Canadian correspondent e in .
transit through the United States. Lord Palmereon,
however, in 1851, insisted upon charging a shilling %in
ounto for the transit rate, and Sd. an ounce for the A%:•
la,ntic rate. Until recently, the English Government
charged 20d. an ounce oil letters from France, conveyed
to New Yerk in United Stites' packets, by which letters
received in America from France, in Collins's steamers,
had to be charged double sea postage. Now, however,
the Atlantic rate is not charged oil correspondence from
France, conveyed by sueh steamers ; but still the transit
rate through England is such, that the postage on a
letter from Franco for America, comes to 3d. more by
Collins's steamers than by Cunard's, which induces the
French public to prefer sending their letters by the
British Atlantic packets, to the injury of the American
ocean postal revenue. The report announces that letters
are conveyed now between New York and Port Philip
in Australia, Havana, and Nassau, and between New
Orleans and Havana, for an ocean postage rate of one
penny the half ounce ; that newspapers are conveyed
between those places at one farthing each, and pamphlets
and magazines for one halt-farthing an ounce. A postal
convention between the United States and Mexico is on
the eve of completion, which provides for the exchange
of dead letters, and a reduction of postage on letters
between the two countries.

THE NEW POSTAL CONVENTION WITH

FRANCE.

The following is the new 1)0,0.1 convention between
France and England, concluded Dec. 12, 1854 :
His Majesty the Emperor of the French and her Ma-
jesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, alike animated by a desire to improve the
means of correspondence by letter between the two coun-
tries, have named as their representatives—[Here follow
the styles and titles of M. Drouyn de Lhuys and Lord
Cowley]—who have agreed on the following articles :
Art. I. The postage to be taken in France and Algeria
on paid letters addressed to the United Kingdom and
Ireland, as well as on unpaid letters coming from the
United Kingdom and Ireland, shall be as follows—
namely :
...

On paid letters, 4Cc. for every 72 grammes, or fraction
of grammes.
And for unpaid letters, 80c. for every 7i grammes, as
fraction of grammes.
Reciprocally the postage to be taken in the United
Kingdom and Ireland on paid letters addressed to
places in France or Algeria, as well as on unpaid letters
sent from France and Algeria, is fixed thus—namely :
For every paid letter 4d. for every quarter of an
ounce, or fraction of a quarter of an ounce.
And for every unpaid letter, Bd. for every quarter of
an ounce. orb ctdon of a quarter of an ounce.
Art. IL—e price according to which the French
Post-office shall k9ep accounts with the British Post-
office for paid letters addressed to Great Britain, and
delivered by the French bureau d'echange to the British
bureaux, as well as Par in.paid letters coining from Great
Britain, and delivered. by tue English to French bu-
reaux d'echange, shall be as follows :
1. For paid letters destined for Great Britain, 600.
m forernr netueßsn,atiisd letters
hou weight.nee g
net weight.
from Great Britain,
apte2rl f3.oA2Ogn cdr a.
per
Reciprocally, the price at which the British Post-
office shall charge that of France for paid letters des-
tined for France and Algeria, delivered by the British
to the French bureau d'ecbange, as well as for unpaid
letters sent from France and Algeria, shall be-
1. For paid letters destined fur France and Algeria,
if. per British ounce net.
2. And for unpaid letters from France and Algeria,
2f. per 30 grammes net.
Art. 111. The expense of carrying by sea the letters
contained in the despatches which the respective bureant
d'echange shall reciprocally transmit by the commercial
packets navigating the channel, shall be borne half by
the French and half by the British Post-ot.Soe. The
captains or owners of these packets will be paid at the
rate of a penny or 10 centimes the letter.
Art. IV. The terms on which journals, gaaeftio, Pe'
riodical works, sewed volumes, pamphlets, catall,„"
music, prospectuses, or advertisemects, printed, I ‘l3O-
- or autographed, may be exchanged between
the two countries, shall be the subject of a special
le sigree.
rnent, which itself shall be based on the principof
compulsory pre-payment, and of the abolition isf the
right to levy a charge on the recniver.
convention, whic is to be con%
_Art. V. The present co
sidered as additional to that of April 3, 1843, shall be
ratified as soon as possible, and shall come into union
on the Ist of January, 1355.

CHURCH-BATES (LONDON).—A. return of chum:kraal
made or refused in the respective parishes of the 36 re-
gistration districts of London comprised within the
Bills of Mortality during the years 1851, 1852, and
1853, was issued on Friday, on the motion of Mr... New.
degate, M.P. It hence appears that several rates were
granted in public vestries during the periods in question,
that in two parishes only kit we understand the answers
to the questions aright) was a rate unasked for under a
fear that the vestry would refuse it,
and that in three
parishes only was a rate actually refused. In the parishes
without the walls there is no C3BO of such refusal ; in the
out-parishes in Middlesex and Surrey one case of refusal,
and is the parishes of Westminster only one case. In
many cases the repairs of thochurch are otherwise pro-
vided for than rtes.
A. woman who had stolen a la-east of mutton from the
shop of a butcher at Manchester, when taken before a
m7.gistrate the other day, assigned as her reason for corn.
r Yitting the theft, that she had had some angry words
' with her husband, and that she "did it for vexation. 1
She was committed for trial at the sessions.