The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-16 00:00:00

and abounds in places of refuge and concealment, is re-
markably well adapted to this predatory warfare; and we
can scarcely hope that any military force, combined with

the greatest vigilance, can entirely suppress it.
By the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo we are bound to pro-
tect
the territory of Mexico against the incursions of the
savage tribes within our border " with equal diligence and
energy" as if the same were made within our territory or
against our citizens. I have endeavoured to comply, as
far as possible, with this provision of the treaty. Orders
have been given to the officers commanding on that frontier
to consider the Mexican territory and its inhabitants equally
with our own entitled to their protection ; and to make all
their plans and arrangements with a view to the attainment
of this object. Instructions have also been given to the
Indian Commissioners and agents among these tribes, in all
treaties, to make the clauses designed for the protection of
our own citizens apply to those of Mexico. I have no reason
to doubt that these instructions have been fully carried into
effect. Nevertheless, it is probable that, in spite of all our
efforts, some of the neighbouring states of Mexico may have
suffered, as our own have, from depredations by the Indians.
To the difficulties of defending our own territory, as above
mentioned, are superadded, in defending that of Mexico, those
that arise from its remoteness, from the fact that we have
no right to station our troops within her limits, and
that there is no efficient military force on the Mexican side
to co-operate with our own. So long as this shall continue
to be the case, the number and activity of our troops will
rather increase than diminish the evil, as the Indians will
naturally turn toward that country where they encounter
the least resistance. Yet these troops are necessary to subdue

them, and to compel them to make and observe 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
acts of hostility. As a large portion of the reinforcements
sent to the Mexican frontier were drawn from the Pacific,
the military force now stationed there is considered entirely
inadequate to its defence. It cannot be increased, however,
without an increase of the army; and I again recommend
that measure as indispensable to the protection of the frontier.
I invite your attention to the suggestions on this subject,
and on others connected with his department, in the report
of the Secretary of War.
The appropriations for the support of the army during the
current fiscal year, ending 30th June next, were reduced far
below the estimate submitted by the department. The conse-
qnence of this reduction is a considerable deficiency, to which
I invite your early attention.
The expenditure of that department for the year ending
30th June last were 9,000,286,58 dolls. The estimates for the
year commencing Ist J uly next and ending June 30, 1851,
are 7,8.18,775,83 dolls.; showing a reduction of 1,161,492,75
dolls.

The Board of Commissioners to whom the management of
the affairs of the Military Asylum created by the Act of 3d
of March last was entrusted, have selected a site for the es-
tablishment of an asylum in the vicinity of this city, which
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 supervision of that
department. Our naval force afloat during the present year
has been actively and usefully employed in giving protection
to our widely extended and increasing commerce and interests
in various quarters of the globe, and our flag has everywhere
afforded the security and received the respect inspired by the
justice and liberality of our intercourse, and the digaity and
power of the nation.
The expedition commanded by Lieutenant De Havien, dis-
patched in search of the British commander, Sir John Frank-
lin, and his companions, in the Arctic Seas, returned to
New York in the month of October, after having under-
gone great peril and suffering from an unknown and dan-
gerous navigation, and the rigours of a northern climate,
without any satisfactory information of the objects of their
search , but with new contributions to science and naviga-
tion from the unfrequented polar regions. The officers and men
of the expedition, having been all volunteers for this ser-
vice, and having so conducted it as to meet the entire ap-
probation of the Government, it is suggested as an act of
grace and genorosity, that the same allowance of extra pay
and emoluments be extended to them that were made to
the officers and men of like rating in the late exploring ex-
pedition to the South Seas.
I earnestly recommend to your attention the necessity of
reorganising the Naval Et-tablishment, apportioning and fix-
ing the number of officers in each grade, providing some
mode of promotion to the higher grades of the navy, having
reference to merit and capacity, rather than seniority or
date of entry into the service, and for retiring from the
effective list upon reduced pay those who may be incom-
petent to the performanoe of active duty. As a measure of
economy as well as of efficiency in this arm of the service,
the provision last mentioned is eminently worthy of your
consideration.
The determination of the questions of relative rank be-
tween the sea officers and civil officers of the navy and be-
tween officers of the army and navy, in the various grades
of each, will also merit your attention. The failure to pro-
vide any substitute, when corporal punishment was abolished
for offences in the navy has occasioned the convening of
numerous courts-martial upon the arrival of vessels in
port, and it is believed to have had an injurious effect
upon the discipline and efficiency of the service. To mo-
derate the punishment from one grade to another is among
the human reforms of the age ; but to abolish one of
severity, which applied so generally to offences on ship-
board, and provide nothing in its stead, is to suppose a pro-
gress of improvement in every individual among seamen
which is not assumed by the Legislature in respect to any
other class of men. It is hoped that Congress, in the ample
opportunity afforded by the present session, will thoroughly
investigate this important subject, and establish such modes
of determining guilt, and such gradations of punishment as
are consistent with humanity and the personal rights of in-
dividuals, and at the same time shall insure the most ener-
getic and efficient performance of duty and the suppression of
crime in our ships of war.
The stone dock in the Navy-yard at New York, which
was ten years in process of construction, has been so far
finished as 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 o er
to the agents of the Government. That at Portsmouth,
New Hampshire is also nearly ready for delivery ; and a
contract has been concluded, agreeably to the Act of Con-
gress at its last session, for a floating sectional dock on the
bay of San Francisco. I invite your attention to the re-
commendation of the Department touching the establish-
ment of a navy yard in conjunction with this dock on the
Pacific. Such a station is highly necessary to the conve-
nience and effectiveness of our fleet in 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 afords opportunities of
education and instruction to the pupils quite equal, it is be-
lieved, for professional improvement, to those eujoyed by the
cadets in the military academy. A large class of acting
midshipmen was received at the commencement of the last
academic term, and a practice-ship has been attached to the
institution, to afford the amplest meens for regular instruc-
tion in seamanshi2,as well as for cruises during the vacations
of three or four months -in each year.
The advantages of science is nautical affairs have rarely
been more strikingly illustrated than in the fact stated in 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 country has been
shorten- d by about 40 days.
The estimates for the support of the Navy and Marine
Corps, the ensuing fiscal year, will be found to be 5,856.472
dolls. 19c., the estimates for the current year being 5,900,621
dolls.
The estimates for special objects under the control of this
department amount to 2,684,229 dolls. 89c., against 2,210,969
dolls. 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 at 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 for permanent im-
provements 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 comma-
nicated, presents an interesting view of the progress, opera-
tions, and condition of this department.
At the close of the last fiscal year, the length of mail routes
within the United States was 196,290 miles; the annual
transportation thereon 53,272,252 miles, and the annual cost
of such transportation, 3,421,754 dolls.
The length of the foreign mail routes is estimated at
18,349 miles; and the annual transportation thereon at
615,306 miles. The annual cost of the service Is 1,472,187
dolls., of which 448,937 dolls. is paid by the Post-office
department, and 1,023,250 dolls. is paid through the Navy
department.
The annual transportation within the United States (ex-
cluding the service in California and Oregon, which is
now for the first time reported and embraced in the tubu-
lar statements of the department) exceeds that of the
preceding year 6,162,155 miles, at an increased cost of
547,110 dolls.
The whole number of post-offices in the United States,
on the 30th day of June last, was 19,796. There were
1,698 post-offices established, and 256 discontinued, during
the year.
The gross revenues of the department for the fiscal year,
including the appropriations for the franked matter of Con-
gress, ot 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 dolls. 7*c.
The expenditure for the same period (excluding 20,599
dolls. 59c. paid under an award of the auditor, in
.pursuance
of a resolution of the last Congress, for mail service on the
Ohia and Mississippi rivers in 1832 and 1833, and the amount
paid to the British Post-office for foreign postages collected
for and payable to that office) amounted to 6,024,566 dolls.
79c. ; leaving a balance of revenue over the proper expendi-
tures of the year of 703,299 dolls. 99c.
The receipts for postage duties during the year (excluding
the foreign postages collected for and payable to the British
Post-office) amounted to 6,345,747 dolls. 21c., being an in-
crease of 997,610 dolls. 79c., or 18.65400 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 scales will not be settled
before January next, and no reliable estimate of the receipts
for the present 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 year; but an additional appropriation for the year
ending June 30, 1853, will probably be found necessary
when the receipts of the first two quarters of the fiscal year
are fully ascertained.
In bis last annual report the Postmaster-General recom-
mended a reduction of postage to rates which he deemed as
low as could be prudently adopted, unless Congress was pre-
pared to appropriate from the Treasury, for the sur port of
the department, a sum more than equivalent to the mail
services performed by it for the Government. The recom-
mendations of the Postmaster-General, in respect to letter
postage, except on letters from and to California and Oregon,
were substantially adopted by the last Congress. Ile now
recommends adherence to the present letter rates, and ad-
vises against a further reduction until justified by the revenue
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 classes of printed
matter. I submit the recommendations of the report to your
favourable consideration.
The public statutes of the United States have now been
accumulating for more than sixty years, and, interspersed
with private acts, are scattered through numerous volumes,
and, from the cost of the whole, have become almost inac-
cessible to the great mass of the community. They also
exhibit much of the incongruity and imperfection of hasty
legialation. tie it mina to be generally conceded that