The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-16 00:00:00

TEE POST-OFFICE.

The following is a continuation of the abstract
of the report of the Postmaster-General, the first
portion of which appeared in our columns of Friday

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL POST.
The new postal convention with Portugal, re-
ferred to in the last report, was ratified by the
Cortes, and came into operation in July last. A
new convention, with similar results, has been
entered into with Nicaragua; and the reduced
rates of postage it includes have been extended to
the Mosquito territory. A like convention also has
been concluded, though not yet ratified, with New
Granada. A new convention has been agreed to
also with Uruguay ; but up to the date of the latest
accounts from Monte Video no steps had been taken
for giving effect to it in the Republic.
The negotiations for a new convention with the
several states of the German Postal Union have only
been partially successful. The charge for postage
upon paid letters, exchanged with most of the
states, has indeed been reduced from Bd. the half
ounce to Gd. ; but letters to a few of the states are
still charged at the old rate, as those states would
not agree to the redaction. With none of the states,
moreover, is there yet any book post or any reduc-
tion of transit rates. Imperfect, however, as has
been our success with regard to the German Postal
Union, this case is much more satisfactory than that
of the United States, in the convention with which
there has been no progress whatever. The nego-
tiations for a postal convention with the Nether-
' land Post office have been suspended, and it has
been determined to proceed no further in the matter
until the Dutch legislature has repealed the heavy
stamp duty now levied on newspapers from the
United Kingdom. The long delay to which the
mails from London to Hamburg were subjected at
Hanover led to a correspondence with the Hano-
verian Government, with a view to its removal, and
the object so much desired has at length been at-
tained.
The British Post-office at Constantinople having
proved insufficient, and in other respects ill-
. adapted for its purpose, a piece of land in the neigh-
. bourhood of the British consular buildings was pur-
chased, and a new office erected.
• A British Post-office has been established at Cairo;
- and a corps of janissaries has been organised to ac-
• company the Indian and Australian mails in their

transit through Egypt
There is now a book post between this country
and Egypt, and on the Ist of April there will be
one with Sweden.
The chief articles of a contract have been agreed
to with the Anglo-Luso- Brazilian Royal Mail Steam
Navigation Company, for the conveyance of an ad-
ditional mail, monthly, to Lisbon and the Brazils.
A packet agent has been appointed at Nagasaki
(Japan), and the correspondence for Japan is for-
warded to Shanghai, for transmission to Nagasaki
by the best means that offer. According to the last
accounts received, steam vessels are frequently de-
patched between these two ports.
Sir Samuel Cunard having liberally offered to
allow his packets, without any additional payment,
to call at Queenstown (Cork), to land and embark
mails, on the voyage to and from Boston, the offer
was accepted, and the arrangement has been in ope-
ration about four months •, but a return which has
been made of the length of the voyages on this
plan, as compared with their previous length,
makes it doubtful whether, except to Ireland, the
alteration is of any value ; the time gained at one
end of the voyage being, as respects letters from
Great Britain and the Continent, apparently neu-
tralised by loss at the other end. At the request
of the Postmaster-General of Canada this arrange-
ment was extended, he December last, to the pac-
kets under contract to the Canadian Government,
which convey mails every week between the British
Isles, Canada, and the United States; and, notwith-
standing the doubt which experience has thrown on
the benefit of the arrangement, the plan will soon.
be extended also to the Cunard packets between
Liverpool and New York, with a view, before ulti-
mately deciding on its continuance, to give the
arrangement a full trial, and in the meanwhile -to
prevent the inconvenience arising from the want of
uniformity in the days of despatch and in the cir-
culation of the letters. A contract has been cc a-
eluded for giving an additional mail, once a fort-
night, to the United States and Canada, by means
of packets to ply alternately between Galway and
Boston and Galway and New York.
The French Government having given its consent
to the re-arrangement and acceleration of the mails
between London and Paris, referred to in the lasrt
report, this important improvement will come into
operation on the Ist of May. By this alteration,
instead of the present day mail, which ie of little
value, an effective day mail will be established, tee
start from each capital early in the morning and to
arrive the same evening in time for a delivery in
London or Paris, and for a despatch to the coun-
try; and the night mail will arrive much earlier
than at present, so as to admit of the letters being
sent out by an early delivery, or forwarded by
the morning mails, to places beyond. Our share
of the costs of this improvement will be more than
£9,000 a year, but the number of letters sent to
and through France fully warrants the additional
expense. As a step towards this important altera-
tion, and to afford relief in the London Circulation-
office, an acceleration has already been made in the
night mail from London to Dover, by means of
which the mail, while leaving London a quarter oil
an'hour later than formerly, reaches Dover a quar-
ter of an hour earlier; and what is yet more im-
portant, keeps its appointed time, even at the
higher speed, with much greater regularity. The
train, indeed, conveying this mail is now the fastest,
and most regular mail train in the kingdom.
Although the distane..e is 88 miles, it makes only
one stoppage on the -way, and complete the journey
in two hours.
ny,
hasbeae nnd
The expectation held out in the last report of a
great improvement h the Australian packet ser-
vice, owing to its ha' wing been transferred to the
Peninsular
r eoarlimees idt a; la Steamnd the
packet
n Navigationow C
oftenot Com-
pany, -
paarrives at its exact time ; occasionally, indeed,
before. By the joint c .peration of the telegraph and
receivedpack ets,
ifi thisnewson theee
country.ofar
occasion nAodf
Adelaide,
ltahied last mai mail
Melbourne,was
and Sydney, each in forty days.
By what must in pi irt have been an oversight, no
transit charge was I lately made on newspapers
passing through Eg; Hit ; and thus for one penny, a
sum which barely pl ty s the expense of collection,
conveyance, and de' Livery in the British Isles (if,
indeed, it accomplis le even this), a newspaper has
been carried by cos tly packets some twelve thou-
sand miles, been con :T.eyed through a foreign coun-
try, and delivered in the heart of a great continent ;
to the convenience and benefit, no doubt, of the
comparatis ely few P crsons who send newspapers to
India, Chita, or Australia, or reee'.ve them there-
from, but t( )the miu • ry of the public at whose ex-
• d
e the 8e rvice is ins interne . Partly to remedy
pense
this evil the predec( -ors of the present Postmas-
ter-General took measi ires for establishing a tran-
sit rate of tine penny
on newspapers to India,
Australia, and. all other places eastward Suez
when
of
Alexandria,
when sent eiet Sou a arnpton and
previously
those forwarded via M having
arseilles
sit rate through France,
been subjec' tea to a tra n
ccon eutwa 'with that
which, um' 4,er the pxvf4ent Y