The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-03 00:00:00

dell declined to execute one in the manner and on
the conditions stated, but expressed his willingness
to make a conditional contract for the carrying of
the mails to Europe by American steamships, at
least four outward trips each week. In view of
the great importance of the subject he earnestly
recommended the proposed'contract to -the careful
consideration and action of Congress. Continuing,
the Report says—l fully concur in the recommen-
dation of my predecessor, Postmaster-Geueral Den-
nison, in his annual Report of November 2, 1864,
that provision should be made, by treaty stipula-
tions between nations or otherwise, for the excep-
tional treatment of regular mail packets in time of
war, by authorizing such packets, under proper
safeguards against the transportation of per-
sons or articles contraband of war, to con-
tinue their navigation without impediment or inter-
ruption. During the year there were 2,167 post-
offices established, 849 discontinued, and 26,481
in operation on the 30th of June, 1868. The
aggregate compensation for special agents, route
agents, mail route messengers, postal railway
clerks, local agents, and baggage masters in ser-
vice during the year ending June 30, 1868,
amounted to $961,070. The free system of de-
livering letters has been in operation in 48 cities,
and it is hoped that it will ultimately supersede all
others. During the year the number of letter
carriers employed was 1,198 ; mail letters de-
livered, 64,349 ,486 ; local letters delivered,
14,081,906 ; newspapers delivered, 16,919,715 ;
letters collected, 63,164,625 ; amount paid carriers,
including incidental expenses, $995,934 ; postages
on local matter, $475,982. The salaries of
232 postal clerks aggregated $274,000. The
Postmaster-General recommends increased corn-
pensetion for these carriers and clerks. Dur-
ing the year the number of letters received
at the lead-letter office was 4,162,144, a decrease
of 144,364 from the previous year. Of these let-
ters, 167,078 were foreign, and were returned un-
opened to the countries whence they came. The
aggregate of postal letter service during the year
is estimated at 720,000,000, and the proportion of
domestic dead letters to the number of letters
mailed is about one to 126. The money taken
from all dead letters undelivered and deposited in
the United States Treasury was $27,967. The
money order offices in operation number 1,468.
During the year 831,937 orders were issued, re-
presenting $16,197,858, and the number paid
836,940, representing $15,976,501, and $142,035
paid to purchasers. The excess of issues over pay-
ments was $79,321. The total receipts from this
branch were $124,503, and the expenditures
$54,158. The Postmaster-General says :--" The
idea that the Post-office Department can be self-
sustaining, in the present condition of the country,
is absurd. It cannot be, and ought not to be, for
fifty years to come. The revenues will largely in-
crease, and so will expenditures. Ten years hence
I estimate the expenses of the Post-office Depart-
ment at $40,000,000,and the revenues at $30,000,000.
This increase must go on as long as the country
prospers, and mineral, agricultural, and commercial
business increases." Attention is called to the gross
abuses of the franking privilege, entailing an estimate
loss to the Department of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000
during the past year. The total abolition of the
privilege is recommended as the only way
to avoid abuses now becoming systematized.
The erection of a suitable Post-office building in
New York is urged as a pressing necessity. The
actual differences between revenues, independent
of special appropriations and expenditures, includ-
ing special appropriations, was $3,998,456. The
revenues independent of special appropriations, for
the year ending June 30, 1868, were $16,292,600,
and the expenditures, including services for
which special appropriations were made, were
$22,780,592, showing an excess of expendi-
ture of $6,437,991. To meet this deficiency
there were drawn under appropriations made for
carrying free matter, $3,800,000, and under Acts
making special appropriations for overland mail and
marine service between New York and California,
$1,125,000 ; steamship service between San Fran-
cisco, Japan, and China, $125,000 ; between the
United States and Brazil, $150,000 ; for carrying
mail on routes established by Acts passed during
the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress,
$186,525, and for preparing and publishing post
route mars $lO,OOO, leaving a deficiency, as stated
in the first part of this Report, for the year ending
June 30, 1868, of $741,466. It is seen from the
foregoing statements of receipts, expenditures, and
appropriations, that in supplying necessary postal
accommodations for the people the excess of expen-
ditures over revenues rapidly increased from 1854
to 1859 and 1860, inclusive, the deficiency for
1859 being $6,996,009, and for the year 1860 being
$5,656,705. After the year 1860 the expensive
service in the Southern States began rapidly to
diminish, until in the year 1865 there was so little
mail service performed in the States involved in
the rebellion that the revenues exceeded the ex-
penditures by $861,430. Directly after the war
ended, and during the second year of the Admi-
nistration of my immediate predecessor, ending
June 30, 1866, the Postmaster-General entered
upon the serious task of restoring the service in
the insurgent States. In the States of Virginia,
Georgia, Florida,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Lou-
iNB
ioarnt
ah,
and Carolina,
Alabama,
Texas,
e x Southas,
t Mississippi
h Carolina,service
was restored dur-
ing the year ending the 30th of June, 1866, to
an extent costing $1,086,527. In the same States
the cost of service for the year ending June 30,
1867, -increased to $1,891,531, and for the year
ending June 30, 1868, it increased to the sum of
$2,168,459. This expenditure was for transporta-
tion alone, and includes none of the other large
expenses necessarily connected with the postal
service in those States. During the year ending
June 30, 1868, the -ggregate length of routes in-
creased to 216,928 miles, and the annual trans-
portation increased to 84,224,325 miles, an in-
crease of 14,683 miles in length of routes, and
5,241,516 miles in annual transportation. Since
the 30th day of June, 1865, and to the first
day of July, 1868, three years, the aggregate
length of mail routes has increased 74,588 miles,
and the annual transportation has increased

26,230,631 miles. Since I came to the head of the

. ,
Post-office Department in July, 1866, after the close
of my immediate predecessor's second and last year

as Postmaster-General, the aggregate length of mail

routes pqt up under contract and in actual opera-
tion up to the .first day of July, 1868, is 36,008
miles, and the increase of annual transportation for
that time increased 12,386,411 miles. Theincrease of

service and great increase of the expenses of the
department for inland mail transportation have
not all arisen from the restoration of mail service

in the lately disordered States. A large amount
of the service in operation previous to the war,

and discontinued during the war, has not yet
been restored. In addition to the increased and

increasing railroad transportation, with its increas-
ing expenses, Congress, by a series of Acts between
the 3d clay of March, 1865, and the 25th day of
_ _

July, 1868 —a little over three years—created 1,267
new mail routes, with an aggregate length of 48,744
tulles. Of these 33 were established in the late rebel

States, with an aggregate length of less than 1,000

miles.

One hundredwere established in the Ter-

ritories, with an aggreiale leagtli of 12,141 miles.
The rapid growth of the postal service of the
United States since the present organization of the
Post-office Department was established by the Act
of July 2, 1836, has devolved on its officers an

amount of business of so extensive, varied, and
responsible a character,.that a reorganization wisely
adapted to the present and prospective condition
of the service is necessary to secure the greatest
practicable effi. iency in its administration.

THE MANUFACTURE OF WATCHES AND CLOCKS.-
A most interesting and instructive little work, describing briefly
but with great clearness, the rise and progress of watch and
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