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

THE POST-OFFICE.

The following is a continuation of tho 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 6d. ; but letters to a few of the states are
still charged at the old rate, as those states would
not agree to the reduction. 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until the Dutch legislature has repealed the heavy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
'tip with the Anglo-Luso-Brazilian Royal Mail Steam
-Na'sigatiOn Company; for the conveyance of an ad-
Aiilonal.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. Al the request
of the Postmaster-General of Canada this arrange-
ment was extended, in 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 con-
cluded 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 last
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, to
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 snail, while leaving London a quarter of
train,
higherr ta nt,
an hour later than formerly, reaches Dover a quar-
ter of an hour earlier ; and what is yet more im-
portant, sappointedgreti regularity.
ine,e
speed, with much
indeed, conveying this mail is now the fastest
and most regular mail train in the
kingdom.
Although the distance .is 88 miles,
it makes only
one stoppage on the way,
and
complete the journey
in two hours.
The - expectation held out in the last reportof a
great improvement in the
been
1 •
ustralian packet ser-
vice, owing to its having transferred to the
Peninsular and 0 • riental Steam Navigation
pany, has been realised, and the packet now often
arrives at its exact time , occasionally,
before. By the joint operation oft
the
indeed,
telegraph and
packets, news on the occasion of the last mail was
received in this country from Adelaide, Melbourne,
and Sydney, each in forty days.
By what must in part have been an oversight, no
transit charge was till lately made on newspapers
passing through Egypt ; and thus for one penny, a
sum which barely pays the expense of collection,
conveyance, and delivery in the British Isles (if,
indeed, it accomplish even this), a newspaper has
been carried by costly packets some twelve thou-
sand miles, been conveyed through a foreign coun-
try, and delivered in the heart of a great continent;
to the convenience and benefit, no doubt, of the
comparatively few persons who send newspapers to
India, China, or Australia, or rescve them there.
from, but to the injury of the public at whose ex-
pense the service is maintained. Partly to remedy
this evil the predecessors of the present Postmas-
ter• General took measures for establishing a tran-
sit rate of one penny on newspapers to India,
Australia, and all other places eastward of Suez
when sent via Southampton and Alexandria,
'those forwarded via Marseilles having previously
been subjected to a transit rate through France,
which, under the present convention with that