Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1849-12-05
The Next Session.

The present session of Congress commenced
last Monday, the first of December, and Wher
the organization is effected the Presidents
message will be sent in. This document, it is
understood, is nearly concluded. AS public
curiosity is always on tiptoe to obtain an ink.
ling of the tenor of these papers in advance OF
their publication, we give the following from
the Baltimore Patriot of the Dad inst, which
seems to be reliable:
The reports will be interesting, and two of
them especially so-those of the Secretary OF
the Treasury and the Postmaster General. The
Secretary Of the Treasury has been, almost
from the day he entered upon his duties, engag-
ed in a patient and full investigation of the ope-
rations of the present financial and revenue
systems of the Government, and the facts and
information which he will be able to lay before
Congress can hardly fail to exercise an impor-
tant i%n1uance upon its decision. He will re-
commend such a modification ofthe subtreasury
system as experience has demonstrated to be
necessary to protect the Government from loss
| by peculation and defalcations, and which will,
if adopted, also relieve the system from some
of the evils it imposes on the monetary affairs
of the country. The tariff of 1916 will be dis
cussed, and material alterations recommended,
with the view Of securing from it a more GER
tain and stable revenue, and Of protecting the
industry of the country from the ruinous coma
petition it has in many Of its branches, now to
encounter from foreign labor.
The report of the Postmaster General will
show that department to be in Almost gratifying
condition, pecuniarily. 1t il stated In a Wash.
ington letter published in the Philadelphia
Pennsylvania, (anAopposition paper,) that the
department was never before in SO favorable a
condition, financially. There remain now I'M
drawn appropriations in the Treasury to nearly
half a million of dollars, applicable to the wants
Of the department, granted on account of the
congressional free matter, and for foreign mail
service; and at the end of the fiscal year, SOth
Of June, 1850, there will be upwards of six
hundred and sixty thousand dollars for the
same service. Not q dollar has been drawn from
the Treasury the present year, on this or any
other account, nor will there be a cent; and on
the 80th of June next the surplus on hand, it is
estimated, with the amount in the Treasury,
will reach nearly a million of dollars.
The receipts Of tie department, for the quar-
ter ending 3lst October last, show an increase
of a little over fourteen per cent, compared with
the corresponding quarter of last year, but about
half ofthis increase, it is supposed, will have to
be paid to Great Britain, under the postal treaty,
upon the settlement of last quarterly accounts
with that Government, as the department will
fall considerably in debt.
This result is fairly ascribed to the reduced
postage established a few years ago, and justi-
fies the Postmaster General in recommending,
as he will do in his report, that a uniform rate
be established for letters from all distances
This is the system in England, where letters
are carried any distance fora penny, and under
which the revenues of the office have been
greatly increased.