Iowa capitol reporter. [volume] (Iowa City, Iowa) 1841-1855, 1851-12-10

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Guiding the service in California and
Oregon, which is now for the first
time reported and enumerated in the
tabular statements ofthe department
exceeds that Of the preceding year
6l6,2S5 miles, at an increased cost
S547,il0. The whole number of
Post Office in the United States on
the 3Oth day of June last was 9,796.
There were 1893 Post offices estab
lished and $50 discontinued, during
the year. The gross revenues of the
department during the fiscal year,
including the appropriations for the
ranked matter of Congress, of the
departments and officers of govern
ment, and excluding the foreign pos
tages collected for, and payable to
the British Pest-offices, amounted to
$6,747,S 66 7s. Expenditures for the
same period, excluding S2O,599 40,
paid under the award of the Auditor
in pursuance of a resolution of last
Congress, for mail service on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1882
and 1888, and the amount paid the
British Post-sfiice, collected for and
payable to that office, amounted to
$6,O24, 566 70; leaving a balance of
revenue over the proper expenses of
the year, of 7O3 1893 90. The receipts
for postage during the year, exclud-
ing the foreign postage collected and
payable to the British Post office, a
mounted to S6,344,749 81, being an
increase of 1907 ,6lO 70, or Sls7 $40
over the receipts of the preceding
year.
The reduction Of postage under the
act of March last, did not take effect
until the commencement of the pres
ent fiscal year. The accounts for
the first quarter under the operation
OF the reduced rates, will not be set
tied before January next, and no re-
liable estimate of the receipts for the
present gear can yet be made. 1t is
believed, however, that they will fall
far short of those of last year. The
surplus of the revenues now on hand
are however, SO large, that no further
appropriation from the treasury in
aid OF the revenue of this department
for the current fiscal year, but an ad-
ditional app opriation for the year
ending June 3Oth, 1853, will be pro-
badly found necessary, when the re-
ceipts of the first two quarters of the
fiscal year are fully ascertained. In
the last annual report the Post Mas
ter General recommended reduc-
ton of postage which he deemed as
low as GOULD be prudently adopted,
unless Congress was disposed to APP
propriate from the treasury, for tho
support of this department, sum
more than equivalent to the mail SER
vice performed by it for the Govern
ment.
The recommendation of the Post
Master General in respect to letter
postage, except on letters to and from
California and Oregon, were substan-
tally adopted by the last Congress.
He now recommends an adherence
to the present letter rates, and advi-
ses no further reduction until justified
by the revenue of the department.
He also recommends that the rates
of postage on printed matter be so
revised as to render them more sim
pie and more uniform in their opera
ton upon all classes of printed mat
ter.
The public statutes of the United
States have now heen accommodating
for more than sixty years and, inter
spersed with private acts, are scat
tered through numerous volumes and
from the cost of the whole, have be-
come almost inaccessible to the great
mass Of the community.
They also exhibit much of the in
congruity and imperfection of hastv
legislation. As it seems to be gener-
ally seconded that there is no gencr
al law of the United States to sup
ply the defects of their legislation, it
is most important that such legisla-
ton should be as perfect as possible,
defining every power intended to be
conferred, every crime intended to
be punishable, and prescribing the
punishment to be inflicted. In addi-
ton to some particular cases spoken
of more at length, the whole crimi-
nal code is now lamentable defec-
tive; some offences are but imperfect
ly described, and others are entirely
omitted, SO that fragrant crimes may
be committed with IMMUNITY. The
scale of punishment is not in all cas-
es graduated according to the de-
gree and nature of the offence, and
is often rendered more unequal by
the different modes of Imprisonment
or penitentiary confinement in the
different states. Many laws of per-
manent character have been intro
duced into appropriation bills, and
it is often difficult to determine whe-
ther the particular expires with the
temporary act of which it is a part,
or continues in force. 1t also hap
pens that enactments and provis-
ions of law have been introduced in
to bills with the title, or general sub
ject of which, they have little or no
connection or relation. In this mode
af legislation, SO many enactments
have been heaped on each othcr,a land
often with but little connection, that