the maritime transportations which were fixed at 25 francs per kilogram by the special arrangement of January 27, 1876, admitting British India and the French colonies to the Postal Union.

2. A reduced sea-transit charge of 5 francs per kilogram of letters for the maritime transportations which were fixed at 6 francs 50 centimes by the treaty of Berne.

3. A reduced Union postage on printed matter of every kind, commercial papers and samples of merchandise, of 5 centimes (1 cent) for each article or packet bearing a particular address, and for every weight of 50 grams (2 ounces) or fraction thereof, with a minimum charge of 25 centimes (5 cents) per packet of commercial papers, and of 10 centimes (2 cents) per packet of samples of merchandise. In addition to these Union rates and the minima fixed for commercial papers and samples the following surcharges may be levied:

(a) For every article subjected to the sea-transit rates of 15 francs per kilogram of letters or post-cards, and 1 franc per kilogram of other articles, an additional charge not to exceed 25 centimes (5 cents) per single rate of letters, 5 centimes (1 cent) per post-card, and 5 centimes (1 cent) per 50 grams (2 ounces) or fraction thereof for other articles; and as a temporary arrangement to meet the legal requirements of certain administrations, the stipulation in the Berne treaty authorizing the levying a surcharge up to 10 centimes (2 cents) per single rate for the letters subjected to the reduced sea-transit charge of 5 francs per kilogram was continued.

(b) For every article conveyed by services maintained by postal administrations foreign to the Union, giving rise to special expenses, a surcharge in proportion to these expenses.

4. A limit of dimensions for post-cards is fixed at not exceeding 14 centimeters (54 inches) in length, and 9 centimeters (3 inches) in width. 5. The maximum weight of printed matter of every kind, fixed by the Berne treaty at 1 kilogram, is increased to 2 kilograms (4 pounds 6 ounces).

6. Samples of merchandise must not exceed 250 grams (83 ounces) in weight, or the following dimensions: 20 centimeters (8 inches) in length, 10 centimeters (4 inches) in breadth, and 5 centimeters (2 inches) in depth.

7. No supplementary postage is chargeable for the reforwarding of postal packets of any kind within the interior of the Union.

8. The prepayment of the Union postage on ordinary letters is optional; but the postage on all other articles must be at least partially prepaid. 9. The registration fee is established at the maximum charge of 25 centimes (5 cents) in European countries, and at a maximum of 50 centimes (10 cents) in all other countries of the Union.

10. Unpaid or insufficiently paid letters and insufficiently paid printed matter, commercial papers, or samples are to be charged in the country of destination with a postage equal to double the amount of the insufficiency.

11. Payment of postage on every description of correspondence can be effected only by means of postage-stamps valid in the country of origin for the correspondence of private individuals. Official correspondence, relative to the postal service and exchanged directly between the postal administrations, is alone exempted from this requirement, and transmissible by mail free of charge.

12. Each postal administration continues to keep the whole of the postages which it collects on the postal articles exchanged within the territory of the Union, dispensing with all accounts on this head. The only accounts between the several postal administrations of the Union are those relating to the expenses of the intermediary transportation of correspondence in open or closed mails, exchanged between any two administrations by means of the services of one or of several other administrations of the Union, and also those relating to the foreign charges upon correspondence conveyed beyond the limits of the Postal Union; these expenses to be defrayed by the administration which dispatches the corre spondence, and to be adjusted on the basis of statistical statements of the actual weights thereof, taken every two years for a period of one month. The territorial transit charges payable to each of the countries traversed, or whose services participate in the intermediate conveyance of such correspondence, are continued at the low rate fixed by the treaty of Berne, of 2 francs per kilogram of letters and post-cards and 25 centimes per kilogram of other articles, excepting only the transit services maintained by the Post-Office Department of the United States between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; and those maintained by the postal administrations of France and Italy, for the accelerated conveyance of the Indian mail, both of which are classed as extraordinary services, the conditions of which are to be regulated by mutual agreement between the postal administrations interested.

WORK OF THE UNITED STATES DELEGATES TO THE POSTAL CON

GRESS.

The delegates who represented the United States at this congress were Hon. James N. Tyner, First Assistant Postmaster-General, and Joseph H. Blackfan, esq., Superintendent of Foreign Mails. These gentlemen were entirely sucessful in securing, in the revised convention, every important interest of the United States, the chief of which, in a fiscal point of view, was the retention of the provision of the Berne treaty which excepts from the uniform territorial transit rates the lengthy and expensive railway transit across the American continent between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. During the discussions of the congress, they were obliged to interpose formal declarations against the adoption of two propositions, which were supported by an almost unanimous vote of the delegates from other countries, for the reason that the laws of the United States did not sanction their adoption in our interior postal service. One of these propositions related to the payment of a

fixed indemnity of 50 francs (810) to the sender of a lost registered article by the postal administration in whose service the loss has occurred, and the other was a proposition, strongly pressed by the German delegation, to pension employés of the international bureau who, after ten years of service, become disabled, and, in case of death of an employé, to pension his wife and unmarried children, up to the age of 18 years. Both propositions were adopted in committee, and would have been incorporated in the convention if the United States delegates had not formally declared that they could not accept them, because the principles involved were opposed to the laws of the United States.

The proposition respecting indemnities for lost registered articles was subsequently adopted in a modified form, permitting, as a temporary measure, the postal administrations of the countries whose legislation is opposed to the principle of responsibility, to postpone its application until they obtain legislative authority to subscribe to it, and stipulating that up to that time the other administrations of the Union shall not be required to pay indemnities for the loss in their respective services of registered articles for or from said countries. The proposition respecting pensions to employés of the International Bureau was abandoned, and provision made in lieu thereof for an increase of salaries, said increase to be applied, under the surveillance of the Swiss Administration, to an assurance in favor of their families.

LIMITED INDEMNITY FOR LOST REGISTERED MATTER.

As the principle of a limited responsibility in case of the loss of registered articles is acknowledged by a large majority of the countries comprising the Universal Postal Union, and is also adopted with a restricted application in the Convention of Paris, it is desirable for the sake of uniformity to apply it to all registered articles exchanged in the Union mails, and I therefore recommend that the necessary authority be given by law to enable this department to accept the general rules of the Union respecting the payment of indemnities for registered articles lost or destroyed in the United States Postal Service. The number of registered articles annually lost or destroyed is so small that the payments to be made on this head would be very trifling in amount.

Separate conventions for the exchange of money-orders and of declared values were also concluded and signed at the Congress by the delega tions of some of the postal union countries; but as it was impossible, at present, for this department to accept the provisions of these arrangements, the United States delegates declined to become parties to them.

RATIFICATION OF THE UNIVERSAL POSTAL CONVENTION.

The Universal Postal Convention, a copy of which is hereto appended (page 297), was duly ratified and approved by and with the advice and consent of the President on the 13th of August, 1878, and will

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be carried into operation on the 1st of April, 1879, replacing, from that date, the Postal Union Treaty concluded at Berne, on the 9th of October, 1874. Its general provisions are similar to those of the Treaty of Berne, but many improvements are adopted in reductions of sea transit charges and postage-rates, and in otherwise simplifying and extending the Postal Union system, the foundations of which were laid by the Berne Congress in 1874, and contemplated the formation of a single postal territory whose boundaries should embrace the whole world. In its origin the Postal Union comprised 23 countries having a population of 350,000,000 of people. On the 1st of April next it will comprise 43 countries and colonies with a population of more than 650,000,000 of people, and will soon, by the accession of the few remaining countries. and colonies which maintain organized postal-services, constitute, in fact, as its new title indicates, a universal union, regulating upon a uniform basis of cheap postage-rates the postal intercourse between all civilized nations.

FOREIGN BOOKS BY MAIL SHOULD BE DUTY FREE.

I renew the recommendation made in my last annual report, that suitable provision be made by law for the delivery to addressees in this country free of customs duty of newspapers and other articles of printed matter received in the mails from foreign countries when dispatched in accordance with the conditions prescribed by the Universal Postal Union Convention. The fact that our laws impose customs duties on newspapers and printed matter of every kind received from foreign countries, causes embarrassment to this department in its relations with other postal administrations, as well as annoyance and inconvenience to our citizens who subscribe to foreign publications, or occasionally receive them from correspondents abroad. The duties chargeable on such publications, even if they could be readily collected, are too trifling in amount to justify the expenses of collection, and the placing of a restriction of this character on their free entry and circulation is not only in conflict with the stipulations of postal conventions with other countries which provided for the exchange of such articles through the mails subject to prescribe conditions of inclosure, weight, and prepayment of postage, but places the United States in the anomalous position of being the only country of the world whose laws exact customs duties on publications of this character received in the mails from other countries.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Several subjects upon which legislation was recommended in my last eport to Congress were considered by the appropriate committees, were favorably reported upon, and are among the unfinished business of the last session of that body. Ideem it unnecessary to enter upon a repetition. of what I have heretofore stated in regard to these, and shall content myself with referring to my former report, so far as it relates to them, and renewing the suggestions therein contained.

DEFICIENCIES CREATED BY LAW.

As is shown in the reports of the First and Second Assistant Postmasters-General (page 58), and of the Superintendent of the Railway Mail Service (page 236), there are and there will be deficiencies in two important branches of the postal-service, viz: the salaries of postmasters and in the compensation paid railway companies for mail transportation. The amount of compensation to be paid to each is fixed by law.

Postmasters are divided into four classes, and their salaries are ascertained and determined in the mode provided by law, according to the amount of business transacted and the revenues collected by them. Congress has prescribed the exact method in which the compensation of the postmasters is to be computed. It is a mere matter of arithmetical calculation in which the department has no latitude or discretion.

SALARIES OF POSTMASTERS.

For example, a postmaster of the fourth class is entitled to his boxrents and to commissions on other postal revenues of his office, as follows: On the first $100 of postage-stamps canceled at his office, per quarter, 60 per cent.; on all over $100 and not over $300 per quarter, 50 per cent.; and on all sums over $300 40 per cent. The postmaster, on report and settlement, retains his commissions in such cases, and he thus obtains and retains his salary whether there be an appropriation by Congress for it or not. Therefore deficiencies, or the prevention of them, so far as the salaries and compensation of postmasters are concerned, are not and cannot be controlled by the department. If the amount appropriated by Congress for the purpose be not equal to the amount of compensation established by law, there must be a deficiency.

COMPENSATION OF RAILWAYS.

The law provides that railway companies may be paid for carrying the mails the following rates: On routes carrying their whole length an average weight of mails per day of 200 pounds, $50 per mile; 500 pounds, $75; 1,000 pounds, $100; 1,500 pounds, $125; 2,000 pounds, $150; 3,500 pounds, $175; 5,000 pounds, $200; and $25 for every additional 2,000 pounds. To companies which furnish postal cars additional compensation is allowed. To such lines as run a daily trip each way with a postal car 40 feet in length, $25 per mile per annum; $30 per mile for 45-foot cars; $40 per mile for 50-foot cars; and $50 per mile for 55 to 60-foot cars. By the last Congress these rates of compensation were reduced 10 per cent., and by the present Congress 5 per cent. additional. The appropriation made by Congress at its last session was not sufficient to pay for the existing service on the railroads thus prescribed. In addition to this fact, the weight of the mails carried is constantly increasing, and new railroads and parts of railroads are being continually added to our postal routes. It became