their procedure which it inaugurated, into immediate and practical effect. The state of public business and the differences of opinion naturally arising on a varied and comprehensive scheme, have unfortunately prevented you from completing the consideration of the Merchant Shipping Bill, but I rejoice that you have been able, by a temporary enactment, to diminish considerably the dangers to which my seafaring subjects are exposed. By the Agricultural Holdings Act you have greatly and beneficially enlarged the powers of owners, limited in interest, to offer to their tenants a sufficient security for judicious outlay upon the farms they occupy, and, while maintaining absolute freedom of contract, you have raised a presumption of rights, under which a new inducement will be given to expend capital upon the improvement of land. I have every reason to hope that the progress of the Revenue which has marked recent years will be fully sustained in the present. The arrangements which you have made with respect to the reduction of the National Debt, and those for the better regulation of Loans for Public Works, will lead to valuable improvements in our system of Imperial and Local Finance. The enactment for a Registration of Trade Marks will supply a deficiency that has for some time been felt in our commercial system. I trust that the Act constituting a new Bishopric at St. Albans may prove advantageous to the vast population of the dioceses affected by the measure. In bidding you farewell for the recess, I pray that the blessing of Providence may fall on your recent labours, and accompany you in the discharge of all your duties. POSTAL CONVENTION between Great Britain and Brazil. -Signed at Rio de Janeiro, August 16, 1875. THE Government of Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of Brazil, being desirous to regulate, by means of a new Convention, the communications by post between the United Kingdom and Brazil upon a more liberal and advantageous basis for the inhabitants of the two countries: The Undersigned, Victor Arthur Wellington Drummond, Esquire, Her Britannic Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, and Viscount de Caravellar, a Counsellor of State, Senator of the Empire, &c., furnished with full powers from their respective Sovereigns, after having communicated to each other the said full powers, which were found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles:: ART. I. The total rate of postage to be collected upon a letter posted in the United Kingdom and addressed to Brazil, whether conveyed direct by mail-packet or in a closed mail via France and by means of a French mail-packet, shall be 9d. per half ounce, or fraction of half an ounce, if such postage be prepaid, and 1s. per half ounce or fraction of half an ounce, if the postage be not prepaid, and the total rate of postage to be collected upon a letter posted in Brazil and addressed to the United Kingdom, whether conveyed direct by mail-packet or in a closed mail via France, and by means of a French mail-packet, shall be 370 reis per balf ounce, or fraction of half an ounce, if such postage be prepaid, and 500 reis per half ounce, or fraction of half an ounce, if the postage be not prepaid. Insufficiently prepaid letters shall be considered as unpaid, and charged accordingly, after deducting the value of the postage stamps affixed to them. II. Packets containing legal and commercial documents, patterns of merchandize, newspapers, stitched or bound books, pamphlets, music, visiting cards, catalogues, prospectuses, announcements, and notices of various kind whether printed, engraved, or lithographed, as well as photographs, shall be transmissible by either office at such charges and under such regulations with respect to non or insufficient payment and other matters as the despatching office may from time to time lay down. These regulations, however, shall include the following: 1. No packet may contain anything which is sealed or otherwise closed against inspection, nor must it contain any letter, nor any communication of the nature of a letter, whether separate or otherwise, unless the whole of such letter or communication be printed. 2. No packet must exceed two feet in length, or one foot in width or depth. The postage of all such packets sent from Brazil in transit through the United Kingdom shall be prepaid. III. Upon prepaid letters and upon the articles specified in Article II preceding, despatched from Brazil by way of the United Kingdom, addressed to the countries and colonies enumerated in the Table annexed to the present Convention, and upon unpaid letters despatched from those countries and colonies by way of the United Kingdom addressed to Brazil, the Brazilian Post Office shall account to the British Post Office for the rates of postage set forth in that Table. These rates of postage shall, however, be modified whenever any alteration takes place in the postage charged in the United Kingdom upon correspondence addressed to or received from the countries and colonies enumerated in the Table. Upon unpaid letters addressed to France, despatched from Brazil by way of the United Kingdom, the British Post Office shall account to the Brazilian Post Office for the sum of 1s. per ounce net weight, and upon unpaid letters addressed to Spain, despatched from Brazil by way of the United Kingdom, the British Post Office shall account to the Brazilian Post Office for the sum of 18. 8d. per ounce net weight, those being the sums which, by Treaty, the British Post Office will receive from the post offices of France and Spain respectively for the Atlantic Sea conveyance of such letters. Upon every unpaid letter, despatched from Brazil by way of the United Kingdom, addressed to any other of the countries and colonies enumerated in the annexed table, the British Post Office shall account to the Brazilian Post Office for the sum of 18. ounce, or fraction of half an ounce. per half IV. The Brazilian Post Office may deliver to the British Post Office letters or other articles which have been registered addressed to the United Kingdom; reciprocally the British Post Office may deliver to the Brazilian Post Office letters or other articles which have been registered addressed to Brazil. The postage of all registered articles shall always be paid in advance. In addition to this postage there shall also be charged a registration fee, the amount of which shall be fixed and retained by the despatching office. V. The Brazilian Post Office may further deliver to the British Post Office registered letters and other articles addressed to those countries or colonies to which registered letters, &c., can be sent from the United Kingdom. The Brazilian Post Office shall account to the British Post Office, in addition to the postage due to the British Post Office, for such sum as the British Post Office may fix for the registration from the United Kingdom of every registered letter or other article addressed to the countries or colonies above mentioned. The Brazilian Post Office shall retain the amount of the fee charged for the registration as far as the United Kingdom. VI. Subject to the payments referred to in Article III foregoing, and in the following Article VII, each office shall retain the whole amount of postage which it collects, as well on the prepaid letters, &c., which it despatches to the other office, as on the unpaid letters, &c., which it receives from that office. VII. The British Office shall defray the whole cost of conveying direct by mail-packet the mails from the United Kingdom to Brazil. It shall also defray the transit and sea rates of postage payable to France on all closed mails forwarded from the United Kingdom to Brazil through France, and by means of French mail-packets. The Brazilian Post Office shall defray the whole cost of conveying direct by mail-packet the mails from Brazil to the United Kingdom. Upon all mails forwarded from Brazil to the United Kingdom or to intermediate ports by a packet provided under the terms of a contract now subsisting between the British Government and the owners of such packet, the Brazilian Post Office shall repay to the British Post Office the entire amount payable according to the stipulations of that contract by the British Post Office for the conveyance of those mails. The Brazilian Post Office shall also repay to the British Post Office the transit and sea rates of postage which that office will have to pay to the French Post Office for all closed mails forwarded from Brazil to the United Kingdom through France, and by means of French mail-packets. Notwithstanding the previous provisions, the Brazilian Post Office shall have the right to contract direct with and to pay to the company for the conveyance of all mails that shall be despatched from Brazilian ports. VIII. No postage whatever shall be charged by the British Post Office upon the delivery of prepaid letters or other articles originating in Brazil and addressed to the United Kingdom; and in like manner no postage whatever shall be charged by the Brazilian Post Office upon the delivery of prepaid letters or other articles originating in the United Kingdom, or passing in transit through the United Kingdom, and addressed to Brazil. IX. All letters and other articles which, owing to imperfect addresses or other cause, cannot be delivered shall, without unnecessary delay, be returned to the despatching office without any charge for such re-transmission. X. The British Post Office shall prepare, at the expiration of every quarter, separate accounts exhibiting the results of the exchange of correspondence between the respective offices. Such accounts shall be founded upon the acknowledgments of receipt of the respective offices during the quarter. The separate accounts shall be incorporated in general accounts which shall be compared and settled by the two offices, and the balance shall forthwith be paid in London and in British money, if such balance is in favour of the United Kingdom, and in Rio de Janeiro and in Brazilian money, if such balance is in favour of Brazil. XI. The Brazilian and British Post Offices shall mutually agree on the regulations for carrying the present Convention into effect, which regulations shall be signed by the respective PostmastersGeneral, who can modify the same by mutual consent should the regularity or convenience of the service require it. XII. All the Conventions existing between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Brazil relative to the exchange of correspondence shall cease to have effect from the date of the day when the present Convention shall be put into execution. XIII. The Brazilian Government, together with the British Government, having resolved, from motives of mutual convenience, that the above stipulated dispositions should be put in execution independent of the usual ratifications, which will be thus dispensed with, the undersigned Plenipotentiaries agree that the present Convention shall commence to be put in force on the 1st of December of the present year, continuing in force until one of the two Contracting Parties shall give notice to the other, one year beforehand, of their intention of bringing it to an end. Done in duplicate, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, on the 16th. day of the month of August, 1875. (L.S.) VICTOR A. W. DRUMMOND. |