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of the country in wealth and population, have been attended with a corresponding increase of the public business and of the number of persons employed to perform it. A large proportion of the population of the city of Washington is directly or indirectly connected with the affairs of Government. The representatives of the people and the States from all sections of the Union annually assemble here to perform their high functions, and are detained during the greater part of each alternate year. Many of them come from salubrious regions, where the diseases incident to more Southern climates are unknown. It would seem, then, to be a duty of the Government of the most imperative character to adopt all necessary precautions to guard against everything which tends to endanger the health of these servants of the people and their families.

To accomplish this purpose, and at the same time to contribute to the comfort of the whole population, and to afford an effectual safeguard to all the public offices against fire, I respectfully recommend the introduction into the national metropolis of a copious supply of pure water, to be thrown, in the first place, into a reservoir on some elevated point in its vicinity, and thence distributed through the public buildings and densely populated parts of the city.

The improvement of the public grounds by inclosing and planting them with trees and shrubbery, and providing promenades and fountains, is a subject of kindred character tending to the same results, and only second in importance to the supply of water. I therefore commend it also to your favorable consideration.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant. ALEX. H. H. STUART, Secretary.

TO THE PRESIdent of the UNITED STATES.

REPORT OF THE POSTMASTER GENERAL.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT, November 30th, 1850. SIR: The number of mail routes within the United States, at the close of the fiscal year ending on the 30th of June last, was 5,990; the aggregate length of such routes was 178,672 miles; and the number of contractors employed thereon, 4,760.

The annual transportation of the mails on these routes was 46,541,423 miles, at an annual cost of $2,724,426, making the average cost about five cents and eight and a half mills per mile.

The increase in the number of inland mail routes during the year was 649; the increase in the length of mail routes was 10,969 miles; and the annual transportation of the year exceeded that of the previous year by 3,997,354 miles, at an increased cost of $342,440.

The mail service in California and Oregon, having been irregular in its performance, and imperfectly reported to the department, has not been embraced in the foregoing statements.

There were on the 30th of June last, five foreign mail routes, of the gagregate length of 15,079 miles, and the annual price of the transpor

tation thereon, payable by this Department, was $264,506, being an increase of $8,814 on the cost of the preceding year.

There should be added to the cost of transportation, as above stated, the expense of mail messengers, and local and route agents, (which expense is chargeable to the transportation fund,) and which for the last fiscal year amounted to $107,042; being an increase of $45,529 on the expenses of the mail messengers, and local and route agents, for the preceding year.

The increase of our mail service for the last fiscal year, over the year preceding was about 9 4-10 per cent., and the increase in the total cost was about 12 7-10 per cent.

The extent and cost of such service for the last year, its division among the States and Territories, and its comparison with that of the preceding year, will more fully appear by the accompanying Report of the First Assistant Postmaster General.

The number of postmasters appointed during the year ending June 30, 1850, was 6,518. Of that number, 2,600 were appointed to fill vacancies occasioned by resignations; 233 to fill vacancies occasioned by the decease of the previous incumbents; 262 on a change of the sites of the offices for which they were appointed; 1444 on the removal of their predecessors; and 1,979 were appointed on the establishment of new offices.

The whole number of post-offices in the United States at the end of that year was 18,417. There were 1,979 post-offices established, and 309 discontinued during the year.

The postmasters and other agents of the Department have, with few exceptions, performed their duties with fidelity and promptness, and maintained the credit of the Department for efficiency and usefulness.

The failures of connection which have from time to time occurred on some of the routes, have caused much inconvenience and annoyance. It is hoped, however, that the renewed requirement of the returns of weekly and monthly registers of the arrivals and departures, by the postmasters, at the ends of each route, which are now regularly made to the Department, and the efficient action of the increased number of special agents, will render these irregularities less frequent.

The gross revenue of the Department for the year ending June 30, 1850, was $5,552,971 48, derived from the following sources: From letter postage, including foreign postage, and

stamps sold,

From newspaper and pamphlet postage,

From fines,

From miscellaneous items,

From receipts on account of dead letters,

From the appropriation made by the 12th section of the act of 3d March, 1847, for the franked matter of the Departments,

$4,575,663 86

919,485 94 38 00

3,048 66

1,748 40

$5,499,984 86

200,000 00

$5,699,984 86

From this sum should be deducted the amount received during the year for British postages, which are payable to that Government, under the postal convention of December, 1848,

147,013 38

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Leaving as the excess of the gross revenue over the expenditures of the year the sum of

The undrawn appropriations for this Department under the 12th section of the act of 1847, before referred to, amounted, on the 30th June last, (including the $200,000 embraced in the revenues of the last year, and included in the foregoing balance,) to The Auditor of the Department estimates the balance to the credit of the Revenue of the Department on the day last mentioned, which will be ultimately found to be available, (and which does not include the $665,555 55 above mentioned) at

Making an available balance from all sources, of
Out of which there is payable to the British
Government for postages collected under the postal
treaty, during the fiscal year ending June 30,
1849,
$35,661 66
And during the year ending June 30, 1850, 147,013 38

Leaving a nett balance, (as estimated by the Auditor,)

of

31,160 82

30,639 26

9,392 30 29,725 79 357,935 51

89,526 00 1,722 24 216 52

$5,212,953 43

$340,018 05

$665,555 55

$649,165 31

$1,314,720 86

182,675 04

$1,132,045 82

For a more detailed statement of the fiscal condition and affairs of the Department, you are respectfully referred to the report of the Auditor hereto annexed.

The new contracts for mail transportation in the Northern section composed of the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, made in the Spring of 1849, showed an increase of annual compensation of $96,981; being an increase of more than eighteen per cent. upon the previous cost of that section.

The new contracts made under the lettings of last spring for the western section of the Union, embracing the States of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, and the Territories, exhibit a still greater increase in the annual cost of transportation in that section. This increase is estimated in the contract office at $236,696 per annum, being about 25 per cent. advance upon the annual cost of that section under the contracts in force up to the end of the last fiscal year. Of this, about 10 and four-fifths per cent. is attributable to the increase of service in that section, and about 14 and one-fifth per cent. to the increased rate of compensation provided for in the late contracts.

The increased cost in the other sections of the Union under the orders for the improvement and extension of the service on existing mail routes, made by the Postmaster General during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, will amount (after deducting the curtailments ordered)

to

And similar orders to be made during the residue of the year, may increase the expenses

$12,470 00

50,000 00

The placing of the Steam Mail Packet Franklin on

the New York and Havre line, will add the cost of a half monthly line for about 10 months The service in California and Oregon, so far as reported, will cost for the current year,

62,500 00

The placing of the Steam Packet Humboldt on the New York and Havre line, and the putting in operation of the new routes established at the last session, so far as it can be done within the remainder of the current year, in accordance with the requirements of the laws regulating the Department, will probably add to the expenses of the year

80,470 00

20,000 00

The estimates upon this item and that of the additional service yet to be ordered, are made upon very uncertain data. Indeed the extent and cost of the mail service, as well as the revenues of this Department, are subject to constant fluctuations, and the best considered and most careful estimates can furnish only a reasonable approximation to the actual results.

The expenditures for the current year are estimated as follows: The annual expenses of transportation, (foreign and inland,) as it stood at the close of the last fiscal year, Additional cost in Western section under contracts, which went into effect July 1, 1850,

Cost of improvements in other sections ordered in the first quarter of the current year,

$3,095,974 00

236,696 00

12,470 00

Cost of improvements to be made under similar orders.
during residue of the year,

Expense of steamer Franklin on the New York and
Havre line,

Service in California and Oregon already reported,
Cost of new routes, and steamer Humboldt,
Expense of publishing a revised list of post-offices aud
postmasters, and a new edition of the laws and regu-
lations, with a map to accompany the latter,
Expenses of last year under the heads of compensation
to postmasters; wrapping paper; office furniture;
advertising; mail bags; blanks; mail-locks, keys,
and stamps; mail depredations and special agents;
clerks for offices, (offices of postmasters,) and miscel
laneous items; with eleven per cent. added, (such
expenses necessarily increasing with the increase of the
revenue and general service,)

50,000 00

62,500 00

80,470 00

20,000 00

14,500 00

2,447,199 90

$6,019,809 90

To meet these expenditures the Department must rely on the receipts of postages, the annual appropriation of $200,000 under the 12th section of the act of 1847, which has been before referred to, and the trifling appropriation made at the last session of Congress as a compenpensation for the transportation of the matter sent free through the mails under the act for taking the seventh census.

Before giving an estimate of the revenue of the current year it is proper to remark that no reliable estimate of the receipts from postage can be made. The increase for the year ending June 30, 1847, was 11 27-100 per cent.; for the year ending June 30, 1848, only 7 43-100 per cent. and for the year ending June 30, 1849, 14 20-100 per cent. ; being an average, for the three years, of 10 96-100 per cent.; and the increase for the year ending June 30, 1850, excluding the balances in favor of Great Britain, was 14 5-8 per cent.

It is believed that the postages of the current year will show an increase over those of the last year of at least

11 per cent., and amount to

Deduct British postages, estimated at

Add the appropriations for the franked matter of the
Department and the appropriation for the postage of

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$6,099,616 28

145,000 00

5,954,616 28

212,000 00

$6,166,616 28

6,019,809 90

$146,806 38

The conveyance of correspondence between this and foreign countries,

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