In 1859, pianos were valued at $133. In 1861, they are only worth on an average $71 73. The valuation differs in different counties, which might be avoided.

The following table exhibits the value of personal property, town lots, lands, and railroads for a series of years:

ROBBERY IN THE UNITED STATES TREASURY.

Mr. SPINNER, Treasurer of the United States, has issued the following notice:

Treasury of the United States,
Washington, Dec. 8, 1862.

On Thursday last, the 4th instant, there disappeared from this office a package of blank certificates of indebtedness, of the denomination of $5,000, numbered from 14,501 to 15,000, both inclusive. No certificates like them have ever been turned from this office, and none will ever be issued.

The true certificates of the denomination of $5,000 have their numbers written on the face in red ink, at the upper corners, directly under the marginal border. The words, "If the order be not filled up this certificate issued to will be paid to bearer," are printed on the back of the certificates in red ink. All that have been issued since about the 1st instant, commencing about No. 11,800, have the large denomination, $5,000, printed on the face in red ink.

All certificates that will issue from this office in future will be like those issued heretofore. Those in the lost package differ from the genuine in having the words above quoted, viz: "If the order blank be not filled up this certificate issued to will be paid to bearer," engraved on the face of the certificate, beginning over the vignette, and there taking the place of the border, and continued below on each side over the engraved denomination of five thousand dollars.

The numbers are printed on each side in red ink under the $5,000 denomination. Certificates of the denomination of $1,000, answering the description of those lost, have been and are being issued, but none of that denomination have been lost. T. E. SPINNER, Treasurer of the United States.

POSTAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE POSTMASTER GENERAL'S REPORT.

THE Report of the Postmaster General for this year, as a whole, will be read with unusual interest, and contains numerous suggestions of great importance to this branch of the public service.

year

The gross revenue of the Department for this fiscal year, including the standing Treasury credit for free mail matter, and a small amount appropriated for the relief of individuals, was $9,012,549 56. The expenditures for the same year amounted to $11,125,364 13. The regular postal revenue for 1862 is only $49,470 50 less than it was for the fiscal 1861, during a large part of which year revenue was paid in from all the States of the Union. This fact shows a large increase in the correspondence of the loyal States. While the revenues have been so nearly sustained at the highest standard, the expenses have been largely reduced. For the preceding year the expenditures were $2,481,394 98 greater than last year. The following comparisons of figures are interesting:

Expenditures for 1860, for services in all the States, $14,874,722 89; revenues for the same year, $9,218,567 40; deficiency, $5,656,705 49; expenditures for 1861, service interrupted in 1861, $13,606,759 11; gross revenues for 1861, service interrupted in 1861, $9,049,296 46; deficiency, $4,557,462 71; expenditures for 1862, $11,125,364 13; revenue for 1862, $9,012,549 56; deficiency, $2,112,814 57; reduction of expenditures as compared with 1860, $3,749,408; reduction of expenditures as compared with 1861, $2,481,394.

The Department has not been for many years so nearly self-sustaining. The result is largely owing to the suspension of postal expenditures in the South, which were greatly in excess of postal receipts, but not alone to that. A revision of all discretionary expenses has, as the Postmaster General tells us, been made, and large reductions ordered. The pay of agents, he also says, has been regraded and equalized, and other beneficial changes made.

The number of postage stamps issued to postmasters during the year was 7,078,188. The value of letter envelopes was $733,255 50. The value of stamped newspaper wrappers, $23,643 50; increase of issue over 1861, $1,144,858 27. The total value sold was $6,910,131 89.

The increasing demand on the part of the public for stamped newspaper shows that their introduction has satisfied a public demand and promoted the convenience of correspondents.

In the first quarter of the current year ending September 30th, the number of stamps issued to postmasters was 104,000,000; their calls for about 200,000,000, which would have been nearly sufficient to meet the usual demand for a year. This extraordinary demand arose from the temporary use of these stamps as a currency by the public in lieu of the

VOL. XLVIII.-NO. I.

7

smaller denominations of specie, and ceased with the introduction of the so-called postal currency.

The difference between the value of stamps sold and stamps canceled in the fiscal year 1862 shows $738,379 96 as the amount in the hands of purchasers on the first of July, 1862.

The whole number of dead letters received and examined during the year is 2,292,018, which is 267,000 less than in the previous year. The whole number of valuable letters sent out by the dead letter office was 51,239. Many interesting details are given in the report touching the operations of this office. Out of 21,493 cases where causes of non-delivery were ascertained, only 225 were attributable to the fault of postmasters. 822 letters had no address whatever.

Congress at its first session passed an act authorizing the employment of twenty-five additional clerks to facilitate the return of dead letters to their writers, with the expectation that the receipts of postage thereon would cover the appropriation of $20,000 for their compensation. The result thus far shows that an excess of revenue therefrom over the expenses has accrued to the amount of several thousand dollars. The whole number of post offices in the United States, remaining established on the 30th of June, 1862, was 28,875, of which there were in the loyal States and Districts, 19,973, and in the insurrectionary States there were 8,902. The net increase in the established offices over last year was 121. The number of cases acted on by the appointment office during the year was 7,785. The total postages accrued on United States and European mails during the year amounts to $1,144,095 82, being a reduction of the amount of the previous year of $217,940 88. Of the total amount collected the excess collected in the United States was $212,607 36, which constitutes the balance paid to the several foreign departments, the cost of exchange being defrayed by the United States. The Postmaster General objects to this cost as inequitable, and proposes, if possible, to relieve the Department from this burden.

The Postmaster General has made special efforts to retrieve the foreign correspondence of the country from its complexity, now so embarrassing alike to correspondents and to postal officers. Separate negotiations have been found altogether inadequate to secure simple and satisfactory arrangements. He, therefore, opened a correspondence in August last, through the Department of State, with foreign administrations, proposing a convention of postal representatives, at some convenient point, to consider the enumerated difficulties and the means of remedying.

Several replies have been received from the various governments, and all are favorable and agree to the project. This country, comprising emigrants from almost every civilized nation, is especially interested in the subject proposed to be brought before this conference. It is a species of postal improvement requiring the establishment of greater uniformity and some common principle of arrangement, and is connected with our prosperous commercial intercourse with other countries.

The mail lettings which went into operation on the first of July last in the Western Division, and were effected on such favorable terms, as compared with the previous lettings, that a reduction of expenditure resulted to the amount of $331,000. At the same time the length of the routes was increased by 159 miles, with an annual increase of taxation of 754,428

miles. Notwithstanding this increase of service, the net saving is over nine per cent, as compared with the previous term.

The total annual cost of the internal service in operation on the 30th of June last was $5,853,834, to which add the cost of the various agencies, route and local messengers, etc., etc., $460,630 92, and the cost of the service at that date is $6,314,464 92, which includes one million dollars for the Overland Mail Route, not before charged upon the revenues of this Department.

The saving in the lettings of the West to July, 1862, is attributed to a strict adherence to the law of 1845, authorizing what is known as star bids.

The report renews the recommendation for codifying all the postal laws, and hopes it may be done at this session.

Among the improvements under consideration by the Postmaster General, is that of embossing postal stamps on business and other envelopes supplied for that purpose by persons desiring to furnish their own designs. It is believed that this will largely increase the use of stamped envelopes in lieu of stamps, which is an object of great importance to the Department.

He also discourages the use of the mails for transmitting money, and speaks favorably of a limited money order system, and offers an amendment to the registry system, by which a return receipt shall be sent to the dispatching party, as evidence of the fact and date of delivery of his package.

He also proposes to abolish many of the discriminating rates of postage now existing, approximating, as far as possible, to uniformity, and increasing the efficiency and extent of the delivery and collection of letters by carriers in cities. These important changes have been very fully and ably advocated, as our readers are aware, in the Merchants Magazine during the past year.

The attention of the public is called to the great importance of good postal officers for a successful administration of this Department. If the postmasters and their clerks are selected without chief reference to their efficiency and personal fitness, no amount of good legislation will secure public satisfaction. An energetic, faithful, and efficient postmaster, devoted to the interests of the service, should be retained as long as he illustrates those qualities in his administration of the office. He attributes the success of the English system largely to the permanent character of their officers, and their familiarity with the laws and regulations. regrets the extent to which other motives to appointments have prevailed in this country. He urges a return to the old standard of honesty, capacity, and fidelity, and anticipates more public satisfaction and administrative success from the adoption of such a principle than from any other single act of reform. He uses this language:

He

"It is my intention to adhere firmly to my determination to displace incompetency and indifference wherever found in official position under my control, without any discrimination in favor of appointments I may myself have made under misinformation of facts."

As a whole, we think this document well deserves careful attention, and we trust that many of its suggestions will be adopted by Congress.

NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

THE NAVAL FORCE OF THE UNITED STATES, ETC.-REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

As To the condition of our navy, the Secretary in his report says: When I entered upon the discharge of my public duties as the head of this department, in March, 1861, there were but 42 vessels in commission, and as stated in my last annual report, but 76 vessels then attached to the navy have been made available. Most of those in commission were abroad, and of the 7,600 seamen in the pay of the government, there were on the 10th of March, 1861, but 207 men in all the ports and receiving ships on the Atlantic coast to man our ships and protect the navy yards and depots, or to aid in suppressing the rising insurrection.

Neither the expiring administration, nor Congress, which had been in session until the 4th of March, had taken measures to increase or strengthen our naval power, notwithstanding the lowering aspect of our public affairs, so that when a few weeks after the inauguration I desired troops for the protection of the public property at Norfolk and Annapolis, or sailors to man and remove the vessels, neither soldiers nor sailors could be procured. There were no men to man our ships, nor were the few ships at our yards in a condition to be put into immediate service.

The proclamation of April, placing our entire coast from the mouth of the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande under blockade, found us with a naval force, even were every vessel on our coast, inadequate to the work required.

We have at this time afloat or progressing to rapid completion a naval force consisting of 427 vessels, there having been added to those of the old navy enumerated in my report of July, 1861, exclusive of those that were lost, 353 vessels, armed in the aggregate with 1,577 guns, and of the capacity of 140,028 tons.

The annals of the world do not show so great an increase in so brief a period to the naval power of any country. It affords me satisfaction to state that the acquisitions made to the navy from the commercial marine have proved to be of an excellent character, and though these vessels were not built for war purposes, and consequently have not the strength of war vessels, they have performed all the service that was expected of them. No equal amount of tonnage was ever procured for any service at prices correspondingly low, and with so little disturbance to the commercial community, and no vessels were ever constructed on better terms for the government, or have better subserved the purposes for which they were designed, than the twenty-three gunboats for which the department contracted on its own responsibility at the commencement of hostilities, without waiting for the action of Congress. In no respects, during this war, has the government been better or more economically and faithfully served than in the additions that have beer made by construction and purchase for the navy.