Out of postages accruing since the 1st 187,086 14 597,077 48 Old debt remaining unpaid on this day, about $467,304 44 Of this debt, about g205,000 is due to banks, and the balance to contractors and others. The statements of the amount of debt, and the amount paid out of postages accruing prior 10 the 1st of July, are not supposed to be exact, but they do not vary materinlly from the actual amounts. The result of these operations is : That the claims of contractors and others against the Department, arising within the quarter ending 30th June Jasi, hare been paid, with the exception of a few suspensions. That the claims arising within the quarter ending 30th September lası have been paid as far as they were ready for adjustment. That one hundred and eighty-seven thousand and eighty-six dollars of the pre-existing debt have been paid out of postages accruing since 30th June last. That the funds in bank on this day, are seventy-three thousanri seven hundred and thirty-seven dollars. The payment of an amount of the old debt so far beyond the available surplus of the last quarter, leaving a large sunt, ou hand, will create no surprise, when it is recollected that, in addition to that surplus, the Depariment has been able to 'avail itself of a considerable amount stopped from contractors on account of overpayments, and a still larger suin arising from the deposites of the weekly and mouthly depositing offices, on account of the current quarter. The debt of the Department, except that portion of it which is due to bauks, and the suspended allowances, is now perfectly manageable, and cannot hereafter embarrass its operations. The bank debt is reduced to about $ 205,000. The following statement of the quarterly income and expenditure of the Department for the last two years, whichi, though not accurate, may be relied upon for all practical purposes, will more fully show the progress of its financial concerns, and its prospect of speedy redemprion from debt: Gross revenue. Expenditure. Excess of reve nue. Excess of Expenditure. $90,855 27 27,206 25 1833. Sept. 30, $655,242 88 $746,098 15 Dec. 31, 720,209 27 747,415 52 1834. March 31, 729,600 51 699,205 86 $30,394 65 June 30, 718,696 00 717,885 00 811 00 Sept. 30, 725,273 03 703,494 75 21,778 28 Dec. 724,542 34 701,497 08 23,045 26 1835. March 31, 763,494 47 689,652 66 82,841 81 June 30, 780,046 82 | 671,705 59 108,341 23 31, As it bas already been ascertained, from examinations of the returns, that the revenue of the last quarter exceeds that of the corresponding quarter of the last yıar about twelve per cent., it may be safely stated that the surplus of revenue over expenditure for that quarter will be about $120,000 ; and that there was, on the 30th September last, a surplus of available means over the whole debt of the Departmeni, amounting to about $100,000. It is confidenily expected that this surplus will be increased at the end of the current quarter to about $220,000, and, at the end of the next quarter, to about $340,000. The old debts due to contractors and others are now paid as fast as they are presented aud can be adjusted ; and the accumulation of funds, notwithstanding these pay. menis, is so considerable as to justify a belief that $100,000 of tbe remaining bank debt may be paid in January next, and the balance in April. The undersigned takes pleasure in presenting you with the data which justify this anticipation. He is happy to say that, so far from needing any pecuniary aid froin the Treasury, the Department may be presented to Congress, before the lermination of their approaching session, substantially free from debt, with a clear annual surplus exceeding $400,000, applicable to the establishment of new inail routes, and the improrement of old ones. Even should the suspended allowances be finally paid, the anticipated result cannot be delayed beyond the month of July, 1336. A balance of the books of this Department has not been effected for about twenty years. After a full cousideration of the subject, it was deemed expedient to close them, and open a new set from the 1st of July, 1835. 'The bilances of accounts are not carried forward from the old books to the new, but all collections inade of moneys due before thai day are credited to an account headed “ Arrearages on the new books; and all payments made ou debis contracted prior to that day, are charged to the same account. That account, when closed, will show the exacı amount of debt and of available means at the coininencement of the present fiscal year-facts which cannot be sooner ascertained with exactitude. In keeping th• new books, an attempt is making, through the agency of general accounts, to show, speciñcally, from what sources the revenue of the Department is derived, and in what purposes it is applied. The accruing revenue is credi:ed to general accounts headed “ Leller Posla ges," "Newspapers and Pamphlets," and "Fines.” The expenditures are charged to general accounts, headed “Compensalion of Posimaslers," " Transportation nf the Mails,” “Ship, Steamboal, and Wuy Lellers," "Wrapping Paper," " Office Furnilure," Adrertising," Mail Bags, " Blanks," Mail Locks und Keys, and Slamps," " Mail Depredalions and Special Agents,' “ Clerks, &c for Offices,” and “ Miscellaneous." When the entire business of a quarter is brought upon the books, the credit general accounts will be balanced by transfer to the credit of a general account, headed “ Post Office Department," which will thus exhibit, at a glance, the entire income of the Post Office Depastinent for the quarter, and the sources whence it is derived. In like manner, the debit general accounts will be closed by transfer to debit or “ Post Office Department," which will thus show, ou a single page, the whole expenditures of the quarter, with the objects of expenditure. The balance of this account, thus made up, will exhibit the condition of the Deparient at the end of each quarter. It has long appeared to the undersigued, that, by a system of this kind, the application of the public moneys inay he shown more specifically than by any other system of specific approp. iation. The efficiency of a department, with so many thousand agenis in its en ployment, essentially depends on the vigilance and energy of the directing and supervising power. Impressed with this conviction, it is the policy and the effort of the Department to make the supervision so complete, that every individual in its service shall feel that he acis directly under the eye of some of its officers or clerks. To secure promptitude in the rendition of accounts, the postina stere, with the exceptiou of a few at the large offices, have been required to forward their accounts within two days, or by the first mail, after the close of each quarter. As a means of enforcing this requisition, the post offices are divided into four classes, in reference to their distance from Washington, and other circumstances. For the arrival of the accounts of the first class, ten days are allowed; for the second, twenty ; for the third, thirty ; and for the fourth, forty. It is made the special uty of a clerk to note the day on which each quarterly return arrives, and promptly call all delinquents to account when the allotted timne shall have expired. This plan of supervision was put in operation at the commencement of the present quarter. To produce an ever-active supervision over contractors, it is made the duty of postinasters at the ends of all post routes to keep, and return to the Department weekly or monthly, according to the importance of the route, registers, showing the exact time of arrival and departure of every mail, with such remarks as the occasion may require. It is made the duty of a clerk in each division to see that the postmasters keep and return these registers, to examine them when returned, and note all delinquencies of contractors. This plan is not yet in full operation. It is intended to apply the same priuciple of strict supervision to the return of receipts by postmasters ; to the making of deposites by the depositing offices, and the forwarding or certificates of deposite ; to the printing and furnishing of blanks; and, as far as practicable, to all services required by law and the regulations of the Department. Sufficient attention has been given by the undersigned to the mamer in which newspapers and other printed matter are conveyed by mail, to satisfy him that it is radically defective. No supervision or power of punishment, exercised or possessed by the Postmaster General, is adequale in prevent, on some occasions, the canvass bags in which printed papers are slowed from being left behind, so long as they are carried separately from the letter mails, or on the outside of coaches and stages. To preveut the evil in some degree, it has been provided in the contracto lately awarded on the rain routes to the West, that, on the outward trip, no passengers shall be carried in the inside of the mail coach, but that it shall be devoted exclusively to the mails; and on similar routes along the sea board, the same restriction will be applied in both directions. It is believed that the enfurcement of the contracts in this respect will iusure the safe conveyance of the newspapers as far as they travel op these routes, A further improvement in this respect is anticipated, from arrangemenis now in progress to run steamboat mails on the Western rivers during the season of steamboat navigation, and on a portion of the Mississippi during the whole year. It is well known that an immense correspondence is carried on during) the business season in steamboats upon these waters. So long as the Department has no mails upon the rivers, it is difficult, if not impracticable, to enforce the Post Office laws, and bring the letters so transmitted into the post offices. Regular lines of boats are now formed, and formling, on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. A contract has been made with the owners of one of these lines to carry a mail three times a week between Pittsburg and Cincinnati, during the season of navigation, for 31,800 a year. A proposition has been received and accepted, to convey a mail, exrept when prevented by ice, on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, between Louisville and St. Louis, three times a week, and between Louisville and New Orleans three times a week during the business season, and twice a week during the rest of the year, touching at all the considerable intermediate points, for $30,000 a year for the whole service. It is in contemplation to put this mail into operation early in the coming year. From giving regular river mails to the business of the West, it is expected that they will convey almost the entire correspondence upon those waters, and increase the revenues of the Department in a sum at least equal to their cost. This facility being furnished to the community, the Post Office laws can, with more propriety, be enforced in relation to letters conveyed in other boats. Nor is it one of the least advantages anticipated from these mails, that they will relieve the land mails in the West and Southwest of an immense mass of mail matter, and render its conveyance more safe at the seasons when the roads are most difficult, and in the Mississippi country during the whole year. The multiplication of rajiroads will form a new era in the mail establishment. They must soon become the means by which the mails will be transported on most of the great lines of intercommunication ; and the undersigned has devoted some attention to the devising of a systemi which shall render the change most useful to the country. The cities and large towns on the great mail lines constitute centres from which the mails diverge to pervade and supply the surrounding country. At these points, generally, are the distributing post offices. The great whole will evidently be most speedily and effectually served by causing the mails to pass with all possible expedition, by night and by day, along the inain lines through these numerous centres, stopping for no local object, and pausing at the distributing offices only long enough to exchange mails. The distribution through the country around must be made after the great mail has passed on, by means of coaches, stages, or other vehicles, and horses, as the interest of the Department and the country may mutually require ; or, if any intermediate offices be supplied by the railroads, it should be those only where the cars stop, unless a mode of exchanging mai! bags, without stopping, can be introduced for the accommodation of others. The means of transportation between Washington and Boston are now so complete that this system might be advantageously introduced, at least during the season of steainboat navigation. The time occupied in pass Jing from Washington to Baltimore, by the railroad, is but two and a half hours. To pass from Baltimore to Philadelphia, by steamboats and the Newcastle and Frenchtown railroad, requires about nine hours. From Philadelphia to New York, by the Camden and Amboy railroad and steamboats, occupies about eight hours ; from New York to Providence, about fifteen hours; and from Providence to Boston, two and a half hours. The travelling hours from Washington to Boston are but about thirty-seven. Allowing half an hour at Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Providence, each, for exchange of mails, the time occupied in transmitting a mail from Washington to Boston would be thirty.nine hours. This is the speed of present conveyances. In the course of next year it is expected that Baltimore and Philadelphia will be connected by railroad, when the time occupied in passing from city to city will not exceed six hours. New York will soon be connected with Boston by similar roads, when the time occupied between them will not exceed fifteen hours. Sol that, when a railroad line from Washington to Boston shall be completed, a mail may pass from the one to the other in thirty-four hours at most, and probably in a few years, from the progressive improvements of locomotives, in less than thirty hours. Within the quarter of the Union embraced in the recent letting of con tracts, there are several railroads. Some of them made no offers, and the rest demanded prices far beyond the usual cost of transporting the mails on the same routes heretofore, and beyond what was asked by individual citizens. Anxious to give the mails the greatest possible expedition between Washington and New York, the undersigned made an effort to bring the companies, in whose hands are the means of convey. ance on that great line, to act in concert with each other and with the Department, hy which nieans two daily mails might be run through that line, performing the trip each way, and conveying passengers from city to city, in about twenty-three hours. The effort failed in consequence of the very heavy compensation asked by them. Not despairing of being able to induce the companies to take a more enlarged view of their own and the public interest, and to abate materially in the amount of their demands, the undersigned sent his chiel clerk to confer with the managers of all the railroads on the line, whether finished or not, with a view to ascertain whether any reasonable arrangements could be made with them, present or prospective, for the conveyance of this important mail. Although the agent performed the service with distinguished zealand ability, his efforts were almost wholly fruitless. The company owning the railroad between Washington and Baltimore demanded $10,000, or about $250 per mile, -merely to haul one daily nail fioin depôt to depôt, without other responsibility, and $14,000 for two daily mails. The companies ou ning the several railroads now constructing from Baltimore 10 Philadelphia demanded $30,000, or upwards of $320 per mile, io haul one daily mail from city to city. The company owning the Camilen and Amboy road demanded $26,000, or near $300 per mile, for one daily mail, and $3,000 for a second. The companies composing the upper line through New Jersey demanded $23,000, or about $250 per mile, for the convey ance of one daily mail, and $8,000 for a second. |