Oregon and California,) for or from any point in Great Britain, is 24 cents-prepayment optional. Newspapers, each two cents United States, and two cents British; each country to collect its own postage, whether the paper is sent from or received in the United States. [British newspapers usually come British postage paid by a penny stamp, equal to two cents.] They must be sent in narrow bands open at the ends. Letters for the continent of Europe, to pass through Great Britain, in the open mail, must be prepaid 21 cents when the Atlantic conveyance is by United States packets, and 5 cents when by British packets, except from California or Oregon, when the sum to be prepaid is, in the former instance, 26 cents, and in the latter, 10 cents. Thus, in the one case, the Atlantic sea postage is to be collected at the mailing office in the United States; and in the other, left to be collected, together with the British transit and other foreign postage, at the office of delivery. Between Great Britain and Oregon and California, the single rate of letter postage is 29 cents.

Periodical works and pamphlets may be sent from the United States to the United Kingdom, and vice versa, at 2 cents of United States postage each, if they do not exceed two ounces in weight, and at 4 cents per ounce, or fraction of an ounce, when they exceed that weight; to be collected in all cases in the United States; and the same will be subject to an additional like charge in the United Kingdom. When sent to France, Algeria, or cities in Turkey, Syria, and Egypt, in which France has post-offices, via England, or to other foreign countries, without passing through the United Kingdom, they will be chargeable with 1 cent an ounce, or fraction of an ounce, United States postage-prepayment required.

Single rate of letter postage to or from Bremen, by the Bremen line, 10 cents -prepayment optional. Newspapers, each 3 cents, being the United States and German postage-prepayment required. Letters and newspapers to other parts of the continent may also go by this line, subject to various rates; for which see Foreign Postage Table.

Single rate of letter postage to or from France, by the Havre line, 20 cents, to be prepaid on letters sent and collected on letters received. Newspapers, 2 cents each, to be collected in the United States, whether the paper is sent or received.

Single rate of letter postage by the Prussian closed mail to Prussia, Austria, and all the other German States, 30 cents, being the full postage-prepayment optional. Newspapers, 6 cents each, being also the full postage-prepayment required. This mail is sent by every steamer, being landed at Liverpool by the Collins, and at Southampton by the Bremen and Havre lines.

The system of registration of valuable letters, adopted in the United States, has been extended to the correspondence with Great Britain, Prussia, Bremen, and Canada. Letters addressed to either of those countries will be registered on the application of the person posting the same, in the same manner and on the same terms as those deliverable in the United States, provided that the full postage chargeable to destination, together with a registration fee of five cents on each letter, is prepaid at the mailing office.

All letters to and from foreign countries (the British North American Provinces excepted) are to be charged with single rate of postage, if not exceeding the weight of half an ounce; double rate, if exceeding half an ounce, but not exceeding an ounce; quadruple rate, if exceeding an ounce, but not exceeding two ounces; and so on, charging two rates for every ounce or fractional part of an ounce over the first ounce. As this rule differs from that followed in respect to domestic letters, great care is requisite to prevent mistakes. Postmasters should be careful, also, where the postage is prepaid, to collect the proper amount. They should be particular to notice the route indicated on the envelops of letters, and to collect postage accordingly. Letters mailed at some offices, marked “via England," or "via Prussia closed mail," for the German States, are frequently taken upon the prepayment of Bremen rates, and those marked "via Bremen," at Prussian closed mail rates, &c. Refer in all cases to the Postage Tables.

The mails for the Pacific leave New York on the 5th and 20th, Charleston and Savannah on the 4th and 19th, and New Orleans on the 5th and 20th of each month.

Mails for Mexico will be dispatched tri-monthly by the New Orleans and Vera Cruz United States Steamship Line. United States letter postage, 10 cents under 2,500 and 20 cents over 2,500 miles from the mailing office; to be prepaid when sent from, and collected when received in, the United States. Newspapers, 2 cents each, to be collected in the United States, as above.

Single rate of letter postage to Havana and the British West Indies, 10 cents under 2,500 and 20 cents over 2,500 miles; newspapers, 2 cents; and to West Indies, (not British,) Carthagena, Honduras, and St. Juan, (Nicaragua,) 34 cents under 2.500 and 44 cents over 2,500 miles; newspapers, 6 cents each-prepayment required.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, December 20, 1856.

JAMES CAMPBELL, Postmaster-General.

PREPAYMENT OF POSTAGE ON TRANSIENT PRINTED MATTER.

We have received from the Post-Office Department an official copy of an act, passed January 2d, 1857; together with the instructions of the PostmasterGeneral in relation to transient printed matter and the registration of letters. The act, which is entitled "An act providing for the compulsory prepayment of postage on all transient printed matter," simply repeals the act of March 3d, 1851, which permitted transent printed matter to be sent through the mail of the United States without prepayment of postage, and enacts that all such transient matter shall be prepaid by stamps or otherwise, as the Postmaster-General may direct. We subjoin the instructions to postmasters, for the information of the public:

:

TRANSIENT PRINTED MATTER, ETC.

1. Books, not weighing over 4 pounds, may be sent in the mail prepaid by postage stamps, at 1 cent an ounce any distance in the United States under 3,000 miles, and at 2 cents an ounce over 3,000 miles, provided they are put up without a cover or wrapper, or in a cover or wrapper open at the ends or sides, so that their character may be determined without removing the wrapper.

2. Small newspapers and periodicals, published monthly or oftener, and pamphlets containing not more than 16 octavo pages each, when put up in single packages, weighing at least 8 ounces, to one address, and prepaid by postage stamps, may be sent to any part of the United States at cent an ounce or fraction of an ounce.

3. Unsealed circulars, advertisements, business cards, transient newspapers, and every other article of transient printed matter, (except books and packages of small publications, as above,) sent in the mail to any part of the United States, are chargeable with 1 cent postage each, to be prepaid by postage stamps. Where more than one circular is printed on a sheet, or a circular and letter, each must be charged with a single rate. This applies to lottery and other kindred sheets assuming the form and name of newspapers; and the miscellaneous matter in such sheets must also be charged with one rate. A business card on an unsealed envelop of a circular subjects the entire packet to letter postage. Any transent matter, like a circular or handbill, inclosed in or with a periodical or newspaper sent to a subscriber, or to any other person, subjects the whole package to letter postage; and whenever subject to letter postage from being sealed, or from any cause whatever, all printed matter, without exception, must be prepaid or excluded from the mail.

It is the duty of the postmaster at the mailing office, as well as at the office of delivery, carefully to examine all printed matter, in order to see that it is charged with the proper rate of postage and to detect fraud. At offices where postage stamps cannot be procured, postmasters are authorized to receive money in prepayment of postage on transient matter; but they should be careful to keep a supply of stamps on hand.

4. It is no part of the duty of a postmaster to receive and deliver to subscribers any other newspapers than those which come in the mail, or to put the address on newspapers sent to clubs, or to deliver them from a furnished list; nor should he do either, even through courtesy, unless it may be done without interfering with the legitimate business of his office.

REGISTRATION OF LETTERS.

5. The regulations and instructions to postmasters for carrying into effect the 3d section of the act of March 3, 1855, providing for the registration of valuable letters, are modified as follows, viz, :—

First. So much of sections 4, 5, and 6 of these regulations as requires that packages of registered letters shall be sealed, is hereby revoked.

Second. All registered letters are, before mailing, to be numbered on the upper left-hand corner; their numbers to correspond with those on the letterbills in which they are entered.

Third. Each registered letter, or package of registered letters, will be inclosed in a wrapper in the usual manner, and if there be a package of unregistered let ters to be sent by the same mail, the package of registered letters will be placed in such package, without being tied, and the whole will then be carefully tied up into one package, addressed to the office of its destination, and placed in its appropriate bag at the moment when that bag is to be finally locked and sent from the office. If no unregistered letters are to be sent by that mail, the package of registered letters is to be tied and forwarded in the same manner without being sealed.

Fourth. The registered letter-bill will be inclosed in a separate envelop, addressed to the postmaster, as now required, and will be forwarded by the usual route as an unregistered letter.

Fifth. The numbers given to registered letters at the office of mailing are not to be changed in the accounts or letter-bills of distributing offices through which they may pass.

Sixth. Postmasters are required to see that the post-mark of every letter (whether written or stamped) is clear and distinct, so that the place and date of mailing can be readily determined.

JAMES CAMPBELL, Postmaster-General.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, January 8, 1857.

NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

LIGHTHOUSE At kennebunk pIER, MAINE,

In conformity with the notice of June 12, 1856, the lighthouse erected on the pier head, at the mouth of the Kennebunk River, will be lighted for the first time on the evening of January 1, 1857, and the light will be kept burning during every night thereafter from sunset to sunrise. The lighthouse is a square wooden structure, painted white, having a lantern on the outer end. The illuminating apparatus is a 6th order lens, showing a fixed red light from an elevation of 21 feet above high water, which should be visible, in clear weather, at a distance of 8 nautical or 9 statute miles. NOTE.-Mariners should be careful not to mistake this light for Goat Island Light in Cape Porpoise Harbor, which is only two miles north of it, and which is of the natural color, (white.) They are informed that but three feet can be carried over the bar at low tide. The ordinary rise of the tide is 9 feet. By order of the Lighthouse Board,

PORTLAND, Me., December 22, 1856.

W. B. FRANKLIN, Engineer First Lighthouse District.

LIGHTHOUSE On the weser, FLAT CALLED THE "HOHE WEG."

Official information has been received at this office that notice has been given by order of the Senate of the Free Hanse Town of Bremen that in place of the wooden "Bremen Beacon," situated in 53° 42′ 51" north latitude, and 8° 14′ 52′′ east longitude from Greenwich, a lighthouse has been erected; it is built of brick, and at the base surrounded with a sloping masonry of stone. This lighthouse is of an octagonal form, and at the elevation of 34 feet above common high-water mark; it is surrounded by a terrace with an iron railing. The light is catadioptric, according to Fresnel's system of the 2d order; it is 107 feet above high water at ordinary tides, and is a fixed white light. In clear weather it will be visible at the distance of 15 or 16 nautical miles, and may therefore be seen from the first or outer buoy, called the key buoy. The light will be visible within all the points of the compass from south round east to northwest by west. From the outer light-vessel the lighthouse bears south by east one-quarter east, and from the lighthouse the church of Langwarden bears south. The light will be first lighted on the 1st of December next, and will continue to burn every night from sunset to sunrise, and from that day the inner light-vessel will be removed from her station. For the convenience of mariners entering the Weser, but by no means to induce them to neglect the use of the lead, a small white light will be shown from the lighthouse at an elevation of 38 feet above common high-water mark, which in clear weather will be visible at the distance of 7 nautical miles. This light will disappear to those who are nearing too much the black buoy (or starboard) side, near buoys H and J. To those entering the "Dwasgat" it will assume a reddish color in a line with the red buoy, and will disappear when they reach the line of the black W A buoy. This smaller light will be visible between the bearings of north by west three-quarters west round northward to east by south. By order of the Lighthouse Board,

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, O, NOR LIGHTHOUSE BOARD, }

C., Nov. 15th, 1856.

THORNTON A. JENKINS, Secretary.

CHANGES AT MOOSE PEAK AND MANHEIGIN LIGHTHOUSES, maine.

In order to diminish the possibility of mistaking Moose Peak Light for Petit Menan Light, the interval between the flashes in the former light will, on the 1st of April, 1857, be changed from 2 minutes to 30 seconds; so that from and after that date the Moose Peak will be, as usual, a revolving light, but the interval between the flashes will be 30 seconds. On the same day, the time of revolution of the Manheigin Light will be altered from 2 minutes to 1 minute, and the red flash now shown will be thereafter discontinued; so that from and after April 1, 1857, the interval between the flashes will be 1 minute, and all the flashes will be of the natural color. By order of the Lighthouse Board,

PORTLAND, ME., December 12, 1856.

W. B. FRANKLIN, Engineer First Lighthouse District.

LIGHTHOUSE AT WINTER HARBOR, FRENCHMAN'S BAY, Maine.

In conformity with the notice of June 12th, 1856, the lighthouse erected on the southern point of Mark Island in Winter Harbor, Frenchman's Bay, will be illuminated for the first time on the evening of January 1, 1857, and the light will be kept burning during every night thereafter from sunset to sunrise. The lighthouse is a cylindrical brick tower, painted white, having attached a keeper's dwelling, of wood, painted brown. The illuminating apparatus is a fifth order lens, showing a fixed white light of the natural color, at an elevation of 37 feet above high water, and which should be visible, in good weather, at a distance of 11 nautical or 13 statute miles. By order of the Lighthouse Board, W. B. FRANKLIN, Engineer First Lighthouse District.

PORTLAND, ME., December 22, 1856.

LIGHT-VESSEL OFF THE SAZALNITZK SPIT-SEA OF AZOF.

Official information has been received at this office that the Russian Lighthouse Board in the Black Sea has given notice that the light vessel hitherto placed at the extremity of the sand bank known by the name of the Krivaya Kosa, or Crooked Spit, on the north shore of the channel leading up to Taganrog, in the Sea of Azof, has been transferred to the south side of that channel, and is now placed at the outer end of the shoal, which extends for 5 miles from the sandy islets called Peschanie Ostrova. The light-vessel shows, as formerly, two fixed white lights, vertical, respectively 34 and 22 feet above the level of the sea; and the upper one should be visible, in clear weather, from the deck of a ship, at a distance of 7 miles. The outer point of the shoal in question, at which the lightvessel is placed, lies at 11 miles from the nearest part of the mainland at Sazalnitzk, in latitude 46° 56' 30" N., longitude 38° 12' east of Greenwich, nearly. It is a dangerous bank for vessels going towards Yeisk or Taganrog; when bound to or from the latter, the light-vessel should always be left to the south. The extremity of the Krivaya Kosa, or Crooked Spit, where the light-vessel formerly laid, will be henceforward marked by a red buoy.

By order of the Lighthouse Board,

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, OFFICE LIGHTHOUSE BOARD,

WASHINGTON, Dec. 10th, 1856.

THORNTON A. JENKINS, Secretary.

LIGHTHOUSE NEAR SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA.

A fixed red light, fourth order Fresnel, illuminating the seaward half the horizon. The lighthouse consists of a plastered dwelling, one story and a half-story, with a low tower, also plastered, rising through the roof. It is situated at an elevation of 146 feet above the sea, two miles southwesterly from the landing at Santa Barbara, and about 550 feet from the brink of the bluff. The light is 180 feet above the same level; but from the red color, and low order of lens, it will not be visible for the range due to that elevation. It should, however, in a clear atmosphere, be seen 10 to 12 miles. The latitude and longitude of the light, and the magnetic variation in the vicinity, as given by the coast survey, are as follows:-Latitude 34° 23′ 35′′ N., longitude 119° 42′ 05′′ W., magnetic variation, 13° 30′ E., November, 1853. The light will be first exhibited on the night of the 1st of December, 1856, and every night thereafter until further notice.

By order of the Lighthouse Board,

HARTMAN BACHE, Maj. Topogl. Engs. Br. Maj. OFFICE 12TH LIGHTHOUSE DISTRICT, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL, November 12, 1856.

LIGHTHOUSE AT ENTRANCE OF HUMBOLDT BAY, CALIFORNIA.

A FIXED WHITE LIGHT, Fourth ordER OF FRESNEL, ILLUMINATING THE ENTIRE HORIZON.

The house is situated on the North Sands, three-fourths of a mile from the Inlet, and about midway between the bay and sea shores. It consists of a keeper's dwelling of one story and a half-story, with a tower rising 21 feet above the roof from the center, both plastered and whitewashed, and surmounted by an iron lantern painted red. The light is 53 feet above high water of spring tides, and should be seen, in clear weather, from the deck of a sea-going vessel, 12 nautical or 14 statute miles. The latitude and longitude of the light, and the magnetic variation in the vicinity, determined by the coast survey, are as follows:Latitude 40° 46' 04" N., longitude 124° 12' 21" W., magnetic variation 17° 04′ E., April, 1854. The light will be exhibited for the first time on the night of the 20th of December, 1856. By order of the Lighthouse Board, HARTMAN BACHE, Maj. Top. Engs. Br. Maj.

Office 12th Lighthouse District, San Francisco, December 1, 1856.