and also under the succeeding emperors, extra posts were used.. The head of the post department was the commander of the pretorian guards. From a manuscript in the library of the king of France, it appears that the German emperor Charles V paid the postmasters in Italy. Simon von Taxis was general post director at Milan, and resided in the imperial palace, where every thing was kept in readiness for the post service. In Milan and the neighLoring places a foot post was established, which seems to have been the occasion and the model of the small posts now established in Paris. Until the union of the kingdom of Italy with the old French empire, the Italian post establishments were well ordered; but they attained, from time to time, a higher degree of perfection, by being formed on the French plan. Since 1815, the post system in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, in Tuscany, Parma, and Modena, has been instituted more according to the Austrian model, still retaining, however, the French basis. In other states of Italy, the posts with some modifications, continued as before. The letter and extra posts are well organized in Italy. The privacy of letters was even so much respected, that, by the criminal code of Milan, the breaking of a seal was punished with death. In Switzerland, each canton has, according to the ordinances of diet of 1803, the regulation of the post; consequently, it has its own post establishment. They are variously managed, and of various merit. A general system might make the postage cheaper, but it cannot, even at present, be called dear, as it has never been made an object of financial speculation. The absence of a general system for all the cantons has been, in some degree, compensated by agreements which have introduced some uniformity in the management of the post systems. There are no extra posts anywhere in Swit-. zerland, and as all the regulations which have hitherto been madeon this subject, have remained ineffectual, it has been supposed, that the interest of in-keepers and keepers of carriages for hire, has prevented their success.-In Spain and Portugal, the post establishments are still in a very low condition, although a correo mayor presides over them as director-general. Only in European Turkey are they entirely in their infancy. For centuries, no change has been made, excepting that the grand signior maintains mounted Tartars for the public service, who must forward with celerity his despatches, and those of all the public authorities. In earlier times, there were public messengers who travelled on foot, but had the privilege of commanding those on horseback, whom they met, to dismount, in the name of the grand signior, and to use their horses to the place of destination, or to change them if they met others farther on, with less tired horses. In English colonies in North America, a post-office was projected as early as 1692.-A patent was laid before the Virginia assembly for making Mr. Neal postmaster-general of Virginia and other parts of America. The assembly passed an act in its favor, but it had no effect. It was impossible to carry it into execution on account of the dispersed situation of the inhabitants. The first office in the colonies was established in 1710, by an act of parliament, "for establishing a general post-office for all her Majesties dominions." The postmaster-general was to be "at liberty to keep one chief letter-office in New York, and other chief offices at some convenient place or places in each of her Majesty's provinces or colonies in America." After the breaking out of the revolution, this department came of course under the control of the congress of the confederacy. The constitution of the U. States, adopted in 1789, gave the exclusive power of establishing post-offices and post-roads to congress, thus preventing the difficulties which would have resulted from leaving this department to the several states.. There is at the seat of government of the U. States a general post-office, under the direction of the postmaster-general, who is appointed by the president, and appoints two assistants, and such clerks as may be necessary for the performance of the business of his office. He establishes post-offices, and appoints postmasters at all such places as appear to him expedient on post roads established by law. He instructs the postmasters, provides for the carriage of the mail, and directs the routes. "No stage, or other vehicle, which regularly performs trips over a post-road, or a road parallel to it, shall convey letters, nor any packet-boat, or other vessel which regularly plies on a water declared to be a post-road, except it relates to some part of the cargo, under the penalty of fifty dollars ;" but it is lawful for any one to send letters by special messenger. Robbery of the mail is punishable with imprisonment from five to ten years, and the second offence is death. If the carrier is wounded by the robbers, or his life endangered by the use of deadly weapons on their part, the first offence is punished with death. An unsuccessful attempt to rob by assaulting the carrier, or threatening him with dangerous weapons, is punished with imprisonment from two to ten years. The punishment is the same for stealing the mail, or stealing any letter or packet from it, or from a post-office. In regard to dead letters, the law provides that "the postmasters, every three months, shall publish a list of the letters remaining in their offices for three successive weeks, in one of the newspapers published at or nearest their place of residence, or shall have such lists posted at public places in their vicinity, and, at the expiration of the next three months, shall send such of the said letters as then remain on hand to the general post-office, where the same shall be opened and inspected, and if any valuable papers or matters of consequence shall be found therein, it shall be the duty of the postmaster-general to return such letter to the writer thereof, or to cause a description thereof to be inserted in one of the newspapers published at the place most convenient to the supposed residence of the owner, if within the United States; and such letter and the contents thereof shall be preserved to be delivered to the person to whom the same shall be addressed, upon payment of the postage and the expense of publication. If the letter contains money, the postmaster may appropriate it to the use of the department, keeping an account thereof, and the amount shall be paid to the rightful claimant as soon as he shall be found." "It shall be lawful for the postmaster-general to make provision, where it may be necessary, for the receipt of all letters and packets intended to be conveyed by any ship or vessel beyond sea, or from any port-in the United States to another port therein, and the letters so received shall be formed into a mail, sealed up, and directed to the postmaster of the port to which such vessel shall be bound, and for every letter or packet so received, there shall be paid, at the time of its reception, a postage of one cent, which shall be for the use of the postmasters respectively receiving the same.* And the postmaster-general may make arrangements with the postmasters in any foreign country for the reciprocal receipt and delivery of letters and packets through the post-office." Postmasters, postriders, and drivers of the mail-stages are exempt from militia duties, and from serving on juries. Privilege of Franking.Letters and packets to and from the following officers of the government are by law received and conveyed by post free of postage: the president and vice-president of the United States, secretaries of State, treasury, war and navy, attorney-general, postmastergeneral and assistant postmaster-general, comptrollers, auditors, registers, and solicitor of the treasury, treasurer, commissioner of the general land-office, commissioners of the navy board, commissary-general, inspector-general, paymaster-general, superintendent of the patent-office, speaker and clerk of the house of representatives, president and secretary of the senate, and any individual who shall have been, or may hereafter be, president of the United States; and each may receive newspapers by post free of postage. Each member of the senate, and each member and delegate of the house of representatives, may send and receive, free of postage, newspapers, letters, and packets weighing not more than two ounces (in case of excess of weight, excess alone to be paid for,) and all documents printed by order of either house, during and sixty days before and after each session of congress. Postmasters may send and receive, free of postage, letters and packets not exceeding half an ounce in weight; and they may receive one daily newspaper each, or what is equivalent thereto. Printers of newspapers may send one paper to each and every other printer of newspapers within the U. States free of postage, under such regulation as the postmaster-general may provide. "If any person shall frank any letter or letters other than those written by himself, or by his order, on the business of his office, he shall, on conviction thereof, pay a fine of ten dollars." Persons sending letters abroad are not always aware of the necessity of pay. ing the postage to the port in the United States where the letters are shipped.→ The additional cent is paid only when they are shipped where delivered. ARTICLE IV. GENERAL VIEW OF THE STATES OF EUROPE. We take advantage of a moment of apparent pause in the current of European affairs to present a concise view of the political, financial, and civil condition in which the close of the first half of the nineteenth century leaves the leading states of Europe. We do this in order to furnish a stand-point from which, in the future numbers of our Monthly Record, the changes which are apparently about to take place may be observed. The present population of Europe may be estimated at 262,000,000, up on an area of 3,816,936 square miles, showing an average of 70 inhabitants to the square mile. If, however, we exclude Russia, together with Sweden and Norway, which with almost two-thirds of the area have but one-fourth of the population, and are therefore altogether exceptional, the remaining portion will have 138 inhabitants to a square mile; while Asia has but 32, Africa 13, North and South America 3, and Australia and Polynesia only 1. Of this population about 250,000,000, are christians, of whom there are 133,000,000 Catholics, 58,000,000 Protestants, and 59,000,000 belonging to the Greek Church; of the remainder there are seven or eight millions of Mahommedans, and two or three millions of Jews. Europe is now politically divided into 55 independent states, of which 33 belong wholly to Germany, and are included in the Germanic Confederation; 7 to Italy; and two to the Netherlands. Of these 47 have an essentially monarchical form of government, and 8 are republics. Of the monarchical governments 3 are technically called Empires, 15 Kingdoms, 7 Grand-duchies, 9 Duchies, 10 Principalities, 1 Electorate, 1 Landgraviate, and 1 Ecclesiastical State. The UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND, as it is officially denominated, contains an area of 117,921 square miles, with a population at the last census of 26,861,000 (1841), which is now increased to about 28,500,000. The colonies and possessions of the Crown contained in 1842 5,224,447 inhabitants. The possessions of the East India Company have a population of somewhat more than 100,000,000; and the countries over which that Company has assumed the right of protection, which is rapidly changing to sovereignty, about 35,000,000 more. The political sovereignty of the Kingdom is vested in three Estates; sovereign, lords, and commons. The House of Peers consists at present of 457 members of whom 30 are clerical: 28 Irish and 16 Scotch representative peers, elected, the former for life, the latter annually; the remainder being hereditary peers. The privileges of the peerage consist in membership of the Upper House of Parliament; freedom from arrest for debt, and from outlawry or personal attachment in civil actions; the right of trial, in criminal cases by their own body, whose verdict is rendered, not upon oath, but upon their honor; in the law of scandalum magnatum, by which any person convicted of circulating a scandalous report against a peer, though it be shown to be true, is punishable by an arbitrary fine, and by imprisonment till it be paid; and in the right of sitting covered in any court of justice, except in the presence of the sovereign. The House of Commons, which, by gradual encroachments upon the Estates and especially by the prerogative which it had acquired of originating all money-bills, has become the paramount power of the state, consists of 656 members, of whom 469. are for England, 29 for Wales, 63 for Scotland, and 105 for Ire-. land. The revenues for the current year, according to the estimate of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, amount to £52,285,000 and the expenditures to £50,763,582, leaving a surplus of £1,521,418. The national debt of Great Britain and Ireland, funded and un-. funded, amounted, Jan. 5, 1850, to £798,037,277, involving an annual expenditure of more than £28,000,000, absorbing considerably more than one half of the public revenues. The military force of the Kingdom is as follows: Household troops....... ....6.568 Soldiers of the Line, in pay of the Crown........91,956 66 66 Colonial Corps... ..6,272 Making in all 129,625. The whole number of troops stationed in the United Kingdom is about 61,000, of whom 24,000 are in Ireland. The force of the British navy in Dec. 1848 is thus given. in the Royal Calender for 1849: Making a total of 404 armed vessels, with 17,023 guns. To these, the Calender adds the names of 74 yachts, hulks, quarter-service vessels, etc.; 125 steamers, and 21 steam-packets, making 614 vessels of every description. The British Almanac for 1851, probably a more reliable authority, gives the whole number, on July 30, 1849, as 339 sailing vessels, 161 steamers of all classes, besides 47 steamers employed under contract as packets, and capable of being converted, in case of need, into vessels of war. The REPUBLIC OF FRANCE Covers an area of 204,825 square miles, and its population, as given in the Moniteur, February, 1847, was 35,400,486: besides which, the French colonies have |