jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such obligations as congress shall make.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase, Ohio.

Associate Justices, Samuel Nelson, New York; Robert C. Grier, Pennsylvania; Nathan Clifford, Maine; Noah H. Swayne, Ohio; Samuel F. Miller, Iowa; David Davis, Illinois; Stephen J. Field, California.

Clerk, D. W. Middleton; Marshal, R. C. Parsons; Reporter, John Wm. Wallace.

Salary of Chief Justice, $6,500; of each Associate Justice, $6,000.

CIRCUIT COURTS.*

This country is divided into nine Judicial Circuits, in each of which a Circuit Court is held twice every year, for each State within the Circuit, by a Justice of the Supreme Court, assigned to the Circuit, and by the District Judge of the State or district in which the Court sits.

The Circuit Courts have both original and appellate jurisdiction. They have concurrent jurisdiction with the State Courts, where the matter in dispute exceeds the sum of $500, and the United States are plaintiffs; or where an alien is a party; or where the suit is between citizens of different States. They have exclusive jurisdiction in all cases of crimes against the laws of the United States, except where the law especially confers the power on other Courts.

The District Courts have exclusive original jurisdiction in all admiralty and maritime causes.

1st Circuit-Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island..
2d Circuit-Connecticut, New York and Vermont..
3d Circuit-New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware..

4th Circuit-Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North and South

Carolina...

5th Circuit-Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and

Texas...

6th Circuit-Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. 7th Circuit-Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

JUDGE CLIFFORD.
JUDGE NELSON.
JUDGE GRIER.

CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE.

JUDGE SWAYNE.
JUDGE DAVIS.

8th Circuit-Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas and Nebraska....JUDGE MILLER. 9th Circuit-California, Oregon and Nevada....

COURT OF CLAIMS.

.JUDGE FIELD.

The Court of Claims was established in 1855; it hears and determines all claims founded upon a law of Congress, or regulation of an executive department, or upon any contract with the government of the United States.

Chief Justice, Joseph Casey.

Judges, Edward J. Loring, Ebenezer Peck, Charles C. Nott, Samuel Milligan.

Chief Clerk, Samuel H. Huntington. Assistant Clerk, John Randolph. Bailiff, Stark B. Taylor.

SUPREME COURT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Chief Justice, David K. Cartter.

Associate Justices, Abraham B. Olin, George P. Fisher, Andrew Wylie.

Attorney, Edward C. Carrington; Marshal, David S. Gooding; Clerk, Return J. Meigs; Register of Deeds, F. P. Cuppy.

Salary of Chief Justice, $4,500; of each Associate Justice, $4,000.

*For District Courts and Officers see the different states.

POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

[Corrected at Post Office Department, October, 1868.]

The management of the Post Office Department is assigned by the Constitution and laws to the Postmaster General.

The Appointment Office, at the head of which is the First Assistant Postmaster General, attends to the establishment and discontinuance of post offices, changes of sites and names, appointment and removal of postmasters and route of local agents, and giving of instructions to postmasters. It provides marking and rating stamps and letter balances for postmasters, and blanks and stationery for the use of the department, and superintends the several agencies established for supplying postmasters with blanks, wrapping paper and twine. It has the supervision of the ocean mail steamship lines and of the foreign and international postal arrangements.

The Contract Office, at the head of which is the Second Assistant Postmaster General, arranges the mail service, and places the same under contract, corresponds and acts respecting the trips, conveyance, departures and arrivals on all the routes, the course of the mail between the different sections of the country, the points of distribution, and the regulations for the government of the domestic mail service. It prepares the advertisements, receives the bids, and takes charge of the annual and occasional mail lettings; the adjustment and execution of the contracts; application for the establishment or alteration of mail arrangements, and the appointment of mail messengers. All claims for transportation service not under contract are to be recognized by the Contract Office as authority for the proper credits at the Auditor's Office. Postmasters at the end of routes receive from it the statement of mail arrangements prescribed for the respective routes. It reports weekly to the Auditor all contracts executed, and all orders affecting accounts for mail transportation; prepares the statistical exhibits of the mail service, and the reports of the mail lettings, giving a statement of each bid; also, of the contracts made, the new service originated, the curtailments ordered, and the additional allowances granted within the year. To the Inspection Division of this Office, is assigned the duty of receiving and examining the registers of the arrivals and departures of the mails, certificates of the service of route agents, and reports of mail failures; of noting the delinquencies of contractors, and preparing cases thereon for the action of the Postmaster General; furnishing blanks for mail registers, and reports of mail failures; providing and sending out mail-bags and mail locks and keys; the suppression of all cases of mail depredation, of violation of law by private express, or by the forging or illegal use of postage stamps.

All communications respecting lost money, lost letters, mail depredations, or other violations of laws should be directed to this division.

The Finance Office, the head of which is the Third Assistant Postmaster General, supervises the financial business of the department not devolved by law upon the Auditor, embracing accounts with the draft officers and other depositaries of the department, the issuing of warrants and drafts in payment of balances reported by the Auditor to be due to mail contractors

and other persons, the supervision of the accounts of officers under order to deposit their quarterly balances at designated points, and the superintendence of the rendition by postmasters of their quarterly returns of postage. It has charge of the dead-letter office, of the issuing of postage stamps and stamped envelopes for the prepayment of postage, and of the accounts connected therewith.

To the Third Assistant Postmaster General, all postmasters should direct their quarterly returns of postage; those at draft offices, their letters reporting quarterly the net proceeds of their offices; and those at depositing offices, their certificates of deposit. To him should also be directed the weekly and monthly returns of the depositaries of the department, as well as all applications and receipts for postage stamps and stamped envelopes, and for dead letters.

REVENUES AND EXPENDITURES OF POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. The ordinary postal revenue for the year ending June 30, 1868, was $16,292,600.80; the expenditures for the same time, including service for which special appropriations were made, $22,730,592.65; excess of expenditures, $6,437,991.85. The receipts were: From postages, $16,292,600; amounts drawn from the treasury under acts making appropriations for "carrying free matter," $3,800,000; under acts making special appropriations for "overland mail and marine service between New York and California," $1,125,000; "steamship service between San Francisco, Japan and China," $125,000; between the "United States and Brazil," $150,000; for "carrying the mail on routes established by acts passed during the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress," $486,525; "for preparing and publishing post route maps," $10,000, making the receipts from all sources, $21,989,125. The expenditures of all kinds were $22,730,592, as above stated; excess over receipts, $741,466.

The ordinary expenses of the department, not including mail transportation provided for by special appropriations, were $21,555,592.65; and the ordinary receipts, including the amount drawn under appropriation for carrying free mail matter, were $20,092,600.80, showing an excess of expenditures of $1,462,991.85, for $741,466.85, of which, a special appropriation will be required. The receipts for postages, as compared with the

previous year, show an increase of 6 per cent., and the expenditures an increase of 18.1 per cent.

POSTAL CONVENTIONS.

Postal Conventions with Great Britain and Countries on the Continent of Europe. Liberal postal conventions, with general uniformity of principles and details, have been concluded with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the North German Union, and Italy, securing important reductions of postage, and introducing other valuable improvements in our postal intercourse with those countries. The new postal convention concluded with the United Kingdom, which goes into operation January 1, 1869, establishes the following rates of international postage, viz:

1. Letters Twelve cents per single rate of 15 grammes (half ounce) in the United States, and sixpence (12 cents) in the United Kingdom, prepayment optional. A fine of five cents in the United States, and twopence (4 cents) in the United Kingdom will, however, be levied and collected in addition to the deficient postage on each unpaid or insufficiently prepaid letter received by one country from the other.

2. Newspapers-Two cents each in the United States, and one penny each in the United Kingdom, if not exceeding four ounces in weight.

3. Book-packets (including printed papers of all kinds, &c.), and patterns or samples of merchandise (including seeds and grain): When not exceeding one ounce in weight, two cents in the United States, and one penny in the United Kingdom. When exceeding one ounce and not exceeding two ounces in weight four cents in the United States, and twopence in the United Kingdom. When exceeding two ounces and not exceeding four ounces in weight six cents in the United States, and threepence in the United Kingdom. When exceeding four ounces in weight, an additional rate of six cents in the United States, and threepence in the United Kingdom will be charged for every additional four ounces or fraction thereof. The postage chargeable as above, upon all articles of printed matter, including patterns or samples of merchandise, must be fully prepaid at the mailing office in either country, and is in full to destination—the receiving country delivering the same without charge.

4. Each country to make its own arrangements for the dispatch of mails to the other by well appointed ships, and to pay for the transportation of the mails which it dispatches.

5. The free transfer of extra territorial mails in the seaports of the two countries is provided for.

The conventions concluded with Belgium, the Netherlands, the North German Union, Italy, and Switzerland, respectively, contain substantially the same principles and provisions as the convention with the United King'dom, with such slight modifications as were necessary to meet the peculiarities of the postal system of each country.

The single rate for letters between the United States and Belgium, by closed mails through England, is reduced from 27 to 15 cents; between the

United States and Prussia embracing all the States now included within the North German Union, the single letter rate is reduced from 30 to 15 cents; and the same rate of fifteen cents has been established to the Netherlands, Italy, and to Switzerland, respectively, by closed mails through England, thus securing a uniform rate of letter postage to each of these countries.

The conventions with Belgium and the North German Union also establish a reduced international rate of ten cents for letters transmitted by regular lines of mail steamships plying directly between any port of the United States and any port of the north of Europe.

The principle of free transit for correspondence transmitted in closed mails is adopted in the conventions with the Netherlands and Italy, and in each of the other conventions very low transit charges are established.

Postal Convention with Hong Kong, China. A postal convention, with simple provisions avoiding postage accounts, has also been concluded with the colonial government of Hong Kong, China. The arrangements made with the Hong Kong office embrace correspondence originating in the United States and addressed to Hong Kong or to the dependent Chinese ports with which Hong Kong maintains postal relations, including Cantón, Amoy, Swatow, and Foo Chow; and vice versa of correspondence originating in Hong Kong or the dependent Chinese ports, and addressed to the United States. Prepayment is compulsory.

Each office retains the postage which it collects at the established rates on the correspondence which it forwards to the other, and the receiving office delivers free of charge.

Mail Steamship service to Japan and China. The mail steamship service between the United States and China authorized by the act of Congress, approved February 17, 1865, was commenced on the 1st of January, 1867, by the departure of the steamship Colorado from San Francisco with the mails for Japan and China. The average duration of the first three voyages of the Colorado was as follows, viz.:

From San Francisco to Hong Kong including detention at Yokohama.30.
From Yokohama to Hong Kong..

6.

22.

From Hong Kong to San Francisco including detention at Yokohama.30. A supplemental contract was executed on the 20th of March, 1867, for the conveyance of the United States mails without additional charge, in lieu of the Honolulu service released, by a branch line of steamers between Yokohama, or other port in Japan used by the main line, and the port of Shanghai, in China, making continuous regular monthly trips between said ports in connection with the main line, both on the outward and homeward voyages.

POSTAL SERVICE.

Post Offices and Delivery of Letters. A large majority of offices discontinued are in the southern states, the service at which was suspended by