fourth class is necessary for the good of the service, as well as for the interests of the Government, and urgently recommends that the compensation of the class of postmasters above-mentioned be based upon the business of their respective offices, as ascertained from the sworn returns to the Auditor of stamps cancelled.

A few postmasters in the Southern States have expressed great apprehension of their personal safety on account of their connection with the postal service, and have specially requested that their reports of apprehended danger should not be made public lest it should result in the loss of their lives. But no positive testimony of interference has been submitted, except in the case of a mailpassenger at Spartanburgh, in South Carolina, who reported that he had been violently driven away while in charge of the mails, on account of his political affiliations. An assistant superintendent of the railway mail-service investigated this case, and reported that the messenger had disappeared from his post, leaving his work to be performed by a substitute. The Postmaster-General thinks this case is sufficiently suggestive to justify him in recommending that a more severe punishment should be provided for the offence of assaulting any person in charge of the mails, or of retarding or otherwise obstructing them by threats of personal injury.

"A very gratifying result is presented in the fact that the deficiency of this Department during the last fiscal year was reduced to 4,081,790 18 dollars, as against 6,169,938-88 dollars of the preceding year. The difference can be traced to the large increase in its ordinary receipts (which greatly exceed the estimates therefor) and a slight decrease in its expenditures.”

The ordinary receipts of the Post-Office Department for the past seven fiscal years have increased at an average of over 8 per cent. per annum, while the increase of expenditures for the same period has been but about 5.50 per cent. per annum, and the decrease of deficiency in the revenues has been at the rate of nearly 2 per cent. per annum.

The Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture accompanying this Message will be found one of great interest, marking, as it does, the great progress of the last century in the variety of products of the soil, increased knowledge and skill in the labour of producing, saving, and manipulating the same to prepare them for the use of man; in the improvements in machinery to aid the agriculturist in his labours, and in a knowledge of those scientific subjects necessary to a thorough system of economy in agricultural production, namely, chemistry, botany, entomology, &c. A study of this Report by those interested in agriculture and deriving their support from it will find it of value, in pointing out those articles which are raised in greater quantity than the needs of the world

require, and must sell, therefore, for less than the cost of production, and those which command a profit over cost of production because there is not an over-production.

I call special attention to the need of the Department for a new gallery for the reception of the exhibits returned from the Centennial Exhibition, including the exhibits donated by very many foreign nations; and to the recommendations of the Commissioner of Agriculture generally.

The Reports of the District Commissioners and the Board of Health are just received-too late to read them and to make recommendations thereon-and are herewith submitted.

The International Exhibition held in Philadelphia this year, in commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of American independence, has proved a great success, and will, no doubt, be of enduring advantage to the country. It has shown the great progress in the arts, sciences, and mechanical skill made in a single century, and demonstrated that we are but little behind older nations in any one branch, while in some we scarcely have a rival. It has served, too, not only to bring peoples and products of skill and labour from all parts of the world together, but in bringing together people from all sections of our own country, which must prove a great benefit in the information imparted and pride of country engendered.

It has been suggested by scientists interested in and connected with the Smithsonian Institution, in a communication herewith, that the Government exhibit be removed to the capital and a suitable building be erected or purchased for its accommodation as a permanent exhibit. I earnestly recommend this, and believing that Congress would second this view, I directed that all Government exhibits at the Centennial Exhibition should remain where they are, except such as might be injured by remaining in a building not intended as a protection in inclement weather, or such as may be wanted by the Department furnishing them, until the question of permanent exhibition is acted on.

Although the moneys appropriated by Congress to enable the participation of the several Executive Departments in the International Exhibition of 1876 were not sufficient to carry out the undertaking to the full extent at first contemplated, it gives me pleasure to refer to the very efficient and creditable manner in which the Board appointed from these several Departments to provide an exhibition on the part of the Government have discharged their duties with the funds placed at their command. Without a precedent to guide them in the preparation of such a display, the success of their labours was amply attested by the sustained attention which the contents of the Government building attracted

during the period of the Exhibition from both foreign and native visitors.

I am strongly impressed with the value of the collection made by the Government for the purposes of the Exhibition, illustrating, as it does, the mineral resources of the country, the statistical and practical evidences of our growth as a nation, and the uses of the mechanical arts and the applications of applied science in the administration of the affairs of Government.

Many nations have voluntarily contributed their exhibits to the United States to increase the interest in any permanent exhibition Congress may provide for. For this act of generosity they should receive the thanks of the people, and I respectfully suggest that a resolution of Congress to that effect be adopted.

The attention of Congress cannot be too earnestly called to the necessity of throwing some greater safeguard over the method of choosing and declaring the election of a President. Under the present system there seems to be no provided remedy for contesting the election in any one State. The remedy is partially, no doubt, in the enlightenment of electors. The compulsory support of the free school, and the disfranchisement of all who cannot read and write the English language-after a fixed probation-would meet my hearty approval. I would not make this apply, however, to those already voters, but I would to all becoming so after the expiration of the probation fixed upon. Foreigners coming to the country to become citizens, who are educated in their own language, should acquire the requisite knowledge of ours during the necessary residence to obtain naturalization. If they did not take interest enough in our language to acquire sufficient knowledge of it to enable them to study the institutions and laws of the country intelligently, I would not confer upon them the right to make such laws nor to select those who do.

I append to this Message, for convenient reference, a synopsis of administrative events and of all recommendations to Congress made by me during the last seven years. Time may show some of these recommendations not to have been wisely conceived, but I believe the larger part will do no discredit to the Administration. One of these recommendations met with the united opposition of one political party in the Senate, and with a strong opposition from the other, namely, the Treaty for the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States, to which I will specially refer, maintaining, as I do, that if my views had been concurred in, the country would be in a more prosperous condition to-day, both politically and financially.

Santo Domingo is fertile, and upon its soil may be grown just those tropical products of which the United States use so much,

and which are produced or prepared for market now by slave-labour almost exclusively; namely, sugar, coffee, dye-woods, mahogany, tropical fruits, tobacco, &c. About 75 per cent. of the exports of Cuba are consumed in the United States. A large percentage of the exports of Brazil also find the same market. These are paid for almost exclusively in coin; legislation, particularly in Cuba, being unfavourable to a mutual exchange of the products of each country. Flour shipped from the Mississippi river to Havana can pass by the very entrance to the city on its way to a port in Spain, there pay duty fixed upon articles to be re-exported, transferred to a Spanish vessel, and brought back almost to the point of starting, paying a second duty, and still leave a profit over what would be received by direct shipment. All that is produced in Cuba could be produced in Santo Domingo. Being a part of the United States, commerce between the island and mainland would be free. There would be no export duties on her shipments nor import duties on those coming here. There would be no import duties upon the supplies, machinery, &c., going from the States. The effect that would have been produced upon Cuban commerce with these advantages to a rival is observable at a glance. The Cuban question would have been settled long ago in favour of "free Cuba." Hundreds of American vessels would now be advantageously used in transporting the valuable woods, and other products of the soil of the island, to a market, and in carrying supplies and emigrants to it. The island is but sparsely settled, while it has an area sufficient for the profitable employment of several millions of people. The soil would have soon fallen into the hands of United States' capitalists. The products are so valuable in commerce that emigration there would have been encouraged; the emancipated race of the South would have found there a congenial home where their civil rights would not be disputed, and where their labour would be so much sought after that the poorest among them could have found the means to go. Thus in cases of great oppression and cruelty, such as has been practised upon them in many places within the last 11 years, whole communities would have sought refuge in Santo Domingo. I do not suppose the whole race would have gone, nor is it desirable that they should go. Their labour is desirable-indispensable almostwhere they now are. But the possession of this territory would have left the negro "master of the situation," by enabling him to demand his rights at home on pain of finding them elsewhere.

I do not present these views now as a recommendation for a renewal of the subject of annexation, but I do refer to it to vindicate my previous action in regard to it.

With the present term of Congress my official life terminates. It is not probable that public affairs will ever again receive attention [1875-76, LXVII.]

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from me further than as a citizen of the Republic, always taking a deep interest in the honour, integrity, and prosperity of the whole land.

Executive Mansion, December 5, 1876.

U. S. GRANT

CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain and the United States, respecting the Construction to be put upon Article X of the Treaty of August 9, 1842,* with reference to Extradition.-1875-1876.

General Schenck to the Earl of Derby.-(Received March 3.) MY LORD,

Legation of the United States, London, March 3, 1875. I HAVE to-day received by telegraph from Mr. Fish at Washington information that a man named Charles L. Lawrence, 5 feet 7 inches high, stout build, heavy black moustache, mouth very large, dark hair, small grey eyes, sailed from Halifax on the 25th February, in the Caspian for Queenstown and Liverpool, under the alias of George G. Gordon. He is the leader of a band of revenue swindlers in New York. Two indictments for forgery are pending and charges for at least 20 more. I am instructed by my Government to have this man arrested on his landing at Queenstown in Ireland, or at Liverpool, to be held in custody until the arrival of witnesses and papers on which to make demand for his extradition.

Under these circumstances, and in the interest of both our countries, I have to ask if your Lordship will be good enough to refer the matter to Her Majesty's Home Secretary, and that an order may be issued without delay for the arrest of Lawrence on the arrival of the Caspian, which may be at Queenstown perhaps as early even as to-morrow, and for his detention until the witnesses arrive.

Any expenses which may attend a compliance with this request will of course be defrayed by the United States.

The Earl of Derby.

I have, &c.,

ROBT. C. SCHENCK.

The Earl of Derby to General Schenck.

Foreign Office, March 4, 1875.

THE Earl of Derby presents his compliments to General Schenck, and has the honour to inform him that he referred to Her

* Vol. XXX. Page 360.