books of any size are not included in the term "mailable matter," except books sent by Governors of States, and those included under the term "Public Documents." The establishment of private expresses for the conveyance of any letters, packets, or packages of letters, or other matter transmittible in the United States mail (newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, and periodicals excepted), from one city, town, or other place, to any other city, town, or place in the United States, between which the United States mail is regularly transported, is prohibited. Contractors may take newspapers out of the mails for sale or distribution among subscribers. A penalty of $5,000 is imposed on any person taking letters through or over any part of the United States for the purpose of being sent out of the United States without the payment of postage. Letters addressed to different persons cannot be inclosed in the same envelop or package, under a penalty of ten dollars, unless addressed to foreign countries. 7. Privilege of Franking. 1. The President, ex-Presidents, Mrs. Harrison, and Mrs. Adams, retain the franking privilege, as regulated by former laws. 2. Members from Congress and Delegates from Territories, from thirty days before the commencement of each Congress until the meeting of the next Congress, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of Representatives, during their official terms, may send and receive free letters or packages not exceeding two ounces in weight, and public documents not exceeding three pounds in weight. 3. The Governors of States may send free the laws, records, and documents of the legislature, to the Governors of other States. 4. The Secretaries of State, Treasury, War, and Navy; AttorneyGeneral; Postmaster-General and Assistants Postmaster-General; Comptrollers, Auditors, Register, and Solicitor of the Treasury; Treasurer; Commissioners of the different Offices and Bureaus; Chiefs of Bureaus in the War and Navy Departments, General-in-Chief, and Adjutant-General, may send and receive free all letters and packages upon official business, but not their private letters or papers. 5. The chief clerk in the State Department may send free public and official documents. 6. Deputy postmasters may send free all such letters and packages as may relate exclusively to the business of their respective offices; and those whose compensation did not exceed $200 for the year ending the 30th of June, 1846, may also send free, through the mails, letters written by themselves, and receive free all written communications on their own private business, not weighing over one half-ounce, but not transient newspapers, handbills, or circulars. 7. Exchange newspapers between editors pass free. Public documents are those printed by the order of either House of Congress, and publications or books procured or purchased by Congress, or either House, for the use of the members. 8. RATES OF FOREIGN POSTAGE, AND OF POSTAGE TO OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. 1. Great Britain and Ireland. Between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland, letters are rated, by weight, as in the United States. Between any office in the United States (Oregon and California excepted) and any office in Great Britain and Ireland, the entire postage is 24 cents the single letter, which may be prepaid or sent unpaid. Between the offices of California and Oregon and those of Great Britain and Ireland, the entire postage is 59 cents the single letter, which may be prepaid or sent unpaid. The entire postage, or nothing, must be prepaid. 2. Foreign Countries and Cities, via England. TABLE 1.-On all correspondence between the United States and the following-named countries, the United States postage, and that only, must be collected in the United States, by prepayment when sent, and on delivery when received, at the rate of 5 cents the single letter when conveyed by British packet, (unless from or to Oregon or California, then 40 cents,) and 21 cents the single letter when conveyed by United States packet, (unless, as aforesaid, from or to Oregon or California, then 56 cents,) to wit: * TABLE 2. + Smyrna, Hamburg & Cuxhaven, Scutari City of, On all correspondence between the United States (Oregon and California excepted) and the following-named countries through the United Kingdom, and by the routes here specified, there must be prepaid when sent, and collected when received, the following rates, for the single letter of half an ounce in weight: - * This does not supersede the American line to Bremen. See post, p. 159. † Via Marseilles. 66 Vincent, Tobago, Tortola, Trinidad. The places marked thus (a) are by French packet, via Marseilles; those marked (b) are via France; and the others are by closed mail, via Marseilles. On British, sea, and American inland postage, the single letter is oz.; on foreign postage, the single letter is less than oz. Letters weighing oz. and under oz. are charged two rates; oz. and under, three rates, &c.; an additional rate being charged for each quarter of an ounce. Thus, a letter directed to the East Indies by a British steamer, and weighing less * Via Southampton. Via Southampton and India. § Via France. than oz., will be charged 65 cents postage; if oz. or more, and less than oz., 75 cents must be paid, the foreign postage only being doubled for each oz. Where the correspondence with the countries in the foregoing tables is from or to Oregon or California, the single-letter rate, to be collected by prepayment or on delivery, is to be in each instance 35 cents more than the amounts given. 3. Postage by the New York, Southampton, and Bremen Line of Steamers. The following are the rates of postage prescribed by the act of the 3d of March, 1845, for mailable matter sent by this line to Europe: For all letters and packages not exceeding half an ounce in weight, For all letters and packages over half an ounce and under one ounce, every additional half-ounce, For 24 cents. The United States postage will be charged in addition to the above upon all mailable matter sent through the mails of the United States to New York, whence the ships sail for Bremen. It should be prepaid on letters addressed to any of the following countries and places, viz.: - Denmark, Norway, St. Petersburgh or Cronstadt, Sweden, Alexandria, Austria (empire and provinces), Baden, Basle and other parts of Switzerland, Bavaria, Cairo, Constantinople, Greece, and the eastern towns of Italy. On letters addressed to the following countries and places, the foreign postage, to the place of destination, may be added to the United States postage, and the whole be prepaid, or the American postage alone may be prepaid,—or the whole postage may be left unpaid, at the option of the sender, viz.: Altona, 6 cents. Mecklenburg-Strelitz, . 12 cents. Nothing. Nassau, 12 66 12 Prussia 12 66 12 "6 Reuss, Saxe-Altenburg, 6 cents. Oldenburg, (kingdom and provinces), Hamburg, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxony (kingdom), Schwartzburg-Rudolstadt, 12 Wurtemberg (kingdom), 12" 4. Other Foreign Letter Postage. The postage on single letters, not exceeding half an ounce in weight, from any part of the United States to Havana, or any part of Cuba, is 121⁄2 cents; to Chagres, 20 cents; to Panama, 30 cents; all to be prepaid. On letters for any South American port on the Pacific, or for the Sandwich Islands, the postage to Panama only is to be prepaid. A single letter to Halifax by the British steamer is rated at 5 or 10 cents, according to distance; to Upper Canada and New Brunswick, 10 cents; to Lower Canada, 5 cents, all to be prepaid. These rates to Lower and Upper Canada and New Brunswick pay only to the lines, whence the letters are immediately forwarded to their place of destination. 5. Newspaper and Pamphlet Postage. On each newspaper sent between Great Britain and the United States, except by the Bremen line, (see p. 159,) the postage is 4 cents, 2 cents to be paid in each country. On each newspaper sent to or from a foreign country, through Great Britain, the postage is 4 cents,- to be paid by the party sending or receiving it. There must be prepaid on each newspaper to Cuba by the Charleston and New York steam-packets, 4 cents; to Chagres, Panama, any South American port on the Pacific, or to the Sandwich Islands, by steamer from Charleston, 4 cents; and to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Upper or Lower Canada, 13 cents. On each periodical and pamphlet between Great Britain and the United States, the United States postage is cents, if not over 2 ounces in weight, and 1 cent per ounce or fraction of an ounce over 2 ounces, always to be prepaid. An additional British postage of the same rate, when not exceeding 2 ounces, must be paid in England; but the third ounce raises the British charge to 6 pence, with 2 pence additional for each additional ounce. XII. MINT. It is lawful for any person or persons to bring to the Mint gold and silver bullion to be coined; and the bullion so brought is there assayed and coined, as speedily as may be after the receipt thereof, and, if of the standard of the United States, free of expense to the person or persons by whom it has been brought. But the Treasurer of the Mint is not obliged to receive, for the purpose of refining and coining, any deposit of less value than one hundred dollars, nor any bullion so base as to be unsuitable for minting. And there must be retained from every deposit of bullion below the standard such sum as shall be equivalent to the expense incurred in refining, toughening, and alloying the same; an accurate account of which expense, on every deposit, is kept, and of the sums retained on account of the same, which are accounted for by the Treasurer of the Mint with the Treasurer of the United States. |