permitted to interfere with the efficiency of the service itself.

I am gratified in being able to state that the estimates of
expenditure for the Navy in the ensuing year are less by more than
$1,000,000 than those of the present, excepting the appropriation
which may become necessary for the construction of a dock on the coast
of the Pacific, propositions for which are now being considered and on
which a special report may be expected early in your present session.

There is an evident justness in the suggestion of the same report that
appropriations for the naval service proper should be separated from
those for fixed and permanent objects, such as building docks and
navy-yards and the fixtures attached, and from the extraordinary
objects under the care of the Department which, however important,
are not essentially naval.

A revision of the code for the government of the Navy seems to require
the immediate consideration of Congress. Its system of crimes and
punishments had undergone no change for half a century until the last
session, though its defects have been often and ably pointed out;
and the abolition of a particular species of corporal punishment,
which then took place, without providing any substitute, has left the
service in a state of defectiveness which calls for prompt correction.
I therefore recommend that the whole subject be revised without delay
and such a system established for the enforcement of discipline as
shall be at once humane and effectual.

The accompanying report of the Postmaster-General presents a
satisfactory view of the operations and condition of that Department.