called upon to pass.

In providing for the postal service the following questions are
presented: Should Congress annually appropriate a sum for its expenses
largely in excess of its revenues, or should such rates of postage be
established as will make the Department self-sustaining? Should the
postal service be reduced by excluding from the mails matter which
does not pay its way? Should the number of post routes be diminished?
Should other methods be adopted which will increase the revenues or
diminish the expenses of the postal service?

The International Postal Congress which met at Paris May 1, 1878, and
continued in session until June 4 of the same year, was composed of
delegates from nearly all the civilized countries of the world. It
adopted a new convention (to take the place of the treaty concluded
at Berne October 9, 1874), which goes into effect on the 1st of April,
1879, between the countries whose delegates have signed it. It was
ratified and approved, by and with the consent of the President,
August 13, 1878. A synopsis of this Universal Postal Convention will
be found in the report of the Postmaster-General, and the full text
in the appendix thereto. In its origin the Postal Union comprised
twenty-three countries, having a population of 350,000,000 people.
On the 1st of April next it will comprise forty-three countries and
colonies, with a population of more than 650,000,000 people, and will
soon, by the accession of the few remaining countries and colonies
which maintain organized postal services, constitute in fact as well
as in name, as its new title indicates, a universal union, regulating,
upon a uniform basis of cheap postage rates, the postal intercourse
between all civilized nations.