The report of the Postmaster-General embraces a detailed statement of the operations of the Post-Office Department.  The expenditures of that Department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1878, were $34,165,084.49.  The receipts, including sales of stamps, money-order business, and official stamps, were $29,277,516.95.  The sum of $290,436.90, included in the foregoing statement of expenditures, is chargeable to preceding years, so that the actual expenditures for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1878, are $33,874,647.59.  The amount drawn from the Treasury on appropriations, in addition to the revenues of the Department, was $5,307,652.82.  The expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, are estimated at $36,571,900 and the receipts from all sources at $30,664,023.90, leaving a deficiency to be appropriated out of the Treasury of $5,907,876.10.  The report calls attention to the fact that the compensation of postmasters and of railroads for carrying the mail is regulated by law, and that the failure of Congress to appropriate the amounts required for these purposes does not relieve the Government of responsibility, but necessarily increases the deficiency bills which Congress will be 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.

Some embarrassment has arisen out of the conflict between the customs laws of this country and the provisions of the Postal Convention in regard to the transmission of foreign books and newspapers to this country by mail.  It is hoped that Congress will be able to devise some means of reconciling the difficulties which have thus been created, so as to do justice to all parties involved.