otices the
improvements going on in the Navy Yards in New York and other places;
states that he has invited proposals for the construction of a Dry Dock
in the Pacific; says that the stores on hand in the various yards amount
to $6,500,000. A reduction of the number of yards is discussed. The
Secretary says that our flag has been respected on every sea, and that
the interests of commerce have been secure under its protection. The
Navy consists of 7 ships of the line, 1 razee, 12 frigates, 21 sloops of
war, 4 brigs, 2 schooners, 6 steam frigates, 3 steamers of the first
class, 6 steamers of less than first class, and 5 store ships. The ships
in commission are one razee, 6 frigates, 15 sloops of war, 4 brigs, 2
schooners (coast survey), 2 steam frigates, 1 steamer of the first
class, 3 less than first class, 3 ships of the line as receiving ships,
1 steamer do., and one sloop do. Four ships of the line and two frigates
are on the stocks in process of construction, but the work suspended.
Besides these, there are the mail steamships on the New York and
Liverpool and New York and Chagres lines, liable to naval duty in case
of necessity.

The Report of Mr. HALL, the Postmaster General, gives a gratifying
picture of the operations of the Post Office Department. The number of
mail routes within the United States at the close of the fiscal year in
June last, not including California and Oregon, was 5590: the aggregate
length of such routes was 178,672 miles, and the number of contractors
employed thereon, 4,760. The annual transportation of the mails on these
routes was 46,541,423 miles, at an annual cost of $2,724,436, making the
average cost about five cents and eight and a half mills per mile. The
increase in the number of inland mail routes during the year was 649;
the increase in the length of mail routes was 10,969 miles; and the
annual transportation of the year exceeded that of the previous year by
3,997,354 miles, at an increased cost of $342,440. There were, on the
30th of June last, five foreign mail routes, of the aggregate length of
15,079 miles, and the annual price of the transportation thereon,
payable by this Department, was $264,506; being an increase of $8814 on
the cost of the preceding year. The increase of our mail service for the
last fiscal year, over the year preceding, was about 9.4 per cent., and
the increase in the total cost was about 12.7 per cent. The number of
Postmasters appointed during the yea