merchants and manufacturers will be found
to show sensible improvement and to merit the liberal support of
Congress.

The experiences of the last year bring forcibly home to us a sense of
the burdens and the waste of war. We desire, in common with most
civilized nations, to reduce to the lowest possible point the damage
sustained in time of war-by peaceable trade and commerce. It is true we
may suffer in such cases less than other communities, but all nations
are damaged more or less by the state of uneasiness and apprehension
into which an outbreak of hostilities throws the entire commercial
world. It should be our object, therefore, to minimize, so far as
practicable, this inevitable loss and disturbance. This purpose can
probably best be accomplished by an international agreement to regard
all private property at sea as exempt from capture or destruction by the
forces of belligerent powers. The United States Government has for many
years advocated this humane and beneficent principle, and is now in
position to recommend it to other powers without the imputation of
selfish motives. I therefore suggest for your consideration that the
Executive be authorized to correspond with the governments of the
principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the
permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the exemption of
all private property at sea, not contraband of war, from capture or
destruction by belligerent powers.

The Secretary of the Treasury reports that the receipts of the
Government from all sources during the fiscal year ended June 30,
1898, including $64,751,223 received from sale of Pacific railroads,
amounted to $405,321,335 and its expenditures to $443,368,582. There
was collected from customs $149,575,062 and from internal revenue
$170,900,641. Our dutiable imports amounted to $324,635,479, a decrease
of $58,156,690 over the preceding year, and importations free of duty
amounted to $291,414,175, a decrease from the preceding year of
$90,524,068. Internal-revenue receipts exceeded those of the preceding
year by $24,212,067.

The total tax collected on distilled spirits was $92,546,999;
on manufactured tobacco, $36,230,522, and on fermented liquors,
$39,515,421. We exported merchandise during the year amounting to
$1,231,482,330, an increase of $180,488,774 from the preceding year.

It is estimated upon the basis of present revenue laws that the
receipts of the Government for the year endi