r correspondence with the State Department, unless it be those
in Southern and Western Europe. I was told last year by our Minister
in Rio de Janeiro that his dispatches from the Government at home
seldom reached him under four months; and Mr. Gilmer, the Consul of
the United States at Bahia, reports, in the "Consular Returns" now
about to be published, that his dispatches never come to hand under
four months, that they are frequently out six months, and that many
are lost altogether. This is the experience and the reiterated
complaint of nearly every foreign _employee_ of the Government, who
has any zeal in prosecuting his country's business, and may find it
necessary to get instructions or advice from home. Many knowing the
delays, uncertainty, and irregularity of correspondence, make no
attempt whatever to communicate regularly with the Department. We
frequently express great surprise that we have no intelligence from
our ministers, special ambassadors, and agents; but do not reflect
that in the majority of cases dispatches have to be sent by
irresponsible and slow-sailing vessels, or by the steamers of Great
Britain, which it may be safely asserted are in no particular hurry to
deliver them to us. Three several letters sent by me at separate times
through the British mail from Rio de Janeiro for New-York never
reached their destination.

Nor is it better with our squadrons on foreign stations. They receive
their orders in the same slow and irregular way, and find it almost as
easy to send a vessel when they wish to communicate with the Navy
Department, or await the movements of their dull old storeships, as to
attempt any other means of intercourse. It may be safely said that
they are not actually under the control of the Department, in many
important cases, one time in ten. Whatever the dispute, it is left
entirely at the will of the Commodore, or it remains unsettled
altogether. Our recent accumulated Paraguayan difficulties is a case
in point. American citizens were driven from the country, and their
valuable property confiscated. They applied to the Commodore for
relief, but could not obtain it. Our surveying vessel, engaged in a
permitted scientific exploration, was fired into and had some of her
men killed; and redress being demanded by the Captain from the
Commodore, it was refused. The Commodore feared transcending his
instructions: he could not communicate with the home authorities much
under a year; and s