Rates of postage. Prepayment optional on ordinary letters; 2. On letters from the Swiss Confederation, 80 centimes. 3. On all other correspondence mentioned in the second paragraph of the first article, the rate shall be, for the mails despatched, that which the despatching office shall adopt, adapted to the convenience and habits of its interior administration. But each office shall give notice to the other of the rate it adopts, and of any subsequent change thereof. ARTICLE VI. The prepayment of postage on ordinary letters shall be optional, subject to the conditions in Article VII. mentioned, but on regiswhen required. tered letters, and on all other correspondence mentioned in paragraph second of the first article, it shall be obligatory. Proceedings when postages are unpaid or ARTICLE VII. If, however, the postage of any correspondence shall be prepaid insufficiently, it shall nevertheless be forwarded to its destiare insufficiently nation, charged with the deficient postage, adding full amounts, instead of fractions, of 1 cent or 5 centimes. paid. Registered correspondence. What may be registered. Basis for settlement of accounts. Regulations for despatch of Upon the delivery of any unpaid, or insufficiently paid letter, or of any other insufficiently paid correspondence, there shall be levied a fine in the United States not exceeding five cents, and in Switzerland not exceed ing 25 centimes. This fine, and also the deficient postage on all other correspondence than letters, shall not enter into accounts between the two offices, but shall be retained to the use of the collecting office. ARTICLE VIII. Registered correspondence shall, in addition to the postage, be subject to a register-fee not exceeding ten cents in the United States, and not exceeding fifty centimes in Switzerland, and this fee shall be always prepaid. ARTICLE IX. Any correspondence may be registered, as well international correspondence as that originating in or destined for other countries to which these two administrations may respectfully serve as intermediaries in either direction for the transmission of such registered articles. Each department shall notify the other of the countries to which it may thus serve as intermediary. ARTICLE X. Accounts between the two offices shall be regulated on the following basis: From the total amount of postages and register-fees collected by each office on letters, added to the total amount of prepaid postages and register-fees on other correspondence which it despatches, the despatching officer shall deduct the amount required as the agreed rate for the cost of intermediate transit thereof between the two frontiers, and the amount of the two net sums shall be divided between the two offices in the proportion of three-fifths (3) to the United States office and two-fifths () to the Swiss Office. ARTICLE XI. The correspondence mentioned in the second paracorrespondence. graph of the first article shall be dispatched under regulations to be established by the dispatching office, but always including the following: Exchange of Correspondence by open mails. First. No packet shall contain anything which shall be closed against inspection; nor any written communication whatever, except to state to whom and from whom the packet is sent; and the numbers and prices placed upon patterns or samples of merchandise. Second. No packet may exceed two feet in length, or one foot in any other dimension, or the equivalent in Swiss measurement. Third. Neither office shall be bound to deliver any article the importation of which may be prohibited by the laws or regulations of the country of destination. Fourth. So long as any customs-duty may be chargeable on any article exchanged in the mails, such duty may be levied for the use of the customs. Fifth. Except as above, no charge whatever, otherwise than is herein expressly provided, shall be levied or collected on the correspondence exchanged. ARTICLE XII. The two post departments shall establish, by agreement, and in conformity with the arrangements in force at the time, the conditions upon which the two offices may respectively exchange, in open mails, the correspondence originating in, or destined to, the other foreign countries to which they may reciprocally serve as intermediaries. It is always understood, however, that such correspondence shall only be charged with the rate applicable to direct international correspondence, augmented by the postage due to foreign countries, and by any other tax for exterior service. Transit of ARTICLE XIII. Each office accords to the other the privilege of transit of closed mails exchanged, in either direction, between the latter closed mails through other and any country to which the other may serve as an intermediary, by its country. usual means of mail transportation, whether on sea or land. Such transit across its own territory shall be reciprocally free of expense. For such transit by sea the United States office shall receive as follows: : .1. For transit across the waters of the Atlantic Ocean : a. For letters, 8 cents per single letter rate. b. For other correspondence, 12 cents per kilogramme, net. 2. For transit across the waters of the Pacific Ocean : a. For letters, 10 cents per single letter rate. b. For other correspondence, 20 cents per kilogramme, net. For such transit by sea the Swiss office shall receive as follows: For transit across the waters of the Atlantic Ocean : a. For letters, 8 cents per single letter rate. b. For other correspondence, 12 cents per kilogramme, net. For intermediate territorial transit each office shall receive the amount it actually disburses for such transit. Rates. Postal ac be stated, &c. ARTICLE XIV. The postal accounts between the two offices shall be stated quarterly, and transmitted and verified as speedily as practicable, counts, when to and the balance found due shall be paid to the creditor office either by exchange on London or Paris, or at the debtor office, as the creditor office may desire. The rate for the conversion of the money of the two countries shall be fixed by common agreement between the two offices. ARTICLE XV. When, in any port of either country, a closed mail is transferred from one vessel to another without any expense to the office of the country where the transfer is made, such transfer shall not be subject to any postal charge by one office against the other. ARTICLE XVI. Official communications between the two offices shall not be the occasion of any accounts on either side. ARTICLE XVII. Letters wrongly sent or wrongly addressed, or not deliverable for whatever cause, shall be returned to the originating office, at its expense, if any expense is incurred. Registered correspondence of all kinds, not deliverable for any cause, shall also be returned in like manner. All other correspondence which cannot be delivered shall remain at the disposition of the receiving office. Any postages, upon correspondence returned, which shall have been charged against the office of destination, shall be discharged from the account. ARTICLE XVIII. The two offices shall, by mutual consent, establish detailed regulations for carrying those articles into execution, and they may modify such regulations, in like manner, from time to time, as the exigencies of the service may require. ARTICLE XIX. This convention shall take effect at a time to be fixed by common accord of the two administrations, and shall continue in force until terminated by mutual agreement or otherwise, until one year from the date when one office shall have notified the other of its desire to terminate it. Transfer of closed mails without expense. Official communications. Missent letters, &c. Approved by the PostmasterGeneral; by the Presi dent of the United States. Executed in duplicate at Berne, this eleventh day of October, A. D. 1867. JOHN A. KASSON, Special Commissioner, &c., &c., DR. J. DUBS. POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT, Washington, November 12, 1867. Having examined and considered the aforegoing articles of a convention for the amelioration of the postal intercourse between the United States of America and the Swiss Confederation, which were agreed upon and executed in duplicate at Berne on the eleventh day of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, by Hon. John A Kasson, special commissioner, &c., &c. on behalf of this department, and by Dr. Jaques Dubs, vice-president of the federal council and chief of the federal post department, on behalf of the federal council of the Swiss Confederation, the same are by me hereby ratified and approved, by and with the advice and consent of the President of the United States. In witness whereof, I have caused the seal of the Post Office Department to be hereto affixed, with my signature, the day and year first above written. [L. S.] ALEX. W. RANDALL, I hereby approve the aforegoing convention, and in testimony thereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [L. S.] By the President: ANDREW JOHNSON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of St WASHINGTON, November 12, 1867. Convention agreed upon between the Post Departments of the United States of America and of the North German Union for the Amelioration of the Postal Service between the two Countries. ARTICLE I. There shall be an exchange of correspondence between October 21, 1867. the United States of America and the North German Union, by means Correspondof their respective post departments; and this correspondence shall ence to be exembrace : changed; to embrace what. 1st. Letters ordinary and registered. 2d. Newspapers, book-packets, prints of all kinds, (comprising maps, plans, engravings, drawings, photographs, lithographs, and all other like productions of mechanical processes, sheets of music, &c.,) and patterns or samples of merchandise, including grains and seeds. And such correspondence may be exchanged, whether originating in either of said countries and destined for the other, or originating in or destined for foreign countries to which these may respectively serve as intermediaries. ARTICLE II. The offices for the exchange of mails shall be, (a) on the part of the United States: 1st. New York. Offices for exchange of mails 3d. Hamburg. The two post departments may at any time discontinue either of said offices of exchange, or establish others by mutual consent. ARTICLE III. Each office shall make its own arrangements for the Arrangements despatch of its mails to the other office by regular lines of communica- for despatch of tion; and should at its own cost pay the expense of such intermediate transportation. mails, &c. Cost of transportation. Contracts for mails. The two offices, however, mutually agree, that, in making contracts for the despatch of mails from American ports, or from European ports, despatch of those steamers and lines should always be employed, so far as consistent with the rates of postage, by which the mails despatched shall earliest arrive at their destination; and when the speed is substantially the same, that the most favorable pecuniary conditions should be preferred. It is also agreed that the cost of international ocean and territorial transit of the closed mails between the respective frontiers shall be first defrayed by that one of the two departments which shall have obtained from the intermediaries the most favorable pecuniary terms for such conveyance; and any amount so advanced by one for account of the other shall be promptly reimbursed. ARTICLE IV. The standard weight for the single rate of international postage, and rule of progression, shall be: 1st. For letters, 15 grammes. 2d. For all other correspondence mentioned in paragraph two of the first articles, that which the despatching office shall adopt for the mails which it despatches to the other, adapted to the convenience and habits of its interior administration. But each office shall give notice to the other of the standard weight it adopts, and of any subsequent change thereof. VOL. XV. TREAT.-37 Weight for single rate of international postage. Rule of progression. The loth equiv alent of 15 grammes. Rates of postage. Prepayment of postage. The rule of progression shall always be an additional single rate for each additional standard weight or fraction thereof. The weight stated by the despatching office shall always be accepted, except in case of manifest mistake. It is, however, understood that so long as the German office employs the loth as its standard for the single weight of letters which it despatches, it shall also be accepted by the United States office as the equivalent of 15 grammes, in respect to the mails which it receives from the German office. ARTICLE V. The single rate of postage on the direct correspondence exchanged between the two administrations shall be as follows: 1st. On letters from the United States via direct line of steamers to Hamburg and Bremen, (conditioned that the sea rate in such case shall not exceed five cents for single letter rate and ten cents per kilogram for other correspondence), ten cents. 2d. On letters from the North German Union via said direct line, (sub ject to same condition,) four silber groschen. 3d. On letters from the United States via England, fifteen cents. 4th. On letters from the North German Union via England, six silber groschen. 5th. Of the international letter postage via England, the ocean single letter rate shall not exceed eight cents, nor shall the English and Belgian single letter transit rates exceed one cent each. 6th. It is further agreed, that whenever any other regular line of steam communication, acceptable to the two offices, may be employed directly between any port of the United States and any port of the north of Europe at such rates that the entire cost of transportation between the two frontiers shall not exceed for each single letter rate five cents, and for each kilogram of other correspondence ten cents, in that case the international single rate of letter postage by such line shall be reduced to ten cents. 7th. On all other correspondence mentioned in paragraph two of the first article, the rate shall be, for the mails despatched, that which the despatching office shall adopt, adapted to the convenience and habits of its interior administration. But each office shall give notice to the other of the rate it adopts, and of any subsequent change thereof. ARTICLE VI. The prepayment of postage on ordinary letters shall be optional, subject to the conditions in Article VII., mentioned; but on registered letters, and on all other correspondence mentioned in paragraph two of the first article, it shall be obligatory. ARTICLE VII. If, however, the postage on any correspondence shall be prepaid insufficiently, it shall nevertheless be forwarded to its destination, but charged with the deficient postage. Upon the delivery of any unpaid or insufficiently paid letter, or of any other insufficiently paid correspondence, there shall be levied in the United States a fine not exceeding five cents, and in the North German Union an additional charge not exceeding two silber groschen. This fine, or additional charge, as well as the deficient postage on all other correspondence than letters, shall not enter into the accounts between the two offices, but shall be retained to the use of the collecting office. ARTICLE VIII. The correspondence mentioned in paragraph two of the first article shall be despatched under regulations to be established by the despatching office, but always including the following: First. No packet shall contain anything which shall be closed against inspection, nor any written communication whatever, except to state from whom and to whom the packet is sent, and the number and price placed upon each pattern or sample of merchandise. Second. No packet may exceed two feet in length, or one foot in any other dimension. Third. Neither office shall be bound to deliver any article the importa |