2d. By changing the schedule so as to make connections at Acapulco with the steamers of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, that company would receive not only their regular compensation under their contract with the government, but extra pay under the contract of Ramsey & Carmick, although no additional service was really rendered by them to the department or the public. Authority having been given by Mr. Hubbard on the 7th of March, 1853, to the postmasters of New Orleans, San Diego, Monterey and San Francisco, to make up and send mails by the Vera Cruz and Acapulco line, containing such matter as was expressly directed to go by that line, I took the precaution to withhold from those officers the authority to send mails without first consulting the department, by instructing them, on the 23d of September following, to report to the department before delivering such mails, for further instructions, should the proprietors apply for them. My object in issuing those instructions was simply to enable the department to be fully satisfied that all mails forwarded by that route were committed to the care and custody of competent and proper persons, and would be safely transported through Mexico. It does not appear, however, that any application has ever been made by Messrs. Ramsey & Carmick for a mail to be conveyed by that route, as no report from any postmaster to that effect has been received at this department. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES CAMPBELL. Hon. LINN BOYD, _Speaker of House of Representatives_. NO. 9—$424,000 PER ANNUM.