Arrangements were also made for the registration of letters between this country and the United States;[199] but on other points of far more importance negotiations with that country made no effective progress during the period now under review. Our proposals made in 1856, which involved a reduction in the letter postage from a shilling the half ounce to sixpence, the establishment of a book-post, and the adoption of low transit rates on terms more favourable to the United States than were required by simple equity, were met by a counter-proposal, which, not being regarded as satisfactory, was replied to with a full statement of objections; an offer being made at the same time to submit the whole matter, if needful, to the arbitration of a third party. Instead, however, of making any rejoinder to this, the American Postmaster-General, in his next Annual Report, while entirely passing over the offer of arbitration, represented England as acting so unsatisfactorily, "that for the present no disposition is felt to pursue the matter further."[200] Any one wishing to satisfy himself as to the respective merits of the parties in this proceeding will find the necessary documents in the Appendix to the Sixth Report of the British Postmaster-General, p. 57. Before the English rejoinder could be made, however, the misrepresentations so boldly put forth raised an outcry in America, which was partly echoed here. Error in this country, so far as it went, was likely to disappear, or at least to become harmless, as soon as the next Annual Report came out; but in America, correction, if left to ordinary means, would doubtless have been found very slow. Fortunately, as might be expected in so energetic a nation, the need called forth the man; and so much as one man could do for diffusing sound knowledge on the whole subject was done by the late Mr. Pliny Miles; who, in his zeal for postal reform--a zeal, I must remark, rarely leading him into any inaccuracy--published more on the general subject in America than ever I did in England, travelled widely also in the Union, to urge his views by word of mouth, and several times crossed the Atlantic for the furtherance of his object. I must forestall events so far as to add that, long as he had to labour, and often as he endured disappointment, he happily lived to see his efforts rewarded with a large measure of success.[201] I must also so far anticipate here as to express the pleasure with which I have heard during late years of a total change in the spirit of the American Post Office, the new authorities of which have, I am informed, shown the utmost readiness to concur frankly in any measure of improvement, and an honourable desire to form arrangements equitable to both parties. _Treaties made easily Terminable._