Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 16.djvu/825

 POSTAL CONVENTION WITH GREAT BRITAIN. MAY 14, 1849; 791 bill by the despatching office, such articles shall be checked by two oliicers, and the corrected amount, which is entered by them on the verification side of theletter bill, shall be accepted as the true amount. ARTICLE XVIII. Accounts, showing the results of the mutual trans; 'Accounts quarmission of correspondence between the United Kingdom and the United l°'lY· States, shall be made out at the end of every quarter by the General Post-Office in London, and, having been examined, compared, and settled by the General Post—Otiice in Washington, the balance shall be paid without delay by that office which shall be found indebted to the other. Pas, 8W_ The quarterly accounts shall be made out according to the forms (H and sor ’ pp` I) annexed to the present articles. CHAPTER IV. —-Dead, Mssent, and Returned Letters. Anrrcrm XIX. Dead letters, newspapers, &c. which cannot be deliv- Dead 1,,,1,,,, ered, from whatever cause, shall be mutually returned after the expiration &¤·; I of every month, or otherwise, as the regulations of each office will admit. Such of those letters, &c. as shall have been charged in the account shall be returned for the same amount of postage which was originally charged by the sending office, and shall be allowed in discharge of the account of the office to which they were transmitted. The forms (K and L) to be 80€""» P°· 8°°• used in claiming the return of postage, and to accompany such dead ` letters, newspapers, &c. are annexed to the present articles. Aariona XX. WVith respect to dead letters, &c. which may have i,,c1,,Bcdm,,uS_ been received in closed mails, or which cannot be produced by the office which has to claim the amount, they shall be admitted for the same weight and amount of postage which was originally charged upon such dead letters, &c. in the accounts of the respective offices, on a declaration or on lists vouching for the amount of postage demanded, signed by the inspector of the dead-letter office, or other officer duly authorized for that purpose. ARTICLE XXI. Letters misdirected or missent, or which may require Missent letters. the prepayment of the postage, shall be reciprocally returned without delay through the respective offices of exchange, and credit taken in the letter bill for the amount of postage originally charged upon them. Redirected letters, or letters addressed to persons who have changed their Redtrectedlctresidences, shall be mutually returned by the first post, charged with the t“"*· rates of postage which would have been paid by the parties to whom they are addressed. _ ARTICLE XXII. Letters sent for the purpose of annoying or injuring 1A,;,,,,., 1,0 au, the parties to whom they are addressed, (the postage on which either {10}*, &¤· or inoffice may think proper to return,) even though they may have been J“°‘ opened, are to be included and admitted with the dead letters. ARTICLE XXIII. Whereas, by Article XIII. of the convention of De- Articles XIII. cember fifteen, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, it is stipulated ’;;‘gv§£Qn°;,.“h° that letters posted in the United States, addressed to the British North nw, 15, 1848, American Provinces, or vice versa, shall be charged according to the P<>j;P;>¤¤d·7 rates of postage which are now, or which shall hereafter be, in operation " ”’ p' B6` in the United States and in the British North American Provinces for inland letters; and whereas, by Article XIV of the said convention, it is Provisionasto further stipulated that the rates of postage fixed by the preceding article gglggxgxtgz Shall be combined into one rate, of which payment in advance shall be postponed.' optional, both in the United States and in the British North American Provinces, and that it shall not be permitted to pay less than the whole rate; and as, owing to the various rates of postage now in operation in the two countries, which are governed by the distance that letters have to be conveyed in each, depending upon the point of intercommunication where the correspondence passes from one country to the other, it·will not be possible to determine by previous regulations the true combined