Our Consular Service

I have latcly had a long talk with Honorable 1)."S. Alexauder, the Fiftb. Auditor of the Treasury, in regard to our Consular service. Krom il I compile the following, giving the facto and ligures as neaxly as I eau reren ember. Our consular ollieers ninnhcrtt'Jl, and they are seattered all over the world. Maïiy of the positlonsdo not pay onouf b to make the expenses of the omcer and but few of tlicin are very dcwirable. Thé aili Llili.l. ,1 'irt.t (,r.., classes. First, thoso wlio have lKcil salaries and are not permitted to do business: gecond, those who have lixed salaries and are permitted torio other business; and third. thase wln are ]:iid entirely by fees and are permitted todo other business. All of the prominent Consulates and nearly all of the desirable ones are in tlie lirst class. It is made op of Consulatcs, Consulates general, and commercial agencies, and iis fialaric3 range from $6,(M0 to $l,.;0() a vear. The only .víí,iiiiii Consulates are Paris, Havana. Blo de Janeiro, and those paying $5,000 are Cairo, t 'rilcutta and Shanghai. Tlien (-ome Berlín, Knnagawa, Montreai, Honolulú and Hong Kong, $4,-000, and Uien tbc sevcral Chinese Coufiulates vhich aro paid $3,500, andtlien t lm three rs at $3,000, S,1". $#.000 niul $] II, This firat class of Consuls is obliged to send in all of iis official fees to the So ernment, but there is a class of private business willen they ara ponni&tod M do, and this in certain caeL ainounta to considerable. In the naajority of places, howc ver, the Consuls get nolliing but their salarie-:, and it ís only in the manufactnring centew of Engmod, Scotland. Fraaoe and (¦cnnaiiv that these private fees amoiint to anvlhing. About seven-elevenths of the Consulates are of the first ela.33. In tho second class, which gels loss than 91,600, there are one-eleteoth, and the lliird paid ontirely by f""1-, numbers lliree-cleventlis of tlie wholc. In tlie seoond class tliere is no salary nbove $1,000, and in the third all of the fees above $3,600 must le turned into the Govornment. The fees collootcd by ilie Coasull moi'o than support the service. Last yearthe excess of receipts over expenditures was $44,540, and the reoeipts amounted to nearly a inillion dollars. Of this sum nearly $760,000 was received from certifying invoices at a feo of 2.50 per invoice. From this you sce the only Consuls uiio c:m mako any large returns are thoe of the larga manufacturing and commercial centers. Paris pay the United States better than any other CönsuTare. Tho fco-5 collected there last year amounted to $63,000. These fees, with the exception of iö6.7"2, were reccived for invoice certificatcs, which show that over i'.'i.OOO invoices of goods were sent from Taris to the United States in a single year. The fees collected at London tor tliis samo time were nearlv f56,000, and those at Liverpool $47,000. All of the London fees, with the exceptíon of $4,000, were for the certifying of invoices, but of those at Liverpool $80,000 were received for other than invoice fees. Fifteen thousand dollars of this was made up of shipping fees, showing that more American ships are represented at Liverpool than at any other port in the world. Many people believe that Consuls are not rosponsible for thcir collections, and that great frands are perpetrated. This is not so now, and the checks are such that dishonesty la eastly diseovered. The invoices mus! now bc issued in triplícate. One eopy U filod in the archives of the Consulate, a second is sent to the collector where t he goods are to bc entered. and third is fient to the consigneo of the goods. At the end of each quartcr the collectors make an abstract of all invoices reccived by them. which is sontto the Fifth Auditor, and these are there charged up to tlie Consul issuing them. At the end of each quarter tlie Consul makes bis returns, and he is credited with the invoice fec3 that he has reported. If a Consul is found not to have reportod as many fees as are charged to him it is evident that something is wrong, and the matter is investigated. It is the same with the .135,000 received,, from shipping fees. Duplícate certificates are made out to ships, one of which is giveu into the hands of the Captain to be handed to the Collector of the iirst American port at which he touches, an 1 this is tlirough him sent to the Fifth Auditor. The Consul, in making up bis report, ia raqnired lo account for oach paper so made out, and if ha does not report the fact is at once discovered. It is the samo with the landing receipts, which amount. to $10,000, so that in tho collection of nearly a million dollars from the Consuls an absoluto check is placed upen the liouest returns of over nine-tenths of it. Under it the Consular receipts, which in 1800 were only $99,113, in 1882 rcached the sum of $917,000, and were about the