The Attorney-General is required annually to print an edition of such opinions as may be deemed by him worthy of permanent record; and to make annually a report of the conduct of his office and of his subordinates, to Congress.

The Post-office Department consists of the Postmaster-General and three Assistant PostmastersGeneral, appointed by the President. It is the duty of the Postmaster-General to establish and discontinue post-offices; to prescribe the manner of keeping accounts and rendering returns; to make contracts for postal service; by and with the consent of the President, to negotiate postal treaties and conventions; reduce or increase the rate of postage or mail matter conveyed between the United States and foreign countries; make rules and regulations as to fines, penalties, forfeitures or disabilities in relation to his department. He is required to make an annual report to Congress of all contracts made for carrying the mail within the preceding year; the prices paid, etc., of all land and water mails established or ordered within the preceding year; the names of persons employed to transport it, price paid etc., and all allowances made to contractors within the preceding year in addition to the sum originally stipulated in their respective contracts, and the reasons

for the same; to report all the curtailment of expenses effected within the preceding year; to report on the revenues of the department for the preceding year, and the amount actually paid for carrying the mail, and comparing the same with preceding years. The Postmaster is required to report to Congress all contracts made for the carriage of mail matter, and to give a detailed account of the postal business and agencies in foreign countries, which report is first to be submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, and then printed and submitted to Congress as part of the Treasurer's Report.

The Department of the Navy consists of the Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Secretary of the Navy and a large executive force. The War Department consists of the Secretary of War and a large executive force. It is unnecessary to enter into detail as to the duties and functions of the Naval and War Departments, as the terms indicate what their functions are.

The Department of the Interior is a much more complicated one. The Secretary of the Interior has an Assistant Secretary, appointed by the President. The Secretary of the Interior is charged with the supervision of public business relating to the following subjects: 1. The census;

therefore a Census Bureau with its staff of officers is under his direction and control. 2. The public lands, including mines. 3. Indians. 4. All pensions and bounty lands. 5. All patents for inventions. 6. The custody and distribution of all publications. 7. The Education Department. 8. The Government Hospital for the Insane. 9. The Columbia Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. Under him, therefore, there is a Commissioner of the Land Office; a Commissioner of Indian Affairs; a Commissioner of Pensions; a Commissioner of Patents, and Assistant Commissioners; Superintendent of Public Documents, a Bureau of Railroads, Superintendent of Census, Director of Geological Surveys, and Commissioner of Education.

A supplemental Executive Department was created in 1862, independent of the other departments, but the head of which is not a member of the cabinet, called the Department of Agriculture. This commissioner is charged with the duty of procuring and preserving all information concerning agriculture which can be obtained by means of books and correspondence, and by practical and scientific experiments; to collect new and valuable seeds and plants, and to test by cultivation the value of such of them as may require such tests, and to propagate such as as may be worthy of

propagation, and to distribute them among agriculturists. This purchase and distribution of seeds by the department is confined to rare and uncommon ones, or such as can be made more profitable by frequent changes from one part of the country to another, and the purchase for propagation of trees, plants, shrubs, vines, and cuttings, are confined to those which are adapted to general cultivation, and to promote the interests of agriculture and horticulture throughout the United States.

CHAPTER IV.

THE JUDICIAL POWER.

ONE of the main reasons why the Articles of Confederation failed securely to establish national entity, was because no proper judicial organization existed thereunder to enforce the law; Congress was made the tribunal of last resort in controversies between the States, and the only power given to Congress to create judicial tribunals was to create prize courts.

Alexander Hamilton, in treating of the Judiciary department of the United States and the necessity for its creation, with reference to the power to adjudge acts void which are passed by a coördinate department-the Legislature-says: "The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution. By a limited Constitution I understand one which contains certain specified exceptions to legislative authority, such for instance, as that it shall pass no bill of attainder, no ex post facto law and the

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