he attention of Congress to the
necessity of so extending the jurisdiction of the United States courts
as to make triable therein any felony committed while in the act of
violating a law of the United States. These courts can not have that
independence and effectiveness which the Constitution contemplates so
long as the felonious killing of court officers, jurors, and witnesses
in the discharge of their duties or by reason of their acts as
such is only cognizable in the State courts. The work done by the
Attorney-General and the officers of his Department, even under the
present inadequate legislation, has produced some notable results in
the interest of law and order.

The Attorney-General and also the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia call attention to the defectiveness and inadequacy of the
laws relating to crimes against chastity in the District of Columbia.
A stringent code upon this subject has been provided by Congress for
Utah, and it is a matter of surprise that the needs of this District
should have been so long overlooked.

In the report of the Postmaster-General some very gratifying results are
exhibited and many betterments of the service suggested. A perusal of
the report gives abundant evidence that the supervision and direction
of the postal system have been characterized by an intelligent and
conscientious desire to improve the service. The revenues of the
Department show an increase of over $5,000,000, with a deficiency for
the year 1892 of less than $4,000,000, while the estimate for the year
1893 shows a surplus of receipts over expenditures.

Ocean mail post offices have been established upon the steamers of the
North German Lloyd and Hamburg lines, saving by the distribution on
shipboard from two to fourteen hours' time in the delivery of mail at
the port of entry and often much more than this in the delivery at
interior places. So thoroughly has this system, initiated by Germany and
the United States, evidenced its usefulness that it can not be long
before it is installed upon all the great ocean mail-carrying
steamships.

Eight thousand miles of new postal service has been established upon
railroads, the car distribution to substations in the great cities has
been increased about 12 per cent, while the percentage of errors in
distribution has during the past year been reduced over one-half. An
appropriation was given by the last Congress for the purpose of making
some experiments in