Mr. EDMUNDS. The present amendment of the committee is made up upon aeareful examination of the amount of inspection and other work done at each of the local offices at the points named. so that as near as mathematics can reach such a question, every in spector, by the amendment reported from the committee, is pdid for what ie does in the same ratio that every other inspector is. paid for what he does. The present law went into Upemtion in the year 1852 and for the respective periods ending in 1855, 1860 and 1865, tables have been constructed at the Treasury Dept showin the number of steambonts ‘iiispect iad, the mm or of bfillfli‘! inspected, the number of steamboats licensed, and the number of pilots and engineers licensed, so asto show the respective amounts of business done at each of these points; and the amendment providing for Portland, Oregon, the sum of $700 is, according to these tables. the fair ratio in proportion to the amount of labor that is done there as compared with all the other places where similar work is done, so that while NewYork gets a great deal more than Portland, Oregon, does, it is because a much larger proortion of the time of the inspector is require to perform the duties. It therefore appears to me that the scale which the committee have reported based upon these considerations is as nearly accurate as it possibly can be. The committee were not sat isfied with the bill as it came from the HoRep, and caused these tables and investigations to be made with a view to reduce the appropriation for this service to the lowest amount possible consistent with the worough performance of the important work hich ‘these officers have to do; and upon these considerations they have directed me to propose the amendment which is now before the Senate. The total increase provided for by this amendment above the present law is only $2, 700 for the whole number of inspectors for the whole U.S., making $5, 400 as the total annual increase of expense above the original provision made in 1852; and all that is done is to readjust, based upon the business of the last 15 years, the scale of fees which is appropriate to each place.