payment, to the commissary or other officer designated for this duty, the abstracts and accounts which comprise persons described in class I, paragraph 162, and to the Provost-Marshal-General those embracing persons described in class II of that paragraph. The original ration returns shall be filed and carefully preserved by the acting assistant provost-marshal-general for future reference.

164. Subsistence will not be furnished to deputy provost- marshals, salaried agents, or other employes (citizen guards,class II, excepted) of the Provost-Marshal-General's Bureau.

165. When persons comprised in either of the classes specified in paragraph 162 are to travel, the provost-marshal, or other officer in charge of them, shall see that they are supplied with cooked rations for the trip,and no expense will be allowed for subsistence furnished to them on the route, unless the expense be reasonable and unavoidable, from circumstances which could not have been anticipated, and which must be fully explained.

POSTAGE.

166. All letters on "Official Business," addressed to the Provost- Marshal-General, from provost-marshals and other officers of this Bureau, pass free of postage.

167. For every indorsement of "Official" falsely made the person making the same is subject to a fine of $300.

168. The franking privilege is limited to packages weighing not exceeding four pounds.

169. Postage on public business only, paid for by a provost- marshal, will be refunded to him on his certificate to the account, made out on Form 15, giving the number of letters and packages sent and received. Accounts for payment will be forwarded to the Provost- Marshal-General.

170. Officers and employes under the orders of this Bureau are notified that accounts for all telegrams on official business sent from, or received at, the office of the Provost-Marshal- General, will in future, by arrangement with the telegraph company, be paid by the Provost-Marshal-General, in Washington. They are accordingly warned against making payment for any such telegrams received or sent by them. The telegraph should only be used in cases of urgent and imperative necessity, where the delay of the mail would be actually prejudicial to the interests of the public service. (See Circular 4, January 29, 1864.)

INTERNAL-REVENUE TAX.

171. An affidavit is subject to a stamp duty of 5 cents.

172. A power of attorney to receive or collect rent is subject to a stamp duty of 25 cents.

173. Each copy of every contract for furnishing rations, or for furnishing lodgings, is subject to a stamp duty of 5 cents.

174. The jurat to the oat of allegiance is subject to a stamp duty of 5 cents.

175. Each copy of every agreement or contract for rent of rooms, buildings, grounds, &c., is subject to a stamp duty of 50 cents for each and every sheet or piece of paper on which the contract or agreement is written. The adhesive stamp must be furnished, affixed, and canceled by the contractor or lessor, and the case may be, with his initials.