mail almost ceases to be a public accommodation. It is not necessary that the mails should outstrip every possible conveyance; it is not necessary that the mail should in every instance travel so fast that no express can on any emergency go before it; but it is necessary that the mail go so fast from one point to another that no ordinary rate of traveling, upon that route, shall exceed it. When travelers from New York arrive at New Haven daily by the steamboats, and the mail from New York comes daily, creeping along by land some six or eight hours afterwards, the publicwhether by the fault of the government or of some body else-is not accommodated. When it took five or six days for a traveler to pass between New York and Boston, that was as fast as a letter could reasonably be expected to travel. The speed of the most rapid ordinary traveling on a given route, is the least with which the public will be satisfied. If a more rapid transmis sion is attempted, it will be found that cheapness is sacrificed to speed, and the mail instead of affording equal accommodation to all the members of society, is a convenience only to those who can afford to pay high postage.

5. Another quality, of great importance to a perfect system, is security against abuses. Letters entrusted to the public mails should be inviolable; and he who writes to a friend, should feel that though his letter be filled even to the outer edges, no post-office clerk is likely to peep into it. The system should be so arranged as to hold every agent and official, effectually, to a strict responsibility, and to prevent as far as possible all collusion of one with another for fraudulent purposes. No temptations to petty frauds and deceitful tricks, should be allowed to exist where they can possibly be avoided. Those who for the time being are entrusted with the admin

istration, should not be permitted, nor even tempted, to use the postoffice department for their own selfish purposes. And no party of politicians-whether administration or opposition-should be enabled to use the post-office as an electioneering engine, save at their own expense. Of any two systems, equal in other respects, that which most effectually guards against all such abuses, is the best. That is a base government any where, which voluntarily, and unnecessarily, and perseveringly, puts any sort of temptation in the way of its officials or in the way of those who have dealings with it.

We may add, here, without entering into any discussion, that, on the principle just referred to, the entire post-office establishment of a Christian people, ought to respect the Christian sabbath. The govern ment cannot trifle with the religious ideas and sympathies of a Christian people, without producing an effect upon the moral sense and moral habits of the people, that will cost too much in the end.

The post-office system now existing in this country, has existed without any essential change, ever since the organization of the Federal government. At the beginning, it was naturally and wisely copied, in its most important features, from the system which then existed in Great Britain. It has been extended and modified from time to time; and it has been so well administered, and its working has been on the whole so beneficial, that there has been little dis position to attempt any material improvement. Of late however, a new system-new in the adoption of sev eral important principles-has been introduced in Great Britain, and in connection with this, the attention of the American people has been directed partially and ineffectually to the subject of post-office reform.

The new system which went into operation in Great Britain, on the

tenth day of January, 1840, is one which must sooner or later be introduced, not only into our country, but under every civilized government. For reasons which will appear in the sequel, we ask the attention of the reader to some account of the origin of this system, of the principles on which it is constructed, and to the inquiry how far such a system is desirable and practicable in our

own country.

Of the "penny postage" system, as it is called, most persons in this country know little more than the name. It was first proposed in 1837, by a Mr. Rowland Hill, a man previously unknown to the public, in a pamphlet on "post-office reform." The object of that pamphlet was, to show that under a system which it described, letters not exceeding half an ounce each in weight, might be received in any part of the kingdom of Great Britain, and delivered in any other part of the kingdom, for a penny sterling; and that under such a system, this great diminution of postage would in the end involve no diminution of revenue.

This bold proposal immediately excited public attention. Fortunately for its success, a parliamentary commission was at that time engaged in an extended investiga tion of the management of the postoffice department. The commissioners having already reported upon various parts of the general inquiry with which they were charged, could do little more in regard to Mr. Hill's plan than to call him before them and examine his opinions and arguments, respecting that branch of the subject upon which they had not yet reported. This however was a favorable introduction of Mr. Hill's proposal, to the notice both of the Parliament and of the public.

In May, 1837, some three months after the appearance of Mr. Hill's pamphlet, a petition in favor of his Vol. I.

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scheme was presented to both houses of Parliament, signed by a large number of the business men of London in every department-" merchants, bankers, insurance companies, men of science, solicitors, publishers, printers," &c. About the same time, a memorial in behalf of the proposed reform was presented to the Lords of the treasury, by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Ere long, the Common Council of the city of London, and the councils of other large towns, began to appear as the advocates of this reform, so obviously important to every commercial or manufacturing community.

In November of that year, a com. mittee was appointed by the House of Commons, to examine into the practicability of the proposed new system, and particularly whether it could be adopted without diminishing the net revenue of the post-office department. A parliamentary committee of inquiry is a very different affair in Great Britain, from such a committee in Congress, or in one of our State legislatures. There, such a committee, instead of finishing its business in one or two evenings or mornings, sits again and again, for weeks or for months-calls before it all sorts of men that can be supposed to have any interest in the subject of inquiry, or any knowledge of its details-not only hears but records and reports their facts and reasonings on the subjectmakes one report, and if the subject is not exhausted, another, and another-till in the end a mass of information, including both facts and principles, has been collected, and digested, and presented both to the legislature and to the people, which may become the basis of wise, satisfactory and stable legislation. This committee on the reduction of postage sat sixty-three days; and they examined eighty-three witnesses, besides those who were called to give facts and opinions from the post-of

fice department and from the stampoffice.

In the mean time, that this work might be done the more thoroughly, a voluntary committee was formed by several of the most eminent merchants and bankers of the city of London, for the purpose of collecting evidence to lay before the parliamentary committee. The establishment of such a voluntary committee, was a striking indication of the interest taken in the enquiry by commercial men; and the existence and operations of such a committee naturally tended to awaken a deeper interest on the part of the whole people. In the session of 1838, this reform was urged upon Parliament by more than 320 petitions, with 38,708 signatures. In 1839, after the reports of the committee of inquiry had been published, including all the testimony which the committee had taken, the public zeal for post-office reform was shown by the presentation of 2,007 petitions, with 262,809 signatures, from all classes of society, merchants, manufacturers, municipal corporations, scientific men, the clergy of the establishment, ministers of the various dissenting denominations, literary and scientific societies, and associations of professional men. Such demonstrations of the public will, the British government has long been accustomed to obey. The result was, that Mr. Rowland Hill's proposal, in two years and a half after the publication of his pamphlet, was passed into an act of Parliament.*

* To the reprint of the Report of the Committee on postage (referred to at the commencement of this article) is appended the following appeal, which we copy as an illustration of the way in which the reform was carried in Great Britain.

UNIFORM PENNY POSTAGE. (Form of a petition.) To the Honorable, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal [or, the Commons, as the case may be] in Parliament assembled: The humble petition of the undersigned, [to be filled up with the name of place, corporation, &c.]

So much for the origin of the new system. The principles on which it is constructed, are by no means summed up in the name which is commonly given to it"penny postage." In England it is found practicable, under this sys

Sheweth, That your petitioners earnestly desire an uniform penny post, payable in advance, as proposed by Rowland Hill, and recommended by the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons. That your petitioners intreat your Honorable House to give instant effect to this report, &c.

Mothers and Fathers that wish to hear from their absent children! Friends who are parted, that wish to write to each other! Emigrants that do not forget their native homes! Farmers that wish

to know the best markets! Merchants and Tradesmen that wish to receive orders and money quickly and cheaply! Mechanics and Laborers that wish to learn where good work and high wages are to be had! support the report of the House of Commons with your petitions city, town and village, every corporation, for an uniform penny post. Let every every religious society and congregation, petition, and let every one in the kingdom sign a petition with his name or his mark. This is no question of party politics.

Lord Ashburton, a conservative, and one of the richest noblemen of the country, spoke these impressive words before the House of Commons committee:—

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Postage is one of the worst of our taxes; it is, in fact, taxing the conversation of people who live at a distance from each other. The communication of letters by persons living at a distance, is the same as a communication by word of mouth between persons living in the same town." Sixpence," says Mr. Brewin, "is the third of a poor man's income; if a gentleman, who had 1000l. a year, or 31. a day, had to pay one third of his daily income, a sovereign for a letter, how often would he write letters of friendship? Let a gentleman put that to himself, and then he will be able to see how the poor man cannot be able to pay sixpence for his letter."

READER! If you can get any signatures to a petition, make two copies of the above on two half sheets of paper; get them signed as numerously as possible; fold each up separately; put a slip of paper around, leaving the ends open; direct one to a member of the House of Lords, the other to a member of the House of Commons, London, and put them into the post-office.

paper with the letter, and they pay nothing but the letter postage. But the apprentice boy who, out of his hard earnings, or harder savings, wants to send a dollar to his widowed mother, to help her in her strug gles to feed and school his younger brothers and sisters, must be taxed not for his letter only, but to the amount of from six to twenty-five per cent. on his poor paper dollar. On the new system of Great Britain, every thing not exceeding half an ounce in weight, goes for a single letter; and no postmaster's clerk is set to poke a wire into its foldings, to see what it encloses.

5. Another principle of the new system is the entire abolition of the franking privilege. The privilege of sending letters and documents by the public mails, free of postage, is allowed in this country to a great number of persons, with various restrictions, which are more or less respected according as the consciences of the privileged individuals are more or less efficient. It was so in England. The Postmaster General of the United States in 1839, (Mr. Niles,) declared that, during the last three quarters of the year reviewed in his report, the free matter constituted a very considerable portion of the entire mails. During three weeks only of the summer of that year, the pamphlets and printed documents franked at the Washington city post-office, exclusive of franked letters, amounted to sixteen tons and a half. Who pays for the transportation of all this tonnage, and for its distribution to tens of thousands of individuals? It costs the department just as much to convey a free letter, as to convey in the same mail a letter of the same weight on which postage is to be paid. It may be necessary for the public good, that members of Congress and other dignitaries should have their postage given, to them, in addition to their pay and their other perquisites; but how

ought this to be paid for? It is now paid for by those who pay postage. Why should it not be a charge upon the general funds of the government? Why should we, in the walks of private life, pay our own postage and that of members of Congress besides? In Great Britain, Mr. Hill's system has abolished franking. The department is no respecter of persons. The Queen herself-as we understand the case-pays her postage like an honest woman.

6. Another principle on which the new system is constructed, is the principle, well understood among mercantile men, that it is better to do a large business with small profits, than to do a small business with larger profits. On this principle it is that the postage is reduced, in that country, to a penny for a half ounce letter. the same principle, in such a country as this, the postage should be reduced to the lowest uniform rate at which the establishment, taken as a whole, would be able to support itself.

On

In Great Britain, the reduction of postage has been followed, as was expected, by a temporary falling off of the revenue of the department. The department, however, notwithstanding this falling off, not only supported itself, but yielded for the general purposes of the government a net revenue of about three millions of dollars for the first year; and since that time the revenue has been such as to confirm the expectation of its continued increase, till it shall exceed what was received under the old system of high postages.

This is the outline of the system. Some of the principal advantages which would attend the adoption of a similar system in our own country, are obvious.

1. The most obvious is, that there must needs be under such a system, an immense increase of the corres