cent rate. But this would be a departure in the opposite direction, from the true principle of freight, or a just equivalent for services rendered, which is deemed essential to the success of cheap postage. Let it be known that the service required is paid for, and an essential motive to fidelity is supplied, without which it would be impossible to keep so vast a machine in order. The experiment with newspapers at one cent, although they require less handling than letters, proves that letter postage at one cent never would be made to pay. For, although we are such a newspaper reading people, the one cent rate does not yield, at the end of sixty years, more than twothirds of the expense. The amount of handling required in the care of letters would swell the expense, so that no supposable increase of numbers would meet the cost of postage. As there can be no intermediate rate, because there is no coin in which payment can be made, it follows that two cents is the freight mark, and cannot be abandoned for any other.

Another proof of the correctness of this rate is seen in the still continued energy and growth of the British post-office. The net revenue for the year ending October 5th, 1849, is £60,000 above that of last year, a proof that the rate is not too high.

The profits which, with good management, cannot fail to accrue, will be well employed in increasing the public accommodation by the mail.

Let us now suppose the cheap postage law passed, and that the Department has fully impregnated itself with the ruling idea of freight, not tax. The chief is no longer earnest to merit applause by his success in worming out that million of dollars from letter postage to pay other objects. Postage itself is no longer a mystery of prerogative, but a mere dollar and cert affair of quid pro quo, to be managed like any other matter of business, according to the dictates of common sense.

It is now evident that the administrative credit, and success of the Department will now depend upon two things, the greatest possible increase in the number of letters carried in the mails, and the greatest possible economy in avoiding unnecessary expense. No outlay of money would now be spared, if, in any way, by direct or indirect operation, it could be made to pay. No expense would be incurred, through favoritism or other motive, which could be curtailed or dispensed with. The spirit of public accommodation would take possession of the whole corps of post-office officials and servants; and each would vie with all in endeavoring to afford the greatest facilities, to encourage the greatest multiplication of letters.

It would also lead to a great simplification of the whole business of the post-office, both at the general post-office, and in every branch of the service. The uniformity of rate would simplify the accounts, to an amazing degree. It is said that saveral additional clerks were required in the general post-office, under the old system, merely from the fact that every return from a post-office necessarily had one column of fractions of a cent. The payment of postage by stamps would guard the Department against losses. It would so simplify the business of the local post-offices, that they could be kept at much less expense, with less cost of clerk hire, and by persons who would be satisfied with a lower rate of compensation. In this manner would the Department compensate itself for the additional labor of receiving and delivering three or four times the present number of letters.

It would not be easy to specify all the ways in which the labor of keeping a post-office will be diminished by the general practice of prepayment with stamps. These stamps will be for sale, not only at the post-office, but at

the shops, the keepers of which find it for their interest to have them, not for the profits of the sale, for there are none, but for the accommodation of their customers, and to secure the trade in other things. The office of reception has then no trouble of running to the window and making change on a prepaid letter; and the office of delivery no trouble in trusting out unpaid letters to persons with short memories.

In curious contrast with this is the mode now in use of selling postage stamps. You find them for sale no where but at the post-office, and at the post-office you cannot buy stamps at the window. No clerk can be trusted with the precious charge. But you must go round by a back way, through an obscure door, up a narrow, winding stairway, into a lobby having several doors, and when you find the one leading to the cashier's room, you may enter there, and be allowed to purchase stamps! This is but a specimen of a hundred absurd and vexatious inconveniences to which the community submit, which will be voted intolerable under the reign of cheap postage.

There will be a certain revolution in the system, or rather un-system, at present pursued in the gathering and distribution of letters in our large towns. This cannot fail to take place, for the simple reason that the present method will be found too cubersome and costly to pay, while a far more simple and more convenient system cannot fail to pay, in all cases where sound judgment may warrant its adoption. One essential change will be, that by adopting a strictly uniform rate, for all distances or no distance, the distinction between mail letters and drop letters will be abolished, and the local distribution will become an integral portion of the post-office, and er joy all its supervisions, privileges, and responsibilities, instead of the anomolous, insecure, and irresponsible management which now exists in this city, it is said under the sanction and authority of the Department at Washington. It is surprising that the citizens submit with so much apathy to this state of things. It was stated, a few weeks ago, in the Era newspaper, that there were over 700 letters in one of these sub-post-office establishments, (Boyd's,) designed for the mails, but not forwarded because the fee was not prepaid. Who can tell the sad hearts, perhaps the failing fortunes, that may be occasioned by this suppression of seven hundred letters? Correspondents of the daily papers are ever and anon complaining that letters deposited in these sub-post-offices, with the expectation that they will be delivered at once, are not delivered till two or three days after, when the object of writing has been frustrated by the delay. This will be greatly remedied by making the sub-offices a part of the post-office, under the control and responsibility of the post-master.

Walk around the old "Middle Dutch," and observe the extent of the apparatus, the frontage required, and the number of persons employed, for the delivery of letters to those who make it a point to call for their letters. There are 3,228 boxes, for which rent is voluntarily paid by individuals who wish to find their letters deposited separately from the mass. There are 15 windows, for general delivery, including that for ladies, and that for newspapers. And if you watch, after the arrival of a steamer, or just at the close of the day, when the workingmen leave their toil, and hurry to snatch their only opportunity of calling for a letter, you will often find long rows of men waiting their turn to call at the window. What would be thought of the wisdom of our Water authorities, if they had established one reservoir at the corner of Nassau and Cedar streets, for the use of all the inhabitants living below Chambers street, and then employed a dozen or twenty men to deal it out to those who

came for a supply? "As cold water to the thirsty, so is good news from afar." And yet for this comfort we must all huddle to one place, instead of having safe and ready conduits to bring it promptly to every man's door. Without data for a particular estimate, it is quite within bounds to say, that a thousand dollars per day would not pay for the time spent by the people of New York in going and sending to the post-office, when, with cheap postage and prepayment, a hundred dollars a day would cause all the letters to be delivered at the dwellings or counting rooms of the people, three times daily, within half an hour after the mails are ready for delivery.

It is not very difficult to see how this plan of free delivery of prepaid let-· ters, all over the city, three or four times a day, could be made to pay expenses. Embracing all letters alike, whether coming by mail or originating in the city, it would greatly increase correspondence through the mails, by the facility of the process, and the absence of extra expense. And then, with a well arranged and trustworthy management, an immense internal correspondence would arise among the inhabitants, for business and friendship, which would yield a harvest of profit to the post-office, and a far richer harvest of commercial and social benefits to the people.

In London, where there are ten deliveries daily, over a circuit of three miles from the general post-office, the weekly number of district post-letters delivered, that is, of letters originating in London, or what our department calls "drop letters," in February, 1848, was 607,674, and of general postletters, that is, letters brought by mail, 2,192,302, making a total of 2,899,976, equal to 414,439 daily. And so perfect is the system, that a stranger rarely remains a week in London without being reached by his letters, even when bearing only the general address of London. And so satisfactory is it, that there are no private boxes, and one window answers for all calls of every description. The number of drop letters has increased nearly three fold since the establishment of the penny rate, which reduced the postage onehalf. This is a case in point, to show what would be the effect of a reduction from five cents to two cents. Why should 2,000,000 of people in London receive 150,000,000 of letters in a year, while 21,000,000 in the United States receive only 62,000,0000? Cheap postage and free delivery are the cause. What an immense amount of business and of social intercourse is indicated by the circulation of 120,000 city letters every day. How many transactions would be facilitated among us, how many inconveniences avoided, by even three or four reliable opportunities of sending to any individual in any part of the city or suburbs for two cents.

Letters produce letters. Each letter received naturally leads to a reply. Every man who writes on his own business will of course enclose a stamp to prepay the pastage on the answer. But dead letters bring no answers. The esprit du corps of the department, which will prevail under the new system, will be the ambition of showing the greatest possible multiplication of letters, as the sole test of administrative ability. If a sufficient number of competent carriers are employed, they will soon come to know the names of nearly every person in their respective districts, and of course will be almost sure of effecting the delivery of every letter to its direction. This will supercede the present costly system of advertising. It will also greatly diminish the proportion of dead letters, now amounting to upwards of two millions a year, which is a dead loss to the department, including expense, of $200,000, nearly the whole of which will be avoided by the general adoption of prepayment. In EngVOL. XXII.-NO. I.

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land, with six times the number of letters, the dead letters are only half as many as in this country.

To show the facility with which such small services can be performed for the most trifling consideration, with ready pay, observe that the cost of delivering the daily papers by carriers is not more than half a dollar a year for 310 papers. The dealers in penny papers often lay up money by buying papers at 67 cents per hundred and selling them for a cent a piece, or serving them to subscribers at 6 cents per week, which they collect weekly. It may be said, and with truth, that letters require to be delivered with more care than papers, so that even prepaid letters will require more time. But many persons will have letter boxes at the door, properly secured, into which the carrier can drop his prepaid letters, ring the bell, and pass on. For it must not be forgotten that, when the old spirit of exaction shall be cast out, and the spirit of accommodation becomes the inspiring genius of the postoffice, all reasonable and decent people will be equally as anxious to accom modate it, as it is to accommodate them. And this rivalry of mutual facilitation will be of itself a stride in the progress of social refinement.

Another branch of the service which needs, and will feel the renovating effects of cheap postage, is the arrangement of the mails, especially those which are connected with the steamboat and railroad lines. For example: The mails from Boston for the surrounding villages, two, three, five, or ten miles distant, are mostly sent early in the morning, and are made up over night. A large share of the letters and papers for those places are from the South, and are brought to Boston by the steamboat line from New York, which arrives after those mails are made up, but before they are actually despatched. The consequence is, that all those letters lie in the Boston postoffice till the next mail-often 24 hours. If there is a noon mail, they get them, but too late to reply by return of mail. The contents of the English mail, when it comes to New York, are subject to a similar detention. The remedy is, to require the traveling mail agents to sort and arrange all those mails during the passage from New York, so that they can be despatched in a moment with the outgoing morning mails for Boston.

The same thing might be done to a great extent in the railroad trains, by just securing a proper apartment for the post-office in one of the cars. Even if additional clerks should be required to perform the labor, it would be so much labor saved from the clerks in the office. And the difference of expense would be trifling in comparison with the public advantage, and the great increase of correspondence which it would produce. Such a system, were it introduced, would lead to a multiplication of mails in some proportion to the number of trains running daily. Only simplify the process, and take away the mystery and machinery with which the business is invested, and there is no good reasons why letters should not be delivered as frequently as parcels. In connection with this would be a more reasonable provision for late posted letters. The mail now closes at Boston one hour before the departure of the train, and after that no letter can pass through the post-office for New York. But by sending half a mile, to the railroad station, a letter can be dropped in the box at the very instant of departure. And the mail itself is not taken from the post-office till within 20 minutes of departure. Why, then, may not a pocket be kept open at the post-office, in which late letters may be deposited, for an additional postage, up to the time that the mail is taken? Such a practice existed, by connivance, though without an additional fee, for late letters. And those letters, with those left at the cars, were sorted by

the traveling agent during the passage to New York. But the Postmaster has legally ordered it discontinued, at some inconvenience to the public. What we want is a new system.

A recent case will illustrate several points in this connection. The mail agents on the railroad routes had been in the practice of receiving all letters deposited with them or in the letter box of the car, and these letters they sorted and mailed, as far as they could. But a question arose in regard to the legality of this practice, and the matter was referred to the general postoffice for decision. The Postmaster-General thereupon issued a circular, stating that the proper duty of the route agents is the care and delivery of the mails, "but inasmuch as necessity may at times require letters to be written too late to be mailed at the office," the route agents "are permitted to receive and mail them," it being "presumed" that no person will thus deliver letters "except in a real case of necessity." This order was considered by some of the agents to be a virtual permission to refuse letters; which produced complaints, and the case went back to the Postmaster-General for explanation. This produced the following order, which is placed on record as a memorial of the no-system which now governs the post-office-the fault of the institution more than of those who are compelled to administer it.

Post-Office Department, November 23d, 1849.

SIR: It is represented that some route agents on the railroads have given such construction to a circular recently issued, as to refuse to receive letters for the mail. Such is not the language or object of that circular. Its object was to induce the community, as far as possible, to deposit all letters in the post-offices, where their despatch would be most convenient and certain, but at the same time to have the agents receive those delivered to them, and to mail them as far as in their power. They will continue to receive all that are offered, and to mail to destination all that they can. Respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. COLLAMER, Postmaster-General.

It reminds one of Mr. Adams' famous "Ebony and Topaz” toast, the struggle between light and darkness, the endeavor to harmonize the spirit of exaction with the spirit of accommodation. Will any one tell us what was the object aimed at by the circular, that is not given up by the explanatory or der? The fault is in the system. The people demand accommodation, while the genius of the system prompts to exaction. There is no way to restore consistency and uniformity of action, but by establishing unity of principle, in conformity with the demands of the people.

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To facilitate and systematize these arrangements, and superintend their working, and keep them in order, we need a division of the work into districts, from ten to twenty in number, on a plan partly suggested by Major Hobbie's letter. In each district there should be a deputy Postmaster-General, with a surveyor and clerk, who might have the entire direction of the mails and routes, under the paramount orders of the Postmaster-General. Our post-office army is now made of a General, three Majors, and 20,000 privates, each one of the latter being in direct correspondence with the Chief. No service can be made effective under an organization so defective and unbusiness like. A district deputy, with a proper force of assistants, would have, in effect, a personal supervision of the whole work. It would involve some additional expense, but at the same time it would greatly simplify the work, and reduce the labor and cost of the general post-office; and would more than pay for itself by its promptness in stopping innumerable small leaks, which now go undetected. It would give unity and consistency of