3. It retards the progress of the arts and sciences, and paralyzes the hands of the educator..

4. It circumscribes the operations of the benevolent and the humane, and thus injures the poor and the needy.

5. It imposes grievous burdens upon the learned professions, and prevents that free interchange of thought, which progress in the arts, literature, morals, and religion, and the general good of society, demand.

6. It leads to frequent and most extensive violations of the statutes for the protection of the post-office revenue, and thus impairs respect for the laws.

The result of the experiment, already made by our government, in the partial reduction of the rates of postage, warrants the belief, that a still further reduction may be made, without endangering the revenue, and with like beneficial results to the whole people.

The postmaster-general, in his last annual report, speaking of this experiment, says, "It is gratifying to find that, within so short a period after the great reduction of the rates of postage, the revenues of the department have increased much beyond the expectations of the friends of the cheap-postage system, while the expenditures, for the same time, have diminished more than half a million of dollars annually, and that the department is in a condition to sustain itself, without further aid from the treasury."

From the same document, we learn that the whole number of letters which passed through the mails, during the year ending June 30th, 1847, was

The whole number of newspapers,

52,173,480

55,000,000

Of this sum, was derived from letter-postage,

3,188,957 43

Leaving but

$691,380 33

for all the other resources of the department.

The same officer estimates the revenue, for the current year, at $4,313,157, which will exceed the expenses of the department, the last year, $333,587, and the average expenses, for the nine years next preceding the reduction, by the sum of $51,407 65.

From these facts we infer,

1. That a further reduction may be made in the revenues of the department, without endangering the national treasury.

If it be the settled policy of the government, that the postoffice shall be sustained by its own resources, it ought not, certainly, to be required to pay into the public treasury, annually, the sum of $333,587, in addition to at least $312,500, in the way of franked letters, and $200,000 more in the transportation of franked public documents, and $125,000 more for dead letters,-making, in all, nearly one million of dollars, which the department is now taxed for the special benefit of the general government.

2. That reducing the rates of postage tends to increase the revenues of the department, while it reduces the expenditures.

The estimated revenue of the current year, exceeds the average annual revenue of the nine years next preceding the reduction, by $51,407 65, while the expenditures of the year ending June 30th, 1847, are less than the annual average of the nine years next preceding the reduction, by $520,022.

3. That the franking privilege is as essentially a tax upon letter-postage for the benefit of the general government, as it would be, were the same amount of money derived from letterpostage put into the public treasury, to be used for public purposes.

4. That letter-postage, which, we think, should bear no burdens but its own, is now taxed, 1. For the transmission of letters and public documents, franked by public officers for the benefit of the general government. 2. For the transmission of newspapers and pamphlets, the postage of which defrays but a moiety of the expense they impose upon the department. 3. The expense of maintaining mail routes in new and sparsely peopled territories. With as much propriety might the expenses of military posts, in those regions, be made chargable upon the post

office department, as that of sustaining post-offices and transmitting mail bags to letter-postage.

The results of the experiment now being made in Great Britain, as far as developed, are still more conclusive in favor of cheap postage.

Their present system of postage, which owes its paternity to Rowland Hill, went into operation in 1840. The rates of postage there corresponded very nearly to those of our government before the reduction made in 1845. They were at once reduced to a uniform rate of one penny for all printed and written letters weighing not more than half an ounce; on all pamphlets and magazines letter-postage for every half ounce; all newspapers, printed on stamped paper, to go free. The charge to be the same for all distances, and, in all cases, doubled, if not prepaid. The franking privilege was abolished, and provision made for the transmission of money in sums not exceeding five pounds.

As was anticipated, a great reduction took place in the receipts of the post-office department.

The net proceeds for 1839, was £1,544,224. The average net proceeds for the twelve years next preceding, was £1,577,520. But from 1815 to 1835, a period of twenty years, the net postage revenue had diminished £17,000; while the revenue from stage-coaches had increased 128 per cent., and that too while, in population, wealth, manufactures, commerce, arts, the sciences and general intelligence, the nation was progressing faster than for the like time in any other portion of its history.

In 1841, the net receipts of the department were

But, in 1846, the net receipts of the department amounted to

£760,588

Showing an average annual increase, from the commencement of the reform, of

£44,112

And a difference between the receipts of 1840 and 1846

of

£264,674

It is worthy of remark, that, under the new law, the receipts for newspaper-postage are enumerated under the head of stamps, and enter not among the resources of the post-office department.

But there is another aspect of this subject. In 1839, the whole number of letters which passed through the mails was but 99,000,000.

In 1840, the first year of the reduction, it amounted to 192,000,000, nearly double.

In 1845 the number was 329,161,511, an increase, in six years, of 234 per cent. Of this number, 271,904,646, passed through the offices of England proper, 28,669,169, through those of Scotland, and 28,587,996, through those of Ireland; while not more than fifty-three millions passed through the offices of the United States, with a population little less than that of England, Scotland and Ireland, combined, and with a greater proportion of readers and writers than any other people on the globe; a people, too, who print and read more than half the newspapers that are published.

This disparity is obviously attributable to two causes :—

1. The increased facilities for communication by letter, have caused a much more frequent and more general intercourse through this medium.

2. All inducements to evade the laws and defraud the revenue being removed, most of the letters which are written find their way into the mails.

We further infer, that a system of postage which has operated so beneficially in England, affording greatly increased facilities to commerce, trade, manufactures, literary and benevolent operations, and, through these, securing a permanent augmentation of the revenues of the government, would be productive of like benefits, and might, with entire safety, be adopted in our own government.

From these considerations, your memorialists are induced to submit the following outline of a plan for further reducing the rates of postage:

1. That the rate of postage on letters, newspapers, and all printed documents, be uniform, irrespective of distance.

2. That the postage on all written or printed letters be two cents per half ounce.

3. That the postage of newspapers be one cent, in all cases to be prepaid.

4. That for all pamphlets, magazines, and other printed documents, letter-postage be charged for every half ounce.

5. In all cases, the rates to be doubled, if not prepaid.

6. The franking privilege to be confined to business connected with the post-office.

The difference in expense between transporting a letter five miles and five hundred miles, is so small as scarcely to be appreciable. A barrel of flour may be freighted from Albany to Boston for forty cents. At that rate, 160 half-ounce letters may be carried two hundred miles for one cent.

On all the mail routes, the mails are to be transported, whether there be few or many letters. If a letter be mailed at Boston, we conceive that it can make no difference with the carriers, whether the letter is stopped at New York, or continues on to Washington or New Orleans, except it be the increase of weight, which, as we have seen, is so near infinitessimal as to be inappreciable.

Furthermore, the letter which has travelled but one hundred miles may perform as essential service to the recipient as that which has been carried one thousand miles; and, if the expense to the department is the same in both cases, we know not why one should pay more than the other.

Hence we are of the opinion, that, in estimating the expense of transmitting mail matter, distance is not an essential element. In recommending so great a change as, from an average of six and a quarter cents, down to an English penny, or, what is nearly its equivalent, two cents, we are well aware that we shall awaken fears, lest the post-office department become burdensome to the general government.

But the evils we would remove, we apprehend, cannot be reached by milder means. To afford material and permanent relief, the reduction must be so great, as at once to cut off all competition in the way of private conveyances, remove every