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have thought, and they appear to fancy that when the Christian sects are strung together thus, like bells without a tongue, they will ring the world a concert by their external impact. Doubtless it is well, if they only meet to pray together, and blend their hearts in communion before God. It is in itself a beautiful sight, and quite as beautiful in what it indicates-the fact that now, at last, a comprehensive brotherhood in Christ has become a want. That want is above all things to be nourished. And being nourished, how shall it be guided to the attainment of its object? Not by selecting from the contents of our sects, and building up a union in diminished quantities of conviction. Every bell must have a tongue and a voice of its own. What we need is enlarged quantities of conviction, fullness of truth, not a compact based on half the quantity possessed by us now. We must take up the conviction that we do not all together contain more than the truth, and the endeavor must be to end our strifes by such a kind of enlargement as will comprehend all our antagonisms, and bring us into the essential unity of truth itself. We must have it as a settled conviction that in almost every form of Christian opinion earnestly maintained, even those which are often regarded as pure error, there is yet some element of truth, something which makes it true to its disciples. Then, laying aside

all malice, our schools must go into the language, one of another, asking what makes it true to the school maintaining it, and thus we must proceed till all our antagonisms are sifted, and every school has gotten to itself the riches of all. Or, better still, admitting each that our wisdom is not perfect, that the truth we hold is only partial truth, we are to cherish the want of something more perfect. And then, ceasing to insist that others shall receive and justify us, we are to ask what have they which is a want in us? What views of theirs, qualifying ours, would render them more valuable to us? what contribution, accepted of them, would make us more complete in the riches of the Gospel? Thus let Calvinism take in Arminianism, Arminianism Calvinism; let decrees take in contingency, contingency decrees; faith take in works, and works faith; the old take in the new, the new the old-not doubting that we shall be as much wiser as we are more comprehensive, as much closer to unity as we have more of the truth. For then, as all are seen embracing and comprehending all, we shall find that we are one, not by virtue of any concert or agreement, but as the necessary consequence of our completeness in the truth. To be strung together in outward alliances will now be a vain thing; for all Christian souls will ring in peals of harmony, as a chime that is voiced by the truth.

POST OFFICE REFORM.

FIVE years ago, before the subject of a reform in our post-office system had excited public interest, we discussed the question at length in the first Article of this work, and gave some account of the new system which has been so successful in Great Britain.

Two years later, the conviction had become well nigh universal in the northern states, that the postage system of this country was essentially defective and needed reform. Even the officials in Congress and the general post-office, had become convinced by the success of the ex

presses and the independent mails, that the old system could not be carried on much longer, and that at least a considerable reduction of the rate of letter postage had become indispensable. All the devices of governmental oppression had been resorted to, with as much pertinacity as if ours were an arbitrary and not a popular government, to maintain the postage monopoly in the hands of the general post-office, and to prevent the people from getting their letters carried by private enterprise at the rate which free competition would show it to be worth. But power was baffled, and at length it became plain to all that conces. sion must come. This concession, however, of cheaper postage, was made with the worst possible grace, and with every possible shift and contrivance to diminish its value to the people, and to secure, if possible, the ill success of the reform.

ter.

The new bill was first introduced into the Senate, by the chairman of the committee on the post-office, Mr. Merrick, of Maryland, and was avowedly aimed chiefly to crush the private mails-the relief of the people being entirely a secondary matThere was one senator alone, who seemed to enter into the true spirit of the reform-Mr. Simmons, of Rhode Island, unfortunately no longer a public man. Mr. Niles, of Connecticut, was strongly in favor of it, and by his experience as a former Postmaster General, was enabled to render essential service in effecting some valuable changes in the transportation of the mails; but the state of his health disabled him from taking the lead. After much debate, in which the chief display was of the little pains our legislators take to make themselves acquainted with facts and principles on a new subject, the bill was carried in the Senate, establishing a uniform rate of letter postage, at five cents per half ounce, irrespective of dis

tance.

When the bill came to the other house, it was so violently opposed, that there was at one time hardly a hope of its being passed at all. One of the chief objections to it, was that it would break up nearly every stage route at the South, because stage-coaches there are only kept up by the exorbitant sums they receive for carrying small mails that might better be carried on horseback. At length, however, it was literally forced through the house, chiefly by the bold and determined spirit of George Rathbun, of New York; but not until a tool named M'Dow ell, of Ohio, had adroitly slipped in an amendment, imposing double postage on all letters carried over three hundred miles. This bill, thus damaged, reduced the average rate of postage from fifteen cents to sev en and a half, and established the capital principle of charging postage by weight, and not by the number of pieces of paper a letter may comprise. This was, indeed, a great step towards simplification; although the bill contained many provisions that were vexatious and troublesome both to the people and to the department. All the complication of machinery was preserved, with additions involving both expense and perplexity. Probably few acts have ever been passed by Congress, including so many incon gruities and absurdities. Still it was a relief.

But, as if to defeat if possible the hopes of the people, the new administration, then just coming in, consigned the management of the post-office to one of the most per tinacious opponents of the reduc tion,-a man who had spared no pains to defeat it, and who had boldly predicted its failure. And in his first report to Congress, after a trial of only one quarter of a year, he did his best to restore several of the worst features of the old system, under the pretext that the new system had already failed. Fortunate

ly, the condition of Congress renders it almost as difficult to repeal a good law, as it was to pass it; and hence our reduced postage has remained untouched, although it must be admitted that all the legislation since has been to increase the burden of postage. At length, however, the increase of correspondence has been such, by the end of the second year, as almost to restore the former income of the department from letter postage, and we are surprised that the Postmaster General himself is not already a convert to cheap postage, and desirous of securing to his administration the glory of a still farther reduction.

But do as he may, it is evident that cheap postage has stood the test in this country, so far, under the awkward experiment made, as to remove all apprehension of a return to the old and barbarous system. And there are many indications of a desire among the people for further improvement. Under these circumstances, it is quite important to elucidate the principles on which such a reform should be based, to learn the rules by which it should be gov. erned. And here we have a mine of research opened to us in the investigations which preceded and the results which have followed the British system of postage. We know that an impression has been taken up, that Rowland Hill's, or the British system, is not adapted to this country. But we shall show on an examination of the principles and results of that system, that it is even more appropriate to the circumstances of our own country than of Great Britain, and that its adoption here could not fail of producing still more wonderful results.*

The impression that the British

Although many of the facts relating to the British post-office system, now given, may be found in our first article, yet the repetition of them seems to be demanded by the present state of the postVOL. VI.

15

system is not adapted to our use, has been taken up without a due examination of the subject. There are very few persons who are aware of the high scientific character of that system. It is founded on principles which were deduced by as patient study and as scientific induction as the use of steam or the magnetic telegraph. As a mere study, this system of postage may challenge attention. As a means for the advancement of trade, of science, of morals, of civilization, of freedom, of social happiness in every condi tion of life, it may justly be regarded as one of the great wonders and great glories of the age.

A single circumstance will show the cogency of the proofs by which the new system must have been sustained. The British government lies under a debt of more than eight hundred millions of pounds sterling, and is constantly put to shifts to attain a sufficient revenue to keep down the interest. In the year

1837, the net revenue derived from postage was £1,646,554; and in 1838 it was £1,656,993. The first year of the new system, it was only £447,664; a loss to the government of £1,209,329. Arguments of great power must have been presented, before the Government would abandon a million and a quarter of revenue for the advancement of an object hitherto so little thought of as cheap postage.

Mr. Rowland Hill, a gentleman destitute of all the advantages of social position, literary fame, or offi. cial station, proposed his system to the public in an unpretending pamphlet, in the year 1837. At that time he says he had never been within the walls of the post-office. The scheme rested solely on its merits. Without any of the aids which,

office question in this country. Presented by a new writer, at a time of intense public interest on the subject, it is to be hoped they will command more attention, and produce the desired effect.

in that country particularly, are supposed to be necessary to make a thing "go," his proofs and arguments excited so much attention that before the end of 1838, a Parliamentary Committee was raised to give the proposition a thorough examination. The fruits of that examination fill three folio volumes of Parliamentary Documents, made up of official statements, elaborate calculations, and the recorded testimony of a great number of witnesses. So complete was the proof in favor of the new scheme, that it was adopted by the administration then in power, carried through Parliament, and the necessary preparations made for the new system to go into operation at the beginning of 1840. So great a change of governmental policy, effected by means so inadequate, and in the face of difficulties so formidable, can hardly be found in the annals of deliberative legislation.

Mr. Hill's attention was originally drawn to the defects of the old system of postage, by the remarkable fact that for twenty years, commencing with 1815, there had been no increase of revenue from the post-office. It was deemed an important branch of the revenue; it might reasonably be expected to increase with the growth of the country in population, trade, wealth, intelligence, and general prosperity. But instead of this, the revenue had remained stationary. It was £1,557,291 in 1815; and it was but £1,540,300 in 1835. Mr. Hill constructed the following table, comparing the growth of population with the post-office revenue, showing what the latter would have been had it kept pace with the former, and how much was lost by its failure so to do.

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This is without making any allow. ance for the increasing intelligence and prosperity of the people, and shows that the revenue fell short £507,700 of what it ought to have become by the mere increase of population. As a measure of the general prosperity, he then takes the tax on stage-coaches, and shows by its continued increase, what ought to have been the increase of postage, on the assumption, which is fully borne out by other facts, that the demand for the conveyance of letters would naturally increase at least equally with the demand for the conveyance of persons.

Net duty Net post- Due revY'r. on stage- age rev- enne in

Loss.

coaches. enue. proportion 1815 £217,671 £1,557,291 £1,557,291 1820 273,477 1,479,547 1,946,000 £466,453 1825 362.631 1,670,219 2,585,000 914,761 1830 418,598 1,517,952 2,990,000 1,472.048 1835 498,497 1,540,300 3,550.000 2,009,700!

Thus, while the net revenue from the stage-coaches had increased 128 per cent. in 20 years, the postage revenue, which ought naturally to keep pace with it, had not increased at all. Hence the inference that the post-office lost two millions per annum, by its defective system as a source of revenue-that is, from its excessive rates of taxation, operating as a prohibition of correspondence, or driving that correspondence into private or illicit channels.

Mr. Hill expressed his belief that a reduction of the postage 40 or 50 per cent. would more than keep up the revenue to its actual height. He also stated as his opinion that "there is a reduced rate of postage which would give the greater reveenue named above," that is, three and a half millions-not that the revenue would rise at once on the reduction of the postage, but after some time it would advance to that amount. And he refers to many well known cases, where reduced duties have produced an increase of revenue. But it will be seen that eventually, this consideration of in

creasing the revenue of the post-office, as a primary element to be regarded, was laid entirely out of view, and the adoption of the plan, as well as its details, were settled entirely on other considerations than that of an increase of revenue, or even of keeping it up to its actual rate. This point is deserving of special notice, as a key to the whole of the subsequent developments.

In pursuing investigations on the subject, a practical difficulty was disclosed, which, if other considerations had not prevailed, must interfere very seriously with any plans for the increase of the postage revenue. It is this-that the same multiplication of conveyances and facilities for travel, railroads, steamboats, &c., which would create an increase of correspondence, increases in a still greater degree the opportunities for evading any thing like a revenue postage, by the facilities both of practicing and concealing the transmission of letters by other channels than the mail.

The penalty for carrying letters otherwise than by mail was five pounds. And yet it was demonstrated to the Committee, that the contraband conveyance of letters in many parts of the kingdom was six, ten, and even twenty fold greater than the mail conveyance. Mr. Hill says, in his evidence, that "owing to the increase of population in the last twenty years, and to the increase of trade, and the general prosperity of the country, and still more perhaps to the extension of education, the number of letters annually written must have increased very greatly; but the number of letters passed through the post-office has not increased at all." He informed the committee that "it is a notorious fact, that all classes of society, from the highest to the lowest, excepting those only who are exempted from postage by parliamentary or official privilege, frequently send letters otherwise than through

the post-office; there is hardly a carriage of any kind which runs along any of the roads, that does not carry a great many; every parcel almost has letters inclosed; steamboats carry them; the carriers who go from one town to another, take enormous numbers of letters; indeed, to evade postage, every possi ble expedient is resorted to."

The evidence accumulated by the committee in support and illustration of these positions is overwhelming, and brought all classes of statesmen to the full conviction that even the British government, with its compact population, its parliamentary omnipotence, its omnipresent police, was utterly unable to suppress or control the contraband letter-carriage. The facilities were so enormous, the act itself so easy and natural, so easily concealed, and so impossible to be detected, except by a scrutiny which the government could not afford to maintain, and which the people never would submit to, that it was idle to attempt coercing the subjection of the correspondence of the country to the control of the post-office. The evil would necessarily increase as correspondence increased, and as the utter impotence of the government in the matter became more palpable to all men. All these conclusions are fully applicable to the United States. There is no remedy but in a radical change of system, which we fortunately have, tried to our hand.

The moral and commercial evils of a high rate of postage are admirably summed up in the following resolution of the Parliamentary Committee. There can be no question that all the same evils exist to an extent nearly equal, in this country, from the same cause. It was to remove these evils that the government of Great Britain, in its parental care for the welfare of its subjects, adopted the system of uniform and cheap postage, and mag.

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