Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/124

56 As some gentlemen, for whose opinion I have a very high respect, think that letters should be distributed for the same charge in all districts, even where, from the thinness of the population, their distribution would be a source of considerable loss to the Revenue, I think it necessary to examine this part of the subject more fully.

In the first place, it may be remarked, that a limit must be drawn somewhere. No one would contend that letters are to be distributed at the minimum rate over a district such as may be found in many parts of Scotland and Wales, and even in some parts of England, where people in the receipt of letters live two or three miles asunder. A system of secondary distribution must, therefore, be provided for. It may, however, be said, give a discretionary power to some one; but a discretionary power lets in favouritism and error, whereas a self-regulating principle is a security against these evils. It would, perhaps, be some approach to a definite arrangement, to say that all villages shall be included under the primary delivery. I very much doubt if any important village would, under economical management, be excluded, by the principle which I advocate, from at least one delivery per day, (and there could be no necessity for a double dispatch to small places off the direct lines of road). The question, however, is, whether one part of the distribution shall be conducted at the expense of the other part?

It is said, that it is the interest of society to make some pecuniary sacrifice for the purpose of sending