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58 would, as already stated, injure the towns without benefiting the villages.

Nor would the general revenue be very much augmented by such an arrangement. A charge of two-pence per letter, or even three-halfpence, would probably exclude the great mass of printed correspondence, and it would diminish the correspondence of all kinds: it would also tend to maintain, as between large towns, the contraband conveyance of letters, and thus the Post Office would, to a considerable extent, as at present, have to distribute the least profitable part of the correspondence only.

The following is a sketch of the plan of operations which I would suggest.

Let the inhabitants of any district, acting through the Guardians of the Poor or other recognised authority, be entitled, on paying in advance a small annual fee to the Deputy Post-master of the town to which their letters are dispatched, to require that a bag shall be made up for the district; and let them arrange for fetching and carrying the bag, and for the delivery and collection of letters; charging the expense, which would be very trifling, upon the parochial rates, or upon each letter, as may be most convenient. An extra postage, to be collected on the delivery of each letter, would, in a country