Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/152

84 Now, as regards our own Post Office, the number of post letters during the last 20 years has not increased at all, it is manifest that the whole augmentation must have gone to swell the contraband conveyance. Nor is this surprising when we consider that the diminution in the price of almost all other articles has produced a virtual increase in the charge for postage; that the opportunities for such irregular conveyance have vastly multiplied; and that in consequence of the increasing difficulty in enforcing any law which is not strongly backed by public opinion, the risk incurred in this illicit practice is greatly reduced.

Now, it may be safely assumed that, practically speaking, all the letters at present conveyed in this irregular manner, will, by the proposed regulations, be brought to the Post Office.

Here also it may be remarked, that without interfering with the privilege of franking, the proposed reduction would tend greatly to relieve Members of Parliament and others from the importunity to which they are at present exposed, and thus convert no inconsiderable portion of the 24,000 daily franks into chargeable letters.

With respect to increase in the actual amount of correspondence, the proposed arrangements will bring two causes into operation, both very potent.

First.—Increased facility of communication.

Secondly.—Diminished expense.

On the potency of the former cause much light is thrown by the Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, as quoted at page 46, and I may here especially refer to the fact, that the consequence of Mr. Palmer's improvements, which merely tended to increase facility, was, in the course of twenty years, to triple the correspondence of the country.

But the second cause would probably tend to the increase of correspondence even more than the first.

That the lowering of duties most decidedly tends to increase consumption, is proved by the fact, that in scarcely any instance has the loss to the revenue been in the same proportion as the reduction. Several instances were cited in the first page of this