Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/66

 number of letters will probably become so great that no practicable increase of the Post Office establishment will be sufficient for their distribution, I may remark upon so extraordinary a supposition, that I never yet heard of a merchant, a manufacturer, or a trader, possessed of sufficient capital and other adequate means, being frightened lest his business should become too large. To go a step further, how ridiculous would it seem should a joint-stock company, with ample capital, an able direction, and active and intelligent agents, decline the undertaking they had proposed to themselves, upon discovering that they must expect an unprecedented demand for the objects of their operations.

With national resources, the transaction of any conceivable amount of Post Office business must be easy; and let it not be forgotten, that under able direction, the more extensive the business, the more systematically it may be conducted, and, consequently, with greater effect, economy, and facility.

The nation can always command the services of men of first rate ability; let that be done, and then we may safely rest assured that all visionary obstacles will at once disappear, and that real difficulties will be vigorously grappled with, and in time overcome.

However, it is always well to have a dernier ressort. If, unluckily, an epidemical passion for