Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/75

Rh of postage quite as injurious to the revenue as to individuals."

There cannot, I conceive, be a doubt that the main cause of the remarkable state of the Post Office revenue, is that which Sir Henry Parnell and Mr. McCulloch point out. Consequently, that even supposing the tax on the transmission of letters to be regulated with a total disregard to the convenience of the public, but merely with a view of rendering it as productive in immediate revenue as possible, it is at present decidedly too high.

The net revenue derived from the Post Office is rather more than twice the whole cost of management; from which it may appear that the tax is about 200 per cent. on the natural or untaxed cost of postage. Such a tax, enormous as it would be, is however far below that really levied,—for it must be borne in mind that the cost of management includes the cost of collecting the tax, and that of conveying the newspapers and franked letters. Hereafter an attempt will be made to ascertain the natural cost of postage with some degree of precision. In the mean time it may be remarked, that even if the whole expense of the Post Office be considered as the natural cost of conveying the letters and newspapers, and a due proportion (say one-third) of that expense be placed to the account of newspapers and franked letters, the tax on the transmission of