Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/99

Rh their labour is obviously much increased by the circumstance of the charge varying with each successive letter.

As we have seen that the above arrangements, if carried into practice, would secure a vast public benefit, we are naturally led to the consideration of the means for their adoption.

To so extensive a change there are, of course, many obstacles; some sacrifices are necessarily required; any plan, therefore, which holds out a fair prospect of surmounting the difficulty must justly be considered, even if not free from objection, as entitled to a careful and candid examination.

The essential elements of such a plan are, first, a very low rate of postage, to neutralise the objections on the part of the public to its being demanded in advance; and, secondly, a uniform rate of postage, to simplify the mode of accounting for its receipt. With respect to the latter element, it has already been shown (p. 19) that in fairness the rates of postage for primary distribution ought to be uniform; the cost of transit along the mail-roads, even for the greatest distances, being so trifling, as not to be expressible by the smallest coin. This part of the plan, therefore, appears to present no difficulty, and the only question is, whether it is possible to reduce the postage sufficiently low.

In order to ascertain the greatest extent to which this reduction may be carried, it will be necessary to calculate the cost of primary distribution under the