Page:The crater; or, Vulcan's peak.djvu/384

 144 THE CRATER; Had there been a newspaper at the Crater, under the control of some philosopher, who had neither native talent, nor its substitute education, but who had been struck out of a printer s devil by the rap of a composing-stick, as Minerva is reported to have been struck, full-grown, out of Jupiter s head by the hammer of Vulcan, it is probable that the wiseacre might have discovered that it was an inexcusable interference with the rights of the colonists, to enact that no one should carry letters for hire, but those connected with the regular post-office. But, no such per son existing, the public mind was left to the enjoyment of its common-sense ignorance, which remained satisfied with the fact that, though it might be possible to get a letter carried from the Reef to the Cove, between which places the communications were constant and regular, for half the money charged by the office, yet it was not possible to get letters carried between some of the other points in the colony for twenty times the regulated postage. It is probable, therefore, that the people of the Crater and the Peak felt, that in supporting a general system, which embraced the good of all, they did more towards extending civilization, than if they killed the hen, at once, in order to come at the depository of the golden eggs, in the shortest way. In the middle ages, he who wished to send a missive, was compelled, more than half the time, to be at the ex pense of a special messenger. The butchers, and a class of traders that corresponds, in part, to the modern English traveller, took charge of letters, on the glorious Free Trade principle; and sometimes public establishments hired mes sengers to go back and forth, for their own purposes. Then, the governments, perceiving the utility of such ar rangements, imperfect as they were, had a sort of post- offices for their use, which have reached down to our own times, in the shape of government messengers. There can be little doubt that the man who found he could get a letter safely and promptly conveyed five hundred miles for a crown, after having been obliged previously to pay twenty for the same service, felt that he was the obliged party, and never fancied for a moment, that, in virtue of his patronage, he was entitled to give himself airs, and to stand upon his natural right to have a post-office of his