Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/225

 may be enabled for the sum of one penny to communicate with any other, at the lowest possible rate and the highest attainable speed: Englishman with Frenchman, German, Italian, or Russian; European with American; Asiatic with Australian or African; so that when one soul has something to say to another neither colour, nor religion, nor greed, nor diplomacy, nor national antipathy, nor latitude, nor longitude, nor poverty, nor any other barrier shall stand between them.

The hour has struck for this grand yet simple assertion of the brotherhood of nations; of a change which threatens no interest, and benefits all mankind. Since 1898, when Imperial Penny Postage was introduced, our outward mails have nearly doubled. Every Friday some 250,000 British letters pass through France and Italy for India, Hong-Kong, and Australasia—12,000 miles. The postage on each of these letters is 1d. By the same boat a few British letters are carried for residents in Calais—21 miles; and on these letters the postage is 2½d.! By what perverse ingenuity can such a distinction be justified? Or why should a letter to New York cost 2½d. and another in the same bag be carried through that city and 1000 miles into Canada for 1d.?

That thought can be fairly taxed at a custom-house none will affirm. Opium can be weighed, whiskey tested. But what scales are delicate enough to weigh the products of the human mind? That an English letter should be taxed because it is addressed to a Frenchman is a policy unworthy of the age. This is not an argument for the benefit of the "foreigner," since a letter benefits not only the addressee, but even more the sender. And if so, can it be contended that 10,000 letters sent to Canadians benefit us more than as many addressed to Americans! I maintain that the trade and commerce resulting from cheap postage will amply compensate for any initial loss.