directly from it, for it may be considered also as auxiliary to other branches of the public income.
"But whatever distinction may be observed between the more general and primary purposes of this institution, and its value separately regarded as an immediate source of revenue to the Crown, it will be found that the same means may be employed to promote its several objects; and that, in a prosperous state of the country, its productiveness, in a financial calculation, will be measured by the proportion in which, under judicious management, it is made to contribute to the interests, the convenience, and the habitual indulgence of the community.
"To prove the truth of this principle, it might be sufficient to refer to the immediate results of the well-known improvements, introduced in the year 1784, upon the suggestions of Mr. Palmer, in the circulation of letters within the now United Kingdom.
"Various causes have subsequently contributed to the vast progressive increase of the annual receipts of this department, which in twenty years, dating from the adoption of Mr. Palmer's plan, were trebled, and have since become five-fold their previous amount. But a general comparison of the extent of the accommodation afforded, and of the quantity of correspondence maintained through the Post Office at different periods, will establish the principle already assumed, that the growth of this correspondence (and of the attendant revenue)
