tion would, as already stated, injure the towns without benefiting the villages.
Nor would the general revenue be very much augmented by such an arrangement. A charge of two-pence per letter, or even three-halfpence, would probably exclude the great mass of printed correspondence, and it would diminish the correspondence of all kinds: it would also tend to maintain, as between large towns, the contraband conveyance of letters, and thus the Post Office would, to a considerable extent, as at present, have to distribute the least profitable part of the correspondence only.
The following is a sketch of the plan of operations which I would suggest.
Let the inhabitants of any district, acting through the Guardians of the Poor or other recognised authority, be entitled, on paying in advance a small annual fee to the Deputy Post-master of the town to which their letters are dispatched, to require that a bag shall be made up for the district; and let them arrange for fetching and carrying the bag, and for the delivery and collection of letters; charging the expense, which would be very trifling, upon the parochial rates, or upon each letter, as may be most convenient.[1] An extra postage, to be collected on the delivery of each letter, would, in a country dis-
- ↑ What are called fifth clause posts, or posts established on a guarantee given by the parties benefited to defray the expense, may be considered as in some measure a precedent for the proposed arrangement. See the evidence of Sir F. Freeling, Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, p. 351.
