has at least sustained the total expenditure in that article at its former amount. In every one of the instances given above, all of which are of articles of very general consumption, the total expenditure, so far from being diminished by the decrease in price, has considerably increased, and in some instances the increase is very great. Thus on coffee, the price of which, as stated above, has fallen one-fourth, the public now expends more than twice as much as it did before the reduction. And, making every allowance for the progress of population and wealth, this increase, when considered as not on the consumption but on the actual expenditure, must be pronounced a very striking fact. Nor is it to be explained by supposing that coffee has superseded other beverages, for, during the very same time, there has been a corresponding increase in the amount expended on tea, malt liquor, and spirits; an increase manifestly attributable to the same causes.
In pursuing this question it will be convenient to consider the bulk of the letters written as arranged in two classes, viz., letters on business, and letters between friends and relations.
With respect to the former class, in addition to an immense number of letters at present forwarded by contraband conveyance, there is the large class of invoices, now sent most frequently with the goods to which they relate, but which, as I am informed by mercantile men whom I have consulted, would, under the new regulations, be invariably sent by post, as letters of advice.
Again, there are the lists of prices current, which, especially in commodities liable to frequent fluctuations, it is of importance should be received at short intervals.
Speaking of prices current, Lord Lowther, in his very able Report on the Post Office, says:
"It is, I think, plainly shown by the evidence taken, that great advantage would arise to trade from the transmission of prices current at a small rate of postage. It is affirmed by various witnesses, that throughout the country there is a continually increasing desire among persons in trade for such information of the state of the markets in London and elsewhere as prices current would
