a great part of the difficulty which exists in putting such information effectually before the inhabitants of rural districts especially. If 2,000 such lists could be circulated monthly for about £8,—which they would be under your plan,—I should be too glad to spend £100 a year in placing these lists periodically in the hands of country booksellers, professional men, and literary societies;—and I have no doubt that every publisher in London would feel it his interest to adopt the principle. Advertisements in the newspapers, however efficient and indispensable for attracting public attention to new books, are random shots which may or may not reach the individuals and classes for whom they are meant."
Auctioneers' catalogues, announcements of sales, of changes of residence, of the opening of new establishments, of exhibitions, lectures, &c., and various other papers intended to attract the attention of distinct classes of the community, would in numberless instances be circulated by means of the post.
It is also important to observe, that it is very much the practice of tradesmen in managing their correspondence, to defer writing until they have such an accumulation of matter as will justify the expense of postage; nay, in many instances I have known persons deterred by this expense from communicating important information until the period of its utility was past. Under the new arrangement the practice would be to write as each occasion arose; and thus to distribute into several letters the matter now accumulated in one.
In most commercial establishments it is the rule not to receive an order, (unless post paid,) for less than a certain fixed amount; and in some, where the profits are low, this amount is placed as high as 5l. Here the direct influence of the high rates of postage in reducing the number of letters, and in restricting trade, is manifest.
For the following statement, with reference to this part of the subject, I am indebted to Mr. Dillon, of the house of Morrison and Co.
"I have no doubt but that a very decided reduction in the rate
