accounted for only by the great duty charged on letters; for with a lower duty the correspondence of the country through the Post Office would have increased in proportion to the increase of population and national wealth."[1]
On this subject Mr. McCulloch says: "We believe, however, that these (the additions made to the rates of postage) have been completely overdone, and considering the vast importance of a cheap and safe conveyance of letters to commerce, it will immediately be seen that this is a subject deserving of grave consideration. In point of fact, the Post Office revenue has been about stationary since 1814, though, from the increase of population and commerce in the intervening period, it is pretty obvious that had the rates of postage not been so high as to force recourse to other channels, the revenue must have been decidedly greater now than at the end of the war. Were the rates moderate, the greater dispatch and security of the Post Office conveyance would hinder any considerable number of letters from being sent through other channels. But in the estimation of very many persons, the present duties more than countervail these advantages, and the number of coaches that now pass between all parts of the country, and the facility with which the law may be evaded by transmitting letters in parcels conveyed by them, renders the imposition of oppressive rates
- ↑ Financial Reform, fourth ed., p. 41.
