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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
371
9.
The
opinion
is
frequently
expressed
in
conversation,
and
we
have
often
met
with
such
expressions
of
opinion
in
our
daily
and
weekly
press,
to
the
effect
that
the
Post-Office
ought
to
give
more
accommodation
to
the
public
in
many
ways,
and
so
disburse
some,
if
not
all,
of
its
enormous
profits.
These
profits
are
said
to
be
absurdly
large;
that
fifty
per
cent.
is
ten
times
the
interest
of
money
lent
on
decent
security,
and
five
times
as
much
as
would
satisfy
sanguine
private
speculators.
This
subject
of
Post-Office
profits
is
made,
de
facto,
the
principal
argument
against
what
is
called
the
Post-Office
monopoly.
We
have
already,
in
other
parts
of
this
book,
offered
an
opinion
on
steps
which
might
be
taken
in
the
way
of
affording
extra
facilities
to
the
public.
A
cheaper
sea
service
and
a
halfpenny
post
for
our
towns
are
two
of
the
most
important
and
most
practicable
measures.
Granted
that
our
packet
service
ought
to
be
kept
up
as
at
present,
we
have
an
invincible
argument
for
universal
free
deliveries
at
home.
When
asked[200]
if
he
thought
it
necessary
that
our
Colonies
should
have
greater
postal
facilities
than
they
could
pay
for,
Mr.
Hamilton,
Assistant
Secretary
of
the
Treasury,
answered
that
"a
colony
might
reasonably
complain
if
it
was
deprived
of
advantages
of
postal
communication,
simply
because
that
postal
communication
might
not
be
remunerative."
Again,
on
the
question
of
Post-Office
revenue,[201]
"I
think
the
first
charge
upon
that
revenue
is
to
supply
reasonably
all
portions
of
Her
Majesty's
dominions
with
postal
communication,"
which
consideration,
it
seems
to
us,
will
apply
equally
at
home
and
abroad.
Still
more
important
seems
the
plan
of
a
halfpenny
post
for
local
letters,
that
is,
for
letters
posted
and
delivered
in
the
same
town.
Before
the
days
of
penny
postage,
we
had
penny
posts
in
all
the
principal
towns
of
the
country.
A
halfpenny
post,
if
only
applied
to
our
largest
towns,
where
it
would
be
certain
to
be
remunerative,[202]
would
have
the
effect
of
materially
lessening
the
weight
of
the
argument
that
our
present
rate
of
charges
is
anomalous
and
unfair.
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