with a large
profit by the duties upon what is carried. It is perhaps the only
mercantile project which has been successfully managed by, I believe,
every sort of Government. The capital to be advanced is not very
considerable. There is no mystery in the business. The returns are not
only certain but immediate."--_Wealth of Nations_, ed. 1904, vol. ii.,
p. 303.

[664] _Vide supra_, p. 26.

[665] In the United Kingdom the expense incurred in providing specially
for the disposal of parcels in this way often exceeds the total amount
of the postage paid on the parcels.

[666] In the United Kingdom, horse-posts or cycle-posts are in general
provided in view of the length of the route to be traversed, rather than
in view of the weight of traffic to be carried.

[667] The need for such a separation between ordinary letters and
packets of appreciable weight is felt even in regard to the letter post
itself. In England, the extension of the weight limit for penny letters,
and the reduction of the rates for the heavier letters, has led to
serious practical difficulties and has impeded smooth and rapid working.
In the larger offices the letter post traffic is dealt with in two
divisions: (1) the lighter, homogeneous traffic, the light letters and
postcards; and (2) the heavier packets, and packets of irregular shape
(p. 285). In France, the extension of the maximum limit of weight gave
rise to similar difficulties; so much so that the question of
establishing a separate slower post for such packets has been seriously
considered. In Paris, at the present time, there is a completely
separate indoor and outdoor staff for the newspapers and packets.

[668] It is only necessary to glance into a van containing railway
parcels in order to realize how impossible it would be to apply to such
packages the usual postal method of enclosure in sacks; and conveyance
_[a'] d['e]couvert_ by railway companies on behalf of the Post Office
would give rise to obvious practical difficulties. In Germany and
Switzerland postal parcels are so despatched, but the railways are
State-owned in those countries, and the service is in many respects a
railway service.

[669] The railways frequently establish receiving offices in various
parts of a town. The services necessary for the conveyance of parcels
from these offices to the railway stations are not, however, comparable
with the services for closed parcel mails between the post offices and
the stat