postal services of over [L]17,000,000 (_Annual Report of
the Postmaster-General_, 1913-14, p. 92).

[735] "In the present century the Post Office has assumed three new
functions--the transmission of money, and telegrams, and the custody of
savings. These are alike only in requiring a widespread system of branch
offices."--A. M. Ogilvie's article on "The Post Office" in R. H. Inglis
Palgrave's _Dict. Political Economy_, London, 1899, vol. iii. p. 175.

"The so-called 'Post Office' is in fact a collection of different,
though connected, industries."--C. F. Bastable, _Public Finance_,
London, 1903, p. 206.

[736] See H. R. Meyer, _Public Ownership and the Telephone in Great
Britain_, New York, 1907.

[737] "To-day, State ownership is the general rule over Europe, and only
in America is there private ownership on a large scale. It is
significant that the first seizure of this monopoly of the State was in
France, on the simple ground that it was not safe to allow so important
a device to be in other than the hands of the State. In 1837 a law was
passed making every kind of telegraph a State monopoly. This was due to
Napoleonic influence. It was not until 1870 that the British Government
claimed the monopoly."--John Lee, _Economics of Telegraphs and
Telephones_, London, 1913, p. 2.

[738] "No man can feel a more intimate conviction than I do that,
whatever our financial difficulties may be, we must not take measures to
meet them which should bear upon the comforts of the labouring
classes.... Well, then, I must, with my sense of public duty, abandon
the idea of raising a revenue from the Post Office."--Sir R. Peel, 11th
March 1842, _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. lxi. col. 434.

"If, therefore, it should also happen that it (the penny) is the best
rate adapted ultimately to produce the largest amount of money profit,
such a coincidence would be the result of _accident, not of
design_."--_Report from Select Committee on Postage_, 1843; evidence of
Sir Rowland Hill, Answer 74.

"The Post Office, and, since the fall in silver, the Mint, both produce
in England a net revenue, but the yield of revenue ought to be
considered as purely incidental if not accidental."--J. Shield
Nicholson, _Principles of Political Economy_, London, 1901, vol. iii. p.
372.

As a war measure the United Kingdom has now increased the rate on
letters over one ounce in weight. Such letters are, however, only a
small proportion of the total numbe