performed by the railways on behalf
of the Post Office for which no charge is made against the Post Office
is not definitely known.[250] The newspaper traffic, the parcel post,
and the Imperial Telegraph Service are carried on at heavy loss. The
Post Office also performs numerous services, such as those in connection
with the National Insurance schemes, for which it receives no monetary
credit; and there is no doubt that taken by itself the letter traffic
is largely profitable at the existing rates, even when full allowance
has been made for all legitimate charges against the service.

NOTE ON RURAL DELIVERY

Until the eighteen-thirties there was no State provision for the letter
traffic in country districts. Residents in the country must deliver all
their letters at, or fetch them from, the nearest post office, which was
done on market-day or by messengers. In 1824 a beginning was made in
Prussia by the introduction experimentally of a delivery service at
certain post offices. In the following years the number of rural
deliverers and the number of posting-boxes in the villages were
increased, and a uniform delivery fee (_Landbestellgeld_) of 1 silver
groschen instituted. The delivery fee was abolished on the 1st January
1872 (law of 28th October, 1871). This meant the abandonment of a yearly
revenue of 1-1/2 million Marks.

In spite of the increase in the number of post offices there were still
in 1880 as many as 19 million people, the greater half of the whole
nation, and 17,000 localities, outside the limits of the postal
service.[251]

In 1880 a great step forward was taken. The number of rural deliverers
was largely increased, and also the number of postal stations in the
country (_Posth[:u]lfstellen_).[252] A daily delivery was extended to the
greater number of places, the rural routes in most cases being so
arranged that the deliverer returned by the same route, thereby enabling
an answer to be sent the same day to letters received on the outward
journey.[253]

* * * * *

II

THE RATE FOR NEWSPAPERS

NEWSPAPER POST IN ENGLAND

In England newspapers have enjoyed special privileges in regard to
transmission by post since about the middle of the seventeenth century.
The origin of the privilege is to be looked for in the special
circumstances under which the early newspapers, and the newsletters and
newsbooks from which they were derived, were issued, and the mea