or and
opportunity; and the consequence is, that while the more pressing suitor
obtains the benefit he asks, those of a more forbearing disposition pay
the penalty of high postage." It also keeps out of view of the public,
"how much the cost of distribution is exceeded by the charge, and to what
extent therefore the postage of letters is taxed" to sustain this official
privilege. The committee therefore concluded in their report, that "taking
into the account the serious loss to the public revenue, which is caused
by the privilege of franking, and the inevitable abuse of that privilege
in numerous cases where no public business is concerned, it would be
politic in a financial point of view, and agreeable to the public sense of
justice, if, on effecting the proposed reduction of the postage rates, the
privilege of franking were to be abolished." Only the post-office
department now franks its own official correspondence; petitions to
parliament are sent free; and parliamentary documents are charged at
one-eighth the rate of letters. Letters _to_ the Queen also go free.

In our own country, the congressional franking privilege has long been a
subject of complaint, both by the post-office authorities and the public
press. There are many discrepancies in the several returns from which the
extent of franking is to be gathered.

From a return made by the Postmaster General to the Senate, Jan. 16, 1844,
the whole number of letters passing through the mails in a year is set at
27,073,144, of which the number franked is 2,815,692, which is a small
fraction over 10 per cent.

The annual report of the Postmaster-General in 1837, estimates the whole
number of letters at 32,360,992, of which 2,100,000, or a little over 6
per cent, were franked.

In February, 1844, the Postmaster-General communicated to Congress a
statement of an account kept of the free letters and documents mailed at
Washington, during three weeks of the sitting of Congress in 1840, of
which the results appear in the following table.

Week ending Letters. Public Doc. Weight of Doc.
May 2, 13,674 96,588 8,042 lbs.
June 2, 13,955 108,912 9,076
July 7, 14,766 186,768 15,564
------ ------ ------
Total, 42,395 392,268 32,689
Average, 14,132 140,756 10,896
Session 33 466,345 4,314,948 359,579
weeks,

Whole number of Letters and Document