emedy has yet been devised, neither has any man been bold enough to
propose to exclude them from the mails. At one time, rules were made,
allowing mail carriers to leave the newspaper bags, to be carried along at
another time. But this produced too serious a dissatisfaction to be
continued. The newspapers must go, and they must go with the letters, for
people are quite as sensitive at the delay of their newspapers as at the
delay of their letters. Seven or eight years ago, there was a clamor at
the weight of certain mammoth sheets, as the New World and the Brother
Jonathan, weighing each from a quarter to half a pound. But this
extravagant folly of publishers has in a great measure cured itself, and
the grievance has ceased. The law of 1845 undertook to make a
discrimination against papers of exorbitant size, by charging extra
postage on all that were larger than 1900 square inches. I cannot learn
that any papers are taxed at this extra rate, and I venture to predict
that, whenever the public convenience shall be found to require newspapers
of a larger size than 1900 inches, the postage rule will have to be
altered to meet the public demand. The people have so learned the benefits
of uniformity and cheapness of postage on newspapers, that they will never
relinquish it.

In Great Britain no difference is made among papers on account of their
weight, although their paper is almost twice as heavy as ours. And even
when a supplementary sheet is issued, the whole goes as one newspaper,
covered by one stamp. I have a copy of the London Herald, with three
supplements, the whole weighing half a pound, which passed free in the
mail, with only the principal sheet stamped. And the whole comes by the
steamer's mail, the postage prepaid by a single 2_d_. stamp. In that
country, however, it is not compulsory to send newspapers or supplements
by mail, and a very large proportion are not sent in that way, but for
convenience by carriers. Their method of circulating newspapers, by sale
instead of yearly subscription, has led to a difference in this respect. I
believe there is no restriction upon the carriage of newspaper packages
out of the mail, by the same contractors, and the same carriages that
convey the mails. It is probable that the interests of the department
would be promoted, rather than injured, by such a rule, liberally
interpreted, in this country.

Twenty years ago, when our mails were all carried in coaches drawn by
hors