es, there were some routes on which the weight of the newspaper mails
was a serious incumbrance. But at present, so great has been the extension
of steam power, that I question if there is a single route to which the
number of newspapers sent would be a burden, unless, perhaps, it may be
the route by the National Road, from Cumberland to Columbus.

So great are the advantages of uniformity of rate, in facilitating the
administration of the post-office, that there would be a greater loss than
gain in attempting to introduce any rule of graduation in the postage of
newspapers. It is easily seen that the difference of distance is no ground
for such graduation, for the same reasons which are conclusive in regard
to letters. And as to the difference of weight, if you deduct from the one
cent postage what it costs to receive and mail and deliver each paper, and
to keep the accounts and make the returns, the difference in the actual
expense is too small to be made of any practical account, between a
newspaper weighing two ounces and one weighing half an ounce. The Journal
of Commerce and papers of that size weigh less than two ounces. And the
number of newspapers printed on a sheet weighing over two ounces, is too
small to be of any account.

The only point respecting the postage on newspapers, on which the Cheap
Postage Association are inflexibly fixed, is that the postage shall be
uniform, irrespective of distance, and not exceed one cent per paper,
prepaid. If not prepaid, the postage is to be doubled.

It is supposed that a practical rule will obtain, like that which now
prevails, of allowing regular subscribers to pay their postage quarterly
in advance, at the office where they receive their papers. Only, the rule
of prepayment will be enforced, because double postage is to be exacted in
all cases where there is not actual prepayment.

It will follow that all occasional papers will pay two cents postage, that
is the same as a letter, unless the postage is prepaid by the sender, at
the office where the paper is mailed.

In Great Britain, newspapers are required to be stamped at the Stamp
Office, for which they pay 1_d_. each sheet. And all such stamped papers
are carried in the mails postage free. Whatever be their date, or how many
times soever they may have been mailed, they always go free by virtue of
the stamp. Some attempts have been made by the post-office to limit the
time after date, in which stamped papers are