d elaborate calculations, which give to their
results the value of mathematical demonstration. Their report, with the
accompanying documents, fills three folio volumes of the Parliamentary
Papers for 1838. Its investigations were so thorough, its deductions so
cautious and candid, and its accumulations of evidence so overwhelming
that they left nothing to be done, but to adopt the new system entire.

In this country, no such pains were taken to collect facts, no means were
used to spread before the people the facts and mathematical calculations
and irrefragable arguments of the parliamentary committee; little study
was bestowed on the subject even by our legislators but with a prejudged
conclusion that the reasonings and facts applicable to Great Britain could
not apply here, on account of the length of our routes and the sparseness
of our population, a partial reduction was resolved upon, which retained
the complication and the cumbersome machinery of the old system, while
affording only a small portion of the benefits of the new.

The effect has been, that while the British system has gone on gathering
favor and strength, the American system, after less than three years'
trial, has already grown old, the private mails are reviving, the
ingenuity of men of business is taxed to evade postage, and a growing
conviction already shows itself, that the half-way reduction is a failure,
and it is time to make another change. That is to say, the partial
reduction has failed to meet the wishes of the people, or the wants of the
public interest, or the duty of the government in discharging the trust
imposed by the constitution. Indeed, there ought not to be a great deal of
labor required to prove that there is only one right way, and that the
right way is the best way, and that it is better to adopt a scientifically
constructed machine, which has been proved to be perfect in all its parts,
than a clumsy contrivance, the working principle of which is contradicted
by mathematical demonstration. I propose to present several of the main
principles involved in the reduction of postage, illustrated by facts
drawn from the parliamentary papers, and from other authentic sources.

I. _Reduction of Price tends to increase of Consumption._

Our own partial reform in postage proves this. In a report of the
committee on post-offices and post-roads, made to the House of
Representatives, May 15, 1844, it is said,

"Events are in progress of