ting equally to all, and with an open
hand, the blessings of commerce upon civilization, is regarded by them as
an establishment too expensive not to be made use of, and as one with the
employment of which any endeavor to dispense by every means in their
power." And among "the commercial and trading classes, by dint of the
superior activity, had in a considerable degree relieved themselves from
the pressure of this tax, without the interference of the legislature, by
devising other means for the cheap, safe and expeditious conveyance of
letters." Some specimens of these expedients, as developed by the evidence
before the Parliamentary Committee, will be at once curious and
instructive.

M. B. Peacock, Esq., solicitor to the post-office, detailed the
methods which the department had used to suppress the illicit
sending of letters. By law, one half of the penalty, in cases of
prosecution, went to the informer, but of late, informations were
given much less frequently, and he thought the diminution of
informations was owing to the fact that, about five years before,
there had been a call in parliament for a return of the names of
informers. He said the post-office had done all in its power to
put a stop to the illegal sending, _but without success_. And he
was decidedly of opinion, that the prevention is beyond the power
of the post-office, and could only be done by reducing the rates
of postage.

Mr. G. R. Huddlestone, superintendent of the ship-letter office,
gave an account of the illicit sending of letters from London to
the outports to go by sea. He said they were customarily sent in
bags from the coffee houses, and by the owners of vessels, in the
same way as from the ship letter office, and no means had been
devised which could put a stop to it. Of 122,000 letters sent from
the port of Liverpool in a year, by the American packets, only
69,000 passed through the post-office. The number of letters
received inwards, from all parts of the world, by private ships,
was 960,000 yearly; the number sent outwards through the
post-office, was but 265,000. In the year ending October 5, 1837,
there were forty-nine arrivals of these packets, bringing 282,000
letters. The number of letters forwarded from London by post to
Liverpool for these lines, was 11,000; the number received in
London from these lines, was 51,000