it
may appear, they appear to be sustained by public opinion. The new
postage act did not abate what is called 'private enterprise,' and
the act itself, it is thought, will soon be found to be
insufficient."

The report of the Postmaster-General in 1845, speaks of a practice of
enveloping many letters, written on very thin paper, in one enclosure,
paying postage by the half-ounce, and thus reducing the postage on each to
a trifle.

"An incident recently occurred which will forcibly illustrate the
injurious effects of such a practice upon the revenues of the
department. A large bundle of letters was enveloped and sealed,
marked 'postage paid, $1.60.' By some accident in the
transportation, the envelope was so much injured as to enable the
postmaster to see that it contained one hundred letters to
different individuals, evidently designed for distribution by the
person to whom directed, and should have been charged ten dollars.
The continuance of this practice would, in a short time, deprive
the department of a large proportion of its legitimate income. The
department has no power to suppress it, further than to direct the
postages to be properly charged, whenever such practices are
detected. This has also introduced a species of thin, light paper,
by which five or six letters may be placed under one cover, and
still be under the half-ounce."

He adds:

"The practice of sending packages of letters through the mails to
agents, for distribution, has not entirely superseded the
transmission of letters, over post roads, out of the mails, by the
expresses. The character of this offence is such as to render
detection very uncertain, full proof almost impossible, conviction
rare. The penalties are seldom recovered after conviction, and the
department rarely secures enough to meet the expenses of
prosecution. If the officers of the department were authorized in
proper cases to have the persons engaged in these violations of
the law arrested, their packages, trunks, or boxes, seized and
examined before a proper judicial officer, and, when detected in
violating the law, retained for the examination of the court and
jury, it is believed that the practice could be at once
suppressed."

In his last report, December, 1847, he also says that, "Private expresses
still continue to be run be