he tables contained in the parliamentary return
will be given in the appendix, either entire, or so as to present the
material results in their official form. The contents of that document
have not, to my knowledge, been in any manner brought before the people of
the United States.

It is humiliating to think, that while a system fraught with so many
blessings has been so long in operation, and with such signal success as a
financial measure, in a country with which our relations are so intimate,
I should now begin to prepare the first pamphlet for publication, designed
to give the American people full information on the subject; this
publication being the first effort of the first regularly organized
society, now just formed, for the purpose of securing the same blessings
to the citizens of this republic, which the British Parliament enacted,
after full investigation, nine years ago. If we look at the various
political questions which have already in those eight years grown
"obsolete," after occupying the public mind and engrossed the cares of our
statesmen, to the exclusion of the great subject of cheap postage, and
consider their comparative importance, we shall be satisfied that it is
now high time for a determined effort to satisfy the people of the United
States with regard to the utility and practicability of cheap postage.

Prior to the year 1840 the postal systems of Great Britain and the United
States were constructed on similar principles, and the rates of postage
were nearly alike. Both were administered with a special view to the
amount of money that could be realized from postage. In Great Britain, the
surplus of receipts above the cost of administration was carried to the
general treasury. In the United States, the surplus received in the North
was employed in extending mail facilities to the scattered inhabitants of
the South and West. In Great Britain, private mails and other facilities
had kept the receipts stationary for twenty years, while the population of
the country had increased thirty per cent., and the business and
intelligence and wealth of the country in a much greater ratio. In the
United States, there was a constant increase of postage, although by a
less ratio than the increase of population, until the year 1843, when,
through the establishment of private mails, the gross receipts actually
fell off, and it became apparent that the old system had failed, and could
never be reinvigorated so