to operation on the first of July, 1845, and that it was continued
until the thirtieth of September, 1847. But this experiment, for reasons
hereafter stated, proved unsatisfactory, and it was discontinued by
order of the Postmaster-General. As far as the committee can at present
ascertain, the following seem to have been the principal grounds of
dissatisfaction in this experiment:

(1) The legal responsibility of postmasters receiving newspaper
subscriptions, or of their sureties, was not defined.

(2) The authority was open to all postmasters instead of being limited to
those of specific offices.

(3) The consequence of this extension of authority was that, in
innumerable instances, the money, without the previous knowledge or
control of the officers of the department who are responsible for the good
management of its finances, was deposited in offices where it was improper
such funds should be placed; and the repayment was ordered, not by
the financial officers, but by the postmasters, at points where it was
inconvenient to the department so to disburse its funds.

(4) The inconvenience of accumulating uncertain and fluctuating sums at
small offices was felt seriously in consequent overpayments to contractors
on their quarterly collecting orders; and, in case of private mail routes,
in litigation concerning the misapplication of such funds to the special
service of supplying mails.

(5) The accumulation of such funds on draft offices could not be known
to the financial clerks of the department in time to control it, and too
often this rendered uncertain all their calculations of funds in hand.

(6) The orders of payment were for the most part issued upon the principal
offices, such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, etc., where
the large offices of publishers are located, causing an illimitable and
uncontrollable drain of the department funds from those points where
it was essential to husband them for its own regular disbursements. In
Philadelphia alone this drain averaged $5000 per quarter; and in other
cities of the seaboard it was proportionate.

(7) The embarrassment of the department was increased by the illimitable,
uncontrollable, and irresponsible scattering of its funds from
concentrated points suitable for its distributions, to remote, unsafe, and
inconvenient offices, where they could not be again made available till
collected by special agents, or were transferred at considerable expense