The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

486
APPENDIX M.
other impost) ; whether, as in various other countries, a bare self-
support, or, as in the United States, a deficiency to be supplied from
the general taxation.
7th. Whether, in fine, there be not some circumstance, or set
of circumstances, which vitiates the example.
It is at least highly probable that when the various examples held
up have been subjected to the proposed scrutiny, their validity will
shrink into very small dimensions.
Without, however, laying too much stress either way on foreign
example, it is manifestly important to consider the present question
in relation to other home interests ; in recognising the claims of
newspapers we must not forget those of letters ; the less so as the
former are already by far the more favoured class of the two, the
allowance of weight of a newspaper being eightfold that of a letter.
It must be borne in mind, therefore, that in case of any surplus
in revenue, equality, if not priority of claim, whether for increased
weight, increased facilities, or other advantage, may be fairly set
up in favour of letters ; further, that this claim is
prodigiously
strengthened by the fact that it is to letters alone (almost exclusively
to home letters) that the Post Office is indebted for its net
revenue.
Returning, however, for the moment to the separate question of
newspapers, it must be remarked that any lowering
of that unit of
charge which has hitherto been strictly maintained is open to so many
objections as to demand that the change, if made, should be made
with extreme caution.
i st. The postal conveyance of printed matter especially
of news-
papers, since these admit of no delay is, even at the present rates,
under existing circumstances, unremunerative, a fact which becomes
very intelligible when the eightfold allowance of weight
is con-
sidered, and which of itself overthrows the expectation held out by
some that the fiscal loss by reduction would be compensated by
increase in the number of packets sent.
2nd. The proposed reduction, if made simply, would inevitably
lead to increased demands on the part of the railway companies,
and that upon two grounds, (a) augmented weight of the mails,
and (b] alleged interference with their parcel traffic. All this will be
found to have followed the reduction to the present rates.
3rd. The temptation to use printed matter as a cover, or fraudu-
lent substitute for written letters, which even now is unduly strong,
would, without safeguards far beyond any yet known, be enormously
strengthened.