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ON THE ANALOGY BETWEEN
THE POST OFFICE, TELEGRAPHS, AND OTHER
SYSTEMS OF CONVEYANCE OF THE
UNITED ICINGDOM,
AS KEGARDS GOVERNMENT COSTlWL.*
IT has been freely suggested of late years, that great public
advautage would arise from the purchase and re-organisation
of the electric telegraphs and railFeys of the United Kingdom
by the Government. So inestimable indeed, are the
benefits which the Post Office, as reformed by Sir Rowland
Hill, confers upon all classes of society, that there is a great
tendency to desire the application of a similar reform and state
organisation to other systems of conveyance. It is assumed,
by most of those mho discuss this subject, that there is a closo
similarity between the Post Office, telegraphs, and railways,
and that what has auswered so admirably in one case will be
productive of similar results in other parallel cases. Without
adopting any foregone conclusion, it is my de~ire in this ehort
paper to inquire into the existence and grounds of this
crasnmed analogy, and to make such a general comparison of
the conditions and requirements of each branch of conveyance,
as will enable us to judge securely of the expediency of state
control in each case.
* aetrd st the Manchester Statistical Society, April loth, 1867.