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A STATE PARCEL POST. 341
Treasury. If ever future historians of n more advnmed age
inquire into the rive of a new civilisatioll in the nineteenth
century, they will w o d at ~ nothing 60 much as tho treatment
of inventors by tho English Govornrneut. It is as bad and
senseless in its way as the imprisonment of Roger Bacon, or
the condemnation of Galileo. Neglect, contumely, confiscation,
are tho fate of the English inventor at tho hands of tho
English Government,.
I hold, therefore, that the convoyanco of small goods
is a kind of business which a Government department would
carry on with a maximum of advatltago and a minimum
of financial risk or iuterferenco with the progress of science
and industry. In some rcspects it would have bceu bettor
to leave the work to the care of a corubinatiou of railway
companies; but I fear they could ncvcr bo induced to make
the system complete. Tho mllole movement of parcels up to
30 lbs. or 50 lbs. weight should thereforo Le cnrricd on by
a Government organisation closely aualogous to that of tho
letter post, but yet distinct from it ; parallel and co-oporating
when desirable, but not interfering or hampering tho more
rapid distribution of letters. This dc.partment would ncquire
the parcel business of the railway companies, and would ulso
buy up tho good-will of tho parcel express companies. It
would utiliso the whole of tho carriers' stock of carts, horses,
o5ces, etc., by employing tl~om on rem~lnerativc contracts; it
would thus organise, rather than replace, tho existing rneaus
of conveyance, but by iutroducing system where tllcrc was no
system mould much increase the efscicucy of the present mcsnu.
Instead of a multitude of carts traversing long distances often
to deliver single parcels, each cart would servo 'one group of
houses, to which it would proceed direct from the delivery
office with a good Ioad. When the traffic was properly
developed, almost every house would haw a daily parcel, or
even several, and these would be delivered with a speed to
which there is nothing comparable now except that of tho
penny post. As the shopkeepers would deliver almost exclusively
through the parcel post, the strkets would bs freed
from their multitude of vans, and customers would eventually