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almost perfoctlp fulfilled in the postal system. The public
often seem to look upon the Post Offico as a prodigy of
administrative skill; they imagine that the officers conducking
snch a clopert.ment must be endowed with almost
superhurnan powers to produce such wonderful results. Mrtny
of thoso officials are doubt.lesv men of great, ability and energy ;
nevertheless, it mould be more correct to say that the great
public Bervicos and the satisfactory net revenue of the Post
Offico are due, not to them, but to tho nature of postal
communication. .As Adam 6tuith said, ‘‘ the Post Office is
perhaps tho ouly ~uorcantilo project which has been snccessfully
mnnnged by every sort of C40verntnmt,.’J In spite of the
defcctu inherentc in all (fovornmcnt manageu~cnt, tl~o Post
Of€ico yields a ruvcnuo, because tho economy arising from a
singlo sptcmatic mo~~opoly is enormously great in this special
C!fl.so.
1 must. draw nttc~~~tion one to point of po5t:ll ndminist~-ation
wllicll i3 clntircly ovcrlookcd by thc a(1voc:ttes of Stntc rnilwtky~,
r~amoly, that tlro l’out Office department has n1w.a-y~
avoided owning any estamive propcrty. They ow11 tho
buildings nt St. R~artin’s-le-Grand and tho principal offices in
Rome other largo towns; but in all the smaller towns and
villsgca they hire nccotnmodation, or merely pay for it in the
general rcmunerr~tiorl given to tlla postmasters. For the
rapid and rcgulnr convc~ancc of tho mails tho Post-Office is
cutirdy dependent upon tho much-abused railway system,
withuut which, indeed, tho post, as we now have it, would
bo impossiblc. Not even the horses and vehicles employed
in the local collection nntl distribution of bags are the property
of Government, being furnished, I bclievo, entirely by contmct.
From tho latest report of tlle Postmaster-General, we
Iearll that the total expenditure of the Postal and Money Order
Department in 1873 was .f3,G8ZJ000, of which &1,682,000
was paid in salaries, wages, ad pensions; &.928,000 for
conveyance by mail-packcts sn~l private vessels ; &G19,000
for conveyance by railways ; f145,OOO for conveyance by
hired coaches, carts, and omnibuses; while only i@161,000
w89 expended upon buildings in the possession of the Post