but when the lightning is invoked that is left to the monopoly of a single private corporation, contrary to the true intent of the Constitution.
Let us now# see what success has attended the postal telegraphs of other countries, which have been quick to shed the blessings of an American invention upon their citizens, under the protection afforded by Government control. Among the first to adopt this system was the Government of Belgium, where, March 15, 1851, it was established with a tariff of two and one half francs for twenty words within a radius of seventy-five kilometres, or fifty cents for a distance of fortysix and one half miles, and five francs for a distance above seventyfive kilometres. The "registered system" was adopted here by which the sender, upon payment of a double fee, was provided with an exact copy of the message delivered to his correspondent, together with the exact time of the delivery. In 1878 the tariff had been reduced to a fraction over eight cents for each twenty words, and the receipts from this source amounted to $426,258.84. The next year, December 5, 1852, Switzerland adopted the system with the following tariff: for a message of twenty words, one franc; over twenty and under fifty, two francs; above fifty, three francs. In this country, almost from the very first, the receipts showed a large surplus over expenditures, and this was augmented in 1868, when the tariff was reduced to one half a franc for twenty words—a uniform rate. In 1879 the receipts amounted to $400,763.04; expenses, $314,893.39. About the same time the system was introduced in France, where it proved a complete success from the first. In 1877 the French tariff was a fraction over sixteen cents for twenty words, and the receipts from this source were $3,203,800. Then followed Russia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand, and other countries, with the most gratifying results in each case. Great Britain, usually so quick to adopt reforms in the postal service, and to which Government we are indebted for various improvements in our service—the postage-stamp, money-order, postal-car, carrier-system, postal-card, etc.—was the last of the European countries to establish the system. Previous to its introduction there, the Chambers of Commerce memorialized Parliament in favor of the measure, alleging that they "had reason to complain not only of the high rates charged by existing companies for the transmission of messages, of frequent and vexatious delays in the delivery, and of the inaccurate rendering, but that many important towns, and even whole districts, are unsupplied with the means of telegraph communication." In moving leave to introduce the postal telegraph bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said: "We were in the habit in this country of leaving to private enterprise the administration of internal affairs, the exception to the rule being that of postal communication. With the consent and approbation of the country, this was a monopoly in the hands of the Government; and he submitted that telegraphic com-
