an effectual bar to the fraudulent conduct of servants, who are known, in many instances, to have destroyed letters, in order to pocket the postage.
I should propose that every person desiring a receipt should, on taking the letter to the receiving-house, present a copy of the superscription, on which the Receiver should stamp a receipt, with the date, and his own address; precisely such a stamp as is placed on the letter would suffice.
I propose that the charge for such receipt should be a halfpenny, and that, as a means of collecting the same, it should be required that the copy of the superscription should be made on a printed form, to be provided by the Post Office, and to be sold to the public at the rate of a halfpenny each, by the Receiver, either singly or in books, as might be required; a certain profit on their sale being allowed by the Post Office, as a remuneration to the Receiver.
These receipts would, I imagine, constitute good legal evidence of delivery; and as they might be made to form a cheap register of all letters dispatched by post, many persons would probably adopt the practice of taking them for that reason alone.
I am informed that precisely such receipts as are here described, except that a printed form is not employed, are given gratuitously in the Presidency of Madras.
As a large number of persons would probably avail themselves of this arrangement, no small benefit might thus accrue to the revenue.
No. 4.
