the revenue and the feelings of friends now suffer alike. In one instance with which I became acquainted, a brother and sister, residing, the one at Reading, the other at Hampstead, had suspended intercourse for nearly thirty years; that they were deterred solely by considerations of expense is proved by the fact, that, on franks being furnished by the kindness of a member of parliament, a frequent interchange of letters was the immediate consequence.
How many who can write are thus prevented from exercising the art, and how many who would write are thus deprived of a strong motive for acquiring it, time alone will show; but a glance at what is now doing in popular education will discover the strength of the desire, and the evil of the prohibition.
One source of increase, though not, perhaps, of great pecuniary importance, should be here glanced at; viz., the rapidly increasing desire for the collection of statistical and general scientific information. Thus, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, by means of an extensive correspondence, collected a mass of most valuable matter relative to benefit societies. This inquiry probably would not have been commenced, and certainly would not have been completed, had not the Society had the command of franks. And many other inquiries relating, for instance, to education, to the practice of medicine; to various departments of science, as astronomy, meteorology, and geology; as also to general statistics, are, beyond all doubt, suppressed at present by the cost of postage. It is needless to enlarge on the importance of such inquiries to commerce, science, and good government.
From what has been advanced above, I hope it will appear,—
- That without any addition whatever to the present number of letters written, there would, under the new regulations, be a great increase in the number legally conveyed, arising in some measure from the partial voluntary disuse of the franking privilege, but chiefly from virtual prevention of contraband conveyance.
- That the number of post letters thus greatly increased, would further be multiplied, without any addition to the number of letter-writers, or even increase of letter writing, by the breaking up of one long letter into several shorter ones.
