posed alterations is comparatively small, while there is even no inconsiderable chance of an eventual gain to the Post Office revenue, and little less than a certainty of a beneficial effect on the revenue taken as a whole, there is one thing beyond all doubt, namely, that the adoption of the plan will confer a most important, manifest, acceptable, and indisputable benefit on the country.
No. 7.
PAYMENT IN ADVANCE.
Fears have been expressed lest the proposed demand of payment in advance should be found objectionable to the public, and thereby prove restrictive of correspondence; and the late increase in the number of letters passing between this country and France is appealed to as confirmatory of these apprehensions.
But in respect to these letters, besides the option of not paying in advance being given, two unquestionably potent causes of increase have also been brought into operation; first, a reduction of postage, and secondly, increased facility of transmission. The existence of an option will undoubtedly have some influence upon the amount of correspondence; but the extent of influence will depend almost entirely upon the rate of postage. In the case of the French letters just named, where the lowest charge is thirteen pence, the effect is probably important; but the real question is, what would be the effect if the postage were one penny only? The pecuniary difficulty would unquestionably be slight, and the moral difficulty would be in a great measure removed by the knowledge that this demand was essential to the very low rate of postage; that the choice lies between the postage of a penny, payable in advance, and one perhaps of two-pence, payable upon the present plan.
Uniform payment of postage in advance, however, is not an untried experiment; it is the established plan in the presidencies of Bengal and Madras; and although the rate of postage is not low, being only one-third less than ours, the obligation to pay in
