The following is the number of letters mailed in Great Britain, and the gross receipts and expenses of the British postoffice department, since 1836. The sums are given in United States currency, reckoning five dollars to the pound sterling.

The number of letters mailed in London in the year 1851, was 88,405,451. Of these there were delivered by carriers in the London district post, 40,585,952. And sent inland and to foreign countries, 47,819,499.

The presumptive number of letters mailed in London, in 1852, according to the rate of increase for previous years, (returns of the actual number not having been received,) was 92,705,136. Of these, the number delivered within the London district post, would be 42,559,877. Sent inland and to foreign countries, 50,145,259. The population of London is estimated at 2,500,000. The following is the population of the five principal cities in the United States, and the number of letters sent through their post-offices, in 1852.

Had the number of letters been as great in these five cities, in proportion to the population, as in London, there would have been 47,387,281, instead of a little over eighteen millions. The population of cities and towns in the United States equal to that of London, (2,500,000,) only write and mail in a year, 35,897,931 letters; falling short of the number mailed in London by 56,807,205. The postage on this last number of letters, at 3 cents each, (could we, by a far more perfect postal system, induce the population of fifteen or twenty of our cities to write that extra number,) would be $1,704,216 15 cents.

If we compare the number of letters mailed in the United States, with the number in Great Britain, we find that in 1852 there were mailed in this country, 95,790,522, while in Great Britain the same year, there were 379,000,000. Reckoning the population of that country at thirty millions, and that of the United States at twenty-five millions, the number of letters mailed in this conntry should have been 315,666,666, or more than we now write, by 219,876,144. The postage on that number of letters at three cents each, would be $6,596,284 32 cents, which sum added to the actual receipts from letter postage in 1852, ($4,226,792 90,) would give an annual revenue from let

ter postage alone, of $10,823,077 22. As an argument or stimulus to induce our population to write that number of letters, let us imagine our postage reduced to the universal rate of two cents each, including drop-letters, and those sent to and from California and Oregon. At that rate, the amount received for letter postages, on 315,666,666 letters, would be $6,313,333 32, which added to the postal revenue from other sources, and the increase in the business and population of the country by the year 1860, would yield a revenue of $12,000,000. These are not figures of rhetoric, but actual facts. From the brief history of postal affairs that we have given, the reader can draw his own conclusions. We shall draw ours. We believe it can be demonstrated as readily as a mathematical problem, that by three perfectly practicable and simple improvements, our postal system can be made to yield a revenue equal to its entire expenditures, and at the same time, cost but little more than half the money in proportion to the number of letters written that we now pay, and also, save all our time and trouble in going to the post-office to obtain our letters, guarding against carelessness and dishonesty in our servants, give a safe and unerring method of remitting money to all parts of the country, without the possibility of loss, save all the money that we pay for box-rent at the post-office, and increase our mail privileges and facilities in all large towns and cities, at least five-fold. These several requisites are not mere visionary schemes, recommended to be tried as experiments, but practical systems that have long been in successful, permanent, and "paying" operation in a neighboring nation. These are, 1st. A UNIVERSAL DELIVERY IN ALL OUR LARGE CITIES AND TOWNS, BY MAIL-CARRIERS, IN THE REGULAR AND CONSTANT EMPLOY OF THE POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT; 2d. A METHOD OF REMITTING MONEY BY MAIL THROUGH POST-OFFICE "MONEY ORDERS; " and 3d. A UNIVERSAL POSTAL RATE OF TWO CENTS A LETTER; AND DOUBLE THAT SUM WHEN NOT PRE-PAID.

As it may be thought that a two-cent postage is not advisable at this time, we will base our arguments on the supposition that we shall continue to pay for some time to come, the same rates of postage that we now do. "Oh!" many cry out, "that will never do; have letters delivered at all the houses at the expense of the post-office department? Every man that has his letters delivered at his door, should pay for it." Of course he should, and three cents will pay it all. The man that lives on a western prairie, ten miles from any post-office, and who necessarily has to go after his letters, says he does not wish to pay so high a rate of postage as to enable the city merchant to enjoy a privilege that he can not. On the other hand, the

city resident says, he thinks it unfair to charge him the same postage for a drop-letter, which merely goes from one part of a city to another, that is charged to take a letter from NewYork to Illinois, or from Maine to California. Now it is all equitable, notwithstanding. In the first place, one rate of postage so simplifies the business of conducting the post-office, that all parties can thus have a lower rate than they could possibly have at several rates. Then, with a universal delivery by carriers, in cities and towns, the increase in the number of dropletters alone will far more than pay for the services of all the letter-carriers. Farther than this, all the residents of cities who have their letters delivered by carriers pay the same now; that is, two-cents extra to the carrier, and that, with the onecent postage for drop-letters, makes his city letters cost him three cents, and those that come from out of the city cost five, three for postage and two for the carrier. Now we come to the reason, and one of the principal ones, why they write so many more letters in England than they do in this country. Their post is so convenient, so cheap, and so expeditious, that they write three letters where we write one. In London there are ten letter deliveries a day; and sub-post-offices, called "receiving houses" are located all over the city, so that a person never has to walk over two or three squares before getting to an office where a letter can be mailed; and every two hours, at eight, ten, and twelve in the morning, and every hour in the afternoon, all the letters are collected by carriers, and those for the city delivered at once. Often has the writer of this mailed a letter in London, and other large cities in Great Britain in the morning, and had it delivered, and got an answer to it by post, before two o'clock the same day. In New York, where the sub-post-offices and letter-carriers are depended on at all, it is usually from two to three days before a letter is delivered after it is mailed, when it is only going to another part of the city, unless it is put in the City post-office in Nassau street, and then it is totally out of the question to get an answer under thirty-six or forty-eight hours. Then, when there is a universal letter delivery, there is not one fourth the number of delivery-clerks required in the post-office; for people do not call for their letters, but stay at home and get them earlier in the day, on the average, than they now do. Were there a regular letter delivery, and post-office "money orders"-drafts from one post-office to another-between all the principal offices, there would soon be such an increase in the number of letters, and in the revenue, that we should be able to have our postage reduced to two cents, and the expenses of the post-office met by the receipts. The number of letter-carriers in Great Britain is

about 4920. They receive for their services £168,794 per annum, or in our currency $843,970. Now, in the London District alone, the number of letters delivered annually, as we have seen, is 42,559,877, and on these letters the postage is over $850,000; a larger sum than is paid to all the carriers in the Kingdom. Were it not for this letter-delivery, two thirds of these letters would never pass through the post, and consequently, the revenue now derived from them would be lost. The letter-delivery by carriers in Great Britain far more than supports itself, aside from the great loss of time there would otherwise be spent in going to and from the post-office; and to be sure of getting our letters, we must call at the office often, delay others, and consume the time of the clerks in looking whether there are any letters for us or not. No! a postal system is not half a system, that does not carry the letters to the door of every man living in the towns and cities. The very men, many of them, that are engaged in carrying letters part of the time, can act as sorters and stampers in the post-office at certain hours of the night or day. The morning delivery being much the heaviest, many of the carriers will be at liberty a part of the time, and a portion of these can do other duty. The wages paid carriers in England varies much; in London, usually from fifteen to twenty shillings sterling a week, but in provincial towns it is frequently much less, their services being often required only for an hour or two, and when performed, their time is their own.

Leters are usually addressed to street and number, and if the owner of the letters calls for them at the post-office, he can not have them, but must wait for the delivery. When a writer of letter does not know the residence of his correspondent, and expects to have him call at the office for a letter, he then adresses it, with the words "Post-office," before the name of te office and often, what is better still, writes on it "to be filled for;" and these letters are not sent out by the carriers at 11, but kept at the office. If a merchant or banker, who has a very large mail, prefers sending for all his letters, he can hire box or a locked draw at the post-office, and give directions to have his letters retained; or, what is often done, have a private mail-pouch of his own, that is locked, and this is sent by the carrier. There is greater safety and security in the mail-carriers, than in allowing servants or clerks to go to the office for the letters. There are policemen and "inspectors of lettercarriers" in England, and the system is so conducted, that if a carrier goes to robbing the letters, he is just as certain to be caught as he exists. They all wear a uniform; usually a gold band on the hat and a red collar to the coat, and they are thus