rate.

paper carriage; while in many parts of the continent of Europe the actual competition in forwarding small parcels is not to-day noticeable. The conveyance of money has generally been effected under a form like a registered letter; but in England the habitual use of cheques led to the early development (1838) of the postoffice money order, which was slow in making its way into other countries. The rapid conveyance of persons from place to place by government posting arrangements, was at one time almost as important, at least in the eyes of the authorities, as the conveyance of letters; but it of course nearly fell away with the introduction of railways, except in the few countries, like Norway, which combine considerable demand for communication with the impracticability of railways. On the other hand,. postal telegraphy seems destined to grow in importance. In many countries of Europe the telegraph was from the beginning developed in connection with the postoffice; while in England it was brought under its control in 1869.- Principles of Administration. The question whether the state should control the postoffice need not be seriously discussed as an open one. Our experience with railroads has shown what we may expect from private management in affairs of this kind

unsteadiness and discrimination of rates, and development of competing and favored points at the expense of all others. When it is impossible to avoid this in transportation, unless by combinations and monopolies no less dangerous than the evil itself, it can hardly be seriously proposed to introduce it into the system of postal commu

except where special arrangements provided otherwise; and these arrangements were apt to mean higher instead of lower rates. But with the abandonment of the Collins line of steamers, the United States again took strong ground in favor of lower rates; and, at its suggestion, a conference was held at Paris in 1863, relative to common action in the matter of international postage. This conference was only deliberative; it did not do away with the necessity of special treaties, though there was a continued lowering of rates in these. A similar conference, to be invested with greater powers, was invited to meet at Bern, in 1873; but as France, on the ground of financial embarrassments, declined to take part, it was postponed, and reconvened in September, 1874, when the leading nations were satisfactorily represented. In spite of some moderate opposition from France, which was hampered by its subsidy system of mail contracts, and in spite of great lukewarmness on the part of England, public feeling in favor of cheap postage was so strong that, on Oct. 9, a postal union was formed on a general basis of five cents per half ounce letter postage, to go into effect, with some few exceptions, July 1, 1875. Even France | agreed that it would ultimately acquiesce in this Other nations, not at first included, joined the postal union in rapid succession, and in 1878 a second congress was held at Bern, which carried out the ideas of the first into the shape of a postal union treaty, embracing the following points: 1, harmonious arrangement of lines for international connection, transit, etc.; 2, avoidance of international competition; 3, proper distribution of expenses, and, if necessary, pool-nication. On the other hand, the question as to ing of receipts; 4, international equality of treatment; 5, equality of standards of weight, These postal treaties have now been agreed to by all Europe, and most of the other countries of the world. The postal union has a permanent organization at Bern, with its regularly published series of reports. For dealing with all this business a body of officials and of official regulations has become necessary, almost involving a special department of administrative law. Two points of this deserve mention in a history of the subject: first, the franking privilege, or right of public officers to send letters free of charge, a survival of the time when the object of the postoffice was to transact government business, but one which has maintained itself almost everywhere; and second, the wide application of the principle of sacredness of epistolary correspondence. In this historical account, attention has been confined to the letter post as the most important part of the system. The postoffice has at different times and places attempted the conveyance of newspapers, unsealed packages, money, persons and telegrams; not to speak of matters like postal savings banks, being quite aside from its main function. In almost all cases it has done so in more or less direct competition with private enterprise: though the English government had, up to the year 1840, a virtual monopoly of news

etc.

how far the post office should extend its activity to the conveyance of parcels, telegrams, etc., can not be adequately treated here; partly because the necessity changes so entirely with varying local conditions, partly because special technical reasons are involved, to which justice can be done only in separate articles. Setting these points aside, we have two distinct series of questions to deal with: first, as to the financial or administrative aims with which the postoffice should be conducted; second, as to the means to be employed for securing those aims. Of the two, the first is more difficult, and at the same time of more general importance and. interest. We see in the history of the institution that the post office was taken up by governments. far more with a view of strengthening their own. position than for the convenience of their subjects. This was equally the case whether they used it exclusively for their own business, as in Rome, or for the sake of getting administrative control into their hands, as in France. This carelessness of public interest led to its management under systems of lease or investiture, whatever means would secure money or influence with the least trouble. That state of things was outgrown in the last century, and men attained to the conception (though not always to the reality) of the postal service as a public interest, to be managed directly by the state for the public advantage. But the

particular form of public advantage to be aimed | simply to pay expenses gained hold in connection

at was not yet settled. The postoffice might be managed in any one of four ways: 1, as a tax; 2, to yield good business profit; 3, to pay expenses; 4, to best accommodate the public. On the whole, the third of these principles is tending to prevail, but there has been, and is still, much deviation from it. — 1. The use of the postoffice as a means of taxation was an idea belonging distinctly to the earlier period, now outgrown. Yet, in practice the lowering of rates was so slow that the government monopoly at the charges ruling previous to 1840 had all the characteristics of a tax, and of one placed at the highest limit the business would bear; making itself felt not so much by the amount of money collected as by the means adopted to evade payment, by keeping correspondence within narrow limits or forwarding it by illegal agen- | cies. The discriminating rates against foreign postage were still more obviously of the nature of a tax, and were felt to be so when connected with the subsidy system; so that the abandonment of the principle of managing the postoffice as a tax can not be said to have been complete till the final lowering of rates by France and Italy subsequent to the postal congress of 1878.-2. The idea of managing the postoffice to obtain business profits is much more plausible, and in those branches of the postal service which come into competition with private agencies, such as express companies, is probably sound. But in letter carrying, where there is a government monopoly, it is liable to misapplication in two ways. First, the absence of competition leaves the decision as to what constitutes a good business profit in the hands of the postoffice authorities, who, in the uncertain conditions and bases of calculation, have every motive to aim too high, and thus give the result the character of a tax; and, second, the absence of outside control of rates makes it natural for the authorities to secure the required excess of income over expenditure by doing a small business at high charges, instead of a large business at low charges. As a matter of fact, business profits under a government monopoly are not clearly distinguishable from taxes. Compare the arguments used (1835-50) against lowering postal rates with the results which actually followed such lowering. The most marked instance of reduction and its consequences may be taken from Rowland Hill's reform, by which postage was reduced to one-tenth its former figure. The financial showing did not quite realize Hill's anticipations, partly on account of a change in the legislation respecting newspapers; nevertheless, the department continued to do much more than pay expenses; its gross income reached its former figure in ten years, its net income in about thirty years; and in the last case the department was serving the public by carrying fourteen times as many letters as in 1839. The system of business profits is, however, in large measure maintained both in England and in France. (See figures below.)-3. The idea of managing the postoffice

with the reforms of 1840. Even those writers who, from a financial standpoint, criticise the suddenness of Hill's change, and prefer the continental and American policy of gradual reduction, do so on account of the evils of suddenly shifting the burdens of taxation rather than from any objection to the principle itself. Yet, while their theorists hold this view, in practice most European states so far keep to the older policy as to secure a slight excess of income over expenditure in this department, perhaps, in general, not more than would meet interest on the cost of buildings. (See figures below.) The disadvantages of the profits principle have been already set forth; the corresponding advantages of the cost principle are, first, that it takes away the uncertainty as to the result to be striven for, and, second, that it furnishes a tangible basis on which the rates are likely to be computed, with due regard to the public interest. 4. To carry letters without paying expenses (that is to say, below cost) is to tax the general public for the sake of a special service; usually a thing to be avoided. Yet, there are considerations which sometimes make it necessary to proceed on this principle. In countries like the United States or Russia, there are strong social and administrative reasons for establishing long routes over sparsely populated districts. These involve a large increase in expense, with no corresponding increase in revenue, whatever rate of postage is charged upon them. They have often caused a postal deficit in Russia, and almost always in the United States. If the expense of these routes causes a deficit in the whole department when the rates of postage are moderate, the additional income which could be obtained by higher postal rates would not be likely to cover it, because higher postal rates mean fewer letters. Thus the government must be prepared to meet the deficit. But-to take another consideration-suppose that the deficit could be met by higher rates. Suppose that in America by such rates a surplus could be obtained in the already self-sustaining east, sufficient to meet deficits in the south and west, or that such surplus could be obtained upon the main routes as to meet deficits upon the minor ones. What then? Such a proceeding would be a tax upon the correspondence of one section for the benefit of another. The interests subserved by such routes are not the postal interests. They are the general interests of the country; and to force the postage returns of other sections to pay for this service is to intensify the unfairness of taxation which it is intended to avoid. Thus the principle now generally favored is, that the postoffice should aim to pay expenses; but the traditional practice of European administrations is to make it do somewhat more; and the special circumstances of the United States have justified the practice of allowing it to do somewhat less. How shall the rates be adjusted in accordance with the financial principle chosen? is the second question. Under the older

|

papers published at that time was 4,000 copies a day. In 1815 the number of newspapers published in the United Kingdom was 252, of which fifty-five were in London, and fifteen of these daily, 122 in the English provinces and Wales, | twenty-six in Scotland, and forty-nine in Ireland. From the close of the Napoleonic wars the growth of English journalism was remarkably rapid. The reform excitement greatly increased the circulation and influence of newspapers of every shade and kind. In 1833 there were 400 newspapers published in the United Kingdom, and 42,000,000 copies annually passed through the postoffices. In 1836 the reduction of the stamp duty still further stimulated the growth of the press; and noteworthy development continued after the repeal of the advertisement duty in 1853, and of the compulsory stamp in 1855. The prices were correspondingly reduced, and new newspaper enter

was a weekly paper established at Frankfort in 1615, by Egenolph Emmel, a bookseller. In 1616 Johann von der Birghden, the postmaster at Frankfort, established the Frankfurter Oberpostamts-Zeitung, the oldest successful German newspaper. The Allgemeine Zeitung, established at Tübingen in 1798, by Cotta, the publisher, and still continued at Augsburg, has been the most successful and the most influential of the German newspapers. The German periodical press, both in its political and literary publications, is now the most firmly established, the most widely diffused and the most ably conducted press of the continent, notwithstanding the repressive restrictions of the government. The precursor of the French periodical press was the Gazette, issued by Th ́ophraste Renaudot in 1631, and continuing, under modifications of title, until 1789, first as a weekly, then as a semi-weekly, and finally as a daily publication. The Moniteur, the official organ of the gov-prises were abundant in all parts of the kingdom. ernment, was founded in 1789. The first daily In 1880 there were 2,076 newspapers and 921 newspaper was the Journal de Paris ou Poste du periodicals published in the United Kingdom. Soir, established in 1777. An enormous number Of newspapers, there were fourteen morning and of political journals have flourished for a greater fourteen evening dailies published in London, or less period in the French capital during the ninety-three dailies published in the remainder of last 100 years, several of the cheaper newspapers England, four in Wales, twenty-two in Scotland now published there reaching circulations not par- and eighteen in Ireland. The daily circulation of alleled in other countries. In Spain a court jour- the London journals was placed in the same year nal was founded in the middle of the eighteenth at 710,000, and that of all the daily newspapers in century. The alternating rigor of government Great Britain at 3,938,938. The aggregate circusupervision in Spain has prevented any such de- lation per issue of all the periodical publications of velopment of the periodical press of that coun- the kingdom was 29,279,204, and the total numtry as is seen elsewhere. The first Russian news- ber of copies annually issued was 2,219,329,322. paper was established in 1703, and newspapers Since the removal of all fiscal restrictions the inare now published in the principal cities of the crease in both the number and the circulation of empire, under very rigid censorship. The Ital- British newspapers has been much more rapid than ian and Austrian newspapers are inferior to those the increase in the population. The ratio of inof Germany and France, although several reach crease in Great Britain still remains behind the same wide circulations and wield a powerful popu- ratio in the United States, and the development lar influence. - Nathaniel Butter, who founded of the British newspaper press differs from that of the "London Weekly Newes" in 1622, is regarded the press in the latter country in several particuas the father of English journalism. Printing lars. The first newspaper in America was Benpresses had been at work in England for 150 years jamin Harris' "Publick Occurrances Foreign and previously, but news had been published only in Domestick," at Boston, Mass. The first and only stray sheets and pamphlets, issued at irregular number was issued Sept. 25, 1690, and it was im intervals, and without relation to each other. mediately suppressed by the colonial authorities, Crude newspapers became comparatively numer- as "a pamphlet published contrary to law and ous during the commonwealth, and were freely containing reflections of a very high nature." used to disseminate political opinions by both April 24, 1704, John Campbell, postmaster at royalists and puritans. They had quaint titles, Boston, issued "The Boston News Letter," which such as "The Scot's Dove,' "The Parliament was continued weekly, under various auspices, Kite," "The Secret Owl," etc. With the restorauntil 1776. The third newspaper, "The Boston tion a strict censorship of the press was resumed. Gazette," appeared Dec. 21, 1719. Andrew BradThe first commercial newspaper, "The City Mer- ford issued the "American Weekly Mercury" at cury," appeared in London in 1675; the first Philadelphia, Dec. 22, 1719. James Franklin literary journal "The Mercurius Librarius," in established the "New England Courant" at Bos1680; and the first daily newspaper, the " Daily ton, Aug. 17, 1721. His attacks upon the governCourant," in 1709. "The London Times" first ment, the clergy and private individuals, attracted appeared in 1785, under the name of "The Daily the attention of the general council, which in Universal Register," printed and published by 1722 forbade Franklin to continue to publish the John Walter, of Printing House Square. Its "Courant,' or any other pamphlet or paper of circulation at the commencement of the present the like nature, unless it be first supervised by the century was 1,000 copies daily, and the aggregate secretary of this province." The next issue apcirculation of all the other London daily news-peared with the name of Benjamin Franklin at

"

99 66