The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-20 00:00:00

CHEAP OCEAN POSTAGE.

HON. ABBOTT LAWRENCE'S CORK nor
BNCE WITH THE HON. DANIEL WEBSTER,
ON CHEAP OCEAN POSTAGE.
To the Friends of Cheap Ocean Postage throughout the
United States.
Your attention is now called to the necessity of
reducing the rates of ocean postage, which have Ws been
felt an intolerable burden by all who have correspondence
with the Old World. The mgmetaat dommient now placed
before you shows that it has seem Om attention of dis-
tinguished minds in Europe, and km been the subject of di-
plomatic correspondence between the government and oar
late minister to the Court of St. James. Mr. Lawrence, in
his letter to Mr. Webster, has shown that he understands
and feels the importance of cheap ocean postage, and his
facts and arguments are worthy of the attentive considera-
tion of all chimes, and especially of those who have the
power to remedy the evil complained of.
Let us look at the rate of postage now imposed on letters
between the United States and Great Britain. The post-
age on • single letter in a mail steamer is twenty-four
cents ; if it weighs over halloo ounce, and under an ounce,
forty-eight emits ; and should it weigh the smallest fraction
over an ounce, it will be charged ninety-six cents. A let-
ter, if conveyed by • sailing vessel to Great Britain, will
cost sixteen cents, and wheal:ought from thence to the
United States the postage is twenty-two cents. Hence
little is gained by sendir.g letters in sailiog vessels; for by
either conveyance the postage is enormous. But this is
not the only tax. On the continent of Europe there is an
additional hdani_postige, varying according to the rates
mind lyre awaimat governments, so that a letter sent 1
is, or frees Francs Or Germany, before it arrives at its
place of destination, is liable to two or three additional post-
ages. By a recent treaty with Prussia, the postage is that
kingdom has been fixed at thirty cents, which is at least six
times more than it should be. The postage to France via Eng-
land is enormous. The ebargeon • letter weighing oz., be-
tween Dover and Calais, two ports within sight of
each other, is thirty-one cents! which added to the charge
from New York to Liverpool is fifty-five cents.
The freight charged for carrying letters, compared with
other articles of value, is exorbitant. The Liverpool mail
steamers c wry goad; for thirty-seven dollars and fifty
cents per ton, while a ton of letters, at the rate of twenty-
four cents the half ounce, pays the enormous sum of fifteen
thousand three hundred and sixty dollars! and yet no
more care is required for bags of letters than for boxes and
bales of silks or calicoes. Our finest packet ships will carry
a barrel of flour to Liverpool, weighing two hundred pounds,
for forty-five or fifty cents, but two hundred pounds of
letters by the same ship will be charged ten hundred and
twenty-four dollars! Even at the rate of two cents postage
the freight paid will be twelve hundred and eighty dollars
per ton, a stun vastly disproportioned to that charged on
other articles of freight.
According to recent information the number of transat-
lantic letters conveyed by steamers and sailing ve-sels,
during the put year, was about four and a half millions,
and the postage collected on them nearly one million of
dollars. One-fourth of these were mercantile or busi-

ness letters, the other three-fourths were letters of friend-
ship. Here then we see that a tax of three-quarters of a
million of dollars is levied on the exercise of the social af-
fections, and paid principally by the most indigent classes
of our country. It now costa a poor labouring man nearly
the price of a day's work to send a letter and receive an an-
swer to it, from his friends in Europe.
Let us contrast the difference between inland and ocean
postage. In Great Britain a letter is conveyed to any part
of the United Kingdom for two cents, and in the United
States a distance under three thousand miles for three
cents, but a letter carried throe thousand miles by water,
from one country to the other, is charged twenty-four
cents, and if it weighs a fraction over an ounce it must pay
quadruple this rate, or ninety-six cents.
The object of this circular is to place before you these facts,
which are sufficient to awaken your attention to the neces-
sity of reducing the rates of ocean postage. The advan-
tages that would result from a reduction to twb cents are in-
calculable. No one can fully estimate the religious, moral,
literary, commercial, national benefits, which would follow
the adoption of this rate of postage, and, in view of this,
the Christian, the philanthropist, the statesman and mer-
chant should co-operate in the accomplishment of this all-
important measure.
The question is, what can be done to effect this object ?
I answer:

1. Prepare a petition and get your immedMte friends and
neighbours to sign it. Any person who Gan write is com•
potent to proper. a petition, couched in respectful terms,
asking Congress to reduce the rites of ocean postage to
two cents.

_
2. When the petition is signed by all you can obtain,
both male and female, old and young, becau'e all sexes
and ages are interested in cheap postage, then send it by
mail to Washington, addressed to She member of Congress
from your district, or to either of the vitiators from your
state, requesting him to present it immediately to Congress.
3. If practicable, call • public meeting in your town or
village, and adopt resolutions requesting your representa-
tives and senators in Congress to use their influence to ob-
tain a reduction of the rates of ocean postage.
4. Those who are acquainted with senators and members
of Congress should address them by letter, soliciting their
aid in promoting this important measure.
6. Endeavour to obtain the aid of the press in your neigh-
bourhood, that all-powerful engine which moves and directs
public opinion, to advocate cheap ocean postage. If the
press will speak out boldly and fearlessly in this cause, our
legislators in Congress will nut turn a deaf ear to its voice.
6. The influence of the clergy of every denomination
should be exercised in favour of this cause, but especially
those who are closely connected with our adopted citizens
and the millions of emigrants who are now coming to make
this country their horse. They have left behind them
hundreds of thousands of relatives and friends, anxious to
hear of their welfare, but the present high rates of postage,
and their limited circumstances, prevent them from enjoy-
ing this pleasure. Encourage the getting up of meetings
and petitions to Congress, in favour of cheap ocean postage,
for in doing this you will be instrumental of good, and the
widow and fatherless, and the stranger in the land, will rise
up and call you blessed.
I am aware that some persons wil object to the rate of
two conte, as being so low that it will not pay the expense
of carrying the mails in ocean steamers. To this! would
reply, that while the transit of • letter by water shall be
charged two cents, I propose to add the inland postage to it,
whatever that rate may tie. Hence, accordinit to our pre-
sent rates, a letter to Great Britain from the United States
under three thousand miles, would be charged Ave cents, and
over that distance eight cents.
To yield • revenue equal to what is now collected, would
require the number of letters to be increased about four-
fold, and that this increase would speedily take place,
if the proposed reduction was made, may he proved by the
following facto :
1. There are in the United States not less than seven
millions of
ipersons who have relations, friends, and corre-
spondents n the old world, and yet the number of letters
has remained nearly stationary at four and a half millions,
notwithstanding the vast number of emigrants who have
arrived here every year. Why is this ? Beause the high
rate of postage is a barrier to correspondence. Reduce it
as proposed, and where one letter is now written there will
be at least three.
2. Again, this high rate causes hundreds of thousands of
letters to be sent by passengers, which, if the postage was
cheap, would be sent by the mails. There would then be
no inducement to seek any other mode of conveyance.
3. Should the postage be reduced the practice of writing
on thin paper and encloaiag several letters in one envelope,
would in • good degree cum. They would be seat directly
to their address through the post-ofilce, instead of bag
enclosed to correspondents for delivery.
1 hope not to be charged with exaggeration, when I may
that, in lees than !our years, the number of transatlantic
letters, instead of remaining at four and a half millions, as
they have done for several years past, will be increased at
least to twenty millions, which at fire and eight cents will
yield en amount of revenue equal to what is now collected
from ocean postage. Let the experiment be tried, and, I
em persuaded, it will prove as successful as it has on inland
Polar.
The limits of this communication will not allow me to ea-
upon the necessity and advantages of the proposed
reduction. M object is to place before yea a few hoes*
demonstrate the importance of this change, and to urge
yen to adopt active measures to accomplish it.
Respectfully yours, BARNANIAII BASIS.
Legation of the United States, London, May 7, 1862.
Sir,—l have had the honour to address you on seve-
ral occasions on the subject of our postal arrange-
ments, and to transmit my correspondence with
this government relative to the rate charged for
the transit of postal matter in closed hags through England
to France. In my despatch No. 134, of the 24th of October
last, and in some others of a subsequent date, and in pri-
vate letters to the Postmaster-General, I expressed the
opinion that the postal rates between the United States and
the United Kingdom were too high, and should be reduced
About four-tenths of the postage between the two countries
is paid in Ireland, and the ratio is steadily increasing, in
consequence of the large Irish population in the United
States and the emigration still going forward. The revenue
derived from this branch of the postal service is no longer
principally of a commercial character, but is obtained to a
large extent from the correspondence of the most indigent
classes of society. The tax falls mainly upon the adopted
eitisens of the United States, or upon those who have
sought oar shores with the expectation of becoming
citizens.
The present ocean rate for letters is heavy, and very dis-
proportionate to the low inland rates adopted, beth in the
United States and the United Kingdom. It is • great im-
pediment in the way of the free correspondence so impor-
tant to the moral and material interests of the United
States.
I am unable to understand why • half-ounce letter should
be transported three thousand miles in the United States
(often in coaches, wagons, or on the backs of horses) at a
charge of three cents., or to any part of the United King-
dom at a charge of two cents; while the rate for transport-
ing the same letter by ship (much the cheapest mode of
conveyance known) the saute distance across the ocean, is
sixteen cents. I have thought, in view of the great advan-
tages enjoyed under our system of cheap postage in the
United States, and the long and happy experience in
this country of the workings of • similar system, that the
r present time might not be deemed unfavourable for pro-
posing to extend it to the ocean. I had supposed that
probably this would not be considered a financial question
by the government of the United States, but one of •
deeper interest to the people. Considering the vast extent
of our country, the character of its inhabitants, its consti-
tution, its laws, its free institutions, and the great and
growing numbers of British-bora persons smong us, cheap
postage between the two countries must produce the most
beneficial results. We. have much to gain and nothing to