The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-01 00:00:00

year's income to the extent of no less than
£1,298,000, the two together making a decrease
within 1863 of nearly two millions sterling,
£1,913,000. Hence the net decrease upon this
twelvemonth of £562,809 hint dice lachrymcc. It
ought, of course, to be borne especially in mind
while attention is thus directed to the darkest
figures upon the balance sheet for 1863, that the
losses referred to are solely attributable to the reduc-
tion of the impost upon tea, and the diminution of the
tax upon ineomes and property, reductions boldly ad-
ventured npon last year at the instance of the Right
Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Only,
again it ought be borne in mind, while saying this,
that had the like been done by his antagonist, that
is to say, supposing that Co►.servative opponent of
his had been in power and had so regulated the affairs
of the Exchequer in 1863 as to bring about this
very result of a net loss upon the year of £562,809
sterling—certain are we, that the indignant
eloquence of Mr. GLADSTONE would have been
devoted towards the close of next March to the
reprobation of such very rash proceedings on the
part of an over busy, not to say, crotchetty and
popularity-hunting Administrator. Nowhere is
an especial regard to the good old axiom which
urges us to look before we leap, more urgently
advisable, than in the regulation of each and
all of the innovations that may at any time
be adventurei upon in the department of
the Exchequer. Latterly the effort has been made,
under the wise supervision of our master Financier
Mr. GLADSTONE, the effort has been not by any
means to so calculate the national incoming and
outgoing as to have even the smallest reasonable
prospect of a surplus, but on the contrary, and at
all hazard, even with a war expenditure in a time
of peace, to pare the income down, as it were, to
the very quick. Not only has it been thus
with us, in regard to the system of late years
in vogue at the Treasury, even under the
sagacious direction of that department by
Mr. GLADSTONE ; but two other distinctive
peculiarities of his policy as a financier do certainly,
to our thinking, necessitate our regret, even if they
do not actually demand our reprobation. To say
that even Mr. GLADSTONE—not, observe, his often
flouted and reviled antagonist, Mr. DISRAELI, but
the great Financial Minister in Lord PALMERSTON'S
two Administrations—to say that Mr. GLADSTONE
is not a wilful and rash experimentalist in Finance
would ba a bold assertion for anyone to make after
the two perverse attempts (happily, both of them,
quite futile) made by him this last year, that is, in his
Budget of 1863, on the one hand, in the matter of
the club licences, and on the other in his projected
impost upon charitable endowments. Added to
which, even !n regard to the abolition of duties
hitherto levied upon a great variety of imports, of
taxes levied upon this or that article of home manu-
facture, it bears an appearance of singular perversity
to find him, as we do, dealing out remissions thus
during the last few sessions—in regard to what
imported commodities, in respect to what articles
of home consumption ? In regard to the actual
necessaries of life ? On the contrary, in respect
to proverbial luxuries, to such luxuries, let us say,
as playing cards, or as claret.

Few of our social arrangements have been brought
to greater perfection than our postage system,
whether as regards extent, despatch, or regularity.
Its punctuality and fidelity have become so much
a matter of course, that we are hardly fully
sensible of its value. We put our epistle through
a little slit in a wall after affixing a little square of
coloured paper, and then turn away perfectly con-
fident that the next morning will see it lying on
our friend's breakfast table at Paris or Edinburgh,
014 been encore embarked on its voyage to Shanghae,
or the antipodes, where we shall certainly reckon
on its arriving at the appointed time. We experi-
ence considerable irritation and annoyance if, by a
rare accident, a letter is lost while passing through
the Post, yet we are continually despatching letters
of business or friendship, books, papers, money
orders, circulars, and a dozen other et ceteras, by
its means, which reach their destination with the
regularity of clockwork, without ever giving a
thought to the labour necessary to keep this vast
machinery in working order. If England were
suddenly deprived of the Penny Post we should
appreciate his excellencies to the full even in these
days of good roads and railway communication, and
every year, as the statistics on the subject inform us,
the grand scheme of ROWLAND HILL is increasing
in utility and success. It was a bold idea, but one
based on a sound principle, which cast away all
the old cumbrous and expensive regulations, and
introduced Free Trade into our postage system. To
rely on the support of the many instead of the
patronage of the few, to look for profits to the
number of the receipts instead of to their indivi-
dual amount, is fully in accordance with the spirit
of our own day, but was a principle of commercial
policy less generally accepted when ROWLAND
HILL accomplished his grand reform. There were,
of course, found many who decried the scheme and
prophesied its utter failure—it is probable that its
author himself did not foresee the extent of its suc-
cess.
Since the first of those little red portraits of
her Gracious Majesty was affixed to the cumbrous
quarto epistle of those days there has been an in-
crease
of 529,000,000 in the number of letters. Of
course the great increase of our trade and commerce
since that time has contributed largely to this re-
sult, as well as the introduction of the uniform rate
of postage, bat that improvement has itself aided in
stimulating and developing our commercial activity.
The greater diffusion of knowledge, too, helps to
increase the number, every year adding to the list of
those who can read and write. The proportion of
letters to each person is estimated at 24 in England,
19 in Scotland, and 9in Ireland. Of course such an
average is merely theoretical, but it affords some
test of national education nevertheless. Taken in
this view we may reasonably hope that a few years
will show a still greater proportionate increase in
the quantity of letters posted, and less discrepancy
between England and the sister country. The num-
ber is rapidly rising, 12,000,000 more letters having
been posted in 1862 than in 1861, and doubtless
the returns for 1863 will exhibit an equal
advance. In the London district alone the
number of letters now pcsted nearly doubles
the postage of the whole United Kingdom
before 1839. The addition of the Book Post,
which has proved so great a convenience to the
public, has of course largely increased the labours
of the Post-office. No less than 14,000,000 such
packets were delivered in 1362, while the trans-
mission of 73,000,000 newspapers, or half a million
more than in the preceding year, testifies to the
general eagerness for political knowledge. How-
ever mercenary; the exactitude of our London and
provincial postage may be, the regularity of our
ocean mail service is far more astonishing. A few
instances of wonderful punctuality are mentioned
in the report for 1862, such As the arrival of the
mails from Sydney, distant 13,000 miles; from
Calcutta, distant 8,000 miles ; :and from Hong
Kong, distant 10,000 miles, on.a hour and ten
minutes before the time when they were due.
Others have arrived at the very moment calculated
upon, and although, of course, tho wisest navigator