The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE' PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The protests which invariably follow
any public notice of the Post-office and its proceed-
ings bear testimony to the peculiar interest taken
by all classes of society in the administration of
that Department. No sooner is the subject started
than our correspondence teems with complaints ex-
postulations, and remonstrances, all of which ap-
pear in direct contravention of the credit claimed
by the office for its own good work. To listen to
the Postmaster-General, you would think that no
Department of State ever performed such success-
ful, meritorious, and disinterested service as that
over which he presides ; to listen to the public, you
would imagine that never was overpaid work more
grudgingly executed. Nor is the conflict of opinion
in any degree extraordinary. It is but the natural
result of arrangements which are not really injudi-
cious or impolitic, but which have no parallel in our
institutions. The misfortune of the. Department is,
that it serves two masters—the State and the pub-
lic. The State looks to the profit realised for its
use, the public to the accommodation furnished in
return for the charge. On the former of these
points the official report of the Postmaster-General
must needs be thought satisfactory. Mr. Glad-
stone will get a clear million of money from the
Office, in fact something more, and he may well be
content, but our columns have shown for this week
past that the sentiment of gratitude is not exactly
shared by the public. If we had to decide between
these opinions, we should say that the Post-office
really does as much for the public as is compatible
with its obligations to the Treasury, but that it
takes rather too much credit, and assumes rather
too patronising a tone in describing its perform-
ancces. It could do a great deal more for us if it
was less anxious to make profit out of the work,
but the profit must be made, unless the whole
theory of the service is to be revolutionised.
The first great change in the system was all in
favour of the public, to the detriment of the State.
The introduction of the penny postage was one of
the greatest and most palpable reforms of our
times. Everybody felt it directly and immediately.
No relief that a Chancellor of the Exchequer could
devise would come home so quickly and sensibly as
this did to every man's door. But the boon was
given once for all. Since that time the modifica-
tions or developments of the system have been con-
ceived as much in the interest of the State as in that
of the public. The loss to the State had to be made
up as far and as speedily as possible, and this could
only be done by extending the business, or, in other
words, multiplying the number of letters transmitted
through the Post. The inventor of the new system
had set his heart upon bringing things to a balance
and realising ultimately for the benefit of the Ex-
chequer all that the Exchequer had surrendered in
the first instance for the benefit of the public. A
letter was to be carried and delivered for a penny
instead of eightpence, but so many letters were to
be carried and delivered that the product from the
pence received for the service was to be as great as
before. This was the policy which has governed
the proceedings of the Post-office for the last five-
and-twenty years. The object was the multiplica-
tion of letters, and to this all the energies and de-
vices of the Department were directed. It was re-
quisite, in the first place, to facilitate the work of
the Post-office servants in order that they might
perform a greater amount in a given time. To this
end the " co-operation " of the public was " in-
vited," as they say in Paris—that is to say, we had
to do as the Post-office told la Rules of greater
and greater stringency were introduced as to the
prepayment of letters, and as to the affixing of the
right stamp in the right corner. Penalties for ,the
infraction of rules were multiplied or increased. Ac-
curacy And distinctness of address were rigidly ex-
acted, and the Office took less trouble to rectify the
defaults of its customers. In London a little diction-
ary had to be purchased and studied in order that a
nomenclature more convenient to the Office might
be understood. Even every householder was ex-
pected to fit a private letter-box to his front door,
in order that the letter-carrier might not have a
minute to wait. All this shifting of small troubles
from the Office to the public rendered the work
of its servants very much easier, and enabled
them to carry and deliver many more letters than
before. So, then, new receptacles were devised for
the deposit of letters, new branches opened, and
new shops organised in all quarters for the solicita-
tion of our custom. The accumulation of letters
thus created entailed the multiplication of deliveries,
till most towns had two posts a day and the chief
cities of the kingdom many more. The office, in
short, did really expedite the collection, transmis-
sion, and delivery of letters to such good purpose
that they increased in number by millions ; but, as
each letter was carried at a profit, the gains of the
office increased also, and the end was attained. It
is not to be disguised that the public had its share
of the advantage. The post-office did not reduce
the price of its stamps by a single farthing, nor did
it, we believe, in a single instance increase the
weight which a given stamp might carry. These
conditions of service were kept unchanged, so that
as the business which was thus increased had been
a remunerative business to begin with, its profits
swelled in proportion. What the public gained was
a quicker and more frequent delivery. It paid the
same for the carriage of a letter as before, but the
letter was carried in a shorter time. Two or three
letters, in some places a dozen, might be inter-
changed where only one despatch daily had been
possible before, and the latest concession of the
department has been an extension of the hours
within which letters may be posted in London. All
this is true, but still the paternal solicitude of the
Office for our accommodation and convenience is
accompanied, if it is not created, by a distinct con-
cern for its own interests. A baker who sold penny
rolls or muffins at a profit would think himself
rather than his customers fortunate if he could in-
duce them to take rolls and muffins ten times a
day instead of at breakfast only, and this is what
the Post-office has succeeded in doing with its letters.
Nevertheless, the communications which appear
in our columns prove this much on behalf of the
Department, that this facilitation and expedition of
deliveries is what the public chiefly looks for. There
is not much grumbling about postal charges. Nine
complaints out of ten refer rather to sharp practice
or stingy service. The deliveries, it is said, are few,
or slow, or circuitous ; or a slight inaccuracy has
been allowed to vitiate an address, or a penalty has
been too severely exacted. The general tone of
these protests shows that the public wishes the Office
not to charge less but to perform more, or, in other
words, to proceed in that very course which its own
interest has already dictated. But the Office is de-
barred from being too liberal to the public by its
duty to the State. The Exchequer cannot dispense
with the million thus pleasantly brought in, and,
besides this, the whole Department is animated by
an undying desire to bring up the profits to the
standard of old times, and to keep them there.
Unless this is done, the pledge given at the origin of
the reform is unfulfilled. So, though the means of
the Department increases its economy is not miti-
gated, and it still, though it is a Government esta-
blishmenc;lies under the anomalous and unparalleled
charge of pinching and screwing and turning every
penny to account. Perhaps, upon the whole, the
reader may think that this is not so bad a character
for a Department to possess ; but, unluckily, its
parings and scrapings, when they are felt, affect us
all, and we are apt to think that a few thousand
pounds had better be saved elsewhere, or not saved
at all, than at such cost to our daily convenience.

HERALD.—New Year's-day has come and gone ;
and the Emperor of the French has made his annual
reply to the compliments of the diplomatic body ;
speculators, political and monetary, breathe freely
again. Ever since half a dozen words addressed
to an ambassador proved the prelude of a great
war this New Year's reception at the Tuileries has
been looked forward to for several .weeks with
intense anxiety rand interest from all parts of
Europe. What had been once clone might be
done again. The absolute ruler of the most ambi-
tious nation of Europe might again, men feared,
give the signal for a conflict, or he might, some
hoped, spread confidence by emphatic assurances
of peace. And the interest has kept up, although
since that =ramble Ist January, 1859, the

Emperor has said nothing of the slightest import-
ance. It is always possible that, he may fling a
bomb-shell amongst the crowd, and the fact that
for several years in succession 'ne denies himself the
pleasure only leads people to calculate with con-
fidence that he will startle them each next time.
Happily this yeay he Iras added another to the com-
mon plaee conversations which the Court chroni- -
clers have recorded since 1859. He has neither
warned nor threatened any one ; he has professed
no fears that peace will be broken—a very impor-
tant ~
matter then the speaker has absolutely the
power of realising those fears, and almost as abso-
lutely the power of preventing their realisation. On !,
the contrary, he trusts that concord may continue to
reign, treats the presence of the Foreign Ministers i
around him as, a guarantee that it will, and further
promises that he will make every effort thfit his re-
lations
with foreign powers may be ever animated
by respect for right, and love of peace and justice.
Excellently spoken, and but that phrases like these
allow such a latitude of interpretation that the Em-
peror would find no difficulty in reconciling his pro-
fessions of attachment to peace with a war against
any one of his neighbours, we might make certain
of peace for at least another 12 months, and hope
that that 12 months' grace would secure another
grace of as many years. For if the Emperor of the
French is anxious to maintain the peace of Europe
it is almost impossible that it can be disturbed. The
only question whieh threatens war is the Italian
one. The Italians are eager for war with Austria,
they have a very unpleasant consciousness that if
they do not make it now they will not be able to
make it for some years, and then at a great disad-
vantage. They find it impossible to continue the
expenditure in which they have indulged in order to
prepare themselves for war, and they are most un-
willing to see all that expenditure, representing such
vast sacrifices in the past and for the future, made
completely useless by a disarmament. They want
to fight now, while the army is still left to them.
But they will not venture to fight against the wishes
of the Emperor of the French. Even if they clearly
understand that they will have no chance of French
assistance they will not venture to dash themselves
against the Quadrilateral. If they were to know
that the Emperor was determined to keep the peace
of Europe and would not allow them to check .
the progress of industry, the development of
wealth and comfort, and the general extension -
of commercial relations, merely to gratify their am-
bition to acquire fresh territory whilst that which
they have needs all their efforts to make something
of it, they would at once abandon all thoughts of
war, cut down their expenditure, and redeem their
credit. There is no other difficulty which, so far
as present appearances enable_us to speak, can lead
to war. Austria will not venture to break with
Prussia, how much soever she may dislike the
Prussian disposition of the Duchies. The secondary
states will be quite as careful not to go beyond big
words, and not, to afford Prussia a pretext for mak-
ing them Prussian too. The Emperor, therefore,
can keep the peace of Europe if he will. Will he ?
We venture to think so, although last year he made
the same professions of a desire for the maintenance
of peace, expressed the same hopes that it would be •
maintained, had the same power to have prevented
its disturbance, and yet allowed a war to break
out which crushed a nation whose fidelity to France .
in the days of her humiliation deserved a better re-
turn. On the Ist of January, 1864, the Emperor
expressed to the diplomatic body his conviction that
notwithstanding the difficulties which had been
brought about by certain events in different parts
of Europe they would be removed by the concilia-
tory spirit by which the Sovereigns were animated,
and " that we shall be able to maintain peace."
Peace was not maintained ; but nobody can doubt
that it would have been maintained if France had
seconded the efforts of England with any sincerity.
If the Emperor had accepted the proposal of the
English Government, and agreed with England and '
Sweden to protect Denmark against any violation of
the Treaty of London, the Germans would never I
,
have crossed the Eider. Upon that point there can-
not be the slightest doubt. Not even Herr Von Bis-
marck or Prince Frederick Charles would have been
mad enough to have challenged such an opposition ;
and as for Austria, the first hint of it would have
turned her into a violent advocate of the London
Treaty. But the Emperor had other purposes.
He thought war would answer his object better than
peace ; and so, perhaps, it has. Germany is
thoroughly disunited, and England, which left hint
in the lurch the previous year, has sustained a most
signal defeat. Her prestige, her influence in Europe
is gone. Those two victories the Prussian heroes
of Duppel and Sonderborg have won for France. ‘
France did not sacrifice a man or a son. But this ,
year, if there is any fighting, it cannot profit France
in the least unless she takes het part in it, and there
is no probable fighting in which any part taken by
France would yield sufficient profit to make the
venture worth the Emperor's while. He wants
peace for France because he wants the continuance
of commercial prosperity, a more active progress in
those great public works which will be the glory of
of his reign, even if' they be the bane of. future
Finance Ministers ; he wants peace because lie
wants, if not to reduce taxation, at least not to in-
crease it. For these reasons he is anxious not only
that France herself should enjoy peace, but Europe
too; because war in Europe would shake confidence
in France and impede very much the execution •of
the Imperial programme. Without, therefore,
attaching any great importance to commonplaces
about peace and justice, which really mean little
more than " your humble servant " at the end of a
letter, we have a strong conviction that the Empire
is for this year peace ; that the Emperor is really
anxious in his own interest and that of France to
preserve peace to Europe for the present ; and be-
lieving that he has the power to give effect to his
wishes we promise ourselves that 1865, in this
quarter of the globe at least, will be a year of peace
and prosperity. 1