The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-07 00:00:00

e have this day to announce a step which,
simple,and unpretending as it may seem, is really
a greater move towards a complete unity of our in..
dependent Empire than the most splendid conquest
or the largest annexation. In reply to a deputa-
tion last Friday the Postmaster-General stated that,
as soon as the colonial assents could be obtained
and the proper arrangements made, it was intended
to reduce the postage of letters for every part of
the British dominions abroad to the uniform rate
of sixpence the half-ounce. The present average
Postage of colonial letters is not less than fourteen-
pence. What will be gained is the IoW rate, and
and the uniformity, which experience has shown to
be scarcely less appreciated than cheapness. Very
shortly, therefore, it will be in the power of any of
our readers to drop a letter into the box of the next
cottage or in the next street, to his friend on the
slopes of the Himalaya, or at Mount Alexander, or
at Vancouver's Island, or at Toronto, with the
certainty, as far as the whole power of Govern-
ment can secure it, of having an answer back
at the cost, for the postage of the two
letters, of one shilling. The answer froni
across the Atlantic will probably be within a
month, that from Simla or Lahore within three
months, and that from the Antipodes within half
a year. A party of emigrants sailing
this week
may hope to arrive at Geelong or Adelaide soon
after Midsummer, and about Michaelmas their
friends at home, supposing the arrangement com-
pleted, may hope to receive full accounts of their
voyage and safe arrival at the moderate cost of six-
pence. Let people talk as they please of the sun
never setting on our dominions, and of the British
flag waving over every sea and every shore, nothing
brings before our mind so forcibly the fact that we
are everywhere, and that everywhere we represent
the spirit of progress, as this little type of universal
power—this letter given to the village postman in
March, with an answer from mid Asia in June.
There is something grand and showy enough in the
return that appear from time to time in our mili-
tary and naval journals, giving the stations of our
ships and of our soldiers in every part of the world ;
but the grandeur of the idea is qualified by many
painful considerations, for the whole is merely an
ill remedy for a still worse evil. But there is no
such alloy in the thought that any member of the
British Empire, comprehending an eighth of the
human species, will be able to communicate with
any other within a space of time and at a cost in-
credible to our forefathers, and even hitherto unat-
tainable. Considering how much there is that is
questionable in our dominion, in its means and in
its results, it is satisfactory to: find one means and
one result of undoubted advantage to the whole
human race, viz., that we draw mankind together,
and bring the whole world, so to speak, within
hearing distance.
The numerous interests of society and commerce
concerned in this measure have been so well repre-
sented in the 'deputation to Lord Canning, that
little more is to be done than simply recount them.
The merchant, with his budget of letters by every
colonial mail ; the colonial company, with its agents
and its labourers at work in Australia ; our assur-
ance companies, with a correspondence all over the
world • our hundreds of thousands of emigrants,
who aye broken the dearest ties to seek indepen-
dence in the colonies, and whose souls still cleave I
to those they have left at home ; the great mass of
the British public, deeply interested as they are in
our colonies and dependencies--such are the inte-
rests on whom the benefit is conferred, and the bare
examination of them will prove that it is not par-
tial benefit at the cost of the whole community. In
this respect the argument is the same as with regard
to our inland postage. It is not every man who can
write a letter—and many poor creatures scarcely
ever receive one—but there is not one of them with-
out an interest in the spread of information, in the
quickening of the whole system, and in the progress
of the nation. Just now the whole population
of these isles, more particularly the working classes,
are immensely benefitted by the prosperity of our
colonies, by their new sources of wealth, by the
stream of emigia,tion that has set in to them, and
the consequently increased demand for labour at
home. The first claimant on our consideration is
the colonist himself, who, with much denial and
some risk, has followed fortune to the end of the
earth thereby giving up his own immediate share
in the great stock and enterprise—the joint inter-
est and mutual good will of these isles—and leaving
the competition less severe for those that remain.
From a hungry competitor he has become a wel-
come customer. He even sends over the means of
transporting to the colonies still more of our over-
crowded labour. Surely those of our fellow coun-
trymen who have done this service to their country
—a service that many of us could hardly do our-
selves—deserve every return in our power, and the
best, indeed, almost the only return, we can give
is to diminish the distance and lessen the separa-
tion as much as possible. The distance we are
diminishing by steam, by the electric telegraph, and
all the means in our power ; and the other evil of
absence, infrequent communication, we are now
about to lessen by cheapening the means. The two
classes best able to value that cheapness are mer-
chants, in whose expenses postage forms a consid-
erable item, and the poorer sort with friends, as
most of them have, in the colonies. To the la-
bourer receiving only 9s. or 10s. a week a postage
of even Is. is a great drawback from the pleasure
of a letter, though it be from a child in Canada or
Australia and the news be agreeable. In fact,
his children, knowing his poverty, do not write as
often they would, and are apt to get out of the
way of writing altogether.

It is quite 411videnst that so great a change requir-
ing the co-operation of many establishments and
the consent of many authorities could not be
effected at once, or oven with as much rapidity as
our great postal: revolution at home. Things can
only be put in train for the change, as they will be
done immediately. What, therefore, Lord Canning
stated to the deputation on Friday was pretty
much as follows :—Government will invite the
Legislatures of those colonies which have the con-
trol of their own postal affairs (among which are
Canada and Australia) to say whether they will
agree to a reduction of postage on the following
terms :--The rate upon all letters to be 6d. the
oz.—this rate to include all charges, i. e., inland
postage in the United Kingdom, sea transit,
and inland postage in the colony—prepayment to
be optional ; in the case of letters carried by
packets supported (as now) by the mother
country, the proceeds of postage to be divided in
the proportion of sd. to the mother country (id.
for inland, and 4d. for sea carriage), and ld. to
the colony ; in the event of the Colonial Govern-
ment supporting the packet, this proportion to be
reversed ; in the case of ship letters, the rate to
be divided equally between the mother country
and the colony (3d. to each), as no expense of sea
transit will attach to either ; the rate upon all news-

papers to be ld. The Government expect that
before an answer is received from the colonies in
question, the examination and revision of the
Packet Service Estimate, announced by Sir James

Graham in proposing the Navy Estiniates on the
18th ult., will be concluded, and that should the
answer be favourable they will be ready to act upon
it. The colonies whose postal affairs are under con-
trol of the General Post-office, and with whom,
therefore, no negotiation is necessary, will not be
dealt with until the terms with the other colonies
are settled, nor will India be dealt with till that
settlement is no longer doubtful ; though it is'
intended that the arrangement with Inds
_-shraa 1 ltt
eh be
oi
their
poe .f
their
thT e he
deputationminds more t
os a a
eu
xpg u
pressede
nnu ;_ o—f - e
precisely
and
dnthmd
esadosreuthe
ppuosbtliagehat
disappointment freely on this head.
against this objection that the p plt
Was
urged
be a considerable reduction on th- ro-
°Bed
rate
will
that that uniformity Will be obtirkec(l)s now
enstiu—
present varying and inconsiste t 111
place
of
the
from Bd. from Heligoland t n scale (which ranges
that there will be cert.:. nearly 3s. from Ceylon);
charge will cover the inty, inasmuch as one
ter ; that probably whole conveyance of the let-
check, will be pu-t a stop, certainly a very great
now so prevalent ;
been taken which will
and
uxotnh the evasion of postage,ve
make
ita firstta step willtiveiy have
to carry reduction furtherma ife this e should° appear de-
sirable. There is of course a vast difference be-
tween an inland and a colonial penny postage,
at all events we must feel our way poe.th.Fe latter.
Such, we believe was the puerPrt
can only express
given to the deputation, and' itiv except on one point
our hearty concurrence wl-
it seems, are
that affects ourselves. Newspapers,sr efree unless when
to pay Id. At present they
sent by private ship, and
be-
lieve that it is i env,
reduction upon theccon u
an entirely new _
It certailuY
I would do . /
d Nve are unwilling to d
while making so great a
eyance of letters, to impose
,upon that of newspapers.
nq aml we humbly think
iblic also, a very great injury if one
the British lYi gnu() to clear the post. With
did not con
staalP we beg to congratulate the new
.ngle reserve.
first
this sing its great feat of "Adminis-
Government onl
native ability:'

a,YELLING IN ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CPs.
„T" Before the revolution the ordinary days journey
-f- flying coach was about fifty miles in summer ; but in the
of little more than thirty. The Chester coachthe York
and the Exeter coach generally reached London in four
number,hriatinaS were
not Ull
a
days during the fine season ; but at e
stheaetedsixttn dm passengers,caThrrieageforwere so
that it
six in
accidents, frequent 'would have been most perilous to mount the root
The ordinary fare was about 2id• a e inil •
in somewhat more in w 3/CGCC4Uiinter.— ay. mauler, and