The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-29 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

filer Majesty took en equestrian ri,le yesterday> attended by
Miss Cavendish, Lady llar.let Clive, Baroness Lehzem Lady.
Mary Stopford, Marquis.' of Conynham, Lord Byron, Elrl of
th'oridge, Colonel Cavendish, Sir Frederick S!ovin,
and the llon. Colonel Grey. Her 'Majesty rode to Richmond
Park on Tuesday.
Her Majesty had a dinner party last evening. The corn-
Pan)' included the Duchess of Northumberland, Fart bF
Aberdeen, Viscount and Viscountess Powersceert, Viscount
Melbourne, the Lord Chamberlain, Sir Henry Wheatley,
lion. Colonel and Mrs. Grey, Mr. George Byng, M. P., and
Mrs. Byng.
The Band of the Grenadier Re!-!iment of Foot Guards at-
tended during the dinner at the Palace.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager took an airing yesterday
in an open carriage and four.
The Duke of Cambridge gave a grand military dinner on
Tuesday, at Cambridge House. The company included the
Duke of Wellington, Lord Hill, Lord Fitzroy Somerset,
Major General Sir James Macdonald, Sir John Macdonald,
Sir Willoughby Gordon, Sir Wm. Gomm, Major General
GardiNer, Colonels Aitchison, D'Oyly, Fremantle, Shawe,
and Bowles; Lieutenant-Colonels Frecth, Chaplin, Codring-
ton, Hon. F. Ashburnbam, Wigrarn, and the Hon. J. Hope,
Captains Vansittart, Chisholm, Windham, Daniell, and the
Hon. R. E. Boyle ; Lieutenants Mundy, Hon. F. Villiers,
and Percival ; Surgeon Gilder, Assistant Surgeons Wedder-
burne and Robinson, and Captain Torrens.
The Band of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards
attended at Cambridge House during the evening.
The Duchess a Gloucester visited the Princess Augusta
yesterday.
The D'Ae of Cambridge honoured the Archbishop of
York w.itb his company at dinner yesterday.
Mr. Burge, Mr. Colville, and a Deputation from the West
India body, had an interview with Viscount Melbourne yes-
terday in Downing-street.
'Dr. Jacob, Dr. Maunsell, and Dr. Carr, a Deputation
from the Royal College of Surgeons, and County Infirmary
Surgeons of Ireland, had an interview with the Chancellor of
the Exchequer yesterday in Downing-street.
Captain Dawson and Captain Alexander had interviews
with Lord Glenclg yesterday at the Colonial-office.
The Earl of Radnor and Lord Hill had interviews with
Viscount Melbourne yesterday.
Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Colvile, and a Deputation, had an in-
terview with Lord Glenelg yesterday.
A Deputation of nearly three hundred, principally consisting
of members of the Society of Friends, had an interview with
Viscount Melbourne and Lord Glenclg yesterday at the
residence of the Noble Viscount.
The Attorney-General arrived in town yesterday evening
from the Warwick Asszes.
The Marquis of Lansdowne had a large party at dinner
yesterday at Lansdowne House, to meet her Royal Highness
the Duchess of Gloucester. The Marchioness of Lansdowne
bad afterwards an assembly.

REDUCTION O' POSTAGE.

A special general mee::ng of the Myphes,ter Chamber
of Commerce and Manufactums *as hemu, as we learn from
the Manclic,fkr Ciutirdian, at the office of the Chantber 'On
THlrsdat.' last, "to consider the I.rssi m`ttde N obtaining a
reduction of the rates rii Postage."
This nteeling requires from us, on account of its import-
aneo, a more than ordinary notice. Some of the facts
stated at it were very instructive, and will, we hop, stimu-
late persona in other large towns, to collect and bring for-
wz.rd similar information, so that the Government may be
left without any excuse for postponing a most needrul reform.
Other commercial and manufacturing communities must
imitate the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and sti-
mulate the Government, being encouraged by knowing that
they will not on this point, as cm the Corn Laws, have the
overwhelming power of landowners against them, and, may
therefore, hope for success. The advantages of reducing
the " rate of postage," were well illustrated by Mr. Richard
Cobden, a gentleman, who is well known for some excellent
political pamphlets. He stated—
Our prices in our own commodities, for instance, had been
reduced in that period some 30, 40, or 50, some 100 fold ; and
what was the result of those reductions in price ? A great
increase in the consumption, and a consequent increase in the
profitable trade of the country. Thus we might adduce front
our own experience a positive proof, that, if the post-office
would adopt the same plan that we had found successful in
prints, yarns, and calicoes, it would be followed by simi-
lar results as to 'profits and returns. It appeared from
Mr. Rowland Hill's pamphlet, that the actual cost of
the transmission of a letter from Edinburgh to London
was the one-ninth part of a farthing ; and, including the
expense of delivery, he estimated that one-third of a penny
would cover the expense of carriage and delivery. He
proposed, then, that 200 per cent. should be the profit for Go-
vernment, which would make the postage of each letter a
penny ; and he ( Mr. Cobden) thought if that plan were
adopted, judging from the results in our own trade and in the
trade of the world, it would ultimately produce a greater re-
venue than now accrued. What was wanted was not an in-
creased revenue from postage, but merely that the present
amount should continue to be paid. He thought it could be
fairly shown, that an immense number of invoices were now
enclosed in parcels with the goods, which, as a matter of
course, would then be sent by post.—( Hear.) He believed
there was scarcely one parcel in a thousand from Manchester
that did not contain an invoice; and if, instead of that prac-
tice, it became an invariable custom to send invoices through
the post—( which would doubtless he the case if Mr. Hill's
plan were adopted )—if the invoice were not sent by post, the
party to whom the parcel was sent would not hold himself re-
sponsible for the goods if lost. The consequence would be,
that a party ordering goods would always say, " Send your in.
voice by post ;" as was now the case in London as to goods
sent by smack to Edinburgh or Glasgow; otherwise the Scotch
purchaser would consider himself exonerated from the respon-
sibility, if the parcel were lost at sea. If we had a Committee
formed to ascertain what number of parcels went out of this
town in one week, from which could be made an approximate
estimate of the number in a year; and it might safely be said,
that for each parcel one additional letter would be sent by post
in the event of the penny postage being adopted. Besides in-
voices, too, it was well known that a number of letters were
sent in parcels to London ; and in this way many gentlemen
in this town did not hesitate to evade the postage. He knew
several houses which sent parcels three or four times a week ;
and they sent the whole of their own and their friends' corres-
pondence by these coach parcels. Here, too, there would be
an immense gain, if the postage were so low as to offer an
inducement to prefer the Post-office to any other conveyance.
Then, with respect to the operation of the plan on our
own business—take, for instance, a fancy print trade,
where an establishment was producing novelties every
week. If the penny postage were universal, every
house in the print business would be in the habit, on
every occasion of producing a new pattern, to transmit 100 or
200 slips of this pattern to their chief customers by post, in
letters, intimating that the pattern was just produced, and soli-
, citing orders. That would also be the case with the silk
trade, in which, from the fine material and small weight of
the pattern, there would be still greater facilities for sending
patterns. So, in London, the fancy jewellers and other trades
and in this district machine-makers, and patentees of all
kinds of mechanical inventions, would send their drawings,
specifications, and explanations, in circulars through the
post, to all parts of the kingdom, setting forth the advan-
tages of the new invention, and soliciting orders. There
was another very tangible mode of increasing the num-
ber of post letters, which had occurred to him. Ma-
nufacturing and commercial houses were in the habit of
sending out travellers—some houses three or four Bach—
and it would be a great convenience if these houses could send
notices to their customers in the different towns, to say that
their travellers were coming at such a time. He knew two
or three old-fashioned houses in London that did so; but
then, they must get large profits, and have comparatively few
customers, or they could not do it. He was satisfied, from
conversations which he had had with commercial travellers, that
they would be glad of an inexpensive mode of sending such
letters from the next town, to say, " I shall be with you to.
morrow, or the next day." Such a convenience would enable
travellers to do their business better and more expeditiously ;
and their customers would be enabled to get their money
ready, if money was due ; or if orders only were sought, to
look over and see what they were likely to want. Our proximity
to some large towns, which received almost the whole of their
letters by carriers, coaches, and waggons—such, for instance,
as Bolton and Blackburn—might enable us to show a consi-
derable addition in this way to letters passing through the post.
The statements of Mr. Cobden were confirmed by seve-
ral other Gentlemen.

Mr. J. FERNLEY said the statement as to the enclosure of
letters in parcels applied very forcibly to those seat hence to
Liverpool ; for it was a very common practice to enclose a
number, say twenty invoices and receipts in one packet, and to
send it by Railway, which cost a very trifling sum compared
with what the postage would be. If all such invoices and re-
ceipts were now sent through the post, the charge would be
enormous ; but if the change suggested in Mr. Hill's pamphlet
were made, he had no doubt they would all be transmitted
by post.

Mr. Wm. NEILD said, he believed that the whole com-
munity felt the amount of postage to be excessive, and that
every man felt that, in point of economy, he must do all in his
power to evade it. Ile had tie hesitation in saying, that a
large portion of the community would sacrifice five flays the
amount of postage in other ways rather than pay it. But bad
it been pursued by the Post-office ? No ; for the carriers
beat the Post-office completely in charge, and in many cases
they would deliver parcels, of course much larger in bulk, in
less time than the Post-office. Some years ago the Post-
office regulations were considered a credit to the country;
but how had they kept pace with other institutions ? They
had either stood still or retrograded, while every thing else
had gone onward most rapidly.—( Hear.) What gentleman
who had been charged with a letter from private friends, which
hu was bound to deliver personally, but would give five times
the amount of the postage, rather than be at the trouble of
delivering it himself? It had been a custom, many years ago,-
to send letters from this town by carriers ; but the Post-office
at length, finding the carriers' bags as large as their own,
seized them. What was the result ? Did the Post-office
ga;ri by it? Not one shilling. In many cases invoices, in-
stead of being sent by carriers, were enclosed in the bales;
the law was complied with ; the trade was inconvenienced ;
while the Post-office were no gainers.—( Hear.)
Mr. P. F. Wineatta• said, that the greatest number of let-
ters to the continent, connected with the yarn trade, were in-
variably sent by parcel, or amongst other samples where wool,
&c. was sent to the continent.
Mr. HENRY TOOTAL said,—Looking at the French Post-
office during the same period of 20 years, in which our Post-
office had not only not increased its revenue but had decreased
it, the French Post-office had increased 54 per cent. He be-
lieved that its revenue in 14 years had increased from nearly
24,000,000 francs to 37,000:000. The postage in France was
much less than ours : he did not exactly know in what pro-
portion, but it so struck him. His own letters were
charged very much less than in England. The United
States, in the same period of 20 years, had increased three-
fold, as appeared from statistical documents ; therefore, they
might draw the same conclusion, and agree with Mr. Neild,
that to ask for a small reduction was not asking enough.
There was one remarkable fact which he would mention ; a
parcel in a carrier's warehouse at Birmingham was opened,
and found to contain 1,100 letters, every one of which was
going in the parcel to evade the postage.—( Hear.)
Mr. ROBERT GARDINER moved the fourth resolution. He
said he would just beg to remark, that he was in Liverpool
yesterday and took a few letters—(Laughter)—and the broker
to whom he delivered them said, he hoped they would pass
some strong resolutions at this meeting, for a parcel never ar-
rived but it entailed upon him the delivery of a dozen letters.
—( Hear.) He was convinced that not a fiftieth, or even
one hundredth part of the letters found their way, into the
Post-office.
Now, if these statements be at all well-founded and
applicable to other towns as well as Manchester, as we
are convinced they are, the reduction of postage on Mr.
Hill's plan, would cause no loss, but a gain to the re-
venue. Soldiers who pay only a penny postage, are, it
appears, great letter writers.
Mr. GARDNER said be had had some conversation with the
Blackburn Postmaster, who had mentioned to him the quan-
tity of letters put into that Post-office, and passing through
it, from men in the army. He said, " Hang these letters I
they come to nothing, and they are as much in bulk as the
whole of the letters which pay." He (the Postmaster)
wished they would give the army more employ, for they ap-
peared to have nothing to do but to write. Those letters paid
a penny, and they were franked by the officers.
Other people could write letters, too, if they had no
more to pay for transmitting them than the soldiers. We
hold it therefore to be demonstrated that the revenue
would lose nothing by reducing the rate of postage to 2d.
or to Id. for all distances ; but when we remember the
immense social advantages which result from a well-
ordered post, we feel indignant that they should be stifled
for one moment, by any plea of providing for the Govern-
ment. The Government is bound to procure the advan-
, and it characterises
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•

We may take this opportunity to state, that the Railway
Companies, in return for the privileges conceded to them by
the State should convey the mails without anycharge. But if
they do not, a comparatively small EUM will remunerate them,