The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-30 00:00:00

POSTAL REFORM IN THE UNITED
STATES.

While the bill to abolish the franking privilege was
pending, Mr. Sumner took an advantage of the opportu•
nity to give the reasons for a reduction of letter postage
to one cent for all distances, in connection with which all
franking should be dispensed with, and all business through
the post office be done by stamps. The argument is un-
answerable; and when the public mind does come to the
serious consideration of cheap postage, as-England came
to it twenty-five years ago, Mr. Sumner's speech, though
made to an indifferent Senate and to a country not yet
specialty interested in the subject, will be 'referred to as
one of the most striking and effective in the course of
this debate. Fortunately the efficacy of cheap
postage has been vindicated by the most striking of
examples. The experiment has been tried, and, in the
face of predictions of failure the most sweeping and the
most despondent, it has proved successful, both as a
measure of economy and of general public beneficence.
Nobody would now return to the old rates if it were pos-
sible, and no rising man with prospects of advancement
would dare to suggest it. If any descendant of the scep-
tics who at the outset submitted unwillingly to the change
were now to propose a return to the old rates with any
hope of carrying it, it would create a revolution in Great
Britain strong enough to sweep every advocate of the
change from power forever. But cheap postage was a
plant of slow growth in Great Britain, and it
will be of slower growth among us. It took three
years after Rowland Hill got his commission of inquiry to
make the change there. It would take a longer time here.
The field is larger ; and the interests to be consulted
much more diverse and complicated. The present rates
are not felt to be peculiarly oppressive, and the need of a
sweeping reduction has not taken a very strong hold upon
public opinion. Are we to wait for public opinion to be
aroused and public men to be convinced upon the wisdom
of this whole scheme of reform before correct-
ing the confessed abuses which have fastened
themselves upon our postal system ? The frank-
ing privilege as it is now used is a burden for
which the country gets no adequate return. It is a costly
luxury which through ong channel (,r another helps to
swell the tax levy where all currents of expenditure and
waste meet at last. The old theory that it was compen-
sated for by the advantage of having free intercourse be-
tween constituents and their representatives is a fanciful
one in these later times, when the means of communica-
tion have been multiplied a thousandfold, and when it is
impossible for a representative to take an important step
affecting the special interests of his constituents, or the
general welfare of the country, and conceal it from them
for a single hour. The new avenues for the diffusidn of
intelligence and sound information have conveyed the
substance of all important intelligence to and from the
capital, while the public printing-office is pouring out its
waste of printed paper, to be scattered abroad at the
public charge. The people are no longer infants to be
nursed and coddled in this way. Leave them to their own
devices and they will get what they want, and in the long-
run all that will be of use to them. Mr. Sumner argues
that the post-office should not be made a source of revenue.
It should not be ; and there is very little danger of its be-
coming so, while our mail routes have such vast distances
to traverse, and while tracts of newly-settled country,
large enough for empires, are awaiting to be developed.
But the service should be made self-supporting. The first
step is to take off the leeches. Reform the abuses first,
and correct the system as rapidly as possible.—Boston Ad-
vertiser.

Alarming symptoms of suffrage fever :—Little girl
in Wyoming :—`"There, dolly, you must be still and sleep
all day, 'cause I've dot to do and vote."

Despite the opinion delivered by King Richard in
an exigency as to the value of a horse, the noble animal
may be an unwelcome visitor. A Mr. Clarke, of Chico,
Cal., while recently taking a drive with his wife in a
buggy on a road near Little Butte Creek, found that a
drove of wild horses had completely surrounded them.
One of these horses actually attacked the buggy, kicking
it with his heels, while the others sought to make acquaint-
ance with the horses of the buggy. Mr. Clarke struck
the attacking horse with the whip, whereat the animal
became terribly enraged, ran in front of the carriage
horses, kicked them with vigour and viciousness, and was
driven off with great difficulty. Mrs. Clarke thinks she
has since seen him as a nightmare.

A_ bill recently introduced Into the Senate may
facilitate the chances of promotion in the army by en-
couraging its offieers to depart this life. It enables any
commissioned officer to assign part of his monthly pay to
any life insurance company in the United States in pay-
ment of dues upon an insurance on his own life, so that
the company shall be paid direct. It further enacts that
a policy, the dues of which are so provided for, " cannot
in any event whatever be suspended, rendered ineffective,
or in any .44 anner made forfeitable." If this bill becomes
a law, and the class of whom, at present, " few die and
none resial2 " insure under it, they may take great com-
fort in the knowledge that any moment the amount of
their policies can be obtained for their families, since
suicide cannot work a forfeiture.