The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 9, 1869.

We have long ago shewn that the postal rate for a
newspaper might be reduced to a halfpenny, not
merely without loss, but with a handsome profit to
the department which is so laudably proud of its
yearly gains. The Post Office has far greater re-
sources at command than private carriers, but even
these can transmit newspapers at a very low
rate. Newsagents in great numbers now pay
the railway charges for delivering papers to a few
scattered subscribers, and give three months' credit,
for a commission amounting to no more than a third
of the price of the penny journal they deliver. The
London company which excited the jealousy of the
Post Office calculated upon a dividend from the dis-
tribution of circulars and the like at a halfpenny rate.
Railway companies will convey a daily paper from
London to Edinburgh for one guinea a year. Par-
cels of six newspapers are carried short distances for
a halfpenny. In none of the:4e cases is the considera-
tion of the public good—to which the Post Office ought
not to be entirely indifferent—in the slightest degree
involved. These low rates are charged with advantage
purely in the way of business. The fact is, the
experiment has not been tried at the Post
Office. The quantity of newspapers passing
through the department is comparatively small.
A large and profitable public business which might
be secured by competition with private carriers is
thrown away, because the Post Office insists upon
charging as much for delivering a newspaper as the
paper costs. Comparison with the practice abroad is
still more adverse to the present system. In Canada
all publications for the promotion of educational or
religious objects are carried free. In the United
States all newspapers are free of postal
charges within the county where they are
published. The introduction of free carriage into
England is not advisable, because those who did not
avail themselves of the privilege would have to pay
the cost equally with those who did. But it is abun-
dantly clear that the Government ought, as a social
benefit, to institute a halfpenny rate ; and it is not
the less clear that the change would be profitable in a
pecuniary sense.

On Tuesday this question will be brought before
the House of Commons. Should the Government
return a favourable answer, some important
questions of detail will arise. Mr. GRAVES proposes
to carry one newspaper, or two ounces of printed
matter, for a halfpenny. It would be much
better to make no distinction of this kind.
Some single newspapers weigh six ounces, and as the
weight is made up of advertising sheets, which are
not entitled to preference rates, there is no reason
why the Times or the Saturday Review should be
carried at one-third the cost charged for the British
Workman and other publications. A uniform rate of
one halfpenny for four ounces, irrespective of
quantity, will be more equitable and practicable. It
will obviate the inequality of carrying very light
and heavy papers at the same charge, and it will
prevent all trouble in ascertaining whether
a parcel contains one packet or more.
A standard by weight is preferable in every respect
to a standard by quantity. Under the present
system more than one paper is often carried for a
penny. Of course the privilege of transmission and
retransmission within fifteen days which is now granted
to newspapers with the impressed stamp would be
given up under the halfpenny system. Similarly the
anomaly which prevents an impressed stamp being
available beyond the United Kingdom might be
abolished. The carriage of newspapers would be
thus reduced to one simple and uniform rule.

MR. GLADSTONE, as all the world knows, spent his
Easter at Wilton. He attended a concert in that
town, and was the cynosure of neighbouring eyes.
One gentleman, rather young, and not very wise, to
wit, the Rev. DACRES OLIVIER, curate of Wilton,
suggested that a portion of the school fund might
be used to place a brass plate where Mr.
GLADSTONE had sat during the concert.
The suggestion does not seem to have been
adopted, but it is an incident full of inte-
rest to the student of human nature. Mr.
OLIVIER, being an Oxford man, proposed to mark
his admiration of the PREMIER by putting a brass
plate to mark the bench on which he had sat. An
equally ardent admirer, but without the refining
influence of a university education, would have pro-
posed to hang up the trousers in which Mr. GLAD-
STONE had sat.

Is there any Minister of modern times who has
excited such strong emotions in the minds of other
persons as Mr. GLADSTONE has done? There was
one clergyman in Lancashire who said that hanging
was too good for him ; and here we have one in
Wiltshire proposing to glorify the bench which had
been honoured by contact with his breeches. One
man has denounced the PREMIER as JUDAS, another
has compared him to the Master whom JUDAS
betrayed. A. bishop has told the Liberal leader to
go tothe devil; a nation has given him such a majority
as has not been enjoyed by any Minister for a gene-
ration. Mr. GLADSTONE has already accomplished
great things, and proposes still greater, and he is so
earnest in everything which he undertakes that it is
impossible for his critics not to be in earnest too. It
is a case of angel or devil. Happily for Mr. GLAD-
STONE the nation is, to quote one of Mr. DISRAELI'S
epigrams, " on the aide of the angel,"

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CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(ntom Din OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, THURSDAY, April 8.

The shareholders of the Opera at Paris suffer from s
most lamentable grievance. They do not get enougl
ballet for their money, and they are now raising a piteous
cry of " More leg !" They have no particular objection
to Rossini and Mozart, Gounod and Meyerbeer, but they
did not subscribe for too much of these gentlemen. The
ordinary mind may readily be strained by too close atten.
tion to fine music ; but the higher faculties are not required
to gaze at the caperings of half-dressed young women ;
and as the shareholders appeared to be endowed with
much more of the lower than of the higher faculties, the
great operas are to be set aside in order to provide "more
leg." That such a demand has really been made is hardly
credible, but such is the fact.

The Belgian affair does not wear the most reassuring
aspect at present. M. Frt!re-Orban is here, and that of
itself is not a favourable symptom. When a Government finds
it necessary to send an envoy to settle its differences with
another Government, it rarely chooses its leading Minister
for such a purpose. If England were involved in a diffe-
rence with France, it would be deemed a very grave, not
to say humiliating, symptom if Mr. Gladstone were to set
out for Paris with the avowed object of ensuring a pacific
arrangement. The present is a precisely similar case. M.
FrZire Urban is the leading Minister of Belgium, and yet he is
dancing attendance upon the French Government in Paris.
His presence has led to the conclusion that the difficulty
is of a serious nature, and recent disclosures have fully
confirmed that impression. The two Governments differ
in the chief point at issue. Belgium will not consent to the
ratification of the treaty between the Luxembourg
and the East of France Railway Companies, and we now
learn, from a series of remarkable disclosures in the little-
vendance Beige, that the French Government insists
upon this ratification, as a leading stipulation
in the settlement. The affair is making no pro-
gress, but we are again assured of a satisfactory
result. The Independance Beige has been seized the
last two days, on account, it is said, of its unsatisfactory
estimate of some Ministerial Budget speeches. The truth
is, that it was seized on account of unwelcome disclosures
about the railway affair.
Reports of disasters by the late storm continue to come
in. The Norwegian brig Wenern, from Frederickshall,
bound for Caen, with a cargo of wood, was wrecked near
Bernittres (Seine-Inferieure), but the crew were landed in
safety. The English schooner Ann White has been driven
aground under the redoubt of Colleville, and is expected
to go to pieces. The crew were saved. Two fishing-
boats from Trouville were lost, with the men on board.
A Havre pilot-boat bad found a wreck, supposed to be
that of a three-master, floating out at sea.
Queen Isabella, the King, her husband, and the Count
and Countess Girgenti, heard the " Barbitze " at the
Italiens the night before last. The party occupied the
Imperial box. Patti, with delicate courtesy, made a slight
change in the programme by giving in the singing-lesson
a Spanish song " Los Toros del Puerto," instead of the
one announced. It is stated that this lady's marriage
has, not proved a thoroughly happy one. She has
gained title, but at a heavy cost. It has been
reported for some days, without contradiction, that MO%
Nilsson will become Duchess de Mama,.

The Budget discussion has at length merged into an
examination of the various details. Some litttle progress
has been made, but the Left contrived yesterday to worry
the Government a good deal respecting an amendment
setting aside a sum of £B, 000 to provide electoral urns
of uniform pattern. As might have been expected, the
leputies contrived to get up a debate on " Purity of
Elections."