The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1837-04-19
-MAILIMPROVEMENTS.

| From long article in the Globe respect
ing proposed mail Improvements, we
make the following extracts:
1t will be recollected, that the POSTMASTER
General, in his last annual report, recon-
mended reduction of pOstages, equal t'
about twenty per cent, on the entire re-
venues of the department. Congress ad-
Ijourned without taking any step to effect II
reduction, and left the department with an
accumulatiug surplus, which, at the end OF
the present month, will amount to about
100000 cash in bank
Believing it to be the will of Congress,
that the whole revenues of the department.
shall be devoted to the extension and i'm
provemcnt of the mail service, the Post
master General has applied himself to as
certain how and where this surplus can be
most advantageously expended. The ad-
vertisements, issued from time to time, have
shown his progress in coming to conclusions
and not the least important Of them will be
found in this days Globe.
1t is proposed to throw the travel and
mails from the South, Southwest and West,
into Baltimore early in the morning, so
that they may be in Philadelphia by 1, af-
ternoon, and in New York by or 10 the
same evening.
These arrangements, if effected, will so
facilitate travel, and lessen the expense of
lit, that the number of travellers will be
greatly increased, much to the advantage of
the travelling lines and the cities through
which they pass. They will equally ex-
pedite the great mails, and will supersede
the express between New York on the one
hand, and Halifax, n. c. Washington, ID.
C. and Frederick, Md. on the other.
Attention has also been paid 10 the Sc
curity of the mails, and of their contents,
while on the way. On all the great mail
lines, travellers must have abserved that
the mails, and especially the bags of news
papers, are treated with very little ceremony.
On the stage lines, they are brought con-
stantly in competition with passengers, and
when the question arises whether pas
scuger or newspaper bag shall be left be-
hind, the decision too often gives prefer
ence to the passenger. The dumb bag has
no means of asserting its rights, not even
BY an extra fee to the carrier or agent. All
experience tends to prove that these bags
will never perform their journey with reg
ularity, until it shall no longer be in the
power of the carriers to leave them behind,
without leaving the whole mail. 1t is pro-
posed, therefore, to carry the great mails on
all the principal lines in vehicles made for
the purpose, into which they shall be pu,
by the postmasters ut the distributing offices
and locked up, the carriers being not even
entrusted with key. The small mails for
intermediate offices only will be placed un-
der their control.
i, is the policy Of The Department TO give
the ordinary mails the swiftness Of express
es, wherever and whenever it mny be
practicable. But the Postmaster General
thinks tha, when he can send the news of
every description, and the business letters
of the country, or any others in which the
writers may feel a sufficient interest to in
duce them to pay the necessary expense,
much faster than he can those mails, it is
his duty to do SO. Congress sanctioned bis
views when they passed the law author.
izing him to pu, on expresses and charge
treble postage for their support.
In accordance with these views, and the
law which was intended to reduce them to
practice, the southern express mail was
started on the 18th November last For
the month Of January last, the pos,aaes on
letters sent and received by this mail at the
pos, offices Of New York, Philsdelphis.