New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1843-02-18
The post eaace Monopoly Bill.

tiers which shall pass by Post Office on tAen
from the writer to the receiver; also a ii'oH"pVi'
of ,he carriage of all Newspapers Magazines, &c
to the individual subscribers or puicnasssS'
| nonopohes are very valuable and productive ana
the Goveramen. has for years nearly betrayed the
charge Of ;ts own immense correspondence by tax
;np that of the People. A man who sends letter
by mail is taxed fifteen twenty per cent. OF the
Postage to enable the Government TO transmit and
receive letters withou. charge Is not this enough
All monopolies are hostile to the genius OF our In.
stiturions and repugnant TO the feelings ct our
People Thoy must be based on good reasons IN
deed to render them palatable. What al uproar
would be raised throughout the country if any
friend of National Bank should propose to confer
on it monopoly of effecting the Exchanges of the
Country, provided it would charge but a specified
rate7 With what universal execration it would be
greeted And yet this is done in regard 20 the
General Post Office and scarcely murmur is Ut
tered against it
Blu. an attempt is now making in Congress, for
midably backed by official influence, to extend this
monopoly 50 as to cover and intercept the trans
mission Of periodicals for sale as mercantile from
one part of the Union to another! This is a branch
of business which has created itself within the last
three or four years. 1t has fnurshed by the neg
lect' OF tho Post Office Department. Nay, the De-
partrent has always been grumbling at the size of
Newspapers, the multiplication of Extras and
Book-P Periodicals to be transmitted BY Mail, as
though this were grievance and a hardship-as
if its interest required it to set dog its Gus
toners, and drive away as many as possible. Ros0
the tune is changed all at once and vigorous eff
fort 10 making to drive them into the Mails in lieu
of that SO earnestly and recently piled to drive
them out Each of these efforts appears to US un-
wise contrary to the genius of our institutions, and
almost certsin to inRct infinite mischief on the
Country with no corresponding benefit to the De-
partment. With regard to this pending effort, The
Evening Post strongly and sensiby says:
"This amendment OF the Chairman is the amendment Of
fered Mr. Mcrrck prescribing what kinds OF packages
must be by MAIL and by other conveyance nclud.
less than pound Mr. Coarad another member of the
nee also remarked ha, This Measure was
had already suffered by the greater activity and eheapnes
aWhat then! 1, the prosperity OF the Post Office Depart
venience The rights of individuals and the liberty of oecu
patton all be sacrificed the Of the Post Office
quence than Government Mails and POST Offices! No man,
who knows any thing Of the NATTER will deny that the pr
which are swifter and than the mails great and
desirable public convenience No man can deny that
If compel The publishers Of tracts pamphlets end maya
1ines the Post Office for conveying their merchap
die from Atlantic city to another and from the coasto
the towns on the railroads and canals and the western
lakes and rivers instead of transporting them in their own
manner you Invade the freedom of individual occupation
There scarce reader Of tract pamphlet or mag
szne in the United States who will not resist the passage
of this bill as an injustice The sense of wrong and hard
ship will lead to eyasions Of the law. The severe
you make lis provisions the more certainly win yon sS
be organized which will make your postage tax your
revenue law, obsolete within year, unless you station
Government Inspector every Office of the expresses for
conveyance of parcels and in every steamboat and
every railroad depot peep into the parcels for contra
they are forwarded.
But what shall be done? say the friends oftbe Post Office
competitions with the private expresses Encourage The
sendrg Of letters in the mails by making cheap If this
maintain Government Post Office it better to maintain
of the public treasury than pass the unjust
to strengthen decayug monopoly by charging t-propns
crazy walls with new penalties and new restrictions
Why should the Post Office be maintained by tax upon
printed works any more than by tax
upon the transportation OF tebacco Why should not the
Government insist IPnn carrying ana delivering cotton IN
the printer"
p FENIMoRR COOPER, in his story of the
Autobiography of Poke, Handkerchief, in the
last Graham, facetiously characteristics an awk-
ward lovers address to his devoted as {" a rigma-
I" role that might have very fairly figured in an
Editors law and logic, after he had been beaten
ain libel-suit Very good, Fenmore, we owe
you one but do mt scstter your round shot 30 pro-
| miscuously, and then sue whoever throws them
back again. Either stick to law or to our own
mutual warfare, the gray goose-quill and do MT
degrade the Literary profession by lodging from
one to the other when bullet strikes you. This
is not the manly way.
| N. B. We Indebted to freRd for the above titb
from Cooper. If any body shall read bis story and find
any thing of the sort, he will obge by pointing
the number and page.
| AN AppAR1T1oN.-A few days since gentle.
mas, residing in Harlem, took the small pox IL
its most violent form. Much CONSERVATION pre-
vailed in the neighborhood, and several families
removed from the infected street. One night last
week, while apprehensions of the spread Of the
fearful plague were the chief topic in the village
q tremendous knocking at the store door of Dr.
Pennoyer, in the Third Avenue, brought him from
the " Land Of Nod" with great CELEBRITY
1t was very late, dark, and cold, and therefore
a most undesirable summons but the outrageous
racket at the door, demanded attention so imme.
diately that dressing, or preparation to meet an
enemy was out of the question; and supposing
that some drunken fellow had been attracted by
the gh, in tho store, he won't up to the sash-door
through which he saw the figure looking, and
ask, t." who's there7" The Doctor has seen some