The Arkansas banner., 1845-05-07
For He Banner. Q,.I.l.,,cLte Rna11,ea.

Editors of .4rkaa&as Bonner:
 GGxTIEMEN:-The legitimate object oi all government, or rule, Is to eaectuatc the greatest good, to the greatest number; this principle should extend through all the de- partmcnts of our government Does it?-I We answer no And to sustain the asser- tion, il is but necessary 10 take a glance at the central Arkansas mail rout, ffom the Mis- sissippi river to Little Rock, which commen- ces at Montgomery Point, thence up White River to Rock Roe, by steamboat, thence across the grand prairie to Little Rock Ill post coaches. passing, in the whole distance, but one post office, and that lately established, with a revenue to the government of less than fifty dollars per annum; passing neither town nor village, and barely twenty houses or hamlets on the whole distance, except in the immediate vicinity of the terminus of the rout. And this too, is attended with an an- nual expense to the P. Office Department of some sixteen thousand dollars. Had the commencement of the rout been at Napol- con. at the mouth of the Arkansas River, passing the post offices at Montgomery's Point, Wellington, Arkansas Post, Ileckatoo, Richland. New GasconY. Pine Bluff, and Bauaque's landing, to Little Rock, 1t could, the whole distance be carried in steamboats of light draught, at 5000 less expense per annum to the government and a whole com munity would have been accommodated Boats of light draught built expressly for the Arkansas packet and mail trade would re- ceive large store of the patronage of the mercantile and travelling public; they could ascend or descend the river as high as Little Rock, at all stages of the Arkansas, and at all stages of the river could they easily make the ttip, up and back i'll week, calling at all the intermediate landings and post offices. With three small but good boats, tr-week- ly mail could be conveyed with a perfect certainty.
 Itmay be said that this would be attended with much expense ;--this admit, but We now have some ten or twelve good boats i'll the Arkansas trade, and if they can sustain themselves, as is evidently the case, the mail packet boats possessing equal, or even more advantages for conveying passengers and way freight, with a docer from government much less than what Is HOW paid on the Rock Roe line could more than sustain them- selves By this change the mail line would run through the heart of lonr of the most wealthy cotton growing counties in the State, pass three eounty-seats and some eight or ten post offices, instead as now of but one. By the change of reut also, the horseback weekly mail from Napoleon to Pine Bluff, and the semi weekly mail from Pine Bluff, to Little Rock could be dispensed with With regular packets in our river, the Steamboat trade would be greater than it how Is, and the packets, from the certainty ef their time of arrivals and departures, would receive a
 large share of the travel, as also of the way freight. That the present mail line was es-
 abIished for the particular benefit of Rock Roe, we will not believe; although as that isolated embryo town is the only place. neighborhood, or family benefited, except at the Sage stands, we admit that appearances are most singularly in favor of the current belief. itls certainly singular, that on the yery route where the exigencies of the people require a tri-weellly steamboat mail there is but a weekly mail, and that carried on horseback, and that too when the Arkansas river is navieable that it. should leave Us oNIi NdteIs, Elke uP " hl1lle hiEeF- and then over land back 10 Little Rock. If the Post Office Department Is determined upon an arrangement by which we shall have both a land and water passage in travelling from the Mississippi to our capitol, why, then, let the traveller shift his baggage at the Post of Arkansas, at the foot as well as the side of the pfaifie-it would be decidedly bel ter route than the present. From Napoleon to the Post, Is forty-live miles; from the Post Little Rock, one hundred A straight line is shorter than circular line, the diam eter than the circle If the present line was established through the agency or intrigue oi the North American land company, or through accident, or ignorance of the geog- raphy and wans of the people, we still be- lleye il Was an unlntentional wrong, and that whenever the present indefatigable business man, now at the head of the Post Office De partment, notices the matter, the change will be effected L.