Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-01-11
WASHINGTON NEWS AND GOSSIP.
Postal Matters.-Under the circumstsnc

/ blSbiCo tHlUIdCou III buc ICCtnb report OF the
Postmaster General. The aggregate distance
over which the mails of the United States are
transported, and the sparseness of population
in the regions traversed by most of the mail
routes, the necessarily varied character of
mail conveyances, and the absence of power
In the Department, under the law, to meet
extraordinary emergencies by exerting arbi-
trary authority to effect its ends, as is done by
the postal authorities of many other govern
ments-are all elements working to render the
prompt economical, regular, and perfectly
satisfactory transaction of the American Postal
Departments business much more difficult
than that of any European government. Be-
sides, in proportion to population, with, per
haps, the exception of the Russians, our peo-
pie correspond by the post vastly more than
| any other people on the face of the globe, and
| read pro rata many more post-carried news
papers than all Europe combined.
Under these circumstances, to expect the
perfect regularity and efficiency ofthe English
system to exist in this country, is what no rea-
sonabN man will do. Nevertheless, of late
years, our postal system has been making
| rapid strides of improvement giving, at this
| time, much more general satisfaction than ever
before, though Congress has not lcgslated for
it, as though properly comprehending the vast
strides the postal requirements of our people
arc making annually. They "save at the
Spite and let out at the bung- hole" too fire.
quently In legislating for that depar tment of
the Government; and thus make it the duty of
the Department to strain its wits, energy and
forethought not unfrequently, to remedy evils
thus brought about, which it manages to cure
very generally by the herculean exertions of
all whose regulations, as public officers, are
involved in the satisfactory management of the
Departments affairs. Nine-t enths of the pop
ular grumbling over the affairs Of this branch
of the Government, by-the-by, grows out of
the Postmaster Generals frmness in resisting
efforts to violate the postal laws for the benefit
or convenience of individuals, or from the
"blcwing" of postal emperics-of persons who
profess to possess nostrums for the cure of what
they hold to be special postal evils.
Mr.. Pliny Miles, late a lowest class clerk in
the Post Office Department in this city, upon
the strength of far more aptnesS for pert writing
tor the press than for the business. like trans
action of any duties in connection with the
postal system flor he was tried, at, we believe,
three branches of the business of the Depart
ment. In this city, before losing his clerkship
here,) has, funnily enough, set up for the
great American postal reformer, now that
ParsOn Barnabas Bates is no more. His pre-
tensions IN that connection are the source Of
unlimited amusement among the Department
host of employees in the Federal city, who are
prone to compare his performances when one
of them, with his grandiloquent pretensions
to the public, through the press, of capacity to
initiate stupendous changes in the present
postal system that cannot fail to operate bene-
icially. His recently published work on the
subject is conceived by those who have been
engaged for years in the management of Ameri-
can posta' Affairs, and have fairly earned the
reputation of being experts at their business,
to be merely budget Of impraeticable no.
tons, most of them growing out of profound
Ignorance OF business, and more especially
postal business affairs.
Tinkering Backbones.-It strikes US, that
after the result of their session of Wednesday
last, even Doctor Greeley must see that the
only result of his peculiar " practice" in this
city has been and must continue to be, the OBJ
struction of the public business But belonging
to an eminently impracticable school, because
it has proved dead failure so far, will not
induce him and his co-workers in the 10 by
to change their tactics, at least, until it ap-
pears probable that by so doing he and they
may be more likely to carry their point 1t
will be recollected that after swearing by tho
Maine Liquor Law for years, the doctor and
his co-practitioncrs at home threw it aside as
So much waste paper, in framing platform
in which to go into the canvass previous to the
last New York State election; the moving
cause why they did so, being the fact that it
had brought defeat upon all parties every
where in the previous elections of the season.
Thus, though it is not to be hoped that the
requirements Of the public interest will in.
duce Dr. Greeley, Mr.. Giddings, and their CO.
workers, to change the line Of tactics Of their
go well drilled forces in the House hall, the
now evident utter impossibility that it can
triumph without change, will, we think, not
long hence, compel them to adopt some other
line of policy. Nous UeirOns
How 1t came About .--Having heard much
conversational speculation relative to the
cause Of the action of the last Democ ratio rem
resentatives' caucus, in adopting the reaolu.
ton .pledging themselves to vote to hold the
late protracted session of the House, we take
it for granted, that much interest in the sub.
Ject is felt among the politicians of all parties
by whom We are surrounded and, therefore
proceed to explain it as follows, viz: Manv
of the opposition newspapers have, of late
been endeavoriDg to make their readers be-
lieve that the failure to org nize results wholly
from the determination of the Democrats of the
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