New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-01-04
sxw POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS.

With the new year new Postal law went into
affect according to which all letters for the mails
must be prepaid by stamps or they will not be for
uardea This Act is bantlng of the Postnas-
ttrGeneral, who foisted it on the country with the
aid of that rare embodiment of POst-Ofhce wisdom,
MFR. Edison b. Odds. If Mr. Campbell does not
ind some trouble in, getting his law carried into
effect we are greatly mistaken. 1t is most ao-
surd enactment in every particular, grossly un-
iust TO the citizen of vast Inconvenience TO every
postmaster and clerk, and to an absolute Ger
ta;ntv will in numerous instances stop the mails,
and 30 far az the Post-Office is necessary In
stitutiop, virtually block the wheels OF our social
fabric.
We have now "a, 900 Post. Offices, many OF them
nthedeiles of the Rocky Mountains, on the borders
tf Puget Sound, in the Businesses Of the Sierra Ne
yada or scattered the vast plains OF Utah Terri
tory. New. Mexico, Nebraska and Kansas. Some of
those are from forty to ninety days journey from
Washington. and before return can be had from
the General Post-Ohice, from three TO hVe months
must elapse, aud during all this time whenever
postmaster is out of stamps the mails must stop,
for be ia by law forbidden to send them unless
there is Post-Ofice stamp on every letter All
postmasters in small Offices only give bonds in mod
crate sums, and the Department in consequence
cannot credit them with large quantities of stamps
Then their commissions small, the most OF them
are poor men, andthey neither have the disposition
nor the ability to invest much money in purchasing
these necessary articles. Further than this, il
they get large supply, express companies and
spectators will Immediately buy them up. MIR.
Piiny Miles, in his pamphlet on Postal Reform,
gives some results of his experience as mall
agent in California and Oregon which are in
structive on this head. He tells us that the
expressmen charge from one to three dollars,
and sometimes as high as ten dollars letter.
Az the law declares it a misdemeanor TO sell
stsmps at higher price than their face, these III
genicus middle-men viii not sell the stamp alone,
but put each stamp on an envelope and sell the
stamp for three cents and the envelope for two
shillings So much for the effect OF this law in
the frontier Districts and now let its opera
ton in populous places.
The words of the act are, that "FrOm and
LATER the LIST day Of January, 1856, the Post
' master-General may require postmasters 70
s'place postage-stamps upon all prepaid letters
upon which such stamps may not have been
"placed BY the writers" This does not COM
pel the public to aix stamps to their letters, but
the Postmaster General may require pOstmasters
Ito place postsge-stamps" upon them. Now by
the wording of this law when any person goes to a
Post. OfHce window and tenders his letter with
the money for the postage, the clerk,
or person in attendance is obliged
by law to receive it, and then the stamp must be
put on before the letter is sent of. Are not our
Post. ORce clerks with three rates of letter post
age, three methods OF computing the same, and
orsr fourteen hsadred rates Of cook and Psmphlet
pestags-are they not sufficiently tasked taxed and
bothered In their operations withou. requiring of
them this additional labor Here in New.York,
there are no conyeniences for the public to get
stamps, but every person requiring them has ~
go--perhsps from Observation-Disclosures
street. four or FIVE miles-to the old hulk in Nassau
street to obtain them. There, after narrow AMI
tortuous Journey around the building, up crooked
flight Of stairs by one or two guide-bosrds, and
into little sentry-box ola place, boz can be
found who sells these Government labels. Com
pare this with the English system. All of U3
who have ever been in England know how
infinitely superior to ours il is. At every Post
Ofice, and in every window of Post-0ffce in
Great Britain the persons In attendance have
stamps at hand in sheets-twO hundred and forty TO
s..sAees; value one pound sterling, These sheets