New-York daily tribune., 1856-08-02


fair proportion OF the postage on the mau mater
actually carried, we sht uld have perfectly efii'
cient service. Correspondence would then In
or, ase to great extent aid oil steamship owners
would have an equal chance and fair held
Great Britain, as well this country, payss large
sum annually that never comes back 10 postage.
Divested of Buncombe, the matter lies IN small
compass. The Collins and Cunard steamers
during the two years 1854 and 1855, car
lied between Great Britain and this coun'
try-in both directiops-a little over 100000
ltters and about s. 600 900 newspapers, the former
at "a cents and the latter at 4 cents each. For
convenience Of reckoning, We Will say that the
number OF letters in the two years was ;, ,2o,ooo,
and the newspapers $1,000 and this would give
respectively 4,160 900 letters and 900 900 news
papers in year. We will suppose that we are to
have mail-steamers once week, and that the
postage on letters is to be reduced TO six cents and
op papers TO two, and that the steamers for per-
forming the service are to have two cents for each
letter and one fer each newspaper. There will
then be two cents postage on each letter Tor esco
country, and one cent--baf Of the newspaper post
sg,-tor the country where the paper is mailed.
With this reduction of postage, it is reasonable to
suppose that the amount Of mail matter would
double at once-it more than doubled in England
the frst year after the reduction to penny, in
1910. We should then have s, 800, 900 letters in
year, and 5, 200, 900 newspapers. With sem-weekly
trips-l04 vo) ages across the Atlantic In year
there would be an average Of g, 200 letters and
$4,000 newspapers each voyage and doubl' that
for the round tip. There would then be $1,000
letter postage and $500 newspaper postage for
each voy age across or 200 for each round trip.
With their wrappers, about 40 letters go to the
pound sDele letters average about one third OF an
ounce each) and about six newspapers. The sim
ole letter mail of 90, 900 letters, would then weigh
about tun, but BY measurement if carried In
boxes as at present, over two tuns, and the news
papers would be In weight little over foar tuns.
For five tuns weight the sum paid would be
80 100, or about S40O Q tun. Ifthere should be
steamers twice week there would be more corre-
spondeDce than by mails only once week, but
the remuneration to each vessel would be lees.
Is il not for the interest of Great Britain to join
US in some equitable postal arrangements Must
Governments always hold a monopoly Of the mail
service ard never use il for the benefit of the peo-
pe1 We call on our Members Of Congress to look
at these matters closely, and not bind the Govern
ment for long period, when telegraphs and other
appliances may render large annual expense en-
tiIely III necessary. We are not suffering for want
of more frequent mail service with Great Britain,
but we are n need Of lower postal rates. If it Is
considered advisable to take money from the treas.
ury to build steamers for naval purposes, let it be
done; but let us have no useless mail contracts,
that shall make it seem necessary to keep our
present high rates Of ocean postage.