The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-17
FROM OUR LONDON C0RRESpONDENE

!
fork day after tomorrow. You will get it by a
slow foreign steamer-and because il is n for
elgn steamer-instead of having it reach the United
! States in paddle steamer of the first class;
| steamer built and owned in New York If the let
ter weighs grain over an ounce it will cost YOU
81 cents postage, almost as much as it would
cost to transport across the Atlantic by steamer
barrel OF beet, or barrel of -four. Now there are
one or two simple matters that wish to call to
your attention and your readers, and also to the
attention of the United States Government. | do
not wish to join in any outcry against the President
and the Postmaster General, because they did not
at once alter the plans and policy of the Govern
ment and send the mails by the ''VANDERBrLr" in
stead of the Getty OF BALTIMORE" Changes of
service in matters of such magnitude as the ocean
mail carriage, require time, deliberatOn and au-
thority of law; matters in which the powers that
be cannot ALWAYS carry out their own wills and
wishes.
| Can you tell me why the pieces ofpaper on which
write, and the composition therein contained, in
manuscript, which | send to you for publication in
your paper, should cost for carriage and delivery
about one dollar, while as soon as printed you can
| send 1t back to me, on far larger and heavier
amount of paper, along with six eight or ten times
as much other interesting reading, and advertise
ments, and at a cost of just two cents paid there,
and two cents paid by me on its arrival here? In
other words if | could use printing machine land
| by the way, one has just been invented at New
tiers, authors editors professional and Others
could send you ten times much composition at
one twentyfOurth part the cost, and in the very
same mail that now nlicts on you such a grievous
tax for transporting to you my manuscript. Now,
as plain commercial question, why are the wri-
ings of your foreign correspondent any less to be
classcd as literary ymatter-transportabl property
than books pamphlets periodicals. newspapers, cir
culars and broadsdes? A merchant or n banker in
London; firm, like George Peabody Il Co., or
Barring, Brothers Co., strike off printed crcu-
lar, equally for public, commercial purposes, equal
y private in its origin and information and not
whit more or less a business, mercantile transac
tion, than this very letter to you and while you
are mulctcd in fine of one gold dollar, therea
bouts they and their correspondents get precisely
such an amount of transportation, in the same mail
bag and same ship for one copper penny sterling on
each side. BE it known to you, what probably is
known to very few on your side of the water, that
the British Government in their domestic postal
system has abolished all distinction between
parcels, except where the former are pri-
vate letters. manuscript going to n
publisher for publication in book is Just as much
commercial commodity and its transportation 4
business transaction precisely the same, and subject
to the charges, sending the same article by
post after it is printed and bound in n book, except
so far rs it may differ in weight. Where then is the
difference between such Ms. and written article
| Tor Quarterly Review, a periodical, or newspa-
| per? Here the postal laws and regulations make no
| difference. merchant or Il bookseller NAV send
| by post ledger or day-book, new filled with
writing, any person may mail an album new and
untouched, or full OF composition, manuscript, a
written journal, bound or unbound manuscript
for book, an article for publication, a newspaper
''etter" addressed to an editor book old or new
| that is printed, but covered over with marginal
notes, comments corrections, in writing, law
YER or rotherperson may send deed, mortgage, will,
power ofattOrney. other written document pa
per- parchment or velum, and when done up accord
ing to the regulations-ina an unseaed envelope or in
pndS-thnV all 90 ut w thn
cost of newspapers, periodicals. pamphlets and
printed books, viz: one penny for four ounces,
less IN one package, and so in proportion for larger
parcels. In this way vast quantities of every de
scrpton of manuscript matter is sent by post daily
all over the British Isles and yet the postal increase
last year, the year before, was over 25 900 600
| letters, and nearly million dollars in postage
| money. Here ''letter''-correspondenc by mail
| between man and man-is considered to be simply a
| private communication between one person and
another on the private business of one or both of
| the parties. The public postmasters, you may
have no business with the manuscripts that pass
| between author and publisher; neither have they
with the contents of wills, mortgages or deeds, or
with the contents of books papers, other printed
| documents. Postal officers are the trusted, sworn
custodians of mail matter of every description, as
much as lawyers are of our business matters, or
| physicians of our health, and the former should be
as safe in the hands Of postal servants as are
| the latter with our professional advisers.
At this time a newspaper without limit of weight
passes between the two countries at the postal rate
of two cents paid in money or stamp, on each side
| by both sender and receiver. This saves keeping
accounts between the governments for this postage
! money, and is every way convenient and simple.
| But pamphlets or periodicals, in pamphlet form
| not ''newspapers'-can only be sent at the above
| rate when they weigh not to exceed two ounces,
and three ounce pamphlet costs six cents on each
SIDE and in proportion for larger weights or in all
| four cents for each ounce. Now common British
| newspaper weighs from three to four, and some
times hive ounces. As we are probably soon to have
| tol fraa ha+,
cannot the rate for all printed matter without dis
tinction of kind, quality, or form of the documents
| be one penny Tor two cents) for each package
| weighing not to exceed four ounces and for each
| quarter of pound or fragmentary portion beyond
| the frst the same to be paid by both the sender
| and receiver, in the of newspapers at this
time In this Kingdom the rates on every
! description of printed matter have long since
been equalized, and there is no reason
| why they should not be across the Atlantic. And
| while doing that, and whatever rate rates may
| be agreed on for printed matter, why not at once
| put the postage on all commercial legal and litera-
ry manuscript documents and packages just the
| same? If the American government wished it, this
one would doubtless be willing. Now, ! am op-
posed, connected with the press though am, to any
and all special privileges and immunites to "the
press" or to any others as a class This, however,
| is not so. You buy and sell news. The dealer in
American and foreign papers in your street does the
| same. He gets Illustrated London Ne,cs Lon
| don Times from the very city where your foreign
| correspondent resides and while he pays but
| four cents, all told, for the transportation of
| his merchandise from London to Baltmore-to the
weight of three or four ounces-you are mucted in
the of SO cents for the same weight and neccs-
sarly smaller quantity of reading. Where is the
Justice where the reason in it? If either should
have his cheapest that person should be you. Home
newspapers are necessity for the country, foreign
ones are not. To print good journal, inform the
| public of matters of the most vital Importance,
touching the vast interests of trade and commerce.
and on political and domestic subjects you must
poy at large expense, various persons in different
parts of your own and foreign countries, to send
you, rapidly and punctually, the earliest informa-
| tion. Moreover, you are a home producer; you
earn and spend your money on American soil
for the benefit of the country, while the dealer in,
| or recipient of the foreign newspaper is all the
| time supporting people exclusively in a foreign
| country. Have | not made out my case? Where
is there one single tangible argument for consider
ing these sheets of paper which | write, other
wise than as property conveyed to yOu n CONNER
cial transaction which you at once multiply copies
| of distribute and sell for the advantage of your
country, and the mercantile and social community
around you? When that is done for literary and
| news packages across the ocean it will be adopted
in the Post Office in the United States as it isl now
and has been for years in Great Britain. The amount
| OF postage money, both foreign and domestic
| on manuscripts sent to publishers to be printed,
cannot amount to n large in the
aggregate for the post Office but it is often heavy
| and certainly an unjust tax on publishers 1t is a
discrimination against them, that is not found in any
other articles sent to for the convenience of any
other class, mechanical, commercial otherwise
| could not make the case stronger by writing vol
umes. If the press will take it up, the thing is
DONE Suppose the private hand printing machine
of Mr.. Francis is brought into general use-and it
is no more complicated or difficult than a sewing
machine-there will have to be special law passed
to fine you gentlemen of the press, who enlighten
the nation by your labors; charging you an enor-
nous and outrageous sum for sending your printed
documents through the post, while the newspaper
reader and dealer, the book buyer, the merchant
banker and broker, get all of their documents car
ried for mere nominal sum. If there are any ar
guments against my position-against the prac-
tice of the British post ofce-I should like to hear
! them. Yours ever,
DANDoLo.