Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1861-02-02

this country Is concerneu. LEU lnlS sccmS
to be by no means an improbable event.
The whole system of cheap. postage
depends upon what Thackeray terms
"adhosive prepayment" that is, prepay
mcnt by attaching to the letter the ordinary
postago-stamp, or by using the envelope
already stamped by the Government.
But it is not, perhaps, generally known
that it makes wide difference, in an eco-
noncal point of view, both to the people
and the government, which of these two
plans are adopted, to say nothing of the
frauds practiced.
BY the act of Congress establishing
prepayment, which is transcript of the
act of the Parliament of Great Britain in
relation to the same subject, the postmaster
general is required to have manufactured
stamps and stamped envelopes, and to sell
the former at the price of postage, and
the latter at the price of manufacture and
the price of postage added. 1t will thus
be seen that while the ordinary stamp is u
waste piece of paper, and dead loss to
the Government and consumers, the
stamped envelope is a genuine utilitarian-
ism, being saving to the seller and
buyer-the former saves the expense of
manufacture, while the latter saves the
retail profits on the letter-envelopo. En-
velopes Of the quality sold by the Post.
Office Department are retailed by the trade,
even in large cities, at about half a cent
each, while in the country remote from the
place of manufacture, the price is often
one cent. The Post Office sells them at
taco mills each, or five for one cent,
exclusive of the stamp attached The
general substitution of the stamped envcl-
ope for the stamp, therefore, would not
only increase the postal receipts, but reduce
the rates OF postage to the people from one
half to four fifths of cent OH each letter,
which would bring the ordinary three
cent rate near the British penny standard
At the same time it would protect the
Government from the frauds practced BY
the reuse of the stamps, and the fraud.
ulcnt manufacture and sale of the same
for the stamped envelopes, as is well known,
can neither bo refused or successfully
eountcrieited.
The great advantages to be derived
from the use of the stamped envelopes,
instead Of the stamps, were long since
recognized by the British government, and
more recently by our own but all attempts
to introduce them into general use among
the people have hitherto failed, through
the danger Of spelling the envelopes in the
superscription, and thus oflosing the stamp.
Now, the Improvement in the construction
of the new stamped envelope exactly meets
this difficulty, while at the same time it
obviates the objection to the use of the
ruled envelope proper. The black lines
combined with it, not only enables indif.
terent penmen to avoid the mistakes in the
directing consequent upon the effort to
write without the accustomed guide, but
are also Of essential service even to the
best penman in securing an elegant super
scription, as may be easily demonstrated
by experiment. They also serve to indicate
the proper place OH the envelope for its
direction, thus preventing its oblteration
by the post mark, by which Thousands Of
letters are annually miscarried.
These facts are patent, and the Govern,
ment has shown wise foresight in recog
nizing them, and adopting the new improve
ment Instead of purchasing stamps at
the Post Gffioe and envelopes at the book.
stores, the people can obtain both combined
and which embrace all the advantages o.
convenience and economy above described
If any of the postmasters have failed to
secure the new envelopes from the Depart
mcnt, the people will, no doubt, see that
they attend to it, upon discovering their
advantages. And thus will gradually be
effected revolution iu the postage-=tamps.
. ST. VALENTINES DAY-The I4th of
this month.