Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1861-10-22

The expensive and burdehsoule tii"N"iH
cry Of the rebel government does not work
smoothly. The deficit created by the post
Al serviee in the rebel States has been paid,
siDce the Union was formed, by the free
states. In attempting to make the post Of
fee department self.sustaining, as matter
of necessity the rebels have had to increase
their charges very seriously. This palpa-
BILE proof of the costliness of "a separate
government comes homo very closely to all
classes, and not least to the newspapers of
the South. 1t is found necessary to charge
two cents apiece on every newspaper sent
by mail to subscribers, and every paper is
to be stamped as prepaid, whether it goes
singly or in large packages. And in order
to secure the revenue, it is forbidden that
papers should be sent outside of the mails
without paying the same charge. AS
might be expected, the journals do not
take kindly to this arrangement. The
Richmond Examiner evidently feels the
tax, for it says:
The outrage inflicted upon the people
of the South by this brutal suppression OF
the news, is only equalled by the tax now
inflicted upon the soldiers i'll the camps for
the newspapers they read. Are the public
prepared to believe that the carriers who
distribute newspapers among the soldiers
encamped at any distance from our cities,
have first to purchase them OF newspaper
offices, and then to pay the amount OF the
pcrchase money a second time to the post
Office department, before being allowed to
transmit them upon the railroad The
agent who sends thousand papers from
any Richmond office TO Manassas, must
first pay two hundred dollars for them at
the printing office, and then pay two hun
dred dollars to the post Office before they
can be sent to the army. \ greater hard
ship even than the extortion of this sum-
is the requirement that the paper shall be
stamped before tIansmission-this delay
itself hazarding tue transmission of the
papers at all. The consequence of the
arrangement is TINT, whereas, before the
post office levied this extortiOnRte Tux Of
two cents. the carrier could afford TO sell
ncwspapcrs to soldiers for five cents, he Is
now compelled to demand ten cents-thc
actual cost of the paper, delivered ut the
camps, being more than five cents. Thus
the soldier who wishes to spend the leis-
urc hours of his time i'll camp i'll reading
the latest newspapers, is Obliged 10 pay
three dollars each month, out of mis- eleven
dollars of pay, for the very harmless recrea
ton. He is compelled to pay a dollar and
a half more per month for his newspaper
in order that the post Office may reap the
wretched pittance of sixty cents. 1t is
bad enough that the governments great
office of intelligence should Gem TO devote
its faculties to the suppression of informal
ton: but when II assumes 20 demand the
whole cost of Il newspaper-the leading
and most costly agency of intelligence
in grutuity, for merely allowing the rail-
roads to carry it ut their own expense, its
self qualification is melancholy.
This may seem grievous, but it is the
veriest trific in comparison with what the
Southern people must endure, unless they
throw Off this rebellion right speedily
The counsel on which the rebel chiefs are
acting, is that which the young men gave
to Rehoboam "Thus shalt thou speak
unto this people that spake INTO thee, say
ing. Thy father made our yoke heavy, but
make thou it light unto us; TINS shalt
thou say unto them, NV little finger shall
be thicker than M fathers loins." So
will it be with tha rebellion: the least OF
its burdens VII DC greater than nj! the
grievances which the most iAundiced
Southern eye ever discovered in the Union.