The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-05-01

under the boot of the stage. To-day,
from ten to twelve tons of mail matter
enter and leave the New York Post
Office from the South. 1t is but cent
ury since Postmaster-Generl Benja-
min Franklin so increased the speed Of
the mails that, while it had taken six
weeks for letter to go from Boston to
Philadelphia and return, it then took
but three. To-day it takes but one
week for letters to pass from the shores
of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific.
If the postal service continues to expand
the next century as it has done the last,
and science shall discover no more rapid
means of transmission, passengers must
be left out of the mail trains. Letters
and papers will exhaust the capacity OF
the steam-engine.
Our oceanic mails increase at a yet
faster rate. Over 200 tons of letters
and papers now annually cross the At
lantic gain of fifty per centum within
the last three years.
The difference between sparsely and
II thickly settled population is best
shown by the fact that of three nations,
each having between 30, 600, 900 and 49,
900, 900 of population, Germany has
5,720 postoflices, Great Britain less
than II, 900, and the United States 49,
344 This sparseness of population, re-
quiring letters to travel long distances
on unfrequented routes, makes the cost
of transportation here far heavier than
in Europe. In England, the maximum
distance letter can be carried is less
than 700 miles in America, from Maine
to Alaska, is 5000 miles. And this Is
one OF the principal reasons Germany
nets profit from her postoffices of 49,
600, 900 year, England of $4,000, 900,
and the United States has a loss of
nearly So, 100000.
The English postoffice stands at the
tainty of the delivery of its letters as
the Duke OF Wellington once said,
1.-The English postotfice is the only one
one in Europe which can be said to do
its work" For instance, year before
last an American gentleman followed
his sister to Europe. Uncertain of her
residence on his arrival there, he sent a
letter addressed to " Upper Norwood,
or elsewhere" The sister had left
Norwood, and was elsewhere but her
route was given to the carrier, and the
missive followed her, and finally over
took her riding on the top of q stage
coach. When the first meeting of the
Evangelical Alliance was held in Lon
don many years ago, prominent presi-
dent of Western college, who crossed
the Atlantic in a sailing-vessel, WAS sur
prised to find letter awaiting him at
l. l.. t. 1~g
him but, carried by steam, it had
passed him on the way. AS he had not
known, when he left home, where he
was to stay, he was curious to find out
how that letter had discovered his
rooms before he had found them him
self. And inquiry developed the fact
that the letter being uncalled for for a
day or two, the postal authorities no.
ticed that it came from America, and
was addressed TO reverend divine.
Surmising that it might be for some at.
tendant at the meeting of the Alliance,
inquiry was made, the residence OBJ
tanned, and the letter forwarded tC
await his arrival. 1t may be doubted i
the postoffice authorities elsewher,
would have taken so much trou lie abou
single letter.
The English postoffice is also one o
far greater hexibility than our own, o
any other, and more ready to try i'm
provements. 1t adopted penny post
age ten years before we commenced
three-cent one it abolished the fran
thirty years before us. 1t has adopte,
the telegraph as branch of its service
it issues some 1900, 900 money. order
year; it insures lives and grant
, annuities it maintains Il savings bank
conterminous with the boundaries q
the. Kingdom and it licenses all til
; dogs-500, 600 of them all the NAL
servants, carriages, horses and mules
: armorial bearings and guns in Grea
: Britain and ireland. So capacious an,
| paternal postoffice d partment W
have hardly right to expect we ar
authorized, however, to look for as Ger
; tain delivery of letters and papers
The United States does indeed stan
next to England in this respect. Fror
grand total of 9l5, 100000 letters an
nually, England sends 100000 to he
} dead-letter Office. With a somewha
smaller number of letters, the Unite
: States sends 4, 400, 900.
} The wealth, or penury, of the diffe,
l ent nationalities that compose the King
dom of Great Britain and Ireland
| shown by the fact that out of ever
nine persons in England and Wales or
e is a depositor i'll the postal saving
4 banks out OF every thirteen in SEQ
land, and one out of fifty in ireland.
K The letter-carrier system is nearl
perfect i'll both countries but in FL
gland is carried to much greater e,
; tent than with us, where it is contine
! to cities containing 10000 population {
t over We would call the attention
s the Postmaster-Gene to the fact thu
S the English letter-carriers visit the
r boxes on their way to the Office befol
D the first mail leaves all letters write
the evening before, and deposited j
the boxes, leave the city by the earle.
mail In this country, as a gener,
{ rule, the boxes are not emptied till aft,
D breakfast, and consequently the letter
have to wait for the evenings mail
= AppLetons Journal.
/ THE SPANISH CoRTEs. There is not
l ing remarkable about the Spanish Co
> tes Plain externally IL has numeror