The Sun. — 1870-06-30 (London, England)

POSTAL REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES.  While the bill to abolish the franking privilege was pending, Mr. Sumner took an advantage of the opportu• nity to give the reasons for a reduction of letter postage to one cent for all distances, in connection with which all franking should be dispensed with, and all business through the post office be done by stamps. The argument is unanswerable; and when the public mind does come to the serious consideration of cheap postage, as-England came to it twenty-five years ago, Mr. Sumner's speech, though made to an indifferent Senate and to a country not yet specialty interested in the subject, will be 'referred to as one of the most striking and effective in the course of this debate. Fortunately the efficacy of cheap postage has been vindicated by the most striking of examples. The experiment has been tried, and, in the face of predictions of failure the most sweeping and the most despondent, it has proved successful, both as a measure of economy and of general public beneficence. Nobody would now return to the old rates if it were possible, and no rising man with prospects of advancement would dare to suggest it. If any descendant of the sceptics who at the outset submitted unwillingly to the change were now to propose a return to the old rates with any hope of carrying it, it would create a revolution in Great Britain strong enough to sweep every advocate of the change from power forever. But cheap postage was a plant of slow growth in Great Britain, and it will be of slower growth among us. It took three years after Rowland Hill got his commission of inquiry to make the change there. It would take a longer time here. The field is larger ; and the interests to be consulted much more diverse and complicated. The present rates are not felt to be peculiarly oppressive, and the need of a sweeping reduction has not taken a very strong hold upon public opinion. Are we to wait for public opinion to be aroused and public men to be convinced upon the wisdom of this whole scheme of reform before correcting the confessed abuses which have fastened themselves upon our postal system ? The franking privilege as it is now used is a burden for which the country gets no adequate return. It is a costly luxury which through ong channel (,r another helps to swell the tax levy where all currents of expenditure and waste meet at last. The old theory that it was compensated for by the advantage of having free intercourse between constituents and their representatives is a fanciful one in these later times, when the means of communication have been multiplied a thousandfold, and when it is impossible for a representative to take an important step affecting the special interests of his constituents, or the general welfare of the country, and conceal it from them for a single hour. The new avenues for the diffusidn of intelligence and sound information have conveyed the substance of all important intelligence to and from the capital, while the public printing-office is pouring out its waste of printed paper, to be scattered abroad at the public charge. The people are no longer infants to be nursed and coddled in this way. Leave them to their own devices and they will get what they want, and in the longrun all that will be of use to them. Mr. Sumner argues that the post-office should not be made a source of revenue. It should not be ; and there is very little danger of its becoming so, while our mail routes have such vast distances to traverse, and while tracts of newly-settled country, large enough for empires, are awaiting to be developed. But the service should be made self-supporting. The first step is to take off the leeches. Reform the abuses first, and correct the system as rapidly as possible.—Boston Advertiser.  Alarming symptoms of suffrage fever :—Little girl in Wyoming :—`"There, dolly, you must be still and sleep all day, 'cause I've dot to do and vote."  Despite the opinion delivered by King Richard in an exigency as to the value of a horse, the noble animal may be an unwelcome visitor. A Mr. Clarke, of Chico, Cal., while recently taking a drive with his wife in a buggy on a road near Little Butte Creek, found that a drove of wild horses had completely surrounded them. One of these horses actually attacked the buggy, kicking it with his heels, while the others sought to make acquaintance with the horses of the buggy. Mr. Clarke struck the attacking horse with the whip, whereat the animal became terribly enraged, ran in front of the carriage horses, kicked them with vigour and viciousness, and was driven off with great difficulty. Mrs. Clarke thinks she has since seen him as a nightmare.  A_ bill recently introduced Into the Senate may facilitate the chances of promotion in the army by encouraging its offieers to depart this life. It enables any commissioned officer to assign part of his monthly pay to any life insurance company in the United States in payment of dues upon an insurance on his own life, so that the company shall be paid direct. It further enacts that a policy, the dues of which are so provided for, " cannot in any event whatever be suspended, rendered ineffective, or in any .44 anner made forfeitable." If this bill becomes a law, and the class of whom, at present, " few die and none resial2 " insure under it, they may take great comfort in the knowledge that any moment the amount of their policies can be obtained for their families, since suicide cannot work a forfeiture.