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Untitled Article
will no longer be teazed with letters to boys at school , to hundredth cousins , orders , to country housekeepers , and such matters . As the Postmaster-General
opposes the plan altogether , so Mr Robert Smith , Superintending President of the twopenny post , deprecates its introduction into that department . He sees nothing but confusion , want of " practical
experience , " and tired calves for letter-carriers * legs , in the plan , —forgetting sundry supererogatory exertions kept up in the present arrangements , for love of " Auld lang syne . " Not but what he is polite to Mr Hill , and deferential to the
Commissioners ; but innovation startles him . There is something really touching in the tone of melancholy remonstrance which Mr Robert Smith mingles with the particulars he is obliged to furnish . We believe Mr Smith to be a
truly valuable officer , and exemplary in his zeal and assiduity ; but he is a notable instance of the effect of official iroutine in destroying the capacity for comprehending neicessary changes .
We must refer our readers Ito the Report for particulars , especially to the evidence of Mr Smith and Mr Hill , and to sundry papers by those genttlenaen in the appendix . Befobre we conclude , we must notice one of Mr Smith ' s chief
objections , which is perhaps < ess forcibly answered in the EEleport itself than the rest : it
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is the dislike he conceives the public will feel at being obliged to pay the postage in advance . It may be assumed , that , upon the average , every one receives about as many letters as he
dispatches , and that very few are paid in advance . It would , therefore , matter little which paid the postage for any individual letter ; in the long run
the expense would be the same to both parties in either case ; but the absolute outlay to both , according to Mr Hill ' s plan , would be at most half of what
it is at present , and in some cases not a tenth . There are persons , however , who dispatch more letters than they receive , and others who receive more than they dispatch . The obligation to pay the postage in advance would be much more
in accordance with common sense and justice , in both cases ; since he who dispatches has every opportunity of anticipating and regulating the amount of the expense to be incurred , which he who receives
has not . Moreover , if the obligation to pay in advance be peremptory , it would much equalise th <^ expenses ; since the option leaves open all sorts of loopholes for meannesses , delicacies , awkwardnesses , and
ignorances , which would be quite superseded in the new arrangement . At so low a charge of one penny no actual inconvenience could be felt by any but the poor , and Mr Hill has shown us that the poor are practically excluded from the advantage of a national post
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208 The Two Postages—Twopenny and Penny
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/64/
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