balance still a debt of 520 millions of francs presses on the kingdom of the Two Sicilies; the State publishes no official reports.

Piedmont. The receipts amount to 136 millions of francs, the expenses 143 millions. After the revolution of 1848 Piedmont was obliged to borrow large sums, first for her share in the Italian war, then for her contributions against Russia. The whole debt, not including 50 millions to England, which is being gradually reduced, amounts to 630 millions of francs, of this 200 millions for railroads, which will in time meet it-the remaining 430 millions constitutes a heavy debt for a State of 6,000,000, but it has been contracted to forward the march of civilization. The author calculates that the united resources of confederate Italy will be 500 millions of francs.

A distinguished diplomatist, to whose works we took occasion some months since to pay a just tribute, Gov. Lawrence, of Rhode Island, in a letter written in April last to that able journal, the Newport Advertiser, which is the organ of the democratic party in Rhode Island, says, "Should Italy be independent its prosperity will be unbounded. The best climate, the best soil in Europe, with artisans capable of producing the most consummate works in every department of industry, our relations instead of being insignificant, as they now are, will be most important, and the cotton manufactures of Italy, with her mild climate, and water powers unsurpassed anywhere, may consume more of our great staple than even England herself. It seems to me that the future commerce of this country is deserving of the consideration of our government." As long as it was a mere question as to whether our representatives should make us more or less ridiculous at foreign courts, it was a matter of small moment as to who they were, but now that a Congress is to be held, in which our interests must be involved, now that there is work to be done, it is a matter of the first importance that able and proper representatives should be selected for Italy.

The eagles of France once let loose cannot be caged, war is her element, and a blunder may cause to be let out on us those vials of wrath, which would otherwise be reserved for the Coburgs, poured out on Prussia, or made to wash out Waterloo.

OUR POSTAL SYSTEM.

THE duty of government is to conduct at little or no direct cost to the individual all those departments which cannot be left to private enterprise, and which general taxation must more or less sustain. When we walk the street we are exhausting the pavement which the city has to supply at heavy cost, yet all would exclaim, were a tax, however slight, exacted from us each day we leave our door. Why, then, should the Post Office, the highway of thought, be cramped with a peculiar duty, which, whilst it weighs like a millstone on the poor, annoys and hampers the rich? Commerce is the great employer of postal labor; and the revenues from commerce are more than adequate to sustain the expenses of government; why should not these revenues increased, if necessary, be applied to carry a gratuitous mail? Why should not the expression of thought, the spread of intelligence be untrammelled? If you reply that letters would increase a hundred fold you meet us halfway in our argument, and prove that a postage reduced to a minimum would make the Post Office self-sustaining by the very facilities for, and attractions to writing, which it would present.* All the large fortunes in our country come from the temptation of low prices, and from having the poor, not the rich, for patrons. Freedom of movement for mind and body-protection in person and property-and a supply of food and shelter when he is unable to gain them himself, are what every citizen has a right to demand from government. The Romans went further, "Panem ac Circenses," bread and theatrical amusements, together with public baths, were rights claimed and conceded to the people. The public lands were the source looked to to supply the means. Ours is not a begging nation; our people are proud to pay for what they consume; but it is their right and their peculiar privilege to dictate how their money shall be spent, and to find fault where it does not produce an equivalent.

The Post Office in England, now so safe and convenient, is

A British writer speaking of the English Post Office in 1833, says with regard to the rates of postage:-We believe that these have been completely overdone, and considering the vast importance of a cheap and safe conveyance of letters to commerce, it will be seen that this subject is deserving of grave consideration. In point of fact the Post Office revenue has been about stationary since 1814, though from the increase of population and commerce in the intervening period, it is pretty obvious that had the rates of postage not been so high as to force recourse to other channels, the amount would have been greater.

thus described in the Westminster Review for 1834, before it was reformed. "The consequences of this slovenly mode of doing business at the Inland Head Office, are felt all over the country. The irregularity of the delivery of letters and newspapers; the shameful manner in which the latter are read and detained for the profit and convenience of the country postmasters; the ransacking of private parcels; the violation of seals, or reading the contents of letters by means of strong gas light; the appointment of improper persons to the office of deputy postmaster-persons who, being tradesmen themselves, often scrutinize the correspondence of rival townsmen in the same business; and the losses of money and parcels, and sometimes of the letter bags from the mails. These are a few among the numerous annoyances which the people of this country endure in consequence of the insufficiency of the system." Charles I. established the first regular Post Office in England, in 1638. After the civil war had abated, Mr. Edward Predeaux, AttorneyGeneral for the Commonwealth, established, in 1649, a weekly Post. Till 1784 the mails were carried on horseback, or in a cart. Mr. John Palmer, of Bath, Comptroller-General of the Post Office, first contracted with the proprietors of coaches for the carriage of the mail and a guard to protect it. When our government began, we were so insignificant in population and resources as to count for nothing in the scale of nations; all around us swarmed the Indian tribes; and we were surrounded by forests, which, it was thought, it would require centuries to remove. Hence the departments of government were formed, rather with a view to present use than for all time. Men's ideas enlarge in proportion to the increasing vastness of the state and the size of her working machinery.

In small states the people are crafty and cautious; in large ones they push forward and look danger in the face. The settlement of California has thrust us ahead a century before our time. Nothing but the thirst for gold, founded on the fallacy that, as it can be had for the picking up, it must be cheap, could have induced men to leave all, and rush forward in that wild race in which so many thousands were swamped. Seeing the steamers returning with their millions each week, we lose sight of the fact that California has taken from us, in money and goods, far more than she has yet returned. The great advantage she has been to us arises from her giving us a vent for the surplus energies of our people, and causing a demand for modes of transportation more extended than anything we before dreamed of, and which will soon make us the first of commercial nations. Whilst this has been the case with the country at large, the effect that distant land has produced on

the mail service, and the reactionary effect which the postal department, by opening new routes, has produced upon the whole country, is startling in the extreme. So far from being any longer a mere servant to carry our letters, that department has become the pioneer of civilization.

In a debate incidental to an inquiry by Congress into the condition of the Post Office in 1831, Mr. Clayton remarked that there was no department of government in which our people took so lively an interest as the Post Office. Since then our resources have quadrupled, and our postal arrangements have reached a development which leaves in the shade those of the rest of the world. The only department which does not depend entirely on the treasury for its support, the Post Office would, if confined to its natural purposes, more than support itself. When we consider that by its means hundreds of tons of book matter are transported through the Union, most of it from the two Houses of Congress, paying no duty,* and that matter sent by the member from Utah alone has cost the government nearly $7,000; when we view the ocean steamers she charters to carry out treaties which, like a sovereign, she makes direct with foreign ministers; the wagons and mail trains, railroads, steamboats, and expresses of every kind, whom she engages at enormous though not extravagant rates, to deliver with certainty and speed the letters she carries for prices far below what individual enterprise can effect, we look upon the Post Office as the most wonderful feature of our country.

The amount actually paid for mail transportation during the year 1858 was

The balance standing on the books to the credit of the

department 30th June, 1857

$8,246,054 17

If for the franking loss be deducted at least $2,500,000, which is a fair estimate, we shall see that this department would nearly support itself, even whilst carrying out the pioneer system, which takes in view communication with the whole world-not

*The Postmaster-General of the United States stated in a letter to the Committee of the Senate, of May, 1833, that it was of almost daily occurrence that a ton weight of newspapers was carried in one mail for hundreds of miles.

waiting for letters to demand transportation, but laying the roads and founding the cities from which to draw future revenues, and provide for the next generation an unexampled income and no debt; whilst the nations of Europe are heaping on their unborn children taxes to pay a debt the amount of which the language of calculation is too poor to express, and which outstrips the eloquence of figures.

The Postmaster-General, a member of the Cabinet, is necessarily, from the arduous and complicated duties of his office, selected with a view to his business capacity. The present incumbent, Hon. Joseph Holt, came into office at a time and under circumstances when to accept the post was pure patriotism. Congress, recreant to its trust, desirous to clog the wheels of government, adjourned without making that appropriation which is particularly essential for the support of the department; and the whole nation owes a debt of gratitude to him for the ability with which he made use of his personal popularity, and the confidence of contractors in the integrity of the administration to anticipate the action of a coming Congress, a Congress, we have reason to fear, actuated by hostile political principles. When it is remembered that there were, on the 1st December last, 28,573 post offices, all of which receive their instructions from the mother department at Washington, and which were effectively conducted since the 4th of March solely on the credit of the department, the ability of the PostmasterGeneral and of his assistants, is self-evident. McCulloch in his Commercial Dictionary, speaking of the English Post Office, says: "The progress of the Post Office revenue of Great Britain has been very remarkable. Most part of its increased amount is no doubt to be ascribed to the greatly increased population of the country, and the growing intercourse among all classes of the community; but a good deal must also be ascribed to the efforts made in the early part of the reign of George III. to suppress the abuses that had grown up out of the privilege of franking." Similar abuses are proved by the following letter to exist in this country.

Extract of a letter from James Campbell, Postmaster-General, to Hon. T. J. Rusk, Chairman, Post Office Committee, U. S. Senate, dated July 28th, 1856.

"I have the honor to transmit herewith a statement, showing that during the month of April last, there were mailed and despatched from the Post Office in the city of Washington, 231,520 ounces of free letters, and 9,180,352 ounces of free printed matter.

Estimating them at three to the ounce, the number of letters for the month was 694,560, the postage on which, at three cents, the single rate, would be $20,836 80, or for one year, 8,334,720 letters, at a postage of