Mr. Seely, on Tuesday, moved that postage between America and
England should be reduced from 3d. to id. The point of ibis speech, a very inadequate one, was that no rate above id. tempted the masses to write, or could, therefore, be remunerative to the Post Office. Mr. Monsell's reply was, that reduction would not much increase postage, because the usual practice of emigrants was to send a newspaper to their friends; that reduction hitherto had only diminished revenue, and that the money risk, £700,000, was too serious to encounter. The first argument is of little weight, as the substitution of newspapers for letters must be a direct loss to the carriers ; the second involves the very point at issue, whether any price higher than id. attracts the masses ; and the third must be exaggerated. The grants for the American lines .are only £.205,000, and there is no reason for making the experi- ment universal. There was no one reason for believing in penny postage at all which does not apply to the postage between America and England. Negotiation, however, on the subject is to be commenced, and a money-order business between the two -countries is to be immediately established. If that pays as it ought to pay, there can be little difficulty in the experiment.
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