334 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



Many of the obstacles which a year or two ago 

 might have attended the adoption of these sugges- 

 tions have been removed by the Parish Councils' 

 Act. The villages are now in a position to treat with 

 the Post-Office for such privileges as it may choose to 

 afford under guarantee, and as the plan herein advo- 

 cated could not be put in operation at once every- 

 where, a reasonable preference might be given to 

 those who were first in the field with applications, or 

 first by formal resolution to secure the department 

 against loss of revenue, if the capital outlay for in- 

 struments and lines had to be incurred by that 

 department. 



The parcel post and the telephone would then 

 receive a generous impulse, and while timid poli- 

 ticians might shrink from any enlargement of the 

 responsibilities of the Post-Ofiice, Parliament would 

 know how to brush such fears aside, devise checks, 

 and take sufficient precautions. In fact, if the tele- 

 phone companies contracted to maintain telephones, 

 there is no sufficient reason, that I can see, why they 

 should not also contract to maintain telegraphs; in 

 which case, so far from the established force of the 

 Post-Office being increased, the out-door department 

 of the telegraph branch might be reduced to any 

 extent that the Postmaster-General saw fit. The time 

 seems ripe for great changes in this direction. 



Postal telephones are administered as follows : A 

 householder may rent a private wire to a post- 

 office. He may send a message for delivery within 



