0 = Mee 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 151 
Electric Telegraphs.—One of the most important aids to the social and commer- 
cial progress of any country, is the facility in the means of personal intercourse, 
and especially of frequent communications by post and verbal messages. Good 
roads and railroads, giving rapid and cheap means of transport both for passengers 
and goods, are essential to the increase of internal trade. But equally essential is 
the power of sending swift and accurate messages, and receiving prompt and cor- 
rect replies. The annual extension of the postal and telegraph system is a striking 
proof of the mental activity and growth of the internal trade of the country. In 
1867 the letters delivered had reached nearly 775,000,000 in the United Kingdom 
(being 33 per cent. excess on the previous year, and averaging 144 letters to each 
inhabited house). The book packets were more than 102,000,000, being an in- 
crease of one-half per cent. on the previous year. The receptacles for letters were 
17,225, being 1 to every 312 inhabited houses. 
Whoever originated the idea of the penny post, the nation will always feel that 
it is to the ability, the energy, and the perseverance of Sir Rowland Hill that we 
are indebted for the inestimable benefits which have followed the realization of 
the idea. In the history of the progress of the age his name will be always 
conspicuous. 
The success of the Post Office, and the enlightened readiness with which every 
improvement is adopted and the wants of the public supplied, give us reason to 
hope that what many regard as a very questionable interference with private 
enterprise, in the proposed purchase of the telegraph property of the whole king- 
dom, in order to place it under one management, will prove eminently for the 
public benefit. The facilities possessed by the Post Office in having money-order 
officers and employées who, at a very slight additional expense, may work the 
telegraph in localities in which it would scarcely pay profits to the companies to 
form new stations, are likely to create and satisfy the demand for numerous 
extensions. In populous places, from which the profits are mostly now derived 
(it is stated that 75 per cent. of the entire receipts are from fifteen towns, and 
one-half from London), the combination of the pillar-post and stamped paper for 
telegraphs in the suburbs, the saving of extra charge for distances in the delivery, 
and all over the country a uniform and cheap rate, will no doubt lead to an im- 
mense development of the system. It is highly probable that in a short time a 
uniform charge of 6d. a message of a certain length will be established. The con- 
sequence will be felt as well in the convenience of private intercourse, as in the 
internal trade of the country in bringing distant markets together, and, by increas- 
ing the competition, obtaining a greater approach to equalization of prices for the 
great benefit of the public. It is assumed that the number of telegraph messages 
is increasing at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, and that on the Ist July, 1869, 
the Government will start with the estimated number of 7,500,000. Supposing 
that present charges of £65,900 a~year may be saved by amalgamation of all the 
lines, and allowing for various costs, for extension, &c., a maximum net revenue of 
£358,000, or minimum of £203,000 per annum is Mr. Scudamore’s calculation, 
with which Government credit would more than raise the capital of £6,000,000 
required for the purchase. But it is scarcely possible that with so many interests, 
still to be settled by arbitration before the money-bill can be brought in in the 
next Parliament, that even this large sum will suffice to complete the purchase. 
There is nothing to prevent the Government competing, if the public interest 
required it, without laying out so large a sum for the purchase of interests which 
are not vested. But besides the natural feeling of the public against the unfairness 
of destroying, and the risk of discouraging, private enterprises which have produced, 
or are calculated to produce, such good results for the country, there is no doubt 
that the machinery and arrangements already complete, and the facilities afforded 
by the railway leases, form a basis for immediate improvements which will so 
much the earlier repay the outlay. The other objections, that Government may 
use the lines for favouritism or for political purposes, that they would have the 
command of all the secrets of private individuals, as well as those of their public 
opponents, that they might harass the press by delays, or transmit news to one 
journal to the exclusion of another, appear either to excite no alarm, or to have 
een met, as in the last case, by a judicious compromise, and the formation of a 
