every institution became no more
than what it was designed to be, by those who originally framed it, the
state of man on earth would be very different from what it is. The
unchecked means of publicity, out of all question, are indispensable to
the circulation of truths; and it is equally certain that the
unrestrained means of publicity are equally favourable to the
circulation of lies. If we cannot get along safely without the
possession of one of these advantages, neither can we get along very
safely while existing under the daily, hourly, increasing influence of
the other--call it what you will. If truth is all-important, in one
sense, falsehood is all-important too, in a contrary sense.

Had there been a newspaper at the Crater, under the control of some
philosopher, who had neither native talent, nor its substitute
education, but who had been struck out of a printer's devil by the rap
of a composing-stick, as Minerva is reported to have been struck,
full-grown, out of Jupiter's head by the hammer of Vulcan, it is
probable that the wiseacre might have discovered that It was an
inexcusable interference with the rights of the colonists, to enact that
no one should carry letters for hire, but those connected with the
regular post-office. But, no such person existing, the public mind was
left to the enjoyment of its common-sense ignorance, which remained
satisfied with the fact that, though it might be possible to get a
letter carried from the Reef to the Cove, between which places the
communications were constant and regular, for half the money charged by
the office, yet it was not possible to get letters carried between some
of the other points in the colony for twenty times the regulated
postage. It is probable, therefore, that the people of the Crater and
the Peak felt, that in supporting a general system, which embraced the
good of all, they did more towards extending civilization, than if they
killed the hen, at once, in order to come at the depository of the
golden eggs, in the shortest way.

In the middle ages, he who wished to send a missive, was compelled, more
than half the time, to be at the expense of a special messenger. The
butchers, and a class of traders that corresponds, in part, to the
modern English traveller, took charge of letters, on the glorious Free
Trade principle; and sometimes public establishments hired messengers to
go back and forth, for their own purposes. Then, the governments,
perceivi