triction abolished, a natural
postal system would eventually grow up, could it surpass in efficiency
our existing one. And it is further clear that if it could not surpass
it, the existing system might rightly continue; for the fulfilment of
postal functions by the State is not _intrinsically_ at variance with
the fulfilment of its essential function."--Herbert Spencer, _Social
Statics_, London, 1910, p. 120.

Professor Cannan sums the matter up from the point of view of modern
opportunism:--

"Much too great importance is commonly attributed to this part of State
action: the sale of commodities. We may be sure that if the State had
not happened to undertake the business of carrying letters, some private
organization would have been established for the purpose. Whether it
would have done the work better or worse than the present State Post
Office does it, is a question which we have no means of answering. So,
too, on the other hand, if the State in this country had undertaken the
provision of railways, we should have had a railway system of some sort;
it might have been a better or it might have been a worse system;
whether it would have been better or worse would have depended on the
wisdom of those who had the largest share in devising and extending it,
and who these persons would have been, and what their wisdom would have
been, we have no means of telling."--Edwin Cannan, _Elementary Political
Economy_, London, 1903, p. 132.

[661] "Before the rise of the economic schools that opposed industrial
action on the part of the State, the method of public postal service was
firmly established, and was seen to give, on the whole, sufficiently
satisfactory results. It, therefore, escaped the hostile criticism that
economists freely bestowed on the less efficient public
departments."--C. F. Bastable, _Public Finance_, London, 1903, p. 208.

[662] "He was always eager to improve the mail service to remote towns;
and would observe that one good result of State management was the
consideration of out-of-the-way places. A private management, he said,
might probably have introduced a halfpenny post in London, and have left
the country worse served than at present."--Leslie Stephen, _Life of
Henry Fawcett_, London, 1885, p. 438.

[663] "The Post Office is properly a mercantile project. The Government
advances the expense of establishing the different offices and buying or
hiring the necessary horses or carriages, and is repaid