Parliament were almost identical with those of 1867,
when the previous similar proposals as regards the letter and newspaper
rates were before it. Stress was, however, now laid on the contention
that letter-writing was the pursuit of the wealthy, and of business and
commercial men, who were well able to pay for their correspondence,
while the newspapers were sent mainly to the farmers of the country, who
wrote few letters. The Government were proposing at this time to raise a
million dollars by a tax on sugar, a course denounced as an imposition
by the Government on the poorer classes, to whom sugar is a necessity,
while the reduction of postage would present the wealthier classes with
some $650,000 a year.[133]

The reduction was carried, and the 2-cent rate has proved successful.
The gross revenue recovered within four years.[134] The number of
letters has largely increased, especially in recent years, largely, no
doubt, in consequence of the growing commercial prosperity. The total
number, which in 1876 was some 41 millions, had in 1913 increased to 633
millions. The financial result has also proved satisfactory. The Post
Office service in Canada as a whole in 1913 showed a profit of some
$1,200,000, and there is no doubt that the greater part of this profit
was derived from letters.

NOTE.--In 1915 a war-tax of 1/2-d. was imposed on all letters and
postcards. On the assumption that the numbers posted would not be
appreciably diminished, the increase of revenue was estimated at
$6,000,000 a year, and this estimate has been realized.

* * * * *

LETTER POST IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The New England colonies had not been long established when the public
authorities first took cognizance of the arrangements for the
distribution of letters. In 1639 the general court of the Massachusetts
Bay colony made an order for the establishment of a service in respect
of letters for or from places abroad. A house-to-house delivery of
letters received from abroad at the low uniform rate of 1d. would seem
to have been contemplated.[135] At various intervals during the latter
half of the century, Post Offices were established in most of the other
colonies--in Virginia in 1657, in New York in 1672, in Connecticut in
1674, in Philadelphia in 1683, and in New Hampshire in 1693.[136] These
Post Offices were set up in the various colonies by legal enactment, but
they were in