they involve to the Exchequer may be justifiable, but if so it
should be deliberately incurred. It should not be hidden in the profit
that is made on the letter post. Without a scientific examination into
the actual cost of each part of the postal and telegraphic service, and
into the precise relation of revenue to cost, the charges may include,
haphazard, an excess which is nothing but pure taxation, the expenditure
may include an addition which is nothing but pure subsidy, and neither
the administrator nor the taxpayer may be aware of the fact.

It is therefore one of the essential duties of the Post Office to make
such examinations, and of students or critics of postal affairs to check
or to supplement them. Mr. A. D. Smith has made a useful contribution to
the application, in this sphere, of the methods of science to the
conduct of industry; and since the postal service is the most
international of all forms of social activity, it may be expected that
his contribution will be of value, and will have its influence, far
beyond the limits of our own country.

HERBERT SAMUEL.

I

THE RATE FOR LETTERS

LETTER POST IN ENGLAND

In England the postal service, as an organized means for the carrying of
the King's despatches, dates back some four hundred years, and as a
recognized arrangement for the carrying of letters for the public, some
three hundred years. Before the establishment of a regular system of
posts, provision had been made for carrying the King's despatches by
special messengers, called _nuncii_ or _cursores_, attached to the royal
household.[1] Their function was naturally one of importance, and, from
early times, large sums were expended in their maintenance. They were
employed on the private and confidential business of the Crown and of
members of the royal household, and on affairs of State, both in England
and abroad, although their function was primarily to serve the
convenience of the King.

This was a system for the conveyance of official despatches only.[2] No
public provision was made for the conveyance of letters for private
individuals. Such letters were conveyed by servants, by special
messengers, or by the common carriers,[3] and there is evidence of the
existence of a considerable private correspondence in the frequent issue
of writs during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ordering
supervision of the traffic in private letters, the uninterrupted
transmission of which was