be a loss
to the Post Office, over and above that incurred by the abolition of the
impressed stamp, of [L]250,000 a year. There may be besides some
additional expense in connection with building and the increase in the
number of persons to be employed; but this has not been estimated for,
and the amount cannot be very large."--Chancellor of the Exchequer, 11th
April 1870; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. ce. col. 1636. The
limitation to 6 ounces was withdrawn. Ibid., vol. cciii, col. 1383.

[303] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), 7th May 1855, vol. cxxxviii. col.
197.

[304] In 1899 the number of registered newspapers which normally
exceeded 8 ounces in weight was 29.

[305] See _infra_, p. 293. The size and weight of many of the largo
trade papers has decreased in consequence of the war.

[306] "Newspapers and books are carried at a low rate for the sake of
the education and general information of the people."--Mr. W. Monsell
(Postmaster-General), 14th March 1871; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol.
cciv. col. 2014.

[307] In 1854 the average weight of the mails which left London daily
was 279 cwt. of which 219 cwt. consisted of newspapers.

[308] Only some 150 copies of the _Daily Mail_ are delivered in London
by the post each day.

[309] "There is no reason whatever why the Post Office should charge a
man threepence or fourpence for a book and a halfpenny for these vast
trade circulars, and it would be the simplest, as well as the wisest and
most beneficial of reforms, to bring the book post down to the newspaper
level."--H. G. Wells, _Mankind in the Making_. London, 1914, chap. ix.

The following further suggestions by Mr. Wells are reprinted here for
the consideration of postal reformers. Their adoption involves merely an
extension of the principle of State benefit.

"Now, in the first place, the post office as one finds it in Great
Britain might very well be converted into a much more efficient
distributing agency by a few simple modifications in its method. At
present, in a large number of country places in Great Britain, a penny
paper costs three-halfpence including the necessary halfpenny for
postage, and the poorer people can afford no paper at all, because the
excellent system in practice abroad of subscribing to any registered
periodical at the post office and having it delivered with the letters
has not been adopted. Government publications and Government maps, which
ought also to be obtainable at a d