epaid, will so greatly
diminish the labor of keeping the post-office, as to remove the objection
in most cases to taking the trouble. And for the rest, it is only for the
department to demand that, if the people of any neighborhood wish a
post-office they must furnish a postmaster, and this difficulty is
annihilated.

With regard to the transmission of public documents, printed by order of
the two houses of congress, it is undeniable that very much of the
printing itself, and the circulation of them through the mail, is a sheer
abuse and wanton waste. And it is probable that a great check would be
given to these abuses, if there were an account required and a charge made
on the public treasury of all this circulation, at the same rate with
other pamphlet postage. The circulation, even if kept up at its present
rate, would in fact cost no more than it does now; but the burden would be
taken from the letter correspondence of the country, and placed where it
ought to be, on the general treasury. The statement of 1844, that four
millions of public documents are circulated in a single session, attracted
much attention of the public press at the time. One influential paper, the
New York Journal of Commerce, has the following remarks under the head of
"National Bribery:"

"It has just been stated in congress, that the two houses had
ordered _fifty-five thousand copies_ to be printed, of the Report
of the Commissioner of Patents: and that the cost to the country
would be $114,000. This Report is a huge document, printed in
large type, with a large margin, containing very little matter of
the least importance, and that little so buried in the rubbish, as
to be worth about as much as so many 'needles in a hay-mow.' Then,
this huge quantity of trash, created at this large expense, is to
be _franked_ for all parts of the country, by way of _currying
favor and getting votes next time_, lumbering the mails, and
creating another large expense. We have taken the trouble to weigh
the copy of this document, which was forwarded to us, and find its
ponderosity to be 2 lbs., 14 ozs., or, with the wrapper, about
_three pounds_! The aggregate weight of the 55,000 copies, is
therefore EIGHTY-TWO AND A HALF TONS! Eighty-two and a half tons
of paper spoiled; and the nation taxed $114,000 for spoiling it;
and then compelled to lug it to all parts of the Union through the