of $81,018. The
increase of newspapers in seven years, from 1837 to 1844, by these
estimates, was eighty-nine per cent., or at the rate of about eight and
one half per cent. a year. The increase from 1844 to 1847 was about
twenty-four per cent. in three years, or eight per cent. a year. This may
be considered the natural rate of increase of newspapers, without any
increase of facilities. It may be reasonably calculated that the increased
facilities offered by this plan will make the increase of numbers much
more rapid.

And this increase of numbers will by no means be attended with a
corresponding increase of expense to the department. In 1837, when the
number of papers was twenty-nine millions, there were 11,767 post-offices,
and mails were carried 36,228,962 miles. In 1844, the post-offices were
15,146, an increase of twenty-nine per cent., and the mail transportation
was 38,887,899 miles, an increase of seven per cent., while the increase
of newspapers was eighty-nine per cent.; and yet the expenditure was
$3,380,847 in 1837, and $3,979,570 in 1847; an increase of less than
eighteen per cent. Deducting the necessary additional expense of adding
twenty-nine per cent. to the number of post-offices, and seven per cent.
to the distance of transportation, and it will be fair to conclude that
doubling the number of newspapers would not add above ten per cent. to the
cost of transportation. Make any reasonable allowance, even fifty per
cent. for the labor in the post-offices, and you have still a net profit
of forty per cent. on all the newspaper postage that shall be added. And
this in addition to the benefits of the diffusion of knowledge, increasing
the mutual acquaintance of the people of this wide republic, and thus
increasing the stability of our government, the permanence of our union,
the happiness of the people, and the perfection of our free institutions.

VIII. _Pamphlet and Magazine Postage_.

The postage on pamphlets was regulated on the principles of cheap postage,
with a special discrimination in favor of those pamphlets which were
published periodically. This latter distinction was construed so
liberally, that it was allowed to include among periodicals all pamphlets
published annually, such as almanacs, college catalogues, reports of
societies, and the like. The law of 1845 abolishes the distinction between
periodical and occasional pamphlets, but makes a difference in favor of
large pamphlets, by chargin