itish Post-office, the postage on letters by
the mail steamers to the United States is now 1_s._ per half ounce; and on
newspapers 2_d._ each paper. On all letters and papers sent from Great
Britain the postage must be prepaid. If not prepaid, they are not sent;
but in the case of letters, it is the practice of the post-office to
notify persons in this country to whom letters are addressed, that cannot
be forwarded for the want of prepayment, that they can have their letters
on procuring the prepayment of the required shilling. I have more than
once received a printed notice of this kind, designating the number by
which my letter could be called for. No additional charge is made for this
piece of attention. This fact is significant of the spirit of the cheap
postage system. No provision is made by which postage can be prepaid in
this country, and consequently, the whole expense of correspondence falls
upon the parties in England.

Mr. Burritt enumerates some of the inconveniences of the present system,
in addition to the positive evil of a burdensome tax upon the letter
correspondence between the two countries--a tax which amounts to a
suppression of intercourse by letter, to a sad extent.

1. The present shilling rate of postage, being exacted on the
English side, too, in all cases, and thus throwing the whole cost
of correspondence upon the English or European correspondents,
greatly diminishes the number of letters which would otherwise be
transmitted to and from America, through the English mail.

2. In consequence of the present high rate of postage on letters,
newspapers, pamphlets, magazines, &c., a large amount of mail
matter conveyed across the ocean, lies _dead_ in the English
post-office--a dead loss to the department--the persons to whom it
is addressed, refusing to take it out on account of the postal
charges upon it.

3. Under the present shilling rate, it is both legal and common
for passengers to carry a large number of _unsealed_ letters,
which are allowed as letters of introduction, and which, at the
end of the voyage, are sealed and mailed in England or America, to
persons who thus evade the ocean postage entirely.

4. In consequence of the present shilling rate, it is common, as
it is legal, for persons to enclose several communications,
addressed to different parties, under one envelope, which, on
reaching A