It to carry letters more cheaply and punctually _than can be done_ by
private individuals. And the result shows that he was right; for the
contraband carriage of letters is put down. The Companion to the
British Almanac, for 1842, says, "The illicit transmission
of letters, and the evasions practised under the old system
to avoid postage, _have entirely ceased_." All this experience, and all
these sound conclusions, are doubtless
applicable in the United States, with the additional considerations, of
the great extent of country, the limited powers of the government, the
entire absence of an organized police, and the fact that the federal
government is to so great a degree regarded
as a stranger in the States. Shall a surveillance, which the British
government has abandoned as impracticable,
be seriously undertaken at this
day by the congress of the United States? III. _The Postage Law of
1845._ The Postage Act, passed March 3, 1845,
