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,