Since the above date, almost every postmaster-general has alluded to the franking privilege. Mr. Blair, in his report of 1863, says,— “I renew the recommendation made last year, that the franking privilege of postmasters be abolished, except for correspondence between them and other officers of the department upon official business. “It should be abolished also as to the correspondence of all persons addressed to the several departments and executive officers of government, except upon official correspondence addressed by an officer of the government. “Both these privileges, as they now exist, have been much abused, and have no proper place in a correct postal system.” Mr. Blair, however, falls into the same error that many official rulers commit,—that of calculating chances of success, instead of commanding them. In the report alluded to, we find this passage:—that “the postal revenue has nearly equalled the entire expenditures,—the latter amounting to $11,314,206.84, and the former to $11,163,789.59, leaving a deficiency of but $150,417.25. Good reason, therefore, exists for the expectation that within a brief period this important department of the General Government will become self-sustaining.” We do not think so. The postal department is not, nor can it ever be made, a speculative one. It is based on the increase of trade and commerce throughout an extent of country unparalleled in history, as uniting in one system of rule upwards of thirty millions of people. To keep up the routes over such a vast space, connecting State to State, Territory to Territory, passing over lakes, rivers, mountains, even over the land-route to California, through almost impassable sections, contending with difficulties scarcely to be realized in descriptions, the expense is necessarily great. Previous to 1850 many of the routes bordering the Atlantic were for the most part isolated lines, near to which trade and traffic had not approached. The settlement of California, and the opening of a trade which has ultimately proved a second Peru, as regards gold, may be dated as the commencement of a new era in the physical progress of our country. In connecting a line of posts, establishing post-offices, and furnishing modes of conveyance, the question of dollars and cents is but a secondary consideration. The word profit was repudiated, and the sole purpose of the government was to establish the post, no matter at what cost. The time may come when it shall prove self-sustaining, but never if at the expense of the public interest, nor while the franking system exists. We contend that every letter, document, or newspaper, no matter by whom mailed, or how high the functionary, should be prepaid; for men in authority are the servants of the people, and have no more claim upon the _public treasury_ than has the lowest worker in any of the departments. _The postal department, however, in its official correspondence, should be the only exception to the rule._