The actual increase in the weight of the mails has been much less than is generally believed. It is often supposed that, because the whole number of letters has, since the introduction of penny postage, increased six-fold, therefore the whole weight of the mails has also increased six-fold. But when it is recollected that by far the larger portion of the mails has always consisted of newspapers, which were not in any way affected by the scheme of penny postage, it will be obvious that it would require a very large increase in the weight of the small or letter portion of the mails before the total weight would exhibit more than a small per centage of increase.[145] In 1838 the gross weight of the night mails despatched from London in a single evening was about 4 tons 6 cwt. 1 qr. At the present time the total weight of the night mails despatched in a single evening may be stated at about 12 tons 4 cwt. 3 qrs. It will be seen, therefore, that the total increase in the weight has been only 183 per cent., or less than three-fold. Mr. Stephenson correctly states that in 1838 the number of mail coaches leaving London each evening was twenty-eight, giving an average load for each coach of 3 cwt. 9 lbs., supposing the weight to have been equally distributed, which I am far from assuming was the case. Taking the present weight of mails, and assuming that these twenty-eight mail coaches were still running, the average load for each coach would be 8 cwt. 3 qrs. Now a reference to the Third Report of the Select Committee on Postage in 1838, pages 48 and 50, will show that, according to the testimony of the Post Office witnesses[146] (the general tendency of whose views was certainly not at that time favourable to the practicability of penny postage), a weight of bags amounting to 18 cwt., or more than double what the present average load would have been, was sometimes carried on one mail coach, and that a load of 15 cwt., in addition to the usual limited number of passengers and luggage, was by no means too high a maximum to fix for mail coaches generally. Admitting, however, that the weight was not equally distributed over all the mail coaches, and recollecting, at the same time, that this average load of 8 cwt. 3 qrs. would be above the average ordinary load on any other than weekly newspaper nights, when it would no doubt be higher, the inference is still a fair one that the greater part of the mail coaches would have borne the increase of weight without any difficulty, although there can be no doubt that, on some of the lines, additional coaches would have been required for a portion of the distance. But the result which the above calculations justify is a great deal more favourable than is at all necessary for the purpose of disproving Mr. Stephenson’s argument, that the expenses of carrying out penny postage would have been so large as to have entailed a certain loss.