Following, however, another line of argument, let us again assume for a moment that all the book packets conveyed by Post have been abstracted from the companies’ vans. It can on the other hand, be shown, that the imposition of a postal charge on Parliamentary proceedings,—the limitation as to size of packets passing through the Post,—and lastly (the most important alteration of all), the abolition of the compulsory newspaper stamp,—are changes, the combined operation of which must have been to give to the companies a far greater weight of parcel traffic than the weight of the whole of the book packets passing through Post Office. It has been ascertained, with regard to the night mails from London, by which by far the largest proportion of books is conveyed, that the reduction in the number and total weight of newspapers conveyed by these mails since the alteration in the Newspaper Stamp Act is more than six times the total number and weight of all the book parcels. To show the extent to which weight has thus been abstracted from the mails, I may mention that the number of carriage-loads of bags sent from the General Post Office to the Euston Square Station on Friday nights, has, since the recent Newspaper Stamp Act took effect, been five less than previously; and that the average nightly reduction of weight of newspapers despatched from London is upwards of two tons and a half. At the same time it is beyond doubt that the effect of the Act in question has been largely to increase the newspaper circulation of the kingdom, and consequently to add still further to the earnings of the railway companies. If, as Mr. Stephenson states, uncertainty, irregularity, and delay are observable in the service at the Post Office, they result to a great extent from the irregularity which often occurs in the working of the mail trains by the companies, and not from any difficulties experienced at the Post Office in dealing with its vastly and rapidly increasing business.