There are many who would recoil from the thought of robbing a letter of its pecuniary contents, but feel no compunction at violating its secrecy for the sake of indulging an idle or a malicious inquisitiveness, if the commission of the deed can be concealed. This may not be called a common evil, and yet it exists; and it is one against which Acts of Congress have been levelled almost in vain, for there is perhaps hardly any portion of the laws of that body relative to the protection of correspondence, through the mails, about which there is felt so great a degree of security. This violation of the first principles of decency and propriety, not unfrequently leads to results more disastrous than those which are caused even by robbery itself. The person, too, who indulges himself in this disgraceful practice, cannot be sure that he will always keep clear of more serious misdemeanors. He who pries into letters for one purpose, may be led to pry into them for another. When one has become accustomed to tampering with letter seals, he has broken through a powerful restraint to crime, and has laid himself yet more open to the assaults of temptation. Sometimes a state of things exists in a neighborhood which clearly shows that some unauthorized person is acquainted with the contents of many of the letters passing-through the post-office, before the rightful owners have received them. Secrets of the utmost importance are suddenly blazed abroad, and those of less consequence are used to inflict much annoyance upon the persons whom they concern. Those in charge of the post-office become the objects of suspicion, and the inhabitants of the infected district, if they are unable to obtain positive proof of unlawful meddling with their correspondence, at least show, by their endeavors to prevent their letters from going through the dangerous channel, that they have lost their confidence in the integrity of the post master, or of his assistants. For instance,--Farmer Haycroft's daughter had settled the preliminaries of a treaty of the most tender description with a young gentleman of a neighboring city, though without the knowledge and contrary to the wishes of the parental potentates on both sides. Their happiness, it is clear, depended on preserving their secret inviolate. Should it come to the ears of their "potent, grave, and reverend _Seniors_," a storm of wrath might be expected like that which is seen when two clouds, heavily charged, unite in pouring out their burden of lightning, wind, and rain. Therefore, in order to avoid such a consummation, interviews were not risked, as being too hazardous, but a correspondence was carried on under fictitious names.