Upon looking back to this question as it then stood, I am inclined to think that the early abandonment of this distinction (made for reasons that will appear hereafter) was on several accounts unfortunate; one serious consequence being a great aggravation of the immediate loss to the revenue, but a far more important one its effect in retarding that extension of postal facilities of which I have yet to speak, and which was so important both to public convenience and fiscal recovery. As the additional charge would have repaid the cost of extension, the most ostensible as well as the most valid objection thereto, would have been removed; and that development might have been rapid which was, in fact, lamentably slow. Doubtless the distinction would have been but temporary, save, perhaps, in those remote places where there is now no delivery at all; elsewhere, secondary distribution would have gradually yielded to primary.[115] One important circumstance on which I relied for increase in the number of post letters was the extent to which, under the stimulus of high rates, contraband conveyance was carried. Of this I have already made some little mention, but there was a systematic evasion of the law that far outstripped anything that could be done by merely private hands. I had learnt, for instance, that the carriers plying between Birmingham and the neighbouring towns, to the distance of twelve or thirteen miles, were in the constant habit of conveying letters, which they delivered at one penny each (justifying so far my proposed reduction); and a highly respectable merchant and manufacturer of that town gave it me as his opinion that the number of letters so distributed very greatly exceeded the number distributed in the same district by the Post Office.[116] It was also well known that vast numbers were every day forwarded by carriers and coach proprietors. Of course, discoveries sometimes occurred, and penalties were levied, but the traffic was so openly carried on that the risk could not have been great—an occasional seizure doing little more than show the extent of the practice, which, indeed, was not likely to be suppressed so long as it was sanctioned by the moral sense of the public; in face of which the Post Office itself could not levy its full penalties. Thus, in the year 1833, though one of the fines incurred was as high as £1,000, the highest amount actually paid was only £160.[117] Such a seizure had lately been made, bringing to light in a carrier’s warehouse one bag containing no less than 1,100 letters.[118] Independently, however, of positive evidence, it was clear that “the vast extent to which the trade of the country had increased during the previous twenty years” (viz., those immediately following the close of the great war with France and the second war with the United States) “must have been attended by a proportionate increase in the amount of mercantile correspondence, while the spread of education and increase