Security against fraud generally, it may be pointed out, would be immeasurably increased if the proposed boon were accompanied with the entire abolition of the impressed stamp, the use of which, besides maintaining a constant temptation to dishonesty, demands, on the part of the Post Office and the public, the observance of a highly complicated set of rules, involving so much trouble that they are constantly violated with impunity. This change, however, would have to be accompanied with the issue of a three-halfpenny adhesive stamp[275] (a measure actually contemplated some years ago) to supply the place of the impressed stamp of the same value now used by newspapers which, like the _Times_ or _Illustrated London News_ occasionally range in weight between four and six ounces. The use of the new stamp might very properly be extended to all other printed matter of like weight. Before touching on further possibilities as respects newspapers, I return to the subject of letters, in relation to which much additional improvement is desirable. This might be arranged under the following heads:-- (_a_) Increase in the number of deliveries; at least in the large towns. (_b_) The extension of periodic (not necessarily daily) delivery to every house, however remote, as in France, Prussia, and Switzerland; an improvement important, not only to commercial interests and social intercourse, but to jurisprudence, legislation, and political action. (_c_) The establishment on one or two of the great routes--say after a trial for a short distance--of a mode of conveyance far more rapid than any yet employed, but delayed on account of its great expense, viz., tubular conveyance; by the use of which, in the opinion of the eminent engineers, Mr. C. H. Gregory and Mr. E. A. Cowper (as set forth by them in a report to myself dated October, 1859), a speed of from 120 to 150 miles an hour might be attained, though at a total annual cost (interest of capital inclusive) of about £800 per mile, from which, however, there would be a set-off of probably about two-thirds for present expenses saved. The use of such conveyance so far as Crewe on the one hand and Dover on the other, would bring Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Paris wholly within the reach of the London night mail, at the same time, of course, greatly lessening the effective distance to all places beyond. It would also, for reasons not necessary to be stated here, both facilitate the frequent despatch of mails, and aid greatly in the prompt distribution of newspapers to places directly or indirectly served; would, for instance, make it practicable to place the London morning newspapers on the breakfast tables of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.