There is, indeed, nothing more remarkable respecting the presentation of any great invention to the public than the fact that the electric telegraph in America was thrown open to the public, in its very inception, at the lowest tariff which has yet, under all the excitement of opposition, been adopted. What was true of Great Britain with respect to tariffs during the early years of the introduction of the telegraph applies, as has been seen, equally to France and the other European states. Every tariff adopted was, to a large extent, prohibitory, and the facts connected with these years utterly falsify the statement that Europe has shown (until within a very few years) anything like the spirit of liberality which private companies in the United States have manifested in this matter. Since these early years no advance was made in our tariffs until the third year of the rebellion, when the depreciation of the currency necessitated the increasing of the salaries of employees from fifty to one hundred per cent, and enhanced the price of material in a corresponding ratio, compelling a considerable increase of the tariff on despatches. Since the war closed, most of the important tariffs have been reduced to their original standard, without any corresponding reduction of the price of material or labor. In contrast with this, we need only to point to the large advance in railway fares and transportation, in the cost of entertainment at hotels, in the prices of daily newspapers, and in that of almost every commodity or service which the people enjoy; and yet the telegraph, like all other enterprises, has been burdened with the same increase in the cost of labor and materials. NO SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE TELEGRAPH AND POSTAL SYSTEMS. The idea which has been repeatedly broached, that the telegraph and postal communication are in the same category, is entirely fallacious. The telegraph does that which the post cannot do, and which, before the telegraph was invented, remained undone. If the public use the telegraph at a cost of 25 cents when they might use the mail at a cost of three cents, it is obvious that the use of the telegraph implies something essentially different from the use of the post. If they use the post, with its tardy departure and delivery, instead of the telegraph with its instant and continuous departure and delivery, it is equally obvious that there is something implied in the use of the post that is not to be obtained by the use of the telegraph. Postal correspondence and telegraph communication are two very distinct things.