Note 145 — APPENDIX, No. 1.

It appears, from the Third Report of the Select Committee on Postage, 1838, page 49, that in the mails despatched from London at that time, the chargeable letters formed only 7 per cent. of the whole weight. An increase in the number of those letters to nine-fold, or by 800 per cent., would therefore advance the total weight of the mails by only 56 per cent., or little more than one-half, even if the average weight of a letter had continued the same. That average has, however, been considerably reduced.