NEWSPAPERS.
Although we have strict laws upon the subject of trifling with newspapers, our postmasters do not enforce them to the extent they should. The following is a provision of the English law which does not remain, as with us, a “dead letter:”—
“Newspapers are always to be considered of equal importance with letters; and postmasters are forbidden to open them for any other purpose than that required by law, and are also forbidden to lend them to any person.”
(From the “English Postal.”)
“By Weight.—If the weight be exceeded to the smallest extent, even though the balance be merely turned, the book or printed paper becomes liable to a higher postage. To provide, therefore, for errors in scales, &c., it is well to allow a little margin, or to pay the postage of the next greater weight. It should be remembered that a newspaper when wet weighs more than when dry. Forgetfulness on this point sometimes causes groundless complaints about charges for newspapers,—the complainant erroneously supposing, on weighing the newspaper on its arrival, and when it had had time to dry, that he had been overcharged. The foregoing observations apply also to books, &c. sent abroad.
“Information.—No information can be given respecting letters which pass through a post-office, except to the persons to whom they are addressed; and in no other way is official information of a private character allowed to be made public.
“Return Letters.—Postmasters are not allowed to return any letter to the writer, or sender, or to any one else, or to delay forwarding it to its destination according to the address, even though a request to such effect be written thereon; as every letter must be delivered to the person to whom it is directed (and to him alone) at the address it bears.
“Forbidden Articles.—The rule which forbids the transmission through the post of any article likely to injure the contents of the mail-bags or the person of any officer of the post-office is, of course, applicable to the pattern-post; and a packet containing any thing of the kind will be stopped and not sent to its destination.
“Articles such as the following have been occasionally posted as patterns, and have been detained as unfit for the post, viz.,—metal boxes, porcelain and china, fruit, vegetables, bunches of flowers, cuttings of plants, spurs, knives, scissors, needles, pins, pieces of machinery, watch-machinery, sharp-pointed instruments, samples of metals, samples of ore, samples in glass bottles, pieces of glass, acids of various kinds, curry-combs, copper and steel engraving-plates, and confectionery of various kinds.”