The celebrated Dr. Dionysius Lardner, who then occupied a prominent place among men of letters in Great Britain, testified before the parliamentary committee in 1838, that he was in the practice of sending and receiving about five thousand letters a year, of which he got four-fifths without postage—chiefly by franks. While he lived in Ireland, his correspondence was so heavy, not only as to the number of letters, but their bulk and weight, that he was obliged to apply to the Postmaster-General of Ireland, Lord Rosse, who allowed them to go under his franks. From the year 1823, or soon after he quitted the university, until the year 1828, his letters went and came under the frank of Lord Rosse, who had the power of franking to any weight. Since he came to England, his facilities of getting franks were very great. Without such means, he would have found it very difficult indeed to send his letters by post. His heavy correspondence was chiefly sent through official persons, who had the power of franking to any weight; and his correspondents knew that they could send their letters under care to these friends; so that he received communications from them in the same way. He endeavored to save as much trouble as he could, by dividing the annoyance among them, and by enclosing a bundle of letters for the same neighborhood under one cover. He said that, to obtain these privileges a man must be connected or known to the aristocratic classes, and that it was certainly unfair, as it gave unfair advantages to those who happened to have friends or connections having that power. His foreign correspondence was carried on through the embassies; and in this way the letters came free. He got his letters from the United States free in that way. Any man who was a Fellow of the Royal Society, or who lived among that class, could avail himself of these means of obtaining scientific communications.
The number of franked letters posted, throughout the kingdom, in two weeks in January, 1838, is stated in the following table.
| Week ending | Country to London. | London to country. | Country to country. | Total |
| 15 January, | 41,196 | 43,345 | 36,361 | 122,902 |
| 29 January, | 46,371 | 51,046 | 37,894 | 135,311 |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | ——— | |
| Total, | 87,567 | 96,391 | 74,255 | 258,213 |
| Proportion, | .339 | .373 | .287 | 1. |
It was stated in the debates, that before the franking privilege was limited, it had been worth, to some great commercial houses, who had a seat in parliament, from £300 to £800 a year; and that after the limitation it was worth to some houses as much as £300 a year. The committee spoke of the use of franks for scientific and business correspondence, as “an exemplification of the irregular means by which a scale of postage, too high for the interests and proper management of the affairs of the country, is forced to give way in particular instances. And like all irregular means, it is of most unfair and partial application; the relief depends, not on any general regulation, known to the public, and according to which relief can be obtained, but upon favor and opportunity; and the consequence is, that while the more pressing suitor obtains the benefit he asks, those of a more forbearing disposition pay the penalty of high postage.” It also keeps out of view of the public, “how much the cost of distribution is exceeded by the charge, and to what extent therefore the postage of letters is taxed” to sustain this official privilege. The committee [pg 032] therefore concluded in their report, that “taking into the account the serious loss to the public revenue, which is caused by the privilege of franking, and the inevitable abuse of that privilege in numerous cases where no public business is concerned, it would be politic in a financial point of view, and agreeable to the public sense of justice, if, on effecting the proposed reduction of the postage rates, the privilege of franking were to be abolished.” Only the post-office department now franks its own official correspondence; petitions to parliament are sent free; and parliamentary documents are charged at one-eighth the rate of letters. Letters to the Queen also go free.
In our own country, the congressional franking privilege has long been a subject of complaint, both by the post-office authorities and the public press. There are many discrepancies in the several returns from which the extent of franking is to be gathered.
From a return made by the Postmaster General to the Senate, Jan. 16, 1844, the whole number of letters passing through the mails in a year is set at 27,073,144, of which the number franked is 2,815,692, which is a small fraction over 10 per cent.
The annual report of the Postmaster-General in 1837, estimates the whole number of letters at 32,360,992, of which 2,100,000, or a little over 6 per cent, were franked.
In February, 1844, the Postmaster-General communicated to Congress a statement of an account kept of the free letters and documents mailed at Washington, during three weeks of the sitting of Congress in 1840, of which the results appear in the following table.
| Week ending | Letters. | Public Doc. | Weight of Doc. |
| May 2, | 13,674 | 96,588 | 8,042 lbs. |
| June 2, | 13,955 | 108,912 | 9,076 |
| July 7, | 14,766 | 186,768 | 15,564 |
| ——— | ——— | ——— | |
| Total, | 42,395 | 392,268 | 32,689 |
| Average, | 14,132 | 140,756 | 10,896 |
| Session 33 weeks, | 466,345 | 4,314,948 | 359,579 |
Whole number of Letters and Documents in a session of thirty-three weeks, 4,781,293.