It is curious to observe, by the last paragraph of the above, that the adhesive stamp, now of universal and indeed almost exclusive use, was originally devised as a mere expedient for exceptional cases; the stamped cover, which it has displaced, being the means of payment which was expected to become general. Although I hoped at this time, that in order to relieve the Post Office of all account-keeping, and to prevent all avoidable delay in delivery, prepayment would in the end be made universal, yet, knowing how much better it is to induce than to compel, I proposed that in the outset, at least, the alternative should be allowed; the old rate of twopence or threepence remaining undiminished where payment was deferred.[131]

My first examination being finished, I was informed that Mr. Robert Smith, then head of the Twopenny Post Department, would be called on for his evidence, and that afterwards I should have opportunity of commenting thereon. Knowing that there would be much difference between us, and fearing that reply and rejoinder, if made in the ordinary way, might weary out the Commissioners before they could arrive at any sound conclusion, I ventured to suggest that we should be examined together. I was not aware of any precedent for this course, nor do I know that it has ever been repeated. The plan, however, was adopted by the Commissioners, and with good success. In this manner, statement promptly met counter-statement, and argument counter-argument; so much so, indeed, that the proceeding, as will be seen on reference to the evidence,[132] eventually took the form rather of discussion between Mr. Smith and me than of examination of either; much to the saving of time, and the facilitation of conclusions.

Mr. Wallace also gave earnest evidence in support of my views, and the result was that the Commissioners recommended as immediate measures, by way of experiment, the optional use of stamped penny covers within the London District, increase in the weight allowed in a single packet, and an additional daily delivery; and on the presentation to the House of Commons of an important petition, of which I shall speak hereafter, Lord Duncannon announced that it was the intention of Government to carry so much of the plan into effect.

While I could not but regard this concession as a great triumph, I had nevertheless to guard against a serious danger, the reality of which subsequent events did not fail to demonstrate. Lord Duncannon’s intimation that the contemplated change would be considered as a trial of the general plan, made it necessary to guard against inferences to be drawn from a partial failure, which was but too probable; for where the reduction in postage would be but small, frequent and rapid delivery was my main dependence; and this, in the proposed measure, was to receive scarcely any attention. Now should this be regarded as a trial of my plan, and should its results, in consequence of its incompleteness, fall short of what I held out as likely to follow its complete adoption, there was little chance that either the Post Office, or the Government, or the public, or even the Commissioners, would draw the necessary distinction and attribute the partial failure to its true cause. I therefore felt that I must put the matter in its true light, and that before the trial should begin. I consequently wrote to the Secretary of the Commissioners a letter, in which, while expressing my satisfaction at the intended change, I very distinctly pointed out that it would afford no test of my plan, as this could not be fairly tried unless adopted in its integrity so as to comprehend division into districts with hourly deliveries.[133] This last course, therefore, I again urged on the Commissioners; pointing out that the amount of revenue at stake in so limited a change was but small; that success here would warrant extension of the plan, while failure would set the matter at rest.

I had the satisfaction to learn that this letter produced its intended effect. After reconsidering the question, the Commissioners, guardedly, but yet distinctly, spoke in favour of complete adoption within the London District;[134] a course, I may observe, which, besides its immediate benefit, would have subjected my plan to a tolerably fair experiment. It is curious to remark that the point on which the Commissioners spoke with most hesitation is one which never presented any real difficulty, viz., the practicability of general prepayment.

It now only remained to see whether the Government would act on the recommendation of its own Commission, which certainly seemed the more probable as all the Commissioners were likewise members of Government. This fair prospect, however, ended in disappointment; nothing whatever was done. My only consolation for the moment was that my plan had escaped an unfair trial.

The rejection of this very moderate and limited improvement made it clear that the only course left was to bring the public voice to bear forcibly on the question. I was, as already implied, very reluctant to take any step to promote such a result; and I had even, in the first edition of my pamphlet, held forth an earnest warning on the subject. I give the passage. Unfortunately for the Government, as well as for myself, it proved prophetic to the letter:—

But could the public voice be drawn forth? Doubtless the proposed reduction of postage would be acceptable enough; but would the measure be regarded as practicable, as capable of adoption without such loss to the revenue as would necessitate the imposition of yet heavier burdens? Could the public be got to take the plan into its serious consideration? Was not a proposal so paradoxical likely to be classed with numberless wild schemes, which had enjoyed a momentary attention only to be thrown aside with scorn? Was not a conclusion, which had startled myself, even when I had arrived at it by laborious investigation, likely to be ridiculed as absurd by those to whom it was presented in the abrupt manner in which it would inevitably reach most minds? That a large portion of the public would thus deal with it was beyond all doubt; and would there be a yet larger or more influential body to take the opposite course? Even supposing this to be so, would the majority be sufficiently large and influential to carry Parliament with it, to constrain Government, and to overbear the Post Office; which, so far as indications went, seemed likely to put forth all its powers of obstruction?

These questions it was not easy to answer; but repeated success in innovation had inspired confidence. Bold as the attempt appeared, and doubtful as the issue must be, it was advised by my father and brothers, whom I as usual consulted, that trial should be made. Knowing that I should derive from them whatever aid it was in their power to afford, I proceeded to the work, having, however, as yet no more time to employ in it than remained after the full discharge of the duties attaching to my post as Secretary to the South Australian Commission.

As mentioned before, I had already published the pamphlet previously circulated as private and confidential, and it is to this publication that I have already made repeated reference, under the title, “Post Office Reform, Second Edition.”

The appearance of the pamphlet speedily brought in letters from various quarters, amongst others an amusing one from Leigh Hunt, in which he declared that the reasoning of my pamphlet “carries us all along with it as smoothly as wheel on railroad,” and another from a gentleman known to me in relation to Australian affairs, who advised that my pamphlet should be republished in as cheap a form as possible, offering himself to bear half the expense; an offer afterwards repeated by Mr. Cobden. Why these offers were not accepted I cannot now recollect. The same gentleman also informed me of a remarkable instance of exorbitant postage which had come to his knowledge. The captain of a ship arriving at Deal had posted for London a packet weighing thirty-two ounces, which came to the person to whom it was addressed charged with a postage not of five shillings and sixpence, according to the rate proposed by me, but of upwards of six pounds, “being,” as my informant observed, “four times as much as the charge for an inside place by the mail.” So that, had the captain, instead of posting the letter, sent a special messenger with it up to London, allowing him to travel inside both ways, and paying him handsomely for his time, as well as indemnifying him for his travelling expenses, the result would have been a considerable saving.[136]

The following yet stronger case was afterwards thus mentioned in a letter from Sir John Burgoyne to my friend Mr. Moffatt, who obligingly placed the letter in my hands. The name of this gallant veteran I cannot pass over without gratefully mentioning that he was one of those who zealously co-operated in the movement. Even at his present advanced age his interest in postal success remains warm and active.

The following incident I found not less amusing than encouraging:—

Mr. Francis Place, the author of “Principles of Population,” but better known as a leading man on the Liberal side at Westminster elections, having received a copy of my pamphlet, remarked to an inquiring friend that he had not thought it worth perusal, having supposed that it was only some nonsensical scheme for carrying letters all over England for a penny, and being wearied out with wild-goose proposals for all sorts of impracticable measures. Having, however, promised to look at the thing some fine day, he at length, as he afterwards avowed, began the perusal in the confident expectation that he should soon find out “the hitch!” and although as he went on he step by step admitted the soundness of the reasoning, he was still sure that he should find “the hitch” somewhere. In this quest he read on to the end of the book, finishing with the exclamation,—I quote his own words—“I’ll be damned if there is a hitch!”

And here I may mention one member of my family, now no more, who, though unknown save in his own neighbourhood, where, however, he was highly respected, used his industry and his local influence, both great, from first to last, in aid of the cause, viz., my brother-in-law, Mr. Francis Clark, one of the magistrates of Birmingham, but afterwards resident at Adelaide, South Australia.

Some of the journals now began to notice my pamphlet, and within the year the support of the press was almost universal. Amongst all, however, the most earnest was the Spectator, then conducted by my friend, the late Mr. Rintoul, which maintained throughout his editorship, with unflagging earnestness, the able advocacy then begun.

A little later, but still within two months from the appearance of the pamphlet, Mr. Gibbon Wakefield informed me that he and Mr. Rintoul had had a conference with Daniel O’Connell, who not only promised his powerful aid, but even volunteered to move for a committee on the plan. I suppose, however, he must have given way to Mr. Wallace, who, about a week later, viz., on May 9th, made a motion for that purpose, which, nevertheless, he withdrew at the request of Lord John Russell and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who informed the House that the plan was under the consideration of Government. On May 30th Lord Ashburton presented a petition to the House of Lords in its favour—a petition remarkable for the high character or position of those who signed it. On the same evening an identical petition was presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Grote.

All this was very satisfactory; but about a fortnight later, viz., on June 15th, the plan and its supporters had to endure strictures the reverse of complimentary. The Earl of Lichfield, then Postmaster-General, in moving the second reading of a bill relative to Post Office affairs, asserted, in opposition to Lord Ashburton, that the revenue of the department had considerably increased, that it was produced by 170,000,000 of letters annually circulated in England, and that if the reduction in duty for which some individuals called were acceded to, it would require the enormous number of 416,000,000 annually to produce the same amount of revenue.[137] “With respect to the plan set forth by Mr. Hill,” he said, “of all the wild and visionary schemes which he had ever heard or read of, it was the most extraordinary.”[138]

Save the completion of the “Ninth Report of the Commissioners for Post Office Enquiry,” already so often referred to, and the passing of the Act moved by Lord Lichfield, of the value of which I shall speak presently, little of importance occurred during the next two months. Meanwhile I procured an introduction to his lordship, from his brother, the late General Anson, then visiting at the house of my father-in-law, Mr. Pearson; and, being admitted to an interview, obtained, through his means, a certain amount of information from the Post Office, which, though not all that I sought, was yet of considerable use.

On October 19th the matter was brought before the Court of Common Council of the City of London, by the late Mr. Pritchard, then High Bailiff of Southwark, who invited me to attend below the bar, that I might be at hand for reference. While there, Mr. Pritchard having mentioned on my authority, that the conveyance of a mail from London to Edinburgh cost no more than five pounds, a member of the Common Council, perhaps confounding mail with mail-coach, came to me, inquiring whether I had really made such an assertion; and, upon my answering in the affirmative, walked away, with every expression of scorn for a statement so obviously absurd. I need not remind the reader that the amount was afterwards proved by Post Office returns to be less than four pounds. Fortunately the court did not agree with the critic; resolutions being passed in favour of the plan, and a petition for its adoption ordered to be presented to both Houses of Parliament. Towns’ meetings also began to be held in other places, and similar petitions ordered. These events, combined with others previously mentioned, had given me a confidence which, self-reliant as I was prone to be, my own unaided convictions could not have supplied.

Meantime, although my plan was for a time set aside, the various efforts made in relation to the general subject were not altogether without effect; for, in the course of this year, day mails were established on one or two of the principal roads, though with some troublesome restrictions; amongst them, one which now seems incredible, viz., against their use for the despatch of the morning newspapers. Some further reductions were made in foreign postage, though certainly with due caution, as will now be readily acknowledged by any one who learns that by an announcement gravely made, the public were informed that henceforth postage on letters to the Mediterranean would be at the rate of “only ten shillings per ounce.”[139]

The legislative change already referred to as introduced by Lord Lichfield was an important improvement, bringing all the Acts (one hundred and forty-one in number) relative to the Post Office into a single law, possessing the triple advantage of compactness, brevity, and perfect intelligibility.[140] Another Act authorised the Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Lords of the Treasury, to make reductions in postage, both partially and generally; a trust which afterwards proved of no small convenience. Lastly, Government had announced as probable that the postage between towns not more than seven miles apart would be reduced from fourpence to twopence; a change soon afterwards effected.

All these improvements, while more or less beneficial in themselves, had the collateral advantage of paving the way for future changes; and certainly enough remained to be done, as would appear in the most striking manner, were the old state of things to be restored but for a single day, and the public compelled but for once to endure practices which were then regarded as things of course. Many of these have been already adverted to; perhaps one or two more may with propriety be mentioned here.

As the day mails were so few, most of the letters arriving in London by the morning mails on their way to other towns had to lie all day at the General Post Office; so that places corresponding through London, even if very near to one another, were, in postal distance, kept as far asunder as London and Durham; and when a blank post-day intervened, the delay was even more remarkable. Thus, a letter written at Uxbridge after the close of the Post Office on Friday night was not delivered at Gravesend, a distance of less than forty miles, until Tuesday morning.

If two letters were put in the proper district receiving-houses in London between five and six o’clock in the evening, one addressed to Highgate, the other to Wolverhampton (which lies one hundred and twenty miles further on the same road), the Highgate letter was delivered last.

The postage of a letter from Wolverhampton to Brierley Hill, conveyed by a cross-post passing through Dudley, was only one penny; whereas if the letter stopped short at Dudley, thus saving some miles in conveyance, the charge rose to fourpence.

The absurd rule of charging by the number of enclosures, instead of by weight, often caused great irritation, especially when any one of the enclosures was very diminutive. Thus, in an instance reported to me at the time, a certain letter from London to Wolverhampton, which now would be conveyed for one penny, came charged with a postage of two shillings and sixpence, viz., tenpence for the letter, tenpence for a returned bill of exchange enclosed therein, and tenpence for a small scrap of paper attached to this latter at the notary’s office.

On the poorer classes the inconveniences fell with special weight, for as letters almost always arrived unpaid, while the postage was often too heavy to be met at the moment, letters were sometimes withheld for days, or even weeks, until the means of discharge could be raised.

The necessity for ascertaining the number of enclosures compelled the examination of every doubtful letter, by the light of a lamp or candle placed behind it; and this inspection, leading to the discovery of bank-notes, &c., which otherwise might have escaped remark, exposed the clerks to needless temptation, led to many acts of dishonesty, and brought much loss to correspondents.

In addition to the dishonesty thus directly injurious to individuals, there were other frauds which materially affected the revenue. Such was the complication of accounts, that the deputy postmasters could not be held to effectual responsibility as respects the amounts due from them to the General Office; and as many instances of deficit came at times to light, sometimes following each other week after week in the same office, there can be no doubt that the total annual loss must have reached a serious amount.[141]

A third edition of my pamphlet being called for within the year, I took advantage of this, both to notify new facts, and to indicate any further development of my own views.

The net revenue of the Post Office for the year 1836 (unknown at the time of my previous publication) showed some increase, and was expected moreover to be in turn surpassed by that for 1837. This progress was encouraging; for as the recent changes in the Post Office arrangements, though not of a decided character, consisted chiefly in reduced charges and increased facilities, the results were, pro tanto, confirmatory of the soundness of the principles which I had advocated. The augmentation in net revenue, moreover, was the more striking because, by the reduction of the stamp duty on newspapers, these had so increased in number, that their conveyance and distribution, all of course gratuitous, now comprised several additional millions; and because, at the same time, commercial depression had reduced the revenue in every other department.

This last fact could not but be viewed by some as a formidable obstacle to the plan; and though I did not see it in that light, believing that a reduction of postage would give a stimulus to commerce, which would greatly benefit all the other sources of revenue, I suggested that the difficulty could be met by such gradual adoption of the plan as might suit the caution or timidity of the controlling authorities. My recommendations appear in the following extract:—

To give effect to these recommendations, I proposed that, as a first step, the postage between post towns should be immediately reduced by one half; that the charge should depend no longer on the number of enclosures, but on weight; that stamps should serve at first for a very limited range, say for fifteen miles; so that the numerous mistakes expected to occur in their use (of which there was much groundless apprehension) might admit of speedy and easy correction; and, though at that time very desirous of seeing prepayment made universal, because of the complete simplicity which it would introduce into the Post Office accounts, I recommended that an option should be given, by which prepayment should always be lower by one penny than post-payment. Of course in recommending these expedients I did not swerve from my original design; my expressed desire being that these first measures should be gradually extended, as experience warranted, until the whole plan was in operation.[142]

Much anxiety had been expressed, which under present circumstances seems ludicrous enough, as to the means by which the increased number of letters, on which I relied for sustaining the revenue, could be conveyed from town to town. A five-fold increase, it was maintained, would require a five-fold number of mail-coaches; and I was charged with having omitted this material fact in my calculations. Reply was easy, because, first, the existing mail-coaches were by no means fully laden, many of them indeed having very little to carry; and secondly, the chargeable letters formed but an inconsiderable part of the mail; the bulk of which consisted partly of newspapers, and partly of letters and packages sent under franks, insomuch that, startling as this may seem, the chargeable letters then divided among the four-and-twenty mail-coaches which left London every night might, without displacing a single passenger, and without exceeding or even equalling the ordinary load, have been all forwarded by a single coach. In short, instead of being justly exposed to the charge of omission, I had made in my calculations, through excess of caution, more than due allowance for the increased expense, and that by the large amount of £100,000. Fortunately I was able truly to add “that though my plan, with its estimates, had then been before the public for several months, and though both had been submitted not only to the general inquirer, but to the scrutinising examination of those who had most opportunity for acquiring knowledge on the subject, no statement had appeared which invalidated any one of the calculations.” Caution in statement, I may observe, had been strengthened in me by almost all the various trainings through which I had passed. As an instructor, a surveyor, a machinist, an inventor, a responsible secretary to an important enterprise, I had had constant need for its exercise; the more so, perhaps, as I was keenly sensible to the ridicule that follows error, especially in innovators.

To return to my immediate subject. By this time, the result of a reduction of postage made six years before in a large portion of the London district, by the extension of the twopenny range, had been shown to be favourable; a return on the subject having been called for by the Commissioners of Post Office Enquiry. It had been calculated by the Post Office authorities that this reduction would reduce the gross revenue to the extent of £20,000 per annum; whereas at the end of six years the revenue, instead of being a loser, was by £10,000 a gainer.[143] Considerable reductions, also, had recently taken place in the postage of foreign letters; reductions already followed by a great increase in receipts. Neither had any instance occurred, within my knowledge, in which reduction of postage had, after a fair trial, been attended with loss to the revenue.

On the 23rd of November, Parliament having meantime reassembled, Mr. Wallace renewed his motion for a committee on my plan, and though but ten months had elapsed since my first publication, such was already the progress of public opinion that the committee was not only granted, but, as would appear from the silence of “Hansard,” without even a debate. The nomination of its members, which took place four days later, gave the following list:—Mr. Wallace, Mr. Poulett Thomson, Viscount Lowther, Lord Seymour, Mr. Warburton, Sir Thomas Fremantle, Mr. Raikes Currie, Mr. Morgan John O’Connell, Mr. Thornely, Mr. Chalmers, Mr. Pease, Mr. Mahony, Mr. Parker (Sheffield), Mr. George William Wood, Mr. Villiers.[144]

The reference or instruction to the committee was as follows:—

Three members of this committee, viz., Lord Seymour, Mr. Parker, and Mr. Poulett Thomson (afterwards Lord Sydenham)—were also members of Government, and, as I soon found, sat as opponents to the plan.[146] I need not say, however, that the appointment of the committee, whatever adverse elements it might contain, filled me with high expectations; so well assured was I by this time of the soundness of my views, and so confident that they would derive abundant support from the examination to be made, whatever might be the ultimate decision of the committee.

Three days later the Duke of Richmond, who had formerly filled the office of Postmaster-General, in presenting a petition from Elgin, took occasion to recommend at least a considerable reduction of postage rates. Lord Lichfield, in reply, declared that “were the plan [of penny postage] adopted, instead of a million and a half of money being added to the revenue, after the expenditure of the establishment was provided for, he was quite certain that such a loss would be sustained as would compel them to have recourse to Parliament for money to maintain the establishment.”

On the same day (December 15th, 1837), Mr. Hawes having asked in the House of Commons whether Government had decided to give effect to the recommendation of the Commissioners with regard to stamped covers, the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that it was intended to introduce them in the twopenny post department. In thus first mentioning the name of Mr. (afterwards Sir Benjamin) Hawes, I feel bound to add that the interest which he showed thus early in my plan became warmer and warmer as time advanced, and never ceased till his death. The same may be said of Lord Brougham, of Mr. Hume, and yet more emphatically of Mr. Warburton. The real purport of the announcement now made, though it does not clearly appear so in the words quoted, was that the stamped cover should be used within the range of the twopenny and threepenny post, but without any reduction of postage there, so that it would be merely a mode of payment in advance (such payment not being then customary), without any motive to its use. Sir Robert Peel pertinently asked whether the two plans of reducing the postage and using stamped covers could not be combined; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer replied that “they would try the latter experiment first on the twopenny post. If it succeeded they would try it on an extended scale; at the same time he was bound to say that while he did not wish to speak disparagingly of an attempt he was himself about to try, he must add he was not very sanguine as to the result.”[147]

Three days later Lord Brougham, in presenting the petition from the Lord Mayor and Common Council of the City of London, after having given some account of Palmer’s great improvement, and spoken of the opposition which it encountered, of the gloomy predictions made as to its inevitable consequences, and of the grand results obtained by its adoption, proceeded to comment on the intention of Government to deviate so widely from the recommendation of the Commissioners of Post Office Enquiry as to adopt a plan “totally different in its nature, and which might fail over and over again without the possibility of even a Post Office speculator pretending that it was a failure of Mr. Hill’s plan, because it was to be confined to the twopenny post.” Lord Duncannon replied that, “after mature consideration, it was found to be inexpedient to try the experiment of Mr. Hill’s plan to the full extent that had been proposed. The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not intend to carry the suggestions of the Commissioners into effect in the way proposed, but he determined on the issue of penny[148] stamp covers for the short distances, and to reduce the fourpenny post to twopence. He admitted that this could not be considered as a trial of Mr. Hill’s plan, but he thought it the safer course in the first instance.”[149]

The Postmaster-General, after having stated the annual number of chargeable letters passing through the Post Office (previously given by himself as 170,000,000) to be only 42,000,000, charged me with having entirely omitted to provide for the greater bulk of additional letters required by my plan, and alleged that “if the postage charge were generally reduced to a penny per letter, it would require twelve times the present circulation of letters to produce the revenue now derived from the Post Office charges.”[150] He added, “The mails will have to carry twelve times as much in weight, and therefore the charge for transmission, instead of £100,000 as now, must be twelve times that amount.”[151]

The day after this announcement—alarmed at the notion of an experiment whose inevitable failure was sure, in spite of Lord Duncannon’s disclaimer, to be viewed as, so far, a failure of my plan—I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asking whether, before the change was made, I might be afforded an opportunity of stating my views on the subject; at the same time I expressed a hope that as I had in the first instance submitted my plan to Government, had taken pains to secure accuracy in all my statements, and had, while attacking a system, carefully avoided all personalities, I might be considered as entitled to some attention, and even indulgence. The Chancellor politely replied that he should have much pleasure in seeing me, but was unable at present to fix a day for doing so; I cannot find, however, either in my memory or in my memoranda, that this day ever came.

So closed the year 1837, one of the busiest and most important in my life; comprising my first application to Government, the publication and republication and second republication of my pamphlet, my examination before the Commissioners of Post Office Enquiry, my hope founded on their recommendation, its disappointment, my appeal to the public, the appointment of a parliamentary committee, and the earnest and various support which had been accorded.

Considering that less than eighteen months had elapsed from my first earnest attention to the subject, and that I had not only worked with all the difficulties and disadvantages of an outsider, but with the duties of my post as South Australian Secretary pressing heavily upon me, I had every reason to be satisfied with my progress, though I will not undertake to say that I thought so at the time. However, I had full encouragement to proceed, the more so as I could not then foresee that two more years of incessant toil would precede the adoption of my plan—a toil which would have been beyond my strength but for the constant assistance received from the various members of my family.

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CHAPTER III.
PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE.

I opened the year 1838 with a series of letters to Lord Lichfield, which were inserted in all the morning papers. These letters were written in the manner described below; and it may save trouble hereafter to remark that much else which has appeared under my name, together with not a little to be found in my minutes at the Treasury and at the Post Office, was produced in the same way. To me the device and elaboration of plans was incomparably easier than their exposition or advocacy; with my brother Arthur the case was the reverse; and this led me to the frequent employment of his pen. What neither of us could have effected separately, joint action made easy.

Our mode of proceeding was as follows: I having collected and arranged my facts and formed a skeleton of the proposed paper, we sat down together, my brother dictating and I writing, often, however, pausing to bring the language into more exact expression of my thoughts, or to mention, or at times to learn, some new idea that arose as we went on. Occasionally, however, when business pressed we worked apart; but in any case the whole paper so constructed underwent our joint revision, and we sometimes found that the thoughts with which we had started had, in the very attempt to express them, undergone such modification that we rejected all that had been done, and began our task afresh.

The letters to Lord Lichfield were written mainly in reply to his lordship’s speeches in Parliament, from which some passages have already been cited. From these letters I give one or two quotations:—

The following passage from the third letter is in reply to the announcement by Government that the principle of stamped covers would be tried in the London District:—

The following passage is from the last letter:—

About the time that the last of these letters appeared, an important movement, which had been already some weeks in preparation, took definite shape. Mr. Moffatt, afterwards M.P. for Southampton, had proposed to me the establishment of a “Mercantile Committee,” to collect evidence in favour of the plan. His proposal being gladly accepted, he went to work with such earnestness, that I soon found in him one of my most zealous, steady, and efficient supporters. Funds he raised with comparative ease, but the formation of a committee he found more difficult than he had expected. Now, however, February 5th, 1838, he wrote to inform me that he had at length prevailed upon Mr. Bates, of the House of Baring Brothers, to accept the office of chairman; and this point being secured, other good members were easily obtained. As soon as the committee was formed, I was invited to attend, in order to give such information as might seem desirable, and to answer such questions as any of the members might wish to propose.

Mr. Ashurst, father of the [late] solicitor to the Post Office, having been requested to act as solicitor to the committee, went promptly to work; and though by choice he acted gratuitously, he laboured with as much ardour as if important personal interests were involved in the issue. No less earnestness was shown by Mr. Henry Cole,[152] who had been engaged to aid in the work. He was the author of almost innumerable devices, by which, in his indefatigable ingenuity, he contrived to draw public attention to the proposed measure. He once passed through the Post Office, and afterwards exhibited in fac-simile to the public eye (the originals being previously shown in Parliament), two letters, so arranged as to display, in the clearest light, the absurdity of the existing rule of charge. Of these, one nearly as light as a feather, and almost small enough to require a pair of forceps for its handling, quite a letter for Lilliput, but containing an enclosure, bore double postage; while the other, weighing nearly an ounce, eight inches broad, and more than a foot long, when folded a very creditable letter for Brobdingnag, but all written on one sheet, had its postage single.

Meanwhile the Parliamentary Committee, appointed on the motion of Mr. Wallace, began its sittings. Mr. Wallace, being appointed chairman, thenceforth concentrated his indefatigable efforts upon its work; and his labour during the whole session—his duties being by no means confined to the formal sittings—was most severe.

The committee sat no less than sixty-three days. They examined “the Postmaster-General, the secretaries and the solicitors of the three Post Offices of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and other officers of the Post Office department; obtained many important returns from the Post Office, most of which they directed to be prepared expressly for their use; and also examined the chairman, secretary, and solicitor of the Board of Stamps and Taxes, Mr. Rowland Hill, and eighty-three other witnesses, of various occupations, professions, and trades, from various parts of the kingdom; in the selection of which they were much assisted by an association of bankers and merchants in London, formed expressly to aid the committee in the prosecution of their inquiry.”[153] This association was the committee formed by Mr. Moffatt.

The committee wisely directed its attention chiefly to the question of inland postage, which indeed offered abundant matter for investigation.

In speaking of the evidence given before this committee, I follow not the order in which it was given, but the classification observed in the final Report; selecting, as the Report does, only those portions which bear most strongly on the questions to be resolved. My own evidence I shall in the main pass over, seeing that it was in substance almost identical with my pamphlet. My plan of “secondary distribution,”[154] however, I now thought it expedient to abandon, so far as regarded the existing range of post office operations, not from any doubt of its justice or intrinsic advantage, but with a view to simplify the great question before the committee.[155]

One question, of course, related to the varying rates of postage, which any one accustomed to present simplicity would find sufficiently perplexing. In Great Britain (for in Ireland it was somewhat different) the postage on a single letter delivered within eight miles of the office where it was posted was, as a general rule—consequent on a recent reduction—twopence, the lowest rate beyond that limit being fourpence. Beyond fifteen miles it became fivepence; after which it rose a penny at a time, but by irregular augmentation, to one shilling, the charge for three hundred miles; one penny more served for four hundred miles, and thenceforward augmentation went on at the same rate, each additional penny serving for another hundred miles. This plan of charge, with various complications arising out of it, produced remarkable anomalies.

As if this complexity were not quite enough, there was as a general rule an additional charge of a half-penny on a letter crossing the Scotch border; while letters to or from Ireland had to bear, in addition, packet rates, and rates for crossing the bridges over the Conway and the Menai; or, if they took the southern route, a rate chargeable at Milford.[156] Lastly, there was the rule already mentioned, by which a letter with the slightest enclosure incurred double postage, and with two enclosures triple; the postage, however, being regulated by weight whenever this reached an ounce, at which point the charge became quadruple; rising afterwards by a single postage for every additional quarter of an ounce.[157] Surely it is no wonder that Post Office officials, viewing prepayment in connection with such whimsical complexity, and probably thinking the connection indissoluble, should be hopeless of inducing the public to adopt the practice.

A second inquiry, which occupied much attention, referred to the number of chargeable letters then passing annually through the Office. The importance of this question, which no longer appears at first sight, was then so great that it was regarded as one of the main points at issue between the Post Office and myself.

Its importance arose thus. To estimate the increase in correspondence required for my purpose, it was obviously necessary to know the amount of loss per letter involved in the proposed reduction of postage; in other words, the difference between the proposed rate and the average of the rates actually paid, which average had therefore to be arrived at. This I placed at sixpence farthing, the Post Office authorities at a shilling. Actual knowledge, however, did not exist, and each party had resorted to calculation, dividing the gross revenue by the supposed number of letters. That number I then estimated at eighty-eight millions,[158] the Post Office authoritatively declared it to be only forty-two or forty-three millions;[159] hence the difference in our results as to the actual average of postage, and consequently as to the required increase in correspondence, which I fixed at five-and-a-quarter-fold, the Post Office at twelve-fold.

Of course it would have been easy for the Post Office authorities to correct their calculation, before the appointment of the committee, by an actual counting of letters; nor have I ever learned why this corrective was not applied. I had indeed to thank the department for obligingly supplying me with a fact essential to my calculation, viz., the number of letters, general and local, delivered in London in one week; and had this fact been dealt with by the Post Office as I myself dealt with it (a process, however, pronounced incorrect by the office),[160] the same result, or nearly so, must have been arrived at by both parties; but, as already intimated, had the counting process been applied to the whole country, as was afterwards done on the requisition of the committee, the whole question would have been settled at once.

Before my examination, however, I had been enabled, by the civility of the Postmaster-General, to obtain further information, chiefly as to the number of letters delivered and postage collected in Birmingham; and this had led me so far to modify my former estimate, as to reduce it to seventy-nine and a-half, or, in round numbers, to eighty millions.[161] I may here add that yet further information, supplied on the requisition of the committee, enabling me to make yet further correction, I again reduced my estimate to seventy-eight millions.[162] By the same time, the Post Office, having abandoned the statement so confidently put forth, had raised the number to fifty-eight and a-quarter millions,[163] and this, after the counting mentioned above, it again advanced to seventy and a-quarter millions.[164] The committee, after very elaborate calculations made by Mr. Warburton, fixed it at seventy-seven and a-half millions,[165] that is, ten and a-half millions below my first rough estimate, made on very limited information, and thirty-five and a-half millions above the authoritative statement of the Postmaster-General, made with all means of correction at command. The committee’s conclusion as to the number of letters confirmed also my estimate as to the average single postage, viz., sixpence farthing.[166] It seems invidious, but I think it not superfluous, thus distinctly to report the result, since it may serve usefully to show, when other reforms are called for, in this or any other department, that official authority ought not imperiously to bear down conclusions arrived at by earnest, laborious, and careful investigation.

On the question as to the propriety of the existing rates, Colonel Maberly, the Secretary, and other witnesses from the Post Office, nearly all gave it as their opinion that these rates were too high, at once for the general interests of the public and also for those of the revenue. Indeed, Colonel Maberly believed that “every Postmaster-General had [so] thought them for many years.”[167] He did not, however, explain why this opinion, so generally entertained, had been so barren in result; and, indeed, when the Postmaster-General and the Secretary were interrogated by the committee as to any general or even specific abatements they might wish to recommend, no satisfactory reply could be obtained.

The committee received much evidence, both as to the extent to which the law was evaded by the irregular conveyance of letters, and as to the evils produced by suppression of correspondence where circumstances rendered such evasion difficult or impracticable. Thus Mr. Parker and other publishers reported that it was a common practice, in their trade, to write a number of letters for different individuals in the same district, all on one sheet; and that this, on first coming to hand, was cut up into its several parts, each being delivered either by hand or through the local posts.[168] Mr. Dillon, of the firm of Morrison, Dillon, and Co., reported a similar practice, in respect of money payments.[169] By other witnesses it was established that illicit correspondence was “carried on throughout the country, in systematic evasion of the law, if not in open violation of it, to an extent that could hardly have been imagined, and which it would be difficult to calculate;” this occurring “principally in the neighbourhood of large towns, and in populous manufacturing districts;” some carriers making it “their sole business to collect and distribute letters,” which they did “openly, without fear of the consequences; women and children” being “employed to collect the letters.”[170] Throughout one district the practice was “said to be universal, and was known to have been established there for nearly fifty years.”[171] “The average number of letters thus sent daily throughout the year by a house in the neighbourhood of Walsall exceeded fifty, and by that house more than a hundred and twenty had been sent in one day. Not one-fiftieth part of the letters from Walsall to the neighbouring towns was sent by post.”[172]

Mr. Cobden, as yet new to fame, but who had been deputed by the Chamber of Commerce at Manchester to give in evidence the results of its inquiries, reported thus—