Chapter V: Post-Offices—England

The history of the English post-office affords but little interest to the general reader beyond that which its statistics and geographical calculations afford. It is, however, a history that goes hand in hand with its trade and commerce; and whatever improvements have been made upon its past history are owing altogether to the enterprise of those who are identified with those branches of the world’s great business.

It is not the statesman or the politician who originates, but the mechanic, the farmer, and the merchant. The former are the aristocrats of society; the latter, the workers—the very bone and sinew of a government.

It is to the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant that art and science are indebted to their position among the most brilliant things of earth. It is to them that commerce owes wings to fly to the remotest parts of the civilized world, laden with the handiwork of art and the richness of a nation’s growth. Society becomes more dignified, man more ennobled. It is to this power that kings, emperors, and lords owe their positions; for one word from that class will bring the loftiest head to the block, if by word or action the attempt should be made to lessen or destroy that power which elevated him or them to eminence.

The commercial power of England is its rule, and to it that nation owes all its present greatness. The politics of England is its disgrace; its commerce, its honor. The king and Parliament are at the head of the one,—the hewers of wood and drawers of water at that of the other.

We have already alluded to the postal system organized by the Emperor Charlemagne in the year 807. Yet in China posts had existed from the earliest times. These were called _Jambs_, and were established at a distance from each other of twenty-five miles. This mode of conveying letters was by horses; and it is stated by Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, that there were frequently as many as three or four hundred horses in waiting at one of these places. He also states that there were ten thousand stations of this kind in China, some of them affording sumptuous accommodation to travellers. Two hundred thousand horses are said to have been engaged in the service.

Louis XI. first established post-houses in France. Post-horses and stages were first introduced into England in 1483.

The mounted posts in France were stationed at distances of four miles apart, and were required to be ready day and night to carry government messages as rapidly as possible. Private correspondence, however, was carried on very differently. The students of a university in Paris established a postal institution in the eleventh century. A number of pedestrian messengers were employed, who bore letters from its thousands of students to the various countries of Europe from which they came, and brought to them the money they needed for the prosecution of their studies.

The great development of commerce following the Crusades, and the geographical discoveries of the Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards, created a necessity for a more extended business-correspondence about the beginning of the sixteenth century.

In Peru, in 1527, the Spanish invaders found a regular system of posts in operation along the great highway from Quito to Cuzco, and messages as to the progress of the invasion, as well as on other subjects, were forwarded to the Inca by fleet-footed runners, who wound around their waists the _quipu_, a species of sign-writing, by means of knotted cord.

In Sierra Leone they have what is termed the “Kaffir letter-carrier,” who immediately on the arrival of a vessel takes charge of the letters; and, although it should be late at night, he starts on his mission into the settlement, and actually arouses the sleepers with his cry of, “Ah, massa, here de right book come at last!” The Kaffir carries his letters in a split stick, which he thrusts under your very nose as he approaches with his welcome document. He is one of those rare letter-carriers who never tires, nor complains of making too many trips a day.

The regular riding-post system owes its origin to Edward IV. This answered not only the demands of the government, but those of merchants, traders, and others. The former had, however, what were termed “government messengers,” whose business was more particularly to summon the barons, sheriffs, and other officers. Heralds are not to be confounded with these messengers, as they were more identified with the military than with the civil power.

In the reign of Henry I. messengers were first permanently employed by the king

“Messengers he sent throughout England.”

In the reign of King John, messengers were called the “nuncii:” subsequently they became attached to the royal palace, and wore the king’s livery, as in the reign of Henry III. Several private letters are in existence, dating as far back as the reign of Edward II., which bear the appearance of having been carried by the nuncii of that period, with “Haste, poste, haste!” written on the back.

Little or no improvement was made in England in the postal system until about the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Even then it simply corrected some of the abuses of the old system, by establishing what was called “Master of the Postes.”

Some idea may be formed of the limited character of this department of her majesty’s service, when we state that before her death the expenses of the post did not exceed £5000 per annum. Previous to this estimate, however, the expenses were considerably larger, owing to the careless manner, as well as the extravagance, of those having charge of it.

The reign of Elizabeth was more distinguished for its number of great men in the world of letters than for almost any other characteristic feature. The names of these have been handed down to us, identified with literature in all its various branches,—statesmen, warriors, divines, scholars, poets, and philosophers. Among them we find the names of Raleigh, Drake, Coke, Hooker, and others of higher sounding and more frequently quoted,—Shakspeare, Sidney, Bacon, Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher,—men “whose fame has been eternized in her long and lasting scroll, and who by their words and acts were benefactors of their country and ornaments of human nature.”

Although an age of letters, the commercial interest was not neglected. Still, that attention was not paid to the merchant’s demands for new laws and regulations which the increasing business demanded: hence there arose a difficulty in the postal system, which was more immediately identified with their interests.

In the early part of the queen’s reign, disputes were frequent with the foreign merchants resident in London, with regard to the foreign post, which up to this reign they had been allowed to manage among themselves. In 1558, the queen’s council of state issued a proclamation “for the redress of disorders in postes which conveye and bring to and out of the parts beyond the seas, pacquets of letters.”

This system—a system which the very spirit of trade should rise up against—was done away with, and the sole authority was given to the “Master of the Postes,” who, therefore, took charge of the foreign office. The title of his office was changed, in consequence, to that of “Chief Postmaster.” Thomas Randolph was the first Chief Postmaster in England.

It must be borne in mind that during all these periods of English history the “common people” held little or no communication with each other: hence their correspondence was very limited. Few of them could read or write. Palmers, nay, even wandering gipsies, were not unfrequently the “common people’s” post. The former, particularly, were trusted with letters and packets for the “gentry.”

Under the Stuarts a regular system of post was established, the benefits of which were to be shared by all who could find the means. Even then England was behind the other European nations in establishing a public letter-post. Still, it was a vast improvement on those of the preceding reigns.[16]

In 1632, Charles I. approved of William Frizell and Thomas Witherings, to whom the office had been assigned by Lord Stanhope under James I.

These two gentlemen, as the head of the post-department, gave general satisfaction, and tended much to satisfy those who had just reason to complain of the system as heretofore conducted.

1635.—Till this time there had been no certain and constant intercourse between England and Scotland.

Thomas Witherings, his majesty’s Postmaster of England for foreign parts, was now commanded “to settle one or two posts, to run day and night between Edinburg and London; to go thither and come back again in six days; and to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post-town on the same road; and the posts to be placed in several places out of the road, to run and bring and carry out of the said roads the letters as there shall be occasion, and to pay twopence for every single letter under fourscore miles; and if one hundred and forty miles, fourpence; and if above, then sixpence. The like rule the king is pleased to order to be observed to Westchester, Holyhead, and from thence to Ireland; and also to observe the like rule from London to Plymouth, Exeter, and other places in that road; the like from Oxford, Bristol, Colchester, Norwich, and other places. And the king doth command that no other messenger, foot-posts, shall take up, carry, receive, or deliver any letter or letters whatsoever, other than the messengers appointed by the said Thomas Witherings, except common known carriers or particular messengers to be sent on purpose with a letter to a friend.”—_Rushworth_, vol. ii. p. 104.

It will be observed, by those who are acquainted with the business of the postal department, that the above forms the groundwork of that gigantic institution which, linking itself with those of other nations, encircles the whole civilized world.

After undergoing many and various changes, it became, under the Protectorate, a sort of convenience for Cromwell and his council, who, taking advantage of its immense power, made it subservient to the interests of the commonwealth. One of the peculiar features which it assumed under Cromwell’s rule was that “it might be made the agent in discovering and preventing many wicked designs which have been and are daily contrived against the peace and welfare of this commonwealth, the intelligence whereof cannot well be communicated except by letters of escript.”

A system of espionage was thus established which no one having the interest of the nation and people at heart could consistently subscribe to. But Cromwell’s rule was based on fanaticism: hence those leading principles, the result of a long and _religious_ study, and which made up the business character of England before he gained the right to rule, were all swallowed up in the vortex of his own created revolutions.

At the Restoration the system became adapted to the more enlightened intellect of the people, and various changes took place, which gave universal satisfaction. These were made in the reign of Charles II.

Two years before the death of this monarch the first penny post in England was established (1683).

This establishment was originated by one Murray, an upholsterer, and it was afterwards assigned to Mr. William Docwray, whose name long subsequently figured in post-office annals. The penny post was found to be a decided success. No sooner was this fact made apparent, than the Duke of York, on whom and his heirs male in perpetuity the entire revenue of the post-office had been settled by stat. 15 Car. II. c. 14, complained that this post was an infraction of his monopoly.

In 1685, Charles II. died, and, the Duke of York succeeding his brother, the revenues of the post-office reverted to the crown. Throughout the reign of James II. the receipts of the post-office went on increasing, though no great improvements were made in the administration. It was this bigoted king who commenced the practice of granting pensions out of the post-office revenues. The year after he ascended the throne he granted £4700 a year to Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, one of his brother’s many mistresses, to be paid out of the post-office receipts. It is a curious and disgraceful fact that this pension is still paid to the Duke of Grafton as her living representative. The Earl of Rochester was allowed a pension of £4000 a year from the same source. These pensions were paid during the reign of William and Mary, and the following pensions were added:—

Duke of Leeds £3500
Duke of Schomberg 4000
Lord Keeper 2000
William Docwray, 1698 500

Among the post-office pensions granted in subsequent reigns, Queen Anne gave one, in 1707, to the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs of £5000. The heirs of the Duke of Schomberg were paid by the post-office till 1856, when about £20,000 were advanced to redeem a fourth part of the pension, the burden of the remaining part being then transferred to the Consolidated Fund. There was, it must be admitted, some semblance of reason in giving Docwray a pension, for he had claims as founder of the district post or the penny post; but he only held his pension for four years, losing both his emoluments and his office in 1698, when charges of gross mismanagement were brought against him. Some of the charges alleged are curious. It was stated that he stopped “under spetious pretences most parcells that are taken in, which is a great damage to tradesmen, by loosing their customers or spoiling their goods, and many times hazard the life of the patient when physick is sent by a doctor or apothecary.”

Ten years after the removal of Docwray from his office, another rival to the government department sprung up, in the shape of a half-penny post. The scheme, established by a Mr. Povey, never had a fair trial.

The first act for establishing a general post-office in _all_ her majesty’s dominions was the 9th Anne, c. 10. This act, which remained long in force, was the foundation of all subsequent legislation. By its provisions a general post and letter office was established in London for Great Britain, Ireland, North America, the West Indies, or any other of her majesty’s dominions, or any country or kingdom beyond the seas. To this end chief offices were established in Edinburgh, at Dublin, at New York, and in other convenient places in her majesty’s colonies of America and the islands of the West Indies. The whole of these chief offices were to be under the control of an officer to be appointed by the queen by letters patent under the great seal, by the name and style of Her Majesty’s Postmaster-General. The improvements introduced by this act increased the importance of the post-office and added to the available revenue of the country. For ten years no further steps were taken to develop the service; but in 1720, Ralph Allen, immortalized by Pope, appeared on the scene, and he was destined to be one of the great improvers of the establishment. Mr. Allen, who at this time was postmaster of Bath, and who from his position was aware of the defects of the system, proposed to the government to establish cross-posts between Exeter and Chester, going by way of Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, thus connecting the west of England with the Lancashire district. The Bath postmaster proposed a complete reconstruction of the cross-post system, guaranteeing improvement to the revenue and increased accommodation to the public. The Lords of the Treasury granted him a lease of the cross-posts for life, his engagement being to bear all the costs of the new service and to pay a fixed rental of £6000 per year. The contract was several times renewed to Allen, the government on each occasion stipulating that the service should be extended. In this wise, in 1764, the period of Allen’s death, it was found that the cross-posts had extended to all parts of the country. Notwithstanding the losses he suffered through the dishonesty of country postmasters, Allen estimated the net profits of his contract at the sum of £10,000 annually: so that at the end of his official life he had made nearly half a million sterling. He bestowed a considerable part of his income in supporting needy men of letters. He was the friend of Fielding, of Pope, and Warburton. Fielding has drawn his character in the person of Allworthy, and Pope has celebrated his benevolence in the well-known lines,—

“Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.”

On Allen’s death the cross-posts were brought under the control of the postmaster-general, and the success of the amalgamation was so complete that at the end of the first year profits to the amount of £20,000 were handed over to the crown. In subsequent years the proceeds continued to increase still more rapidly, so that when the by-letter office was abolished in 1799 they had reached the sum of £200,000 per annum.

In the time of George I. the whole London post-office establishment, which at present numbers several thousand officers of different grades, was worked, without counting letter-carriers, by a staff of thirty-two persons only.

The treasury warrants—warrants directed to the masters of packet service, towards 1701—franked, as Mr. Lewins observes, the strangest commodities. Among others, fifteen couple of hounds going to the King of the Romans, two maid-servants going as laundresses to my lord ambassador Methuen, Doctor Chrichton, carrying with him a case and divers necessaries, two bales of stockings for the use of the ambassador to the court of Portugal, and four flitches of bacon for Mr. Pennington, of Rotterdam. Nor were these the only abuses. So little precaution was used in the reigns of George I. and George II. that thousands of letters passed through the post-office with the forged signatures of members. Even in the early part of the reign of George III. it was related, in the investigation of 1763, that one man had in the course of five months counterfeited one thousand two hundred dozens of franks of different members of Parliament. In the year 1763 the worth of franked correspondence passing through the post-office was estimated at £170,000. In 1764, when George III. had been four years on the throne, it was enacted that no letter should pass franked through the post-office unless the whole address was in the M. P.’s handwriting with his signature attached. In 1784, frauds still continuing, it was ordered that franks should be dated, the month should be given in full, such letters to be put into the post on the day they were dated. From 1784 to the date of the penny postage, no further regulations were made as to the franked correspondence, the estimated value of which during these years was £80,000 annually.

It was fifteen years after the death of the kindly and benevolent Allen, the postmaster of Bath, that John Palmer, also of Bath, and one of the greatest of post-office reformers, rose into notice. Originally a brewer, Mr. Palmer was in 1784 the manager of the Bath and Bristol theatres. Having frequently to correspond with and travel to London, Mr. Palmer found that letters which left Bath on the Monday night were not delivered in London until the Wednesday afternoon or night, but that the stage-coach which left through the day on Monday arrived in London on the following morning. He pointed out to the authorities that commercial men and tradesmen, for safety and speed, sent their correspondence as parcels, robberies from carelessness and incompetence of post-office servants being then frequent. Mr. Palmer was ready with remedies for these countless defects. In 1783 he submitted his scheme to Mr. Pitt, who lent a ready ear. The officials, however, were first to be consulted; and they, as is their wont, made many and sweeping objections to changes which they represented not only to be impracticable and impossible, but dangerous to commerce and the revenue. Mr. Pitt, however, as Mr. M. D. Hill says in an article on the post-office, inherited his great father’s contempt for impossibilities. He saw that Mr. Palmer’s scheme would be as profitable as it was practicable, and he resolved that it should be adopted.

Mr. Palmer was installed at the post-office on the day of the change, under the title of Controller-General. It was arranged that his salary should be £1500 a year, together with a commission of two and a half per cent. upon any excess of revenue over £240,000. The rates of postage were now slightly raised; but, notwithstanding, the number of letters began most perceptibly to increase. Several of the principal towns, and notably Liverpool and York, petitioned the treasury for the new mail-coaches. But, though manifest success attended the introduction of the Palmer scheme, yet the authorities were determinedly opposed to the reformer, and he had to contend with them single-handed. In 1792, when his plans had been about eight years in operation and were beginning to exhibit elements of success, it was deemed desirable that Palmer should surrender his appointment. In consideration, however, of his valuable services, a pension of £3000 per annum was granted to him; but this sum fell far short of the emoluments which had been promised to him, and he memorialized the government, but without success. He protested against this treatment, and his son, General Palmer, member for Bath, frequently urged his father’s claims before Parliament; but it was not until 1813, after a struggle of twenty years, that the House of Commons voted him a grant of £50,000. This great benefactor of his country died in 1818. In the first year of the introduction of his plans, the net revenue of the post-office was about £250,000. Twenty years afterwards, the proceeds had increased sixfold, to no less a sum than a million and a half,—an increase doubtless partly attributable to the increase of population, but mainly to the punctuality and security of the new arrangements. Mails not only travelled quicker, but Mr. Palmer augmented their number between the largest towns: three hundred and eighty towns, which had in the olden time but three deliveries a week, had in 1797 a daily delivery. The Edinburgh coach required less time by sixty hours to travel from London; and there was a corresponding reduction between towns at shorter distances. For many years after their introduction, not a single attempt was made to rob Palmer’s mail-coaches, which were efficiently guarded.

In 1836 there were fifty four-horse mails in England, whereas forty years before there was not a third of the number. We remember the annual procession of the mail-coaches on the king’s birthday,—a gay spectacle, which Mr. Lewins is not old enough to remember. Coachmen and guards on that occasion donned a new red livery, and all the coachmen and most of the guards wore bouquets in their button-holes. In the year 1814 the business of the post-office had increased so greatly that better accommodation was sought than was afforded by the office then in Lombard Street. The first general post-office, opened in Cloak Lane, was removed from thence to the Black Swan, in Bishopsgate Street. After the fire of 1666 a general post-office was opened in Covent Garden; but it was soon removed to Lombard Street. In 1825 the government acquiesced in the views of the great majority of London residents, and St. Martin’s-le-Grand was chosen for the site of a new building, to be erected from the designs of Sir R. Smirke.

It was opened for business in September, 1829. From the date of the opening, improvements ceased to be pertinaciously resisted. It was not, however, till the late Duke of Richmond became the postmaster-general, in the ministry of the late Earl Grey, in 1830, that improvements were earnestly forwarded by the head of the department. The duke, a highly public-spirited and patriotic man, was indefatigable in the service of the department over which he was placed from 1830 to 1834. At first his grace refused to accept any remuneration for his services; but at length, in compliance with the strong representations of the treasury lords as to the objectionable nature of gratuitous services, “which must involve in many cases the sacrifice of private fortune to official station,” he consented to draw his salary from the date of the treasury minute already referred to. In 1834, Lord Grey’s postmaster-general submitted a list of improvements to the treasury lords, in which at least thirty substantial measures of reform were proposed. It was under this functionary that amalgamation of the Irish and Scotch offices with the English took place.

The railway for the first few years of its existence exerted but little influence on post-office arrangements. On the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line, however, in 1830, the mails of the district were consigned to the new company for transmission. After railways had been in existence seven or eight years, their influence became paramount, and in 1838 and 1839 acts were passed to provide for the conveyance of mails by them.

It was in 1836 that Sir Francis Freeling, who had been secretary to the post-office since 1797, a period of forty years, died. He was an industrious public servant of the old school, strictly performing his duty according to ancient precedent and routine. He was succeeded in his office by Colonel Maberly, the son of a gentleman who, having amassed a considerable fortune by trade, entered Parliament, and ultimately succeeded Perry as the proprietor of the “Morning Chronicle.” Colonel Maberly had been himself in Parliament, and was generally considered a good man of business; but he was an entire stranger to the business of the post-office, and, according to his own evidence before the Select Committee on Postage, was introduced into the office by the treasury for the purpose of carrying into effect the reforms which a commission of inquiry had recommended.

On the fall of Sir R. Peel’s administration, in 1835, the Earl of Lichfield succeeded to the office of postmaster-general under Lord Melbourne. It must be admitted that the new postmaster and secretary introduced many important reforms. The money-order office was transferred from private hands to the general establishment. At this juncture also commenced the system of registering valuable letters, and, at the suggestion of Mr. Rowland Hill, a number of day mails were started for the provinces.

At the close of 1836 the stamp-duty on newspapers was reduced from 3-1/4_d._ to 1_d._,—a reduction which led to an enormous increase in the newspapers passing through the post-office.

But, though these improvements were in themselves commendable, the authorities still tenaciously clung to the old rates of postage, and refused to listen to any plan for the reduction of postage-rates. Colonel Maberly, the secretary, had no sooner learned the business of his office than he made a proposition to the treasury that the letters should be charged in all cases according to the exact distance between the places where a letter was posted and delivered, and not according to the full distance. The lords of the treasury promptly refused, to use the language of Mr. Lewins, “this concession.”

In 1837 the average general postage was estimated at 9-1/2_d._ per letter; exclusive of foreign letters, it was still as high as 8-3/4_d._ It is a curious but significant fact that in the reign of Queen Anne the postage of a letter between London and Edinburgh was less than half as much as the amount charged at the accession of Queen Victoria. The fact that the revenue derived from so well-protected a monopoly remained stationary for nearly twenty years may be fairly attributable to these high postage-rates.[17]

Mr. Lewins states that the revenue derived in 1815 from the post-office amounted to a million and a half; while twenty-one years afterwards,—in 1836,—notwithstanding the increase of trade and the diffusion of knowledge, the increase of this sum had only been between three and four thousand pounds. The evil of high rates led not merely to small returns, but to the evasion of postage by illicit means of conveyance, so that some carriers of letters were doing as large a business as the post-office itself.

This will appear evident from the statement that a post-office official seized a parcel containing eleven hundred letters in a single bag in the warehouse of a London carrier. The head of this firm proffered instant payment of £500 if the penalties were not sued for. The postmaster-general accepted the offer, and the letters passed through the post-office on the same night.

So early as 1833, the late Mr. Wallace, M. P. for Greenock, drew the attention of the House of Commons to the numerous abuses in the post-office. There can be no question that his frequent motions and speeches directed public attention specifically to the subject and incalculably advanced the cause of reform. Mr. Wallace was not aided by the government or by the aristocracy or higher professional classes; but he derived much active support from the mercantile and manufacturing community, and from the shopkeepers in all the great towns of the empire.

It was the ventilation of the subject of the post-office by the member for Greenock that first drew the attention of Mr.—now Sir—Rowland Hill, to the subject. The son of a country schoolmaster, Mr. Hill had for a long time acted as usher at his father’s establishment at Birmingham. Being of an active and energetic disposition, he left the paternal roof for the metropolis, and was in 1833, when he was about thirty-eight years of age, secretary to the commissioners for the colonization of South Australia. Here he exhibited powers of organization, and we have from his own pen a statement that he read very carefully all the reports on post-office subjects. He put himself into communication with Mr. Wallace, M. P., who afforded him much assistance. He also corresponded with Lord Lichfield, then postmaster-general, who imparted to him the official information he sought. In January, 1837, Mr. Hill published the results of his investigations and embodied his schemes in a pamphlet entitled “Post-Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability.” The pamphlet created a sensation in the mercantile world. It was well noticed in the “Spectator” and “Morning Chronicle,” to both of which journals Mr. Hill’s elder brother Matthew, now a commissioner of bankruptcy at Bristol, contributed. Mr. Rowland Hill contended that the post-office was not making progress like other great national interests,—that its revenue had diminished instead of increased, though the population had augmented six millions and trade and commerce had proportionally increased. From data in his possession Mr. Hill pretty accurately proved that the primary distribution, as he called the cost of receiving and delivering the letters, and also the cost of transit, took two-thirds of the total cost of the management of the post-office. Out of the total postal expenditure of £700,000, Mr. Hill calculated that the amount which had to do with the distance letters travelled amounted to £144,000. From calculations which he then made, he arrived at the conclusion that the average cost of conveying each letter was less than the one-tenth of a penny. By this process he deduced the conclusion that postage ought to be uniform. The propriety of a uniform rate was further demonstrated by the fact that under the old system the cost of transmission was not always dependent on distance. The case was made still plainer by these facts. An Edinburgh letter, costing the post-office an infinitesimal fraction of a farthing, was charged 1_s._ 1-1/2_d._, while a letter for Louth, in Lincolnshire, costing the post-office fifty times as much, was charged 10_d._

Mr. Hill’s four proposals were:—1st, a large diminution in the rates of postage, even to 1_d._ in a half-ounce letter; 2d, increased speed in the delivery of letters; 3d, more frequent opportunity for the despatch of letters; 4th, simplification and economy in the management of the post-office, the rate of postage being uniform.

In February, 1838, Mr. Wallace moved for a select committee of the Commons to investigate Mr. Hill’s proposals; but the government resisted the measure. Lord Lichfield, the postmaster-general, described it as a wild, visionary, and extravagant scheme. The public at large were greatly dissatisfied. Some of the most influential men in the city of London established a committee for the purpose of distributing information on the subject by means of pamphlets and papers and for the general purposes of the agitation. A month or two after Mr. Wallace’s motion, Mr. Baring, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed a committee to inquire into the present rates of charging postage, with a view to such reduction as may be made without injury to the revenue, and for them to examine into the mode of collecting and charging postage recommended by Mr. Rowland Hill. The committee sat sixty-three days, concluding their deliberations in August, 1838. They examined the principal officers of the post-office, and eighty-three independent witnesses.

In opposition to the views of official men, Mr. Hill held that a fivefold increase in the number of letters would suffice to preserve the existing revenue, and he predicted that the increase would soon be reached. He showed that the stage-coaches then in existence could carry twenty-seven times the number of letters they had ever yet done. The post-office authorities traversed every statement of Mr. Hill and his supporters, and Colonel Maberly expressed an opinion that if the postage were reduced to one penny the revenue would not recover itself for forty or fifty years. But, notwithstanding the opposition of the post-office authorities, the committee reported for a reduction of the rates, for the more frequent despatch of letters, and for additional deliveries, adding that the extension of railways made these changes urgently necessary. They further urged that the principle of a low uniform rate was just, and that when combined with prepayment it would be convenient and satisfactory.

The commissioners, consisting of Lord Seymour, Lord Duncannon, and Mr. Labouchere, proposed that any letter not exceeding half an ounce should be conveyed free within the metropolis, and the district to which the town and country deliveries extend, if enclosed in an envelope bearing a penny stamp.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer had the plan of a uniform rate of postage embodied in a bill, which passed in the session of 1839. This act, approved by a majority of one hundred and two members, conferred temporarily the necessary power on the lords of the treasury. On the 12th of November, 1839, their lordships issued a minute reducing the postage of all inland letters to the uniform rate of 4_d._ The country was greatly dissatisfied. It required Mr. Hill’s plan; and the fourpenny rate was in no respect his. The treasury lords were at length convinced they had made a mistake, and on the 10th of January, 1840, another minute was issued, ordering the adoption of a uniform penny rate. On the 10th of August the treasury had its minute confirmed by the statute 3 & 4 Vict. c. 96. A treasury appointment was given to Mr. Hill, to enable him to assist in carrying out the penny postage. He only, however, held the appointment for about two years; for when the conservative party came into power the originator of the penny postage lost his situation. Mr. Hill entreated to be allowed to remain at any sacrifice to himself, but Sir R. Peel was obdurate.

Mr. Hill’s popularity increased with his dismissal. A public subscription was opened for him throughout the country, as an expression of national gratitude, which amounted to over £13,000. On the restoration of the whigs to power, in 1846, he was placed in St. Martin’s-le-Grand as secretary to the postmaster-general. In 1854, on Colonel Maberly’s removal to the audit-office, he was named secretary to the post-office under the late Lord Canning,—the highest appointment in the department. In 1860 the secretary of the post-office was made a Knight Commander of the Bath. During the autumn of 1863 his health began to fail him, and in March of the present year (1865) he resigned his situation. The executive government showed a just and liberal sense of Sir Rowland Hill’s merits. By a treasury minute of the 11th of March, 1864, advantage was taken by the government of the special clause in the Superannuation Act relating to extraordinary services, to grant him a pension of three times the usual retiring allowance. This was not merely a just but a generous act; and the language in which the resolution was couched was not official, nor solemnly and decorously dull, as is usual on such occasions, but encomiastic in the highest degree. Sir Rowland Hill was pronounced not merely a meritorious public servant, but a “benefactor of his race.” We do not say this eulogistic epithet was not deserved, for we think it was well merited; but we may be permitted to remark that Sir Rowland Hill has lived in a felicitous time, thus promptly to find his merits officially recognized on retiring from his labors.

Harvey, Jenner, Palmer of Bath, of whom we have antecedently spoken, and scores of other discoverers and philanthropists, were less fortunate than the late post-office secretary. Sir Rowland Hill was not only allowed to retire on his full salary of £2000 per annum, but Lord Palmerston gave notice that the pension should be continued to Lady Hill in the event of her ladyship surviving her husband.[18] Since this notice was given by the premier, an influential deputation of the house waited on the first minister of the crown, strongly urging that, in place of the deferred pension to Lady Hill, a Parliamentary grant, sufficient, though reasonable, should be made at once to the late secretary.

We do not say that the social, moral, and commercial results of the famous penny postage have not been singularly wondrous and beneficial, and that Mr. Hill does not deserve all that has been done for him by ministers, by his private friends and admirers, by the commercial and manufacturing community, and by the public at large. We think the late post-office secretary fully deserves every farthing that has been paid or that may be hereafter paid to him, whether as an annuity or a gratuity; we think he deserves the order of K.C.B., which he obtained, and, further, that he deserves to have his merits and his name commemorated by a statue intended to be erected at Birmingham in his honor. But how few are there in this world of ours who obtain a tithe of their deserts! Neither Harvey, Jenner, Newton, nor Locke was properly rewarded by his country. Newton, indeed, passed many years of his life in straitened circumstances, and never had any employment which produced him more than from £1200 to £1500 per annum, while Locke’s commissionership of appeals gave him only the miserable pittance of £200 a year. It is the good fortune of Sir Rowland Hill to have flourished in more liberal times, when merit is fittingly acknowledged and rewarded.

The discovery of Sir Rowland Hill was not a brilliant and wonderful so much as a useful discovery, and there can be no doubt that he worked out all the details with a patience, a perseverance, and a judgment sure and unerring. When the system of penny postage had been in operation two years, it was found that the success of the scheme had surpassed the most sanguine expectations. It almost entirely prevented breaches of the law and that illicit correspondence by which the revenue had long been defrauded. Commercial transactions as to very small amounts were chiefly managed through the post: small money-orders were constantly transmitted from town to town and from village to village, the business of the money-order office having increased twentyfold. No men are more indebted to the system of the penny post than literary men, publishers, and printers,—manuscripts and proof-sheets now passing to and fro from one end of the kingdom to the other with care, cheapness, and celerity. Common carriers, too, are greatly benefited by the penny postage. Pickford & Co. now despatch by post more than ten times the number of letters they despatched in 1839. Mr. Charles Knight, the London publisher, stated that the penny postage stimulated every branch of his trade, and brought the country booksellers into daily communication with the London houses. Mr. Bagster, the publisher of the Polyglot Bible in twenty-four languages, stated to Mr. Hill that the revision which he was just giving to his work would on the old system have cost him £1500 in postage alone, and that the Bible could not be printed but for the penny post. One of the principal advocates for the repeal of the Corn Laws stated that the objects of the league were achieved two years earlier than otherwise, owing to the introduction of cheap postage. Conductors of schools and educational establishments stated how people were learning everywhere to write for the first time, in order to enjoy the benefits of a free correspondence. In all the large towns, too, it was remarked that night-classes were springing up for teaching writing to adults. As the system made progress with the public, Mr. Hill’s recommendations and improvements extended and expanded. A cheap registration started into existence, simplification was introduced in the mode of sorting letters, slits were suggested in the doors of houses, restriction as to the weight of parcels was removed, and a book-rate was established. It was also suggested that railway stations should have post-offices connected with them, and that sorting should be done in the train and in the packets. The union of the two corps of general and district letter-carriers, the establishment of district offices, and an hourly delivery instead of every two hours, were also suggested by Mr. Hill, and, after being strenuously combated by the authorities, carried by the indefatigable secretary.

The amalgamation of the general post and what were called the London district carriers did not take place till 1855, when the Duke of Argyll was postmaster-general. For this amalgamation Mr. Hill had been striving from the commencement. It avoided the waste of time, trouble, and expense consequent on two bodies of men—the one being paid at a much higher rate of wages—going over the same ground.

A more important step than this was the division of London into ten districts. Under the new arrangement, instead of district letters being carried from the receiving houses to the chief office in St. Martin’s-le-Grand, to be there sorted and redistributed, they were sorted and distributed at the district office according to their address. An important part of the new scheme was that London should be considered in the principal post-offices as ten different towns, each with its own centre of operations, and that the letters should be assorted and despatched on this principle. A new and special service was brought into operation between England and Ireland on the 1st of October, 1860. Night and day mail-trains have from that date been run from Euston Square to Holyhead, and special steamers have been employed at an enormous expense to cross the channel. Letter-sorting is now carried on not only in the trains but on board the packets, nearly all the post-office work for immediate delivery being accomplished between London and Dublin and Dublin and London respectively.[19]

The first letter penny post was established in Edinburgh by one Peter Williamson, a native of Aberdeen. He kept a coffee-shop in the Parliament House, and as he was frequently employed, by gentlemen attending the courts, in sending letters to different parts of the city, and as he had doubtless heard something of the English penny post, he began a regular post with hourly deliveries, and established agents at different parts of the city to collect.

_SUMMARY._

Posts for letters, mode of carrying, invented in Paris, 1470; post-horses by stages, 1483. Louis XI. first established them in France. In England, 1581; Germany, 1641; in the Turkish dominions, 1740. Offices erected, 1643, and in 1657; made general in England, 1656; in Scotland, 1695; as at present formed, 12 Charles II., December 27, 1660. Penny posts began in London, 1681; taken in hand by the government, 1711; the penny post made twopence, 1801. Mails first conveyed by coaches, August 2, 1784; the first mail by railway, November 11, 1830, between Manchester and Liverpool.

The mail first began to be conveyed by coaches, on Palmer’s plan, August 2, 1785.*

Posting and post-chaises invented in France.

Post-chaise tax imposed, 1779; altered, 1780.

_LONDON DISTRICTS._

The postal districts of London are so arranged as to render favorable not only the facilities for delivering letters, but equally so to the carriers. The employees of the London post-office are not overtasked, nor are the carriers compelled as it were to become “beasts of burden.” A want of consideration on the part of officials here for those in their employ is a sad reflection on our republican institutions. Men who exercise a little brief authority imagine themselves for the time-being taskmasters, and those in their employ slaves. Nothing in the world tends more to change a man’s politics than the abuses arising out of the system pursued by men in power towards those in their employ. Thus comparisons are drawn between the two parties, and the course of each is canvassed; and not unfrequently, we regret to say, the Democracy has the advantage. It has always been a principle of the Democratic party to take care of “their men.” It is a fact that under Democratic administration the salaries of the employees in the post-office were thirty-three and one-third per cent more than they receive at present, and that, too, when gold was at par and the rate of living fifty per cent cheaper than it is now. The fact is, there are not ten men in the post-office department whose salaries are adequate to their wants; and to their just demand for an increase of salary they are coolly answered that “if they are not satisfied they can resign, as there are plenty outside willing to take their place.” Is it to be expected that men so treated can consistently admire a system or maintain a principle that strikes at the root of their interest and patriotism? In another part of this work we have alluded to this subject, and referring to it here is simply to contrast a portion of our postal system with that of the English. Let it be distinctly understood that these remarks apply as much to the heads of the postal department at Washington as they do to their officials: the latter simply imitate the actions and carry out the plans of their superiors, and not unfrequently in a manner as insulting as their action and conduct are repulsive. Men in power should be gentlemen; and in selecting their assistants, this natural attribute of the man, refined by education, would exercise its influence in such a manner as to render such selection a very easy matter. But, unfortunately, in many instances such is not the case. The great error committed by the _fortunate candidates_ for office is that of assuming consequence, or, to use a more familiar phrase, “putting on airs:” it is an error that in part arises out of our system of government, and is one that can only be corrected by placing gentlemen in high positions, instead of ignorant, brawling politicians. It is true, our government is not established upon a state religious basis; or, if it were so intended, that corner-stone has been misplaced. Our rulers are generally politicians. To obtain office, corruption not unfrequently takes precedence of religion: hence injustice, wrong, and oppression are the means used to insure success. Examples thus set in high places have been followed through all the departments; peculation in office, fraud in agents, government itself cheated, are all indications of corruption, and are the strongest evidences to be adduced for the increase of crime, the disregard of truth, and the absence of morality among us. Even our clergy display more of the

“animum pictura pascit inani”[20]

than they do of the principle conveyed in this line from Virgil,—

“Animus lucis contemtor.”[21]

The English post-office, to a certain extent, is a political one; but there is one feature in it which differs materially from our own, and it is one that reflects the highest credit on the English government; and that is, a man is not discharged from office simply on political grounds, but is retained as long as he attends to his business and conducts himself properly. The reward of merit and long service is, when incapable of attending to his duties, a pension from his government. With these remarks, elicited by contrasting the two systems, we annex the following synopsis of the London postal arrangements:—

(From the London “Postal Guide” for 1864.)

The London district comprises all places within a circle of twelve miles from the general post-office, including Cheshunt, Hampton, Hampton Court, and Sunbury, and the post towns of Barnet, Waltham Cross, Romford, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, and Hounslow. It is divided into ten postal districts, each of which is treated, in many respects, as a separate post town. The following are the names of the districts, with their abbreviations, viz.:—

Northern N.
Northeastern N.E.
Northwestern N.W.
Southern S.
Southeastern S.E.
Southwestern S.W.
Eastern E.
Eastern Central E.C.
Western W.
Western Central W.C.

By adding the initials of the postal districts to the addresses of letters for London and its neighborhood, the public will much facilitate the arrangements of the post-office.

The district initials for every important street or place are given in the street list.

_TOWN DELIVERIES._

The portion of each district within about three miles of the general post-office is designated the town delivery, and the remainder the suburban delivery.

Within the town limits there are twelve deliveries of letters daily. The first, or general post delivery, including all inland, colonial, and foreign letters arriving in sufficient time, commences about 7.30 A.M., and is generally completed throughout London by nine o’clock, except on Mondays, or on other days when there are large arrivals of letters from abroad.

The second delivery, which commences about nine A.M., includes the correspondence received by the night mails from Ireland and France, and letters from the provinces and abroad which may arrive too late for the first delivery, as well as those posted in the nearer suburbs by 6.30 A.M., as specified in the tables for each district.

The next nine deliveries are made hourly, and include all letters reaching the general post-office or the district offices in time for each despatch.

The last delivery commences about 7.45 P.M.

Each delivery within the town limits occupies about an hour from the time of its commencement, which may be averaged at from forty-five minutes to an hour from the time of despatch from the general post-office, according to the distance from St. Martin’s-le-Grand and the number of letters to be arranged by the letter-carriers for distribution.

The provincial day mails are due at various times, and the letters are included in the next delivery after their arrival in London. The day mails from Ireland, France, and the continent generally, and the letters received from Brighton and other towns which have a late afternoon communication with London, are delivered the same evening in London and the suburbs within the six-mile circle.

The suburban deliveries are regulated in a similar manner, with this difference, however, that in some of the less-thickly inhabited portions the deliveries are necessarily fewer.

_THE POSTE RESTANTE._

There is more attention paid in England to this letter or paper inscription than there is with us. The “Poste Restante” being intended solely for the accommodation of strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in London, letters for residence in London _must not be addressed_ “Post-Office till called for.” Letters addressed to “initials” or “fictitious names” cannot be received at the “Poste Restante.” If so addressed, they are returned to the writers.

With us, little or no attention is paid to this important postal matter: hence, a letter addressed simply to “John Smith, Philadelphia,” without the word “Transient,” “or Poste Restante,” must necessarily take its winding way through all the phases of postal travel until it reaches the dead-letter office. We make another extract from the English “Postal Guide:”—

“Letters for strangers are delivered from the Poste Restante for a period of two months; after which period they must have them addressed to their place of residence, in order that they may be sent by the letter-carriers. Letters for known residents in London, addressed to the ‘Poste Restante,’ are retained for one week only.

“Letters addressed ‘Post-Office, London,’ or ‘Poste Restante, London,’ are delivered only at the Poste Restante office, on the south side of the hall of the general post-office, St. Martin’s -le-Grand; and at this office also, and there only, are delivered letters addressed to the district or branch offices in London. The hours of delivery are between nine and five.

“All persons applying for letters at the Poste Restante must be prepared to give the necessary particulars to the clerk on duty, in order to prevent mistakes, and to insure the delivery of the letters to the persons to whom they properly belong.”

The establishment of a “Poste Restante” on this principle would be an important feature in our post-office, and would save both trouble and expense.