Chapter XXV: Appendix: C (3)

[234] "The encouragement of a particular business or manufacture in a particular place; the better opposing of the competition of a neighbouring route; tenderness for existing difference in newly acquired districts; the difference in the price of corn in a province, and at an earlier date even of money, weight, length of the miles, as also, in the case of travelling post charges, the season of the year; all these circumstances were often brought into consideration in the fixing of postage rates."--Ibid., p. 296.

[235] The ascertainment of the direct distances was commenced in 1823. It was completed in a year and a half (including two revisions), and a map of distances prepared. There were 1,386,506 distances to measure, and the measuring was done by land surveyors. The distances so measured were tabulated for practical use by postal officials.--H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 746, n. 3; Moch, _Archiv f[:u]r Post und Telegraphie_, 1893, p. 2.

[236] The rates were to be rounded up. One or 2 pfennigs were to be counted as 3 pfennigs, 4 or 5 pfennigs as 6 pfennigs, 7 or 8 pfennigs as 9 pfennigs, and 10 or 11 pfennigs as 1 silver groschen.

[237] H. von Stephan, op. cit., pp. 760 and 761.

[238] This does not take into account the normal yearly increase, which was 120,000 thalers under the old rates. If that be taken into account there was still a loss in 1847. Thus:--

--------+------------------------+---------------+-----------
Year. | Probable Gross Postage | |
| Receipts under Old | Actual Yield. | Loss.
| Rates. | |
--------+------------------------+---------------+-----------
1844 | 4,765,000 | 4,628,133 | 136,867
1845 | 4,885,000 | 4,325,570 | 559,430
1846 | 5,005,000 | 4,514,338 | 490,662
1847 | 5,125,000 | 4,771,392 | 353,608
--------+------------------------+---------------+-----------
--Ibid., p. 762.

[239] Ibid., p. 763.

[240] "Die preussische Postverwaltung war bei Einf[:u]hrung der weitgreifenden Taxerm[:a]ssigungen mit grosser Vorsicht und mit weiser Berechnung aller in Betracht kommenden Vorst[:a]nde schrittweise zu Werke gegangen und hatte die Erleichterungen ohne bedeutende Opfer aus der Postkasse erkauft."--Moch, _Archiv f[:u]r Post und Telegraphie_, 1893, p. 40.

[241] Regulation of 21st December 1800.

[242] Law of 21st March 1861.

[243] Moch, _Archiv f[:u]r Post und Telegraphie_, 1893, p. 42.

[244] Ibid.

[245] Law of 16th September 1862.

[246] Law of 16th February 1867. See _infra_, Appendix, p. 355.

[247] Prussia, Hanover, the two Mecklenburgs, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and the Thurn and Taxis posts.

[248] Moch, _Archiv f[:u]r Post und Telegraphie_, 1893, p. 44.

[249] Law of 28th October 1871.

[250] For 1906 it has been estimated at 41,693,017 M. P. Ullrich, _Die Finanzen der Reichs-Post- und Telegraphenverwaltung_, Stettin, 1913, p. 54, n. 5.

[251] J. Jung, _Entwickelung des deutschen Post- und Telegraphenwesen in den letzten 25 Jahren_, Leipzig, 1893, p. 45.

[252] The following table (J. Jung, loc. cit.) shows the increase in the number of rural deliverers:--

1868 1870 1875 1880 1885 1891
8,021 8,334 11,405 11,480 20,386 25,649

[253] In a number of cases the deliverer was provided with a vehicle for the sake of speed, and worked out from the railway. In 1898 there were 2,365 such services.--_Handw[:o]rterbuch der Staatswissenschaft_, Jena, 1901, p. 137.

[254] "There was a profession of 'news writers,' or correspondents, who collected such scraps of information as they could from various sources, and for a subscription of three or four pounds per annum sent them every post-day to their employers in the country."--A. Andrews, _The History of British Journalism_, London, 1859, vol. i. p. 14.

[255] E.g., "To Mr. Neale, Deale, 27 Nov. 1674.

" ... You should give me a Constant Accompt (as m^r Lodge was wont to doe) of all Newes that happens in your Parts. It is Expected from me at Whitehall, and much wondered at, y^t my officers doe not give me y^e first, and best Accompt of all that Passes, all Newes, Comeing (Probably) first to theire hands. I Pray be Carefull, and punctuall herein hereafter. I shall be ready, in all things (as I have bin) to shew myself

Y^rs, &c."

--Documents from Peover Hall, _British Official Records_.

"The Post Office Packets in those days were carriers of news as well as of the mails. The officers had instructions to record most carefully in their journals full details of any events of public importance occurring in the countries which they visited. These journals, which frequently contained news later and more authentic than any which had yet reached London, were sent up from Falmouth immediately after the arrival of the Packets, and lay at the Post Office open to the inspection of the merchants."--A. H. Norway, _History of the Post Office Packet Service_, London, 1895, p. 37.

"An old instruction was renewed in 1812, that all postmasters should transmit to me (the Secretary), for the information of his Majesty's Postmaster-General, an immediate account of all remarkable occurrences within their districts, that the same may be communicated, if necessary, to his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. This has not been invariably attended to, and I am commanded by his Lordship to say, that henceforward it will be expected of every Deputy."--Cited (without giving source) by J. W. Hyde, _A Hundred Years by Post_, London, 1891, p. 91.

"The mail-coach it was that distributed over the face of the land, like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heartshaking news of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo."--De Quincey, _The English Mail-Coach_.

[256] "As it seems clear that the 'Remonstrance' (_The Remonstrance and Address of the Army_) was framed by Clarges, Henry Muddiman must have settled its wording and final form, as he did that of many other documents.... For this reason, after the Restoration, he became sole privileged journalist of the kingdom, and was granted the privilege of free postage for his letters like the officers of State."--J. B. Williams, _A History of English Journalism_, London, 1908, p. 176.

[257] _Calendar of State Papers, Charles II_, vol. 139, No. 61.

[258] J. B. Williams, _A History of English Journalism_, p. 190.

[259] _Calendar of State Papers_ (_Domestic Series_), 1665-6, p. viii.

[260] "I find that the South Wales maile is much retarded in your Stage; particularly that yo^r riding servant calles at severall places by y^e way; and that you allow him noe other wages, but what hee getts (by a _Gazette_ News-letter, w^ch you give him y^e benefitt of) from severall Gentlemen near y^e Roade, and this hinders y^e due course of the post, not only to y^e Damage and discreditt of y^e office, but to y^e prejudice of publique businesse; it is much complained of and I canot longer dispence with it; wherefore I Give you this freindly admonicon and remaine

Yo^r, etc.

Mr. Davyes, Feb. 8th, 1672."--Documents from Peover Hall, _British Official Records_.

"I am clearly of your opinion, that Hereford and the Hay is y^e best roade for the Pembroke Maile, the onely difficulty will be to bring you and Mr. Phillpotts to reason....

"I pray consider these 2 Points, that y^e Hay being in your Branch will much Encrease your share, and it is easier to send thither than to Abergaveny--if you will joyne Issue in this Proposall I will give y^e Contrey y^e Satisfaction to turne the Roade that Way; and by y^e tyme I have your answer I shall be ready, to give directions for the Change; you must provide a fitt person, to keepe the office at Hay and for his Encouragem^t I will send him a _Gazette_ by every Post, few of y^e By offices expect more, and some make great Suite and would pay money for the Imployment. I pray close w^th me herein, being desirous to Continue--I pray give me your opinion of sending y^e Maile into Wales 3 tymes a weeke, as I doe to all other places.

I am, Y^{rs}, etc.

"Mr. Awbrey, Brecon, 1st April, 1675."--Documents from Peover Hall, _British Official Records_.

[261] H. Joyce, _History of the Post Office_, p. 50.

[262] _Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments_, 1788, p. 28.

"For Post Office purposes the kingdom was divided into six roads--the North Road, the Chester or Holyhead Road, the Western Road, the Kent Road, and the Roads to Bristol and to Yarmouth; and these roads were presided over by a corresponding number of clerks in London, whose duty it was to sort the letters and to tax them with the proper amount of postage."--H. Joyce, ibid., p. 47; cf. _infra_, Appendix B, p. 404.

[263] _Eighteenth Report of Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry_, 1829, Appx., p. 486.

[264] "That the six Clerks of the Road are also allowed to frank newspapers from the London office.

"That the newspapers franked by them are not included in any of the accounts of Deductions in respect of Franks. That the profits arising from their franking newspapers may amount to [L]3,000 or [L]4,000 p. ann., and that a considerable allowance is made thereout to the Comptroller, Deputy-Comptroller, By Night Clerk and six assistants; all of whom as well as the six Clerks of the Roads would without such advantage be very insufficiently provided for."--Evidence of Anthony Todd, Secretary to the Post Office. _Report of Committee appointed to enquire into the several frauds and abuses in relation to the sending or receiving of letters and parcels free from the Duty of Postage_ (_Commons Journal_, March 28, 1764).

"The Profits derived by the Clerks of the Road from the privilege of sending Newspapers into the Country free of Postage, were so considerable that they were not only able to make a good Provision for their Families but also to pay thereout an Annual Sum of [L]1,300 to Officers and Clerks in this Dept. in Aid of their Salaries, which on that Account were proportionately small from the Public; and this Situation of Clerk of the Roads was looked up to as the Reward of their long and arduous Labour in the subordinate Stations of the Office. Twenty years before, of the sum of [L]8,660 paid to the 39 Officers of the Inland Dept., [L]2,060 was paid by the Public and [L]6,600 from the profits on the circulation of newspapers."--_Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments_, 1788, p. 28.

[265] 4 Geo. III, cap. 24.

[266] "The Produce of this Privilege has long been decreasing, and is now reduced to one-third the above sum from the operation of an Act of 1764 by which members of both Houses were empowered to have Newspapers, Votes, and all other printed Parliamentary Papers, sent by post in their Names, free from Postage, upon a written Notice of the Direction of such Papers being sent to the Postmaster-General by the respective Members, whose names were to be used instead of the former Mode of franking Newspapers the same as Letters. The Printers, News Sellers, and others, availing themselves of this Privilege, have obtained numerous Orders, readily granted, under the Persuasion of increasing the Stamp Revenue. The present Number of Orders in the Office is 6,751, and the Number of Newspapers sent weekly by the Post in Consequence thereof is 47,017; these Dealers are enabled to supply their Customers in the Country at a cheaper Rate than the Clerks in the Office can, who are loaded with Out Payments from their Profits, and are obliged to purchase their Papers at an advanced Price from an Officer appointed by the Postmaster-General to supply them."--_Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments_, 1788, p. 29.

[267] A. Andrews, _The History of British Journalism_, London, 1859, vol. i. pp. 210-11.

[268] "The Postmaster-General, sensible of this Diminution, lately directed the Payments thereout to the other Officers and Clerks in the Office to be discontinued, and reimbursed some of them out of the Revenue; but this is not the only Expence to which the Public is subjected by the Increase of these Orders. The Number of Newspapers to be forwarded every Night is now so great, that ... a separate Office is allotted ... and 18 Extra Persons are employed, at an Annual Expence of [L]400, to perform the Duty of sorting and packing up the Newspapers; besides it is in Proof that Letters and written Papers are frequently enclosed in them, by which the Revenue is defrauded, without a Possibility of Prevention, while the present Mode continues; as the number is by far too great to admit of a general Search for Enclosures."--_Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments_, 1788, p. 29.

[269] 6 Geo. IV, cap. 68, [S] 10.

[270] "Was there no way by which, without the necessity of constant contention, private men might be prevented from using the Press to make their opinions public? The pamphleteers were not rich, but they were often persons of education, and not penniless. When only a few copies of their writings were wanted they could pay for them, but now that reading was become more common, and that great numbers of copies were printed, the cost had, to a great extent, to be paid by the readers. If these sheets could be taxed their distribution might become difficult, and when any one attempted to evade the tax he could be punished, not as a libeller, but as a smuggler."--Collet Dobson Collet, _History of the Taxes on Knowledge_, London, 1899, vol. i. p. 7.

[271] _Chambers's Encyclopaedia_, London, 1908, vol. vii. p. 473.

[272] "There was no doubt but that, in the first instance, the stamp duty upon newspapers had been imposed for political purposes."--Attorney-General, 26th March 1855, _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1129.

[273] "Whereas many papers containing observations upon Public Acts tending to excite the hatred of the public to the constitution of this realm, and also vilifying our holy religion, have lately been published in great numbers, and at a very small price, and it is expedient that the same should be restrained."--Preamble of the "Six Acts," 1819.

[274] "Sir Francis Freeling states that he succeeds to the enjoyment of the privilege of franking which had previously appertained to the situation of the Comptroller of the Inland Office, when he held the situation of Principal and Resident Surveyor, and that it was deemed a measure of economy to provide for the remuneration of this officer by these means in lieu of salary."--_Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, Post Office_, 1829, p. 26.

[275] About 12 millions a year. Ibid., p. 464.

[276] H. Joyce, _History of the Post Office_, p. 419.

[277] "These laws (the Six Acts) were specially directed--not against the morning Newspapers, which had been cajoled or frightened into comparative silence, or shared in the then general feeling in favour of a 'strong Government'--but against the Radical writers and speakers, 'Cobbett, Wooler, Watson, Hunt,' as Byron reminds us, all of whom had contributed, by cheap political publications and strong political harangues, to raise a demand for reform, loud enough and daring enough to be most troublesome to the authorities."--F. K. Hunt, _The Fourth Estate_, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 49.

[278] "Newspapers are so cheap in the United States, that the generality even of the lowest order can afford to purchase them. They therefore depend for support on the most ignorant class of the people. Everything they contain must be accommodated to the taste and apprehension of men who labour daily for their bread, and are of course indifferent to refinement either of language or reasoning."--Quoted by Lord Sandon, 20th June 1836; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 649.

[279] The duties on newspapers at that time were (1) the duty on paper, 3d. per pound weight (1/4d. a sheet), (2) a duty of 4d. a copy, (3) a duty of 3s. 6d. on every advertisement.

[280] "The change which had taken place in the political condition of the country made it essential to communicate to the people sound political knowledge and information. He would say that the security of that House, living, as it did, in the affections of the people--of the Government, possessing, as it did, the confidence of the people--and of the Monarchy, reigning, as it did, and as he trusted it ever would, in the hearts of the people, depended upon the diffusion of sound political knowledge."--Chancellor of Exchequer, 20th June 1836; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 634.

[281] "Many of these publications circulated to the amount of several thousand copies weekly; their sale, in several instances, was larger than the sale of some among the most popular legitimate papers; their influence over large bodies of the working classes was much greater."--E. Lytton Bulwer, 14th June 1832; Ibid., vol. xiii. col. 623.

"You have laws imposing severe penalties upon those who are guilty of breaches of these laws; but it has been found impossible to stop the sale of those cheap and obnoxious publications by fiscal laws; and the success with which they are broken, the sympathy excited in favour of the offenders, and the assistance which they receive, only give encouragement to pursue the same course. I have been informed that, within the last fortnight or three weeks, between forty and fifty persons have been taken before the police magistrates, and convicted for selling these publications."--Mr. O'Connell, 14th June 1832; Ibid., vol. xiii. col. 637.

"As long as the Tories were in power Lord Liverpool, or even Canning, could consistently advocate the restriction of political discussion. But the fact that the Whigs had now held office since 1830, and that the tax remained undiminished, was only to be explained by their rooted disbelief in every principle which they professed to hold.

"Year after year Place had brought the question forward. Every year the Chancellor of the Exchequer declared himself in favour of repeal in principle, and every year the Government, for reasons which they dared not avow, continued the tax. Meanwhile the Commissioners of Stamps so used their power of prosecution as to set up a peculiarly odious form of censorship. The _Penny Magazine_, for instance, was allowed to circulate unstamped, while the _Poor Man's Guardian_ was prosecuted."--Graham Wallas, _The Life of Francis Place_, London, 1898, p. 336.

[282] "The market for a Newspaper at twopence appeared to be insatiable, and this ready demand produced an ample supply. In vain the police apprehended hawker after hawker; in vain the Stamp Office gave the informers and detectives additional premiums for vigilance, the trade went on with an exciting degree of activity. As the London gaols became crowded with 'victims,' the public sympathies were touched, and a fund was raised by subscription to support the families of the men and women (for women were seized and imprisoned) whilst under sentence."--F. K. Hunt, _The Fourth Estate_, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 75.

[283] "This tax was a charter to the existing newspapers--it was not they who suffered from it--it was the public--it was the Government--it was order--it was society that suffered."--E. Lytton Bulwer, 22nd May 1834; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxiii. col. 1195. See also _G.J._ Holyoake, _Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life_, London, 1893, vol. i. p. 288.

[284] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 625.

[285] "2755. _Chairman_: That penny which was left when the stamp was reduced, was called by some noble Lord the worst penny of all; and was not it always foreseen by those who looked deeply into the subject, that the retention of that penny just made the difference between not being able to circulate a cheap paper and being able to circulate it?--It makes all the difference, I think."--Evidence of Mr. H. Cole, _Report from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851.

[286] "The penny was avowedly retained in 1836 not for the purposes of revenue but as a compensation to the State for services performed in the transmission of newspapers by post."--Viscount Canning, 24th May 1855; _Parl. Debates_ (_Lords_), vol. cxxxviii. col. 954.

[287] McCulloch has some remarks which indicate the line on which was justified the practice of charging the stamp duty on every copy of a newspaper, in order that a portion of them might be transmitted by post without further charge:--

"_Impolicy of Imposing a Postage on Newspapers._--The duties now substantially repealed produced, in 1853, [L]412,220 nett, no inconsiderable sum in a period of war. In point of fact, however, they could hardly be called duties, and ought rather to have been regarded as a payment for the trouble and expense attending the conveyance and distribution of newspapers by post. But supposing such to be the case, it was argued that the duty should be so limited, that is, that it should only be imposed on papers carried by the post. Matters of this sort are not, however, to be decided by mere logical considerations. The effect of the new plan is to confine, in a greater or less degree, according to circumstances, the circulation of newspapers to the districts within which they are published; and this certainly is not a desirable object.... Under the new plan the charge for conveyance, or it may be postage, being added to the price of the metropolitan journals, they will be dearer than the local papers, and people in many, or rather perhaps in the majority of instances, will be disposed to prefer the low-priced though inferior journal published at their door, to the superior but higher priced journal of the capital.... On the whole, therefore, we anticipate little or no advantage from the new plan. But we are, at the same time, ready to admit that no system of this sort can be safely judged _a priori_; and that the results of experience may differ very widely from those of theory."--J. R. McCulloch, _Commercial Dictionary_, London, 1856, p. 893.

[288] "We are living under a disguised censorship of the Press. I use the word advisedly; and I find that generally where there is an avowed censorship of the Press there are no taxes on knowledge; no stamp duty and generally no paper duty. From the time when the stamp duty was first imposed in the reign of Queen Anne, the number of newspapers has been very much diminished by the stamp. For instance, Steele's _Spectator_ was nearly if not quite ruined by it; and from that time to this the amount of revenue has never been so large as to be a serious subject of consideration."--Evidence of Collet Dobson Collet, _Report from the Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851, p. 113.

[289] Mr. Roebuck, 20th June 1836; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. xxxiv. col. 653.

[290] Treasury Minute, No. 21,355, 28th November 1838: "It appears that these papers, though stamped as newspapers, are not according to Law Newspapers, and consequently need not have been stamped, but that the proprietors have caused them to be stamped for the purpose probably of obtaining the facility of passing them free of postage.

"My Lords consider that all publications which are in the construction of the law newspapers and are compelled to be stamped are in equity entitled to the privilege of passing free of postage, but with respect to publications, which like these now under consideration are not properly newspapers, or necessarily stamped, they are of opinion that they are not in equity entitled to the privilege, and that my Lords must take into consideration the convenience of the public service and the other circumstances of the case. My Lords are desirous of affording every fair facility which may not be inconsistent with the proper despatch of the mails, and in this view they consider that a limit of weight may be properly applied, and adverting to the average weight of a large newspaper, they are of opinion that the limit may be properly fixed at 2 ounces.

"They are pleased therefore to direct that for the future in all cases where applications are made for the transmission of any stamped publication through the post free of postage, if it shall appear that such publication is legally a newspaper and compelled to be stamped such paper shall pass postage free whatever may be its weight, and that when such publication may not appear to be strictly a newspaper, still it should be permitted the indulgence in case the weight shall not exceed 2 ounces."

[291] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1130.

[292] "If a tradesman at the present time carries his circular to the Board of Inland Revenue, he obtains the postal privilege on the condition of his declaring his circular to be a newspaper, although, if the Board of Inland Revenue were afterwards to prosecute him for not stamping his entire impression, he would be entitled to go into a Court of Justice and there to contend that that was not a newspaper which he himself had declared to be a newspaper in order to obtain the postal privilege for part of his impression."--Mr. Gladstone, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 791.

[293] 'The Solicitor of the Board of Inland Revenue, being examined before a Committee upon the subject of class publications, was asked why class publications were not subjected to the compulsory stamp. Inadvertently, instead of saying that they were exempted because they were addressed to a particular class of the community, he said that it was because they related only to one subject. In giving that reason, he made a slight error of statement. That error has now been taken up in different parts of the country, and a number of periodicals have appeared, such as the _War Telegraph_ and the _War Times_, containing intelligence relating exclusively to the war, which they say is 'one subject,' and so saying, set the Board of Inland Revenue at defiance."--Chancellor of the Exchequer, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 804.

[294] "I am quite satisfied, from years of attention to this subject, that there never was so large a measure involved in a small measure, so to speak, as is the case with regard to this proposition for making the Press free. I am willing to rest on the verdict of the future, and I am quite confident that five or six years will show that all the votes of Parliament for educational purposes have been as mere trifles compared with the vast results which will flow from this measure, because, while the existing papers will retain all their powers of usefulness, it will call to their aid numbers of others not less useful, and while we continue to enjoy the advantage of having laid before us each morning a map of the events of the world, the same advantage will be extended to classes of society at present shut out from it."--John Bright, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. cols. 810-11.

[295] "Another objection, and that of a more serious character, has been brought under my notice by various persons, who have described the proposition to repeal the compulsory newspaper stamp as one which would be most dangerous to society. It has been described as a measure which will open the floodgates of sedition and blasphemy, and which will inundate the country with licentious and immoral productions, which will undermine the very foundations of society, and scatter the seeds of revolution broadcast over the land. These expressions are not exaggerated representations of the opinions which have been communicated to me from many quarters since this measure has been under my consideration."--Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 782.

"The Right Hon. Gentleman who has just resumed his seat (Mr. Disraeli) has spoken of the 'liberty of the Press.' That has been long spoken of. It has been said that it must be 'free as the air we breathe; take it away, we die.' But, Sir, what is the 'liberty of the Press'? It is the liberty of a certain number of persons to slander anonymously whomever they please, against whom you have no redress. It is freedom to the anonymous libeller."--Mr. Drummond in the House of Commons, 23rd April 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 1680.

[296] "This is not merely a fiscal matter, because, as I have already stated to the Committee, the existing law respecting the stamp duty upon newspapers has been brought into a most inconsistent state by a succession of indulgences which were made for the benefit of a certain class of newspaper publications. The consequence of these indulgences is, that the greatest difficulty exists in the administration of the present law."--Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 802.

[297] "Q. 1852. _Mr. Cobden_: Would the carrying of newspapers be profitable to the Post Office at the present rates, provided you were left to adopt your own regulations as to the transmission of newspapers without the intervention of the Board of Inland Revenue?--In one sense it would be profitable and in another it would not. If we were to charge against the newspapers a share of the fixed expenses of the establishment, then it is very questionable whether it would be profitable; but if you consider, as we probably should, that the expenses of the establishment are incurred in respect of the letters, and only calculate the additional expense which would be thrown upon us for the transmission of newspapers, then I think we should find them profitable.

"Q. 1853: Having an immense organization at the Post Office with a certain amount of fixed charges, with a large amount of postmen necessarily travelling over the whole of the kingdom, you would find it profitable to carry newspapers for a penny, in addition to the letter carrying, would you?--Yes.

"Q. 1854: Therefore, if the newspaper stamp were abolished, and you were left to regulate the postage at the Post Office, you would deem it profitable to carry newspapers at a penny each?--Yes, certainly we should: what I mean is, that the carrying of newspapers would not increase our expenses to the extent of a penny each.

"Ans. 1912: I was in hopes that we might distribute them at a halfpenny, if we could have completed a plan in the simple form in which it presented itself to my mind at first.

"Q. 1913: The plan is so far under consideration, and, perhaps, these difficulties may be got over?--I cannot hold out any expectation of that; I think I have considered it sufficiently to see that those difficulties are all but insuperable."--Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill, _Report from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps_, 18th July 1851.

[298] "He believed it would be admitted that there was no wish to make revenue out of this carriage of newspapers; but, on the other hand, the newspaper interest had no right to ask that their productions should be carried at less than cost price. It should be as near as possible an equal bargain between the parties, by which neither the revenue on the one hand, nor the newspapers on the other, should gain.... He believed it was the opinion of the Post Office that a halfpenny would not be sufficient to cover the expenses of transmission."--Lord Stanley, 23rd April 1855; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1664.

[299] The duty was reduced to 1d. upon a sheet containing a superficies not exceeding 2,295 inches.

[300] See _infra_, p. 221.

[301] "Another objection might be urged that, by once touching the permanency of the 1d. rate they were endangering its stability, and that if the edge of the wedge were once inserted it might lead to the uniform rate of 1/2d. He shared no such apprehension, and believed that the wisest way to maintain the permanency of the 1d. rate was to remove the cause of the agitation."--Mr. Graves, 6th April 1869; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cxcv. col. 241.

[302] "A newspaper with an impressed stamp circulates free for fifteen days. It is the last relic of the old taxes on knowledge. The law is complicated and leads to fraud by the abuse of free transmission. An unstamped newspaper now goes at the rate of 1d. for every 4 ounces, and every fraction of 4 ounces. About 35,000,000 newspapers pass through the Post Office annually with an impressed stamp, and about the same number without. What we propose to do is to abolish the impressed stamp altogether, at a loss to the Revenue of [L]120,000.... Then we propose to carry all newspapers which weigh less than 6 ounces for a 1/2d. That will be limited to bona fide newspapers; but we propose, instead of 1d. for every 4 ounces and fraction on of 4 ounces, to charge 1/2d. for every 2 ounces of other printed matter. There will in this way be a loss to the Post Office, over and above that incurred by the abolition of the impressed stamp, of [L]250,000 a year. There may be besides some additional expense in connection with building and the increase in the number of persons to be employed; but this has not been estimated for, and the amount cannot be very large."--Chancellor of the Exchequer, 11th April 1870; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. ce. col. 1636. The limitation to 6 ounces was withdrawn. Ibid., vol. cciii, col. 1383.

[303] _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), 7th May 1855, vol. cxxxviii. col. 197.

[304] In 1899 the number of registered newspapers which normally exceeded 8 ounces in weight was 29.

[305] See _infra_, p. 293. The size and weight of many of the largo trade papers has decreased in consequence of the war.

[306] "Newspapers and books are carried at a low rate for the sake of the education and general information of the people."--Mr. W. Monsell (Postmaster-General), 14th March 1871; _Parl. Debates_ (_Commons_), vol. cciv. col. 2014.

[307] In 1854 the average weight of the mails which left London daily was 279 cwt. of which 219 cwt. consisted of newspapers.

[308] Only some 150 copies of the _Daily Mail_ are delivered in London by the post each day.

[309] "There is no reason whatever why the Post Office should charge a man threepence or fourpence for a book and a halfpenny for these vast trade circulars, and it would be the simplest, as well as the wisest and most beneficial of reforms, to bring the book post down to the newspaper level."--H. G. Wells, _Mankind in the Making_. London, 1914, chap. ix.

The following further suggestions by Mr. Wells are reprinted here for the consideration of postal reformers. Their adoption involves merely an extension of the principle of State benefit.

"Now, in the first place, the post office as one finds it in Great Britain might very well be converted into a much more efficient distributing agency by a few simple modifications in its method. At present, in a large number of country places in Great Britain, a penny paper costs three-halfpence including the necessary halfpenny for postage, and the poorer people can afford no paper at all, because the excellent system in practice abroad of subscribing to any registered periodical at the post office and having it delivered with the letters has not been adopted. Government publications and Government maps, which ought also to be obtainable at a day's notice, through the Post Office and post free, have to be purchased at present in the most devious way through a remote agent in London. There is no public reason whatever why a more intimate connection should not be established between the Stationery Office and the Post Office."--Ibid.

"It would be the simplest thing in the world to have a complete, business-like catalogue of Government publications, kept standing in type and reissued and reprinted quarterly, distributed to every post office, and by its means one ought to be able to order whatever one wanted at once, pay for it on the spot, and get it delivered to any address in Great Britain in the next twenty-four hours."--Ibid.

[310] _Report of Special Committee, House of Assembly, Lower Canada_, 11th February 1832, p. 10.

[311] Sir Francis Freeling replied to the petition. He said the practice of his Deputy in North America was not illegal, but was based on an Act of Parliament authorizing certain of his officers to circulate newspapers by post; that as it had been in existence since the first establishment of the Post Office in the colony, the petitioners must have entered into the business with a full knowledge of the charge to which their publications would be subject if sent by post; there was no stamp duty in the colonies to give the publishers a right to free transmission; and, moreover, the amount of the charge was less than the similar charge in the United States.

[312] "Mr. Howe was very loose, and rarely took any steps to obtain or enforce the payments of the amounts due to him for the transmission of Journals through the Post....

"I cannot look upon it as the mere collection of a private source of emolument to the officer, but I conceive that the Department is interested in the question not only inasmuch as the amount received from this source goes in aid of a larger salary to the officer, but that whenever the time comes that the substitution of a postage rate on newspapers supersedes the present mode of sending them, a due enforcement of such rate will be most unfavourably received, if a free transmission has been previously permitted from the negligence of the party to whom the collection of the charge was deputed and whose perquisite it was."--Report of Mr. Page, 1842 (_British Official Records_).

[313] "It may fairly be viewed in the same light as the amounts annually granted by the Legislature for roads and bridges, and for the support of common schools. The mail carriage to all parts of the province secures us the travelling public conveyance which would not otherwise exist, and the very large amount of newspapers, etc., which pass through the Post Office affords strong evidence that the Department may be considered a branch of our educational system."--Postmaster-General of New Brunswick, 1857.

[314] "Already they found a tax proposed on every poor man who took a newspaper for the information of his family; a stamp tax, an impost unknown in the Maritime Provinces, and one which had cost England half this continent."--Mr. Macdonald in Canadian House of Commons, 12th December 1867 (_Ottawa Times_).

[315] Sir John A. MacDonald in Canadian House of Commons, 20th December 1867, ibid.

[316] "If ever there was a time when it was necessary for the interests of the whole Dominion that just the sort of information which newspapers conveyed should be disseminated through all the Provinces, it was now."--Hon. Dr. Tupper in Canadian House of Commons, 20th December 1867 (_Ottawa Times_).

[317] Mr. Savary in Canadian House of Commons, 20th December 1867 (ibid.).

[318] Hon. Mr. Mackenzie in Canadian House of Commons, _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 22nd February 1875.

[319] "There was good reason for the enactment of the old law that made the rate for the carriage of newspapers a cent a pound, and there never was even a semblance of sense or reason or any request for the repeal of that law. The truth is that its repeal was a mere whim of a gentleman of the Senate, who, anxious to pose in the niche of personal popularity, jollied through Parliament a measure that has cost this country in postal rates millions of dollars, creating a big deficit in the spending department, which has stood in the way of reform every time a reform was proposed."--Mr. Ross Robertson, _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 13th May 1898.

[320] See _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 11th July 1900.

[321] The following remarks by Sir Charles Tupper in the Dominion House of Commons, though made at a somewhat later date, will illustrate this. He said: "There is abundant evidence that manhood suffrage in the Dominion is a far higher franchise than manhood suffrage in Great Britain, for the reason that there are tens of thousands of electors in the United Kingdom who go to the polls without having the remotest idea not only of public questions before the country, but, if their lives depended on it, they could not state who is the Prime Minister of Great Britain to-day. I give that as an indication of the great advance the people of Canada have made in intelligence; and the thorough knowledge which the mass of the people here have in respect of the political issues, and all other questions of that kind, as well as general information, rests largely on the fact that newspapers have so largely increased in circulation until they now reach almost every individual in the country."--Sir Charles Tupper, _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 13th May 1898.

[322] In Great Britain the figures are in very different proportion. While the letters are 3,500,000,000, the newspapers are only some 200,000,000. The circumstances of the two countries are in such contrast that the figures afford no basis for argument as regards the relative postage rates: but they illustrate very effectively a fundamental difference in the general character of the two postal services. In Great Britain the number of separate newspaper mails is extremely small proportionately to the number of letter mails. In Canada the proportions are almost reversed. The postmen on delivery in Great Britain carry their letters and packets in a light canvas bag, and the number of newspapers taken out by any one postman is quite small (the proportion is about one newspaper to twenty-five packets of other description). In Canada the letter-carriers are weighted with newspapers, carried either strapped in a bundle or stuck in a satchel which is full to overflowing. In effect, the general practical arrangements in Canada must be made largely with a view to the handling of vast quantities of newspapers, while in Great Britain the arrangements are in general based on letter traffic, and, except at the largest offices, the arrangements for newspapers are incidental. Letters, however, receive first consideration in Canada, and the discrimination in their favour against the newspaper matter, in point of promptness of handling, is carried to much greater lengths than in Great Britain.

[323] Cf. _supra_, p. 57.

[324] "I trust that after the reimposition of postage on newspapers has been fairly in working order, we shall then have the Post Office a self-sustaining department."--Sir William Mulock, Postmaster-General, _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 1st April 1898.

[325] Sir William Mulock, _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 1st April 1898, col. 2915.

[326] "Hon. gentlemen are entirely in error in assuming that the length of the journey does not make extra cost. It lays the foundation for extra claims by railways, and there is in the department at present, on the part of practically all the railways in Canada, application for increased payment. It is quite impossible to treat newspaper postage in the same way as letter postage."--Sir William Mulock, ibid., 11th July 1900.

[327] "This new Bill is little else than a special tax and handicap on certain Montreal newspapers, which are the only ones which have the bulk of their circulation outside of their own province. We have always favoured newspaper postage, but we are not favourable to its being collected off a few papers, and thus making them pay for the carriage of their own mails."--Mr. Foster, _Parl. Debates, Canada_ (_Commons_), 10th July 1900.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier made some interesting observations. He said: "A newspaper is merchandise, a letter is not. A letter simply conveys to somebody the views and thoughts of another. But newspapers are merchandise, and the publisher of a newspaper a manufacturer of merchandise which he sells. Now, I do not see any reason why this class of merchandise should not pay freight for its transportation as well as any other class of merchandise."--In Canadian House of Commons, 10th July 1900.

[328] Sir William Mulock, ibid., 11th July 1900.

[329] Ibid., 3rd July 1903.

[330] Ibid., 25th January 1905.

[331] "The growth of the Post Office from this humble beginning solidified the American Colonies and made independence possible."--_The American Post Office_, by Nathan B. Williams. Reprinted as Senate Document No. 542 of the 61st Congress, 2nd Sess., p. 5.

[332] E.g., "Mr. Franklin has in particular the great Advantage of circulating his Papers free, and receiving intelligence, which he may make the best or worst Use of in the present Situation of Affairs."--Minutes of Pennsylvania Council, 21st March 1757.

The Council recommended that the Postmaster be commanded to be extremely cautious "to prevent the publication of improper intelligence," and that the Governor should be authorized to exercise a censorship on the publication of news.

[333] It was in point of fact due to his action in submitting to the Assembly of Pennsylvania English official letters addressed from the Governor of the colony which had come into his hands.

[334] See _supra_, pp. 64-5.

[335] "To take it (the franking privilege) away would be levelling a deadly stroke at the liberty of the Press; the information conveyed by franks may be considered as the vital juices, and the channels of the Post Office as the veins; and if these are stopped, the body must be destroyed; it is treading on dangerous ground to take any measures that may stop the channels of public information.... It is the duty of the members to dispense the newspapers among those people who cannot, perhaps, otherwise obtain them, under the protection of franks.... The establishment of the Post Office is agreed to be for no other purpose than the conveyance of information into every part of the Union."--_Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States_, 16th December 1791 (pub. Washington, 1849).

[336] "The poisonous sentiments of the cities, concentrated in their papers, with all the aggravation of such a moral and political cesspool, will invade the simple, pure, conservative atmosphere of the country, and meeting with no antidote in a rural Press, will contaminate and ultimately destroy that purity of sentiment and of purpose which is the only true conservatism. Fourierism, agrarianism, socialism, and every other ism, political, moral, and religious, grow in that rank and festering soil.... Relieve them (the country papers) from the burden of postage and they can successfully compete with the city publishers. Reduce the rate of postage on newspapers and pamphlets, and you diffuse light and knowledge through the land."--Mr. Venables in House of Representatives, 18th December 1850 (_Congressional Globe_).

[337] I.e. odd packets posted by members of the public, as against the regular bulk postings of publishers.

[338] _Report of Postmaster-General_, 1892, p. 68.

[339] "The law cannot be so construed as to permit such an abuse--an abuse that, while operating to load down the mails with immense masses of stuff of insufficient value to command cash-paying subscribers to any extent, would be a wrong to every business institution which issues its advertising circulars and other matter in an undisguised manner and therefore pays the lawful rate of postage on them."--Ibid., p. 72.

[340] "The most urgent need of the postal service is the rectification of the enormous wrongs which have grown up in the perversion and abuse of the privilege accorded by law to second-class matter. This reform is paramount to all others.... For this costly abuse, which drags on the Department and weighs down the service, trammels its power and means of effective advancement in every direction."--Ibid., 1899, pp. 4 and 5.

In 1900 it was stated that the whole cost of the extension of the rural free delivery service could be met from the saving which would result from the elimination of the second-class mail abuses.--Ibid., 1900, p. 13.

In 1901 it was described as "the one great overshadowing evil of the service, because it underlies and overtops all other reform and advance."--Ibid., 1901, p. 4.

[341] There had been, under an Act of 26th June 1906, a weighing of second-class matter from 1st July to 31st December 1906.

[342] _Report of Postal Commission on Second-class Mail Matter_, 1907. Known as the Penrose-Overstreet Commission, from the names of two of its members.

[343] The actual statistics to be obtained were defined thus:--

"The Postmaster-General shall cause a record to be kept from July first to December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and seven, inclusive, of the weight in pounds, respectively, of first-class, second-class, free, paid-at-the-pound-rate, and transient, third-class, and fourth-class matter and all franked and penalty matter and the equipment carried in connection therewith.

"For thirty days during such period he shall require a record to be kept of the weight of each of the classes above specified despatched from such post-offices as he shall determine to be representative for the purpose and have computed thereon, in the most practicable way, the average haul of the mail of the different classes and sub-classes as hereinbefore set out. For seven days during such period he shall cause a record to be kept of the revenue received from each of the classes and sub-classes of mail matter hereinbefore specified and a count of the number of pieces of each class and sub-class, showing also for the first class the number of letters, postal cards, and other matter separately, and for thirty consecutive days during such period he shall cause a record to be kept for the purpose of ascertaining the average load of railway post-office cars other than storage cars, the average load of storage cars, and the average load in compartment cars.

"Such record shall be reported to Congress by May first, nineteen hundred and eight, and the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to cover the expense of such weighing and counting and the recording and compilation of the information so acquired, and the rent of necessary rooms in the city of Washington, and the same shall be immediately available."--Statute of 2nd March 1907.

[344] _Special Weighing of the Mails_, 1907. Document 910, 60th Congress.

[345] _Hearings before Committee on Post Office and Post Roads_ (_House of Representatives_), January-February 1910.

[346] _Report of Commission on Second-class Mail Matter._ Appendix to Message of President of 22nd February 1912, pp. 137-8.

[347] Ibid., p. 129.

[348] "The historic policy of encouraging by low postal rates the dissemination of current intelligence, and the extent to which it has proved successful, should not be overlooked."--Ibid., p. 143.

[349] "If the Republic of our patriotic love is to live and our people preserve their liberties, the sheet-anchor of their salvation is a free, independent, untrammelled and fearless Press, and we believe that to maintain this happy condition publishers must not be subjected to any arbitrary authority that claims and exercises the power to destroy by closing the mails against them without the right to appeal to the courts, a right that is held sacred by every citizen, however humble, whenever and wherever his opportunity to earn a livelihood in an honourable business is called in question or denied him."--Evidence of Mr. Wilmer Atkinson of Philadelphia, Pa., _Report of Commission on Second-class Mail Matter_, 1906, p. 412.

[350] "Publishers are now sometimes kept on the anxious seat for months awaiting decisions which may wreck their businesses."--Evidence of Mr. Madden, Third Assistant Postmaster-General.--Ibid., p. 89.

[351] "There is no 'subsidy' at all, as claimed by the foolish, but simply that the lawmakers of the greatest Government on earth have been wise enough to see to it that the people shall have periodical literature within easy reach, and with as little expense as possible."--Evidence of Wilmer Atkinson, ibid., p. 441.

[352] "Who knows but that the onerous restrictions of the department have some connection with the efforts of the express companies to have second-class mail rates increased, and by both means drive the publishers of the country to employing the express companies to carry their publications? Such would not be beyond the craftiness of these skilled farmers in the field of legislation."--Nathan B. Williams, _The American Post Office_, 1910; Document 542, 61st Congress, 2nd Session, p. 40.

[353] "Yet we publish more periodicals than Germany, France, Russia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland aggregated, and you may then add all the other countries of Europe, then Canada and Mexico. Then add all the Central American States, and the South American States, and the African Colonies--North, South, East, and West. You must still add Australia, and Hindoostan, and all other Asiatic countries, including Japan and China, and even then you haven't reached the end or the story. You then have only 40 per cent. of the total against our 60."--C. W. Burrows, _One Cent Postage_, etc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1911, p. 11.

[354] "The great decrease in all the more serious departments of literature, as well as in some of the lighter ones, is a curious and unexplainable condition of our book production. Scientific and philosophical writings are as conspicuous through their absence as are the simply amusing books."--_Publishers' Weekly_ (New York), 30th January 1904.

[355] Message to Congress, 22nd February 1912.

[356] "No lobby ever sent to Washington in furtherance of the most corrupt legislation has ever been more persistent or dealt less fairly with both legislators and public than the lobby that has worked for the retention of the second-class mail graft."--C. W. Burrows, _One Cent Postage_, etc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1911, p. 4.

[357] "Je vois que le prix du port des journaux fera d'un vingt-quatri[e']me du prix des lettres. Le prix n'est sans doute pas suffisant pour les frais de la poste, et je ne crois pas que l'envoi des journaux doive [^e]tre [a'] la charge de la nation."--M. Biozat, Assembl['e]e Nationale, 17 ao[^u]t 1791 (_Le Moniteur Universel_).