Chapter V: Appointment in Treasury. (1839.)

Before leaving town for Wolverhampton, as I was in constant hope of a communication from Government, I had given strict injunction at the South Australian Office that if any such communication arrived it should be forwarded without delay. Now it so happened that a certain gentleman, well known to us at the time in connection with Australian affairs, had bestowed on our proceedings more attention than was either profitable or convenient, and had begun to be regarded much in the light in which, doubtless, I myself was then viewed at the Post Office; in short, he had been unanimously voted an intolerable bore. When, therefore, a packet arrived at the office with what appeared to be his name written in the left-hand corner of the direction, it was naturally treated as a missive which might very conveniently await my return; and it was not until a messenger came from the Treasury to inquire why no notice had been taken of a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the clerk on duty became aware of the mistake. Hastening to correct the blunder, well aware of the Post Office delay, and impressed with the novel speed of railway conveyance, he instantly made up the despatch in a brown paper parcel, which he sent, with all speed, to the station, but which, by the tardiness of its conveyance, practically demonstrated that even postal dilatoriness might be outdone.

The packet came into my hands just before the ceremony of presentation began, and, being eagerly opened, was found to contain a summons to Downing Street; a fact contributing, as may be supposed, not a little to the pleasure of the day.

On presenting myself at the Treasury I was very courteously received by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis Baring (Mr. Spring Rice having been just raised to the peerage). Before speaking of what occurred, I wish to premise that I afterwards found in Mr. Baring a steady friend and zealous supporter, his kind interest in my plan and myself never failing until death.

This first interview, however, was on one important point very unsatisfactory. To make this clear, it must be recollected that I then held a permanent office, involving heavy duties and implying great trust and responsibility, and that though my salary was as yet only £500 a-year (all salaries in this new department being then low), yet as I had been fortunate enough to give full satisfaction, I had every prospect of increase, and a fair chance of promotion. When, therefore, it was proposed that I should abandon this position to accept an engagement for two years only, without any increase of salary, I must confess I could scarcely avoid regarding the offer as an affront. I was yet more struck with the disadvantage to which the degradation (for such it was) which I was to suffer would place me in respect of ability to carry out my plans; nor did I try to conceal my feelings. However I brought the conference to a close by informing Mr. Baring that I must consult my friends upon his offer; and that, as my eldest brother was then at Leicester, I thought it would be three days before I could give my answer.

Accordingly, on the following day, I went to Leicester, arriving late in the evening. I found my brother stretched on a sofa; he had had a hard day’s work, and seemed quite exhausted; so that although I was aware he must know that important business alone could have brought me so far, I naturally proposed to defer everything to the next day. Of this, however, he would not hear; saying that he had another day’s hard work before him, so that no time must be lost. To do the best under the circumstances, I began my story in as passionless a manner as I could command; and for a short time he listened quietly enough, seeming too much oppressed by fatigue to be capable of strong interest. When, however, I came to the offer of £500, a sudden change occurred. He seemed not merely to start but to bound from the sofa, his face flushing, and his frame quivering with indignation. When he became somewhat more composed, and the whole matter had been duly discussed, he suggested that he should write a letter for me to hand to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. I eagerly accepted his offer, but he consented—the hour being by this time over late—to defer the execution of his task until morning.

At an early hour, we were at work, I writing from his dictation. When the letter was completed, I returned to town by the first conveyance, reaching home in the middle of the night. The following is my brother’s letter. I need not apologize for its insertion in full:—

“Leicester, Sept. 12, 1839.

“DEAR ROWLAND,—Before I give you my opinion, I think it better
to prevent the possibility of misapprehension, by putting in
writing the heads of what you have reported to me as having
occurred at the interview between the Chancellor of the
Exchequer and yourself on Tuesday, respecting your proposed
employment by the Government in carrying your plan of Post
Office reform into operation.

“You state that Mr. Baring, having regard to what had been
arranged between Lord Monteagle and himself, offered to engage
your services for two years for the sum of £500 per annum;
you, for that remuneration, undertaking to give up your whole
time to the public service. That on your expressing surprise
and dissatisfaction at this proposal, the offer was raised to
£800, and subsequently to £1,000 per annum. You state that
your answer to these proposals was, in substance, that you
were quite willing to give your services gratuitously, or to
postpone the question of remuneration until the experiment
shall be tried; but that you could not consent to enter upon
such an undertaking on a footing in any way inferior to that
of the Secretary to the Post Office. You explained, you say,
the object which you had in view in making this stipulation—you
felt that it was a necessary stipulation to insure you full
power to carry the measure into effect.

“I have carefully considered the whole matter in all its
bearings, and I cannot raise in my mind a doubt of the
propriety of your abiding by these terms; and I will set down,
as shortly as I can, the reasons which have occurred to me to
show that the course you have taken was the only one really
open to you.

“It is quite clear that to insure a fair trial for your
plan you will require great powers; that Ministers will not
interfere with you themselves, nor, as far as they can prevent
it, suffer you to be thwarted by others, I can readily believe;
but I am not so sure of their power as I am of their goodwill.
You have excited great hostility at the Post Office—that we
know as a matter of fact; but it must have been inferred if
the fact had not been known. It is not in human nature that
the gentlemen of the Post Office should view your plan with
friendly eyes. If they are good-natured persons, as I dare say
they are, they will forgive you in time; but they have much
to overlook. That a stranger should attempt to understand the
arcana of our system of postage better than those whose duty
it was to attain to such knowledge, was bad enough; that he
should succeed, was still worse; but that he should persuade
the country and the Parliament that he had succeeded is an
offence very difficult to pardon. Now, you are called upon to
undertake the task of carrying into action, through the agency
of these gentlemen, what they have pronounced preposterous,
wild, visionary, absurd, clumsy, and impracticable. They have
thus pledged themselves, by a distinct prophecy, repeated over
and over again, that the plan cannot succeed. I confess I hold
in great awe prophets who may have the means of assisting in
the fulfilment of their own predictions. Believe me, you will
require every aid which Government, backed by the country, can
give you to conquer these difficulties. You found it no easy
task to defeat your opponents in the great struggle which is
just concluded; but what was that to what you are now called
upon to effect? no less an enterprise than to change your
bitter enemies into hearty allies, pursuing your projects with
goodwill, crushing difficulties instead of raising them, and
using their practical knowledge, not to repel your suggestions
and to embarrass your arrangements, but using that same
knowledge in your behalf, aiding and assisting in those matters
wherein long experience gives them such a great advantage over
you, and which may be turned for or against you at the pleasure
of the possessors.

“To try this great experiment, therefore, with a fair chance of
success, it must be quite clear that you have the confidence of
the Government; and that can only be shown by their advancing
you to an equality, at least, with the principal executive
officer among those with whose habits and prejudices you must
of necessity so much and so perpetually interfere. Have you
made Mr. Baring sufficiently aware of the numerous—I might say
numberless—innovations, which your plan of necessity implies?
The reduction of postage and the modes of prepayment are, no
doubt, the principal features of your plan; but you lay great
stress, and very properly, in my opinion, on increasing the
facilities for transmitting letters; and this part of the
reform will, I apprehend, cause you more labour of detail than
that which more strikes the public eye. In this department you
will be left to contend with the Post Office almost alone.
It will be very easy to raise plausible objections to your
measures, of which Ministers can hardly be supposed to be
competent judges, either in respect of technical information
or of leisure for inquiry. Neither would the public, even
if you had the means and inclination to appeal to it, give
you assistance in matters upon which you could never fix its
attention.

“But your personal weight and importance as compared with
that of others who it is reasonable to believe will, in the
first instance at least, be opposed to you, will be measured
very much by comparison of salary. We may say what we will,
but Englishmen are neither aristocratic nor democratic, but
chrysocratic (to coin a word). Your salary will, therefore, if
you have one at all, fix your position in the minds of every
functionary of the Post Office, from the Postmaster-General to
the bellman, both inclusive.

“But though I see these insuperable objections to your
accepting either of the salaries which have been offered, I
will not advise you (and you would reject such advice if I gave
it) to embarrass the Government, if there be any difficulty,
which there may be unknown to us, in the way of their either
giving you a higher salary, or postponing the question of
remuneration until the end of the two years. Your offer made on
the spur of the moment, to surrender your present appointment,
and work for the public without salary, though it does look
somewhat ‘wild and visionary’ at first sight, yet after a
long and careful reflection upon it, I distinctly advise you
to renew, and more than that, I seriously hope it will be
accepted. Your fortune, though most men would consider it
very small, is enough to enable you to live two years without
additional income; and I feel certain that the Government and
the country will do you and your family justice in the end;
but suppose I should be mistaken, and that you never receive
a shilling for either your plan or your services in carrying
it into operation, I should be very glad to change places with
you, and so would thousands of your countrymen, if, on taking
your labours and privations, they could also feel conscious of
your merit.

“I remain, &c.,

“M. D. HILL.”

This letter I forwarded the next day, enclosing it in a short one from myself to the same effect; in which also I proposed to wait upon Mr. Baring at four o’clock, to give him any further explanation.

I was received in a manner not merely courteous but most friendly; no time was lost in debate, and I was requested to call again the following day at one o’clock, to see the draft of a letter which Mr. Baring undertook to prepare meanwhile. Of this letter, which, upon my expressing satisfaction with it, Mr. Baring immediately signed and handed to me, the following is a copy:—

“Downing Street, September 14, 1839.

“SIR,—I write you the result of our interviews, feeling that
it may be a satisfaction to you to possess some memorandum on
paper.

“With respect to the position in which you would be placed, I
would explain that you will be attached to the Treasury, and
considered as connected with that department with reference
to the proposed alterations in the Post Office. You will have
access to the Post Office, and every facility given you of
inquiry both previously to the arrangements being settled
and during their working. Your communications will be to the
Treasury, from whom any directions to the Post Office will be
issued; and you will not exercise any direct authority, or
give any immediate orders to the officers of the Post Office.
I make this explanation as to the mode of doing our business,
to prevent future misunderstanding. Your communications
and suggestions, &c., will be with the Treasury, in whom I
consider the power to superintend and carry into effect these
alterations to be vested.

“With respect to the money arrangements, I understand the
employment to be secured for two years certain, at the rate
of £1,500 per annum. I should also add that the employment is
considered as temporary, and not to give a _claim_ to continued
employment in office at the termination of these two years.

“Having put duly upon paper a memorandum of our conversation,
I cannot conclude without expressing my satisfaction that
the Treasury are to have the benefit of your assistance in
the labour which the legislature has imposed upon us, and my
conviction that you will find from myself and the Board that
confidence and cordiality which will be necessary for the well
working of the proposed alterations.

“I am, &c.,

“F. T. BARING.

“ROWLAND HILL, Esq.”

Of course I inwardly objected to that clause in the letter which limited my absolute engagement to two years, but I reckoned upon making myself within that period so useful as to secure a permanent appointment. Mr. Baring having referred to the arrangement which placed me, not at the Post Office, but at the Treasury, I replied that of course he might put me then where he liked, but that I should end by being Secretary to the Post Office—a prediction in the end fulfilled, though certainly by no means so speedily as I expected.

The letter was soon followed by a Treasury Minute, making the formal appointment. On carefully reconsidering both, I thought that my powers were neither so considerable nor so clearly set forth as could be desired; nevertheless two days later, viz., on Monday, September 16th, 1839, I entered on the duties of my new office, rejoicing in the belief that I was at length in a position to effect the great reform I had originated, feeling, also, at the moment, well rewarded for all past labours and anxieties, and, though not blind to future difficulties, yet too well pleased with my success thus far to allow any painful anticipations much place in my thoughts.

From what has already been stated, the reader must be aware that, however deep the gratification with which, at the end of three years’ unceasing effort, I at length found myself in a recognised position, in direct communication with persons of high authority, and intrusted with powers which, however weak and limited in the outset, seemed, if discreetly used, not unlikely in due time to acquire strength and durability, I was far from supposing that the attainment of my post was the attainment of my object. The obstacles, numerous and formidable, which had been indicated in my brother’s letter, had all, I felt, a real existence; while others were sure to appear, of which, as yet, I knew little or nothing. Still I felt no way daunted, but relying at once on the efficiency of my plan, and on the promised support of Government, I felt confident of succeeding in the end.

On the very day that I took my place in Downing Street I accompanied the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Post Office, in order to inspect the practical working of the department, which, as already mentioned, I had never had an opportunity of witnessing. My first impressions contradicted in some measure my expectations; the whole process of dealing with the letters I found more rapid than I had supposed. Here, however, was a fallacy very naturally produced, and which has doubtless imposed upon many an unpractised visitor. The presence of strangers naturally puts every man on his mettle; and efforts are made which could not be long sustained. Again, the head of a department, zealous for its reputation, directs observation, unconsciously perhaps, to his best men; while the unwary spectator, generalizing on both points, attributes to every pair of hands and to the whole period of manipulation a speed which rightly pertains only to a few individuals, and even in their case to a very brief time. Another source of misconception I found to lurk in the many errors made in the haste of action; whereby a large number of letters came back to the hands which had passed them, and being viewed by the observer as new letters failed, of course, to produce any abatement in his estimate of speed.

I found the “taxation of letters” more rapid, and the sorting slower, than I had reckoned upon; but soon perceived that the sorting was greatly impeded by want of room, which was indeed bitterly complained of by those concerned. This lack of space was the more remarkable, since the building, which had been erected at enormous expense, was as yet only ten years old, and had witnessed but little increase of business within its walls.

The rooms indeed were lofty, even to the full height of the edifice, but yet ill ventilated; reminding one of what has been said by I forget whom, that, if the crowd be but dense enough, a man may be stifled even where his ceiling is the sky. A thermometer in the room marked 72°, but I was informed it sometimes rose to 90°; so that between heat and impurity of the air the men’s working powers must have been seriously impaired; to say nothing of more lasting injury to their health. Some of the officers in attendance suggested the construction of galleries, which, without lessening the general height of the room, might afford more space; but knowing that mere height, as indeed shown by the actual state of things, is but a secondary consideration, and observing that there was considerable space between the ceiling and the roof, I recommended that the room should be divided into two floors, the ceiling being raised, and that for the removal of bags, recourse should be had to lifts, such as I had seen in use in the cotton mills at Belper and elsewhere. Both these suggestions were in the end adopted.

As this inspection had the disadvantage of being foreknown, I determined that my next should be made without notice; and accordingly somewhat surprised my friends at the Office by appearing amongst them soon after six the next morning. I did not perceive, however, any noticeable difference in the state of things, save that, the work being less, and the hands therefore fewer, there was a corresponding decrease of bustle and closeness.

I suggested to the Chancellor of the Exchequer that, as room at the Post Office was already deficient, and was likely to be more so when the lower rate was adopted, no time should be lost in establishing the district offices and uniting the two corps of letter-carriers, as I had recommended. By his request I drew up a paper giving my views in detail. To dispose of this matter for the present, I must say that I did not then succeed in convincing him of the soundness of my views, and that, in fact, they were not acted upon until fifteen years later.

I may mention here, that my Journal, after a long suspension, was now resumed; and it is by reference to this that I am able to give details which have long ago passed from my memory. I find that my practice was still to rise at six, and to proceed straightway to work at my official duties; indeed, when I was at the Treasury, my attention was so much diverted to questions of detail on postal matters of all kinds that, had I confined my work to office hours, though I made these unusually long, the progress of reform, slow as it actually was, would have been reduced to a veritable snail’s pace. My long hours, however, soon obliged me to apply for additional assistance.

From this Journal I proceed to give one or two extracts:—

“_1839, September 20th._—Mr. Baring came to me at the Treasury.
[He] had not been able to look over the _agenda_, though at
work till four this morning. Will take it next, and let me know
when ready to discuss it. Asked me to state what assistance
I thought necessary. I replied that I wished to engage the
services of Cole (whom I had mentioned on a previous day),
and that I required a clerk or amanuensis.... As to a clerk,
B. recommended that I should select one from the Post Office,
as his practical knowledge would be useful to me. To this I
assented, and it was arranged that B. should write to Colonel
Maberly on the subject, but it afterwards occurred to me that
the arrangement might possibly lead to unpleasant consequences.
I therefore went to Mr. Baring and represented this view of
the subject, at the same time proposing that I should engage
Mr. Ledingham.... To this B. consented. I proposed a salary
of 40_s._ per week, but B. objected to more than 30_s._, such
being the allowance to supernumerary clerks in the Customs. The
salary was therefore fixed at this sum.”

The engagement of Mr. Cole, applied for as above, was completed three days later; and thus I had the great satisfaction of retaining after my appointment aid which had been so highly serviceable before. Mr. Ledingham, also, was engaged, and fully justified Mr. Gardiner’s recommendation;[278] working with me through many years, first at the Treasury and afterwards at the Post Office, up to the commencement of his fatal illness, with intelligence, fidelity, and zeal.

About this time I began to experience somewhat of that kind of annoyance which my own proceedings during the last two years and a-half must have produced to the Post Office authorities, and in some measure to the Government of the day. I was now myself, in some sort, within the pale, and I began to find that through my difference of position there was a decided change in the sound produced by a knocking at the outer gate. Suggestions for improvement and applications on other subjects soon became numerous; and were sufficient to occupy much time, and to make me practically understand the nervous irritability produced in all Government departments by applications from without.

A day or two later I again visited the Post Office, and was present at the sorting of letters for the twopenny post. Here was anything rather than the pressure which I had observed in the evening sorting of the General Post letters, the force being evidently far too great for the work; so that at the rate at which I _saw_ the letters sorted the average number per delivery, say six thousand, might have been sorted completely in the time occupied (about an hour and a quarter) by four persons; and yet the sorters formed quite a crowd. Of course I found in this fact additional reason for that union of the two divisions of letter-carriers which was an essential preliminary to the establishment of the district system.

Mr. Baring had expressed a wish that I should visit the French Post Office, which, he had been informed, was in some respects very well managed. Not to dwell too minutely on this inspection, I will only state some few of the results set forth in my report.

I found that the gross Post Office revenue of France was about two-thirds that of England; the expenses, about twenty per cent. more, and the net revenue somewhat less than one-half.[279]

The rates of postage I found to be about two-thirds of our rates for corresponding distances, but to vary for equal distances, not as with us, according to the number of enclosures, but simply [as I had proposed for England] according to the weight of the letter or packet.[280]

I found a kind of book post in use; the charges, however, being regulated not by weight, but by superficial measurement of the paper.[281]

Considering the small extent of Paris as compared with London, I found the number of Post Offices much larger, viz., 246 against 237.[282]

There was another point on which the French Post Office was—and, it must be admitted, still is—in advance of ours, viz., that it undertakes the transmission of valuables of small dimensions at a commission paid of five per cent. If the article be lost, the Post Office pays the price at which it was valued.[283]

An arrangement for transmitting money through the Post Office was, I found, in great use, or what I thought such, while our money-order system, owing to the high rates of charge and other causes had but a very limited operation; the yearly amount transmitted being less than half that in France.

Meanwhile, there had appeared in the “Quarterly Review” an elaborate attack, said to have been written by Mr. Croker, on my whole plan and all its supporters; the Mercantile Committee, the Parliamentary Committee, the witnesses, and, above all, the Government, receiving each a share of the reproaches which fell primarily upon myself. A few extracts from this article may still interest or amuse my readers.

It contains one statement of some importance, which, had I recollected it at the proper time, would have been useful in a recent discussion as to the origin of postage stamps:—

“M. Piron tells us that the idea of a post-paid envelope
originated early in the reign of Louis XIV. with M. de Valayer,
who, in 1653, established (with royal approbation) a private
penny post, placing boxes at the corners of the streets for the
reception of letters wrapped up in envelopes, which were to be
bought at offices established for that purpose....

“But this device had long been forgotten even in France; and
we have no doubt that when Mr. Charles Knight, an extensive
publisher as well as an intelligent literary man, proposed,
some years since, a stamped cover for the circulation of
newspapers, he was under no obligation for the idea to Monsieur
de Valayer. Mr. Hill, adopting Mr. Knight’s suggestion, has
applied it to the general purposes of the Post Office with an
ingenuity and address which make it his own.”[284]

My statement that the Post Office revenue had remained stationary during the twenty years preceding the writing of my pamphlet is pronounced by the writer to be completely overthrown by the fact that the Post Office revenue had doubled during the fifteen years preceding that period.[285]

Expectation of moral benefits from low postage is thus met:—

“On the whole we feel that, so far from the _exclusive_
benefits to ‘_order_, _morals_, and _religion_’ which Mr. Hill
and the committee put forward, there is, at least, as great a
chance of the contrary mischief, and that the proposed penny
post might perhaps be more justly characterised as ‘_sedition
made easy_.’”[286]

The reader of the present day, whom dire necessity has accustomed to modern hardships, will be roused to a sense of his condition by learning that “prepayment by means of a stamp or stamped cover is universally admitted to be quite the reverse of convenient, foreign to the habits of the people,”[287] &c.

The attack was answered in the next number of the “Edinburgh Review” in an article written by my eldest brother, which thus concludes:—

“Let, then, any temporary diminution of income be regarded as
an outlay. It would be but slight considered with reference
to the objects in view, and yet all that is demanded for
the mightiest social improvement ever attempted at a single
effort. Suppose even an average yearly loss of a million for
ten years. It is but half what the country has paid for the
abolition of slavery, without the possibility of any _money_
return. Treat the deficit as an outlay of capital, and those
who make a serious affair of it suppose that a great nation
is to shrink from a financial operation which a joint-stock
company would laugh at. But enough of revenue. Even if the
hope of ultimate profit should altogether fail, let us recur
to a substituted tax; and if we are asked, What tax? we shall
answer, Any tax you please—certain that none can operate so
fatally on all other sources of revenue as this. Letters are
the _primordia rerum_ of the commercial world. To tax them at
all, is condemned by those who are best acquainted with the
operations of finances. Surely, then, cent. per cent. will
hardly be deemed too slight a burden, and yet that—nay, more
than that—the new plan will yield.

“But the country will never consent to adjudge this great cause
on points of revenue. That the Post Office ought to be open to
all in practice, as well as in theory, is now felt to be as
necessary to our progress in true civilisation as the liberty
of the press, the representation of the people in Parliament,
public education, sound law reform, the freedom of commerce,
and whatever else we require to maintain our ‘high prerogative
of teaching the nations how to live.’”