Chapter XXXII: Appendix: A

[See p. 101.]

_Letter to Postmaster-General Lord Clanricarde._

Hampstead, 3rd January, 1849.

MY DEAR LORD,--Referring to the various representations which I have at different times taken the liberty of making to your Lordship, relative to my position, and to the difficulties arising out of it which still impede the course of improvement in the Post Office, I find myself called upon by present circumstances to request your kind attention to a review of the whole subject.

Your Lordship will remember that my present duties were undertaken with great reluctance, because of the doubt I felt whether in the position I was to occupy I should be able to secure those great objects whose attainment would naturally be expected of me, as well by the Government as the public, and that one of the most weighty of the considerations influencing me to accept the appointment, was the prospect which was held out of such reorganization in the official arrangements of the Department, as would at no distant time place in my hands such prompt and direct means of acquiring information and exercising control as I have always deemed necessary for the full realization of my plans.

These views, your Lordship will recollect, are fully set forth in my letter to Mr. Hawes, of 23rd November, 1846.

I feel sure that your Lordship will bear witness to my having used, to the best of my ability, all such authority as was placed in my hands, and to my having made every possible effort to surmount or avoid the obstacles incident to my present position.

It was with this view that I selected and submitted to your Lordship those improvements which, from their comparative simplicity, or from the concurrence of the practical officers in my views, were most readily carried into effect, deferring others, either in whole or in part, where the measures, however important and even urgent in themselves, presented great complexity or appeared to be, on whatever grounds, very repugnant to those who had to carry them into effect.

Among the improvements thus effected are the following:--

1st. The time for posting letters at the London receiving houses extended.

2nd. The limitation of weight abolished.

3rd. An additional daily despatch to London from the principal villages in the vicinity established without additional expense.

4th. As one step among others towards the extinction of money prepayment, the business of all new receiving houses restricted to stamped and unpaid letters. A lower scale of salaries being also consequently introduced.

5th. The postal arrangements of 120 of the largest towns in the United Kingdom revised and completed.

6th. Unlimited writing on inland newspapers authorised on payment of 1_d._ fee.

7th. The public and the Department better protected from annoyance and loss in respect of unpaid letters, by the establishment of a summary process for recovering postage from the senders.

8th. The book-post established.

9th. The advantage of cheap registration secured to the public (by reducing the charge from 1_s._ to 6_d._), without inconvenience to the Department.

10th. An important extension of the time of posting late letters for a great part of the United Kingdom afforded by arrangements at the Euston Railway Station.

11th. As a step towards more frequent communication between large towns, a third mail per day established from Birmingham and other towns on the North Western Railway to London; this addition being made by the North Western Company without payment.

12th. Day mails extended to several smaller towns in a circuit of about twenty miles round London.

13th. The number of mail-guards reduced by placing the smaller mails under the charge of the railway guards.

14th. The service of parliamentary returns for private bills provided for.

15th. The despatch of mails at the country offices facilitated, and the late letter fees secured to the revenue by requiring both fee and postage to be paid in stamps. This improvement is about to take effect.

Some of the improvements in the money order department also belong to this class.

Upwards of twelve months ago, this class of improvements being, as I thought, nearly exhausted, I was preparing to address your Lordship as at present, when my design was postponed through the following circumstance:--The money-order department being of such a nature as to admit of separation, in a great degree, from the other business of the office, and Colonel Maberly having declined to undertake the responsibility thereof under the retrenchments and other improvements adopted on my recommendation by your Lordship and the Treasury, you were pleased to transfer the secretarial management of that department to me.

Of the change which has followed this transfer I need not speak in detail. By a report of Mr. Barth, the head of the department, dated 31st January, 1848, it appears that the accounts were then in an almost hopeless state of arrears; great doubt was entertained whether they ever could be made complete, and the expense of their completion, supposing it to be possible, was estimated at £10,000. No general balance had ever been struck since the institution of the department in 1839, and the liabilities were of unknown amount. To avoid the enormous expense of bringing up the arrears, and to ensure the extinction of unknown liabilities, it was necessary to obtain an Act of Parliament calling in the outstanding money orders. Concurrent efforts were made to bring up the more recent arrears, and to prevent the possibility of new ones arising; and, in consequence of these measures, affairs are now in such a state that, at the end of August next, the liabilities of the department will be fully known, and the materials obtained for a general balance, which will then be struck forthwith.

On investigating the accounts, I found, to my great concern, that the department was not only, as I had anticipated, unprofitable, but that it involved an annual loss of no less than £10,000. It has, however, been found practicable, even with greatly increased perfection in the accounts, to introduce, by successive improvements, such simplification as will save the salaries of 50 clerks in the London Office alone; and this, combined with other important savings already effected, will, in all probability, render the department self-supporting in the course of the present year.

But your Lordship is aware that further important improvements are now in progress, by means of which I confidently expect the money-order department will be made to afford a satisfactory profit.

I may remark that the savings effected in this department have already exceeded my estimate as laid before the select committee of the House of Commons on Postage of 1843 (p. 90).

From the facility with which the necessary changes, many of them difficult and complicated, have been effected in this department since it came under my immediate and exclusive direction, your Lordship will, perhaps, deem it not unreasonable to infer that, with similar means at my command, a like success may be obtained elsewhere; and the encouragement hence derived has augmented my earnest desire to attempt without delay improvements in other departments, for years contemplated, which, while they present many difficulties, are of no slight importance to the public service.

The complete consolidation of the two corps of letter-carriers is a promised measure of this description. This consolidation I first recommended in the year 1837, submitted to the Treasury in the year 1842, laid before the select committee on postage of 1843, and sustained through a severe examination. Up to that time it was opposed by the Post Office authorities, and not supported by the Treasury; but at the commencement of 1847 a decided step was taken in that direction, and with advantageous results.

My opinion of the value of the measure has never varied, and my desire for its adoption is, of course, greatly strengthened by finding it pressed on the Office by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose exhortations to the same effect have now, for twelve months, been from time to time earnestly given.

But, after the maturest deliberation, I still feel impressed with the painful conviction that unless I could be placed, with reference to the departments concerned in the change, in a position similar to that which I hold with regard to the Money Order Office, the attempt would not only fail, but might produce a state of serious insubordination.

Your Lordship will bear in mind that the improvement in question involves other changes, some of them of a very complicated nature, and such as could be effected only by a delicate and difficult process; I need not say that where the ramifications are so numerous, it is quite impossible to frame, _in prospectu_, any detailed plan which will not require very much of subsequent modification. The experience derived from each step of the process, will be required to govern the succeeding step. The improvements must be introduced on the tentative principle, and extended or varied, hastened or delayed, according as the peculiar feelings and opinions of parties concerned, or other circumstances, may require. In fine, the management will constantly demand immediate, confidential, and uninterrupted intercourse with those most conversant with details, or on whom the duty of immediate execution will devolve, as well as the exercise of an influence and authority limited only by due subordination to your Lordship.

In the absence of these aids, any attempt to effect the improvement in question would, in my opinion, be most inexpedient.

In the same category with this measure are various others, some of which are of pressing importance, at a time when there is so great a demand on the part of the Government for retrenchment and economy in every department of the public service; and, considering that every delay renders such improvement more and more difficult, I respectfully submit the importance of my being early placed in a position for entering upon them with safety and success.

I trust, my Lord, that in earnestly dwelling on these considerations as affecting the public interest, I advance no improper claim as regards myself. Your Lordship will, I am sure, remember that expectation of such promotion was held out to me, contingent only on my demonstrating that I possess the requisite administrative capabilities, and that one object in placing the Money Order Departments under my immediate direction was to bring these capabilities to the test. With the result of this experiment your Lordship has been pleased to express entire satisfaction, and, combining this testimonial with the repeated expressions of approval with which your Lordship has honoured me during the two years of my service, I trust I am not assuming too much in regarding the conditions as fulfilled.

I am the more strongly impelled to ask for the fulfilment of the contingent expectation, because, in addition to the Treasury's demand and your Lordship's exercise for economy, there is, from time to time, a manifestation of some disappointment in the public mind. It is naturally expected that, under your Lordship's sanction, I should effect the improvements in reference to which my appointment was made. And as the public is far from being fully aware of the difficulties under which I labour, and as I am of course precluded by my position from giving explanations, I am exposed to attacks which I must not repel, and suffer in my reputation, without being conscious of blame.

I have now finished a task which I began with reluctance, and which I feel much relieved to have drawn to a close. A more agreeable duty remains to be performed: it is to express my sincere thanks for the kind support with which your Lordship has been pleased to honour my efforts.

I have, &c.,
ROWLAND HILL.

The Most Noble
The MARQUIS OF CLANRICARDE,
&c., &c., &c.