Chapter XXXIX: Appendix: H

[See p. 215.]

_Letter to Postmaster-General (Lord Canning)._

General Post Office, 18th June, 1853.

MY DEAR LORD,--As your Lordship is already acquainted with many of the statements I am about to make, you will at once perceive that in writing at such length my view is in accordance with your understood wish so to prepare the case for the Chancellor of the Exchequer as to supersede the necessity of reference to former correspondence on the subject.

In September 1842, in the midst of what the Treasury was pleased to consider an able discharge of duties connected with the institution of my system of Penny Postage, I learnt that my services were no longer required, and I spent the next four years in private life, except so much of the year 1843 as was occupied in preparing and laying before a committee of the House of Commons a full exposition of the operation of the Post Office as then conducted, in the course of which I demonstrated that the existing system of management, besides depriving the public of many reasonable facilities, involved an enormous loss of revenue.

In December, 1846, my friend Mr. Warburton intimated to me the desire of Her Majesty's Government again to employ me in developing and perfecting my plans, and that they were prepared to offer me a permanent engagement at the Post Office.

Although I was then engaged in avocations more highly remunerative than the proffered appointment, I at once avowed myself ready to accept it if I could be assured of sufficient authority to secure the success of my measures--a stipulation which, while reasonable under any circumstances, was rendered imperative by my former experience of the obstructions and injury that improvements were exposed to in consequence of the state of feeling which prevailed at the Post Office.

I was given to understand that I might count on the support of the Postmaster-General and the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and that if I showed that I possessed the requisite administrative powers, (the subsequent full acknowledgment of which happily relieves me from the necessity of entering on that part of the subject) I might look forward to be promoted at no distant period to a position of higher authority, which was understood at the time and subsequently admitted to mean the post of sole secretary.

Without for a single moment doubting the sincerity with which these promises were made, I nevertheless, after much anxious deliberation, arrived at the conclusion that they were not sufficiently explicit to justify me in placing myself in a position so liable to failure, which in the public mind would naturally be attributed to defects in the system itself, or to mismanagement on my part, rather than to opposing influences which could not be generally known.

My prospects of effecting improvements under the discouraging circumstances in which I knew I should be placed did not seem clear enough to justify me in incurring the risk of becoming myself an instrument for destroying that universal reliance on the soundness of my project, which I felt to be my surest means of obtaining ultimate success.

But I was in the hands of my friends, and I shall not be censured for deferring to the opinion of such men as Mr. Warburton, Lord Overstone, Mr. Hawes, and Mr. Raikes Currie.

I consequently entered on my present office, and have now served under three Postmasters-General; and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to express my deep sense of the kindness and confidence with which I have been treated, and my full recognition of the efforts made from time to time, with more or less of success, to remove impediments and to give freer scope to my exertions; but the evils which I foresaw and which have come upon me in full measure are beyond the reach of palliatives. The system on which we are proceeding is radically bad, and stands scarcely more strongly condemned by myself than by my colleague Colonel Maberly.

Though possessed of secretarial authority, I am, if I may so express myself, a general almost without an army--when I entered the office I found, of course, the clerks regarding the senior secretary as having the first if not the only claim on their services; and without desiring for a moment to reflect on them or on any one else, I become every day more convinced that without harmonious views, a joint jurisdiction, even supposing equality to be fully and practically admitted, is utterly incompatible with the requirements of the office.

Looking then back upon the events of the six years during which my promised promotion has been delayed, I feel bound to state that if in December, 1846, I could have foreseen what has occurred I could not have accepted the offer then made, nor do I believe that, under like circumstances, my friends would have advised me to the step.

That much has been done is, of course, not to be denied by me; but it has been accomplished amidst sore trials, and with risks to health which my duty to my family would not have allowed me to incur.

Let me then stand acquitted before your Lordship and the Chancellor of the Exchequer of either impatience or presumption, when I urge in the strongest manner, consistent with the respect which I owe to my superiors, my claim to the prompt fulfilment of the understanding on which alone I consented to take my seat at the Post Office.

As every statement like that which I am called upon by your Lordship to make is, of necessity, tinctured with egotism, I gladly quit that part of the task which relates to my own personal interests, and proceed to show that the change which I claim is equally demanded by the public service.

In 1847 I was directed by the Postmaster-General to report on the state of the Money Order Office, which resulted in my recommending several large retrenchments and other improvements, which were adopted by his Lordship and the Treasury, but which Colonel Maberly declined to take the responsibility of carrying into effect; in consequence of which the secretarial authority of that Department was consigned to me alone.

By a report of Mr. Barth, the head of the Department, which I called for soon afterwards, it appears that the accounts were then so deeply in arrear that 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 great expense of bringing up the arrears, and to insure the extinction of unknown liabilities, it was found 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 eventually the liabilities of the department were ascertained, and a general balance was struck, which has since been repeated quarterly.

On a full investigation of the accounts I found that the Department was not only, as I had anticipated, unprofitable, but involved an annual loss of no less than £10,000.

I, however, found it practicable to introduce, by successive improvements, such simplification in the arrangements as, with increased convenience to the public, and increased accuracy in the accounts, with better pay and more relaxation to the clerks, to convert this loss into a gain, which amounted for the year 1850 to £3,236, and which, under my brother, Mr. Frederic Hill, who has subsequently carried on the Department in the same spirit of improvement, amounted last year to £11,664, making an effective saving within five years of upwards of £21,000 per annum.

As regards the Post Office generally, the amount of saving which may still be effected is a matter of so much uncertainty, that I hesitate to offer any estimate. I can only say that it may be assumed, as I think it may, that every Department of the service can be gradually improved to the same extent as the Money Order Office (the only one which has been confided entirely to my care), it follows that in the course of a few years, not only may the public be better served, and the men, if necessary, better paid, but savings may be effected to an extent of about £200,000 a year, in addition to the saving of £100,000 a year, which, if required, I should be prepared to show has already been made.

But of late a new motive has arisen for the proposed change. The augmentation of letters is not only in constant progress, but has for some time moved forward with increasing celerity. Without some change, no doubt is entertained in the office, that the present building will soon be not only too small for the transaction of the business, but so much too small, as that no increase of its limits by practicable additions will answer the requirements of the service; and consequently that a most expensive outlay--probably not less than half a million--will be required for a new Post Office.

If placed, however, in the position contemplated, I shall be enabled, as I confidently expect, to make, under your Lordship's sanction, such improvements as will avert this impending necessity for years, if not remove it altogether.

The result of my experiments in the Money Order Office has been to show the great power which the simplification of arrangements has in lessening the quantity of labour, and, as a consequence, the quantity of space required for its performance.

When, five years ago, I took the secretarial control of the Money Order department, the building appropriated thereto was fully occupied, and negotiations were in progress for purchasing land to extend the accommodations. At present, notwithstanding an increase of business to the amount of one-third, there is such ample room that no extension is likely to be required for many years to come.

My knowledge of the other departments of the Post Office enables me to state, with some confidence, my opinion, that similar improvements may be extended to those also, and with the like beneficial results. At the present time, a postponement of building, though but for a few years, is of great importance. Several projects for bringing railways into the heart of the metropolis, so as to make them available for mere local transit, are on foot. And from some years' experience, first as a director and afterwards as chairman, of the Brighton Railway Company, I feel justified in predicting that in some shape or other, some such project will be realized: I also foresee that such change must produce results in which both the Post Office authorities and the proprietors of the railways will have a common interest, and from overtures which have been made to the Department by some of the projectors, I think it highly probable, that whatever changes in the Post Office may be thereby rendered necessary or desirable, will not have to be made altogether, perhaps not mainly, at the cost of Government.

But however this may be, it can scarcely be doubted that the effect of such railways must be to reduce the value of any outlay made irrespective of this disturbance in the present system of Metropolitan communication, since it is hardly possible that any buildings that might now be put up would be found adapted, either in position or arrangement, to the altered state of things.

Having now concluded the financial part of the subject, I beg your Lordship's attention to the new sources of anxiety which have been opened, and to the possibility of allaying that anxiety by substituting a unity of executive power for its present divided state.

The vast increase which has taken place of late years in the facilities for locomotion and the conveyance of merchandise, has led to a wide-spread desire--I might almost say a clamorous demand--for further facilities in the transmission of letters. On some points this is the result of ignorance as to what is practicable or even possible, while on others it relates to changes which I have long had in view, but which, under present impediments, I cannot undertake.

The experience of the last thirteen years has satisfied me, that if our Post Office is to retain its present position, and to remain the model for those of other nations, and still more if it is to attain that high perfection to which your Lordship's enlightened and vigorous administration seems to open the way, we must not only continue in the course of improvement, but increase our speed. I do not allude to reduction of rates; but to what, in the present cheapness of postage, the public mind is much more intent upon, viz., frequency, celerity, and exact regularity in transmission and delivery. Inconveniences which, while the whole system of commercial intercourse was characterised by dearness, infrequency, and slowness, attracted but little attention, now rise to importance in the eyes of the sufferer by the effect of comparison, and remedy is demanded with a promptitude quite unheard of in former times, and which is unattainable without energetic and cordial co-operation in the higher departments of the executive, and ready obedience and zealous activity in all the subordinates.

Having written thus far, and having also carefully considered every statement and every remark I have made, I feel it my duty to say, that after all the deliberation required by so grave a question, I have arrived at the settled conviction that the existing state of things cannot continue; and I therefore respectfully request that, in considering the present application, such continuance may not be regarded as a possible alternative.

I am sure your Lordship will believe me incapable of dealing lightly with that connection with the Post Office on which I set so great and just a value. To devise and bring into operation, so far as it has been effected, my system of Penny Postage, has been the cherished object of the best years of my life, interest in its progress, whether I am an instrument or not in promoting it, will ever retain the firmest hold on my mind, and would suffice to keep me in any course, but one which I feel to be inconsistent alike with my private and my public duty.[256]

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The Right Hon. VISCOUNT CANNING, &c., &c., &c.