difficulties of the Post Office, a uniform rate of 4d. a letter (1d. a
letter for London local letters) was introduced on the 5th December
1839.
[89] Estimate of number of chargeable letters delivered in the United
Kingdom (in round numbers):--
1839 Letters 76.0 millions
Franks 6.6 "
1840 Letters 169.0 "
1841 " 197.0 "
1842 " 208.0 "
1843 " 220.0 "
1844 " 242.0 "
1845 " 271.0 "
1846 " 300.0 "
1847 " 322.0 "
1848 " 329.0 "
1849 " 337.0 "
1860 " 564.0 "
1900-1 " 2,323.6 "
1913-14 " 3,477.8 "
The total number of packets of all descriptions delivered in the United
Kingdom in the year 1913-14 was about 6,000 millions.--_Annual Reports
of the Postmaster-General._
[90] See J. R. McCulloch, _Taxation and the Funding System_, Edinburgh,
1863, p. 331.
[91] The number of letters per head of population shows a continuous
increase, as follows:--
-----------+----------+-----------+----------+---------
Year. | England. | Scotland. | Ireland. | United
| | | | Kingdom.
-----------+----------+-----------+----------+---------
1880-1 | 38 | 29 | 15 | 34
1890-1 | 50 | 36 | 21 | 45
1900-1 | 61 | 47 | 32 | 57
1905-6 | 68 | 51 | 36 | 62
1910-11 | 73 | 56 | 40 | 68
1913-14 | 81 | 63 | 45 | 75
-----------+----------+-----------+----------+---------
[92] As in other countries. It is contrary to the general principles
upon which the post is conducted in the leading countries of Europe to
throw a quantity of heavy matter upon the letter post, which exists
primarily for the carriage of light letters, and would be seriously
hampered by the transmission of large numbers of heavy packages."
[93] Of these, 123,640 were established and 125,813 unestablished
officers.
[94] The following table shows the date and annual cost of the various
revisions:--
1881-2. Fawcett Revision [L]320,000
1888-91. Raikes Revision 406,600
1897-8. Tweedmouth Revision (including
Norfolk-Hanbury concessions) 388,000
1905. Stanley Revision 372,300
1908. Hobhouse Committee Revision 707,900
1914. Holt Committee Revision 1,335,750
1894-1912. Other improvements 144,400
----------
Total [L]3,674,950
In addition, the annual cost of the War Bonus granted in 1915 is
estimated at [L]1,080,000.
[95]
----------+-------------------------
| Percentage of Salaries,
Year. | Wages, etc., to Total
| Revenue.
----------+-------------------------
1880-1 | 28.39
1890-1 | 35.78
1900-1 | 45.30
1905-6 | 45.34
1909-10 | 49.09
1910-11 | 47.61
1911-12 | 49.20
1912-13 | 47.88
1913-14 | 47.04
----------+-------------------------
[96] The increase is partly accounted for by the fact that parcels are
included in the later figures. Deducting the estimated cost of the
parcel post (see _infra_, Chapter VII), the cost for staff for packets
other than parcels was, in 1913-14, some .340d. per packet.
[97] Omitting the cost of conveyance of mails by sea, and omitting the
cost of conveyance of parcels by railway, which is fixed by the Parcel
Post Act of 1882. The following table shows the movement of the general
cost of conveyance of mails:--
------------+-------------+------------------------------------
| | Percentage of Cost of Conveyance
Year. | Cost of | of Mails by Road and Rail to Total
| Conveyance. | Revenue (excluding Cost of
| | Conveyance of Parcels by Railway).
------------+-------------+------------------------------------
1880-1 |[L]921,093 | 16.17
1890-1 | 1,273,894 | 12.62
1900-1 | 1,519,219 | 11.26
1905-6 | 1,710,891 | 10.68
1910-11 | 1,812,505 | 9.18
1913-14 | 1,940,735 | 8.85
[98] Assuming there is no loss on the Parcel Post. If there is such
loss, the cost per packet other than a parcel would be reduced (see
_infra_, Chapter VII).
[99] The general increase of wages partly accounts for this (see p. 34,
opposite). The cost of working is, however, higher in the larger offices
(where the bulk of postal work is done) than in the smaller offices, and
tends to be highest in the largest offices. The matter is complicated by
the fact that higher scales of pay are in force in the larger towns.
[100]
---------------+------------------------------------
| Percentage of Total Expenditure to
| Total Revenue.
Year. +------------------------------------
| Postal Services. | All Services.
---------------+------------------+-----------------
1839-40 A B | 31.66 | --
1840-41 B | 63.16 | --
1880-1 | 61.84 | 68.97
1890-1 | 65.79 | 74.33
1900-1 | 71.75 | 80.99
1905-6 | 69.44 | 80.19
1909-10 | 73.75 | 84.00
1910-11 | 72.28 | 82.94
1911-12 | 72.36 | 82.89
1912-13 | 71.25 | 82.05
1913-14 C | 69.71 | 80.02
A: Penny Postage introduced, 10th January 1840.
B: Revenue does not include proceeds of Impressed Stamp on Newspapers.
C: Estimated.
--_Report of Postmaster-General_, 1913-14, pp. 122-3.
[101] "The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in
that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them."--Benjamin
Franklin, evidence before House of Commons, 28th January, 1766 (_Parl.
History_, vol. xvi. col. 138).
[102] The usual rate of remuneration for deputy postmasters in North
America. Cf. _infra_, pp. 49 and 66.
[103] "On account of the scarcity of money, people will forbear to
correspond until they find occasions by friends, travellers, and the
like, to send their letters, which makes it to be wished that the
Legislature might enact that the rate of postage for the greatest
distances on the Continent of America may not exceed 1s. 6d. for a
single letter and so in proportion."--_British Official Records_, 1764.
[104] Preamble of 5 Geo. III, cap. 25.
[105] "The present rates may in some parts be reduced, and the Revenue
nevertheless may hereafter be improved, by means of a more extensive
circulation."--5 Geo. III, cap. 25, [S] 1.
[106] _British Official Records_, 8th February 1774.
[107] _British Official Records_, 23rd September 1790.
[108] J. G. Hendy, _Empire Review_, London, 1902, vol. iv., p. 180.
[109] "There is no doubt that the revenues of the provinces showed a
nominal surplus, but it is not so clear that this surplus, which
amounted to [L]884 in 1801, and to [L]2,514 in 1811, was a surplus on
the provincial services. Many years later, when the administration of
the Post Office in the colonies and the question of the disposal of the
surplus revenue had become part of a political matter of the first
magnitude, the provincial Legislatures alleged that the surplus amounted
to a very considerable sum each year, and that the circumstances
constituted a taxation of the colonies by the Mother Country; but the
Deputy Postmaster-General asserted that this surplus was in fact
composed of revenues to which the colonies had no claim, viz. the
charges for British packet postage, that is, for transmission of letters
across the ocean, and payments in respect of military postage, and that
in point of fact the local service had never yielded a surplus--that,
indeed, there was probably a deficit.
"This I feel myself bound to state as my firm conviction, that neither
for the last ten years, nor for any previous period, has the postage of
Lower Canada afforded one farthing of Net Revenue."--Mr. T. A. Stayner,
Deputy Postmaster-General (_Report of Special Committee of the House of
Assembly on the Post Office Department in the Province of Lower Canada_,
11th February 1832, p. 12).
[110] See, e.g., _Report of Special Committee, House of Assembly, Lower
Canada_, 8th March 1836.
[111] In 1790 Governor Carleton of New Brunswick manned the posts at St.
John, Cumberland, Preguile, and Fredericton with a troop of soldiers, by
which means "the route was kept in good order"; and in 1794 the Duke of
Kent, then Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Nova Scotia, constructed
a military post road from Halifax to Annapolis, and also other roads in
the vicinity of Halifax.--_British America_ (British Empire Series, vol.
iii., London, 1900), p. 121.
[112] _Vide_ p. 41, note, _supra._
[113] 31 Geo. III, cap. 31.
[114] 18 Geo. III, cap. 12.
[115] Will. IV, cap. 7.
[116] _Report of Special Committee, House of Assembly, Lower Canada_,
8th March 1836.
[117] Ibid., _Legislative Council, Lower Canada_, 15th March 1836. Cf.
_Report of Select Committee, Legislative Council, Upper Canada_, 17th
February 1837.
[118] "We have failed to discover reasonable grounds for hoping that the
several Colonial Legislatures will soon (if indeed they ever will)
arrive at such uniformity in their enactments for the management of the
Post Office within their respective localities as would ensure the
establishment of a practicable system, more especially since it is
admitted that the Bill of one Legislature, in order to become effective,
must correspond in all its material provisions with the Bills of all the
other Legislatures, and that after these Bills have been found to
correspond with one another, and had in consequence thereof become Laws,
no alterations in them, however expedient it might be deemed by one
Legislature for the improvement of the system, could be carried into
effect, until agreed to by each separate Legislature."--_Joint Address,
Legislature of Upper Canada_, March 1837, p. 11.
An example of the difficulties likely to be encountered, and some
justification for the reluctance of the Imperial authorities to yield
control of the service, is afforded by a dispute which occurred at about
this time between Canada and Nova Scotia concerning the arrangements for
the transmission of the British mails between Quebec and Halifax. Nova
Scotia refused for the first time to make good the deficiency in the
Post Office revenue. The authorities in London thereupon ordered the
Deputy in the province to discontinue all unremunerative services, a
course of action which proved effective.
[119] _Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the affairs
of the Post Office in British North America_, 31st December 1841.
[120] _British Official Records_, 1842-3.
[121] W. J. Page, Report of 1st October 1842 (_British Official
Records_).
[122] Despatch of 28th August 1847.
[123] _Report of a Committee of the Executive Council of Canada on the
Post Office_, 10th June 1848.
[124] 12 & 13 Vict., cap. 66.
[125] _Correspondence on the Subject of the Establishment of a General
Post Office System in British North America_, Montreal, 27th February
1849.
[126] In 1851, $362,065; in 1852, $230,629; in 1855, $368,166.
[127] "He would, were it necessary for the revenue, prefer to retain the
existing letter rate than to extend through the Dominion this newspaper
impost, unknown in the Maritime Provinces before."--Hon. Dr. Tupper,
_Parl. Debates_ (_Canada_), _House of Commons_, 20th December 1867.
[128] Hon. Mr. Campbell, Ibid., _Senate_, 3rd December 1867.
[129] "The Postal service should be expected to yield a revenue; but the
service should be performed as low as possible, and if it paid its way
that was all that need be desired."--Hon. Mr. Campbell, Ibid.
[130] The revenue in 1868 was $1,024,702, and in 1871, $1,079,768. In
1889 the rate was made 3 cents per ounce.
[131] See _infra_, p. 143.
[132] Sir W. Mulock, _Parl. Debates_ (_Canada_), _House of Commons_, 1st
April 1898 (_Official Reports_, vol. xlvi.).
[133] Sir Charles Tupper, Ibid., 13th May 1898.
[134] In 1898, $3,527,810: in 1902, $3,888,126.
[135] "It is ordered that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks his
house in Boston is the place appointed for all letters which are brought
from beyond the seas or are to be sent thither to be left with him, and
he is to take care that they are to be delivered or sent according to
the directions; and he is allowed for every letter a penny, and must
answer all miscarriages through his own negligence in this kind."
[136] Stanley I. Slack, _A Brief History of the Postal Service_, Omaha.
[137] M. E. Woolley, _Early History of the Colonial Post Office_,
Providence, R.I., 1894, p. 6.
[138] New York, in 1692, enacted that any persons or body politic or
corporate other than the Postmaster-General presuming to "carry,
re-carry, or deliver letters for hire, or to set up or imploy any
foot-post, horse-post, or pacquet-boat whatsoever" for the carrying of
letters or packets should forfeit [L]100; and the Act of New Hampshire,
passed in 1693, provided that no person or persons whatsoever should
carry letters for hire, "except letters sent by private friend or by any
messenger for or concerning the private affaires of any person."
[139] Preamble of Act (1st April 1693).
[140] "The mail carriers rode through the wilderness in this year of the
beginning."--Stanley I. Slack, _A Brief History of the Postal Service_,
Omaha, p. 11.
[141] See _infra_, Appendix B, pp. 391 ff.
[142] "An Act for establishing a General Post Office for all her
Majesty's Dominions" (9 Anne, cap. 10).
[143] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25. See _supra_, pp. 38-9.
[144] Cf. _supra_, p. 38.
[145] Evidence of Benjamin Franklin before House of Commons Committee,
28th January 1766. The Committee were, of course, most anxious on points
having relation to the taxation of the colonies by the English
Parliament, and Dr. Franklin was asked questions directed to discovering
whether the colonists regarded postage, which was fixed by Act of the
British Parliament, and had been newly fixed by such Act in the previous
year (5 Geo. III, cap. 25), as a tax. On this point Dr. Franklin
emphatically held that the postage paid on a letter was not of the
nature of a tax, but that it was simply payment for service performed;
and, moreover, the payment of postage was not compulsory, since a man
might still, as before the passing of the Act, send his letter by a
servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thought it cheaper or
safer. Dr. Franklin said that every Assembly encouraged the Post Office
in its infancy by grants of money; that they would not have done this if
they had thought the postage charge a tax, and as a matter of fact the
system was always regarded as supplying a great convenience (W. Cobbett,
_Parliamentary History of England_, vol. xvi. cols. 137-160).
[146] _Manifesto to the American People_, issued by Goddard, 2nd July
1774. Earlier in the manifesto it was remarked that "newspapers, those
necessary and important alarms in time of public danger, may be rendered
of little consequence for want of circulation."
[147] "It is not to be doubted but that the institution will be properly
regulated by the Continental Congress."--_Manifesto to the American
People_, 8th May 1774.
[148] _Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789_, pub.
Washington, 1904, vol. ii. p. 208.
[149] Resolution of 30th September 1775. Ibid., vol. iii. p. 267.
[150] _British Official Records_, 6th December 1780.
[151] "The officers of the American Army beg leave to inform their
friends and correspondents that the postage of all letters to and from
the Army is doubled: but as their pay is fully adequate to every
expense, they therefore request them to send all letters by the public
post, and not _through any [oe]conomical view_ by a private conveyance.
'Tis a pity that the Honourable Congress did not treble the postage for
Officers' letters, as a large annual sum by this means would be put into
the public Treasury.
The several printers of newspapers on the Continent are requested to
insert the above."--_Pennsylvania Packet_, 22nd June 1779.
[152] In all, no less a sum than $111,967 was advanced to the Post
Office during the year 1779.--_Journals of the Continental Congress_,
1774-1789, pub. Washington, 1904, vol. xv. pp. 1412 and 1436.
[153] Ibid., vol. xviii. p. 1142.
[154] The rates were given in pennyweights and grains of silver, each
pennyweight being estimated as equivalent to five-ninetieths of a
dollar.
[155] _Journals of Congress_, Philadelphia, 1781-2, vol. vii. p. 509.
[156] See pp. 12-14, _supra._
[157] Ibid., vol. xii. p. 11.
[158] Message to Congress, 25th October 1791.
[159] See _Debates and Proceedings in Congress_, 20th December 1791.
(Washington, 1849.)
[160] Ibid., 6th December 1791.
[161] See _Congressional Record_ (_House of Representatives_), 21st
February 1863.
[162] Questions of the establishment and maintenance of the post roads
were dealt with by Congress separately from questions of mail service.
[163] _Reports of Senate Committee_, 27th January 1835, p. 115.
[164] Letter to Hon. Mr. Kennedy, _Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History
of Penny Postage_, pp. 336-7.
[165] See D. D. T. Leech, _The Post Office Department of the United
States of America; its History, Organization, and Working_, Washington,
D.C., 1879.
[166] Message to Congress, 3rd December 1844.
[167] Some notion of the spirit in which the question was approached may
be gathered from the following extracts:--
"To content the man dwelling more remote from town with his homely lot,
by giving him regular and frequent means of intercommunication: to
assure to the emigrant, who plants his new home on the skirts of the
distant wilderness or prairie, that he is not forever severed from the
kindred and society that still share his interest and love: to prevent
those whom the swelling tide of population is constantly pressing to the
outer verge of civilization from being surrendered to surrounding
influences and sinking into the hunter or savage state: to render the
citizen, how far soever from the seat of his Government, worthy, by
proper knowledge and intelligence, of his important privileges as a
sovereign constituent of the Government: to diffuse, throughout all
parts of the land, enlightenment, social improvement, and national
affinities, elevating our people in the scale of civilization, and
binding them together in patriotic affection."--_Report of House
Committee_, 15th May 1844.
"It [the Post Office] was a most important element in the hand of
civilization, especially of a republican people. There would be room to
dilate in reference to the utility of the diffusion of sciences, the
promotion of morals, and all these great benefits resulting from the
intercourse of mind and mind.... Because it was so well understood by
those who framed the Constitution, we find in that sacred instrument
that the power of this department of the public service is exclusively
vested in Congress.... Every nook and corner of this country should be
visited by its operations, that it should shed light and information to
the remote frontier settler as well as to the inhabitant of the populous
city or densely populated districts."--Mr. Merrick in the Senate when
introducing the Bill, 27th January 1845 (_Congressional Globe_).
"And what element but universal enlightenment of the people forms the
chief corner-stone in the temple of our political hopes? and what
instrument so calculated to awaken the ambition of the people to become
educated as the cultivation of the taste for epistolatory
correspondence, calling into action those energies of the mind so
necessary to the intelligent discharge of the high and responsible
duties of freemen, in a country where every man is equal, and the
builder and maker of his Government."--Mr. Paterson in the House of
Representatives, 1st March 1845 (_Congressional Globe_).
[168] "The extension of the mail service and the additional facilities
which will be demanded by the rapid extension and increase of population
on our western frontier will not admit of such curtailment as will
materially reduce the present expenditure."--Message to Congress, 2nd
December 1845.
[169] "The honour and interest of the nation required that as soon as
the title to the country was settled, our citizens who were resident
there, and those who shall go to settle there, should enjoy the benefits
of the mail. And as it was the nation's business to establish the mail,
it was equally the nation's business to pay the expense. No man can show
how it is just and reasonable that the letters passing between Boston
and New York should be taxed 150 per cent. to pay the expenses of a mail
to Oregon on the pretext that the Post Office must support itself."--J.
Leavitt, _Cheap Postage_, Boston, Mass., 1848, p. 27.
[170] Mr. Root (_Congressional Globe, House of Representatives_, 18th
December 1850).
[171] "Sir, I am acquainted with the privations and hardships incident
to the settlement of a new country: and I do not intend that my friends
who are now combating the trials and hardships of California and Oregon
shall be visited by their Government with such injustice. The men who
are settling those countries are sacrificing their lives for a coming
generation. I will not add to their hardships by taxing them four times
as much as a citizen of the old States of the Union for a letter which
shall give them intelligence of their friends left behind them, and
shall chill that gush of feeling which will swell their bosoms, as they
take possession of a letter that comes from their far-distant native
land."--Mr. Sweetser (Ibid., 4th January 1851).
[172] _Congressional Record, Senate_, 17th January 1883.
[173] The cost of the provision and maintenance (lighting, heating,
etc.) of Post Office buildings is charged directly on the Federal
Treasury, and does not in any way figure in the Post Office deficit.
[174] "If the postal revenue arising from letter postage could be set
aside for its proper uses, the millions of letter-writers of this
country might quickly be permitted to enjoy a reduced taxation on
letter-writing. In point of fact, there is a dear gain of nearly
$30,000,000 from letter postages."--_Annual Report of the
Postmaster-General_, 1890, p. 53.
[175] Ibid., 1891, p. 102.
[176] "There is now, and has been for many years, an insistent demand
for the reduction of letter postage. The advocates of that reduction
argue that the volume of business naturally resulting therefrom would
offset the temporary loss in revenue. They insist that the charge for
first-class matter is out of all proportion to the cost of its handling
and transportation."--_Annual Report of the Postmaster-General_, 1906,
p. xlvi.
[177] "As the profit on first-class matter is almost equal to the loss
on second-class matter, it will readily be seen that an equalization of
rates on the basis of the cost of service would permit a reduction in
letter postage from 2 cents to 1 cent an ounce."--Mr. Hitchcock,
Postmaster-General, evidence before Commission of 1911.
[178] P. Jaccottey, _Trait['e] de L['e]gislation et d'Exploitation
Postales_, Paris, 1891, p. 5. E. Gallois, _La Poste_, etc., Paris, 1894,
pp. 41 and 44.
[179] A. de Rothschild, _Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres_, Paris, 1879,
p. 60.
[180] P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 6.
[181] Edict of 19th June 1464.
[182] Edict of 8th May 1597: "['E]dit du Roy pour l'['e]tablissement des
relais de chevaux de louage, de traite en traite, sur les grands
chemins, traverses et le long des rivi[e']res, pour servir [a']
vo[:i]ager, porter malles et toutes sortes de bagages."
[183] "Louis XI ne se pr['e]occupait nullement de la correspondance des
particuliers, ni du d['e]veloppement des relations commerciales et
sociales: il poursuivait un but exclusivement politique.
"Engag['e] dans sa grande lutte contre la f['e]odalit['e], il cherchait
le moyen de transmettre avec c['e]l['e]rit['e] ses ordres dans les
provinces et d'[^e]tre rapidement inform['e] des man[oe]uvres de ses
ennemis.... L'institution cr['e]['e]e par Louis XI pour son usage
exclusif ['e]tait donc identique dans son but, sinon dans ses moyens,
[a'] la course publique des Romains."--P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 7. See
also D. Macpherson, op. cit., vol. i. p. 695.
[184] A. Belloc, _Les Postes francaises_, Paris, 1886, pp. 43 and 46.
[185] Regulation of 26th October 1627.
[186] See Charles Bernede, _Des Postes en G['e]n['e]ral, et
particuli[e']rement en France_, Nantes, 1826.
[187] L['e]on Cazes, _Le Monopole Postale_, Paris, 1900.
[188] Edict of 8th December 1703.
[189] Decrees of 26th-29th August 1790.
[190] P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 287. Cf. _Le Moniteur Universel_, 18
ao[^u]t 1791, p. 954.
[191] Law of 27th December 1795.