RESIGNATION. (1864.)
I return to the year 1864, and to my personal narrative.
The necessity for my withdrawal was the more disappointing because
I knew that I had the full confidence and even sympathy of the head
of that department to which the Post Office is subordinate. This
confidence, however, was not sufficiently near for my support; and
in my immediate department the ground was slipping from beneath my
feet. The chief point I was striving to maintain was that of promotion
at once by absolute merit, and in faithful accordance with the
requirements of the department. The rules by which this was maintained
had to an important extent been of late set aside; all my resistance
to the change being overborne. My appointment having been made by the
Treasury, I had thought myself justified in appealing directly to that
higher authority; and I now learnt, for the first time (February 6th,
1864), that such appeal had been condemned by the Postmaster-General,
who at the same time denied in general terms my alleged appointment
by the Treasury,[230] maintaining that "all appointments in the Post
Office, without distinction, are made by the Postmaster-General, and
him alone." I had even gone so far (on the suggestion of Mr. Gladstone)
as twice to solicit and obtain an interview with the Premier, Lord
Palmerston. Though, on the first occasion, I was received in the most
friendly manner, and listened to with great patience, and even obtained
some little support, I became convinced, on the second interview, that
I had no hope of effectual aid from that quarter. In short, matters had
ere this come into such a state that it was in effect impracticable for
me to retain my actual position; and, indeed, at the time of which I am
now writing, viz., the beginning of 1864, no change, I am afraid, would
have availed, my strength being already exhausted. The last six months
I had passed in vacation, for which I had applied, in the hope that
such a period of rest might so far recruit my health as to enable me to
hold on in the hope of better times; but at the close of the period I
was but too sensible that this end had not been attained. I therefore
procured a consultation of all my medical advisers, four in number;
their opinion, communicated to me through the mouth of their senior,
Sir Thomas Watson, is thus recorded in my Journal:--
"They were unanimously of opinion that for me to return to the
Post Office would be attended with serious risk of life, and they
hoped that I would altogether abandon any such intention; that I
had accomplished a great work, and they hoped that I would make
up my mind to rest for the future; that with rest, and with such
pleasant occupation as they had no doubt I could find, they had
every reason to believe I should, to a considerable extent, regain
my health and strength. He added that he had been informed by the
others, confidentially, that certain changes had been made at the
Post Office, which, in my opinion, would add to my difficulties
if I returned; but that, under any circumstances, their opinion
was against such return. The question of an extension of leave of
absence having been raised, Dr. Watson, supported by the others,
earnestly advised that the main question should now be finally
decided, as they considered it very important, in the state of
my health, that all doubt on the subject should be removed. They
afterwards gave the following certificate:--
"'16, Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square,
"'February 18th, 1864.
"'We certify that the state of Sir Rowland Hill's health is such
as to render it unsafe for him to resume his duties at the Post
Office.'"
In yielding to the necessity thus falling upon me, I had some comfort
in knowing that I left behind me, in addition to several men of tried
zeal and ability in their respective stations, a few on whose zeal,
talent, and earnest support of my plans, I could implicitly rely; for
though I feared that under existing circumstances their efforts would
be comparatively unavailing, yet I trusted they would have strength to
endure until the return of better times. Unfortunately while my trust
in their firmness has been fully justified, my hope seems as far as
ever from fulfilment.
My whole family concurring in the necessity of the contemplated step,
I called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer: my interview with him is
thus recorded in my Journal:--
"Gladstone greatly regrets my determination to resign. Presses upon
me an offer to arrange for another six months' absence, with a
clear understanding that I do not return to the Post Office while
Lord Stanley of Alderley is there. At his urgent request, promised
to reconsider the question."
I fulfilled this promise, but could not venture to change my
determination. Before sending in my resignation, however, I thought it
due to Mr. Gladstone to wait upon him, and state the reasons which
compelled me to take this step, as also to warn him of the evils that
must follow some of the changes then in progress at the Post Office.
Mr. Gladstone, receiving me with much kindness and evincing great
sympathy, expressed his readiness to do anything in his power that
might enable me to remain; but, while sincerely thanking him for all
his kindness past and present, I was obliged to say that measures of
relief, even if practicable, were now too late. Thus ended my last
official interview with that distinguished statesman.[231]
My letter of resignation, which was addressed to the Lords of the
Treasury, a copy being also sent to the Postmaster-General, was as
follows:--
"Hampstead, 29th February, 1864.
"MY LORDS,--Referring to my letter to your lordships of the 12th
March last for explanation of the circumstances which rendered
my position at the Post Office so difficult, especially in the
impaired state of my health, I regret to say that the leave of
absence subsequently accorded me having elapsed without any
satisfactory result, I have no course left but to resign my
appointment as Secretary to the Post Office into your lordships'
hands, which I now accordingly beg leave to do. The necessity for
this step will at once appear on reference to the enclosed medical
certificate.
"I will not, my lords, attempt to conceal the extreme regret with
which I have come to the resolution to retire from a pursuit which
has been the absorbing occupation of so many years of my life. I
had once hoped to assist, for some considerable time to come, in
the great work of perfecting our postal system. My disappointment,
severe as your lordships will feel it must be, is nevertheless
greatly mitigated by the consolation of knowing that all the
expectations I ever held out to Parliament and the country have
been surpassed by the results. Of these, I beg leave to enclose a
brief and necessarily imperfect statement.
"Sincerely thanking your lordships for the ready support you have
so frequently afforded me in the performance of my arduous duties,
"I have, &c.,
"ROWLAND HILL.
"The Right Hon.
"The Lords Commissioners of H.M. Treasury, &c."
Of the brief and imperfect statement of results referred to above, the
following is a copy. A few notes, however, are appended for the purpose
of giving later results:--
"RESULTS OF POSTAL REFORM.
"Before stating the results of postal reform, it may be convenient
that I should briefly enumerate the more important organic
improvements effected. They are as follows:
"1. A very large reduction in the rates of postage on all
correspondence, whether inland, foreign, or colonial. As instances
in point, it may be stated that letters are now conveyed from
any part of the United Kingdom to any other part--even from the
Channel Islands to the Shetland Isles--at one-fourth of the charge
previously levied on letters passing between post towns only a
few miles apart;[232] and that the rate formerly charged for this
slight distance--viz., fourpence--now suffices to carry a letter
from any part of the United Kingdom to any part of France, Algeria
included.
"2. The adoption of charge by weight, which, by abolishing the
charge for mere enclosures, in effect largely extended the
reduction of rates.
"3. Arrangements which have led to the almost universal resort to
prepayment of correspondence, and that by means of stamps.
"4. The simplification of the mechanism and accounts of the
department generally, by the above and other means.
"5. The establishment of the book-post (including in its operation
all printed and much MS. matter), at very low rates; and its
modified extension to our colonies, and to many foreign countries.
"6. Increased security in the transmission of valuable letters
afforded, and temptation to the letter-carriers and others greatly
diminished, by reducing the registration fee from 1_s._ to 4_d._,
by making registration of letters containing coin compulsory, and
by other means.
"7. A reduction to about one-third in the cost--including
postage--of money orders; combined with a great extension and
improvement of the system.
"8. More frequent and more rapid communication between the
Metropolis and the larger provincial towns; as also between one
provincial town and another.
"9. A vast extension of the rural distribution--many thousands of
places, and probably some millions of inhabitants, having, for the
first time, been included within the postal system.
"10. A great extension of free deliveries. Before the adoption of
penny postage, many considerable towns, and portions of nearly all
the larger towns, had either no delivery at all, or deliveries on
condition of an extra charge.
"11. Greatly increased facilities afforded for the transmission
of foreign and colonial correspondence; by improved treaties with
foreign countries, by a better arrangement of the packet service,
by sorting on board, and other means.
"12. A more prompt despatch of letters when posted, and a more
prompt delivery on arrival.
"13. The division of London and its suburbs into ten postal
districts--by which, and other measures, communication within
the twelve-miles circle has been greatly facilitated, and the
most important delivery of the day has, generally speaking, been
accelerated as much as two hours.
"14. Concurrently with these improvements, the condition of the
employés has been materially improved; their labours, especially
on the Sunday, having been very generally reduced, their salaries
increased, their chances of promotion augmented, and other
important advantages afforded them.
"RESULTS.
"My pamphlet on 'Post Office Reform' was written in the year
1836. During the preceding twenty years--viz., from 1815 to 1835,
inclusive--_there was no increase whatever in the Post Office
Revenue, whether gross or net_; and therefore, in all probability,
none in the number of letters: and though there was a slight
increase in the revenue, and doubtless in the number of letters,
between 1835 and the establishment of penny postage early in
1840--an increase chiefly due, in my opinion, to the adoption
of part of my plan, viz., the establishment of day mails to and
from London--yet, during the whole period of twenty-four years
immediately preceding the adoption of penny postage, the revenue,
whether gross or net, and the number of letters, were, in effect,
stationary.
"Contrast with this the rate of increase under the new system,
which has been in operation during a period of about equal length.
In the first year of penny postage, the letters more than doubled;
and though since then the increase has, of course, been less rapid,
yet it has been so steady that, notwithstanding the vicissitudes
of trade, every year, without exception, has shown a considerable
advance on the preceding year, and the first year's number is now
nearly quadrupled. As regards revenue, there was, of course, at
first a large falling off--about a million in gross and still more
in net revenue. Since then, however, the revenue, whether gross
or net, has rapidly advanced, till now it even exceeds its former
amount; the rate of increase, both of letters and revenue, still
remaining undiminished.
"In short, a comparison of the year 1863 with 1838 (the last
complete year under the old system) shows that the number of
chargeable letters has risen from 76 millions to 642 millions (See
Note A); and that the revenue, at first so much impaired, has not
only recovered its original amount, but risen, the gross from
£2,346,000, to about £3,870,000, and the net from £1,660,000 to
about £1,790,000.[233] (See Note B).
"The expectations I held out before the change were, that
eventually, under the operation of my plans, the number of letters
would increase five-fold, the gross revenue would be the same as
before,
(A) In 1868 the number had increased to 808,000,000.--("Fifteenth
Report of the Postmaster-General," p. 4.) [In 1878 the number had
increased to 1,097,000,000--nearly fourteen and a-half fold the
number sent in 1838, in addition there were sent through the post
in 1878, 111,000,000 post-cards, 197,000,000 book packets and
circulars, and 130,000,000 newspapers.--ED.]
(B) Return 1868, No. 215, the latest account rendered in this form
shows that in 1867 the gross revenue had advanced to £4,548,000,
and the net revenue to £2,127,000. [According to the form now in
use, the gross revenue for 1878-9, was £6,274,000, and the net
revenue £2,434,000.--ED.] while the net revenue would sustain
a loss of about £300,000. The preceding statement shows that the
letters have increased, not five-fold, but nearly eight and a-half
fold; that the gross revenue, instead of remaining the same, has
increased by about £1,500,000; while the net revenue, instead of
falling £300,000, has risen more than £100,000. (See Note[234]).
"While the revenue of the Post Office has thus more than recovered
its former amount, the indirect benefit to the general revenue of
the country arising from the greatly increased facilities afforded
to commercial transactions, though incapable of exact estimate,
must be very large. Perhaps it is not too much to assume that, all
things considered, the vast benefit of cheap, rapid, and extended
postal communication has been obtained, even as regards the past,
without fiscal loss. For the future there must be a large and
ever-increasing gain.
"The indirect benefit referred to above is partly manifested in
the development of the money-order system; under which, since the
year 1839, the annual amount transmitted has risen from £313,000 to
£16,494,000; that is, fifty-two-fold (See Note[235]).
"An important collateral benefit of the new system is to be found
in the cessation of that contraband conveyance which once prevailed
so far that habitual breach of the postal law had become a thing of
course.
"It may be added that the organization thus so greatly improved and
extended for postal purposes, stands available for other objects;
and passing over minor matters, has already been applied with great
advantage to the new system of Savings Banks.
"Lastly, the improvements briefly referred to above, with all
their commercial, educational, and social benefits, have now been
adopted, in greater or less degree--and that through the mere force
of example--by the whole civilized world.
"I cannot conclude this summary without gratefully acknowledging
the cordial co-operation and zealous aid afforded me in the
discharge of my arduous duties. I must especially refer to many
among the superior officers of the department--men whose ability
would do credit to any service, and whose zeal could not be greater
if their object were private instead of public benefit.
"ROWLAND HILL.
"Hampstead, Feb. 23rd, 1864."
RESIGNATION.
In consequence of further communication from the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, I wrote to him as follows:--
"Hampstead, March 4th, 1864.
"MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,--Mr. Moffatt has communicated to me your
expressions of desire that I should, if possible, still continue my
connection with the Post Office.
"Though much gratified with this further proof of friendly feeling
towards myself, and deeply regretting that your earnest and
repeated efforts to remove the obstacles to my continuance at
the Post Office should have proved unavailing, I am reluctantly
obliged--having regard to the opinions so emphatically expressed by
my medical advisers, confirmed as they are by my own conviction--to
abide by the decision already announced.
"If, however, the expectation entertained by my medical friends
of improved health from rest should be realized, I need scarcely
say that I shall be most happy to afford Government any advice or
assistance it may be in my power to give; and I may remind you that
my first official connection with the Post Office was as adviser to
Sir Francis Baring, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.
* * * * *
"I remain, &c.,
"ROWLAND HILL."
A few days later I received the subjoined from the Postmaster-General:--
"General Post Office, March 7th, 1864.
"DEAR SIR ROWLAND,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter, informing me that you have resigned your situation as
Secretary to the Post Office.
"It is with great concern I hear the state of your health is such
as to prevent you from resuming your duties.
"I enclose a copy of the letter I have sent to the Treasury on the
subject of your resignation, which expresses my opinion of the
great value of your services, and I have only again to assure you
how sensible I am of the loss which the Department has sustained,
and of my sincere regret at the cause of your retirement."
The enclosure was as follows:--
"4th March, 1864.
"MY LORDS,--I have received a communication from Sir R. Hill,
together with a medical certificate, from which it appears that
he has derived no benefit from his leave of absence; and that the
state of his health is such as to render it unsafe for him to
resume his duties; and in which I am informed that he has already
forwarded his resignation of the office as Secretary of the Post
Office.
"Under these circumstances, I have no choice left but to accept
his resignation; but I cannot do so without expressing my regret
that the country should be deprived of the services of this
distinguished public servant.
"For the introduction of penny postage alone--a measure which,
in itself, and in all its ramifications, has conferred such vast
benefits on all classes of the community, and with which the name
of Sir Rowland Hill will ever be identified--he deserves the
gratitude of his country--indeed of the civilized world, which, no
doubt, will not be niggardly expressed.
"But it is rather my province as Postmaster-General to state simply
the high opinion I entertain of the able manner in which Sir
Rowland Hill, so long as his health permitted, performed his duties
in this Department, and feeling satisfied that your lordships will
concur with me, I have no hesitation in recommending you to grant
him at once a retiring allowance equal to his full salary, a step
which the Superannuation Act enables you to take."
My reply, written on the same day, was as follows:--
"Hampstead, 8th March, 1864.
"MY DEAR LORD,--I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your lordship's letter of yesterday enclosing a copy of the
letter you have addressed to the Treasury on the subject of my
resignation; and to request that you will accept my thanks for the
manner in which you have been pleased to speak of my services.
"I have the honour to be,
"Your Lordship's most obedient Servant,
"ROWLAND HILL.
"The Right Hon.
"LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY, &c."
Amongst the numerous notices of my retirement that appeared in the
newspapers there was one[236] which showed that, notwithstanding my
careful silence on the subject, suspicion was abroad as to the cause
of my resignation. In it my retirement was attributed to opposition in
the Department,--not to the ill-health which such opposition, combined
with other troubles, had produced. The day after the appearance of
this notice, a passage occurred in the House of Lords, which is thus
mentioned in my Journal:--
"The following tells its own story. I have only to add, that
although I know Lord Truro, who inherits his father's interest
in my success, I have had no communication with him, direct or
indirect:--
"_Times_, March 9th.
"'RETIREMENT OF SIR ROWLAND HILL.
"'Lord TRURO rose to ask Her Majesty's Postmaster-General whether
the rumour of Sir Rowland Hill's resignation was well-founded; and,
if so, whether he had any objection to state the circumstances
under which that resignation had taken place. The noble lord said
he put the question to satisfy the strongly expressed desire of
the public to know the truth of the rumour to this effect which
had got abroad. He was sure that it would cause general regret to
hear of the existence of any cause for the retirement of a man who
had conferred such an immeasurable benefit upon the country, and,
indeed, upon the whole civilized world. (Hear, hear).
"'Lord STANLEY OF ALDERLEY said that Sir Rowland had recently
resigned his position in the Post Office in consequence of the
state of his health. Six months ago he applied for six months'
leave of absence, in the hope that he might then be enabled to
resume his duties, but at the end of that period--the beginning
of this month--he forwarded his resignation, saying that the six
months' leave of absence had not restored him, and accompanying it
with a medical certificate that it would not be safe for him to
resume his duties. Those were the whole circumstances connected
with Sir Rowland Hill's resignation, as far as he was acquainted
with them. He was sure that he should meet with their lordships'
concurrence in expressing the deepest regret at the retirement
of this able public servant. (Hear, hear.) The name of Sir R.
Hill would be inseparably connected with the establishment of the
penny post system--one of the greatest improvements of the present
age--which had, perhaps, conferred more benefit on mankind than any
other invention. (Hear, hear.) Those who recollected the state of
things before the penny post would know that to the poorer classes
correspondence by letter was practically interdicted, that to the
class above them the cost of a letter was a very serious matter,
and that, in the commercial and mercantile world, intercourse
was very much restricted by the expense of correspondence. Since
its first introduction, the penny post system had been greatly
extended; facilities of all sorts were given; money orders and
savings banks had been connected with it, and in every way it
had been largely developed. It had become popular all over the
civilized world, and with it the name of Hill would be for ever
connected. Their lordships would confirm him in expressing the
general regret which would be felt by the public at his retirement,
and the universal acknowledgment of the value of his services
would, no doubt, be a great satisfaction to Sir R. Hill. (Hear,
hear.)'"
Amongst the numerous manifestations at this time, not the least
gratifying was the meeting at Birmingham, at which it was determined to
raise subscriptions for the purpose of erecting a statue to me in some
public part of that town, in which I had passed so many of my early
years. My pleasure at this movement was not a little enhanced by the
fact that the originator of the project, the late Mr. James Lloyd, had
been, some forty years before, my pupil.
A few days after the meeting at Birmingham I received, through my
steady and valued friend the late Mr. Matthew Forster, the following
communication from the late Mr. Joseph Parkes, whom I had known almost
from boyhood, and to whom I could not but feel much indebted for his
spontaneous and earnest efforts in my behalf:--
"10th March, 1864. R. C. 5-1/2 P.M.
"DEAR MR. FORSTER,--I could not leave my office till 5. I thought
my interview with Sir F. Baring so good a chapter in Hill's life,
and so important a testimony to his public services, that I penned
the written minute in a note to you before I left Staple Inn. In
fact, Sir Francis is the best, and a willing, witness of Hill's
deserts.
"Yours truly,
"JOSEPH PARKES."
"_Sir Francis Baring's opinion of Rowland Hill._
"Staple Inn, 10th March, 1864.
"DEAR MR. FORSTER,--I found Sir Francis Baring at his rooms after
breakfast this morning, and I sat an hour with him on the subject
of our friend Sir Rowland Hill's deserts and claims on his country.
No one could be more kind or sensible in all his views of the
subject, and on the proper course for Sir Rowland Hill's friends to
pursue in the matter.
"I detailed to him the particulars of my interview with Moffatt
yesterday, and who, Sir Francis thinks, has not injudiciously
broken ground with Mr. Gladstone; and Sir Francis cheerfully agrees
to be one of three, _i.e._, with Mr. Wilson Patten and Moffatt, in
a deputation to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
"Sir Francis at first doubted whether he himself should be one of
the best persons to promote the object of Hill's friends in seeing
Mr. Gladstone, as he said he and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
had each _angles_ that possibly might not quite _square_. However,
afterwards, he agreed with me that such were of no moment, and that
he felt it was due to himself, equally as to Hill, that he should
unite with Mr. W. Patten and Moffatt. He said really emphatically,
'No public man can so well or naturally impress Hill's deserts
on the Chancellor of the Exchequer as myself, and it is my duty
to do it. Hill was long in office under me, _or rather I under
him_. For months, I may say, he was little out of my own room. I
have the highest estimate of his public services on the postal
changes, of his talent and good judgment throughout many difficult
considerations and decisions; and his integrity was unimpeachable
in carrying out his plans. Further, I always found him open-minded
in regard to objections made to his own individual propositions on
some points, often material, on which we individually differed,
and in which, now and then, I overruled him; he always made
due allowance for _my_ disagreement with him, and all proper
consideration for _my_ difficulties and views as Chancellor of the
Exchequer. And I formed not only this high opinion of his character
and public service, but I also formed a friendship for him which
would induce me always to promote his interest in any matter in my
power.'
"I really thus pen his almost exact words as due to Hill, and
because they much impressed me. And you know Sir Francis is not
a man of many words, or, in manner, of overflowing heart.... He
considers that at Hill's age, and considering the immense benefits
his country has derived at his hands, a retiring pension on full
salary only would be a 'mockery' (Sir Francis's own expression);
and he considers that either his bare official pension, or, say
£1000 per annum, might be asked of Gladstone, with a grant of a
proper sum as a public reward or a just gift to him. We talked
awhile on the _amount_ of that sum.
* * * * *
"But we both thought the figure an after consideration. He said the
pressure of the proposed deputation to Gladstone must be placed on
Mr. Gladstone, as all Chancellors of the Exchequer naturally were
given to be scared when such exceptional claims were made on the
public's purse. But he spoke highly of Gladstone's generosity of
mind as a public and private man; and he said he was certain the
Chancellor of the Exchequer would be sincerely glad to give full
consideration to Hill's most peculiar case and public claims, and
to do all in his power officially, and within his public duty. Sir
Francis mentioned the _Times_ article among others as particularly
useful, and as having placed Hill's services on the proper and full
basis. He did not know of the Birmingham statue meeting, and was
much struck by the fact. I send you my Birmingham _Daily Post_ with
the report, and the deputation should be armed with it to show Mr.
Gladstone.
"Sir Francis thought no two better men than Mr. W. Patten and
Moffatt could be selected as his colleagues; Moffatt also having
been an original strong promoter of Hill's postal reforms and early
movement.
* * * * *
"It is no question of what Hill's pecuniary private position may or
may not be. It is simply the appreciation of his singular services
to his country, and the gains of his countrymen by his mind and
labours--of the unquestionable success of _his_ plans of postal
reform--of the vast beneficial _results_.
"I will only add that I cannot sufficiently appreciate Sir Francis
Baring's kind and earnest interest in your good object.
"Truly yours,
"JOSEPH PARKES.
"P.S.--I will only repeat that Sir Francis was decided that Mr.
Gladstone should be seen at once, and before the Treasury decide on
Hill's retiring pension, and that Gladstone, by such a deputation,
must be backed up to a full act of justice. Sir Francis said he
was confident Lord Palmerston would agree to any course Gladstone
approves.
"The proper decision would be to give Hill the full salary as
retiring pension, and the sum of money. But we shall see how
matters work as they progress."
"EXTRACT from the _Daily News_ of March 12th.
"_House of Commons._
"Pension to Lady Hill. Notice by Lord Palmerston.
"_Sir Rowland Hill._
"Lord PALMERSTON.--Sir, I believe it is well known that that
valuable and deserving public servant, Sir Rowland Hill, is about
to retire from the public service, and that in the ordinary course
of things he will be entitled to a pension for life. I beg to move
that this House resolve itself into a committee of supply, on
Monday next, for the purpose of considering whether that pension
should not be extended for the life of Lady Hill should she survive
her husband."
On the 15th I received a minute of the Treasury, of which the following
is a copy. There are some errors in the minute, of which the most
important was noticed in my letter to Mr. Gladstone of this day (also
subjoined), but nothing could be more gratifying than the minute as a
whole:--
"TREASURY MINUTE, dated 11th March, 1864.
"Read letter from Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B., dated the 29th
February, stating that six months' absence having elapsed without
any satisfactory results as regards the state of his health, he has
now no course left but to resign his appointment as Secretary to
the Post Office.
"Read also letter from the Postmaster-General of the fourth
instant, stating that Sir Rowland Hill has, in consequence of the
state of his health, been compelled to retire from the public
service, and bearing his testimony to the eminent services which
Sir Rowland Hill has rendered.
"The retirement of Sir Rowland Hill from the office of Secretary to
the Post Office would, if treated under the ordinary machinery of
the Superannuation Act, afford to my Lords the power of granting
him no more than a pension of £566 13_s._ 4_d._, or to the utmost
£666 13_s._ 4_d._, but it supplies, in the judgment of my Lords,
an occasion of peculiar fitness for calling into action the 9th or
special clause of the Superannuation Act, and thus, by a proceeding
which marks their sense of his services, of drawing to those
services the attention of Parliament.
"The period during which Sir Rowland Hill has held office, either
by a temporary or a permanent appointment, is but little in excess
of twenty years; yet my Lords have to regret that while he remains
full as ever of ability, energy, and resources, and of disposition
to expend them for the public good, the state of his health, due,
without doubt, in great part to his indefatigable labours, compels
him to solicit a retirement.
"It is not, however, by length of service that the merits and
claims of such a man are to be measured. It is not even by any
acknowledgment or reward which the Executive Government, in the
exercise of the powers confided to it, can confer.
"The postal system, one of the most powerful organs which modern
civilisation has placed at the command of Government, has,
mainly under the auspices and by the agency of Sir Rowland Hill,
been, within the last quarter of a century, not merely improved
but transformed. The letters transmitted have increased nearly
nine-fold, and have been carried at what may be estimated as little
more than one-ninth of the former charge. In numerous respects
convenience has been consulted and provided for even more than
cheapness.
"Upon the machinery for the transmission of letters there have been
grafted other schemes, which, at a former period, would justly have
been deemed visionary, for the transmission of books with other
printed matter, and of money, and for receiving and storing the
savings of the people.
"While these arduous duties have been undertaken, the condition of
the persons employed in this vast department has been improved,
and, could attention be adequately drawn to what lies beneath the
surface, my Lords are persuaded that the methods of communication
by letter which are now in action have produced for the mass of the
population social and moral benefits which might well have thrown
even these brilliant results into the shade.
"As respects purely fiscal interests, advantages so great as those
which have been recited were, of course, not to be obtained without
some effort or sacrifice. But the receipts on account of postal
service, which on the first adoption of the change were reduced by
above a million sterling, have now more than recovered themselves;
and if computed on the same basis as under the old system, the
gross sum realised is about £3,870,000 instead of £2,346,000, and
the net about £1,790,000 in lieu of £1,660,000; at the same time
contraband in letters may be stated to have ceased, and instead of
a stationary revenue, such as that derived from letters between
1815 and 1835, the State has one which is steadily and even rapidly
progressive.
"My Lords do not forget that it has been by the powerful agency
of the railway system that these results have been rendered
practicable. Neither do they enter into the question, as foreign
to the occasion, what honour may be due to those who, before the
development of the plans of Sir Rowland Hill, urged the adoption
of the uniform penny postage.[237] Nor are they insensible to the
fact that the co-operation of many able public servants has been
essential to the work performed. But after all justice has been
done to others, Sir Rowland Hill is beyond doubt the person to
whom it was given to surmount every kind of obstacle, and to bring
what had been theretofore matter of speculation into the world
of practice, without whom the country would not have enjoyed the
boon, or would only have enjoyed it at a later date, and to whom,
accordingly, its enjoyment may justly be deemed due.
"Nor is it in this country alone that are to be perceived the happy
fruits of his labours; the recognition of his plans has spread with
a rapidity to be accounted for only by their excellence from land
to land, and truly may now be said to have met with acceptance
throughout the civilised world.
"Under these circumstances, it may justly be averred that my Lords
are dealing on the present occasion with the case not merely of a
meritorious public servant, but of a benefactor of his race; and
that his fitting reward is to be found not in this or that amount
of pension, but in the grateful recollection of his country.
"But my Lords discharge the portion of duty which belongs to them
with cordial satisfaction, in awarding to Sir Rowland Hill, for
life, his full salary of £2,000 per annum.
"Let a copy of this Minute be laid before Parliament.
"Transmit copy to the Postmaster-General, with a request that it
may be communicated to Sir Rowland Hill."
The following is my letter to Mr. Gladstone:--
"(Private and immediate.)
"Hampstead, March 15th, 1864.
"MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,--I have just received through the
Postmaster-General a copy of the Treasury minute of the 11th inst.
"I need not say how much I feel indebted for the very handsome
terms in which my services are acknowledged, and for the liberal
retiring allowance which the Treasury has granted me.
"There is, however, one part of the minute which I trust their
lordships may be induced to reconsider. It is that in which the
original conception of the _uniform_ penny rate is attributed to
others than myself. As this forms the main feature of my plan, and
as its discovery and first proposal were wholly my own, you will,
I am sure, pardon me if I press that in a formal document like the
one in question a mistake on so important a point may be corrected.
"But perhaps I ought to address an official letter to the Treasury,
stating more formally and fully the facts of the case. Will you
favour me with your wishes in this respect? My immediate object is
to request that the copy of the minute to be laid before Parliament
may not be issued until the point in question shall have been
investigated.
"I remain, &c., in haste,
"ROWLAND HILL.
"The Right Hon.
"The Chancellor of the Exchequer, &c."
Upon receiving Mr. Gladstone's reply I wrote to the Treasury a letter
in which I requested attention to the point in question. I also
enclosed a memorandum recapitulating the facts of the case. Both
documents will be found in the Appendix (N). My object in marking
as "Immediate" the letter containing the above memorandum was that
it might be laid before Parliament as soon as possible after the
publication of the unfortunate error which it was intended to correct;
and more particularly that this might be done before the Easter
holidays, then close at hand. This point Mr. Gladstone was kind enough
to secure; and in a few days my letter, with the memorandum, appeared
in the public papers. Moreover, he assured me, in a private letter,
that it was not intended in the Treasury minute to put a negation on my
claim to originality.
Lord Palmerston's notice relative to a pension to my wife produced
a good deal of discussion amongst my friends; and owing to their
earnest advice an address from Lady Hill to the Queen was prepared,
and a communication made to Lord Palmerston on the subject. A meeting
was then held, and arrangements were made for postponing further
proceedings in Parliament till after Easter. With these and the after
proceedings connected with the Parliamentary grant, except as to my
unavoidable correspondence with Mr. Moffatt, I took no part whatever,
but left the matter entirely in the hands of my friends.[238] The
purport of Lady Hill's address to the Queen was to pray that any
reward to which Her Majesty might consider me entitled should take a
form which should be beneficial to our children. A deputation, with
Sir Francis Baring at its head, then waited upon Lord Palmerston, and
in consequence of the representations then made to him, the motion of
which he had given notice was postponed, and, when actually brought
forward, was greatly modified.
Lord Palmerston's motion was finally made on June 11th, the following
message from the Queen having been brought up by his lordship on the
6th:--
"VICTORIA REGINA.--Her Majesty, taking into consideration the
eminent services of Sir Rowland Hill, the late Secretary of the
Post Office, in devising and carrying out various important
improvements in the postal administration, and being desirous, in
recognition of such services, to confer some signal mark of her
favour upon him, recommends to the House to concur in enabling Her
Majesty to grant Sir Rowland Hill the sum of £20,000."
The following report of the proceedings is taken from the _Times_:--
Mr. MASSEY having read Her Majesty's message, recommending
the grant of a sum of £20,000 to Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B., in
recognition of his services in connection with postal reforms,
"Lord PALMERSTON rose and said: I trust that the Committee will
be disposed to concur without any objection in the recommendation
which her Majesty has been graciously pleased to make. (Cheers.)
Sir Rowland Hill is a man of great genius, of great sagacity,
of great perseverance and industry, and he has rendered great
services both to this and other countries. He formed the opinion
that the Post Office was more properly a department for the
performance of service than for the mere collection of revenue,
and with a boldness which staggered a great number of persons
who had not looked at the matter from the same point of view, he
recommended a very large reduction in the rate of postage, with
the confidence that it would in the end bring up the revenue to
the same amount to which it had previously stood, and would in the
mean time confer the greatest possible benefit upon the community.
(Hear, hear.) Many people thought that he was too sanguine in
his calculations, and that, although the number of letters might
increase, the revenue would not recover the great shock which the
introduction of the penny postage would inflict upon it. Those
anticipations have been falsified, and the calculations of Sir R.
Hill have turned out to be correct. Sir R. Hill had for nearly a
quarter of a century performed, with some slight interval, the
arduous duties which had devolved upon him in connection with the
scheme, and he is now at a time of life when his health must have
suffered from the great labour which attaches to his office. The
Treasury have on that ground, given him permission to retire,
and have done that which I am sure this house will not think too
much--they have given him his full salary for life. He is now, I
believe, in the seventieth year of his age, and his health has
been shattered by the labours which he has had to perform. Under
these circumstances, Her Majesty thought that this House would be
of opinion that the great services which he has performed would
recommend him for a grant which should enable him to make those
arrangements for his family which the short period during which
he may probably enjoy his pension would not otherwise permit him
to make. His labours have produced more beneficial results than
may strike persons at first sight. It is quite clear that the
facilities which the penny postage has given to the transactions
of commerce, and to all communications connected with business,
must have been infinitely advantageous to the industry, and, by
that means, to the general revenue of the country. (Hear, hear.) In
that view Sir R. Hill has performed great services to the country;
but there is another view in which he has produced still more
startling results, namely, in the amount of happiness and comfort
which his invention--if I may call it an invention--his plan, has
conferred upon millions of the poorer classes of the community.
(Hear.) When the rate of postage was as high as it was before
that plan was introduced, communication between the members of a
poor family who were scattered about the country was impossible.
How could a poor labouring man pay a shilling or sixpence for a
letter? Communication between the members of such families was more
difficult than the communication between England and Australia is
now. (Hear, hear.) The cultivation of the affections raises men
in their own estimation and in the standing which they occupy in
society. It improves their morals, and develops all those qualities
which tend to make useful members of the community. Therefore I
say that Sir R. Hill, independently of the benefits which his plan
has conferred upon the general interests and prosperity of the
country, has the merit of having conferred a great benefit upon the
labouring and poorer classes of the people, which would of itself
entitle him to any mark of approbation and reward which the House
may be disposed to confer upon him. In the year 1838, before the
penny postage was introduced, the number of letters transmitted
through the Post Office was 76,000,000; in 1863 the number was
642,000,000. (Hear, hear). That is a measure of the extent to which
that plan has assisted the industry and contributed to the comfort
and happiness of the community. There are many matters connected
with the plan which are independent of the mere reduction of the
amount paid for the postage of letters. Among others, there is the
facility which his arrangements have given for the transmission
of money in small sums from one part of the country to another.
The amount of the money orders taken out in 1838 was £313,000; in
1863 it was £16,494,000. (Hear, hear.) What an immense advantage
must have resulted from the facility for the safe transmission
of so large an amount of small sums, which it would otherwise
have been very difficult and expensive to transmit. Then there
is the book-post. It is greatly conducive to the interests of
literature, and the arrangements have been most extensively taken
advantage of. The gross revenue of the Post Office has increased
very considerably, but of course the increase of facilities has
led to the multiplication of establishments and officers, and
has therefore largely increased the outgoings. In 1838 the gross
receipts were £2,436,000; in 1863 they were £3,870,000; showing
that Sir R. Hill was perfectly right in anticipating that at no
distant period the receipts of the Post Office would recover from
the diminution which the first introduction of his plan naturally
produced. In point of fact everybody is so well acquainted with
the merits of Sir R. Hill's plan and the good effects which it has
produced, that I shall content myself with moving the resolution of
which I have given notice. (Cheers.) The noble Viscount concluded
by moving that a sum not exceeding £20,000 should be granted to Her
Majesty as a provision for Sir Rowland Hill."
* * * * *
"Sir F. BARING, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time
when Sir R. Hill's plan was introduced (hear, hear), wished to bear
testimony to the ability of that eminent public servant, and to the
good sense, intelligence, and good humour with which he met and
surmounted the innumerable difficulties that it was then thought
right to throw in his way."
Mr. Neate, who had been at the time Sir Francis Baring's private
Secretary, most justly dwelt on the support given to me by Sir Francis,
when my official superior.
Mr. Hennessy asked why Sir Rowland Hill had not been created
Postmaster-General; to which Lord Palmerston remarked that had he been
appointed to that post he would have had to go out on a change of
Government.
The motion was carried without a division.
A few days afterwards, Lord Granville brought the question before the
House of Lords in a very kind and graceful speech.
"Lord BROUGHAM said there was this peculiarity in Sir Rowland
Hill--that whereas inventors in general were the most sanguine of
men,[239] who saw no difficulties in the way, and who exaggerated
the probable results of their novelty, he understated the value of
his invention and over-estimated the difficulties and the expense
of adopting it.
* * * * *
"The Marquis of CLANRICARDE had the satisfaction of remembering
that under him and through him, in some degree, Sir Rowland
Hill had entered the Post Office; and bore testimony to the
extraordinary zeal for the public service, the judgment, the
discretion, the temper, and unvarying urbanity with which he met
all the difficulties that he had to encounter. Of course those
who had been accustomed to the old system viewed the innovation
proposed with great alarm and suspicion. He attributed no blame to
these officers, believing that the opinions given by them against
the new system were founded upon very natural fears and bias. But
penny postage, as his noble friend had said, was not the only
improvement for which the nation had to thank Sir Rowland Hill.
His belief was that, if it had not been for Sir Rowland Hill,
the business in the Money Order Office would not have reached to
one-sixteenth of its present proportions, and he doubted, indeed,
whether that business would have been carried on any longer. No
balance had been struck, and no one could tell what assets were
in hand. He then asked Mr. Hill, who at that time had introduced
some important improvements in the circulation of letters, to take
this subject in hand. The result of that gentleman's efforts was
to establish, if not an exact balance, at least what practically
amounted to it; the system was materially altered, and instead of
eleven entries for every money order, the number was reduced to
four or five; and since that time he had heard of no defalcation or
fraud on the part of postmasters, such as had frequently occurred
before that time. During the time that he had the honour to be
connected with the Post Office he always found that Mr. Hill
laboured zealously and efficiently, and always to his satisfaction.
When objections to his plans were raised, Mr. Hill always received
them in a fair and temperate manner, and never complained of being
overruled when fair grounds for so doing had been shown. Upon the
whole, this country had never rewarded by a grant of money any
public servant who more richly deserved it. Mr. Hill's name would
live in every country, for every country had derived benefit from
his labours."[240]
I need not say that the parliamentary recognition of my services, so
handsomely made, was and is regarded by myself and my family as the
crowning honour of my life.
I wrote as follows to Mr. Gladstone:--
"Hampstead, 15th June, 1864.
"MY DEAR MR. GLADSTONE,--While I have written to Lord Palmerston
and Lord Granville to thank them for the favour they have publicly
shown me, I cannot but feel that my chief acknowledgments for
the very handsome and gratifying manner in which my services
have been recognised must be due to yourself, who, from first to
last, have lent me your powerful aid in my efforts to perform the
duties committed to me, and have given to all my suggestions and
representations a kind, candid, and careful consideration.
"Believe me, &c.,
"ROWLAND HILL.
"The Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
"&c., &c., &c."
To the above letter Mr. Gladstone replied as follows:--
"11, Carlton House Terrace, June 15th, 1864.
"_My dear Sir R. Hill_,--The support you have had from me has been
the very best that I could give; but had it been much better and
more effective, it would not have been equal to your deserts and
claims.
"I sincerely hope you are deriving much benefit from a lightened
mind,
"And remain,
"Always sincerely yours,
"_W. E. Gladstone_."
Amidst the above transactions some events occurred of no small interest
to myself; the first being that I had the gratification of receiving
from the University of Oxford the honorary degree of D.C.L.;[241] and
the second an address voted at a town's meeting at Liverpool, followed
by a valuable presentation of pictures. I will also mention here that,
a year later, the town of Longton presented me with two fine china
vases, specimens of its manufacture. About a week after the date of Mr.
Gladstone's letter I had the honour of receiving the Albert Gold Medal
of the Society of Arts from the hands of the Prince of Wales.[242]
Some time afterwards I received a letter from the Treasury stating
that their lordships had "cordial satisfaction in giving directions to
the Paymaster-General to issue to me the amount of the Parliamentary
grant, £20,000."
Such was the final close of my official career; and, without forgetting
the struggles, delays, disappointments, or mortifications attending
it, I cannot but acknowledge that when I compare my experience with
that of other reformers or inventors, I ought to regard myself as
supremely fortunate. Amongst those who have laboured to effect great
improvements, how many have felt their success limited to the fact that
by their efforts seed was sown which in another age would germinate
and bear fruit! How many have by their innovations exposed themselves
to obloquy, ridicule, perhaps even to the scorn and abhorrence of at
least their own generation; and, alas! how few have lived to see their
predictions more than verified, their success amply acknowledged, and
their deeds formally and gracefully rewarded!
Here, then, closes my narrative of postal reforms. It must not be
supposed, however, that no work will remain for a future historian;
for not only is the course of postal improvement, like that of any
other great department of human affairs, absolutely without limit, but
various important changes may be regarded as distinctly in prospect,
however uncertain may be the time of their accomplishment. As much
has been achieved of which in the outset I had but a dim conception,
and much also of which I had never thought at all--every advancement
opening a field for yet further progress, and every difficulty
surmounted affording encouragement to further effort and facilities
for further achievement--so the point now attained enables us to look
onward to points yet to be reached, and to conceive of others as still
beyond our sight.
Thus, it yet remains to carry into full effect the principles for
regulating the packet service recommended in Lord Canning's Report
already referred to; principles in accordance with those of economy
and free trade; a task unfortunately rendered at once more difficult
and far longer than it should have been by the retrogressive measures
lately mentioned. To accomplish this, it is necessary that every branch
of the packet service should be rendered at least self-supporting,
except, indeed, in any special case, if any such there be, where other
national interests, yet greater than those of the Post Office, require
an expenditure beyond receipts; and even there I would submit that such
additional expenditure should be charged not to the Post Office, but to
that department of state to which it really pertains; clear accounts
being obviously important to economy, and all attempt to hide political
action under the mask of postal facility being, to say the least,
absolutely futile.
Of course, the rule of self-support should, in like manner be
maintained in every other department of postal service. And this, I
may remark, would furnish the means for a just increase of advantages
in those districts or departments in which receipts may be found to
be much in excess of expenditure; an arrangement which would perhaps
include the establishment of tubular conveyance[243] to a limited
extent in certain directions, and would certainly give to many of our
great manufacturing and commercial towns either an increase in the
number of deliveries, or of mails.
In order that economic improvement may not be unduly encumbered with
fixed arrangements, it would be well to limit the duration of all
future contracts to some moderate period, say three years; but, under
this restriction, it is very desirable for the sake of economy, and
for other important considerations, that the contract system should
be greatly, though gradually, extended. Experience may show that it
may safely and advantageously be made to include the whole postal work
at the provincial offices, and various separate departments in the
offices within the metropolitan districts, not wholly excluding the
Chief Office itself. I may add that the benefit of this change would
be greatly increased if the proposed contractors, adopting views now
gradually gaining ground, should arrange to give their respective
subordinates a direct interest in the energetic and economical
performance of the service.
Independently of the moral benefits consequent upon the abolition of
private patronage, I believe the direct financial advantage, which
might be expected from the faithful adoption and rigorous execution of
this principle, would be, as I have already said, an eventual saving of
probably not less than £250,000 a year.
Judging by what has been done at the various telegraphic offices and
elsewhere, and bearing in mind the change now steadily progressing
in public opinion, I should hope that one beneficial effect of an
extension of the contract system would be that female labour would be
admitted to a much larger share in postal employment--an improvement
which my brother and I always had much at heart.[244]
Of a Parcels Post I have already spoken; and I am confident
that, whenever established, provided of course that it be on good
arrangements, its benefit will be great.
I have already indicated the desirableness of lowering the rate of
inland letter postage from a penny per half-ounce to a penny per
ounce--a change which would obviously give much relief as regards heavy
letters.
My brother Frederic twice formally proposed, once under Lord Stanley
of Alderley, and once under the Duke of Montrose, that negotiations
should be entered into with a view to establishing throughout Europe
an international postage on a low uniform rate, submitting, to that
end, a complete plan; I need not enlarge upon the political, moral, and
commercial advantages of so comprehensive an improvement.[245]
Concurrent negotiations should be entered into for extending our outer
money order system to many foreign countries not yet brought within its
range.
It has been repeatedly urged in Parliament and in the public press
that the office of Postmaster-General should cease to be political and
become permanent; and, as already intimated, I cannot but consider
such change highly desirable; seeing that a permanent head of the
Department would have ample time and motive to make himself thoroughly
acquainted with the business of the office, and would naturally be led
to select his subordinates with more direct reference to their probable
efficiency; his duration in office making it probable that the fruits
of his own selection, whether good or bad, would be reaped by himself.
Supposing this change to be made, it would become even more desirable
than it is at present that the Postmaster-General should have the
disposal of that very numerous class of Post Office appointments still
retained by the Treasury; seeing that, in addition to his being in
more direct communication with those on whose advice it is important
that he should act, he would also, as a matter of course, have better
information on the whole subject than the Treasury can command. Such
transference would also manifestly tend to that concentration of
responsibility which all who have rightly studied the principles of
administration agree with Jeremy Bentham in regarding as of primary
importance.
These organic changes being made, there would be good ground to hope
that, in due time, the all-important rule of promotion by simple and
exclusive reference to demonstrated fitness would be strictly followed.
One more change may be spoken of, but on this point I rather suggest
inquiry than advise action. The abandonment of the Post Office monopoly
has much to recommend it, but yet is not a one-sided question. On the
one hand, it implies the removal of an offence from our statute book,
and the probable rise of a wholesome competition wherever the service
is performed with less than the greatest efficiency and cheapness; a
competition which, more perhaps than any other external circumstance,
would tend to compel the department to have due regard to simple merit
in its officers, and economic efficiency in all its arrangements.[246]
On the other hand, it must be remembered that the operations of
the Post Office, extending over the whole country, provide for the
correspondence of many districts where the population is too small
or too sparse to yield any profit whatever; and that although its
general rule is not to go further than this, by providing for districts
which cannot be served without loss, yet for purposes of Government
the rule is in many instances set aside. It must be added that there
are many reasons in favour of affording a service, not indeed day
by day, but at least week by week, to every house in the United
Kingdom (a completeness already attained in France, Prussia,[247] and
Switzerland); and it would seem hard that the Post Office, while called
upon to continue all this ill-remunerated or non-remunerated service,
should be exposed to competition in that more profitable part of its
business, which alone rival establishments would undertake.
Upon the whole, however, I am so impressed with the evils attaching to
every monopoly, that I cannot but regard the abandonment in question,
after due preparation, as a desirable step.
Before taking leave of my readers, I would express an earnest hope
that my narrative, besides describing the progress of a remarkable
change, may prove especially useful to all who may at any time
contemplate a devotion of their powers to the cause of departmental
reform; that it may be serviceable alike for encouragement and for
warning--for encouragement, as showing that the field is open, and
success, with its rewards, not unattainable; for warning, as showing
with what difficulties it is beset, how serious the obstacles, how
long the delays, how galling the mortifications, and how deep the
disappointments, to be encountered even by one who is happy enough
to attain at length the goal towards which his long, laborious, and
anxious race has been directed.
BOOK III.
CONCLUSION.
"_He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in
hot blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore
a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth avert the
dolours of death; but, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle
is_ 'Nunc dimittis,' _when a man hath obtained worthy ends and
expectations_."--BACON.
CONCLUSION.
Sir Rowland Hill, at the time of his retirement, "remained," in the
words of the Treasury Minute, "full as ever of ability, energy, and
resources, and of disposition to expend them for the public good." He
was broken down in health--broken down, not so much by the great work
that he had done, as by the hindrances that, time after time, had been
wantonly and cruelly piled up against him in the discharge of his duty.
"Men will one day think of the force they squander in every generation,
and the fatal damage they encounter by this neglect."[248] "He stands,"
wrote Mr. Gladstone a few months before he left the Post Office,
"pre-eminent and alone among all the members of the Civil Service as
a benefactor to the nation." He had not been two years in the service
of his country when the Chancellor of the Exchequer of that day, "a
man not of many words, or, in manner, of overflowing heart,"[249] told
him that, were the Secretaryship to the Post Office vacant, he was the
man whom he should recommend to fill it. In a most trying and severe
apprenticeship he had proved his thorough fitness for the post, and
had convinced Mr. Baring that there was, at all events, one inventor
who could be a man of business.[250] But before long his force was
squandered by Sir Robert Peel. For the next four years his work lay
outside the Post Office. With the return of the Whigs to power, he was
once more brought back to the great work of his life. Unhappily the
squandering of force did not come to an end. Seven years more had to
pass before he was made sole Secretary, and placed in a position of
real and undoubted power. For these seven years he had been, to use his
own words, "a general almost without an army." For the next six years
his work went on smoothly and rapidly under a happy succession of able
and high-minded Postmasters-General. But a change came all too soon.
In the Post Office certainly he should have had no master over him at
any time. There even the ablest of our statesmen might well have sat at
his feet. "He is King of Postal Reform," wrote a Postmaster-General of
a later date, "and I felt myself a very small subject in waiting upon
him." But under the able chiefs under whom he served from 1854 to 1860
he worked with full contentment. This happy period came to an end, as
has been seen, with the appointment of Lord Stanley of Alderley. His
force was once more, and for the last time, squandered.
How strangely and how sadly was this man thwarted in the high aim
of his life. He longed for power, but it was for the power to carry
through his great scheme. For the mere shows--the trappings--of
authority he cared but little. Such outward things dwelt not in his
desires. "My plan" was often on his lips, and ever in his thoughts.
His strong mind was made up that it should succeed. He looked upon
it with all the fondness and the pride with which a father looks
upon his only boy. Take it from him, and his life was done. There was
in him a rare combination of enthusiasm and practical power--such a
combination as the world has not often seen, and may not again see for
many a long day. He had "the usual concomitant of great abilities, a
lofty and steady confidence in himself;"[251] but together with this
confidence was found a cautiousness that, for the most part, is only
seen in those who are far too timid for any great undertaking. He
clearly saw every difficulty that lay in his path, and yet he went on
with unshaken firmness. To the simple pleasures of life he was by no
means indifferent; but he had in his early years attained a thorough
self-mastery. In everything but in work he was the most temperate of
men. He never repined over the past, or, when once he had taken a
step, fretted at the result. His health was greatly shattered by his
excessive toils and his long struggles. For the last years of his life
he never left his house, and never even left the floor on which his
sleeping-room was. But in the midst of this confinement, in all the
weakness of old age and sickness, he wrote, "I accept the evil with the
good, and frankly regard the latter as by far the weightier of the two.
Could I repeat my course, I should sacrifice as much as before, and
regard myself as richly repaid by the result."
With these high qualities was united perfect integrity. He was the
most upright and the most truthful of men. He hated By-ends and all
his companions. He was often careless of any gain to himself, but the
good of the state never for one moment did he disregard. He watched
over the public money with a carefulness which few men show even in
watching over their own private hoards. He was never even so much as
tempted for a single moment to purchase popularity by swerving by a
hair's breadth from the narrow path of duty. More than once a slight
sacrifice of public money would have saved him from attack. To public
censure he was by no means indifferent. He suffered beneath it even
though he knew that it was unjust. Yet he was always ready to brave
it in a good cause. One of the men who long served under him bore
this high testimony to the character of his old chief:--"Sir Rowland
Hill was very generous with his own money, and very close with public
money. He would have been more popular had he been generous with the
public money and close with his own." Of his generosity I discovered
a striking instance in looking through his private Journal for his
last year in office. For one of his subordinates, on whose ability and
devotion to himself and zeal in the public service he set a high value,
he had not been able to obtain from the Government the recompense
which, in his opinion, that gentleman deserved. "I have compensated
him to some extent," he records, "by a gift of £300." Beneath a manner
that was cold beat one of the warmest and even tenderest of hearts.
He had, in earlier life, known what it was to bear the proud man's
contumely. The lesson that he had learnt in that hard school was one
of forbearance. His rule was stern, yet never without consideration
for the feelings of others. No one who was under him ever felt his
self-respect wounded by his chief. It is not yet forgotten in the Post
Office how, many years ago, one of the higher officers was summoned
to the room of the Postmaster-General to give an explanation on some
difficult matter. He found his Lordship and the Secretary sitting
at the table, but he himself, though he was likely to be kept some
time, was not invited to take a chair. Sir Rowland Hill stood up, and
remained standing, till his Lordship requested both to be seated.
He had not the fault of most enthusiasts, who look in others for a
zeal as ardent as that which animates themselves. He found it somewhat
hard, indeed, to understand how any one could be indifferent to the
statistics of Penny Postage, and help watching the rise in the number
of letters and the postal revenue with as much interest as Englishmen,
on a wet day, watch the rise in the weather-glass. But though he did
not ask for the same enthusiasm in those who were set under him, he did
look for the same carefulness, the same exactness, the same integrity,
and the same constant thought for the public good. He forgot that
they had not been trained in the same stern school with himself, and
he failed to make due allowance for the weakness of man's nature. By
asking too much from men he got from them, perhaps, less than they
might otherwise have given. Yet the better natures were not a little
raised by the high standard of duty that he ever set before them. He
left behind him, in all ranks of the service, a strong sense of public
duty, which has managed to outlive even the evil days which came after
him.
The history of his declining years I shall but touch on. His work was
well-nigh done on the day when he left the Post Office; yet prolonged
rest gave him back some small part of his old strength. "Much improved
during the winter," he noted down at the end of his first year in
retirement; "rest and cool weather suit me." In his labours as a member
of the Royal Commission on Railways[252] he showed that his mind,
however much it had been strained, had yet lost none of its clearness.
Not less did it show its power in the years when he was employed in
writing "The History of Penny Postage." He managed, he could long
boast, to keep himself "_au courant_ with the progress of science and
mechanical invention." For a while he had strength enough from time to
time to attend the meetings of the Political Economy Club. From a short
paper that he drew up I extract the following passage:--
"When I became a member of the Political Economy Club, I soon
marked a questionable assumption there--viz., that whatever is in
accordance with the laws of political economy is necessarily right
and expedient, and _vice versâ_. Question on this point happened to
be raised one evening by a remark from a member that the position
maintained on one side in the debate then going on was hostile to
general happiness; the answer to which was, not that the objector
was mistaken, but that the objection was irrelative; seeing that
the aim of political economy was not the general happiness, but
the wealth of nations. I took the liberty to point out that while
political economists might, of course, define their science as
they pleased, they must remember that under such restriction its
unaided conclusions could not claim to guide legislative action;
since it was at least conceivable, and perhaps not improbable,
that in certain cases the course most tending to a nation's wealth
might differ from that most tending to its weal. I am much inclined
to think that neglect of this distinction is amongst the causes
which have at different times brought this important science into
discredit, led the world to regard its professors as hard--nay,
heartless--and in a measure invalidated their plea that they are
not inventors, but only discoverers; that they create no laws, but
merely set forth the logic of facts. So far, however, as I can
observe in my retirement, such distinction is in the way to acquire
recognition."
He took a strong interest in politics; and no long time before his
death he was heard to say that he should gladly live two or three
years longer, that he might see how the arrangements made under
the Treaty of Berlin would work. It was, however, in watching the
operations of the Post Office that his chief interest still lay. I
remember how I called upon him one day about eighteen months before his
death. On my coming into his room he turned with a smile of pleasure
to his son, who happened to be present, and said, "Has your cousin
heard of the discovery?" I pricked up my ears, and at once thought of
some curious old family record that might have been found hidden away
in an old chest or cupboard. "This year," he continued, with proud
exultation, "the postal revenue is larger than the revenue produced
by the income tax. I was quite startled to find this out." Many years
earlier he had written to tell his brother how he had met Garibaldi.
"On Thursday (April 21, 1864) Caroline (Lady Hill) and I dined at
Fishmongers' Hall 'to meet Garibaldi.' I was a little afraid of the
undertaking; but I enjoyed the meeting, and am, to say the least, none
the worse for it. I had some conversation with Garibaldi about the
state of the Italian Post Office; but it was evident that he felt but
little interest in the matter. There is something very pleasing, not to
say fascinating, in his appearance and manner." Mr. M. D. Hill replied,
"I was very glad to hear you were able to go to the Fishmongers', and
very much amused to find that you consulted Garibaldi on Italian Penny
Postage. When you go to heaven, I foresee that you will stop at the
gate to inquire of St. Peter how many deliveries they have per day, and
how the expense of postal communication between heaven and the other
place is defrayed."
When, by the establishment of School Boards, primary education was so
widely extended, he foresaw at once the effect that would be thereby
produced on the postal revenue. "Is there," he wrote, "in addition to
the moral, intellectual, and commercial benefits more directly aimed
at, any set-off to this increased expense? For this I naturally turn to
its effect on the number of letters, which will obviously be enlarged
by diffusion of the power to write and read; though the extent to
which this will operate is at present matter for conjecture rather
than for estimate. I hold it, however, not quite impossible that in
this manner the outlay will eventually repay itself, though I am by
no means so sanguine as to expect so rich a result." That knowledge
might be more readily brought within the reach of all, he was eager
to see a reform of what, to use his own words, "is grossly misnamed
orthography." "For myself," he writes, "I frankly confess that I have
always made it a practice to have a spelling dictionary at hand, and
have not infrequently to turn to its pages. My education must, then,
it will be said, have been defective! True enough! but of how many has
the education been more defective! And even in those who have attained
proficiency, how great has been the sacrifice of time else applicable
to beneficial study!"
While his mind thus constantly turned to any subject that in any way
bore on his great plan, he found, unhappily, much that distressed him
in the government of the Post Office. He grieved over the changes that
after his retirement were too often made in disregard of the great
principles on which he had steadily acted.[253] More than once he
addressed warnings to the government. But at the very close of his
Journal he records,[254] "I have made myself seriously ill--having
brought on renewed threats of apoplexy--by what I have already
done." He could do no more. He had lifted up his voice, and lifted
it up in vain. There was happily another side to this sad picture.
Wrong-doings and blunders he could often forget, while he contemplated
the perfection with which the great machine still worked, though there
was no master-hand to govern it. He had the delight, too, of watching
his plan as it spread from country to country. "In some respects," to
quote the words that Mr. Gladstone used on his death, "his lot was one
peculiarly happy even as among public benefactors; for his great plan
ran like wildfire through the civilised world, and never perhaps was
a local invention (for such it was) and improvement applied in the
life-time of its author to the advantage of such vast multitudes of his
fellow-creatures." He had aimed at doing something for the world, and
he lived to know that his success had been far greater than his hopes,
and that the world was not ungrateful.
In the quiet course of his private life there is but little on which
I shall dwell. Each year saw his range narrowed more and more till
at last he was confined to one floor. In an interesting paper, which
he drew up in the summer of 1874, he thus describes the state of his
health:--
"Some description of my present illness, and of the causes thereof,
may perhaps prove useful to young persons who may be inclined to
follow a career with energy beyond their strength.
"My present position is this:--The ordinary state of my health does
not prevent considerable enjoyment of life, provided that I take
certain precautions and observe certain rules which experience
has dictated, and, further, that I am not disturbed by others; but
herein lies the difficulty. To control myself is easy enough, but
effectually to control others is beyond my power.
"Under the former head, I find that any kind of locomotion, except
within certain narrow limits, invariably proves hurtful--producing
pain in the head, a feeling of incapacity for self-guidance, and,
if persisted in, downright vertigo--the most perfect rest during
some hours being necessary to restore me to the normal state. It is
more than five years since I was in a railway-carriage, and I dare
not venture on a further trial, even could I get to the stations,
which, with a few unimportant exceptions, are beyond my reach;
my drives, even under the most favourable circumstances, being
limited to twenty or, at the utmost, to twenty-five minutes. Soon
after its completion I managed to reach the Holborn Viaduct; but
the Thames Embankment and the new Post Office I have never seen.
As to walking, a few yards to and from the carriage is all that I
can attempt. In my own rooms, indeed, and in an adjoining balcony
constructed for the purpose, I am able, at certain hours, neither
long after nor shortly before a meal, to pace a little every day.
The restriction is not owing to any lack of muscular strength, but
simply to the painful effect on my head."
It was, he says, so far back as the year 1839 that he could trace
the first indications of this coming inability to walk. It had grown
upon him till, about the year 1868, he fell into the state which he
has thus described, from which he never recovered. "This is the more
remarkable," he adds, "because, when a young man, I was the best
walker of the brotherhood, and could 'do' my thirty miles a day for, I
believe, any number of days in succession." He managed, nevertheless,
for many years to dine with the Royal Society Club.
"I cannot explain, fully at least, why I can visit one club and not
the others, the distance from home being practically the same for
all. One reason, no doubt, is the pleasure and excitement afforded
by meeting men of eminence whose conversation greatly interests me.
Another, the rest and reinvigoration resulting from the dinner; and
lastly, and perhaps chiefly, that the meetings are so frequent as
to admit of my selecting days when the weather, my health, and all
other circumstances are favourable."
He next describes the mode in which he suffered through the action of
others:--
"The disturbances from which I most frequently suffer are noises,
especially when unexpected; as, for instance, the sudden opening
or closing of a door, the dropping of any article on the floor....
Some protection is afforded me by increasing deafness, whatever the
inconvenience of such infirmity. Again, I am painfully sensible to
a shake so slight as to be imperceptible to one in ordinary health;
such, for instance, as is produced by any one walking across the
room save with an almost cat-like tread, or by a touch to my
chair so slight as even the mere brush of the servant's clothes
against it as he waits at table. Further, I am annoyed by any of
those repeated movements of hands or fingers which are habitual to
some people, though against this particular annoyance I find some
protection in taking a book or newspaper and interposing it as a
screen."
I may mention here, as an instance of his delicate consideration for
the feelings of others, that I had often noticed when I went to see
him how he thus screened his eyes. It was not till I read this account
of his health that I was in the least aware that it was against my
restlessness that he was screening himself.
Beneath the balcony that he had built for himself, wherein he hoped,
each year as the suns grew warm, to breathe the fresh air, the
Metropolitan Asylums Board set up a Small-Pox Hospital. Within a
few yards of the old man's only walk ran the road along which, day
after day for many a month, passed a sad train of ambulances and a
still sadder train of hearses. For the signal benefit that he had
conferred not only on England, but on the whole world, he had been
hitherto rewarded and honoured by a gratitude that was as strong as
it was general, by the free gifts of his countrymen and the vote of
Parliament. The University of Oxford had made him a Doctor of Laws,
and the Queen had made him a Knight Commander of the Bath. Before many
years had passed the City of London was to give him its freedom, and
Westminster Abbey a grave. The Asylums Board cared for none of those
things. Public benefactors and public honours did not enter into its
world. It knew of nothing but ratepayers. But ratepayers, it should
have remembered, are after all only men, and men, in these islands at
least, are neither ungrateful nor pitiless.
There was a striking regularity in the order of his household.
Everything went on almost as if by clockwork. He asked me one day
whether I had ever noticed that the sound of a bell was scarcely ever
heard in his house, save when someone came to the hall-door. He was,
he said, strictly punctual himself, and he had trained his servants to
habits of the strictest punctuality. He could afford, I knew, to take
some trouble with them, for they were very slow to leave his service.
His visitors saw year after year the best proof of a good master in
the familiar faces of those by whom he was served. As everything was
done at its appointed time, there was no need for a bell to be rung.
His meals, his medicine, everything was brought to the exact minute.
No one was summoned, for no one was ever late. In the days when he was
still strong enough to drive out, he had been often troubled by the
unpunctuality of his coachman:--
"I advised him to _aim_ at being five minutes before the appointed
time. Of course I only _advised_ this--to have ordered it would
merely have changed the appointed hour. Just as the allowance of
five minutes' grace at the Post Office simply alters the hour of
attendance from 10.0 to 10.5 a.m., and does nothing to secure
punctuality.
"Still the result was unsatisfactory, and I was irritated and
annoyed by the man's persistence. He was honest and sober, and
had a wife and several children. Dismissal, therefore, was out
of the question. I thought of fines, with rewards for continued
punctuality; but I have small faith in either fines or rewards.
"At last it occurred to me to adopt the Post Office rule, under
which any one accused of misconduct is called upon to give such
written explanation 'as he may desire.'
"The duty was entrusted to the footman, with instructions to call
for explanation in every instance of lateness, even when no more
than a fraction of a minute, the hall clock being taken as an
indisputable standard."
The result was that the man became so exact to his time that in twelve
months "there were only six cases of lateness, amounting in the
aggregate to eight minutes."
Confined though he so much was to one room, yet time did not hang on
his hands. His eyesight happily remained strong, and he was a great
reader. In the pages of a novel for many years he found pleasant
repose. Few men, indeed, were more deeply read than he in fiction.
Science, too, as I have shown, took up much of his time. Astronomy
remained to the last his favourite study. Poetry did not throw her
charm over him--at least to any great extent. Yet one day he told me
that he had just finished "Paradise Lost." "Milton," he said with a
smile, "does not, in my opinion, prove his case." His money accounts he
kept with the utmost exactness, even to a late age. Two years before
his death he told me that he could not expect to live much longer, for
his mental strength was steadily failing. He had been obliged to give
up even his account-keeping, which had been a pleasure to him from a
very early age. A day or two before, he added with an air of great
vexation, he had had to make an entry of money received, and he had
entered it as money paid.
Few things pleased him more than to talk over his past life. I find the
following record among the notes that I took of his talk. "As he told
me this day the story of his youth, and the difficulties that he had
overcome, the old man grew eloquent. If his words could have been taken
down, they would have read like a chapter of De Foe. I was filled with
admiration of his powers." Nothing touched him more than the memory of
some kindness that had been done him. He was grateful to all who had at
any time, in any way, helped him; but his gratitude overflowed towards
those who had rendered him help in the struggles of his youth. A year
before his death he could not be satisfied till he had put on record
the names of those who, more than seventy years before, had lent his
father money in the time of his greatest straits. The loans had been
long since paid off--mainly by the son's efforts as I have shown--but
the memory of these benefactors was not to be suffered to pass away
from his father's family. At no time was his thoughtfulness for others
more shown than in the winter of 1876, when he was suddenly struck
down by an attack that threatened paralysis. Forgetful of himself at
so awful a time, he thought only of others. It so happened that in a
few weeks' time he would have had to make me a certain payment. He
remembered that I had been suffering from a long illness, and he feared
that I might be put to some inconvenience should payment be delayed. He
sent to ask me to let him know at once the amount that would be due,
so that he might sign the cheque before his hand was paralysed. During
the same attack his son asked him whether he would like to consult
one of his nephews--a surgeon in whose skill he had great trust. He
had, indeed, he answered, wished to send for him. As, however, his own
doctor had not suggested, it, he had not said anything for fear of
hurting his feelings. A day or two later he begged me to go and see
him. I found him in bed, and very weak. He did not think, he said, that
he was dying, but it might be that he really was. It had always been
his habit, he added, throughout life to prepare for every contingency,
and therefore he wished to see me now. What he said could not, for the
present at least, fitly be set before the reader. He showed, however,
that in the blow that had thus suddenly fallen upon himself, his
feelings and his fears were all for those who had so long been dear to
him.
Such a life as this, secluded though it was, could not be free from
the losses that are common to the race. The old family group began to
grow thin before his eyes. His two elder brothers went first, to be
followed before long by his only surviving sister. They, however, had
all reached a ripe age. In the death of his eldest daughter, and of
more than one of his grandchildren, he felt the far deeper sorrow that
comes on the old when they see the young gathered to the grave before
them. He would tell with sad pride how one of these little ones had
once had the courage to call him to account. The child, who was but
three years old, one day when playing with his elder brother, had seen
his grandfather give a little dog a slight blow with a switch:--
"The hall being rather dusk, their grandfather did not perceive
that the two boys were there, or he would not, in their presence,
have struck Trottie. Later in the evening the children came to
say good-night, and were leaving the room when he noticed signs
of hesitation, followed by a whispered consultation outside the
halfclosed door. They were evidently settling which should be
spokesman. Probably F., although much the junior, volunteered
his services, as, when they re-appeared holding one another by
the hand, in a tone of deep solemnity, as befitted the occasion,
he said, 'Grandpapa, why did you beat Trottie?' The old man was
delighted with the child's courage in thus calling him to account;
and, bidding the lads come close to him, reminded them that any
noise made his head ache; that, should either of them make any
noise, he should never think of beating them, but should ask them
to be more careful for the future, well knowing that they would
attend to his wishes; but that it would be of no use to talk to
Trottie, who must either be kept out of his room altogether, which
their grandmamma would not like, or must be taught, by means of the
little switch, not to bark there. The boys retired fully satisfied
with the explanation."
Outside his own circle, Death, while it so long passed him by, was
very busy. Old friends, men eminent in science or in public life, he
saw pass away before him. He once spoke to me with deep feeling of
certain old men who, whenever they met him, had always received him
with the greatest warmth. Of his friend Colonel Torrens, whom he had
known years before as the chairman of the South Australian Commission,
he has left the following brief record:--"He was eminent as a writer on
political economy, and was one of the founders of the Political Economy
Club. He was many years in Parliament, and was chairman of the South
Australian Commission when I was secretary. I had known him previously,
but this made our acquaintance intimate, and led to a friendship
which continued till his death. When on his death-bed, at the age of
eighty-four, he wrote me a most affectionate letter, expressing his
desire that a connection even then contemplated between his family and
mine should be realised; and a year or two later this was done, to the
great satisfaction of my wife and myself, by the marriage of my son
with one of the Colonel's granddaughters." Colonel Torrens, I may add,
had early in the century distinguished himself as a brave soldier. His
descendants show with pride a sword of honour which was presented to
him for his gallant defence of the Island of Anholt.
With all its losses, its seclusion, and its deprivations, the old man's
life was far from being unhappy. He had resources in himself, and he
had the never-failing past on which to dwell. His strength failed,
and his mind began to lose somewhat of its old vigour. "Yet hath my
night of life some memory," he might well have said. He had, moreover,
a hearty love of fame, and he was doubly happy in this, that honours
followed him even into his retirement. He passed away from the sight
of men, but he was never made to feel that he was forgotten. Now in
one grateful acknowledgment, now in another, he was shown that the
world was not indifferent to the man who had conferred on it so signal
a benefit. In some newspaper, or in some book, would appear from time
to time a kindly and generous mention of his services which would warm
up his heart even in the chill of age. I am reminded how Johnson, one
day in the last summer of his life, "called out with a sudden air of
exultation, as the thought started into his mind, 'O! Gentlemen, I
must tell you a very great thing. The Empress of Russia has ordered
the 'Rambler' to be translated into the Russian language; so I shall
be read on the banks of the Wolga.' Boswell,--'You must certainly be
pleased with this, Sir.' Johnson--'I am pleased, Sir, to be sure. A man
is pleased to find he has succeeded in that which he has endeavoured to
do.'" In like manner Sir Rowland Hill often exulted at the news that
his great plan had won yet another triumph on some distant shore.
Fresh honours were done to him in his own country. Birmingham, the town
in which he had spent his youth and early manhood, had already set up
his statue. A short time before he died he heard that Kidderminster,
his birth-place, was going to pay him a like honour. And now, at the
very close of his life, the City of London granted him its Freedom. He
was far too weak to attend at the Guildhall, in accordance with ancient
custom, to receive this high distinction. The Court of Common Council,
with a kindness that gave a double grace to the honour that they
rendered, appointed a deputation to wait on him at his residence.[255]
He received it in his bed-chamber. It was the 6th day of June, 1879,
less than three months before his death. "I offer you," said the City
Chamberlain at the conclusion of an eloquent address, "the right hand
of fellowship in the name of the Corporation whom we represent, and
who deeply regret that they cannot receive you in person, as is their
wont on such occasions as the present. We congratulate you that,
notwithstanding the 'labour and sorrow' inevitable to the weight of
eighty-three years, you have been spared to witness the complete
triumph of your postal principles, to receive acknowledgments from the
State, and honours from your Sovereign. Detractors and obstructors you
have outlived, or they only survive to swell the ranks of those who
applaud. May your remaining days be consoled by the thought that your
name and services can never be forgotten, and may the sunset of your
life be brightened by the reflection that you have been permitted to
become one of the greatest benefactors of mankind." It was a touching
sight how the old man was moved by this, the last honour, that he was
to receive in his life-time from his fellow-countrymen. The tears
streamed down his venerable face, and he was scarcely able to utter a
word. I stood close by him, and I heard him say, "I cannot listen to it
as I ought." When the address was finished he could only say, "I wish
it were in my power to thank you." His son had to read his answer. More
than once he was distressed to see the members standing while their
Chamberlain was addressing him. "It would be a relief to me," he said,
"if you would sit down. I cannot bear to see you standing." This is
a trifling matter in itself, but it had its rise in that tender and
anxious thoughtfulness for others which I had so often marked in him.
Before leaving the house I went once more up to his room, and through
the open door gazed at the man whom I had so honoured. I did not
venture to break on his repose by going in. He had on his face a look
of great peacefulness. That which should accompany old age was indeed
on that day seen to accompany him. I never saw him again.
His strength failed daily, and it was soon seen that the end was not
far off. In the beginning of July death seemed close at hand, but he
rallied once more. Happily his sufferings were at no time very severe.
His mind often wandered, and at last he sank into a state of stupor.
For hours he lay motionless, giving no signs of life but by his quiet
breathing. His aged wife sat holding his beloved hand in hers. He
gave one last sign that he was still of this world. He felt for her
wedding-ring--that ring which he had put round her finger more than
fifty years before. Finding it, he knew whose dear hand it was that he
was holding, and with one gentle pressure he showed that the love that
he had always borne her from the beginning he bore her to the end. He
never moved again. He died on the 27th day of August, in the year 1879.
Hitherto this day had always been held a festival in our family; for on
it his brother Arthur had, for eighty-one years, kept his birthday.
It had been Rowland Hill's hope that his countrymen would think him not
unworthy to find his last resting-place in Westminster Abbey. It was,
indeed, with singular agreement that the voice of the people awarded
to him the last great honour which we Englishmen render to our famous
dead. There, followed by his children and his children's children,
by his two aged brothers, who had shared in his struggles and his
triumphs, by his brothers' children and their children's children, he
was laid in his glorious place of rest. It was the burial of a man of
the people, and the people came together to do him honour. Men came,
too, who had worked under him and worked with him--men who knew well
what manner of man he was who was now laid among the great ones of the
land. There was but one left of the good line of Postmasters-General
under whom it had been his happiness to serve. He unhappily was on the
wide Atlantic the day that we were gathered round the open grave. "I
can truly say," wrote the Duke of Argyll, "that no one among his many
friends and admirers would have joined more sincerely than I should
in the mourning of that day. I had the highest admiration of him, and
the strongest feeling of personal regard and affection towards him."
The City of London, which he had so signally served, was represented
by its chief magistrate, and the great Liberal party, to which he had
been so long attached, by his old friend Mr. Charles Villiers and Earl
Granville. His native town sent its Mayor and a deputation of citizens,
while his county was represented by its Lord-Lieutenant. The presence
of the venerable Astronomer-Royal, for whom the dead man had long
entertained a feeling of high regard, reminded those who had known him
how he had always spoken of astronomy as "my favourite science."
There came into my mind the words in which Edmund Burke told of the
funeral of our great English painter:--"Everything, I think, was
just as our deceased friend would, if living, have wished it to be;
for he was, as you know, not altogether indifferent to this kind of
observances." The solemn, glorious, and beautiful scene does not
easily lend itself to the poor words of mine. Yet I would willingly
let those who are to come after us know something of that which was
felt by more than one on this day that was so great in our house. One
who was present among the mourners writes to me: "It was not a state
ceremonial,--it was a people's payment of honour. There was not grief;
but there was a solemn sense of recognition of a great deed. As I saw
from the window of the Jerusalem Chamber the approach of the hearse,
and 'heard,' if one may say so, the sudden hush, the one feeling was
not grief, or that the country had sustained a loss, as when Macaulay
was buried with his work half done, but that the crown was being put
on a noble career. Sir Rowland, in his coffin, seemed to be making a
triumphal progress. What struck me most was, if you will put a kind
construction on the first part of the antithesis, this absence of
sorrow, this presence of reverence." From another account that was
written down at the time I take the following: "There were few touches
of solemnity or mortality till we were close on the Abbey. There we
heard the great bell tolling over head. I had heard it last when it
tolled for Macaulay. There a great crowd was gathered, very quiet and
very orderly. It was not till the carriage turned into Dean's Yard,
that I first felt in all its force what it was that we had come to
see and do. The band of the Post Office Volunteers was playing the
Portuguese Hymn. The men, all in black, were drawn up on each side
of the roadway with their arms reversed, and their faces resting on
the stocks of their rifles. The notes of the band at once woke up the
tenderest and most solemn feelings. The tears started into my eyes.
On getting out of the carriage I saw, for the first time, the coffin
with its beautiful shroud covered with wreaths of flowers. We marched
through the cloisters with the sad music of the soldiers still in
our ears. As we turned round a corner we saw the door into the Abbey
open before us.... Here we caught the notes of the organ. Wonderful
feelings swept through me--the ancient cloisters, the Abbey with its
thousand memories, the dead man borne before us, we following after him
who had known him and revered him, the sight of his two aged brothers
waiting in front to fall in with the other mourners,--the priest in
his white surplice. I remember how here it burst upon me how noble and
how glorious is the thought that man has made to himself of his own
immortality.... We entered the Abbey, and slowly moved along. If only
a man could keep at their height the lofty thoughts that filled him in
such a scene, who might not hope to find his last resting-place there?
But, alas, the swell will soon sink. As I passed up I heard my name
mentioned--I know not by whom. I recognised also an old servant of our
family. I mention this to show how the swift glances of the mind never
rest, even amidst the rush of feelings strong as these.... I saw my
children, too. W---- gazed at me with wonder in his dark eyes, E----
with pleasure at discovering me.... At the grave, as I looked down on
the coffin and read, 'Sir Rowland Hill. Born December 3rd, 1795. Died
August 27, 1879,' I thought how much there was contained within those
dates. The whole life of the dead man seemed to rise before me, from
his childhood at Wolverhampton, when he played with her who was one day
to be his wife and was now his widow; through his hard struggles, his
poverty, the neglect under which he had suffered, up to the present
glorious day when his countrymen thus honoured him.... I found the
tears rising in my eyes; but they were not so much tears for him, as
tears over our common humanity and mortality. The music flooded the
soul with the sense of man's nothingness and his short stay on earth. I
never once, as I looked down into the grave, thought that the dead man
might now be living in some other world. Had he been a great writer,
that thought would have come most naturally to me. But 'organisation is
my forte,' he was wont to say; and what place is there for organisation
in heaven? His, indeed, was a mind whose work lay in this working-day
world. And yet, had I remembered his love of astronomy, I might have
pictured him to myself as learning with delight the secret of the
stars. 'Organisation is some one else's forte,' he might now be softly
whispering to himself."
We saw him then laid to rest in the little chapel in the venerable
Abbey, beneath the statue of Watt. A memorial will one day be set
up in this quiet spot, to show the stranger and the passer-by where
Rowland Hill lies buried. In the great city hard by his statue will,
before long, stand in the very centre of the trade of the world. In the
charity that so many of his countrymen have founded for the relief of
the widows and orphans of the servants of the Post Office his memory
will be kept alive. But so long as men keep warm feelings, and the name
of home has still its charm; so long as there are sorrowful partings
and hearts that need comforting; so long as our high aim is towards
peace on earth, good will toward men, Rowland Hill is not likely to be
forgotten. For he has done almost more than any other man to bring near
those who are far off, to bind the nations together, and to make the
whole world kin.
APPENDICES.
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.
APPENDIX B.
[See p. 105.]
_Further letter to Postmaster-General (Lord Clanricarde)._
Hampstead, August 13th, 1849.
MY DEAR LORD,--Knowing how fully your lordship's time and that of other
ministers is occupied during the session of Parliament, I have hitherto
refrained from again requesting attention to my letter of January 3rd,
but now that a period of comparative leisure has arrived, I feel that I
ought no longer to postpone the irksome task.
I have enclosed a copy of the letter for the purpose of inviting
a reperusal of it, and I think I may confidently appeal to your
Lordship's knowledge of the state of the department for supporting me
when I say that the experience of the seven months which have elapsed
since that letter was written has strengthened the grounds, both public
and private, on which my application was based.
The various interviews with which I have been honoured by your lordship
on nice and difficult points, arising in the course of business,
would enable me to refer to many cases in which the public service
has suffered from the continuance of the existing arrangements,
while, though this is doubtless a matter of inferior importance, such
arrangements are inconsistent both with my personal comfort and my
pecuniary interests.
On these, however, I will not dwell, nor even with respect to the
public service will I intrude on your attention as to more than
one point out of the many which occupy my thoughts. I refer to the
necessity for a general revision of salaries in the metropolitan
offices, which after being so long delayed now presses with great
urgency. It is due in justice to the clerks that their claims, whether
well or ill founded, should be set at rest by adjudication; but;
notwithstanding your Lordship's earnest desire that the task should
be accomplished, I have, I believe, satisfied you that in my present
position it would be unsafe to attempt even those improvements which
are necessarily preliminary to the still more difficult task of
revising the salaries.
Earnestly begging your Lordship will be pleased to take the necessary
steps for effecting a decision on my letter of January 3rd,
I have, &c., &c.,
ROWLAND HILL.
The Most Noble
The MARQUIS OF CLANRICARDE,
&c., &c., &c.
APPENDIX C.
[See p. 105.]
_Lord Clanricarde's reply._
Brighton, August 23rd, 1849.
MY DEAR SIR,--I have read your letter reverting to that which you
addressed to me on the 3rd of last January with much regret.
I am sorry you consider our existing official arrangements inconsistent
with your comfort and your interest. I see no possibility of their
being changed at present.
I could not alter them myself, and I could not send forward to
the Treasury your letter of the 3rd of January without previously
communicating with Colonel Maberly.
I have no reason to believe the Treasury would take at this moment any
steps to put you in the position you desire to hold. And my own opinion
is that, constituted as the office now is, we can proceed gradually
and steadily to carry into effect many improvements which you have
suggested or which may hereafter occur to you. You enumerate in your
letter of January 3rd several of importance which we have achieved
without even temporary inconvenience or failure,--others have been
effected since that date, and I have little fear of not being able to
have properly executed almost any alteration of the result of which we
might be well assured.
I see no reason why you should not complete a scale of salaries for
country offices and messengers as soon as the returns you have called
for may be perfected, or why such a scale should not be at once
adopted, and gradually, and not slowly, enforced. And in like manner,
the metropolitan offices might afterwards be dealt with.
With respect to your personal feelings and interests I can of course
say nothing. I am only gratified that you should feel satisfied with
the support which it has been my duty, and I assure you a sincere
pleasure, to me to afford you.
I remain, &c., &c.,
CLANRICARDE.
R. HILL, Esq.,
&c., &c., &c.
APPENDIX D.
[See p. 111.]
_Minute on the Sunday Duties of the Post Office._
_To the Postmaster-General._
1. In obedience to your Lordship's instructions, I beg to submit my
views as to further measures for reducing the Sunday duties of the Post
Office, and as to other improvements connected therewith.
2. The importance of affording to all connected with the Post Office
the utmost amount of rest on Sunday that is consistent with a due
regard to public convenience having led to measures for the total
suspension of money-order business on that day throughout England and
Wales, it is very satisfactory to remark, that neither the announcement
of the change, nor the experience of it thus far, has brought on the
department a single complaint from the public; and I confidently
anticipate like satisfactory results should the Treasury concur in your
Lordship's recent recommendation of a similar measure in Ireland and
Scotland.
3. Your Lordship will recollect that, in considering the above
improvement, the importance of a similar relief as respects other
duties was kept in mind; and, from the investigations which have been
made, there can be no doubt that a further very important relief as
relates to Sunday work may be effected in all the provincial offices.
4. The consideration of this question, however, is closely connected
with that of a measure mainly relating to public convenience, but
which, contrary to first appearances, proves on investigation to have a
direct tendency towards the same object of Sunday relief.
5. The transmission of letters through London on the Sunday, your
Lordship is aware, has long been a desideratum, having been recommended
by the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry in 1836 (7 Report, p. 9);
and by a committee of the House of Commons in 1818 (3 Report, p. x.);
and again suggested by several members of a committee of the House of
Lords in 1847 (Report of the Select Committee. Ev. 430-445).
6. The obstacles to the adoption of these recommendations were,
first, an assumption that it would increase the Sunday work of the
department; second, a fear that it would lead to a Sunday delivery in
London.
7. Both these apprehensions, as will be shown hereafter, are groundless.
8. Since the time when the above recommendations were made, the
importance of the change has greatly increased, the Sunday average
letters involved in the consideration having advanced since 1836 from
5000 or 6000 to 50,000 or 60,000, or ten-fold.
9. The importance of the change will be still more manifest on
reference to the fact, that this present number of London "forward
letters" for a single day much exceeds what was in 1836 the
corresponding number for a whole week, for the expediting of which
it was determined by Government, on the recommendation of the
Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, to establish day mails at an
estimated cost of £15,000 a year (7 Report, pp. 5 and 121).
10. The evil of the present arrangement, already so great, is
constantly increasing, partly because of the general increase of
letters, but mainly because of the centralising tendency of the
railways. The greatly increased speed of conveyance, too, obviously
tends to make any detention more severely felt; and the inconvenience
is particularly serious when, as occasionally happens, the detention
falls on a mail from the East or West Indies.
11. The evil of detention has been found so serious, that in several
cases the rule has been evaded, either by making use of other existing
channels for the conveyance of the mails sent on ordinary days through
London, or by the actual establishment of Sunday cross-posts; either
of which arrangements obviously involves increased expense, trouble,
liability to error, perplexity to the public, and additional Sunday
work. Thus the mail between Winchester and Birmingham is sent on the
Sunday through Exeter; and again, the correspondence between the
towns served by the North-Eastern Railway and those served by the
North-Western Railway is conveyed on a Sunday by a mail-cart, expressly
running on that day between Cambridge and Wolverton, through Newport
Pagnel, a distance of 47 miles--an arrangement involving an expense
of £148 per annum (£98 for the cart and £50 for additional sorting at
Newport Pagnel), besides a direct increase in Sunday occupation.
12. Meantime the mail trains, excepting a few of the day mails, run
as on other days, and, save as regards London, convey letters as
usual. Even to London nearly all letters from Ireland, Scotland, and
the out-ports, as also all foreign and colonial letters whatever, are
brought, as on other days, the same being partly assorted at the chief
office on the Sunday, for delivery or for forwarding, as the case may
be, the next morning.
13. For the performance of these duties and for the selection and
delivery of the "States" (letters addressed chiefly to the higher
offices of Government), twenty-six persons are ordinarily employed at
the chief office on Sunday, their time of occupation being, on the
average, six hours. The arrival of a heavy mail from abroad requires a
greater force.
14. To remove the evils of this weekly suspension of the ordinary
transmission through London, and the anomalies arising out of it,
and with the view of diminishing the amount of Sunday work in the
department as a whole, I propose that the _existing mail trains_ should
bring up on the Sunday, in addition to the present bags, the _forward
stamped letters_--excluding, however, newspapers, parliamentary
proceedings, and all documents not paying the full letter rates. These
limitations _will avert, on the one hand, any possibility of a Sunday
delivery of letters to the London public_, and, on the other, any
unnecessary addition to the Sunday accounts.
15. The restriction to stamped letters may perhaps cause some
inconvenience to the public, especially at first, arising out of their
difficulty of knowing what correspondence passes through London and
what does not; but as it is in contemplation to confine the receipt of
money-paid letters to the chief office of each provincial town, and as
the deputies can be instructed whenever the want of a stamp would cause
the detention of a letter to state as much when it is presented for
prepayment (an arrangement which will be facilitated by the comparative
leisure of blank post day), it appears to me that the danger of
inconvenience to the public will be small, and certainly far less
than that which now results from the doubt as to whether even stamped
letters posted on blank post day will be detained or not.
16. The inland letters thus brought in, as they would require no
accounts either to be examined or made out, would be despatched by the
existing day mails in those cases where this would be necessary to
secure their earlier delivery on the Monday. All the other letters,
whether inland or not, would be sent by the night mails. It is obvious
that, under this arrangement, none of the letters in question could be
delivered anywhere on the Sunday.
17. I should also strongly advise that in the performance of the
above-mentioned duties at the London office no infringement should be
allowed on the hours of divine service; the whole interval from ten in
the morning till five in the afternoon being left perfectly free; and
I should propose to extend this arrangement, as far as practicable, to
the existing duties at that office.
18. By availing ourselves of the time now occupied by the clerks of the
travelling post office in assorting such of the letters in question as
now reach them by the special cross-posts, I am of opinion that a force
of twenty-five men, at the expense of £300 per annum, will suffice for
the duties now proposed; and when it is considered that in the single
anomaly referred to above the plan will effect a saving of £148 a year,
it appears highly probable that the total reductions effected by the
improvement will fully compensate such additional expense.
19. I should add that, although Mr. Bokenham, whom I have consulted,
sees no difficulty as regards the practicability of the general
measure, he is of opinion that little aid can be afforded by the clerks
of the travelling post office; consequently, though willing to try with
twenty-five additional men, his impression is that a somewhat larger
number will be necessary.
20. As regards the effect of the proposed change on the amount of
Sunday occupation, it is manifest, from what has already been stated,
that for the increased force at the chief office there is, to say the
least, a large set-off elsewhere. A further examination, however, will
put the matter in a light still more satisfactory.
21. It is notorious that a blank post is everywhere preceded and
followed by a greater amount of correspondence than usual. Thus, in
London, the average number of letters is greater on Saturday by six
per cent., and on Monday by 25 per cent., than on other days. But, as
respects the correspondence sent through London, Saturday evening is at
present in most towns a blank post time. It therefore follows that such
correspondence is despatched from the provinces in unusual amount on
Saturday morning, and on Sunday morning or evening, according as there
may or may not be a Sunday day mail.
22. Now each of these augmentations tends to produce additional Sunday
work, both to the department and to the public. For the letters in the
first category are for the most part distributed by the Post Office and
read by the public on the Sunday, and those in the second are for the
most part written by the public and despatched by the office on Sunday.
23. It is obvious therefore that, as far as relates to the letters
in question, the proposed change would entirely get rid of Sunday
work, as respects the public; while, as respects the department, it
would exchange work now dispersed through nearly a thousand offices
for concentrated occupation in one--the latter requiring a less
proportionate force, and falling on such time as to be dealt with
without infringement on the hours of divine service. It is manifest
therefore that, as respects general supersession of Sunday work, the
balance is in favour of the proposed plan.
24. The advantage, however, by no means rests here. The plan will be an
important aid, as will be shown hereafter, to measures for relieving
the provincial offices as regards Sunday business in general.
25. As regards the chief office, the force now proposed to be employed
on the Sunday would suffice for nearly all the ordinary duties
necessarily belonging to that day, and thus it would be possible to
defer most of the work now done on the Sunday till after midnight; and
thus to avoid any material increase in the Sunday force. This latter
change, however, implies the previous consolidation of the inland and
district post offices.
26. Nay, were it thought necessary, there are means, arising in part
out of the comparative leisure at most country offices on the Saturday,
by which Sunday work at the chief office might be reduced considerably
below its present amount. As, however, these means involve some
complexity, and possibly additional expense, I do not propose them at
present. But hereafter, should they prove sufficiently simple to be
reduced to practice, and not too expensive for adoption, there can be
no doubt that this prevention of the weekly delay or irregularity in
the vast correspondence which ordinarily passes through London, so
far from involving any increase in the amount of Sunday work, would,
independently of its aid to other measures of relief, directly produce
a material diminution of the same.
27. I now come to the special question of relief to the provincial
offices. The measures in contemplation appear in the following extract
from my minute of Dec 6, 1848:--
"That every office in England and Wales be closed for all purposes from
ten to five o'clock on the Sunday, except for the receipt and despatch
of any mails in the interval; but that a box be left open for the
posting of stamped and unpaid letters. Further, that there be only one
delivery of letters on that day."
28. This proposal, having been referred by your Lordship to the English
surveyors, has met with their unanimous and earnest concurrence. It
appears, however, that although the general rule is to have only one
delivery on the Sunday, there are several towns in which there are
two. The discontinuance of the additional delivery, although, with one
doubtful exception, approved of by the surveyors, might, nevertheless,
in the absence of other alterations, produce serious complaint from
the public: the Sunday transmission of letters through London, however,
would, as regards most towns in England and Wales, withdraw so large a
proportion of letters from the second delivery (already very light),
that the little delay in the delivery of the residuum would be of no
moment. Such withdrawal, however, it must be admitted, is, in relation
to public convenience, an objection, _pro tanto_, to the plan; but,
as the delivery of these letters on the Monday morning would be
made conjointly with that of many letters now detained till Monday
afternoon, or, in some instances, till the next day, the measure, as a
whole, would probably give satisfaction even in the comparatively few
towns where the delay would occur. Everywhere else it would certainly
be felt as a great boon.
29. This change, therefore, being considered as part of the general
measure, I have no hesitation in recommending that (with possibly one
or two exceptions, which, if necessary, will be submitted hereafter)
the second delivery be abolished throughout England and Wales; Ireland
and Scotland being left for after-consideration; and that the plan, as
proposed in my minute of December 6th, be now carried into effect. The
reports of the surveyors are submitted.
30. It may perhaps assist your Lordship in deciding the important
question now submitted, if I briefly recapitulate the results, negative
as well as positive, of the whole of the measure.
31. First, It will prevent irregularity or delay (often amounting to
twenty-four hours) in the transmission of probably 50,000 letters a
week.
32. Second, It will add little or nothing to the expenses of the
department.
33. Third, It will cause no increase whatever of mail-trains or other
means of transmission, to or from London, on the Sunday.
34. Fourth, It will neither bring in nor take out a single London
letter, and therefore cannot cause either a Sunday delivery or a Sunday
collection in London.
35. Fifth, While it will not affect the number of Sunday collections
elsewhere, it will materially reduce the number of Sunday deliveries.
36. Sixth, While, so far as the public is concerned, it will leave
matters precisely as they now stand in London and the vicinity, it will
tend greatly to reduce Sunday letter-writing and reading elsewhere.
37. Seventh, It is true that as regards the London Post Office, it
will, in the first instance require the attendance of about twenty-five
persons on the Sunday, but these will not be allowed in the slightest
degree to infringe on the hours of divine service; and I am of opinion
that eventually even this limited attendance may be avoided, and the
Sunday work in the London office reduced much below its present amount.
On the other hand, as regards the provincial offices, it will release a
very large body of persons now engaged even during the hours of divine
service, and will thus afford to many hundreds, perhaps even to some
thousands, needful rest, and the opportunity of attending the services
of the day.
38. Should your Lordship approve of these proposals, I submit that the
necessary application be made to the Treasury.
39. Some important measures of relief to the rural messengers and rural
receivers on the Sunday, which have been suggested by Mr. W. Johnson,
will still remain for your Lordship's consideration; but, as they
are not essential parts of the main plan, I propose to submit them
hereafter in a separate minute.
ROWLAND HILL.
February 3, 1849.
APPENDIX E.
[See p. 126.]
_Letter to Postmaster-General deprecating Compulsory
Employment on the Sunday._
(_Private and Confidential._)
General Post Office, October 18th, 1849.
MY DEAR LORD,--I am greatly alarmed at your Lordship's note, and
earnestly entreat that you will not authorize Mr. Bokenham to compel
the attendance of a single man. During your Lordship's absence in
Ireland, the excited state of the public mind made it necessary to take
a decided course relative to this matter; and as it was always intended
and fully understood by Mr. Bokenham that none but volunteers were to
be employed on the Sunday duties, I did not hesitate to contradict the
report which had been most unjustly raised to the effect that the men,
notwithstanding conscientious objections to the work, were to be forced
to engage in it.
The pledge which, under the circumstances, I felt warranted and
compelled to give, I trust your Lordship will enable me fully to
maintain.
I am still ready to undertake the responsibility of the sorting by
volunteers, provided your Lordship will give me the powers which,
by your approval of my minute of the 15th inst., were conferred on
Mr. Bokenham. I submit, therefore, that there can be no necessity
for resorting to any compulsion; and considering the manner in which
the public has held me responsible for this measure, I trust I may
be permitted to say that, so far as my own feelings are concerned, I
would rather abandon the improvement altogether than run the risk of
compelling any one to do that to which he has a conscientious objection.
Until I received your Lordship's note I had no conception of any
difficulty or hesitation on Mr. Bokenham's part. Mr. Tilley was present
when Mr. Bokenham expressed his readiness to undertake the duty on the
conditions stated in my minute of the 15th. Mr. Tilley read the minute
a few hours later, and confirmed the accuracy of its statements.
I need hardly say that I shall carefully follow the advice with which
your Lordship has honoured me; but, as I am most anxious that this
matter should be settled without delay, I beg that should you be unable
to fulfil your intention of coming to town to-morrow, I may be favoured
with immediate instructions to wait upon you at Brighton.
I have, &c.
ROWLAND HILL.
The Most Noble the Marquis of CLANRICARDE,
&c., &c., &c.
APPENDIX F.
[See p. 134.]
_Anonymous Letter from a Sub-Sorter._
October 11th, 1849.
SIR,--Before taking up too much of your time, it is but fair to state
that I shall not conform to the usage of society nor to the regulations
of the Post Office. My communication will be anonymous, and, as you
perceive, in the handwriting of a female. The dangers which beset the
"usual channel," have forced me to take this course in offering an
observation or two on the opposition to the extension of Sunday duty.
This opposition in the office is not really against the duty, but is a
strong attempt to level the author of Penny Postage, and was originated
in Mr. ----'s room! The Clerks received the cue, and artfully led the
Subsorters, Letter-carriers, and Messengers to believe that the duty
was to be performed without pay. The Inspector of Letter-carriers
lent assistance by expressing a determination to resign if the order
came into operation. Old tales of cutting down of salaries on railway
lines were revived, and anecdotes manufactured telling of meanness in
private matters. The men saw what was expected from them, and were
soon employed on their walks in announcing their doleful prospects and
looking up mawworms to protest against such a prophane decree. Of the
success of this plan out of doors, Sir, you are aware. In the office,
the pretensions to piety are quite sickening. Fellows who have broken
nearly every commandment are now fearful of causing ever so slight a
flaw on the fourth. Still, there are plenty of men willing and able to
carry out your object if certain of protection. That this is wanted,
the following instance will show. The first man who made application
for the Sunday duty was told it must be in writing. Before, however, he
could put the few words required to paper, it was known all over the
office. A system of annoyance was commenced, strong enough to deter
him from proceeding further in the matter. He was hooted at inside the
building and insulted in the street.
Last night a report was in circulation that the morning despatch had
been abandoned from the difficulty of obtaining hands. I hope, Sir,
that this will not be the case with the evening duty, but that you will
persist in the determination to benefit the public, in spite of in door
opposition and out-of-door twaddle. Never mind if every letter is not
got off on the first attempt--it will soon improve. Give the clerks an
intimation that if they refuse this modification, it will be offered to
the Subsorters on the same terms. They are afraid of us now. Educated
in a better school--the Newspaper Office--for becoming officially
dexterous, we could beat them at their own duties, and not one of them
could accept a challenge to play the return match at those which we
perform.
I will not trespass longer on your patience than to state that the
hostility, portrayed by Mr. M. D. Hill in 1839 as likely to exist, is
now in full vigour. In the ten years which have elapsed since then,
they have not become reconciled to the name of Rowland Hill, but hate
it worse than ever. The soothing system is of no use. A stronger motive
in future must rule the Inland Office.
I am
Sir, most respectfully,
My poverty and not my will consenting to the omission of my name,
A SUBSORTER.
APPENDIX G.
[See p. 164.]
_Letter to Mr. Warburton._
Hampstead, November 16th, 1850.
MY DEAR SIR,--As you have kindly undertaken to see the Chancellor
of the Exchequer on my behalf, I beg to trouble you with a brief
recapitulation of the case.
You will recollect that in my late correspondence with the
Postmaster-General I took the liberty to remind his Lordship of the
promise under which I was induced to accept my present post, of the
serious obstacles to improvements as well as of the great danger
of insubordination in the office arising from my present anomalous
position, and of the acknowledged fulfilment of the only condition on
which my promotion was to depend.
It is now four years since the promise was made--two years have elapsed
since I first claimed its performance; and though no objection is
raised to the justness of the claim, no steps have been taken towards
its practical acknowledgment. Additional circumstances, which I shall
shortly state, now compel me to press for an immediate change.
According to present arrangements, Colonel Maberly has a staff of about
fifty clerks, formed into departments, each department having a head,
familiar with all the details thereof, and capable, under instructions,
of preparing nearly all the necessary minutes, thus relieving Colonel
Maberly himself of what would otherwise be an insupportable amount
of drudgery. As regards the Money Order Department, I am similarly
circumstanced; but for the transaction of general business, though I
believe most of the difficult cases, particularly the obnoxious ones,
devolve upon me, my whole staff consists of but three clerks, at
comparatively low salaries. Nor could I be supplied with an efficient
corps, save at the unwarrantable expense of several thousands a
year--_i.e._, an amount making some approach to the actual cost of
Colonel Maberly's staff.
Neither would it avail to withhold the above cases from me, as all are
more or less connected with those improvements which it is my especial
duty to effect and maintain.
Viewing my position as temporary, I have endeavoured to meet the
exigence by great personal exertion, and by obtaining competent
assistance at my own cost, in which latter course, limited and
imperfect as any such arrangements must necessarily be, I have already
expended several hundred pounds.
Still I am obliged to investigate each case myself, and substantially
to prepare the necessary minutes; and when, in addition to all this, it
is considered that from the first I have rarely had less than five or
six important and difficult improvements in hand at once, I scarcely
need assure you that the labour has been very severe. Indeed it has
proved quite too much for my health, and, according to the opinion of
my medical attendant (Mr. Hodgson) it has induced a disorder, which,
though yet but incipient, threatens the most serious consequences,
unless promptly and effectually checked.
Effectual rest, the remedy prescribed, however, is incompatible with
my present position. For though the Postmaster-General has most kindly
acceded to every request I have made for leave of absence, yet, seeing
that I have no assistant capable of undertaking my duties (as is done
for Colonel Maberly by the assistant-secretary) any partial rest thus
obtained entails a serious accumulation of work at its close. These
are the considerations which oblige me to press for immediate change,
though independently of them, and even of the promise adverted to
above, I trust a consideration of what has been effected during the
last four years will show my claim to be well founded.
To pass over numerous improvements, many of which have failed to excite
attention, not so much from any want of importance, as from their
smoothness in operation (the only case of trouble being the recent
improvement in the Sunday duties, when a temporary outcry arose from
a cabal within the office), I may particularise the reform of the
Money Order Department, the only department consigned to my charge, a
reform by which, with increased convenience to the public, increased
accuracy in the accounts, better pay, and more relaxation to the
clerks, a saving has been effected, already amounting, all things duly
considered, to a total of about £37,000, and which is now going on at
the rate probably of about £13,000 a year, with a clear prospect of
increase.
This, however, constitutes but a small portion of what, even with the
very limited means at my command, I have been able to save positively
or negatively in the Post Office generally.