My business, of course, in the investigation just named, was to
ascertain what plan Sir Rowland Hill had proposed in his pamphlet of
1837 for the purpose of carrying out his Penny Postage Scheme, and to
trace therefrom the adoption on his part of my father's plan of the
adhesive stamp. But a discovery of much more historical importance
before long presented itself, namely, that neither the conception of
uniform penny postage itself, nor of any one of the valuable principles
and figures of the penny postage scheme, were original conceptions on
the part of Sir Rowland Hill.
The reformed system of postage was not the work of one year nor of one
man. For some years prior to 1837 the abuses and mismanagement of the
post office were a constant theme of complaint, both in and out of
Parliament--many able and earnest men combined to bring about some
reform demanded by men of business and public opinion. Commissions of
inquiry were held, evidence and suggestions taken, reports issued.
Early in 1835 Mr. Wallace, M.P. for Greenock, a prominent post-office
reformer, obtained a Commission of Inquiry on the subject, which
Commission issued in all ten Reports; while, in addition to
Parliamentary returns, a commission, termed the Commission of Revenue
Inquiry, had sat for many years prior to the Commission of merely Post
Office Inquiry, and had issued twenty-three Reports, in more than one of
which post-office affairs were dealt with.
In that large field of complaint, suggestion, information, and proposal
may be found the substance, origin, and foundation of the subsequent
writings and proposals of Sir Rowland Hill.
It will be remembered that the old system of postage, prior to 1840, was
that of a high and variable charge according to distance, of, say,
twopence to one shilling and sixpence a letter, charged by sheet; and
two sheets, however light in weight, were charged double. The same with
circulars. But in these Reports, including the evidence of the numerous
witnesses, are to be found embodied all the valuable principles and
figures of the reformed system. And that all these Reports had come
under Mr. Hill's review is left in no doubt, having been sent to him by
Mr. Wallace, after Mr. Hill, freed from other occupations, had, in 1835,
joined the circle of post-office reformers, when he "commenced that
systematic study, analysis, and comparison which the difficulty of my
self-imposed task rendered necessary."--("Life," page 246.)
But to be looked upon as the _inventor_ of that scheme which he had
introduced and (saved and rendered practicable by the adhesive stamp)
had successfully carried out--to have this scheme understood as having
been the unaided conception of his own mind--was with Sir Rowland Hill
simply a mania, and to that mania James Chalmers, the originator in
every sense of that adhesive stamp, was sacrificed.
The bearing of all this non-originality of conception on the part of Sir
Rowland Hill is obvious when the question of the stamp is under
consideration. In propounding the scheme itself, what were only acquired
ideas were assumed, or allowed to be assumed, as inventions or
conceptions. As with the scheme, so with the stamp--the stamp also was
an acquired idea, not Rowland Hill's invention.
Having now, however, obtained from a quarter of the highest standing,
after an impartial investigation, a full acknowledgment of my father's
services, and this in addition to an already large amount of recognition
from the press in general, further observations as to the
non-originality of the scheme may be here dispensed with, for the
present at least, and left to history. And if I have been compelled to
show that, so far from the adhesive stamp having been the invention of
Sir Rowland Hill, originality of conception formed no element whatever
in any one of the proposals of even the Penny Postage Scheme itself,
such course has been forced upon me by the unfortunate proceedings of
Mr. Pearson Hill in denying, against the clearest evidence, my just
claim in the matter of the stamp, without a pretence of proof that such
was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill.