[4] These papers are in the Art Library of the South Kensington Museum.
[5] The perforated sheets were not introduced until the year 1852. This
improvement was the invention of a Mr. Archer, for which he got the sum
of L4,000.
[6] In his "Life" lately published, written by himself, Sir Rowland Hill
_omits the clause_ in his original evidence which restores the payment
of the penny in cash and does away with any necessity for an adhesive
stamp, even in the exceptional case he had supposed. Not only does Sir
Rowland Hill omit this clause, but he even gives the reader to
understand that to the year 1837, the year of his pamphlet, is to be
ascribed his adoption of the adhesive stamp. How then, it will be asked,
does Sir Rowland Hill account for the speech of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer on the 5th July, 1839, and the interposition of Mr. Wallace in
favour of an adhesive stamp? This difficulty Sir Rowland Hill surmounts
by simply taking no notice of either.
[7] In his letter to Lord Litchfield of 9th January, 1838, Mr. Hill
states his plan to be:--"That the payment should always be in advance.
And to rid this mode of payment of the trouble and risk which it would
otherwise entail on the sending of letters, as well as for other
important considerations, I propose that the postage be collected by the
sale of stamped covers."
[8] The "Times" of this date has the following paragraph:--"The Penny
Postage will commence, we learn, on the 1st January next. It is intended
that stamped envelopes shall be sold at every Post Office, so that
stationers and other shopkeepers may, as well as the public, supply
themselves at a minute's notice." Not a word as to an Adhesive Stamp
being known as in contemplation. It will be evident from these two
instances alone, independent of the proceedings in Parliament and of Mr.
Hill's letter to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March, 1838, that the Adhesive
Stamp formed no part of the original proposals or intentions of Sir
Rowland Hill.
[9] See "The World," "Daily Chronicle," &c., also "Proceedings of the
Commissioners of Sewers" for July, 1881, as reported in the "City
Press."
[10] The "Christian Leader" of Glasgow ably puts the matter thus:--"Sir
Rowland Hill seems to have been at pains to obscure the facts of the
case for the purpose of claiming to himself the credit of an invention
which really belonged to the Dundee bookseller."