When the applause had subsided Solomon Flint caused a slight feeling of
depression in the meeting by stating that the subject which he meant to
bring before them that evening was a historical view of the Post-Office.
Most of those present felt that they had had more than enough of the
Post-Office thrust on their attention every day of their lives, and the
irreverent member ventured to call out "Shop," but he was instantly and
indignantly called to order.
When, however, Solomon went on to state his firm belief that a
particular branch of the Post-Office began in the immediate
neighbourhood of the Garden of Eden, and that Adam was the first
Postmaster-General, the depression gave way to interest, not unmingled
with curiosity.
"You see, my young friends," continued the lecturer, "our information
with regard to the origin of the Post-Office is slight. The same may be
said as to the origin of a'most everythink. Taking the little
information that we do possess, and applying to it the reasoning power
which was given to us for the purpose of investigatin' an' discoverin'
truth, I come to the following conclusions:--
"Adam was a tiller of the ground. There can be no doubt about that.
Judging from analogy, we have the best ground for supposing that while
Adam was digging in the fields Eve was at home preparing the dinner, and
otherwise attending to the domestic arrangements of the house, or hut,
or hovel, or cave. Dinner being ready, Eve would naturally send little
Cain or Abel to fetch their father, and thus, you see, the branch of
boy-messengers began." (Applause, mingled with laughter and cheers.)
"Of course," continued Solomon, "it may be objected--for some people can
always object--(Hear, hear)--that these were not _Post-Office_
messengers, but, my young friends, it is well known that the greater
includes the less. As mankind is involved in Adam, and the oak is
embedded in the acorn, so it may be maintained that the first faint germ
of the Boy-Messenger Branch of the Post-Office was included in Cain and
Abel.
"Passing, however, from what I may style this Post-Office germ, over
many centuries, during which the records of postal history are few and
faint and far between, we come down to more modern times--say five or
six hundred years ago--and what do we find?" (Here Solomon became
solemn.) "We find next to nothink! Absolutely next to nothink! The
Boy-Messenger Department had indeed developed amazingly, insomuch that,
whereas there were only two to begin with, there were in the 15th
century no fewer than innumerable millions of 'em in every region and
land and clime to which the 'uman family had penetrated, but no section
of them had as yet prefixed the word `Telegraph' to their name, and as
to postal arrangements, w'y, they were simply disgraceful. Just think,
now, up to the century of which I speak--the fifteenth--there was no
regular Post-Office in this country. Letters were conveyed by common
carriers at the rate, probably, of three or four miles an hour. Flesh
and blood couldn't stand that, you know, so about the close of the
century, places, or `posts,' were established in some parts of the
country, where horses could be hired by travellers, and letters might be
conveyed. The post-boys of those days evidently required spurring as
well as their horses, for letters of the period have been preserved with
the words `_Haste, post haste_' on their backs. Sometimes the writers
seem to have been in a particularly desperate hurry. One letter,
written by a great man of the period, had on the back of it the words,
`In haste; post haste, for thy life, for thy life, for thy life;' and it
is believed that this was no idle caution, but a threat which was apt to
be carried out if the post-boy loitered on the way."
It may be remarked that Solomon's language became more refined as he
proceeded, but lapsed into a free-and-easy style whenever he became
jocular.
"The first horse-posts," continued the lecturer, "were established for
military purposes--the convenience of the public being deemed quite a
secondary matter. Continental nations were in advance of England in
postal arrangements, and in the first quarter of the sixteenth century
(1514) the foreign merchants residing in London were so greatly
inconvenienced by the want of regular letter conveyance, that they set
up a Post-Office of their own from London to its outports, and appointed
their own Postmaster, but, quarrelling among themselves, they referred
their dispute to Government. James the First established a Post-Office
for letters to foreign countries, for the benefit of English merchants,
but it was not till the year 1635--in the reign of Charles the First--
that a Post-Office for inland letters was established. It was ordained
that the Postmaster of England for foreign parts `should settle a
running post or two to run night and day between Edinburgh and London,
to go thither and come back again in six days, and to take with them all
such letters as shall be directed to any post-town in or near that
road.'
"In 1640 the Post-Office was placed under the care and superintendence
of the Principal Secretary of State, and became one of the settled
institutions of the country.
"Here, then, we have what may be considered the birth of the
Post-Office, which is now pretty nigh two centuries and a half old. And
what a wonderful difference there is between this infant Post-Office and
the man! _Then_, six days; _now_, less than a dozen hours, between the
capitals of England and Scotland--to say nothing of other things. But,
my lads, we must not turn up our noses at the day of small things."
"Hear, hear," cried little Grigs, who approved the sentiment.
"Lay it to heart then, Grigs," said Peter Pax, who referred to the fact
that little Grigs's nose was turned up so powerfully by nature that it
could not help turning up at things small and great alike.
Laughter and great applause were mingled with cries of "Order," which
Solomon subdued by holding up his hand.
"At the same time," continued the lecturer, "bye-posts were set a-going
to connect the main line with large towns, such as Hull, Lincoln,
Chester, etcetera. These bye-posts were farmed out to private
individuals, and the rates fixed at 2 pence a single letter to any place
under 80 miles; 4 pence up to 140 miles; 6 pence to any more distant
place in England; and 8 pence to Scotland.
"From that date forward the infant began to grow--sometimes slowly,
sometimes quickly, now and then by spurts--just like other infants, and
a horribly spoiled and mismanaged baby it was at first. Those who see
it now,--in the prime of its manhood, wielding its giant strength with
such ease, accomplishing all but miraculous work with so great speed,
regularity, and certainty, and with so little fuss,--can hardly believe
what a cross-grained little stupid thing it was in those early days, or
what tremendous difficulties it had to contend with.
"In the first place, the roads in the land were few, and most of them
inconceivably bad, besides which they were infested by highwaymen, who
often took a fancy to rummage the mail-bags and scatter their contents.
The post in those days was slow, but not sure. Then it experienced some
trouble from other infants, of the same family, who claimed a right to
share its privileges. Among these was a Post-Office established by the
Common Council of London in direct rivalry to the Parliamentary child.
This resulted in a great deal of squabbling and pamphleteering, also in
many valuable improvements--for it is well known that opposition is the
life of trade. The Council of State, however, came to the conclusion
that, in an affair so thoroughly national, the office of Postmaster and
the management of the Post-Office ought to rest in the sole power and
disposal of Parliament; the City posts were peremptorily suppressed;
opposition babies were quietly--no doubt righteously--murdered; and from
that date the carrying of letters has remained the exclusive privilege
of the Crown. But considerable and violent opposition was made to this
monopoly. This is a world of opposition, my young friends"--the
lecturer was pathetic here--"and I have no doubt whatever that it was
meant to be a world of opposition"--the lecturer was energetic here, and
drew an emphatic "Hear, hear," from the Scotch members. "Why, it is
only by opposition that questions are ventilated and truth is
established!
"No doubt every member of this ancient and literary Society is well
acquainted with the name of Hill--(great cheering)--Sir Rowland Hill,
who in the year 1840 succeeded in getting introduced to the nation one
of the greatest boons with which it has been blessed--namely, the Penny
Post." (Renewed cheering.) "Well, it is a curious and interesting fact
that in the middle of the seventeenth century--more than two hundred
years ago--a namesake of Sir Rowland (whether an ancestor or not I
cannot tell), a Mr John Hill, wrote a pamphlet in which monopoly was
condemned and a penny post suggested. The title of the pamphlet was
`John Hill's Penny Post; or, A Vindication of every Englishman in
carrying Merchants' or any other Men's Letters against any restraints of
Farmers of such Employment.' So, you see, in regard to the Penny Post,
the coming event cast its shadow about two hundred years in advance.
"The Creeping Era may be the title assigned to this period of
Post-Office history. Little was expected of the Post-Office, and not
much was done. Nevertheless, considering the difficulties in its way,
our infant progressed wonderfully. Its revenue in 1649 was 5000 pounds.
Gradually it got upon its legs. Then it monopolised post-horses and
began to run. Waxing bolder, it also monopolised packet-boats and went
to sea. Like all bold and energetic children, it had numerous falls,
and experienced many troubles in its progress. Nevertheless its heart
was kept up by the steady increase of its revenue, which amounted to
76,000 pounds in 1687. During the following seventy-eight years the
increase was twofold, and during the next ninety years (to 1854) it was
tenfold.
"It was hard times with the Post-Office officials about the beginning of
last century.
"During what we may call the Post-boy Era, the officials were maltreated
by robbers on shore and by privateers (next thing to pirates) at sea.
In fact they were compelled to become men of war. And the troubles and
anxieties of the Postmaster-Generals were proportionately great. The
latter had to fit out the mail-packets as ships of war, build new ships,
and sell old ones, provide stores and ammunition for the same, engage
captains and crews, and attend to their disputes, mutinies, and
shortcomings. They had also to correspond with the deputy-postmasters
all over the country about all sorts of matters--chiefly their arrears
and carelessness or neglect of duty--besides foreign correspondence.
What the latter involved may be partly gathered from lists of the
articles sent by post at that time. Among other things, we find
reference to `fifteen couple of hounds going to the King of the Romans
with a free pass.' A certain `Dr Crichton, carrying with him a cow and
divers other necessaries,' is mentioned as having been posted! also `two
servant-maids going as laundresses to my Lord Ambassador Methuen,' and
`a deal case with four flitches of bacon for Mr Pennington of
Rotterdam.' The captains of the mail-packets ought to have worn coats
of mail, for they had orders to run while they could, to fight when they
could not run, and to throw the mails overboard when fighting failed!
"Of course, it is to be hoped, this rule was not strictly enforced when
doctors and females formed part of the mails.
"In one case a certain James Vickers, captain of the mail-packet `Grace
Dogger,' lay in Dublin Bay waiting till the tide should enable him to
get over the bar. A French privateer chanced to be on the look-out in
these waters, and pounced upon James Vickers, who was either unable or
unwilling to fight. The French captain stripped the `Grace Dogger'--as
the chronicler writes--`of rigging, sails, spars, yards, and all
furniture wherewith she had been provided for due accommodation of
passengers, leaving not so much as a spoone, or a naile, or a hooke to
hang anything on.' Having thus made a clean sweep of her valuables, and
having no use for the hull, the Frenchman ransomed the `Grace Dogger' to
poor J.V. for fifty guineas, which the Post-Office had to pay!
"But our mail-packets were not always thus easily or summarily mastered.
Sometimes they fought and conquered, but, whatever happened, the result
was invariably productive of expense, because wounded men had to be
cared for and cured or pensioned. Thus one Edward James had a donation
of 5 pounds, because `a musket shot had grazed the tibia of his left
leg.' What the _tibia_ may be, my young friends, is best known to the
doctors--I have not taken the trouble to inquire!" (Hear, hear, and
applause.) "Then another got 12 pounds `because a shot had divided his
frontal muscles and fractured his skull;' while a third received a
yearly pension of 6 pounds, 13 shillings, 4 pence `on account of a shot
in the hinder part of the head, whereby a large division of scalp was
made.' Observe what significance there is in that fourpence! Don't it
speak eloquently of the strict justice of the Post-Office authorities of
those days? Don't it tell of tender solicitude on their part thus to
gauge the value of gunshot wounds? Might it not be said that the men
were carefully rated when wounded? One Postmaster-General writes to an
agent at Falmouth in regard to rates: `Each arm or leg amputated above
the elbow or knee is 8 pounds per annum; below the knee, 20 nobles.
Loss of sight of one eye, 4 pounds; of pupil of the eye, 5 pounds; of
sight of both eyes, 12 pounds; of pupils of both eyes, 14 pounds.' Our
well-known exactitude began to crop up, you see, even in those days.
"The post-boys--who in many instances were grey-headed men--also gave
the authorities much trouble, many of them being addicted to strong
drink, and not a few to dilatory habits and dishonesty. One of them was
at one time caught in the act of breaking the laws. At that period the
bye-posts were farmed, but the post-boys, regardless of farmers' rights,
often carried letters and brought back answers on their own account--
receiving and keeping the hire, so that neither the Post-Office nor the
farmer got the benefit. The particular boy referred to was convicted
and committed to prison, but as he could not get bail--having neither
friends nor money--he begged to be whipped instead! His petition was
granted, and he was accordingly whipped to his heart's content--or, as
the chronicler has it, he was whipped `to the purpose.'
"Many men of great power and energy contributed to the advance of the
Post-Office in those times. I won't burden your minds with many of
their names however. One of them, William Dockwra, started a penny post
in London for letters and small parcels in 1683. Twenty-three years
later an attempt was made to start a halfpenny post in London, but that
was suppressed.
"Soon after that a great man arose named Ralph Allen. He obtained a
lease of the cross posts from Government for life at 6000 pounds a year.
By his wisdom and energy he introduced vast improvements in the postal
system, besides making a profit of 12,000 pounds a year, which he lived
to enjoy for forty-four years, spending much of his fortune in charity
and in the exercise of hospitality to men of learning and genius.
"About the middle of last century--the eighteenth--the Post-Office,
although greatly increased in efficiency, was an insignificant affair
compared with that of the present day. It was bound to pay into the
Exchequer 700 pounds a week. In Ireland and Scotland improvements also
went on apace, but not so rapidly as in England, as might have been
expected, considering the mountainous nature of these countries. In
Scotland the first modern stage-coach was introduced in 1776. The same
year a penny post was started in Edinburgh by a certain Peter Williamson
of Aberdeen, who was a keeper of a coffee-stall in the Parliament House,
and his experiment was so successful that he had to employ four carriers
to deliver and collect letters. These men rang a bell on their rounds
and wore a uniform. Others soon entered into competition, but the
Post-Office authorities came forward, took the local penny post in hand,
and pensioned Williamson off.
"It was not till the end of the century that the Post-Office made one of
its greatest and most notable strides.
"The Mail-coach Era followed that of the post-boys, and was introduced
by Mr John Palmer, manager of the Bath theatre. The post-boys had
become so unbearably slow and corrupt that people had taken to sending
valuable letters in brown paper parcels by the coaches, which had now
begun to run between most of the great towns. Palmer, who afterwards
became Controller-General of the Post-Office, proposed that mail-bags
should be sent by passenger-coaches with trusty and armed guards. His
advice, after some opposition, was acted on, and thus the mails came to
travel six miles an hour, instead of three or four--the result being an
immediate increase of correspondence, despite an increase of postage.
Rapidity, security, regularity, economy, are the great requisites in a
healthy postal system. Here, then, was an advance in at least two of
these. The advance was slight, it is true, but once more, I repeat, we
ought not to turn up our noses at the day of small things." (Little
Grigs was going to repeat "Hear! hear!" but thought better of it and
checked himself.) "Of course there was opposition to the stage-coaches.
There always is and will be opposition to everything in a world of mixed
good and evil." (The Scotsman here thought of repeating "Hear! hear!"
but refrained.) "One pamphleteer denounced them as the `greatest evil
that had happened of late years in these kingdoms,--mischievous to the
public, prejudicial to trade, and destructive to lands. Those who
travel in these coaches contract an idle habit of body, become weary and
listless when they had rode a few miles, and were unable to travel on
horseback, and not able to endure frost, snow, or rain, or to lodge in
the fields.' Opposition for ever! So it ever is. So it was when
foot-runners gave place to horsemen; so it was when horseflesh succumbed
to steam. So it will be when electro-galvanic aerial locomotives take
the place--." (The remainder of the sentence was lost in laughter and
rapturous applause.) "But roads were still intolerably bad. Stage-coach
travelling was a serious business. Men made their wills before setting
out on a journey. The journey between Edinburgh and London was
advertised to last ten days in summer, and twelve in winter, and that,
too, in a so-called `flying machine on steel springs.' But, to
return:--Our infant, having now become a sturdy youth, advanced somewhat
more rapidly. In 1792 a money-order office was set on foot for the
first time. It had been originally undertaken by some post-office
clerks on their own account, but was little used until the introduction
of the penny postage. Great reforms were made in many departments.
Among them was an Act passed to authorise the sending of letter-bags by
private ships. This originated the ship-letter system, by which letters
are now conveyed to every part of the world visited by private ships.
"Another mighty influence for good was the introduction (about 1818) of
macadamised roads, which brought travelling up to the point of ten miles
an hour. So also was the opening for use in 1829 of St.
Martin's-le-Grand--a _grand_ event this, in every sense of the word."
(Here a member objected to punning, and was immediately hooted out of
countenance.)
"With mail-coaches, macadamised roads, security, ten miles an hour, and
a vastly increased revenue, the Post-Office seemed to have reached the
highest heights of prosperity. The heights from which we now look down
upon these things ought to make us humble in our estimate of the future!
We have far surpassed the wildest dreams of those days, but there were
some points of picturesque interest in which we can never surpass them.
Ah! boys," said Solomon, looking up with a gleam of enthusiasm in his
eyes, "I mind the old mail-coaches well. They had for a long time
before I knew them reached their best days. It was about the year 1820
that most of the post-roads had been macadamised, and the service had
reached its highest state of efficiency. In 1836 there were fifty
four-horse mails in England, thirty in Ireland, and ten in Scotland,
besides forty-nine two-horse mails in England. Those who have not seen
the starting of the mail-coaches from the General Post-Office can never
understand the magnificence and excitement of that scene. The coaches
were clean, trim, elegant, and glittering; the blood-horses were the
finest that could be procured, groomed to perfection, and full of fire;
the drivers and guards were tried and trusty men of mettle, in bright
scarlet costume--some of the former being lords, baronets, and even
parsons! It was a gay and stirring sight when the insides and outsides
were seated, when the drivers seized their reins, and the bugles
sounded, the whips cracked, the impatient steeds reared, plunged, or
sprang away, and the Royal Mails flew from the yard of St.
Martin's-le-Grand towards every corner of the Kingdom.
"Their progress, too, was a sort of royal progress--a triumphal march.
Wherever they had to pass, crowds of people waited for them in subdued
excitement, hailed them with delight, and waved them on with cheers, for
they were almost the only means of distributing news; and when a great
victory, such as Trafalgar, Vittoria, or Waterloo had to be announced,
the mail-coaches--dressed in flowers and ribbons, with guards shouting
the news to eager crowds as they passed through hamlet, village, and
town--swept like a thrill of electric fire throughout the land. News
_was_ news in those days! You didn't get it at all till you got it
altogether, and then you got it like a thunderbolt. There was no
dribbling of advance telegrams; no daily papers to spread the news (or
lies), and contradict 'em next day, in the same columns with
commentaries or prophetic remarks on what might or should have been, but
wasn't, until news got muddled up into a hopeless entanglement, so that
when all was at last cleared up you'd been worried out of all your
interest in it! Yes, my lads, although I would not wish to see the
return of those stirring days, I'm free to assert that the world lost
something good, and that it was not all clear gain when the old
four-in-hand Royal Mail coaches drove out of the present into the past,
and left the Iron Horse in possession of the field.
"But nothing can arrest the hand of Time. When mail-coaches were at
their best, and a new Great North Road was being laid out by Telford,
the celebrated engineer, another celebrated engineer, named Stephenson,
was creating strange commotion among the coal-pits of the North. The
iron horse was beginning to snort. Soon he began to shriek and claw the
rails. Despite the usual opposition, he succeeded in asserting himself,
and, in the words of a disconsolate old mail-coach guard, `men began to
make a gridiron of old England.' The romance of the road had faded
away. No more for the old guard were there to be the exciting bustle of
the start, the glorious rush out of the smoky town into the bright
country; the crash through hamlet and village; the wayside changings;
the rough crossing of snow-drifted moorlands; the occasional breakdowns;
the difficulties and dangers; the hospitable inns; the fireside
gossipings. The old guard's day was over, and a new act in the drama of
human progress had begun.
"The Railway Era may be said to have commenced about the time of the
opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line in 1830, though the railway
system developed slowly during the first few years. Men did not believe
in it, and many suggestions were made to accelerate the speed of mails
in other ways. One writer proposed balloons. Another--Professor
Babbage--suggested a series of high pillars with wires stretched
thereon, along which letter-bags might be drawn. He even hinted that
such pillars and wires might come to be `made available for a species of
_telegraphic communication_ yet more rapid'--a hint which is peculiarly
interesting when we consider that it was given long prior to the time of
the electric telegraph. But the Iron Horse rode roughshod over all
other plans, and finally became the recognised and effective method of
conveyance.
"During this half-century of the mail-coach period many improvements and
alterations had been made in the working of the Post-Office.
"Among other things, the mails to India were despatched for the first
time by the `overland route'--the Mediterranean, Suez, and the Red Sea--
in 1835. A line of communication was subsequently extended to China and
Australia. In the following year the reduction of the stamp-duty on
newspapers to one penny led to a great increase in that branch of the
service.
"But now approached the time for the greatest reform of all--that
reduction of postage of which I have already spoken--namely, the uniform
rate of _one penny_ for all inland letters not exceeding a certain
weight.
"The average postage of a letter in 1837 was 8 pence three farthings.
Owing to the heavy rates the net proceeds of the Department had remained
stationary for nearly twenty years. To mend this state of matters, Sir
Rowland Hill fought his long and famous fight, the particulars of which
I may not enter on just now, but which culminated in victory in 1840,
when the Penny Post was established throughout the kingdom. Sir Rowland
still (1879) lives to witness the thorough success of his daring and
beneficent innovation! It is impossible to form a just estimate of the
value of cheap postage to the nation,--I may say, to the world. Trade
has been increased, correspondence extended, intelligence deepened, and
mental activity stimulated.
"The immediate result of the change was to raise the number of letters
passing through the post from seventy-six millions in 1839 to one
hundred and sixty-nine millions in 1840. Another result was the entire
cessation of the illicit smuggling of letters. Despite penal laws, some
carriers had been doing as large a business in illegal conveyance of
letters as the Post-Office itself! One seizure made, a single bag in
the warehouse of a well-known London carrier, revealed eleven hundred
such letters! The horrified head of the firm hastened to the
Postmaster-General, and offered immediate payment of 500 pounds to
escape the penalties incurred. The money was accepted, and the letters
were all passed through the Post-Office the same night!
"Sir Rowland--then Mr--Hill had said that the Post-Office was `capable
of performing a distinguished part in the great work of national
education.' His prophetic words have been more than justified. People
who never wrote letters before write them now. Those who wrote only a
few letters now write hundreds. Only grave and important subjects were
formerly treated of by letter, now we send the most trifling as well as
the most weighty matters by the penny post in such floods that there is
scarce room to receive the correspondence, but liberal men and measures
have been equal to the emergency. One objector to cheap rates
prophesied that their adoption would cause the very walls of the General
Post-Office to burst. Well, it has seemed as if his prophecy were about
to come true, especially on recent Christmas eves, but it is not yet
fulfilled, for the old place has a tough skin, and won't burst up for a
considerable time to come." (Great applause.)
"Financially, too," continued Solomon, "the Penny Post reform was an
immense success, though at first it showed a tendency to hang fire. The
business of the Money-Order Office was enormously increased, as the
convenience of that important department became obvious to the public,
and trade was so greatly improved that many tradesmen, at the end of the
first three years, took the trouble to write to the Post-Office to tell
how their business had increased since the introduction of the change.
In short, the Penny Post would require a lecture to itself. I will
therefore dismiss it with the remark that it is one of the greatest
blessings of modern times, and that the nation owes an everlasting debt
of gratitude to its author.
"With decreased rates came the other great requisites,--increased speed
and security; and now, as you all know, the work of the Post-Office, in
all its wide ramifications, goes on with the uniform regularity of a
good chronometer from year to year.
"To the special duty of letter-carrying the Post-Office has now added
the carriage of books and patterns, and a Savings-Bank as well as a
Money Order department; but if I were to enlarge on the details of all
this it would become necessary to order coffee and buns for the whole
Society of literary message-boys, and make up our beds on the floor of
Pegaway Hall--(Hear! hear! applause, and cries of `Go on!')--to avoid
which I shall bring my discourse to a close, with a humble apology for
having detained you so long."