Post-Offices—England.
The history of the English post-office affords but little interest to
the general reader beyond that which its statistics and geographical
calculations afford. It is, however, a history that goes hand in hand
with its trade and commerce; and whatever improvements have been made
upon its past history are owing altogether to the enterprise of those
who are identified with those branches of the world’s great business.
It is not the statesman or the politician who originates, but the
mechanic, the farmer, and the merchant. The former are the aristocrats
of society; the latter, the workers—the very bone and sinew of a
government.
It is to the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant that art and science
are indebted to their position among the most brilliant things of earth.
It is to them that commerce owes wings to fly to the remotest parts of
the civilized world, laden with the handiwork of art and the richness of
a nation’s growth. Society becomes more dignified, man more ennobled. It
is to this power that kings, emperors, and lords owe their positions;
for one word from that class will bring the loftiest head to the block,
if by word or action the attempt should be made to lessen or destroy
that power which elevated him or them to eminence.
The commercial power of England is its rule, and to it that nation owes
all its present greatness. The politics of England is its disgrace; its
commerce, its honor. The king and Parliament are at the head of the
one,—the hewers of wood and drawers of water at that of the other.
We have already alluded to the postal system organized by the Emperor
Charlemagne in the year 807. Yet in China posts had existed from the
earliest times. These were called _Jambs_, and were established at a
distance from each other of twenty-five miles. This mode of conveying
letters was by horses; and it is stated by Marco Polo, the Venetian
traveller, that there were frequently as many as three or four hundred
horses in waiting at one of these places. He also states that there were
ten thousand stations of this kind in China, some of them affording
sumptuous accommodation to travellers. Two hundred thousand horses are
said to have been engaged in the service.
Louis XI. first established post-houses in France. Post-horses and
stages were first introduced into England in 1483.
The mounted posts in France were stationed at distances of four miles
apart, and were required to be ready day and night to carry government
messages as rapidly as possible. Private correspondence, however, was
carried on very differently. The students of a university in Paris
established a postal institution in the eleventh century. A number of
pedestrian messengers were employed, who bore letters from its thousands
of students to the various countries of Europe from which they came, and
brought to them the money they needed for the prosecution of their
studies.
The great development of commerce following the Crusades, and the
geographical discoveries of the Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards,
created a necessity for a more extended business-correspondence about
the beginning of the sixteenth century.
In Peru, in 1527, the Spanish invaders found a regular system of posts
in operation along the great highway from Quito to Cuzco, and messages
as to the progress of the invasion, as well as on other subjects, were
forwarded to the Inca by fleet-footed runners, who wound around their
waists the _quipu_, a species of sign-writing, by means of knotted cord.
In Sierra Leone they have what is termed the “Kaffir letter-carrier,”
who immediately on the arrival of a vessel takes charge of the letters;
and, although it should be late at night, he starts on his mission into
the settlement, and actually arouses the sleepers with his cry of, “Ah,
massa, here de right book come at last!” The Kaffir carries his letters
in a split stick, which he thrusts under your very nose as he approaches
with his welcome document. He is one of those rare letter-carriers who
never tires, nor complains of making too many trips a day.
The regular riding-post system owes its origin to Edward IV. This
answered not only the demands of the government, but those of merchants,
traders, and others. The former had, however, what were termed
“government messengers,” whose business was more particularly to summon
the barons, sheriffs, and other officers. Heralds are not to be
confounded with these messengers, as they were more identified with the
military than with the civil power.
In the reign of Henry I. messengers were first permanently employed by
the king
“Messengers he sent throughout England.”
In the reign of King John, messengers were called the “nuncii:”
subsequently they became attached to the royal palace, and wore the
king’s livery, as in the reign of Henry III. Several private letters are
in existence, dating as far back as the reign of Edward II., which bear
the appearance of having been carried by the nuncii of that period, with
“Haste, poste, haste!” written on the back.
Little or no improvement was made in England in the postal system until
about the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Even then it simply corrected
some of the abuses of the old system, by establishing what was called
“Master of the Postes.”
Some idea may be formed of the limited character of this department of
her majesty’s service, when we state that before her death the expenses
of the post did not exceed £5000 per annum. Previous to this estimate,
however, the expenses were considerably larger, owing to the careless
manner, as well as the extravagance, of those having charge of it.
The reign of Elizabeth was more distinguished for its number of great
men in the world of letters than for almost any other characteristic
feature. The names of these have been handed down to us, identified with
literature in all its various branches,—statesmen, warriors, divines,
scholars, poets, and philosophers. Among them we find the names of
Raleigh, Drake, Coke, Hooker, and others of higher sounding and more
frequently quoted,—Shakspeare, Sidney, Bacon, Jonson, Beaumont and
Fletcher,—men “whose fame has been eternized in her long and lasting
scroll, and who by their words and acts were benefactors of their
country and ornaments of human nature.”
Although an age of letters, the commercial interest was not neglected.
Still, that attention was not paid to the merchant’s demands for new
laws and regulations which the increasing business demanded: hence there
arose a difficulty in the postal system, which was more immediately
identified with their interests.
In the early part of the queen’s reign, disputes were frequent with the
foreign merchants resident in London, with regard to the foreign post,
which up to this reign they had been allowed to manage among themselves.
In 1558, the queen’s council of state issued a proclamation “for the
redress of disorders in postes which conveye and bring to and out of
the parts beyond the seas, pacquets of letters.”
This system—a system which the very spirit of trade should rise up
against—was done away with, and the sole authority was given to the
“Master of the Postes,” who, therefore, took charge of the foreign
office. The title of his office was changed, in consequence, to that of
“Chief Postmaster.” Thomas Randolph was the first Chief Postmaster in
England.
It must be borne in mind that during all these periods of English
history the “common people” held little or no communication with each
other: hence their correspondence was very limited. Few of them could
read or write. Palmers, nay, even wandering gipsies, were not
unfrequently the “common people’s” post. The former, particularly, were
trusted with letters and packets for the “gentry.”
Under the Stuarts a regular system of post was established, the benefits
of which were to be shared by all who could find the means. Even then
England was behind the other European nations in establishing a public
letter-post. Still, it was a vast improvement on those of the preceding
reigns.[16]
In 1632, Charles I. approved of William Frizell and Thomas Witherings,
to whom the office had been assigned by Lord Stanhope under James I.
These two gentlemen, as the head of the post-department, gave general
satisfaction, and tended much to satisfy those who had just reason to
complain of the system as heretofore conducted.
1635.—Till this time there had been no certain and constant intercourse
between England and Scotland.
Thomas Witherings, his majesty’s Postmaster of England for foreign
parts, was now commanded “to settle one or two posts, to run day and
night between Edinburg 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 on the same road; and the posts to be placed in several
places out of the road, to run and bring and carry out of the said roads
the letters as there shall be occasion, and to pay twopence for every
single letter under fourscore miles; and if one hundred and forty miles,
fourpence; and if above, then sixpence. The like rule the king is
pleased to order to be observed to Westchester, Holyhead, and from
thence to Ireland; and also to observe the like rule from London to
Plymouth, Exeter, and other places in that road; the like from Oxford,
Bristol, Colchester, Norwich, and other places. And the king doth
command that no other messenger, foot-posts, shall take up, carry,
receive, or deliver any letter or letters whatsoever, other than the
messengers appointed by the said Thomas Witherings, except common known
carriers or particular messengers to be sent on purpose with a letter to
a friend.”—_Rushworth_, vol. ii. p. 104.
It will be observed, by those who are acquainted with the business of
the postal department, that the above forms the groundwork of that
gigantic institution which, linking itself with those of other nations,
encircles the whole civilized world.
After undergoing many and various changes, it became, under the
Protectorate, a sort of convenience for Cromwell and his council, who,
taking advantage of its immense power, made it subservient to the
interests of the commonwealth. One of the peculiar features which it
assumed under Cromwell’s rule was that “it might be made the agent in
discovering and preventing many wicked designs which have been and are
daily contrived against the peace and welfare of this commonwealth, the
intelligence whereof cannot well be communicated except by letters of
escript.”
A system of espionage was thus established which no one having the
interest of the nation and people at heart could consistently subscribe
to. But Cromwell’s rule was based on fanaticism: hence those leading
principles, the result of a long and _religious_ study, and which made
up the business character of England before he gained the right to rule,
were all swallowed up in the vortex of his own created revolutions.
At the Restoration the system became adapted to the more enlightened
intellect of the people, and various changes took place, which gave
universal satisfaction. These were made in the reign of Charles II.
Two years before the death of this monarch the first penny post in
England was established (1683).
This establishment was originated by one Murray, an upholsterer, and it
was afterwards assigned to Mr. William Docwray, whose name long
subsequently figured in post-office annals. The penny post was found to
be a decided success. No sooner was this fact made apparent, than the
Duke of York, on whom and his heirs male in perpetuity the entire
revenue of the post-office had been settled by stat. 15 Car. II. c. 14,
complained that this post was an infraction of his monopoly.
In 1685, Charles II. died, and, the Duke of York succeeding his brother,
the revenues of the post-office reverted to the crown. Throughout the
reign of James II. the receipts of the post-office went on increasing,
though no great improvements were made in the administration. It was
this bigoted king who commenced the practice of granting pensions out of
the post-office revenues. The year after he ascended the throne he
granted £4700 a year to Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, one of
his brother’s many mistresses, to be paid out of the post-office
receipts. It is a curious and disgraceful fact that this pension is
still paid to the Duke of Grafton as her living representative. The Earl
of Rochester was allowed a pension of £4000 a year from the same source.
These pensions were paid during the reign of William and Mary, and the
following pensions were added:—
Duke of Leeds £3500
Duke of Schomberg 4000
Lord Keeper 2000
William Docwray, 1698 500
Among the post-office pensions granted in subsequent reigns, Queen Anne
gave one, in 1707, to the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs of £5000.
The heirs of the Duke of Schomberg were paid by the post-office till
1856, when about £20,000 were advanced to redeem a fourth part of the
pension, the burden of the remaining part being then transferred to the
Consolidated Fund. There was, it must be admitted, some semblance of
reason in giving Docwray a pension, for he had claims as founder of the
district post or the penny post; but he only held his pension for four
years, losing both his emoluments and his office in 1698, when charges
of gross mismanagement were brought against him. Some of the charges
alleged are curious. It was stated that he stopped “under spetious
pretences most parcells that are taken in, which is a great damage to
tradesmen, by loosing their customers or spoiling their goods, and many
times hazard the life of the patient when physick is sent by a doctor or
apothecary.”
Ten years after the removal of Docwray from his office, another rival to
the government department sprung up, in the shape of a half-penny post.
The scheme, established by a Mr. Povey, never had a fair trial.
The first act for establishing a general post-office in _all_ her
majesty’s dominions was the 9th Anne, c. 10. This act, which remained
long in force, was the foundation of all subsequent legislation. By its
provisions a general post and letter office was established in London
for Great Britain, Ireland, North America, the West Indies, or any other
of her majesty’s dominions, or any country or kingdom beyond the seas.
To this end chief offices were established in Edinburgh, at Dublin, at
New York, and in other convenient places in her majesty’s colonies of
America and the islands of the West Indies. The whole of these chief
offices were to be under the control of an officer to be appointed by
the queen by letters patent under the great seal, by the name and style
of Her Majesty’s Postmaster-General. The improvements introduced by this
act increased the importance of the post-office and added to the
available revenue of the country. For ten years no further steps were
taken to develop the service; but in 1720, Ralph Allen, immortalized by
Pope, appeared on the scene, and he was destined to be one of the great
improvers of the establishment. Mr. Allen, who at this time was
postmaster of Bath, and who from his position was aware of the defects
of the system, proposed to the government to establish cross-posts
between Exeter and Chester, going by way of Bristol, Gloucester, and
Worcester, thus connecting the west of England with the Lancashire
district. The Bath postmaster proposed a complete reconstruction of the
cross-post system, guaranteeing improvement to the revenue and increased
accommodation to the public. The Lords of the Treasury granted him a
lease of the cross-posts for life, his engagement being to bear all the
costs of the new service and to pay a fixed rental of £6000 per year.
The contract was several times renewed to Allen, the government on each
occasion stipulating that the service should be extended. In this wise,
in 1764, the period of Allen’s death, it was found that the cross-posts
had extended to all parts of the country. Notwithstanding the losses he
suffered through the dishonesty of country postmasters, Allen estimated
the net profits of his contract at the sum of £10,000 annually: so that
at the end of his official life he had made nearly half a million
sterling. He bestowed a considerable part of his income in supporting
needy men of letters. He was the friend of Fielding, of Pope, and
Warburton. Fielding has drawn his character in the person of Allworthy,
and Pope has celebrated his benevolence in the well-known lines,—
“Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.”
On Allen’s death the cross-posts were brought under the control of the
postmaster-general, and the success of the amalgamation was so complete
that at the end of the first year profits to the amount of £20,000 were
handed over to the crown. In subsequent years the proceeds continued to
increase still more rapidly, so that when the by-letter office was
abolished in 1799 they had reached the sum of £200,000 per annum.
In the time of George I. the whole London post-office establishment,
which at present numbers several thousand officers of different grades,
was worked, without counting letter-carriers, by a staff of thirty-two
persons only.
The treasury warrants—warrants directed to the masters of packet
service, towards 1701—franked, as Mr. Lewins observes, the strangest
commodities. Among others, fifteen couple of hounds going to the King of
the Romans, two maid-servants going as laundresses to my lord ambassador
Methuen, Doctor Chrichton, carrying with him a case and divers
necessaries, two bales of stockings for the use of the ambassador to the
court of Portugal, and four flitches of bacon for Mr. Pennington, of
Rotterdam. Nor were these the only abuses. So little precaution was
used in the reigns of George I. and George II. that thousands of letters
passed through the post-office with the forged signatures of members.
Even in the early part of the reign of George III. it was related, in
the investigation of 1763, that one man had in the course of five months
counterfeited one thousand two hundred dozens of franks of different
members of Parliament. In the year 1763 the worth of franked
correspondence passing through the post-office was estimated at
£170,000. In 1764, when George III. had been four years on the throne,
it was enacted that no letter should pass franked through the
post-office unless the whole address was in the M. P.’s handwriting with
his signature attached. In 1784, frauds still continuing, it was ordered
that franks should be dated, the month should be given in full, such
letters to be put into the post on the day they were dated. From 1784 to
the date of the penny postage, no further regulations were made as to
the franked correspondence, the estimated value of which during these
years was £80,000 annually.
It was fifteen years after the death of the kindly and benevolent Allen,
the postmaster of Bath, that John Palmer, also of Bath, and one of the
greatest of post-office reformers, rose into notice. Originally a
brewer, Mr. Palmer was in 1784 the manager of the Bath and Bristol
theatres. Having frequently to correspond with and travel to London, Mr.
Palmer found that letters which left Bath on the Monday night were not
delivered in London until the Wednesday afternoon or night, but that the
stage-coach which left through the day on Monday arrived in London on
the following morning. He pointed out to the authorities that commercial
men and tradesmen, for safety and speed, sent their correspondence as
parcels, robberies from carelessness and incompetence of post-office
servants being then frequent. Mr. Palmer was ready with remedies for
these countless defects. In 1783 he submitted his scheme to Mr. Pitt,
who lent a ready ear. The officials, however, were first to be
consulted; and they, as is their wont, made many and sweeping objections
to changes which they represented not only to be impracticable and
impossible, but dangerous to commerce and the revenue. Mr. Pitt,
however, as Mr. M. D. Hill says in an article on the post-office,
inherited his great father’s contempt for impossibilities. He saw that
Mr. Palmer’s scheme would be as profitable as it was practicable, and he
resolved that it should be adopted.
Mr. Palmer was installed at the post-office on the day of the change,
under the title of Controller-General. It was arranged that his salary
should be £1500 a year, together with a commission of two and a half per
cent. upon any excess of revenue over £240,000. The rates of postage
were now slightly raised; but, notwithstanding, the number of letters
began most perceptibly to increase. Several of the principal towns, and
notably Liverpool and York, petitioned the treasury for the new
mail-coaches. But, though manifest success attended the introduction of
the Palmer scheme, yet the authorities were determinedly opposed to the
reformer, and he had to contend with them single-handed. In 1792, when
his plans had been about eight years in operation and were beginning to
exhibit elements of success, it was deemed desirable that Palmer should
surrender his appointment. In consideration, however, of his valuable
services, a pension of £3000 per annum was granted to him; but this sum
fell far short of the emoluments which had been promised to him, and he
memorialized the government, but without success. He protested against
this treatment, and his son, General Palmer, member for Bath, frequently
urged his father’s claims before Parliament; but it was not until 1813,
after a struggle of twenty years, that the House of Commons voted him a
grant of £50,000. This great benefactor of his country died in 1818. In
the first year of the introduction of his plans, the net revenue of the
post-office was about £250,000. Twenty years afterwards, the proceeds
had increased sixfold, to no less a sum than a million and a half,—an
increase doubtless partly attributable to the increase of population,
but mainly to the punctuality and security of the new arrangements.
Mails not only travelled quicker, but Mr. Palmer augmented their number
between the largest towns: three hundred and eighty towns, which had in
the olden time but three deliveries a week, had in 1797 a daily
delivery. The Edinburgh coach required less time by sixty hours to
travel from London; and there was a corresponding reduction between
towns at shorter distances. For many years after their introduction, not
a single attempt was made to rob Palmer’s mail-coaches, which were
efficiently guarded.
In 1836 there were fifty four-horse mails in England, whereas forty
years before there was not a third of the number. We remember the annual
procession of the mail-coaches on the king’s birthday,—a gay spectacle,
which Mr. Lewins is not old enough to remember. Coachmen and guards on
that occasion donned a new red livery, and all the coachmen and most of
the guards wore bouquets in their button-holes. In the year 1814 the
business of the post-office had increased so greatly that better
accommodation was sought than was afforded by the office then in Lombard
Street. The first general post-office, opened in Cloak Lane, was removed
from thence to the Black Swan, in Bishopsgate Street. After the fire of
1666 a general post-office was opened in Covent Garden; but it was soon
removed to Lombard Street. In 1825 the government acquiesced in the
views of the great majority of London residents, and
St. Martin’s-le-Grand was chosen for the site of a new building, to be
erected from the designs of Sir R. Smirke.
It was opened for business in September, 1829. From the date of the
opening, improvements ceased to be pertinaciously resisted. It was not,
however, till the late Duke of Richmond became the postmaster-general,
in the ministry of the late Earl Grey, in 1830, that improvements were
earnestly forwarded by the head of the department. The duke, a highly
public-spirited and patriotic man, was indefatigable in the service of
the department over which he was placed from 1830 to 1834. At first his
grace refused to accept any remuneration for his services; but at
length, in compliance with the strong representations of the treasury
lords as to the objectionable nature of gratuitous services, “which must
involve in many cases the sacrifice of private fortune to official
station,” he consented to draw his salary from the date of the treasury
minute already referred to. In 1834, Lord Grey’s postmaster-general
submitted a list of improvements to the treasury lords, in which at
least thirty substantial measures of reform were proposed. It was under
this functionary that amalgamation of the Irish and Scotch offices with
the English took place.
The railway for the first few years of its existence exerted but little
influence on post-office arrangements. On the opening of the Liverpool
and Manchester line, however, in 1830, the mails of the district were
consigned to the new company for transmission. After railways had been
in existence seven or eight years, their influence became paramount, and
in 1838 and 1839 acts were passed to provide for the conveyance of mails
by them.
It was in 1836 that Sir Francis Freeling, who had been secretary to the
post-office since 1797, a period of forty years, died. He was an
industrious public servant of the old school, strictly performing his
duty according to ancient precedent and routine. He was succeeded in
his office by Colonel Maberly, the son of a gentleman who, having
amassed a considerable fortune by trade, entered Parliament, and
ultimately succeeded Perry as the proprietor of the “Morning Chronicle.”
Colonel Maberly had been himself in Parliament, and was generally
considered a good man of business; but he was an entire stranger to the
business of the post-office, and, according to his own evidence before
the Select Committee on Postage, was introduced into the office by the
treasury for the purpose of carrying into effect the reforms which a
commission of inquiry had recommended.
On the fall of Sir R. Peel’s administration, in 1835, the Earl of
Lichfield succeeded to the office of postmaster-general under Lord
Melbourne. It must be admitted that the new postmaster and secretary
introduced many important reforms. The money-order office was
transferred from private hands to the general establishment. At this
juncture also commenced the system of registering valuable letters, and,
at the suggestion of Mr. Rowland Hill, a number of day mails were
started for the provinces.
At the close of 1836 the stamp-duty on newspapers was reduced from
3-1/4_d._ to 1_d._,—a reduction which led to an enormous increase in the
newspapers passing through the post-office.
But, though these improvements were in themselves commendable, the
authorities still tenaciously clung to the old rates of postage, and
refused to listen to any plan for the reduction of postage-rates.
Colonel Maberly, the secretary, had no sooner learned the business of
his office than he made a proposition to the treasury that the letters
should be charged in all cases according to the exact distance between
the places where a letter was posted and delivered, and not according to
the full distance. The lords of the treasury promptly refused, to use
the language of Mr. Lewins, “this concession.”
In 1837 the average general postage was estimated at 9-1/2_d._ per
letter; exclusive of foreign letters, it was still as high as 8-3/4_d._
It is a curious but significant fact that in the reign of Queen Anne the
postage of a letter between London and Edinburgh was less than half as
much as the amount charged at the accession of Queen Victoria. The fact
that the revenue derived from so well-protected a monopoly remained
stationary for nearly twenty years may be fairly attributable to these
high postage-rates.[17]
Mr. Lewins states that the revenue derived in 1815 from the post-office
amounted to a million and a half; while twenty-one years afterwards,—in
1836,—notwithstanding the increase of trade and the diffusion of
knowledge, the increase of this sum had only been between three and four
thousand pounds. The evil of high rates led not merely to small returns,
but to the evasion of postage by illicit means of conveyance, so that
some carriers of letters were doing as large a business as the
post-office itself.
This will appear evident from the statement that a post-office official
seized a parcel containing eleven hundred letters in a single bag in the
warehouse of a London carrier. The head of this firm proffered instant
payment of £500 if the penalties were not sued for. The
postmaster-general accepted the offer, and the letters passed through
the post-office on the same night.
So early as 1833, the late Mr. Wallace, M. P. for Greenock,
drew the attention of the House of Commons to the numerous abuses
in the post-office. There can be no question that his frequent motions
and speeches directed public attention specifically to the subject and
incalculably advanced the cause of reform. Mr. Wallace was not aided by
the government or by the aristocracy or higher professional classes; but
he derived much active support from the mercantile and manufacturing
community, and from the shopkeepers in all the great towns of the
empire.
It was the ventilation of the subject of the post-office by the member
for Greenock that first drew the attention of Mr.—now Sir—Rowland Hill,
to the subject. The son of a country schoolmaster, Mr. Hill had for a
long time acted as usher at his father’s establishment at Birmingham.
Being of an active and energetic disposition, he left the paternal roof
for the metropolis, and was in 1833, when he was about thirty-eight
years of age, secretary to the commissioners for the colonization of
South Australia. Here he exhibited powers of organization, and we have
from his own pen a statement that he read very carefully all the reports
on post-office subjects. He put himself into communication with Mr.
Wallace, M. P., who afforded him much assistance. He also corresponded
with Lord Lichfield, then postmaster-general, who imparted to him the
official information he sought. In January, 1837, Mr. Hill published the
results of his investigations and embodied his schemes in a pamphlet
entitled “Post-Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability.” The
pamphlet created a sensation in the mercantile world. It was well
noticed in the “Spectator” and “Morning Chronicle,” to both of which
journals Mr. Hill’s elder brother Matthew, now a commissioner of
bankruptcy at Bristol, contributed. Mr. Rowland Hill contended that the
post-office was not making progress like other great national
interests,—that its revenue had diminished instead of increased, though
the population had augmented six millions and trade and commerce had
proportionally increased. From data in his possession Mr. Hill pretty
accurately proved that the primary distribution, as he called the cost
of receiving and delivering the letters, and also the cost of transit,
took two-thirds of the total cost of the management of the post-office.
Out of the total postal expenditure of £700,000, Mr. Hill calculated
that the amount which had to do with the distance letters travelled
amounted to £144,000. From calculations which he then made, he arrived
at the conclusion that the average cost of conveying each letter was
less than the one-tenth of a penny. By this process he deduced the
conclusion that postage ought to be uniform. The propriety of a uniform
rate was further demonstrated by the fact that under the old system the
cost of transmission was not always dependent on distance. The case was
made still plainer by these facts. An Edinburgh letter, costing the
post-office an infinitesimal fraction of a farthing, was charged 1_s._
1-1/2_d._, while a letter for Louth, in Lincolnshire, costing the
post-office fifty times as much, was charged 10_d._
Mr. Hill’s four proposals were:—1st, a large diminution in the rates of
postage, even to 1_d._ in a half-ounce letter; 2d, increased speed in
the delivery of letters; 3d, more frequent opportunity for the despatch
of letters; 4th, simplification and economy in the management of the
post-office, the rate of postage being uniform.
In February, 1838, Mr. Wallace moved for a select committee of the
Commons to investigate Mr. Hill’s proposals; but the government resisted
the measure. Lord Lichfield, the postmaster-general, described it as a
wild, visionary, and extravagant scheme. The public at large were
greatly dissatisfied. Some of the most influential men in the city of
London established a committee for the purpose of distributing
information on the subject by means of pamphlets and papers and for the
general purposes of the agitation. A month or two after Mr. Wallace’s
motion, Mr. Baring, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed a
committee to inquire into the present rates of charging postage, with a
view to such reduction as may be made without injury to the revenue, and
for them to examine into the mode of collecting and charging postage
recommended by Mr. Rowland Hill. The committee sat sixty-three days,
concluding their deliberations in August, 1838. They examined the
principal officers of the post-office, and eighty-three independent
witnesses.
In opposition to the views of official men, Mr. Hill held that a
fivefold increase in the number of letters would suffice to preserve the
existing revenue, and he predicted that the increase would soon be
reached. He showed that the stage-coaches then in existence could carry
twenty-seven times the number of letters they had ever yet done. The
post-office authorities traversed every statement of Mr. Hill and his
supporters, and Colonel Maberly expressed an opinion that if the postage
were reduced to one penny the revenue would not recover itself for forty
or fifty years. But, notwithstanding the opposition of the post-office
authorities, the committee reported for a reduction of the rates, for
the more frequent despatch of letters, and for additional deliveries,
adding that the extension of railways made these changes urgently
necessary. They further urged that the principle of a low uniform rate
was just, and that when combined with prepayment it would be convenient
and satisfactory.
The commissioners, consisting of Lord Seymour, Lord Duncannon, and Mr.
Labouchere, proposed that any letter not exceeding half an ounce should
be conveyed free within the metropolis, and the district to which the
town and country deliveries extend, if enclosed in an envelope bearing
a penny stamp.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had the plan of a uniform rate of
postage embodied in a bill, which passed in the session of 1839. This
act, approved by a majority of one hundred and two members, conferred
temporarily the necessary power on the lords of the treasury. On the
12th of November, 1839, their lordships issued a minute reducing the
postage of all inland letters to the uniform rate of 4_d._ The country
was greatly dissatisfied. It required Mr. Hill’s plan; and the fourpenny
rate was in no respect his. The treasury lords were at length convinced
they had made a mistake, and on the 10th of January, 1840, another
minute was issued, ordering the adoption of a uniform penny rate. On the
10th of August the treasury had its minute confirmed by the statute 3 &
4 Vict. c. 96. A treasury appointment was given to Mr. Hill, to enable
him to assist in carrying out the penny postage. He only, however, held
the appointment for about two years; for when the conservative party
came into power the originator of the penny postage lost his situation.
Mr. Hill entreated to be allowed to remain at any sacrifice to himself,
but Sir R. Peel was obdurate.
Mr. Hill’s popularity increased with his dismissal. A public
subscription was opened for him throughout the country, as an expression
of national gratitude, which amounted to over £13,000. On the
restoration of the whigs to power, in 1846, he was placed in St.
Martin’s-le-Grand as secretary to the postmaster-general. In 1854, on
Colonel Maberly’s removal to the audit-office, he was named secretary to
the post-office under the late Lord Canning,—the highest appointment in
the department. In 1860 the secretary of the post-office was made a
Knight Commander of the Bath. During the autumn of 1863 his health began
to fail him, and in March of the present year (1865) he resigned his
situation. The executive government showed a just and liberal sense of
Sir Rowland Hill’s merits. By a treasury minute of the 11th of March,
1864, advantage was taken by the government of the special clause in the
Superannuation Act relating to extraordinary services, to grant him a
pension of three times the usual retiring allowance. This was not merely
a just but a generous act; and the language in which the resolution was
couched was not official, nor solemnly and decorously dull, as is usual
on such occasions, but encomiastic in the highest degree. Sir Rowland
Hill was pronounced not merely a meritorious public servant, but a
“benefactor of his race.” We do not say this eulogistic epithet was not
deserved, for we think it was well merited; but we may be permitted to
remark that Sir Rowland Hill has lived in a felicitous time, thus
promptly to find his merits officially recognized on retiring from his
labors.
Harvey, Jenner, Palmer of Bath, of whom we have antecedently spoken, and
scores of other discoverers and philanthropists, were less fortunate
than the late post-office secretary. Sir Rowland Hill was not only
allowed to retire on his full salary of £2000 per annum, but Lord
Palmerston gave notice that the pension should be continued to Lady Hill
in the event of her ladyship surviving her husband.[18] Since this
notice was given by the premier, an influential deputation of the house
waited on the first minister of the crown, strongly urging that, in
place of the deferred pension to Lady Hill, a Parliamentary grant,
sufficient, though reasonable, should be made at once to the late
secretary.
We do not say that the social, moral, and commercial results of the
famous penny postage have not been singularly wondrous and beneficial,
and that Mr. Hill does not deserve all that has been done for him by
ministers, by his private friends and admirers, by the commercial and
manufacturing community, and by the public at large. We think the late
post-office secretary fully deserves every farthing that has been paid
or that may be hereafter paid to him, whether as an annuity or a
gratuity; we think he deserves the order of K.C.B., which he obtained,
and, further, that he deserves to have his merits and his name
commemorated by a statue intended to be erected at Birmingham in his
honor. But how few are there in this world of ours who obtain a tithe of
their deserts! Neither Harvey, Jenner, Newton, nor Locke was properly
rewarded by his country. Newton, indeed, passed many years of his life
in straitened circumstances, and never had any employment which produced
him more than from £1200 to £1500 per annum, while Locke’s
commissionership of appeals gave him only the miserable pittance of £200
a year. It is the good fortune of Sir Rowland Hill to have flourished in
more liberal times, when merit is fittingly acknowledged and rewarded.
The discovery of Sir Rowland Hill was not a brilliant and wonderful so
much as a useful discovery, and there can be no doubt that he worked out
all the details with a patience, a perseverance, and a judgment sure and
unerring. When the system of penny postage had been in operation two
years, it was found that the success of the scheme had surpassed the
most sanguine expectations. It almost entirely prevented breaches of the
law and that illicit correspondence by which the revenue had long been
defrauded. Commercial transactions as to very small amounts were
chiefly managed through the post: small money-orders were constantly
transmitted from town to town and from village to village, the business
of the money-order office having increased twentyfold. No men are more
indebted to the system of the penny post than literary men, publishers,
and printers,—manuscripts and proof-sheets now passing to and fro from
one end of the kingdom to the other with care, cheapness, and celerity.
Common carriers, too, are greatly benefited by the penny postage.
Pickford & Co. now despatch by post more than ten times the number of
letters they despatched in 1839. Mr. Charles Knight, the London
publisher, stated that the penny postage stimulated every branch of his
trade, and brought the country booksellers into daily communication with
the London houses. Mr. Bagster, the publisher of the Polyglot Bible in
twenty-four languages, stated to Mr. Hill that the revision which he was
just giving to his work would on the old system have cost him £1500 in
postage alone, and that the Bible could not be printed but for the penny
post. One of the principal advocates for the repeal of the Corn Laws
stated that the objects of the league were achieved two years earlier
than otherwise, owing to the introduction of cheap postage. Conductors
of schools and educational establishments stated how people were
learning everywhere to write for the first time, in order to enjoy the
benefits of a free correspondence. In all the large towns, too, it was
remarked that night-classes were springing up for teaching writing to
adults. As the system made progress with the public, Mr. Hill’s
recommendations and improvements extended and expanded. A cheap
registration started into existence, simplification was introduced in
the mode of sorting letters, slits were suggested in the doors of
houses, restriction as to the weight of parcels was removed, and a
book-rate was established. It was also suggested that railway stations
should have post-offices connected with them, and that sorting should be
done in the train and in the packets. The union of the two corps of
general and district letter-carriers, the establishment of district
offices, and an hourly delivery instead of every two hours, were also
suggested by Mr. Hill, and, after being strenuously combated by the
authorities, carried by the indefatigable secretary.
The amalgamation of the general post and what were called the London
district carriers did not take place till 1855, when the Duke of Argyll
was postmaster-general. For this amalgamation Mr. Hill had been striving
from the commencement. It avoided the waste of time, trouble, and
expense consequent on two bodies of men—the one being paid at a much
higher rate of wages—going over the same ground.
A more important step than this was the division of London into ten
districts. Under the new arrangement, instead of district letters being
carried from the receiving houses to the chief office in
St. Martin’s-le-Grand, to be there sorted and redistributed, they were
sorted and distributed at the district office according to their
address. An important part of the new scheme was that London should be
considered in the principal post-offices as ten different towns, each
with its own centre of operations, and that the letters should be
assorted and despatched on this principle. A new and special service was
brought into operation between England and Ireland on the 1st of
October, 1860. Night and day mail-trains have from that date been run
from Euston Square to Holyhead, and special steamers have been employed
at an enormous expense to cross the channel. Letter-sorting is now
carried on not only in the trains but on board the packets, nearly all
the post-office work for immediate delivery being accomplished between
London and Dublin and Dublin and London respectively.[19]
The first letter penny post was established in Edinburgh by one Peter
Williamson, a native of Aberdeen. He kept a coffee-shop in the
Parliament House, and as he was frequently employed, by gentlemen
attending the courts, in sending letters to different parts of the city,
and as he had doubtless heard something of the English penny post, he
began a regular post with hourly deliveries, and established agents at
different parts of the city to collect.
_SUMMARY._
Posts for letters, mode of carrying, invented in Paris, 1470;
post-horses by stages, 1483. Louis XI. first established them in France.
In England, 1581; Germany, 1641; in the Turkish dominions, 1740. Offices
erected, 1643, and in 1657; made general in England, 1656; in Scotland,
1695; as at present formed, 12 Charles II., December 27, 1660. Penny
posts began in London, 1681; taken in hand by the government, 1711; the
penny post made twopence, 1801. Mails first conveyed by coaches, August
2, 1784; the first mail by railway, November 11, 1830, between
Manchester and Liverpool.
The mail first began to be conveyed by coaches, on Palmer’s plan, August
2, 1785.*
Posting and post-chaises invented in France.
Post-chaise tax imposed, 1779; altered, 1780.
_LONDON DISTRICTS._
The postal districts of London are so arranged as to render favorable
not only the facilities for delivering letters, but equally so to the
carriers. The employees of the London post-office are not overtasked,
nor are the carriers compelled as it were to become “beasts of burden.”
A want of consideration on the part of officials here for those in their
employ is a sad reflection on our republican institutions. Men who
exercise a little brief authority imagine themselves for the time-being
taskmasters, and those in their employ slaves. Nothing in the world
tends more to change a man’s politics than the abuses arising out of the
system pursued by men in power towards those in their employ. Thus
comparisons are drawn between the two parties, and the course of each is
canvassed; and not unfrequently, we regret to say, the Democracy has the
advantage. It has always been a principle of the Democratic party to
take care of “their men.” It is a fact that under Democratic
administration the salaries of the employees in the post-office were
thirty-three and one-third per cent more than they receive at present,
and that, too, when gold was at par and the rate of living fifty per
cent cheaper than it is now. The fact is, there are not ten men in the
post-office department whose salaries are adequate to their wants; and
to their just demand for an increase of salary they are coolly answered
that “if they are not satisfied they can resign, as there are plenty
outside willing to take their place.” Is it to be expected that men so
treated can consistently admire a system or maintain a principle that
strikes at the root of their interest and patriotism? In another part of
this work we have alluded to this subject, and referring to it here is
simply to contrast a portion of our postal system with that of the
English. Let it be distinctly understood that these remarks apply as
much to the heads of the postal department at Washington as they do to
their officials: the latter simply imitate the actions and carry out the
plans of their superiors, and not unfrequently in a manner as insulting
as their action and conduct are repulsive. Men in power should be
gentlemen; and in selecting their assistants, this natural attribute of
the man, refined by education, would exercise its influence in such a
manner as to render such selection a very easy matter. But,
unfortunately, in many instances such is not the case. The great error
committed by the _fortunate candidates_ for office is that of assuming
consequence, or, to use a more familiar phrase, “putting on airs:” it is
an error that in part arises out of our system of government, and is one
that can only be corrected by placing gentlemen in high positions,
instead of ignorant, brawling politicians. It is true, our government is
not established upon a state religious basis; or, if it were so
intended, that corner-stone has been misplaced. Our rulers are generally
politicians. To obtain office, corruption not unfrequently takes
precedence of religion: hence injustice, wrong, and oppression are the
means used to insure success. Examples thus set in high places have been
followed through all the departments; peculation in office, fraud in
agents, government itself cheated, are all indications of corruption,
and are the strongest evidences to be adduced for the increase of crime,
the disregard of truth, and the absence of morality among us. Even our
clergy display more of the
“animum pictura pascit inani”[20]
than they do of the principle conveyed in this line from Virgil,—
“Animus lucis contemtor.”[21]
The English post-office, to a certain extent, is a political one; but
there is one feature in it which differs materially from our own, and
it is one that reflects the highest credit on the English government;
and that is, a man is not discharged from office simply on political
grounds, but is retained as long as he attends to his business and
conducts himself properly. The reward of merit and long service is, when
incapable of attending to his duties, a pension from his government.
With these remarks, elicited by contrasting the two systems, we annex
the following synopsis of the London postal arrangements:—
(From the London “Postal Guide” for 1864.)
The London district comprises all places within a circle of twelve miles
from the general post-office, including Cheshunt, Hampton, Hampton
Court, and Sunbury, and the post towns of Barnet, Waltham Cross,
Romford, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, and Hounslow. It is divided into
ten postal districts, each of which is treated, in many respects, as a
separate post town. The following are the names of the districts, with
their abbreviations, viz.:—
Northern N.
Northeastern N.E.
Northwestern N.W.
Southern S.
Southeastern S.E.
Southwestern S.W.
Eastern E.
Eastern Central E.C.
Western W.
Western Central W.C.
By adding the initials of the postal districts to the addresses of
letters for London and its neighborhood, the public will much facilitate
the arrangements of the post-office.
The district initials for every important street or place are given in
the street list.
_TOWN DELIVERIES._
The portion of each district within about three miles of the general
post-office is designated the town delivery, and the remainder the
suburban delivery.
Within the town limits there are twelve deliveries of letters daily.
The first, or general post delivery, including all inland, colonial, and
foreign letters arriving in sufficient time, commences about 7.30 A.M.,
and is generally completed throughout London by nine o’clock, except on
Mondays, or on other days when there are large arrivals of letters from
abroad.
The second delivery, which commences about nine A.M., includes the
correspondence received by the night mails from Ireland and France, and
letters from the provinces and abroad which may arrive too late for the
first delivery, as well as those posted in the nearer suburbs by 6.30
A.M., as specified in the tables for each district.
The next nine deliveries are made hourly, and include all letters
reaching the general post-office or the district offices in time for
each despatch.
The last delivery commences about 7.45 P.M.
Each delivery within the town limits occupies about an hour from the
time of its commencement, which may be averaged at from forty-five
minutes to an hour from the time of despatch from the general
post-office, according to the distance from St. Martin’s-le-Grand and
the number of letters to be arranged by the letter-carriers for
distribution.
The provincial day mails are due at various times, and the letters are
included in the next delivery after their arrival in London. The day
mails from Ireland, France, and the continent generally, and the letters
received from Brighton and other towns which have a late afternoon
communication with London, are delivered the same evening in London and
the suburbs within the six-mile circle.
The suburban deliveries are regulated in a similar manner, with this
difference, however, that in some of the less-thickly inhabited portions
the deliveries are necessarily fewer.
_THE POSTE RESTANTE._
There is more attention paid in England to this letter or paper
inscription than there is with us. The “Poste Restante” being intended
solely for the accommodation of strangers and travellers who have no
permanent abode in London, letters for residence in London _must not be
addressed_ “Post-Office till called for.” Letters addressed to
“initials” or “fictitious names” cannot be received at the “Poste
Restante.” If so addressed, they are returned to the writers.
With us, little or no attention is paid to this important postal matter:
hence, a letter addressed simply to “John Smith, Philadelphia,” without
the word “Transient,” “or Poste Restante,” must necessarily take its
winding way through all the phases of postal travel until it reaches the
dead-letter office. We make another extract from the English “Postal
Guide:”—
“Letters for strangers are delivered from the Poste Restante for a
period of two months; after which period they must have them addressed
to their place of residence, in order that they may be sent by the
letter-carriers. Letters for known residents in London, addressed to the
‘Poste Restante,’ are retained for one week only.
“Letters addressed ‘Post-Office, London,’ or ‘Poste Restante, London,’
are delivered only at the Poste Restante office, on the south side of
the hall of the general post-office, St. Martin’s -le-Grand; and at this
office also, and there only, are delivered letters addressed to the
district or branch offices in London. The hours of delivery are between
nine and five.
“All persons applying for letters at the Poste Restante must be prepared
to give the necessary particulars to the clerk on duty, in order to
prevent mistakes, and to insure the delivery of the letters to the
persons to whom they properly belong.”
The establishment of a “Poste Restante” on this principle would be an
important feature in our post-office, and would save both trouble and
expense.