CLAIMS FOR POST-OFFICE SERVICE.
In his Autobiography, Mr Anthony Trollope, many years a Post-office
surveyor, records how he was employed in England, for a considerable
period about the year 1851, revising and extending the rural-post
service; and he there mentions the frequency with which he found
post-runners to be employed upon routes where there were but few letters
to deliver--while in other directions, where postal communication would
have been of the utmost benefit, there were no post-runners at all. This
state of things had no doubt had its origin in the efforts of
influential persons, at some previous time, to have the services
established for their own personal benefit; while persons in other
districts, having less interest at headquarters, or being less imperious
in their demands, were left out in the cold, and so remained beyond the
range of the civilising influence. The posts in such cases, once
established, went on from year to year; and though the arrangements were
out of harmony with the surroundings, very often nothing was done--for
in all likelihood no one complained loud enough, or, at any rate, in a
way to prove effective.
But though the Department did wake up to the need for a better
distribution of its favours in the country districts in 1851, there were
earlier instances of surveyors attempting to lay down the posts for the
general good, instead of for a select few, and in these cases the
surveyors had sometimes a hard battle to fight. The following report
from a surveyor in Scotland, written in the year 1800, will illustrate
what is here mentioned. It is given at length, and will possibly be
found worthy of perusal; for it not only shows both spirit and
independence on the part of the surveyor, who was evidently a man
determined to do his duty irrespective of persons, but it sheds some
light on the practices of the post-runners of that period, and their
relations with their superiors on the one hand, and the public on the
other. It affords us, too, a specimen of official writing remarkable for
some rather quaint turns and expressions. The report proceeds:--
"I am much obliged by the perusal of my Lord ----'s card to you of the
29th ultimo, with the copy of a fresh memorial from his lordship and
other gentlemen upon the long-argued subject of the alteration of the
course of the post betwixt Perth and Coupar-Angus.
"It is certainly one of those cases which hath become of tenfold more
importance by the multiplicity of writing, than from any solid reasoning
or essential matter of information to be drawn from it.
"It having fallen to my official duty to execute the alteration of this
post proposed by my late colleague Mr ----, to whose memory I must bear
testimony, not only of his abilities, but his impartiality in the duties
of his office, and under the authority of the late respectable and
worthy Postmaster-General Mr ----, whose memory is far above any
eulogium of mine, I considered the measure as proper and expedient,
equally for the good of the country in general, and the revenue under
the department of the Post-office; and I can with confidence deny that
it was 'hastily, inconsiderately, or partially' gone into, as this
memorial would wish to establish. In this capacity, and under these
circumstances, it is no wonder I could have wished the epithets used
against this official alteration, of _ignorance, arbitrary and
oppressive proceedings_, to have dropped from a person less honourable,
respectable, and conspicuous than I hold the Honble. ---- at the head of
this memorial. Before this last memorial was presented, I understood
from Mr ----, Secretary, in the presence of Lord ----, that any further
opposition upon the part of the Blairgowrie gentlemen to a re-alteration
was now given up; indeed this cannot be surprising if they had learned,
as stated in the memorial, page 9, that they had protested, did now
protest, and would never cease to complain loudly of it, until they
obtain redress. Whether this argument is cool or arbitrary I have not
time nor inclination to analyse, but having been removed from this
ancient district of road, and given my uniform opinion upon the merits
of the alteration itself, I have no desire to fight the memorialists to
all eternity. Before, however, taking final leave of this contest, and
of a memorial said to be unanswerable, I consider myself in duty and
honour called upon to vindicate the late Mr ----, as well as myself,
from the vindictive terms of '_ignorance, arbitrary, and oppressive_'
implied in the memorial, and which, if admitted _sub silentio_, might
not be confined to the mismanagement of the Post-office, but to every
other department of civil government. In order to this, I shall as
briefly as I can follow the general track of the memorial, as of a long
beaten road in which, if there is not safety, there is no new difficulty
to encounter. It is needless to go over the different distances,--I am
ready to admit them--they have not formed any material part of the
question,--and the supposed ignorance of the surveyor here is not to the
point. The alteration neither did nor should proceed upon such
mathematical nicety. The idea of posts is to embrace the most extensive
and most needful accommodation. In establishing a post to Blairgowrie it
was neither _ignorant nor arbitrary_ to take the line by Isla Bridge,
which was the centre of the country meant to be served by it--that is,
the Coupar and the Stormont and Highland district. It is of some
consequence to observe here, that with all the great and rapid
improvements mentioned in the memorial, of the lower or Coupar district,
the upper or Stormont district was, upon the first year's trial, above
one-half of its revenue to the Post-office, the second nearly or about
three-fourths, and continuing to increase in proportion. Coupar-Angus
revenue for the year ending 10th October last was L159, 3s. 7d., and
Blairgowrie L123, 4s. 10d. Now, if the Coupar district of country, which
contains in it a populous market-town, can produce no more than this
proportion for the whole district, it is evident that the district of
Stormont, with only as yet a little village for its head town, has more
correspondence in regard to its state of agriculture and improvement as
an infant district, than the parent district with its antiquity can lay
claim to, and equally well entitled at least to be protected and
nourished. Much is said of the memorialists' line of road, and of its
being one from time immemorial. I have said in a former paper that this
may be the case; many of the roads in Scotland, God knows, are old
enough. But unless the feudal system should still exist upon any of
them, I know of no law, no regulation, no compulsion, that can oblige
the post, more than any other traveller, to take these old beaten tracks
where they can find any other patent or better road. Nay, more,--as a
traveller, I am entitled to take any patent road I choose, good or bad;
and the moment this privilege is doubted in regard to the post, you
resign at once the power of all future improvements so far as it belongs
to your official situation to judge it, and let or dispose of in lease
the use of your posts to particular and local proprietors of lands, who
will be right to take every advantage of it in their power, and include
it specifically in the rental of their estates, as I have known to be
the case with inns in which post-offices had formerly been kept.
"There are three great roads to the north of Scotland from Perth
(besides one by Dunkeld)--viz., one by Dundee, &c., one by Coupar, &c.,
and one by Blairgowrie, which run not at a very great distance in
general from each other in a parallel line. The great post-line or
mail-coach road is by Dundee; and there is little chance, I believe, of
this being departed from, as there is no other that can ever be equally
certain. The next great road to the westward is by Coupar and Forfar,
&c., and is supplied by branch-posts from the east or coast line. And
the third or upper line is by Blairgowrie and Spittal of Glenshee, which
have no post for 50, 60, or 70 miles; and if ever that part of the
country is to have the blessing of a regular post, it surely ought not
to be by branching from the coast-line through all the different
centres, but by the more immediate and direct line through Blairgowrie.
Every one will call his own line the great line; but surely, if I am to
travel either, I should be allowed to judge for myself; and I believe it
would be thought very _arbitrary_ indeed, if, before I set out, a
proprietor or advocate for any of these great lines should arrest my
carriage or my horse, and say, You shall not proceed but upon my line. I
confess myself so stupid that I can see no difference betwixt this and
taking it out of the power of the Post-office to judge what line they
shall journey mails. If this is not the case, then all the present lines
of the post, however absurd and ridiculous they now are or may become,
must, as they were at the beginning and now are, remain so for ever. And
I would expect next to see legal charters and infeftments taken upon
them as post-roads merely, and travellers thirled to them as corn to a
mill. But in regard to the voluminous writings already had upon this
subject, and now renewed in this last memorial, it may be necessary to
be a little more particular.
"Setting the distances aside, which no persons should have a right to
complain of except the inhabitants of Coupar and beyond it, by any delay
occasioned on that account, what is the whole argument founded upon?
That, by the alteration, the memorialists, some of them in the near
neighbourhood of Coupar-Angus, but betwixt Perth and it, have had the
privilege from time immemorial, as it is said, of receiving their
letters by the post from Perth, and sending them back by the same
conveyance to Perth, without benefiting the Revenue a single sixpence,
which would accrue to it by such letters being either received from or
put in at the office at Coupar-Angus, as they ought to be. For, so far
as I understand the regulations of the office, they are to this purpose,
that if any letters shall be directed for intermediate places, at least
three-fourths from any post-office, they shall be put into the bag and
conveyed (if conveyed at all by post) to the post-office nearest them,
or at which they shall be written, one-fourth of the distance of the
whole stage, and rated and charged accordingly. The Post-office could
not be ignorant of this rule not being observed, for it was evident that
very few letters for this populous and thriving district were put into
the bag, except such as behoved to go beyond Coupar or Perth, and
bearing the name of 'short letters.' It was impossible to convict the
posts of fraud in carrying them without opening the letters, a privilege
which cannot be exercised without much indelicacy as well as danger. But
it required no penetration to discover that this was a very commodious
and cheap way of corresponding, though it did not augment the revenue.
It was an ancient privilege, and in that view it might be considered
_arbitrary_ and _oppressive_ to meddle with or interrupt it. It is a
little curious that the memorialists are principally gentlemen of
property upon the road short of Coupar, and who require to be supplied
daily with their small necessary articles from Perth. I have seen no
remonstrance or complaint from the town of Coupar itself as to this
alteration, nor of the consequent lateness of arrival and danger it is
said to have occasioned, nor from a number of gentlemen beyond, whose
letters come in the bag for the delivery of Coupar. The noise has
chiefly been made by gentlemen who pay nothing for this post to
Coupar-Angus, and it puts me in mind of an anecdote I met with of a
gentleman who had influence enough with a postmaster in the country to
get the post by his house, and deliver and receive his letters,
proceeding by a line of road in which he avoided an intermediate office,
and thereby saved an additional postage both ways.
"This line was also a very ancient one, and from time immemorial a line
too upon which our forefathers had fought hard and bled; but their
children somehow or other had discovered and adopted what they thought a
much better line. I said the delivery of short letters was not all the
advantages privately had by the old plan of the post to Coupar-Angus.
This post was in the known and constant habit of carrying a great deal
more than letters for the inhabitants short of, as well as for Coupar
itself; and in the delivery of various articles upon the road, and
receiving reimbursements for his trouble one way or other, he lost
one-fourth of his time; and if, as the memorialists assert, there are
fewer places to be served on the Isla road, it is a demonstration that
the longest way is often all the nearest, and upon this head I have
already ventured to assert, and still do, that by a regular management
which may be easily accomplished, the post may come sooner by Isla to
Coupar than ever it did formerly by the ancient road; and if it was
possible to watch and hunt after the irregularity of the post as
established upon the old system, the memorialists would find themselves
in no better situation than they now are. I beg to mention here a
specimen I met of this old system of private accommodation, with the
consequence that followed, which may illustrate a little upon which side
the imputation of _ignorance_, _arbitrary_, and _oppression_ may lie.
Having met this post with a light cart full of parcels, and a woman upon
it along with the mail, I charged him with the impropriety of his
conduct as a post, and threatened that he should not be longer in the
service. 'Oh,' says he, 'sir, you may do as you please; I have served
the country so long in this way, that if you dismiss me, the principal
gentlemen on the road have determined to support me, and I can make more
without your mail than I do by it.' He was dismissed. He was supported
by a number of names which it is not now in my power to recollect, but
which are well known in Coupar-Angus, and he issued in consequence
hand-bills that, being now dismissed as a post, he would continue to
carry on as before; and it was not till the _arbitrary_ hand of the
Solicitor of the Post-office fell upon him, that he would either have
been convicted or discouraged from his employ.
"In this view, therefore, and not from ignorance, I know it is better
for the Revenue in some instances to pay for 19 miles of a post, than 14
or 15, and to pay for three short runners than one long one. We have no
greater faith in Blairgowrie than Coupar posts, and they were both put
upon the same footing; and notwithstanding all the arguments stated
against the measure, or upon the _absurdity_, _arbitrary_, and
_oppression_, so much insisted on, I am still humbly of the opinion,
which was maturely weighed and decided, that the system now in practice
was best for the Revenue, whatever it might be to particular
individuals; and in this decision I only followed the coincident opinion
of judgments much superior to my own.
"A great deal is said upon the danger of committing care of bags or
letters to two separate runners instead of one. With regard to carrying
letters privately, or executing commissions, it may be so. This is the
great inconvenience felt from the change. But is there any instance
where posts have opened any of the bags containing letters, and thereby
committed felony? Is there any instance where a wilful and felonious
delay has happened here more than may be natural to any change of bags
anywhere else in the kingdom? I have heard of their not meeting
sometimes so regularly in very bad or stormy weather. This will happen
to the most regular mail-coaches and horse-posts in Britain; and before
such general objections are to be founded upon, wilful and corrupt
misconduct should be proved, such as I am able to do upon the old system
of one post only.
"The poor blacksmith is next brought forward. I do not know that a man's
character is to be decided by his calling. He was engaged by the Office
to keep a receiving-house for the runners. He is paid for his trouble by
Government, and is as much under the confidence and trust of the Office,
till he proves himself unworthy of it, as the postmasters of Perth,
Coupar-Angus, or Blairgowrie. It is not surprising, however, that this
poor blacksmith should be in general terms decided unfit for such duty,
when officers who should have been much better acquainted with the
_hammer and nails of office_, do not know how to drive them!
"A very short explanation to the idea mentioned by the memorialists that
the opposition by the Blairgowrie gentlemen rose from the supposition
that they were to be cut out of their post altogether. I never heard of
this before, nor do I know this idea to have existed. The Blairgowrie
district did not interfere with the Post-office, nor the Office with
them, more than has happened in writing; nor, so far as consists with my
knowledge, have I heard or understood that the Coupar district wished to
deprive Blairgowrie of an office. That Coupar wishes to have Blairgowrie
subservient to and passing through it is clear enough. But they do not
advert that, as both Coupar and Blairgowrie are within one stage of
Perth; had Coupar gone through Blairgowrie or Blairgowrie through
Coupar, the law might say that one of them must pay an additional rate
from Perth--that is, 4d. instead of 3d.; and which both Mr Edwards and I
were clearly of opinion would rather have injured than improved the
Revenue, as has been experienced in some similar cases. This legal
distinction my Lord ---- does not appear to have observed. It is,
however, stated, that by this plan of going through Coupar to
Blairgowrie a very easy and direct communication would be established
betwixt the two places. This I have no doubt of for private
business-parcels, money, &c., &c.; because it would be easier for
Blairgowrie to communicate in this way by one runner, by one with Coupar
and two to Perth, than by two to Coupar and two to Perth, and for Coupar
to communicate with Perth by one than two each way. This is harping on
the old key. But it is a reduction of service, like the shortening of
the road here, I do not wish to see. I do not want a reconciliation of
this kind; and whatever obloquy I may endure, with imputation of
_ignorance_ and other general epithets of a similar kind, I believe the
memorialists, upon cool reflection, may be more inclined to ascribe
these observations to proceed from honest zeal rather than wanton
opposition. If it should be otherwise, I shall remain very satisfied
that I have given my judgment of it according to conscience; and I
cannot be afraid, if it is necessary, that the whole writings upon the
subject should be again submitted to the final decision of his Majesty's
Postmaster-General. In regard to the power of altering the course of the
posts, I am decidedly of opinion the question ought to go to their
lordships' judgment; but as to any personal opposition to the
memorialists, I disclaim it; and as they say they are determined to
fight till they conquer, I would now retire from the contest, with this
observation, that, though such doctrines and resolutions may be very
good for the memorialists, they would, in my humble opinion, if
generally expressed and followed, be very bad for the country."
It is really surprising how some of the ideas and practices of the
feudal times still survive, ancient arrangements coming up from time to
time for revision, as those who suffer acquire greater independence or a
truer conception of their position in the State. Quite recently the
Postmaster-General was called upon to settle a dispute between the
Senior Magistrate of Fraserburgh and Lord ---- (the local seigneur) as
to who had the right to receive letters addressed to "The Provost" or
"Chief Magistrate" of Fraserburgh, both parties claiming such letters.
His lordship had hitherto obtained delivery of the letters, on the
ground of his being "heritable provost" or baron-bailie, titles which
smell strongly of antiquity; but the modern Provost and Chief Magistrate
being no longer disposed to submit to the arrangement, appealed to
headquarters, and obtained a decision as follows--viz., that he being
Senior Police Magistrate, should receive all communications addressed to
"The Provost," "The Chief Magistrate," or "The Acting Chief Magistrate,"
and that Lord ---- should have a right to claim any addressed to the
"Baron-Bailie." The surprise is, that the ancient method of disposing
of the letters should have been endured so long, and that a town's
Provost should have been so slighted.
Personal interest, unfortunately, often steps in to prevent or hinder
the carrying out of reforms for the general good; even the selfishness
of mere pleasure placing itself as an obstacle to the accomplishment of
things of great consequence in practical life. The Post-office being
called upon to consider the question of affording a daily post to a
small place in Ireland, which until then had had but a tri-weekly post,
a gentleman called upon the postmaster to urge that things might be left
as they were, stating as his reason that the change of hours, as regards
the mail-car, rendered necessary in connection with the proposed
improvements, would not suit himself and some other gentlemen, who were
in the habit of using the car when going to fish on a lake near the
mail-car route! Is not this a case showing a sad lack of public spirit?