INDEX

Printed in Great Britain by

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

[1] Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons), 1844, Appx., p. 21.

[2] Ibid., p. 4. Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, 1854, p. 8.

[3] Encyclopædia of the Laws of England, London, 1908, vol. xi. p. 344. J. W. Hyde, The Post in Grant and Farm, London, 1894, p. 131.

[4] Report from Secret Committee on the Past Office (Commons),1844, Appx., p. 95. In 1324 a writ or letter was issued to the Constable of Dover and Warden of the Cinque Ports, to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, the Bailiffs of Bristol, Southampton, and Portsmouth, and the Sheriffs of Hants, Somerset, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall, reciting that previous orders de scrutinio faciendo had not been observed, in consequence of which many letters prejudicial to the Crown were brought into the kingdom; and commanding them to "make diligent scrutiny of all persons passing from parts beyond the seas to England, and to stop all letters concerning which sinister suspicions might arise, and their bearers, and to keep the bearers in custody until further directions, and to transmit the letters so intercepted to the King with the utmost speed."

[5] Richard III in 1484 "followed the practice which had been recently introduced by King Edward in the time of the last war with Scotland (1482) of appointing a single horseman for every 20 miles, by means of whom travelling with the utmost speed, and not passing their respective limits, news was always able to be carried by letter from hand to hand 200 miles within two days."—Third Continuation of the Chronicle of Croyland, Oxford, 1684, p. 571. The system was identical with that of the posts of antiquity (vide Appendix B, pp. [374-7], infra).

[6] Derived from posta, a contraction for posita, from ponere, to place. The general use of the word is to signify relays placed at intervals on the routes followed by messengers.

[7] "Ne men can kepe horses in redynes without som way to bere the charges"—Tuke to Cromwell, 17 August 1533 (Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons), 1844, Appx., p. 32).

[8] "The King's pleasure is that postes be better appointed, and laide in al places most expedient; with commaundement to al townshippes in al places on payn of lyfe, to be in such redynes, and to make such provision of horses at al tymes, as no tract or losse of tyme be had in that behalf "—Ibid., Appx., p. 32.

[9] "a.d. 1572. The Office of the Maister of the Postes. The Accompte of Thomas Randolphe esquier, Maister of the Postes.... As also of the yssuyng and defrayment owte of the same, as well for the wages of the ordinarie postes laide betwene London and Barwicke and elles where within hir Mats Realme of Englande, As also for the wages of divers extra ordenarie postes laid in divers places of the Realme in the tyme of hir Mats severall progresses, and also to divers postes for cariage of packets of l'res from Sittingbourne, Dartforde Rochester, Canterbury and Dover for hir Mats service and affayres, as occasion from tyme to tyme did requier."—Ibid., Appx., p. 34.

[10] In the United Kingdom this system exists to a considerable extent, chiefly in the south and west of Ireland, and in many parts of Scotland, more especially among the Western Isles. In remote parts the means of communication are in general provided for the double purpose, and economy to the Post Office naturally results from the fact that the contractors for the mail service have a source of income in addition to the Post Office payment. Indeed, it is probable that since the days of the post-boys by far the greater portion of the mails has always been conveyed by means not exclusively provided for that purpose. The mail coaches carried passengers and goods, and it was from that traffic that the income of the proprietor was mainly derived. The payment in respect of the mails was very small, the real consideration inducing the proprietors to carry the mail being the fact that the mail coaches were exempt from tolls. The railway displaced the mail coach, and increased the dependence of the mail service on means of communication provided primarily for other purposes. The number of trains run solely for the conveyance of mails has always been extremely small. The weight of mails to be conveyed is usually insufficient to warrant the provision of a special train, and the Post Office is therefore compelled, as far as possible, to make use of such trains as may be run for other traffic, endeavouring to obtain such modification in the times and working as will make them of the greatest advantage to the mail service without destroying their utility for general traffic. The existence of extensive means of communication for general purposes therefore results advantageously to the Post Office.

[11] 2 and 3 Edward VI, cap. 3.

[12] "The Lords of the Privie Counsell, endevouring heretofore the like furtherance of the service of the State, as well in horsing such as ride on their Prince's affaires, as the speedy despatch of packets in all places where Posts were erected and ordeined, considering that for the service of the one, a daily fee is allowed, and for the other, no certaine wages at all, but the hire of the horses let out, and that often ill paide, whereby they stand not so bound to the one, as to attend to the other; And that the townes and countreys besides became many wayes vexed and perplexed, by the over great libertie of riders in poste, specially by such as pretend publike service by speciall commission, contrary to the King's meaning or their lordships' orders."—Orders for Thorough Posts and Couriers, riding Post on the King's Affairs, 1603 (Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons), 1844, Appx., p. 38).

The "Thorough Post" was the term applied to the travelling facilities provided by the posts, i.e. when the messenger travelled "through," in contradistinction to the "Post for the Pacquet" (or "Packet"), i.e. the post for the transmission of the mail, or "pacquet."

[13] "1. First it is ordered, That in all places where Posts are layde for the packet, they also, as persons most fit, shall have the benefit and preheminence of letting, furnishing, and appointing of horses to all riding in poste (that is to say) with horse and guide by commission or otherwise.

"2. And, like as in the orders for the carrying of the packets, the furtherance of our service and the State is only aymed at; so in this it is intended that none be holden to ride on publique affairs but with speciall commission, and the same signed either by one of our Principall Secretaries of State, ... and of all such so riding in publike affaires, it shall be lawfull for the Posts, or the owners of the horses, to demand, for the hire of ich horse, after the rate of twopence halfe-peny the mile (besides the guides groats). But of all others riding poste with horse and guide, about their private businesses the hire and prices are left to the parties discretions, to agree and compound within themselves."—Ibid., Appx., p. 39.

[14] Contemporary papers show that this was largely a measure of police, intended to enable the Government to keep a watch on all persons travelling about the kingdom.

[15] As late as 1620 there were only four, and they touched only a small portion of the kingdom. They were (1) The Courte to Barwicke, (2) The Courte to Beaumaris, (3) The Courte to Dover, and (4) The Courte to Plymouthe.

[16] See supra, p. [3].

[17] "The constables many times be fayn to take horses oute of plowes and cartes."—Brian Tuke, 1533 (Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons), 1844, Appx., p. 33).

[18] The post from London serving the "Westerne part" of the kingdom was discontinued in 1610 as unnecessary except in time of war.—Ibid., Appx., p. 43.

[19] "Universities and great towns had their own particular posts; and the same horse or foot post went through the journey, and returned with other letters, without having different stages as at present. It was thus practised later in Scotland as having less commerce than in England."—D. Macpherson, Annals of Commerce, London, 1805, vol. ii. p. 400.

[20] The Committee of Secrecy of the House of Commons were of opinion that the practice of carrying private letters probably began at an early period and became a perquisite of the postmasters (Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons), 1844, p. 4).

[21] Ibid., Appx., p. 56.

[22] Ibid., Appx., p. 36; see p. [380], infra.

[23] Ibid., Appx., p. 41.

[24] The business of carrying foreign letters had been conducted by the holder of the general patent for carrying letters, although that patent covered only inland posts and foreign posts within the King's dominions. In 1620 a patent was issued to Matthew de Quester and his son, conferring on them the office of Postmaster of England for Foreign Parts. The holder of the patent for the Inland Posts, who had hitherto been conducting this service, attempted to resist this new grant, but without success; and for some time there was a sort of triple division of the posts, viz. the Inland Posts, the posts in parts beyond the seas within the King's dominions, and the posts for foreign parts out of the King's dominions. There was, nevertheless, no regular provision for the conveying of letters for places out of England. The foreign mails were conveyed by men who were engaged in other business, who bought their places in the posts, and were accused of delaying the mails through "more minding their own peddling traffic than the service of the State or merchants, omitting many passages, sometimes staying for the vending of their own commodities, many times through neglect by lying in tippling-houses."—See J. W. Hyde, The Post in Grant and Farm, London, 1894, p. 12.

[25] "Nether can anie place in Christendom bee named wher merchants are allowed to send their letters by other body or posts, then by those only which are authorized by the State.... Your Lordship best knoweth what accompt wee shal bee hable to give in our places of that wch passeth by letters in or out of the land, if everie man may convey lrs, under the covers of merchants, to whome and what place hee pleaseth."—30th February 1627. John Coke to Lord Conway (Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons), 1844, Appx., p. 51).

[26] A copy is given in Appendix B, infra, pp. [378-380].

[27] "Now his Majesty ... taking into his princely consideration how much it imports this State and this whole realm, that the secrets be not disclosed to foreign nations; which cannot be prevented if promiscuous use of transmitting or taking up of foreign letters by these private posts and carriers aforesaid should be suffered, which will be also no small prejudice to his merchants in their trading.... And his Majesty, taking further into his consideration that the mutual commerce and correspondency of his subjects within his Majesty's dominions will be as advantageous and beneficial as the trade with foreign nations, and that nothing will more increase and advance the same than the safe and speedy conveying, carrying, and re-carrying of letters from one place to another ... he doth hereby straightly charge and command, that no post or carrier whatsoever within his Majesty's dominions, other than such as shall be nominated and appointed by the said Thomas Witherings, shall presume to take up, carry, receive, and deliver any letter or letters, pacquet or pacquets whatsoever, to any such place or places where the said Thomas Witherings shall have settled posts, according to the said grant, except a particular messenger sent on purpose with letters by any man for his own occasions, or letters by a friend, or by common known carriers."—Proclamation of 11th February 1637-8 (Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office (Commons),1844, Appx., p. 58).

[28] "1650. June 29th. Council of State to (Serjeant Dendy and his assistants?):—

"You are to repair to some post stage 20 miles from London on the road towards York; seize the letter mail going outward, and all other letters upon the rider, and present them by one of yourselves; the other shall then ride to the next stage, and seize the mail coming inwards, and bring the letters to Council, searching all persons that ride with the mail, or any other that ride post without warrant, and bring them before Council, or the Commissioners for Examinations. All officers civil and military to be assistants. With note of like orders for Chester Road and the western roads."—Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1650, p. 223.

[29] Commons Journal, 7th September 1644, p. 621.

[30] Ibid., 21st March 1650, p. 385.

[31] Ibid.

[32] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, London, 1893, p. 25.

[33] Commons Journal, 19th October, 1652, p. 192.

[34] Register of Council of State, 7th May 1653, vol. xvi. pp. 34-6.

[35] Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1652-3, p. 455.

[36] "The case of the first undertakers for reducing letters to half the former rates, viz. Clem. Oxenbridge, Rich. Blackwell, Fra. Thompson, and Wm. Malyn. We observed that the postage of inland letters was long continued at 6d. a letter, and that the whole benefit went into one hand, to the grievance of many. Being encouraged by the votes of the last Parliament (made in the time of their primitive, free, and public actings, viz. 16 August 1642) that the taking of letters from and the restraints and imprisonments of Gower, Chapman, Cotton, and Mackedral were against the law and the liberty of the subject ... and that the said secretaries and Witherings were delinquents, being also encouraged by the opinion of the judges given in the House of Lords, that the clause in Witherings' patent for restraint of carrying letters was void and against law—we attempted to put the same in practice, but through the interest of Mr. Prideaux, who for many years had enjoyed excessive gains by the former high rates, we met with all the obstruction he could make against us, by stopping our mails, abusing our servants, etc., though he always held forth that it was free for any to carry or send letters as they pleased."—Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1653/1654, p. 22. Cf. John Hill, A Penny Post, London, 1659.

[37] "Cross posts did not exist. Between two towns not being on the same post road, however near the towns might be, letters could circulate only through London; and the moment London was reached an additional rate was imposed. Hence the apparent charges, the charges as deduced from the table of rates, might be very different from the actual charges. Bristol and Exeter, for instance, are less than 80 miles apart; but in 1660, and for nearly forty years afterwards, letters from one to the other passed through London, and would be charged, if single, not 2d. but 6d., and if double, not 4d. but 1s. That is to say, the postage or portage, as it was then called, would consist of two rates, and each of these rates would be for a distance in excess of 80 miles."—H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 29. Cf. infra, Appendix B, pp. [390-1].

This practice of charging according to the route traversed and not according to direct distance was also followed in other countries. It is perhaps comparable to the practice of computing railway charges on the basis of the distance by railway, and not as the crow flies.

[38] H. Scobell, Collection of Acts and Ordinances, London, 1658, p. 511.

[39] 12 Car. II, cap. 35.

[40] See, e.g., Royal Proclamations, 16th January 1660-1 and 16th July 1667.

[41] See Appendix, pp. 388-391.

[42] "As early as William's reign they (the Postmasters-General) had been asked to estimate how much an additional penny of postage would produce; ... the necessities of the Civil List had prompted the inquiry."—H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 119.

[43] 9 Anne, cap. 10.

[44] 9 Anne, cap. 10, § 35.

[45] "The additional tax has never answered in proportion to the produce of the revenue at the time it took place, the people having found private conveyances for their letters, which they are daily endeavouring to increase, notwithstanding all the endeavours that can be used to prevent them."—Statement by the Postmasters-General, 20th May 1718 (British Official Records).

[46] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 145.

[47] 9 Anne, cap. 10, § 39.

[48] 3 Geo. III, cap. 75, § 1.

[49] "An important legal decision, with which the Post Office had only the remotest concern, an improved system of expresses following as a natural consequence from circumstances over which the Post Office had no control, a simple contrivance to facilitate the posting of letters (i.e. the aperture), and an acceleration of the mail between London and Edinburgh—this as the record of forty or fifty years' progress is assuredly meagre enough; and yet we are not aware of any omission."—H. Joyce, ibid., p. 184.

[50] "A letter between Bath and London would be a London letter, and a letter from one part of the country to another which in course of transit passed through London would be a country letter. A bye or way letter would be a letter passing between any two towns on the Bath Road and stopping short of London—as, for instance, between Bath and Hungerford, between Hungerford and Newbury, between Newbury and Reading, and so on; while a cross post letter would be a letter crossing from the Bath road to some other—as, for instance, a letter between Bath and Oxford."—Ibid., p. 147.

[51] 9 Anne, cap. 10, § 18.

[52] "To give a slight idea of the nature of this conveyance: The Bye and Way Letters were thrown promiscuously together into one large Bag, which was to be opened at every Stage by the Deputy, or any inferior Servant of the House, to pick out of the whole heap what might belong to his own delivery, and the rest put back again into this large Bag, with such Bye Letters as he should have to send to distant places from his own Stage. But what was still worse than all this, it was then the constant practice to demand and receive the postage on all such Letters before they were put into any of the Country Post Offices. Hence (from the general temptation of destroying these Letters for the sake of the Postage) the joynt mischief of embezling the Revenue and interrupting and obstructing the commerce, fell naturally in, to support and inflame one another. Indeed, they were then risen to such a height, and consequently the discredit and disrepute of this conveyance grown so notorious, that many Traders and others in divers parts of the Kingdom had recourse to various contrivances of private and clandestine conveyance for their speedier and safer correspondence; whereby it became unavoidable but that other branches of the Post Office revenue should be greatly impair'd, as well as this ...

"Now whilst the Bye and Way Letters continued to be conveyed in so precarious and unsafe a way, as is shewn above, it was thought hard to punish such as undertook to convey them in a speedier and safer manner. But from a Time that this Branch of the Revenue was put under a just regulation, in consequence of the contract with Mr. Allen, all such Persons who were any way concerned in this illegal collection and conveyance of Letters, were by proper Officers employed by him, strictly enquired after, and when detected, the most notorious of them punished as a terror to the rest."—Ralph Allen's Narrative, 2nd December 1761 (Ralph Allen's Bye, Way and Cross Road Posts, London, 1897, pp. 6 and 18).

[53] "Upon the next renewal of his Contract, which was in the Year 1741, the Postmasters-General, after largely expressing, as usual, their sense of the integrity of his conduct, and the services he had done to the Public, told him they judged it but reasonable to expect some addition to his rent of £6,000 a Year for the Bye, Way and Cross Road Letters, altho' he should still continue to support and increase the produce of the Country Letters for the Benefit of the King. To which, Mr. Allen answered, that their expectations of additional rent appeared very reasonable to him, and which he should have made in his own way (a way he was going to open to them) had they not themselves proposed it. That there are two ways of giving this additional Rent: the one was by paying a further some of money yearly, such as he could afford to his Majesty's use without any advance to public commerce, the other was by paying his Majesty, and immediately too, a much larger sum than he could in the first way pretend to advance, in causing a considerable increase of the produce of the London and Country Letters by means of extending and quickening the correspondence of London and several of the most considerable Trading Towns and Cities thro'out the Kingdom; a project that would be of infinite advantage to commerce. Which of these two ways the Postmasters-General would think fit to prefer, he left to themselves to consider; who on duly weighing all circumstances, did not in the least hesitate to prefer the latter method.

"Upon which Mr. Allen agreed to erect, at his own Expence, one every day cost from London to Bath, Bristol, and Glocester towards the West; and from London to Cambridge, Lynn, Norwich, and Yarmouth towards the East; and to all intermediate places in both quarters: and—that all the increase of the postage of Letters thus conveyed between London and the several places, East, and West of it above-mentioned, should, without any charge or deduction, be paid in directly for his Majesty's use, as well as all the increase of the Country Letters within that District, that is, such Letters as pass between one Country Town and another thro' London.

"All this was accordingly done and executed conformable to the terms of the contract."—Ibid., pp. 25-6.

Similar extensions were made at the renewals of the lease in 1748 and 1755.

[54] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25, § 5.

[55] "It is certain that the alteration of the rates of Postage in the year 1765 has not been attended with every good consequence then expected from it and has been some loss to the Revenue."—Mr. Draper, District Surveyor, British Official Records, 1783.

[56] "At a time when the mail leaving London on Monday night did not arrive at Bath until Wednesday afternoon, he (Palmer) had been in the habit of accomplishing the distance between the two cities in a single day. He had made journeys equally long and equally rapid in other directions; and, as the result of observation, he had come to the conclusion that of the horses kept at the post houses it was always the worst that were set aside to carry the mail, and that the post was the slowest mode of conveyance in the kingdom. He had also observed that, where security or despatch was required, his neighbours at Bath who might desire to correspond with London would make a letter up into a parcel and send it by stage-coach, although the cost by stage-coach was, porterage included, 2s. and by post 4d."—H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, pp. 208-9. Cf. D. Macpherson, op. cit., vol. iv. p. 54.

[57] "If the present hours fixed at all the offices of the Kingdom with the greatest care and attention to that regular plan of correspondence which has been established after long experience were to be altered it would throw into the greatest confusion for the present and would be many years before it could be restored to the degree of perfection it now has."—Observations on Mr. Palmer's Plan by Mr. Draper, District Surveyor (British Official Records, 1783).

"Indeed, it is a pity that the Author of the Plan should not first have been informed of the nature of the Business in question, to make him understand how very differently the Posts and Post Offices are conducted to what he apprehends, and that the constant Eye that has been long kept towards their improvement in all Situations and under all Circumstances has made them now almost as perfect as can be without exhausting the Revenue arising therefrom."—Observations on Mr. Palmer's Plan by Mr. Hodgson, District Surveyor. Ibid.

"Upon the whole it appears impracticable upon a general System to convey the Mails by Machine."—Observations on Mr. Palmer's Plan by Mr. Allen, District Surveyor. Ibid.

[58] "In 1797 there were forty-two mail-coach routes established, connecting sixty of the most important towns in the kingdom, as well as intermediate places. These coaches cost the Government £12,416 a year, only half the sum paid for post-horses and riders under the old system. The coaches made daily journeys over nearly two-thirds of the total distance traversed and tri-weekly journeys over something less than one-third the total distance. The remainder travelled one, two, four, and six times a week."—J. C. Hemmeon, History of the British Post Office, Cambridge, Mass., 1912, p. 40.

[59] 24 Geo. III, sess. 2, cap. 37.

[60] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 215.

[61] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, pp. 317-18.

[62] 41 Geo. III, cap. 7.

[63] 45 Geo. III, cap. 11.

[64] 52 Geo. III, cap. 88. For details of the changes in the rates during this period see Appendix, pp. 338-9.

[65] "Von epochemachender Bedeutung war die berühmte von Rowland Hill angeregte Portoreform bei Briefen (sogenanntes Pennyporto) in Grossbritannien 1839."—A. Wagner, Finanzwissenschaft, Leipzig, 1890, vol. ii. p. 152.

[66] Sir Rowland Hill and G. Birkbeck Hill, Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, London, 1880.

[67] "They were all full of high aims—all bent on 'the accomplishment of things permanently great and good.' There was no room in their minds for the petty thoughts of jealous spirits. Each had that breadth of view which enables a man to rise above all selfish considerations. Each had been brought up to consider the good of his family rather than his own peculiar good, and to look upon the good of mankind as still higher than the good of his family. Each was deeply convinced of the great truth which Priestly had discovered, and Bentham had advocated—that the object of all government, and of all social institutions, should be the greatest happiness of the greatest number for the greatest length of time. In their youth their aims were often visionary; but they were always high and noble."—Ibid., vol. i. p. 193.

[68] "Early in the 'thirties there had been some reduction in certain departments of taxation. It occurred to me that probably some ease might be given to the people by lowering the postal rate.... Although occupied with other affairs, the reduction in the postal rate was not dismissed from my thoughts. The interest it had excited induced me to read Reports, etc., on postal administration."—Ibid., vol. i. p. 242.

[69] "The best test to apply to the several existing taxes for the discovery of the one which may be reduced most extensively, with the least proportionate loss to the revenue, is probably this: excluding from the examination those taxes, the produce of which is greatly affected by changes in the habits of the people, as the taxes on spirits, tobacco, hair-powder, let each be examined as to whether its productiveness has kept pace with the increasing numbers and prosperity of the nation. And that tax which proves most defective under this test is, in all probability, the one we are in quest of."—Rowland Hill, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, London, 1837, p. 2.

[70] "The revenue of the Post Office has been stationary at about £1,400,000 a year since 1818. This can be accounted for only by the great duty charged on letters; for with a lower duty the correspondence of the country through the Post Office would have increased in proportion to the increase of population and national wealth."—Sir Henry Parnell, On Financial Reform, London, 1832, p. 41.

[71] "While thus confirmed in my belief that, even from a financial point of view, the postal rates were injuriously high, I also became more and more convinced, the more I considered the question, that the fiscal loss was not the most serious injury thus inflicted on the public; that yet more serious evil resulted from the obstruction thus raised to the moral and intellectual progress of the people; and that the Post Office, if put on a sound footing, would assume the new and important character of a powerful engine of civilization; that though now rendered feeble and inefficient by erroneous financial arrangements, it was capable of performing a distinguished part in the great work of national education."—Sir Rowland Hill in Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, London, 1880, vol. i. p. 245.

[72] Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, by Rowland Hill, London, 1837.

[73] "In order to ascertain, with as much accuracy as the circumstances of the case admit, the extent to which the rates of postage may be reduced, under the condition of a given reduction in the revenue, the best course appears to be, first to determine as nearly as possible the natural cost of conveying a letter under the varying circumstances of distance, etc., that is to say, the cost which would be incurred if the Post Office were conducted on the ordinary commercial principles, and postage relieved entirely from taxation; and then to add to the natural cost such amount of duty as may be necessary for producing the required revenue."—Ibid. p. 10.

[74] "I found, first, that the cost of conveying a letter between post town and post town was exceedingly small; secondly, that it had but little relation to distance; and thirdly, that it depended much upon the number of letters conveyed by the particular mail; and as the cost per letter would diminish with every increase in such number, and as such increase would certainly follow reduction of postage, it followed that, if a great reduction could be effected, the cost of conveyance per letter, already so small, might be deemed absolutely insignificant.

"Hence, then, I came to the important conclusion that the existing practice of regulating the amount of postage by the distance over which an inland letter was conveyed, however plausible in appearance, had no foundation in principle, and that consequently the rates of postage should be irrespective of distance."—Sir Rowland Hill, Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, London, 1880, vol. i. p. 250.

[75] "It appears, then, that the cost of mere transit incurred upon a letter sent from London to Edinburgh, a distance of 400 miles, is not more than one thirty-sixth part of a penny. If therefore the proper charge (exclusive of tax) upon a letter received and delivered in London itself were twopence, then the proper charge (exclusive of tax) upon a letter received in London, but delivered in Edinburgh, would be twopence plus one-thirty-sixth part of a penny. Now, as the letters taken from London to Edinburgh are undoubtedly carried much more than an average distance, it follows, that when the charge for the receipt and delivery of the letter is determined, an additional charge of one-thirty-sixth part of a penny would amply repay the expense of transit. If, therefore, the charge for postage be made proportionate to the whole expense incurred in the receipt, transit, and delivery of the letter, and in the collection of its postage, it must be made uniformly the same from every post town to every other post town in the United Kingdom, unless it can be shown how we are to collect so small a sum as the thirty-sixth part of a penny."—Rowland Hill, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, London, 1837, pp. 18-19.

[76] Ibid., p. 45.

[77] A "frank" was a letter or packet bearing on the outside the signature of a person entitled to send letters free of postage.

[78] These proposals are not, however, necessarily related to the principle of uniformity, and, although interesting and important at the time, are now only of historical interest. They relate more particularly to the practicability of applying low and uniform rates to the postal service in the United Kingdom, having regard to the circumstances then obtaining and to the necessity for maintaining a large net revenue. Given that uniformity of rate was scientifically sound, it did not follow that it should be immediately adopted, and the financial effect was, to say the least, speculative. But since it was unlikely that the plan would be adopted if any large decrease in revenue were likely to result, Sir Rowland Hill was at great pains to explain methods by which his plan could be adopted without serious reduction of net revenue, and it was in this connection that the question of the increase in traffic which might be anticipated assumed such importance.

[79] See, e.g., H. von Stephan, Geschichte der preussischen Post, Berlin, 1859, p. 615.

[80] Ninth Report of Commissioners for Inquiring into the Mode of Conducting the Business of the Post Office Department, 1837, Appendix, pp. 26-40.

[81] "Of all the wild and visionary schemes he had ever heard or read of, it was the most extraordinary."—Lord Lichfleld, Postmaster-General, 15 June 1837, Parl. Debates (Lords), vol. xxxviii, col. 1464.

"He considers the whole scheme of Mr. Hill as utterly fallacious; he thought so from the first moment he read the pamphlet of Mr. Hill; and his opinion of the plan was formed long before the evidence was given before the Committee. The plan appears to him a most preposterous one, utterly unsupported by facts, and resting entirely on assumption. Every experiment in the way of reduction which has been made by the Post Office has shown its fallacy; for every reduction whatever leads to a loss of revenue, in the first instance: if the reduction be small, the revenue recovers itself; but if the rates were to be reduced to a penny, revenue would not recover itself for forty or fifty years."—Abstract of Evidence of Colonel Maberly, Secretary to the Post Office, Third Report from the Select Committee on Postage, 1838, p. 18.

[82] Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, by Rowland Hill, second edition, London, 1837.

[83] See Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, London, 1880; Sir Henry Cole, Fifty Years of Public Work, London, 1884.

[84] Third Report of the Select Committee On Postage, 13th August 1838, § 10.

[85] In 1837-8 the deficiency was £1,428,000; in 1838-9, £430,000; in 1839-40, £1,457,000; in 1840-1, £1,851,000; and for 1841-2 it was estimated at £2,421,000.

[86] "Was the Committee ignorant—we think not—that the radicals in politics and the sectarians in religion, have been the warmest advocates—and indeed (except the mercantile body we have alluded to) the only very zealous advocates for this penny post?"—Quarterly Review, October 1839, p. 531. Cf. Edinburgh Review, January 1840; J. Morley, Life of Cobden, London, 1881, p. 411.

[87] "On the 9th April 1839, Lord Melbourne's Government brought in what is generally known as the Jamaica Bill—a Bill for suspending for five years the constitution of that colony. This measure was strongly opposed by the Conservative party (led by Sir Robert Peel), and by many of the Radicals. On the second reading of the Bill, the Government only escaped defeat by the narrow majority of five votes. The Ministry thereupon resigned; Sir Robert Peel was sent for by her Majesty, but owing to the 'Bedchamber Difficulty' failed to form a Government. Lord Melbourne was recalled, and in the negotiations with the Radical members for future support to his Government, the bargain was struck that that support should be given, provided Penny Postage was conceded.

"Thus one of the greatest social reforms ever introduced was, to speak plainly, given as a bribe by a tottering Government to secure political support."—The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago, London, 1890, p. 24. Cf. Parl. Debates, 26th March 1855, vol. cxxxvii, col. 1136; Sir Stafford H. Northcote, Twenty Years of Financial Policy, London, 1862, pp. 8-9.

[88] As a temporary measure, with the view of minimizing the practical difficulties of the Post Office, a uniform rate of 4d. a letter (1d. a letter for London local letters) was introduced on the 5th December 1839.

[89] Estimate of number of chargeable letters delivered in the United Kingdom (in round numbers):—

1839Letters76.0millions
Franks6.6"
1840Letters169.0"
1841"197.0"
1842"208.0"
1843"220.0"
1844"242.0"
1845"271.0"
1846"300.0"
1847"322.0"
1848"329.0"
1849"337.0"
1860"564.0"
1900-1"2,323.6"
1913-14"3,477.8"

The total number of packets of all descriptions delivered in the United Kingdom in the year 1913-14 was about 6,000 millions.—Annual Reports of the Postmaster-General.

[90] See J. R. McCulloch, Taxation and the Funding System, Edinburgh, 1863, p. 331.

[91] The number of letters per head of population shows a continuous increase, as follows:—

Year.England.Scotland.Ireland.United Kingdom.
1880-138291534
1890-150362145
1900-161473257
1905-668513662
1910-1173564068
1913-1481634575

[92] As in other countries. It is contrary to the general principles upon which the post is conducted in the leading countries of Europe to throw a quantity of heavy matter upon the letter post, which exists primarily for the carriage of light letters, and would be seriously hampered by the transmission of large numbers of heavy packages."

[93] Of these, 123,640 were established and 125,813 unestablished officers.

[94] The following table shows the date and annual cost of the various revisions:—

1881-2.Fawcett Revision£320,000
1888-91.Raikes Revision406,600
1897-8.Tweedmouth Revision (including Norfolk-Hanbury concessions)388,000
1905.Stanley Revision372,300
1908.Hobhouse Committee Revision707,900
1914.Holt Committee Revision1,335,750
1894-1912.Other improvements144,400
Total£3,674,950

In addition, the annual cost of the War Bonus granted in 1915 is estimated at £1,080,000.

[95]

Year.Percentage of Salaries,
Wages, etc., to Total
Revenue.
1880-128.39
1890-135.78
1900-145.30
1905-645.34
1909-1049.09
1910-1147.61
1911-1249.20
1912-1347.88
1913-1447.04

[96] The increase is partly accounted for by the fact that parcels are included in the later figures. Deducting the estimated cost of the parcel post (see infra, Chapter VII), the cost for staff for packets other than parcels was, in 1913-14, some .340d. per packet.

[97] Omitting the cost of conveyance of mails by sea, and omitting the cost of conveyance of parcels by railway, which is fixed by the Parcel Post Act of 1882. The following table shows the movement of the general cost of conveyance of mails:—

Year.Cost of Conveyance.Percentage of Cost of Conveyance
of Mails by Road and Rail to Total
Revenue (excluding Cost of
Conveyance of Parcels by Railway).
1880-1£921,09316.17
1890-11,273,89412.62
1900-11,519,21911.26
1905-61,710,89110.68
1910-111,812,5059.18
1913-141,940,7358.85

[98] Assuming there is no loss on the Parcel Post. If there is such loss, the cost per packet other than a parcel would be reduced (see infra, Chapter VII).

[99] The general increase of wages partly accounts for this (see p. 34, opposite). The cost of working is, however, higher in the larger offices (where the bulk of postal work is done) than in the smaller offices, and tends to be highest in the largest offices. The matter is complicated by the fact that higher scales of pay are in force in the larger towns.

[100]

Year. Percentage of Total Expenditure to Total Revenue.
Postal Services. All Services.
1839-40 [A] [B]31.66—
1840-41 [B]63.16—
1880-161.8468.97
1890-165.7974.33
1900-171.7580.99
1905-669.4480.19
1909-1073.7584.00
1910-1172.2882.94
1911-1272.3682.89
1912-1371.2582.05
1913-14 [C]69.7180.02

—Report of Postmaster-General, 1913-14, pp. 122-3.

[101] "The inhabitants live so scattered and remote from each other in that vast country, that posts cannot be supported among them."—Benjamin Franklin, evidence before House of Commons, 28th January, 1766 (Parl. History, vol. xvi. col. 138).

[102] The usual rate of remuneration for deputy postmasters in North America. Cf. infra, pp. [49] and [66].

[103] "On account of the scarcity of money, people will forbear to correspond until they find occasions by friends, travellers, and the like, to send their letters, which makes it to be wished that the Legislature might enact that the rate of postage for the greatest distances on the Continent of America may not exceed 1s. 6d. for a single letter and so in proportion."—British Official Records, 1764.

[104] Preamble of 5 Geo. III, cap. 25.

[105] "The present rates may in some parts be reduced, and the Revenue nevertheless may hereafter be improved, by means of a more extensive circulation."—5 Geo. III, cap. 25, § 1.

[106] British Official Records, 8th February 1774.

[107] British Official Records, 23rd September 1790.

[108] J. G. Hendy, Empire Review, London, 1902, vol. iv., p. 180.

[109] "There is no doubt that the revenues of the provinces showed a nominal surplus, but it is not so clear that this surplus, which amounted to £884 in 1801, and to £2,514 in 1811, was a surplus on the provincial services. Many years later, when the administration of the Post Office in the colonies and the question of the disposal of the surplus revenue had become part of a political matter of the first magnitude, the provincial Legislatures alleged that the surplus amounted to a very considerable sum each year, and that the circumstances constituted a taxation of the colonies by the Mother Country; but the Deputy Postmaster-General asserted that this surplus was in fact composed of revenues to which the colonies had no claim, viz. the charges for British packet postage, that is, for transmission of letters across the ocean, and payments in respect of military postage, and that in point of fact the local service had never yielded a surplus—that, indeed, there was probably a deficit.

"This I feel myself bound to state as my firm conviction, that neither for the last ten years, nor for any previous period, has the postage of Lower Canada afforded one farthing of Net Revenue."—Mr. T. A. Stayner, Deputy Postmaster-General (Report of Special Committee of the House of Assembly on the Post Office Department in the Province of Lower Canada, 11th February 1832, p. 12).

[110] See, e.g., Report of Special Committee, House of Assembly, Lower Canada, 8th March 1836.

[111] In 1790 Governor Carleton of New Brunswick manned the posts at St. John, Cumberland, Preguile, and Fredericton with a troop of soldiers, by which means "the route was kept in good order"; and in 1794 the Duke of Kent, then Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Nova Scotia, constructed a military post road from Halifax to Annapolis, and also other roads in the vicinity of Halifax.—British America (British Empire Series, vol. iii., London, 1900), p. 121.

[112] Vide p. [41], note, supra.

[113] 31 Geo. III, cap. 31.

[114] 18 Geo. III, cap. 12.

[115] Will. IV, cap. 7.

[116] Report of Special Committee, House of Assembly, Lower Canada, 8th March 1836.

[117] Ibid., Legislative Council, Lower Canada, 15th March 1836. Cf. Report of Select Committee, Legislative Council, Upper Canada, 17th February 1837.

[118] "We have failed to discover reasonable grounds for hoping that the several Colonial Legislatures will soon (if indeed they ever will) arrive at such uniformity in their enactments for the management of the Post Office within their respective localities as would ensure the establishment of a practicable system, more especially since it is admitted that the Bill of one Legislature, in order to become effective, must correspond in all its material provisions with the Bills of all the other Legislatures, and that after these Bills have been found to correspond with one another, and had in consequence thereof become Laws, no alterations in them, however expedient it might be deemed by one Legislature for the improvement of the system, could be carried into effect, until agreed to by each separate Legislature."—Joint Address, Legislature of Upper Canada, March 1837, p. 11.

An example of the difficulties likely to be encountered, and some justification for the reluctance of the Imperial authorities to yield control of the service, is afforded by a dispute which occurred at about this time between Canada and Nova Scotia concerning the arrangements for the transmission of the British mails between Quebec and Halifax. Nova Scotia refused for the first time to make good the deficiency in the Post Office revenue. The authorities in London thereupon ordered the Deputy in the province to discontinue all unremunerative services, a course of action which proved effective.

[119] Report of the Commissioners appointed to enquire into the affairs of the Post Office in British North America, 31st December 1841.

[120] British Official Records, 1842-3.

[121] W. J. Page, Report of 1st October 1842 (British Official Records).

[122] Despatch of 28th August 1847.

[123] Report of a Committee of the Executive Council of Canada on the Post Office, 10th June 1848.

[124] 12 & 13 Vict., cap. 66.

[125] Correspondence on the Subject of the Establishment of a General Post Office System in British North America, Montreal, 27th February 1849.

[126] In 1851, $362,065; in 1852, $230,629; in 1855, $368,166.

[127] "He would, were it necessary for the revenue, prefer to retain the existing letter rate than to extend through the Dominion this newspaper impost, unknown in the Maritime Provinces before."—Hon. Dr. Tupper, Parl. Debates (Canada), House of Commons, 20th December 1867.

[128] Hon. Mr. Campbell, Ibid., Senate, 3rd December 1867.

[129] "The Postal service should be expected to yield a revenue; but the service should be performed as low as possible, and if it paid its way that was all that need be desired."—Hon. Mr. Campbell, Ibid.

[130] The revenue in 1868 was $1,024,702, and in 1871, $1,079,768. In 1889 the rate was made 3 cents per ounce.

[131] See infra, p. [143].

[132] Sir W. Mulock, Parl. Debates (Canada), House of Commons, 1st April 1898 (Official Reports, vol. xlvi.).

[133] Sir Charles Tupper, Ibid., 13th May 1898.

[134] In 1898, $3,527,810: in 1902, $3,888,126.

[135] "It is ordered that notice be given that Richard Fairbanks his house in Boston is the place appointed for all letters which are brought from beyond the seas or are to be sent thither to be left with him, and he is to take care that they are to be delivered or sent according to the directions; and he is allowed for every letter a penny, and must answer all miscarriages through his own negligence in this kind."

[136] Stanley I. Slack, A Brief History of the Postal Service, Omaha.

[137] M. E. Woolley, Early History of the Colonial Post Office, Providence, R.I., 1894, p. 6.

[138] New York, in 1692, enacted that any persons or body politic or corporate other than the Postmaster-General presuming to "carry, re-carry, or deliver letters for hire, or to set up or imploy any foot-post, horse-post, or pacquet-boat whatsoever" for the carrying of letters or packets should forfeit £100; and the Act of New Hampshire, passed in 1693, provided that no person or persons whatsoever should carry letters for hire, "except letters sent by private friend or by any messenger for or concerning the private affaires of any person."

[139] Preamble of Act (1st April 1693).

[140] "The mail carriers rode through the wilderness in this year of the beginning."—Stanley I. Slack, A Brief History of the Postal Service, Omaha, p. 11.

[141] See infra, Appendix B, pp. [391] ff.

[142] "An Act for establishing a General Post Office for all her Majesty's Dominions" (9 Anne, cap. 10).

[143] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25. See supra, pp. [38-9].

[144] Cf. supra, p. [38].

[145] Evidence of Benjamin Franklin before House of Commons Committee, 28th January 1766. The Committee were, of course, most anxious on points having relation to the taxation of the colonies by the English Parliament, and Dr. Franklin was asked questions directed to discovering whether the colonists regarded postage, which was fixed by Act of the British Parliament, and had been newly fixed by such Act in the previous year (5 Geo. III, cap. 25), as a tax. On this point Dr. Franklin emphatically held that the postage paid on a letter was not of the nature of a tax, but that it was simply payment for service performed; and, moreover, the payment of postage was not compulsory, since a man might still, as before the passing of the Act, send his letter by a servant, a special messenger, or a friend, if he thought it cheaper or safer. Dr. Franklin said that every Assembly encouraged the Post Office in its infancy by grants of money; that they would not have done this if they had thought the postage charge a tax, and as a matter of fact the system was always regarded as supplying a great convenience (W. Cobbett, Parliamentary History of England, vol. xvi. cols. 137-160).

[146] Manifesto to the American People, issued by Goddard, 2nd July 1774. Earlier in the manifesto it was remarked that "newspapers, those necessary and important alarms in time of public danger, may be rendered of little consequence for want of circulation."

[147] "It is not to be doubted but that the institution will be properly regulated by the Continental Congress."—Manifesto to the American People, 8th May 1774.

[148] Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, pub. Washington, 1904, vol. ii. p. 208.

[149] Resolution of 30th September 1775. Ibid., vol. iii. p. 267.

[150] British Official Records, 6th December 1780.

[151] "The officers of the American Army beg leave to inform their friends and correspondents that the postage of all letters to and from the Army is doubled: but as their pay is fully adequate to every expense, they therefore request them to send all letters by the public post, and not through any œconomical view by a private conveyance.

'Tis a pity that the Honourable Congress did not treble the postage for Officers' letters, as a large annual sum by this means would be put into the public Treasury.

The several printers of newspapers on the Continent are requested to insert the above."—Pennsylvania Packet, 22nd June 1779.

[152] In all, no less a sum than $111,967 was advanced to the Post Office during the year 1779.—Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789, pub. Washington, 1904, vol. xv. pp. 1412 and 1436.

[153] Ibid., vol. xviii. p. 1142.

[154] The rates were given in pennyweights and grains of silver, each pennyweight being estimated as equivalent to five-ninetieths of a dollar.

[155] Journals of Congress, Philadelphia, 1781-2, vol. vii. p. 509.

[156] See pp. [12-14], supra.

[157] Ibid., vol. xii. p. 11.

[158] Message to Congress, 25th October 1791.

[159] See Debates and Proceedings in Congress, 20th December 1791. (Washington, 1849.)

[160] Ibid., 6th December 1791.

[161] See Congressional Record (House of Representatives), 21st February 1863.

[162] Questions of the establishment and maintenance of the post roads were dealt with by Congress separately from questions of mail service.

[163] Reports of Senate Committee, 27th January 1835, p. 115.

[164] Letter to Hon. Mr. Kennedy, Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, pp. 336-7.

[165] See D. D. T. Leech, The Post Office Department of the United States of America; its History, Organization, and Working, Washington, D.C., 1879.

[166] Message to Congress, 3rd December 1844.

[167] Some notion of the spirit in which the question was approached may be gathered from the following extracts:—

"To content the man dwelling more remote from town with his homely lot, by giving him regular and frequent means of intercommunication: to assure to the emigrant, who plants his new home on the skirts of the distant wilderness or prairie, that he is not forever severed from the kindred and society that still share his interest and love: to prevent those whom the swelling tide of population is constantly pressing to the outer verge of civilization from being surrendered to surrounding influences and sinking into the hunter or savage state: to render the citizen, how far soever from the seat of his Government, worthy, by proper knowledge and intelligence, of his important privileges as a sovereign constituent of the Government: to diffuse, throughout all parts of the land, enlightenment, social improvement, and national affinities, elevating our people in the scale of civilization, and binding them together in patriotic affection."—Report of House Committee, 15th May 1844.

"It [the Post Office] was a most important element in the hand of civilization, especially of a republican people. There would be room to dilate in reference to the utility of the diffusion of sciences, the promotion of morals, and all these great benefits resulting from the intercourse of mind and mind.... Because it was so well understood by those who framed the Constitution, we find in that sacred instrument that the power of this department of the public service is exclusively vested in Congress.... Every nook and corner of this country should be visited by its operations, that it should shed light and information to the remote frontier settler as well as to the inhabitant of the populous city or densely populated districts."—Mr. Merrick in the Senate when introducing the Bill, 27th January 1845 (Congressional Globe).

"And what element but universal enlightenment of the people forms the chief corner-stone in the temple of our political hopes? and what instrument so calculated to awaken the ambition of the people to become educated as the cultivation of the taste for epistolatory correspondence, calling into action those energies o£ the mind so necessary to the intelligent discharge of the high and responsible duties of freemen, in a country where every man is equal, and the builder and maker of his Government."—Mr. Paterson in the House of Representatives, 1st March 1845 (Congressional Globe).

[168] "The extension of the mail service and the additional facilities which will be demanded by the rapid extension and increase of population on our western frontier will not admit of such curtailment as will materially reduce the present expenditure."—Message to Congress, 2nd December 1845.

[169] "The honour and interest of the nation required that as soon as the title to the country was settled, our citizens who were resident there, and those who shall go to settle there, should enjoy the benefits of the mail. And as it was the nation's business to establish the mail, it was equally the nation's business to pay the expense. No man can show how it is just and reasonable that the letters passing between Boston and New York should be taxed 150 per cent. to pay the expenses of a mail to Oregon on the pretext that the Post Office must support itself."—J. Leavitt, Cheap Postage, Boston, Mass., 1848, p. 27.

[170] Mr. Root (Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 18th December 1850).

[171] "Sir, I am acquainted with the privations and hardships incident to the settlement of a new country: and I do not intend that my friends who are now combating the trials and hardships of California and Oregon shall be visited by their Government with such injustice. The men who are settling those countries are sacrificing their lives for a coming generation. I will not add to their hardships by taxing them four times as much as a citizen of the old States of the Union for a letter which shall give them intelligence of their friends left behind them, and shall chill that gush of feeling which will swell their bosoms, as they take possession of a letter that comes from their far-distant native land."—Mr. Sweetser (Ibid., 4th January 1851).

[172] Congressional Record, Senate, 17th January 1883.

[173] The cost of the provision and maintenance (lighting, heating, etc.) of Post Office buildings is charged directly on the Federal Treasury, and does not in any way figure in the Post Office deficit.

[174] "If the postal revenue arising from letter postage could be set aside for its proper uses, the millions of letter-writers of this country might quickly be permitted to enjoy a reduced taxation on letter-writing. In point of fact, there is a dear gain of nearly $30,000,000 from letter postages."—Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, 1890, p. 53.

[175] Ibid., 1891, p. 102.

[176] "There is now, and has been for many years, an insistent demand for the reduction of letter postage. The advocates of that reduction argue that the volume of business naturally resulting therefrom would offset the temporary loss in revenue. They insist that the charge for first-class matter is out of all proportion to the cost of its handling and transportation."—Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, 1906, p. xlvi.

[177] "As the profit on first-class matter is almost equal to the loss on second-class matter, it will readily be seen that an equalization of rates on the basis of the cost of service would permit a reduction in letter postage from 2 cents to 1 cent an ounce."—Mr. Hitchcock, Postmaster-General, evidence before Commission of 1911.

[178] P. Jaccottey, Traité de Législation et d'Exploitation Postales, Paris, 1891, p. 5. E. Gallois, La Poste, etc., Paris, 1894, pp. 41 and 44.

[179] A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres, Paris, 1879, p. 60.

[180] P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 6.

[181] Edict of 19th June 1464.

[182] Edict of 8th May 1597: "Édit du Roy pour l'établissement des relais de chevaux de louage, de traite en traite, sur les grands chemins, traverses et le long des rivières, pour servir à voïager, porter malles et toutes sortes de bagages."

[183] "Louis XI ne se préoccupait nullement de la correspondance des particuliers, ni du développement des relations commerciales et sociales: il poursuivait un but exclusivement politique.

"Engagé dans sa grande lutte contre la féodalité, il cherchait le moyen de transmettre avec célérité ses ordres dans les provinces et d'être rapidement informé des manœuvres de ses ennemis.... L'institution créée par Louis XI pour son usage exclusif était donc identique dans son but, sinon dans ses moyens, à la course publique des Romains."—P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 7. See also D. Macpherson, op. cit., vol. i. p. 695.

[184] A. Belloc, Les Postes françaises, Paris, 1886, pp. 43 and 46.

[185] Regulation of 26th October 1627.

[186] See Charles Bernede, Des Postes en Général, et particulièrement en France, Nantes, 1826.

[187] Léon Cazes, Le Monopole Postale, Paris, 1900.

[188] Edict of 8th December 1703.

[189] Decrees of 26th-29th August 1790.

[190] P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 287. Cf. Le Moniteur Universel, 18 août 1791, p. 954.

[191] Law of 27th December 1795.

[192] P. Leroy-Beaulieu, Traité de la Science des Finances, Paris, 1899, vol. i. p. 612.

[193] Law of 15th March 1827.

[194] Law of 3rd June 1829.

[195] "Citoyens représentants, puisque l'honorable défenseur de l'interêt du trésor a porté à cette tribune un mot, je ne le nie pas; il est vrai qu'au comité des finances j'ai dit que cette loi était une loi d'amour; je le répète, et j'adresse de sincère remerciements à la monarchie, pour avoir laissé à la République le soin de donner cette loi au pays."—Le Citoyen Goudchaux, Ministre des Finances, Assemblée Nationale, 24 août 1848 (Le Moniteur Universel, Journal Officiel de la République Française).

[196] "La question que j'appelerai sociale est la première qui se presente à mon esprit ... Je dis done, que, au point de vue sociale, la diminution de la taxe des lettres, loin d'être favorable uniquement aux négociants, aux gros banquiers, comme on l'a supposé toute à l'heure, sera favorable aussi au plus grand nombre des citoyens ...

"Quant à l'avantage moral qui résulterait de l'accroissement de ces correspondances, je crois inutile de m'appesantir sur ce côté de la question. Est-il douteux, en effet, que les enfants auront toujours à profiter des conseils d'un père, d'une mère? Est-il douteux que les liens de famille so resserreront davantage, lorsque les rélations seront plus fréquentes?"—Le Citoyen Goudchaux, Assemblée Nationale, 24 août 1848 (ibid.).

[197] The total is made up thus:—

Local letters in towns of the departments14½millions
Local letters in Paris10"
Foreign letters 7½"
Letters passing between different towns23"
55"

[198] See Le Moniteur Universel, Journal Officiel de la République Française, août 1848.

[199] "Je concevrais quo le Gouvernement établît un impôt sur tout autre chose pour favoriser celle-là, mais qu'il établisse un impôt, sur celle-là, cela me parait contradictoire. Tous les jours nous votons des taxes pour faciliter la locomotion des hommes et des choses, nous construisons des routes, des canaux, des chemins de fer dont nous livrons gratuitement l'usage au public, et ensuite nous entravons par des taxes la transmission des idées! Je dis quo le Gouvernement ne doit pas faire des profits sur ce service. C'est là un principe qui s'est étendu sur presque toute l'Europe. En Angleterre on est complètement entré dans cette voie. Aux Etats-Unis le Gouvernement fait des frais et des frais énormes pour en épargner à ceux qui veulent correspondre."—Le Citoyen Frédéric Bastiat, Assemblée Nationale, 24 août 1848, ibid.

[200] "Les frais de la poste sont à peu près de 30 millions. Qu'est-ce que la poste nous porte? Qu'est-ce qu'elle distribue? Elle distribue trois natures d'objets; d'abord une multitude de journaux, et remarquez-le bien, ces journaux sont soumis à la même législation que je propose aujourd'hui pour les lettres; car, telle est la puissance de l'habitude, ce qui vous a paru fort extraordinaire se pratique sous nos yeux, tous les jours pour les journaux; et cependant aujourd'hui vous trouvez singulier qu'on le propose pour les lettres. La poste transporte done des journaux dont le poids, si je ne me trompe, est de 900 kilogrammes.

"Elle transporte ensuite toutes les dépêches administratives dont le poids dépasse 1,000 à 1,100 kilogrammes.

"Enfin elle transporte les lettres dont le poids n'est pas égal ni à celui des journaux, ni à celui des dépêches administratives.

"En conséquence, si vous répartissez les 30 millions ou 35 millions, si vous voulez, sur les trois services, vous verrez qu'il ne faut pas mettre au compte des lettres plus d'une douzaine de millions de francs.

"Eh bien, si toutes les lettres étaient taxées à 5 centimes, il n'y a pas de doute que les 12 ou 15 millions de frais seraient parfaitement couverts."—Le Citoyen Frédéric Bastiat, ibid.

[201] Edgar Bonnet, Importance, des Postes et Télégraphes au point de vue social et économique, Paris, 1891.

[202] M. Caillaux, Assemblée Nationale, 23 août 1871 (Journal Officiel de la République Française).

[203] P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 298.

[204] See Rapport sur l'Administration des Postes, présenté au Ministre des Finances par M. Léon Riant, Directeur-Général, octobre 1877.

[205] "Toute commune doit être desservie une fois par jour, au moins (loi du 21 avril, 1832, art. 47) sauf exception temporaire en cas de force majeure, et dont il est rendu compte au directeur du département."—Instruction générale sur le service des Postes et des Télégraphes, Paris, 1905, vol. iv. p. 453, Instr. 5316.

[206] It must further be borne in mind that France was less developed industrially.

[207] "Nous avons jugé cette réforme insuffisante; elle ne serait pas de nature à donner une satisfaction réelle à notre industrie et à accélérer suffisamment le mouvement de la correspondance. On pouvait discuter peut-être l'opportunité de la mesure; mais dès que cette mesure est reconnue nécessaire, elle doit être complète, de manière à produire tous ses effets....

"La réforme à 20 centimes entraînerait done un déficit total de 12 millions; et celle à 15 centimes, de 27 millions; le rapprochement de ces deux chiffres suffit à démontrer que le sacrifice n'est pas assez considérable pour hésiter à faire une réforme complète en réduisant immédiatement la taxe à 15 centimes."—Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, déposé le 31 juillet 1877.

[208] Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, Chambre des Députés, 1898, No. 498.

[209] Their remarks are characteristic of the attitude adopted towards the reform. They said:—

"L'adoption de cette proposition de M. Chassaing aurait pour effet de créer dans le Budget de 1898 un déficit qu'il ne parait guère possible d'évaluer à moins de 38 millions. Quel qu'il puisse être, dans la situation actuelle, il serait indispensable de le combler et l'on ne pourrait pour cela recourir qu'à des ressources nouvelles. L'auteur de la proposition n'en indique pas. II se borne à demander l'abandon d'une recette sans dire par quoi cet abandon serait compensé. Sera-ce à l'impôt qu'il faudra s'adresser? Mais ce n'est pas seulement d'une diminution de recette qu'il s'agira. On a vu qu'une augmentation de dépense était le corollaire immédiat de la proposition, car plus prompt et plus sensible sera l'effet de la réduction de tarif, plus pressante sera la nécessité d'ouvrir de nouveaux bureaux, de créer de nouveaux courriers, de renforcer le personnel chargé de la manipulation et de la distribution, plus tôt s'imposera l'obligation de réorganiser le service de Paris.

"C'est là une œuvre ou l'initiative et l'intervention du Gouvemement sont nécessaires.

"Mais, en tout cas, et pour ce qui concerne la Commission du Budget de 1898, un abandon de recettes de 21 millions ayant lui-même pour consequence une augmentation de dépense de 17 millions ne lui ont pas paru admissibles."—Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, Chambre des Députés, 1897, No. 2701, p. 49.

[210] Rapport sur les conditions du Fonctionnement de l'Administration des Postes et des Télégraphes, par A. Millerand, le Ministre du Commerce, de l'Industrie, des Postes, et des Télégraphes, 12 May 1900.

[211] "En tout cas les résultats de l'expérience faite à l'étranger prouvent que l'on peut abaisser la taxe des cartes postales jusqu'à la moitié de celle des lettres simple sans craindre que les cartes fassent concurrence aux lettres et que la généralisation de ce mode de correspondance à prix réduit amène une diminution des revenus de la poste."—M. Millerand, op. cit.

[212] Ibid.

[213] On such packets the rate was 1 centime for each 5 grammes. M. Millerand was of opinion that any rate less than 5 centimes involved a loss to the net revenue. In 1877 it had been estimated that the average cost of dealing with a postal packet (taking all classes into consideration) was 8 centimes: in 1889 it had been estimated at 5.5 centimes. The Budget Commission of 1901 estimated the cost at 4 centimes.—See Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, Chambre des Députés, 1901, No. 1866.

[214] "C'est tomber dans la banalité de dire que la France n'occupe pas dans le monde, au point de vue du trafic postal, un rang correspondant à l'importance de sa population, de son commerce, de son Industrie, et de sa haute civilisation."—Ibid.

[215] "Depuis de longues années, les chambres de commerce et la Presse toute entière réclaimaient une réforme depuis quelque temps réalisée dans la plupart des pays étrangers. Mais le souci de l'équilibre budgétaire avait toujours fait ajourner la réduction à 10 centimes de la taxe des lettres."—Ibid., Sénat, 1906, No. 477.

[216] On the proposal at the Universal Postal Congress of 1907 to increase the weight unit for international letters, the Budget Report (Chambre des Députés, Session 1909, No. 2767) contained the following:—

"Alors que tous nos voisins ou presque tous s'étaient conformés à partir du 1er octobre 1907, aux indications du Congrès de l'Union postale universelle, il était humiliant pour la France de montrer que des préoccupations purement fiscales l'empêchaient d'adopter, avec le même empressement que l'Allemagne, la Belgique, l'Angleterre ou la Suisse, la réforme."

[217] Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, Sénat, 1908, No. 340. Ibid., Chambre des Députés, 1908, No. 2032.

[218] "Il n'en coute pas plus pour timbrer, trier, transporter et distribuer un objet pesant qu'un objet léger. Tout au plus doit ou tenir compte de l'encombrement produit par les objets volumineux et du surcroît de travail qu'occasionne le contrôle obligatoire du poids des objets pesantes, en graduant les tarifs suivant une progression nettement décroissante par rapport au poids."—Ibid.

[219] See table of financial effect, Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, Sénat, 1910, No. 115.

[220] Prior to the date of the establishment of the Imperial German Post Office, the text deals more particularly with the rate in Prussia. For a sketch of the Thurn and Taxis posts in Germany see infra, Appendix A, pp. [349] ff.

[221] H. von Stephan, Geschichte der preussischen Post, Berlin, 1859, p. 12.

[222] F. Haass, Die Post und der Charakter ihrer Einkünfte, Stuttgart, 1890, p. 92.

[223] F. Haass, op. cit., p. 94.

[224] H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 15.

[225] Ibid., p. 17.

[226] 1 German mile=7.5 kilometres. Distances are given throughout in German miles.

[227] H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 62.

[228] Ibid., p. 18.

[229] "Dass unter solchen Umständen bei Ankunft der Posten namentlich an bedeutenderen Orten ein grosser Zusammenlauf von Menschen stattfand, ist begreiflich. Auch finden wir mehrere Rescripte wider das tumultuarische Treiben des Publicums vor den Posthäusern."—Ibid., p. 61.

[230] In 1662 the posts yielded 7,000 thalers surplus (revenue 17,000 thalers, expenditure 10,000 thalers); in 1672, 10,433 thalers (revenue 24,539 thalers, expenditure 14,106 thalers); in 1682, 29,058 thalers (revenue 51,959 thalers, expenditure 22,901 thalers); and in 1688, 39,213 thalers (revenue 79,971 thalers, expenditure 40,758 thalers). The net revenue of the posts was generally devoted to the payment of State officials, to the improvement of means of communication (building of canals, etc.), and to beneficence. For example, the Elector, during the severe illness of his first wife, made a vow to found an almshouse and ordered 6,000 thalers yearly to be assigned for its support. Of this sum 2,000 thalers were laid on the post revenues.—Ibid., p. 60.

[231] A groschen was roughly the equivalent of a penny. The value of money was then about four times its present value.

[232] The price of a bushel of rye in Berlin, which from 1740 to 1756 had varied from 23 groschen to a thaler, rose to 4 thalers.

[233] The edict of the 27th January proclaiming the higher rates remarked that the raising of the letter rate would be detrimental to the public and prejudicial to the credit of the service, and that "in spite of the high price of corn and the depreciation of money, raising of the letter rate could not be thought of, and that in the neighbouring States this measure, however soon it might be set aside, had worked to their disadvantage."—H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 292.

[234] "The encouragement of a particular business or manufacture in a particular place; the better opposing of the competition of a neighbouring route; tenderness for existing difference in newly acquired districts; the difference in the price of corn in a province, and at an earlier date even of money, weight, length of the miles, as also, in the case of travelling post charges, the season of the year; all these circumstances were often brought into consideration in the fixing of postage rates."—Ibid., p. 296.

[235] The ascertainment of the direct distances was commenced in 1823. It was completed in a year and a half (including two revisions), and a map of distances prepared. There were 1,386,506 distances to measure, and the measuring was done by land surveyors. The distances so measured were tabulated for practical use by postal officials.—H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 746, n. 3; Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1893, p. 2.

[236] The rates were to be rounded up. One or 2 pfennigs were to be counted as 3 pfennigs, 4 or 5 pfennigs as 6 pfennigs, 7 or 8 pfennigs as 9 pfennigs, and 10 or 11 pfennigs as 1 silver groschen.

[237] H. von Stephan, op. cit., pp. 760 and 761.

[238] This does not take into account the normal yearly increase, which was 120,000 thalers under the old rates. If that be taken into account there was still a loss in 1847. Thus:—

Year.Probable Gross Postage
Receipts under Old
Rates.		Actual Yield.Loss.
18444,765,0004,628,133136,867
18454,885,0004,325,570559,430
18465,005,0004,514,338490,662
18475,125,0004,771,392353,608
—Ibid., p. 762.

[239] Ibid., p. 763.

[240] "Die preussische Postverwaltung war bei Einführung der weitgreifenden Taxermässigungen mit grosser Vorsicht und mit weiser Berechnung aller in Betracht kommenden Vorstände schrittweise zu Werke gegangen und hatte die Erleichterungen ohne bedeutende Opfer aus der Postkasse erkauft."—Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1893, p. 40.

[241] Regulation of 21st December 1800.

[242] Law of 21st March 1861.

[243] Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1893, p. 42.

[244] Ibid.

[245] Law of 16th September 1862.

[246] Law of 16th February 1867. See infra, Appendix, p. [355].

[247] Prussia, Hanover, the two Mecklenburgs, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen, Lubeck, and the Thurn and Taxis posts.

[248] Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1893, p. 44.

[249] Law of 28th October 1871.

[250] For 1906 it has been estimated at 41,693,017 M. P. Ullrich, Die Finanzen der Reichs-Post- und Telegraphen-Verwaltung, Stettin, 1913, p. 54, n. 5.

[251] J. Jung, Entwickelung des deutschen Post- und Telegraphenwesen in den letzten 25 Jahren, Leipzig, 1893, p. 45.

[252] The following table (J. Jung, loc. cit.) shows the increase in the number of rural deliverers:—

186818701875188018851891
8,0218,33411,40511,48020,38625,649

[253] In a number of cases the deliverer was provided with a vehicle for the sake of speed, and worked out from the railway. In 1898 there were 2,365 such services.—Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaft, Jena, 1901, p. 137.

[254] "There was a profession of 'news writers,' or correspondents, who collected such scraps of information as they could from various sources, and for a subscription of three or four pounds per annum sent them every post-day to their employers in the country."—A. Andrews, The History of British Journalism, London, 1859, vol. i. p. 14.

[255] E.g., "To Mr. Neale, Deale, 27 Nov. 1674.

" ... You should give me a Constant Accompt (as mr Lodge was wont to doe) of all Newes that happens in your Parts. It is Expected from me at Whitehall, and much wondered at, yt my officers doe not give me ye first, and best Accompt of all that Passes, all Newes, Comeing (Probably) first to theire hands. I Pray be Carefull, and punctuall herein hereafter. I shall be ready, in all things (as I have bin) to shew myself

Yrs, &c."

—Documents from Peover Hall, British Official Records.

"The Post Office Packets in those days were carriers of news as well as of the mails. The officers had instructions to record most carefully in their journals full details of any events of public importance occurring in the countries which they visited. These journals, which frequently contained news later and more authentic than any which had yet reached London, were sent up from Falmouth immediately after the arrival of the Packets, and lay at the Post Office open to the inspection of the merchants."—A. H. Norway, History of the Post Office Packet Service, London, 1895, p. 37.

"An old instruction was renewed in 1812, that all postmasters should transmit to me (the Secretary), for the information of his Majesty's Postmaster-General, an immediate account of all remarkable occurrences within their districts, that the same may be communicated, if necessary, to his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. This has not been invariably attended to, and I am commanded by his Lordship to say, that henceforward it will be expected of every Deputy."—Cited (without giving source) by J. W. Hyde, A Hundred Years by Post, London, 1891, p. 91.

"The mail-coach it was that distributed over the face of the land, like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heartshaking news of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo."—De Quincey, The English Mail-Coach.

[256] "As it seems clear that the 'Remonstrance' (The Remonstrance and Address of the Army) was framed by Clarges, Henry Muddiman must have settled its wording and final form, as he did that of many other documents.... For this reason, after the Restoration, he became sole privileged journalist of the kingdom, and was granted the privilege of free postage for his letters like the officers of State."—J. B. Williams, A History of English Journalism, London, 1908, p. 176.

[257] Calendar of State Papers, Charles II, vol. 139, No. 61.

[258] J. B. Williams, A History of English Journalism, p. 190.

[259] Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1665-6, p. viii.

[260] "I find that the South Wales maile is much retarded in your Stage; particularly that yor riding servant calles at severall places by ye way; and that you allow him noe other wages, but what hee getts (by a Gazette News-letter, wch you give him ye benefitt of) from severall Gentlemen near ye Roade, and this hinders ye due course of the post, not only to ye Damage and discreditt of ye office, but to ye prejudice of publique businesse; it is much complained of and I canot longer dispence with it; wherefore I Give you this freindly admonicon and remaine

Yor, etc.

Mr. Davyes, Feb. 8th, 1672."—Documents from Peover Hall, British Official Records.

"I am clearly of your opinion, that Hereford and the Hay is ye best roade for the Pembroke Maile, the onely difficulty will be to bring you and Mr. Phillpotts to reason....

"I pray consider these 2 Points, that ye Hay being in your Branch will much Encrease your share, and it is easier to send thither than to Abergaveny—if you will joyne Issue in this Proposall I will give ye Contrey ye Satisfaction to turne the Roade that Way; and by ye tyme I have your answer I shall be ready, to give directions for the Change; you must provide a fitt person, to keepe the office at Hay and for his Encouragemt I will send him a Gazette by every Post, few of ye By offices expect more, and some make great Suite and would pay money for the Imployment. I pray close wth me herein, being desirous to Continue—I pray give me your opinion of sending ye Maile into Wales 3 tymes a weeke, as I doe to all other places.

I am, Yrs, etc.

"Mr. Awbrey, Brecon, 1st April, 1675."—Documents from Peover Hall, British Official Records.

[261] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 50.

[262] Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments, 1788, p. 28.

"For Post Office purposes the kingdom was divided into six roads—the North Road, the Chester or Holyhead Road, the Western Road, the Kent Road, and the Roads to Bristol and to Yarmouth; and these roads were presided over by a corresponding number of clerks in London, whose duty it was to sort the letters and to tax them with the proper amount of postage."—H. Joyce, ibid., p. 47; cf. infra, Appendix B, p. [404].

[263] Eighteenth Report of Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, 1829, Appx., p. 486.

[264] "That the six Clerks of the Road are also allowed to frank newspapers from the London office.

"That the newspapers franked by them are not included in any of the accounts of Deductions in respect of Franks. That the profits arising from their franking newspapers may amount to £3,000 or £4,000 p. ann., and that a considerable allowance is made thereout to the Comptroller, Deputy-Comptroller, By Night Clerk and six assistants; all of whom as well as the six Clerks of the Roads would without such advantage be very insufficiently provided for."—Evidence of Anthony Todd, Secretary to the Post Office. Report of Committee appointed to enquire into the several frauds and abuses in relation to the sending or receiving of letters and parcels free from the Duty of Postage (Commons Journal, March 28, 1764).

"The Profits derived by the Clerks of the Road from the privilege of sending Newspapers into the Country free of Postage, were so considerable that they were not only able to make a good Provision for their Families but also to pay thereout an Annual Sum of £1,300 to Officers and Clerks in this Dept. in Aid of their Salaries, which on that Account were proportionately small from the Public; and this Situation of Clerk of the Roads was looked up to as the Reward of their long and arduous Labour in the subordinate Stations of the Office. Twenty years before, of the sum of £8,660 paid to the 39 Officers of the Inland Dept., £2,060 was paid by the Public and £6,600 from the profits on the circulation of newspapers."—Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments, 1788, p. 28.

[265] 4 Geo. III, cap. 24.

[266] "The Produce of this Privilege has long been decreasing, and is now reduced to one-third the above sum from the operation of an Act of 1764 by which members of both Houses were empowered to have Newspapers, Votes, and all other printed Parliamentary Papers, sent by post in their Names, free from Postage, upon a written Notice of the Direction of such Papers being sent to the Postmaster-General by the respective Members, whose names were to be used instead of the former Mode of franking Newspapers the same as Letters. The Printers, News Sellers, and others, availing themselves of this Privilege, have obtained numerous Orders, readily granted, under the Persuasion of increasing the Stamp Revenue. The present Number of Orders in the Office is 6,751, and the Number of Newspapers sent weekly by the Post in Consequence thereof is 47,017; these Dealers are enabled to supply their Customers in the Country at a cheaper Rate than the Clerks in the Office can, who are loaded with Out Payments from their Profits, and are obliged to purchase their Papers at an advanced Price from an Officer appointed by the Postmaster-General to supply them."—Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments, 1788, p. 29.

[267] A. Andrews, The History of British Journalism, London, 1859, vol. i. pp. 210-11.

[268] "The Postmaster-General, sensible of this Diminution, lately directed the Payments thereout to the other Officers and Clerks in the Office to be discontinued, and reimbursed some of them out of the Revenue; but this is not the only Expence to which the Public is subjected by the Increase of these Orders. The Number of Newspapers to be forwarded every Night is now so great, that ... a separate Office is allotted ... and 18 Extra Persons are employed, at an Annual Expence of £400, to perform the Duty of sorting and packing up the Newspapers; besides it is in Proof that Letters and written Papers are frequently enclosed in them, by which the Revenue is defrauded, without a Possibility of Prevention, while the present Mode continues; as the number is by far too great to admit of a general Search for Enclosures."—Tenth Report of the Commissioners on Fees and Emoluments, 1788, p. 29.

[269] 6 Geo. IV, cap. 68, § 10.

[270] "Was there no way by which, without the necessity of constant contention, private men might be prevented from using the Press to make their opinions public? The pamphleteers were not rich, but they were often persons of education, and not penniless. When only a few copies of their writings were wanted they could pay for them, but now that reading was become more common, and that great numbers of copies were printed, the cost had, to a great extent, to be paid by the readers. If these sheets could be taxed their distribution might become difficult, and when any one attempted to evade the tax he could be punished, not as a libeller, but as a smuggler."—Collet Dobson Collet, History of the Taxes on Knowledge, London, 1899, vol. i. p. 7.

[271] Chambers's Encyclopædia, London, 1908, vol. vii. p. 473.

[272] "There was no doubt but that, in the first instance, the stamp duty upon newspapers had been imposed for political purposes."—Attorney-General, 26th March 1855, Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1129.

[273] "Whereas many papers containing observations upon Public Acts tending to excite the hatred of the public to the constitution of this realm, and also vilifying our holy religion, have lately been published in great numbers, and at a very small price, and it is expedient that the same should be restrained."—Preamble of the "Six Acts," 1819.

[274] "Sir Francis Freeling states that he succeeds to the enjoyment of the privilege of franking which had previously appertained to the situation of the Comptroller of the Inland Office, when he held the situation of Principal and Resident Surveyor, and that it was deemed a measure of economy to provide for the remuneration of this officer by these means in lieu of salary."—Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, Post Office, 1829, p. 26.

[275] About 12 millions a year. Ibid., p. 464.

[276] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 419.

[277] "These laws (the Six Acts) were specially directed—not against the morning Newspapers, which had been cajoled or frightened into comparative silence, or shared in the then general feeling in favour of a 'strong Government'—but against the Radical writers and speakers, 'Cobbett, Wooler, Watson, Hunt,' as Byron reminds us, all of whom had contributed, by cheap political publications and strong political harangues, to raise a demand for reform, loud enough and daring enough to be most troublesome to the authorities."—F. K. Hunt, The Fourth Estate, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 49.

[278] "Newspapers are so cheap in the United States, that the generality even of the lowest order can afford to purchase them. They therefore depend for support on the most ignorant class of the people. Everything they contain must be accommodated to the taste and apprehension of men who labour daily for their bread, and are of course indifferent to refinement either of language or reasoning."—Quoted by Lord Sandon, 20th June 1836; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. xxxiv. col. 649.

[279] The duties on newspapers at that time were (1) the duty on paper, 3d. per pound weight (¼d. a sheet), (2) a duty of 4d. a copy, (3) a duty of 3s. 6d. on every advertisement.

[280] "The change which had taken place in the political condition of the country made it essential to communicate to the people sound political knowledge and information. He would say that the security of that House, living, as it did, in the affections of the people—of the Government, possessing, as it did, the confidence of the people—and of the Monarchy, reigning, as it did, and as he trusted it ever would, in the hearts of the people, depended upon the diffusion of sound political knowledge."—Chancellor of Exchequer, 20th June 1836; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. xxxiv. col. 634.

[281] "Many of these publications circulated to the amount of several thousand copies weekly; their sale, in several instances, was larger than the sale of some among the most popular legitimate papers; their influence over large bodies of the working classes was much greater."—E. Lytton Bulwer, 14th June 1832; Ibid., vol. xiii. col. 623.

"You have laws imposing severe penalties upon those who are guilty of breaches of these laws; but it has been found impossible to stop the sale of those cheap and obnoxious publications by fiscal laws; and the success with which they are broken, the sympathy excited in favour of the offenders, and the assistance which they receive, only give encouragement to pursue the same course. I have been informed that, within the last fortnight or three weeks, between forty and fifty persons have been taken before the police magistrates, and convicted for selling these publications."—Mr. O'Connell, 14th June 1832; Ibid., vol. xiii. col. 637.

"As long as the Tories were in power Lord Liverpool, or even Canning, could consistently advocate the restriction of political discussion. But the fact that the Whigs had now held office since 1830, and that the tax remained undiminished, was only to be explained by their rooted disbelief in every principle which they professed to hold.

"Year after year Place had brought the question forward. Every year the Chancellor of the Exchequer declared himself in favour of repeal in principle, and every year the Government, for reasons which they dared not avow, continued the tax. Meanwhile the Commissioners of Stamps so used their power of prosecution as to set up a peculiarly odious form of censorship. The Penny Magazine, for instance, was allowed to circulate unstamped, while the Poor Man's Guardian was prosecuted."—Graham Wallas, The Life of Francis Place, London, 1898, p. 336.

[282] "The market for a Newspaper at twopence appeared to be insatiable, and this ready demand produced an ample supply. In vain the police apprehended hawker after hawker; in vain the Stamp Office gave the informers and detectives additional premiums for vigilance, the trade went on with an exciting degree of activity. As the London gaols became crowded with 'victims,' the public sympathies were touched, and a fund was raised by subscription to support the families of the men and women (for women were seized and imprisoned) whilst under sentence."—F. K. Hunt, The Fourth Estate, London, 1850, vol. ii. p. 75.

[283] "This tax was a charter to the existing newspapers—it was not they who suffered from it—it was the public—it was the Government—it was order—it was society that suffered."—E. Lytton Bulwer, 22nd May 1834; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. xxiii. col. 1195. See also G.J. Holyoake, Sixty Years of an Agitator's Life, London, 1893, vol. i. p. 288.

[284] Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. xxxiv. col. 625.

[285] "2755. Chairman: That penny which was left when the stamp was reduced, was called by some noble Lord the worst penny of all; and was not it always foreseen by those who looked deeply into the subject, that the retention of that penny just made the difference between not being able to circulate a cheap paper and being able to circulate it?—It makes all the difference, I think."—Evidence of Mr. H. Cole, Report from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps, 18th July 1851.

[286] "The penny was avowedly retained in 1836 not for the purposes of revenue but as a compensation to the State for services performed in the transmission of newspapers by post."—Viscount Canning, 24th May 1855; Parl. Debates (Lords), vol. cxxxviii. col. 954.

[287] McCulloch has some remarks which indicate the line on which was justified the practice of charging the stamp duty on every copy of a newspaper, in order that a portion of them might be transmitted by post without further charge:—

"Impolicy of Imposing a Postage on Newspapers.—The duties now substantially repealed produced, in 1853, £412,220 nett, no inconsiderable sum in a period of war. In point of fact, however, they could hardly be called duties, and ought rather to have been regarded as a payment for the trouble and expense attending the conveyance and distribution of newspapers by post. But supposing such to be the case, it was argued that the duty should be so limited, that is, that it should only be imposed on papers carried by the post. Matters of this sort are not, however, to be decided by mere logical considerations. The effect of the new plan is to confine, in a greater or less degree, according to circumstances, the circulation of newspapers to the districts within which they are published; and this certainly is not a desirable object.... Under the new plan the charge for conveyance, or it may be postage, being added to the price of the metropolitan journals, they will be dearer than the local papers, and people in many, or rather perhaps in the majority of instances, will be disposed to prefer the low-priced though inferior journal published at their door, to the superior but higher priced journal of the capital.... On the whole, therefore, we anticipate little or no advantage from the new plan. But we are, at the same time, ready to admit that no system of this sort can be safely judged a priori; and that the results of experience may differ very widely from those of theory."—J. R. McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary, London, 1856, p. 893.

[288] "We are living under a disguised censorship of the Press. I use the word advisedly; and I find that generally where there is an avowed censorship of the Press there are no taxes on knowledge; no stamp duty and generally no paper duty. From the time when the stamp duty was first imposed in the reign of Queen Anne, the number of newspapers has been very much diminished by the stamp. For instance, Steele's Spectator was nearly if not quite ruined by it; and from that time to this the amount of revenue has never been so large as to be a serious subject of consideration."—Evidence of Collet Dobson Collet, Report from the Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps, 18th July 1851, p. 113.

[289] Mr. Roebuck, 20th June 1836; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. xxxiv. col. 653.

[290] Treasury Minute, No. 21,355, 28th November 1838: "It appears that these papers, though stamped as newspapers, are not according to Law Newspapers, and consequently need not have been stamped, but that the proprietors have caused them to be stamped for the purpose probably of obtaining the facility of passing them free of postage.

"My Lords consider that all publications which are in the construction of the law newspapers and are compelled to be stamped are in equity entitled to the privilege of passing free of postage, but with respect to publications, which like these now under consideration are not properly newspapers, or necessarily stamped, they are of opinion that they are not in equity entitled to the privilege, and that my Lords must take into consideration the convenience of the public service and the other circumstances of the case. My Lords are desirous of affording every fair facility which may not be inconsistent with the proper despatch of the mails, and in this view they consider that a limit of weight may be properly applied, and adverting to the average weight of a large newspaper, they are of opinion that the limit may be properly fixed at 2 ounces.

"They are pleased therefore to direct that for the future in all cases where applications are made for the transmission of any stamped publication through the post free of postage, if it shall appear that such publication is legally a newspaper and compelled to be stamped such paper shall pass postage free whatever may be its weight, and that when such publication may not appear to be strictly a newspaper, still it should be permitted the indulgence in case the weight shall not exceed 2 ounces."

[291] Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1130.

[292] "If a tradesman at the present time carries his circular to the Board of Inland Revenue, he obtains the postal privilege on the condition of his declaring his circular to be a newspaper, although, if the Board of Inland Revenue were afterwards to prosecute him for not stamping his entire impression, he would be entitled to go into a Court of Justice and there to contend that that was not a newspaper which he himself had declared to be a newspaper in order to obtain the postal privilege for part of his impression."—Mr. Gladstone, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 791.

[293] 'The Solicitor of the Board of Inland Revenue, being examined before a Committee upon the subject of class publications, was asked why class publications were not subjected to the compulsory stamp. Inadvertently, instead of saying that they were exempted because they were addressed to a particular class of the community, he said that it was because they related only to one subject. In giving that reason, he made a slight error of statement. That error has now been taken up in different parts of the country, and a number of periodicals have appeared, such as the War Telegraph and the War Times, containing intelligence relating exclusively to the war, which they say is 'one subject,' and so saying, set the Board of Inland Revenue at defiance."—Chancellor of the Exchequer, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 804.

[294] "I am quite satisfied, from years of attention to this subject, that there never was so large a measure involved in a small measure, so to speak, as is the case with regard to this proposition for making the Press free. I am willing to rest on the verdict of the future, and I am quite confident that five or six years will show that all the votes of Parliament for educational purposes have been as mere trifles compared with the vast results which will flow from this measure, because, while the existing papers will retain all their powers of usefulness, it will call to their aid numbers of others not less useful, and while we continue to enjoy the advantage of having laid before us each morning a map of the events of the world, the same advantage will be extended to classes of society at present shut out from it."—John Bright, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. cols. 810-11.

[295] "Another objection, and that of a more serious character, has been brought under my notice by various persons, who have described the proposition to repeal the compulsory newspaper stamp as one which would be most dangerous to society. It has been described as a measure which will open the floodgates of sedition and blasphemy, and which will inundate the country with licentious and immoral productions, which will undermine the very foundations of society, and scatter the seeds of revolution broadcast over the land. These expressions are not exaggerated representations of the opinions which have been communicated to me from many quarters since this measure has been under my consideration."—Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 782.

"The Right Hon. Gentleman who has just resumed his seat (Mr. Disraeli) has spoken of the 'liberty of the Press.' That has been long spoken of. It has been said that it must be 'free as the air we breathe; take it away, we die.' But, Sir, what is the 'liberty of the Press'? It is the liberty of a certain number of persons to slander anonymously whomever they please, against whom you have no redress. It is freedom to the anonymous libeller."—Mr. Drummond in the House of Commons, 23rd April 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 1680.

[296] "This is not merely a fiscal matter, because, as I have already stated to the Committee, the existing law respecting the stamp duty upon newspapers has been brought into a most inconsistent state by a succession of indulgences which were made for the benefit of a certain class of newspaper publications. The consequence of these indulgences is, that the greatest difficulty exists in the administration of the present law."—Chancellor of the Exchequer in House of Commons, 19th March 1855; ibid., vol. cxxxvii. col. 802.

[297] "Q. 1852. Mr. Cobden: Would the carrying of newspapers be profitable to the Post Office at the present rates, provided you were left to adopt your own regulations as to the transmission of newspapers without the intervention of the Board of Inland Revenue?—In one sense it would be profitable and in another it would not. If we were to charge against the newspapers a share of the fixed expenses of the establishment, then it is very questionable whether it would be profitable; but if you consider, as we probably should, that the expenses of the establishment are incurred in respect of the letters, and only calculate the additional expense which would be thrown upon us for the transmission of newspapers, then I think we should find them profitable.

"Q. 1853: Having an immense organization at the Post Office with a certain amount of fixed charges, with a large amount of postmen necessarily travelling over the whole of the kingdom, you would find it profitable to carry newspapers for a penny, in addition to the letter carrying, would you?—Yes.

"Q. 1854: Therefore, if the newspaper stamp were abolished, and you were left to regulate the postage at the Post Office, you would deem it profitable to carry newspapers at a penny each?—Yes, certainly we should: what I mean is, that the carrying of newspapers would not increase our expenses to the extent of a penny each.

"Ans. 1912: I was in hopes that we might distribute them at a halfpenny, if we could have completed a plan in the simple form in which it presented itself to my mind at first.

"Q. 1913: The plan is so far under consideration, and, perhaps, these difficulties may be got over?—I cannot hold out any expectation of that; I think I have considered it sufficiently to see that those difficulties are all but insuperable."—Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill, Report from Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps, 18th July 1851.

[298] "He believed it would be admitted that there was no wish to make revenue out of this carriage of newspapers; but, on the other hand, the newspaper interest had no right to ask that their productions should be carried at less than cost price. It should be as near as possible an equal bargain between the parties, by which neither the revenue on the one hand, nor the newspapers on the other, should gain.... He believed it was the opinion of the Post Office that a halfpenny would not be sufficient to cover the expenses of transmission."—Lord Stanley, 23rd April 1855; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cxxxvii. col. 1664.

[299] The duty was reduced to 1d. upon a sheet containing a superficies not exceeding 2,295 inches.

[300] See infra, p. [221].

[301] "Another objection might be urged that, by once touching the permanency of the 1d. rate they were endangering its stability, and that if the edge of the wedge were once inserted it might lead to the uniform rate of ½d. He shared no such apprehension, and believed that the wisest way to maintain the permanency of the 1d. rate was to remove the cause of the agitation."—Mr. Graves, 6th April 1869; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cxcv. col. 241.

[302] "A newspaper with an impressed stamp circulates free for fifteen days. It is the last relic of the old taxes on knowledge. The law is complicated and leads to fraud by the abuse of free transmission. An unstamped newspaper now goes at the rate of 1d. for every 4 ounces, and every fraction of 4 ounces. About 35,000,000 newspapers pass through the Post Office annually with an impressed stamp, and about the same number without. What we propose to do is to abolish the impressed stamp altogether, at a loss to the Revenue of £120,000.... Then we propose to carry all newspapers which weigh less than 6 ounces for a ½d. That will be limited to bona fide newspapers; but we propose, instead of 1d. for every 4 ounces and fraction on of 4 ounces, to charge ½d. for every 2 ounces of other printed matter. There will in this way be a loss to the Post Office, over and above that incurred by the abolition of the impressed stamp, of £250,000 a year. There may be besides some additional expense in connection with building and the increase in the number of persons to be employed; but this has not been estimated for, and the amount cannot be very large."—Chancellor of the Exchequer, 11th April 1870; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. ce. col. 1636. The limitation to 6 ounces was withdrawn. Ibid., vol. cciii, col. 1383.

[303] Parl. Debates (Commons), 7th May 1855, vol. cxxxviii. col. 197.

[304] In 1899 the number of registered newspapers which normally exceeded 8 ounces in weight was 29.

[305] See infra, p. [293]. The size and weight of many of the largo trade papers has decreased in consequence of the war.

[306] "Newspapers and books are carried at a low rate for the sake of the education and general information of the people."—Mr. W. Monsell (Postmaster-General), 14th March 1871; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cciv. col. 2014.

[307] In 1854 the average weight of the mails which left London daily was 279 cwt. of which 219 cwt. consisted of newspapers.

[308] Only some 150 copies of the Daily Mail are delivered in London by the post each day.

[309] "There is no reason whatever why the Post Office should charge a man threepence or fourpence for a book and a halfpenny for these vast trade circulars, and it would be the simplest, as well as the wisest and most beneficial of reforms, to bring the book post down to the newspaper level."—H. G. Wells, Mankind in the Making. London, 1914, chap. ix.

The following further suggestions by Mr. Wells are reprinted here for the consideration of postal reformers. Their adoption involves merely an extension of the principle of State benefit.

"Now, in the first place, the post office as one finds it in Great Britain might very well be converted into a much more efficient distributing agency by a few simple modifications in its method. At present, in a large number of country places in Great Britain, a penny paper costs three-halfpence including the necessary halfpenny for postage, and the poorer people can afford no paper at all, because the excellent system in practice abroad of subscribing to any registered periodical at the post office and having it delivered with the letters has not been adopted. Government publications and Government maps, which ought also to be obtainable at a day's notice, through the Post Office and post free, have to be purchased at present in the most devious way through a remote agent in London. There is no public reason whatever why a more intimate connection should not be established between the Stationery Office and the Post Office."—Ibid.

"It would be the simplest thing in the world to have a complete, business-like catalogue of Government publications, kept standing in type and reissued and reprinted quarterly, distributed to every post office, and by its means one ought to be able to order whatever one wanted at once, pay for it on the spot, and get it delivered to any address in Great Britain in the next twenty-four hours."—Ibid.

[310] Report of Special Committee, House of Assembly, Lower Canada, 11th February 1832, p. 10.

[311] Sir Francis Freeling replied to the petition. He said the practice of his Deputy in North America was not illegal, but was based on an Act of Parliament authorizing certain of his officers to circulate newspapers by post; that as it had been in existence since the first establishment of the Post Office in the colony, the petitioners must have entered into the business with a full knowledge of the charge to which their publications would be subject if sent by post; there was no stamp duty in the colonies to give the publishers a right to free transmission; and, moreover, the amount of the charge was less than the similar charge in the United States.

[312] "Mr. Howe was very loose, and rarely took any steps to obtain or enforce the payments of the amounts due to him for the transmission of Journals through the Post....

"I cannot look upon it as the mere collection of a private source of emolument to the officer, but I conceive that the Department is interested in the question not only inasmuch as the amount received from this source goes in aid of a larger salary to the officer, but that whenever the time comes that the substitution of a postage rate on newspapers supersedes the present mode of sending them, a due enforcement of such rate will be most unfavourably received, if a free transmission has been previously permitted from the negligence of the party to whom the collection of the charge was deputed and whose perquisite it was."—Report of Mr. Page, 1842 (British Official Records).

[313] "It may fairly be viewed in the same light as the amounts annually granted by the Legislature for roads and bridges, and for the support of common schools. The mail carriage to all parts of the province secures us the travelling public conveyance which would not otherwise exist, and the very large amount of newspapers, etc., which pass through the Post Office affords strong evidence that the Department may be considered a branch of our educational system."—Postmaster-General of New Brunswick, 1857.

[314] "Already they found a tax proposed on every poor man who took a newspaper for the information of his family; a stamp tax, an impost unknown in the Maritime Provinces, and one which had cost England half this continent."—Mr. Macdonald in Canadian House of Commons, 12th December 1867 (Ottawa Times).

[315] Sir John A. MacDonald in Canadian House of Commons, 20th December 1867, ibid.

[316] "If ever there was a time when it was necessary for the interests of the whole Dominion that just the sort of information which newspapers conveyed should be disseminated through all the Provinces, it was now."—Hon. Dr. Tupper in Canadian House of Commons, 20th December 1867 (Ottawa Times).

[317] Mr. Savary in Canadian House of Commons, 20th December 1867 (ibid.).

[318] Hon. Mr. Mackenzie in Canadian House of Commons, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 22nd February 1875.

[319] "There was good reason for the enactment of the old law that made the rate for the carriage of newspapers a cent a pound, and there never was even a semblance of sense or reason or any request for the repeal of that law. The truth is that its repeal was a mere whim of a gentleman of the Senate, who, anxious to pose in the niche of personal popularity, jollied through Parliament a measure that has cost this country in postal rates millions of dollars, creating a big deficit in the spending department, which has stood in the way of reform every time a reform was proposed."—Mr. Ross Robertson, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 13th May 1898.

[320] See Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 11th July 1900.

[321] The following remarks by Sir Charles Tupper in the Dominion House of Commons, though made at a somewhat later date, will illustrate this. He said: "There is abundant evidence that manhood suffrage in the Dominion is a far higher franchise than manhood suffrage in Great Britain, for the reason that there are tens of thousands of electors in the United Kingdom who go to the polls without having the remotest idea not only of public questions before the country, but, if their lives depended on it, they could not state who is the Prime Minister of Great Britain to-day. I give that as an indication of the great advance the people of Canada have made in intelligence; and the thorough knowledge which the mass of the people here have in respect of the political issues, and all other questions of that kind, as well as general information, rests largely on the fact that newspapers have so largely increased in circulation until they now reach almost every individual in the country."—Sir Charles Tupper, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 13th May 1898.

[322] In Great Britain the figures are in very different proportion. While the letters are 3,500,000,000, the newspapers are only some 200,000,000. The circumstances of the two countries are in such contrast that the figures afford no basis for argument as regards the relative postage rates: but they illustrate very effectively a fundamental difference in the general character of the two postal services. In Great Britain the number of separate newspaper mails is extremely small proportionately to the number of letter mails. In Canada the proportions are almost reversed. The postmen on delivery in Great Britain carry their letters and packets in a light canvas bag, and the number of newspapers taken out by any one postman is quite small (the proportion is about one newspaper to twenty-five packets of other description). In Canada the letter-carriers are weighted with newspapers, carried either strapped in a bundle or stuck in a satchel which is full to overflowing. In effect, the general practical arrangements in Canada must be made largely with a view to the handling of vast quantities of newspapers, while in Great Britain the arrangements are in general based on letter traffic, and, except at the largest offices, the arrangements for newspapers are incidental. Letters, however, receive first consideration in Canada, and the discrimination in their favour against the newspaper matter, in point of promptness of handling, is carried to much greater lengths than in Great Britain.

[323] Cf. supra, p. [57].

[324] "I trust that after the reimposition of postage on newspapers has been fairly in working order, we shall then have the Post Office a self-sustaining department."—Sir William Mulock, Postmaster-General, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 1st April 1898.

[325] Sir William Mulock, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 1st April 1898, col. 2915.

[326] "Hon. gentlemen are entirely in error in assuming that the length of the journey does not make extra cost. It lays the foundation for extra claims by railways, and there is in the department at present, on the part of practically all the railways in Canada, application for increased payment. It is quite impossible to treat newspaper postage in the same way as letter postage."—Sir William Mulock, ibid., 11th July 1900.

[327] "This new Bill is little else than a special tax and handicap on certain Montreal newspapers, which are the only ones which have the bulk of their circulation outside of their own province. We have always favoured newspaper postage, but we are not favourable to its being collected off a few papers, and thus making them pay for the carriage of their own mails."—Mr. Foster, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 10th July 1900.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier made some interesting observations. He said: "A newspaper is merchandise, a letter is not. A letter simply conveys to somebody the views and thoughts of another. But newspapers are merchandise, and the publisher of a newspaper a manufacturer of merchandise which he sells. Now, I do not see any reason why this class of merchandise should not pay freight for its transportation as well as any other class of merchandise."—In Canadian House of Commons, 10th July 1900.

[328] Sir William Mulock, ibid., 11th July 1900.

[329] Ibid., 3rd July 1903.

[330] Ibid., 25th January 1905.

[331] "The growth of the Post Office from this humble beginning solidified the American Colonies and made independence possible."—The American Post Office, by Nathan B. Williams. Reprinted as Senate Document No. 542 of the 61st Congress, 2nd Sess., p. 5.

[332] E.g., "Mr. Franklin has in particular the great Advantage of circulating his Papers free, and receiving intelligence, which he may make the best or worst Use of in the present Situation of Affairs."—Minutes of Pennsylvania Council, 21st March 1757.

The Council recommended that the Postmaster be commanded to be extremely cautious "to prevent the publication of improper intelligence," and that the Governor should be authorized to exercise a censorship on the publication of news.

[333] It was in point of fact due to his action in submitting to the Assembly of Pennsylvania English official letters addressed from the Governor of the colony which had come into his hands.

[334] See supra, pp. [64-5].

[335] "To take it (the franking privilege) away would be levelling a deadly stroke at the liberty of the Press; the information conveyed by franks may be considered as the vital juices, and the channels of the Post Office as the veins; and if these are stopped, the body must be destroyed; it is treading on dangerous ground to take any measures that may stop the channels of public information.... It is the duty of the members to dispense the newspapers among those people who cannot, perhaps, otherwise obtain them, under the protection of franks.... The establishment of the Post Office is agreed to be for no other purpose than the conveyance of information into every part of the Union."—Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 16th December 1791 (pub. Washington, 1849).

[336] "The poisonous sentiments of the cities, concentrated in their papers, with all the aggravation of such a moral and political cesspool, will invade the simple, pure, conservative atmosphere of the country, and meeting with no antidote in a rural Press, will contaminate and ultimately destroy that purity of sentiment and of purpose which is the only true conservatism. Fourierism, agrarianism, socialism, and every other ism, political, moral, and religious, grow in that rank and festering soil.... Relieve them (the country papers) from the burden of postage and they can successfully compete with the city publishers. Reduce the rate of postage on newspapers and pamphlets, and you diffuse light and knowledge through the land."—Mr. Venables in House of Representatives, 18th December 1850 (Congressional Globe).

[337] I.e. odd packets posted by members of the public, as against the regular bulk postings of publishers.

[338] Report of Postmaster-General, 1892, p. 68.

[339] "The law cannot be so construed as to permit such an abuse—an abuse that, while operating to load down the mails with immense masses of stuff of insufficient value to command cash-paying subscribers to any extent, would be a wrong to every business institution which issues its advertising circulars and other matter in an undisguised manner and therefore pays the lawful rate of postage on them."—Ibid., p. 72.

[340] "The most urgent need of the postal service is the rectification of the enormous wrongs which have grown up in the perversion and abuse of the privilege accorded by law to second-class matter. This reform is paramount to all others.... For this costly abuse, which drags on the Department and weighs down the service, trammels its power and means of effective advancement in every direction."—Ibid., 1899, pp. 4 and 5.

In 1900 it was stated that the whole cost of the extension of the rural free delivery service could be met from the saving which would result from the elimination of the second-class mail abuses.—Ibid., 1900, p. 13.

In 1901 it was described as "the one great overshadowing evil of the service, because it underlies and overtops all other reform and advance."—Ibid., 1901, p. 4.

[341] There had been, under an Act of 26th June 1906, a weighing of second-class matter from 1st July to 31st December 1906.

[342] Report of Postal Commission on Second-class Mail Matter, 1907. Known as the Penrose-Overstreet Commission, from the names of two of its members.

[343] The actual statistics to be obtained were defined thus:—

"The Postmaster-General shall cause a record to be kept from July first to December thirty-first, nineteen hundred and seven, inclusive, of the weight in pounds, respectively, of first-class, second-class, free, paid-at-the-pound-rate, and transient, third-class, and fourth-class matter and all franked and penalty matter and the equipment carried in connection therewith.

"For thirty days during such period he shall require a record to be kept of the weight of each of the classes above specified despatched from such post-offices as he shall determine to be representative for the purpose and have computed thereon, in the most practicable way, the average haul of the mail of the different classes and sub-classes as hereinbefore set out. For seven days during such period he shall cause a record to be kept of the revenue received from each of the classes and sub-classes of mail matter hereinbefore specified and a count of the number of pieces of each class and sub-class, showing also for the first class the number of letters, postal cards, and other matter separately, and for thirty consecutive days during such period he shall cause a record to be kept for the purpose of ascertaining the average load of railway post-office cars other than storage cars, the average load of storage cars, and the average load in compartment cars.

"Such record shall be reported to Congress by May first, nineteen hundred and eight, and the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to cover the expense of such weighing and counting and the recording and compilation of the information so acquired, and the rent of necessary rooms in the city of Washington, and the same shall be immediately available."—Statute of 2nd March 1907.

[344] Special Weighing of the Mails, 1907. Document 910, 60th Congress.

[345] Hearings before Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (House of Representatives), January-February 1910.

[346] Report of Commission on Second-class Mail Matter. Appendix to Message of President of 22nd February 1912, pp. 137-8.

[347] Ibid., p. 129.

[348] "The historic policy of encouraging by low postal rates the dissemination of current intelligence, and the extent to which it has proved successful, should not be overlooked."—Ibid., p. 143.

[349] "If the Republic of our patriotic love is to live and our people preserve their liberties, the sheet-anchor of their salvation is a free, independent, untrammelled and fearless Press, and we believe that to maintain this happy condition publishers must not be subjected to any arbitrary authority that claims and exercises the power to destroy by closing the mails against them without the right to appeal to the courts, a right that is held sacred by every citizen, however humble, whenever and wherever his opportunity to earn a livelihood in an honourable business is called in question or denied him."—Evidence of Mr. Wilmer Atkinson of Philadelphia, Pa., Report of Commission on Second-class Mail Matter, 1906, p. 412.

[350] "Publishers are now sometimes kept on the anxious seat for months awaiting decisions which may wreck their businesses."—Evidence of Mr. Madden, Third Assistant Postmaster-General.—Ibid., p. 89.

[351] "There is no 'subsidy' at all, as claimed by the foolish, but simply that the lawmakers of the greatest Government on earth have been wise enough to see to it that the people shall have periodical literature within easy reach, and with as little expense as possible."—Evidence of Wilmer Atkinson, ibid., p. 441.

[352] "Who knows but that the onerous restrictions of the department have some connection with the efforts of the express companies to have second-class mail rates increased, and by both means drive the publishers of the country to employing the express companies to carry their publications? Such would not be beyond the craftiness of these skilled farmers in the field of legislation."—Nathan B. Williams, The American Post Office, 1910; Document 542, 61st Congress, 2nd Session, p. 40.

[353] "Yet we publish more periodicals than Germany, France, Russia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland aggregated, and you may then add all the other countries of Europe, then Canada and Mexico. Then add all the Central American States, and the South American States, and the African Colonies—North, South, East, and West. You must still add Australia, and Hindoostan, and all other Asiatic countries, including Japan and China, and even then you haven't reached the end or the story. You then have only 40 per cent. of the total against our 60."—C. W. Burrows, One Cent Postage, etc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1911, p. 11.

[354] "The great decrease in all the more serious departments of literature, as well as in some of the lighter ones, is a curious and unexplainable condition of our book production. Scientific and philosophical writings are as conspicuous through their absence as are the simply amusing books."—Publishers' Weekly (New York), 30th January 1904.

[355] Message to Congress, 22nd February 1912.

[356] "No lobby ever sent to Washington in furtherance of the most corrupt legislation has ever been more persistent or dealt less fairly with both legislators and public than the lobby that has worked for the retention of the second-class mail graft."—C. W. Burrows, One Cent Postage, etc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1911, p. 4.

[357] "Je vois que le prix du port des journaux fera d'un vingt-quatrième du prix des lettres. Le prix n'est sans doute pas suffisant pour les frais de la poste, et je ne crois pas que l'envoi des journaux doive être à la charge de la nation."—M. Biozat, Assemblée Nationale, 17 août 1791 (Le Moniteur Universel).

[358] "Si vous examinez set objet sous un point de vue fiscal, je vous dirai qu'en augmentant le tarif, vous diminuez le produit, en rendant la circulation de plusieurs feuilles impossible. Le plus léger surhaussement de taxe priverait de tout bénéfice les autres des productions périodiques les plus utiles, telles que les journaux d'agriculture, de physique, d'histoire naturelle, de médecine, etc., qui, par leur nature, ne sont pas susceptibles d'avoir un grand nombre de souscripteurs. Et les journaux que l'on aurait peut-être en vue d'écarter sous le poids d'un impôt onéreux seraient précisément ceux que l'avide curiosité du public ferait résister à la surtaxe. Personne d'ailleurs ne révoquera ne doute que, de tous les commerces, celui des idées soit le plus précieux, et je crois que vous devez le favoriser de toutes les manières."—M. Larochefoucault, Assemblée Nationale, 17 août 1791 (ibid.).

[359] The increase during the Revolutionary period was nevertheless considerable. Before the Revolution the cost of distributing 60,000 prospectuses by post was 200 livres. Under the rates then in operation it would be 3,000 livres, and under the new rates then (1796) proposed, 7,500 livres. Before the Revolution a volume could be sent from one end of France to the other for 12 sous.—A. Belloc, Les Postes françaises, Paris, 1886, p. 353.

[360] "Le conseil des Cinq-Cents, considérant qu'il importe de faciliter la circulation des ouvrages périodiques, brochures, catalogues, et prospectus tant pour encourager la libre communication des pensées entre les citoyens de la République que pour augmenter le total du revenu public...."—Proclamation, 1796.

[361] Law of 15th March 1827.

[362] Law of 16th July 1850.

[363] There was also at this time a tax on books.

[364] M. Rouher, Assemblée Nationale, 21 mars 1850 (Le Moniteur Universel).

[365] Decree of 17th February 1852.

[366] The political Press was somewhat strictly controlled. The law of 1814 on the liberty of the Press, which was continued by the Press law of the 27th June 1849, imposed on every printer the obligation to deposit with the Procurator Imperial every article treating of political matters or social economy twenty-four hours before publication, under penalty of a fine of 100 to 500 fr. A decree of 1852 subjected political publications to a stamp duty.

[367] "Les journaux n'étant plus dangereux et ne pouvant plus faire que du bien, l'honorable membre eût désiré qu'une légère réduction des droits de poste leur permît d'acquérir une existence plus sûr, plus indépendante, afin qu'on pût les retrouver fidèles et dévoués, si la France avait encore des jours difficiles à traverser. Nul n'a oublié, en effet, l'admirable attitude de la Presse départmentale au milieu des événements de 1848, son empressement à se rallier à la cause du Président de la République, le courage que ses rédacteurs ont montré pour la défense de l'ordre, courage que quelques-un on payé de leur vie.

"Telles sont les considérations d'équité et de politique qui avaient fait réclamer en faveur de la Presse départmentale une réduction de taxe. Tout ce que la commission a pu obtenir, c'est qu'il n'y aura pas d'aggravation de taxe lorsque le numéros circuleront dans les départments limitrophes. Rien ou à peu près rien ne sera done changé aux charges que les journaux de province ont supportées jusqu'à ce jour."—M. Paul Dupont, Chambra des Députés, 31 mai 1856 (Le Moniteur Universal).

[368] Motif du loi, cited A. Belloc, op. cit., p. 542.

[369] Ibid., p. 545.

[370] Law of 29th April.

[371] "La poste perd sur le transport des journaux et des imprimés.

"Pour l'année 1889, M. Jaccottey (Traité de législation et d'exploitation postales, p. 329) calculait que le coût, c'est-à-dire la dépense moyennement, fait pour un objet quelconque de correspondance, n'avait pas été supérieur à 0 fr. 055. Il fixait de même le produit moyen des imprimés, par unité, à O fr. 023, et il évaluait la perte du Trésor à 25 millions....

"Le nombre des Imprimés de toute catégorie était à cette époque de 800 millions....

"Or, il y a eu, en 1895, dans la circulation intérieure:—

"514,957,761 journaux ayant rapporté 8,378,873 fr. soit, par unité, 1 centime 62, 472,202,885 imprimés de toute nature, dont 82,597,172 sou enveloppes, avec un produit total de 13,791,025 ou par unité 2 centimes 92. Pour ces 987,160,646 journaux, périodiques, imprimés de toute catégorie, circulent à prix réduit, la recette total a été de 22,169,975 fr. et le produit moyen de 2 centimes 245.

"La perte a done été de près de 36 millions."—Rapport portant fixation du Budget, Chambre des Députés, 1907; No. 2701, p. 37.

[372] 29th April 1908.

[373] "Il serait à désirer qu'on pût remédier à une conséquence regrettable de la disposition particulière qui réserve aux seuls journaux paraissant au moins une fois par mois le tarif spécial accordé à la Presse.

"En fermant la porte aux feuilles d'annonces trimestrielles on l'aussi fermée aux bulletins et annales de même périodicité publies par un grand nombre d'associations et de sociétés (sociétés littéraries, archéologiques, scientifiques, agricoles, syndicats professionels et agricoles, associations professionelles amicales d'instituteurs, sociétés de secours mutuels, etc.), qui doivent être encouragées par tous les moyens au lieu d'être gênées dans leur essor."—Ibid., Sénat, 1908, No. 340, p. 84.

[374] Defined thus in the law of 1878: "Pour moitié au moins de leur superficie à la reproduction des débats des Chambres, des exposés des motifs des projets de lois, des rapports de commissions, des actes et documents officiels, et des cours, officiels ou non, des halles, bourses, et marchés."

[375] P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 322.

[376] Certain questions arose on this point, and the Council of State decided that there was no need to inquire whether the printed sheet added to the newspaper constituted an accidental and unforeseen addition, whether it was the production of the paper, whether it really appertained to the paper, nor whether it was printed at the same time. All that was necessary, in order that it might be regarded as a supplement, was that it should bear the title and date of the number which it accompanied.—Ibid., p. 325.

The Keeper of the Seals concurred in this opinion, and held that it was unnecessary to inquire into the circumstance in which the supplement was joined to the paper, whether it was special or whether it was printed at the same time; but that the supplement ought to fulfil the conditions imposed on all newspapers, to mention the title of the paper, together with the date or serial number, and to preserve, at least materially, the appearance of an annexe to the principal journal.—Ad. Frault, Manuel postal, théorique et pratique, Paris, 1893, pp. 385-6.

[377] The second oldest newspaper in Germany, the Postavisen, which appeared in Frankfurt in 1617, was published by the Taxis Postmaster, Johann von den Birghden. Cf. B. Faulhaber, Geschichte des Postwesens in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt, 1883, p. 62.

[378] Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv, 1906, vol. 23, part 1. p. 64; Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1884, p. 290.

[379] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1884, p. 291.

[380] Regulativ über die künftige Verwaltung des Zeitungswesens, 15th December 1821.

[381] Decree of 26th June 1848.

[382] Statute of 4th November 1867, fixing rates of postage for the North German Union:—

"Diese Bestimmung entsprang aus der Erkenntniss, dass die weniger häufig erscheinenden Zeitschriften durch die volle Besorgungsgebühr von 25 pct. des Verlagspreises um so härter getroffen würden, als letzterer der Natur der Sache nach in vielen Fällen verhältnissmässig hoch sei."—Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1884, p. 296.

[383] Statute of 28th November.

[384] "Wir haben heute in Deutschland Blätter, deren Jahresabonnement jährlich 2 Mark beträgt, und solche, deren Jahresabonnement bis 40 Mark beträgt. Die Post erhebt nun an Gebühr 25 Prozent von dem Abonnementspreise, womit sie die Beförderungskosten decken muss. Die Post erhält für dieselbe Leistung von einem täglichen Blatte, welches 40 Mark Abonnementspreis erhebt, 10 Mark pro Jahr und von dem andern täglichen Blatt, welches bloss 2 Mark erhebt, 50 Pfennig pro Jahr. Das ist ein ganz unhaltbarer Zustand. Wenn Sie beide Blätter nun auf ihren Inhalt prüfen, was erblicken Sie da? Auf der einen Seite Inseratenblatt, das den Text als Nebensache behandelt, das mit sehr niedrigen Redaktionskosten hergestellt wird. Auf der anderen Seite haben Sie ein Blatt, zu dessen Herstellung hervorragende Kräfte, mit einem Worte Intelligenz erforderlich ist, und dass die Intelligenz nicht billig ist, wissen wir alle miteinander; diese muss bezahlt werden. Für die Post bildet die Hauptsignatur der Zeitungen: viele Anzeigen—schweres Gewicht; niedriger Abonnementspreis—niedrige Postprovision (weil die Herstellungskosten durch die Inserate gedeckt werden). Die Post macht in Folge dessen ein schlechtes Geschäft damit. Ein Blatt mit wenigen Anzeigen bedeutet auch gleichzeitig ein geringeres Gewicht und einen höheren Abonnementspreis, und das setzt eine hohe Postprovision voraus.

"Das sind Erscheinungen, über die seit Jahren geklagt wird, und die durch die neue Vorlage in ein gerechteres Verhältniss zu Leistung und Gegenleistung gebracht werden sollen."—Abgeordneter Dietz, Reichstag, Official Reports, 15th November 1899, vol. iv. p. 2799.

[385] Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv, vol. 23, part i. p. 69.

[386] In 1871 the number of newspapers passing by post was 203 millions, and the average postage 87/100 pf. per copy.

[387] Reichstag, Official Reports, vol. iv. pp. 2923-4: "Seit 20 Jahren ist im Reichstag sowohl als auch in der Budgetkommission erneut die Forderung aufgestellt worden, es soll ein anderer Tarif aufgestellt werden. In der Budgetkommission ist namentlich in den letzten zehn Jahren von den verschiedensten Parteien anerkannt worden, dass die Post bei der Beförderung der Zeitungen thatsächlich mit Verlust arbeitet, und dass demzufolge seitens der Zeitungen eine höhere Gebühr entrichtet werden müsste. Ich kann den Herren nur das Beispiel, welches in der Budgetkommission des öfteren erläutert worden ist, wieder vorführen. Wir befördern rund 400 Millionen Drucksachen; für diese, 400 Millionen Drucksachen nehmen wir 15 Millionen ein. Demgegenüber stehen eine Milliarde Zeitungsexemplare und eine Einnahme von noch nicht 5 Millionen."—Von Podbielski (Postmaster-General), 21st November 1899.

[388] "Es musste ein Tarif gefunden werden, der auf dem Grundsatz der Abwägung der Leistung und Gegenleistung beruht, der der Postverwaltung eine mässige Mehreinnahme wenigstens für die Zukunft, wenn auch nicht für die unmittelbare Gegenwart sichert."—Dr. Oertel, 15th November 1899; Reichstag, Official Reports, vol. iv. p. 2801.

[389] Von Podbielski, 21st November 1899; Reichstag, Official Reports, vol. iv. p. 2924.

[390] "Die Inseratenpresse macht eine sehr starke Konkurrenz auch der Provinzialpresse, der kleinen Presse. Die erstere hat langsam den Abonnementspreis so weit herabgedrückt, dass schliesslich die Provinzpresse, wenn sie nicht zu Grunde gehen wollte, gleichfalls mit einer Ermässigung des Abonnementspreises hat vorgehen müssen, mit einer Ermässigung, die sich wirthschaftlich nicht aufrecht erhalten lässt. Die Abonnementspreise sind hier und da so niedrig geworden, dass manche Verleger wohl Ursache gehabt haben, zu schreien, man möge ihnen seitens der Post durch einen gerechten Tarif entgegenkommen, um die furchtbare Konkurrenz in etwas zu mildern."—Abgeordneter Dietz, 15th November 1899; Reichstag, Official Reports, vol. iv. p. 2799.

[391] "Der Zonentarif ist meiner Ansicht nach vollkommen gerechtfertigt auch vom Gesichtspunkte der Leistung und der Gegenleistung aus. Die kleine Provinzpresse bleibt auf einen kleinen Verbreitungsbezirk beschränkt, und dort ist sie in vielen Exemplaren an einem und demselben Orte verbreitet. Die grosse Presse dagegen geht in einzelnen Exemplaren durch das ganze Reich, sie verursacht demgemäss der Post bedeutend mehr Kosten und Lasten, mehr Arbeit als die kleine Presse. Der Herr Staatssekretär des Reichspostamts hat das in der Kommission selbst zugeben müssen. Er wies z. B. darauf hin, dass schon jetzt durch die grosse Anzahl von Blättern, welche von Berlin aus in die Provinz hineingehen, die Post gezwungen wäre, tagtäglich einen Extrapostwagen zu stellen, welcher lediglich Zeitungen von hier nach Köln mit der Eisenbahn befördert; die Beförderung dieses einen Wagens koste der Post 120,000 Mark. Bei dieser Beförderung kommt aber im grossen und ganzen nur die grosse oder die farblose Presse, welche zu einem billigeren Preise gegeben wird, in Betracht. Die kleine Provinzpresse macht der Post nicht derartige Ausgaben, wie ich bereits vorhin betont habe. Daher erscheint es angebracht, dass wir zwei Zonen schaffen, dass die Zeitungen in der ersten Zone zu einem billigeren Satze versendet werden als diejenigen in der zweiten Zone."—Dr. Marcour, 15th November 1899; Reichstag, Official Reports, vol. iv. p. 2796.

[392] Von Podbielski, 15th November 1899; ibid., vol. iv. p. 2797.

[393] Statute of 20th December 1899:—

"(a) 2 Pf. für jeden Monat der Bezugszeit.

"(b) 15 Pf. jährlich für das wöchentlich einmalige oder seltenere Erscheinen, sowie 15 Pf. jährlich mehr für jede weitere Ausgabe in der Woche.

"(c) 10 Pf. jährlich für jedes Kilogramm des Jahresgewichts unter Gewährung eines Freigewichts von je 1 Kg. jährlich für soviele Ausgaben, wie der Gebühr zu (b) unterliegen."—Article 1 (sec. iii), Law of 20th December 1899.

[394] Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv, 1906, vol. 23, part i. p. 74.

[395] Dr. Artur Schmidt, ibid., p. 69.

[396] Cf. Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv, vol. 23, part i. p. 79.

[397] Allgemeine Dienstanweisung für Post und Telegraphie, Berlin, 1901, Abschnitt V, i. pp. 69-70.

[398] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 278. The present regulations are as follow:—

"Als aussergewöhnliche Zeitungsbeilagen werden solche ... die nach Form, Papier, Druck oder sonstiger Beschaffenheit nicht als Bestandtheile derjenigen Zeitung oder Zeitschrift erachtet werden können, mit welcher die Versendung erfolgen soll.

"Jede Versendung aussergewöhnlicher Zeitungsbeilagen muss von dem Verleger bei der Verlags-Postanstalt unter Entrichtung der Gebühr für so viele Exemplare, als der Zeitung u. beigelegt werden sollen, vorher angemeldet werden. Das Einlegen in die einzelnen Zeitungs u. Exemplare ist Sache des Verlegers.

"Aussergewöhnliche Zeitungsbeilagen dürfen nicht über zwei Bogen stark, auch nicht geheftet, geklebt oder gebunden sein; die einzelnen Bogen müssen in der Bogenform zusammenhängen. Die Postanstalten sind zur Zurückweisung solcher Beilagen befugt, die nach Grösse und Stärke des Papiers oder nach ihrer sonstigen Beschaffenheit zur Beförderung in den Zeitungspacketen nicht geeignet erscheinen.

"Die Gebühr für aussergewöhnliche Zeitungsbeilagen beträgt ¼ Pf. für je 25 Gramm jedes einzelnen Beilage-Exemplars. Ein bei Berechnung des Gesammtbetrags sich ergebender Bruchtheil einer Mark wird nöthigen Fallen auf eine durch 5 theilbare Pfennigsumme aufwärts abgerundet."—Allgemeine Dienstanweisung für Post und Telegraphie, Berlin, 1901, Abschnitt V, i. p. 17.

[399] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 279.

[400] 22nd August 1874.

[401] When in 1700 Dockwra was dismissed from the comptrollership, one of the charges against him was that he forbade the acceptance of band-boxes or other parcels over 1 pound in weight—to the great inconvenience of traders and the peril of many sick folk who might have received "phisick" by the Penny Post.

[402] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25.

[403] "In 1839 Sir John Burgoyne wrote to complain that, for a packet of papers sent to him at Dublin, which had been forwarded from some other part of Ireland by mail-coach, as a letter, instead of a parcel (i.e. a coach-parcel), he had been charged a postage of £11; that is to say, for a packet which he could easily have carried in his pocket, he was charged a sum for which he could have engaged the whole mail-coach, i.e. places for four inside and three outside passengers, with their portmanteaus, carpet bags, etc."—The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago, London, 1890, p. 7.

[404] "It has been suggested that if the proportional charge on Letters by Weight was more gradual, many Things which now pass as Parcels by the Mails and augment the Profit of the Proprietors would be sent by the Post on Account of the superior Safety.

"It is certain that great Numbers of small Parcels are sent by the Mail Coaches at an inferior Rate of Carriage, which, considering this Establishment as a Species of exclusive Carrying Trade, must subtract considerably from its Revenue." Seventh Report, July, 1797 (Commons Reports, vol. xii. p. 189).

[405] E.g., in 1829 the Secretary reported: "With respect to the conveyance of Pamphlets and Periodical Publications by the Post, Treasury has expressed itself to me as decidedly hostile to any such infraction of the carrying Trade of the Country. It is moreover physically impossible. We have the greatest difficulty in conveying Letters, Newspapers, and official packets; many of the official forms, etc., remain some days until we can take them by the Mail Coaches." And in 1847, when Sir Rowland Hill put forward his proposal for a Book Post, Colonel Maberley, then Secretary, said: "The Post ought to be confined to small packets as much as possible and to convey large packets only when the necessity is urgent." He was especially afraid of the inconvenience which would be caused to foot-messengers.—British Official Records. Cf. 10 & 11 Vict., cap. 85, § 2.

[406] See supra, p. [32].

[407] As they had always done. "The Post Office has recently absolutely entered into competition with the Railway Companies. As carriers, the Companies derived considerable profit from parcels. The Post Office, finding that railways afford the means of carrying any quantity of bulk, has seen fit to undertake the conveyance of books and other parcels at very reduced postal rates. If the Post Office should extend its operations a little further, it must be brought into absolute antagonism with the Companies. Books are heavier articles than laces or muslins, or many other fabrics, the conveyance of which enters largely into railway receipts. The Post Office having made book parcels profitable, may try to turn to account the conveyance of other, whether lighter or heavier, articles of trade. It might be thought advisable to carry a small valuable parcel to Aberdeen for 2d., a rate at which Railway Companies, having to pay interest on capital, certainly cannot hope to compete with a department which insists on the right of travelling on their roads at the mere actual cost. You will not, therefore, fail to see that the Post Office arrangements may be carried to a point at which great injustice would be done to Railway Companies."—Robert Stephenson before the Institution of Civil Engineers, January 1856 (S. Smiles, Life of George Stephenson, London, 1857, p. 525).

[408] See Leslie Stephen, Life of Henry Fawcett, London, 1885, pp. 417-18.

[409] 45 & 46 Vict., cap. 74.

[410] Jevons had foreseen that the rich would benefit; but he anticipated a large general traffic in household supplies. See W. S. Jevons, "A State Parcel Post," Contemporary Review, London, 1879, p. 209.

[411] See graphs at pp. [371] and [372], infra.

[412] The estimates on which this statement is based are given below at p. [311], Cf. Leslie Stephen, loc. cit. p. 420.

[413] See p. [75], supra.

[414] Annual Reports of the Postmaster-General, Washington, 1890 and 1891.

[415] I.e. under the Government frank, for the fraudulent use of which a penalty of $300 is imposed.

[416] "In point of fact there are but four strong objections to the parcels post, and they are the four great express companies, who would be just as well off with an 8- or 11-pound parcel post if the heavy freight of the Executive Departments and the immense packages of bogus serial books that are now thrown upon the mails were shut out and turned over to the express companies, where they belong."—Report of the Postmaster-General, Washington, 1891, p. 114.

[417] Ibid., 1904, p. 2.

[418] Cf. supra, p. [127], note 2.

[419] "When the British Government can secure better mail facilities in the United States for the English people than Uncle Sam can secure in this country for our own people, it is time that somebody be heard from."—Mr. Hartranft, Secretary of the Postal Progress League of California.

[420] "The difficulty now lies in the absence of a connected transportation conduit, which will receive the small shipment at the farm and convey it, like a letter, direct to the consumer."—Hon. David J. Lewis, Postal Express, 1912, 62nd Congress, 2nd Sess., Doc. No. 379, p. 5.

[421] Ibid.

[422] Mr. S. Norvell: "I found the conditions in Europe very much worse than I had anticipated. I found the way the people lived was entirely different from what I had anticipated, and no man who has simply lived in this country and has read in a general way about the conditions in Europe can appreciate how the people live in Europe without going among them and studying the subject. The business of Europe, while in the aggregate, of course, it is very large, as a matter of fact is a peanut business."—Hearings before the Sub-Committee on Parcel Post, Washington, 1912, vol. ii. p. 496. Cf. Address at Atlantic City, N.J., 16th November 1911.

[423] "The department believed and still believes that the parcel post, in time, will become an important factor in improving and cheapening the food supply of the great cities. Hence, on March 25, 1914, twelve of the large post offices were designated for special test of a farm-to-city service. Farmers were invited to register their names and designate the commodities they desired to sell. Lists of farmers and of the articles each offered were then printed and distributed by the carrier force. The results exceeded expectations; shipments of country products at the twelve offices named so materially increased that now eighteen additional offices have been named for similar exploitation of the farm-to-city service. The department's preliminary experience warrants the conclusion that direct shipment of food products that are consumed substantially in the same form in which they are produced offers practical possibilities of reducing the cost of living."—Report of Postmaster-General, Washington, 1913-14, p. 12.

[424] Law of 9 vendémiaire, an VI.

[425] Vide infra, p. [279].

[426] Art. 5 § 2, Convention of 1880.

[427] "En obtenant ainsi le concours des compagnies pour le transport des colis internationaux, M. le Ministre devait évidemment être frappé des conditions dans lesquelles allait se trouver la circulation des colis à l'intérieur. Tandis que les premiers circuleraient en France avec la plus grande facilité à un prix forte réduit, notre commerce intérieur non seulement continuerait à payer des taxes de transport relativement élevées, mais encore resterait assujetti à tous les inconvénients qui résultent de la multiplicité des taxes et du manque d'entente entre les compagnies."—Journal Officiel de la République française, 27 janvier, 1881, p. 474.

[428] (1) La taxe sur la grande vitesse; (2) l'impôt du timbre; (3) la taxe de plombage; (4) le droit de statistique.

[429] Tarif pour le Transport des Colis Postaux, Paris, 1913, p. 38.

[430] "Sont considérés comme encombrants: les colis dépassant 1 m. 50 dans un sens quelconque; les colis qui, par leur forme, leur volume ou lour fragilité, ne se prêtent pas facilement au chargement avec d'autres colis, ou qui demandent des précautions spéciales."—Ibid., p. 6.

[431] Ibid., p. 17.

[432] Rapport portant fixation du Budget générale, Sénat, 1911, No. 189.

[433] "Il faut que le bureau soit situé sur le parcours d'un courrier en voiture, et que les Compagnies de chemins de fer veuillent bien consentir à accepter les colis à acheminer sur le bureau de poste.... Bref, tout compte fait, il n'y a pas une commune sur six en France où l'on puisse reçevoir à domicile un colis postal."—Ibid., Chambre des Députés, Session 1907, No. 1247.

[434] "Il faudrait apporter au service des colis postaux dea perfectionnements que les compagnies se refuseront à effectuer et qui semblent plutôt du ressort de l'Administration. La reception et la distribution des colis postaux dans les communes rurales est une de ces améliorations désirables.

"Il est inutile d'insister sur l'importance économique de cette question. Les colis postaux fournissent ou devraient fournir un moyen facile et rapide de transport à bon marché; ils devraient favoriser aussi bien les intérêts du commerce que ceux de l'agriculture. II s'en faut de beaucoup qu'ils rendent tous les services que l'on est en droit d'en attendre."—Ibid., Sénat, 1911, No. 189.

[435] F. Haass, Die Post und der Charakter ihrer Einkünfte, Stuttgart, 1890, p. 95.

[436] Ordinance issued at Breslau; C. H. Hull, Die deutsche Reichs-Packetpost, Jena, 1892, p. 1.

[437] C. H. Hull, ibid. p. 2.

[438] E.g., "Wann die Botten innerhalb Landes verschickt werden, soll Ihnen von Jeder Meill Ein Groschen und sechs Pfennig des tages und dan zween Groschen, so des nachtes, und im bösenschnee und regenwetter lauffen, sowohl auch des tages zween Groschen warttgeld, endtrichtet und gegeben werden."—Post und Botenordnung, 20 Juni 1614, Brandenburg; cited F. Haass, ibid.

[439] The new parcel rates were, e.g.:—

Weight.Up to 2 Miles.15-16 Miles.
Pounds.Pf.Gr.pf.
1818
2-105110
10-303——
30-6016

[440] The rates of 1766 compared with those of 1712 as follows: For the transmission of a pound parcel from Berlin—

1766.1712.
To Hamburg1½ gr.1 gr.
To Magdeburg10 pf.7 pf.
To Königsberg3½ gr.2½ gr.

—F. Haass, op. cit. p. 98.

[441] Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv, 1906, vol. i. p. 80.

[442] H. von Stephan, op. cit. p. 746.

[443] Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1893, p. 6. If the average price of oats in the most important districts in Prussia should exceed a thaler a bushel, the rate might be increased from 3 pf. to 4 pf.

[444] Cabinet Order of 5th March 1847.

[445] Law of 2nd June 1852.

[446] A similar system had been introduced in the German Postal Union in 1858. The sides of the squares were, however, 4 miles long, and were too large for the smaller distances of the North German Union.

[447] Motiv zur Posttaxnovelle vom 4 November 1867; cited F. Haass, op. cit. p. 100.

[448] Law of 17th May 1873.

[449] Motiv zur Posttaxnovelle vom 17 Mai 1873.

[450] Railway postal law of 20th December 1875.

[451] The parcel rate for 20 kilogrammes sent as one parcel or as four parcels each of 5 kilogrammes in each zone would be as follows:—

Zone.As one Parcel.As 4 Parcels,
each of 5 kg.
Pf.Pf.
I(up to 10miles)100100
II(10-20" )200200
III(20-50" )350200
IV(50-100" )500200
V(100-150" )650200
VI(Over 150" )800200

—C. H. Hull, op. cit. p. 21.

[452] Parcels in Imperial German Postal Service (Inland):—

YearParcels not
exceeding 1 kg.		From 1
to 5 kg.		From 5
to 10 kg.		Over
10 kg.
Per cent.Per cent.Per cent.Per cent.
18752550187
18802061174
18901565183
19001269172

—Finanz-Archiv,1906, vol. i. p. 89; C. H. Hull, op. cit. p. 28.

[453] Average postage per parcel (pf.):—

Zone. 1875.1890.
Ortssendungen26·226·8
I 32·329·7
II 62·157·4
III 66·557·4
IV 69·357·4
V 74·358·5
VI 86·673·8

—Ibid., p. 24

[454] Average weight of parcels in Imperial German Postal Service (Inland):—

Year.All parcels.
Kg.		Parcels not
exceeding 10 kg.		Parcels over
10 kg.
18754·33·616·2
18804·23·815·4
18854·13·815·0
18904·03·914·5

—Ibid., p. 26.

[455] "Angenommen es hätte im Jahre 1890 unter 10 Packeten das Gewicht eines in Zone III 12.4 Kg.; eines in Zone IV 8.7 Kg.; eines in Zone V 7.5 Kg., oder eines in Zone VI 6.9 Kg., das der anderen neun je 5 Kg. betragen, so stände der Durchschnittsportobetrag schon auf seiner thatsächlichen Höhe."—C. H. Hull, loc. cit. p. 25.

[456] Statistik der Deutschen Reichs-Post- und Telegraphen-Verwaltung, 1910, Berlin, 1911, p. 20.

[457] An analysis of the traffic of the Imperial Post Office gives the following result:—

Numbers—

1887.1900.
Per cent.Per cent.
Parcelsnot exceeding1 kg.in weight17.15812.163
""1-5 kg."62.08668.874
""5-6 kg."7.0957.783
""6-7 kg."3.9844.081
""7-8 kg."2.6292.364
""8-9 kg."1.8091.466
""9-10 kg."1.353.986
"over 10 kg. in weight3.8862.193

Revenue and distance of transmission—

Per cent.Postage, M.
Local parcels0.21642,826
ZoneI 42.5359,639,750
"II 15.8656,849,005
"III 25.25810,906,357
"IV 14.6106,321,769
"V 1.452604,909
"VI 0.06429,200

—F. Haass, ibid. p. 77; Finanz-Archiv, 1906; vol. i. p. 89; cf. Statistik, 1900, p. 31.

[458] Total number in 1870, 37 millions; in 1880, 60 millions; in 1890, 97 millions; in 1913, 280 millions.

[459] "Infolge seiner Billigkeit hat sich für viele Handels- und Erwerbszweige ein unmittelbarer Verkehr zwischen Produzenten und Konsumenten entwickelt (Butter-, Fleisch-, Fischsendungen, u.s.w.), der früher durch Zwischenhandel verteuert und erschwert wurde. Ganz neue Erwerbszweige haben sich gebildet, indem Erzeugnisse, die früher am Produktionsorte fast gar nicht verwertbar waren, in Massen billig nach weit entfernten Gegenden versandt werden können, um dort Verwertung zu finden. Auch die Hausindustrie ist durch direkten Bezug von Rohstoffen für Spinnerei, Weberei, u.s.w., neu belebt worden."—Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv,1906, vol. i. p. 84.

[460] "'Der Eisenbahn den Gross- und Massenverkehr, der Post den Kleinverkehr,' empfiehlt auch de Terra. In der Tat erscheint dieser Vorschlag verlockend. Denn die Post kann den ungeheueren Paketverkehr schon jetzt nur mit Mühe bewältigen und ist zu dem Zwecke oft zur Einstellung kostspieliger Transportmittel (Eisenbahnbeiwagen) genötigt."—Ibid., p. 90.

[461] Ibid., p. 91.

[462] "Abgesehen aber von diesem rein politischen Einwand würde die Aufstellung eines komplizierten Zonentarifs bei dem heutigen Umfang des Packetverkehrs den Dienst unerträglich erschweren und verzögern. Es lässt sich wohl fragen ob, wenn jedes Packet auf seine Beförderungsentfernung zu prüfen wäre, der Dienst sich technisch durchführen liesse, wenigstens zu Gebühren, welche den Verkehr nicht allzusehr einschränken würden."—C. H. Hull, op. cit. p. 31; vide also Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv,1906, vol. i. p. 87.

[463] E.g. "Es ist sogar wahrscheinlich, dass, wenn zu den Kosten der Eisenbahnleistungen für Packetpostzwecke ein Betrag für Verzinzung des Eisenbahn-Anlagekapitals noch hinzugerechnet wird, die Packetpost dann mit einem Defizit arbeitet."—C. H. Hull, op. cit. p. 152; ibid., p. 139. Cf. G. Cohn, Finanzwissenschaft, Berlin, 1889, p. 383, F. W. Grunow, Zur Reform des Paketportos in Deutschland und Österreich-Ungarn, Leipzig, 1898, p. 131; contra, Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaft, Jena, 1910, vol. vi. p. 1092.

[464] British Official Records, 1847.

[465] British Official Records, 1847.

[466] The new rates were—

Notexceeding4ounces1d.
""8"2d.
""1pound4d.
2d. for every additional half-pound.

[467] See supra, pp. [129-131].

[468] 6th April, 1869; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cxcv. col. 258.

"The Post Office revenue is derived mainly from the circulation of letters which pay 1d. for half an ounce, and if they exceed half an ounce, another 1d. The writers of those letters are not necessarily rich people, or persons to whom the postage is a matter of indifference; they are, in a certain sense, the helots who bear the burden of the expense of the Department. Is it, then, not a question worth considering, whether—supposing we accede to this request and carry 2 ounces of printed matter for a ½d., for the benefit of a particular class of the community—that might not interfere with the possibility of maintaining the 1d. postage on letters?"—Chancellor of Exchequer in House of Commons, 6th April 1869; Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. cxcv. col. 254.

[469] The growth of the traffic is shown by the following table:—

Year.Average Annual
Number of
Book Packets
1872-76143,000,000
1882-86323,000,000
1892-96570,000,000
1900-05811,000,000
1909-10974,000,000
1912-131,079,000,000
1913-141,172,000,000

—The Post Office: An Historical Summary, London, 1911, p. 14; and Annual Reports of Postmaster-General.

[470] See First Report of the Committee on Retrenchment in the Public Expenditure, 1915 (Parliamentary Papers, Cd. 8067 and Cd. 8068); Times newspaper, 28th September 1915.

[471] A. Belloc, Les Postes françaises, Recherches historiques, Paris, 1886, p. 353.

[472] Law of 4 thermidor, an IV (22nd July 1796).

[473] P. Jaccottey, op. cit. p. 327.

[474] "Gedruckte Bücher und Aemter-Rechnungen, Akzise-, Zoll-, und Messzettel, sowie für Stempelpapier."—Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 268.

[475] This rate was, e.g., 2 groschen per pound from Berlin to Xanten or Duisburg, 1 groschen to Hamburg, and 2 pf. to Spandau.—Ibid., p. 269.

[476] Ibid.

[477] Law of 21st December 1849.

[478] The first penalty applied also to sample packets.

[479] "Zeitungen, Journale, Preis-Courante, gedruckte Cirkularien, Empfehlungsschreiben, Correkturbogen ohne beigefügtes Manuskript und gedruckte Lotterie-Gewinnlisten."

[480] To include "Druckschriften, Ankündigungen und sonstige Anzeigen."

[481] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 273.

[482] Order of 11th April 1856.

[483] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 274.

[484] Ibid., p. 275.

[485] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 276.

[486] Ibid., p. 278.

[487] Order of 3rd March 1873.

[488] Order of 18th December 1874.

[489] "Alle durch Buchdruck, Kupferstich, Stahlstich, Holzschnitt, Lithographie, Metallographie, und Photographie vervielfältigten Gegenstände" (Sofern sie nach ihrer Form und sonstigen Beschaffenheit zur Versendung mit der Briefpost geeignet erscheinen).—Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 281.

[490] "Auch der Erhöhung des Meistgewichts lässt sich das Wort nicht reden. Mit dieser Massnahme wächst sofort die Unhandlichkeit der Sendungen und damit die Vermehrung und Kostspieligkeit der Betriebsmittel. Bereits jetzt müssen zur Bewältigung der Massen v.a. in den Bahnposten, besonders infolge der vielfach vertretnen Rollenform, ausserordentliche Austrengungen gemacht werden. Zudem bietet das billige Paketporto hinreichend günstige Gelegenheit zur Versendung schwerer Drucksachen. Zu einer Aenderung des Drucksachentarifs liegt demnach ein Bedürfniss nicht vor."—Finanz-Archiv, 1905, vol. ii. p. 178.

[491] Statistik der Deutschen Reichs-Post- und Telegraphen-Verwaltung, 1910, p. 15.

[492] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 177.

[493] "For the Port of every Single Letter, or Piece of Paper, to or from any Place not exceeding Eighty English Miles distant from the said General Post Office in London, and within that Part of Great Britain called England, and not coming from or directed on Shipboard, Three-pence; and for the like Port of every Double Letter, Sixpence; etc."—9 Anne, cap. 10, § 6.

[494] "For every Single Letter or Cover containing One or more Paper or Papers with Patterns, or containing One or more Pattern or Patterns of Cloth, Silk, Stuff, or One or more Sample or Samples of any other Sort of Goods, or One or more Piece or Pieces of any Sort of Thing enclosed therein, or affixed thereto, though not Paper, if the same together do not weigh an Ounce Weight, the Rates payable for a Double Letter shall be paid, and no more."—26 Geo. II, cap. 13, § 8.

[495] 35 Geo. III, cap. 53, § 9.

[496] 41 Geo. III, cap. 7, § 11.

[497] 45 Geo. III, cap. 1, § 1.

[498] 52 Geo. III, cap. 88, § 2.

[499] 7 Will. IV & 1 Vict., cap. 34, § 28.

[500] 2 & 3 Vict., cap. 52, § 1.

[501] 3 & 4 Vict., cap. 96, § 4.

[502] Vide Annual Reports of the Postmaster-General 1859 et seq.

[503] British Official Records, 1863.

[504] See supra, p. [31].

"The public felt aggrieved at the restriction, and, as the difficulty of defining samples in all cases could not be overcome, it was decided to reduce the inland letter postage to such an extent as would enable the public to send through the post in closed covers not only patterns and samples, but also any light articles for a moderate charge; thus abolishing altogether the distinction between letters and samples, and providing a cheap and convenient post for small parcels."—Seventeenth Report of the Postmaster-General, London, 1871, p. 4.

[505] Report of Select Committee on Estimates of Revenue Departments, 1888, p. 24.

It may be noted, in justification of the view sometimes advanced that additional traffic can without loss be undertaken by the Post Office at rates lower than those for the main services, that in this case the Post Office anticipated that no direct additional expense would be incurred in the provinces in dealing with the increase of traffic, and that in London the additional expense would only amount to some £500 a year.

[506] See supra, p. [223].

[507] Arrête of 4th March 1858. In 1881 these limits were raised slightly—to 350 grammes and to 30 centimetres respectively.

[508] In 1871 the Compagnie des Chemins de Fer de l'Est filed a petition in which they contested the right of the Post Office to send samples of merchandise by railway without specially remunerating the railway company. They claimed that under the law they were obliged to carry free only "letters" and "despatches." The case was, however, decided against the company.—P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 334.

[509] Ibid., p. 333.

[510] Statistique générale du service postal, Berne, 1914, p. 7.

[511] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 270.

[512] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 273.

[513] Dr. Artur Schmidt, Finanz-Archiv, 1905, vol. ii., p. 180.

[514] 9 Anne, cap. 10, § 13.

[515] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 332.

[516] 6 Geo. I, cap. 21.

[517] 41 Geo. III, cap. 7, § 4.

[518] "We find that in France, and generally on the Continent, the circulation of Prices Current, at a low charge, is encouraged by the Government, and we are of opinion that any facility which can be given for the transmission of mercantile information must tend to promote the commercial interests of the country; we therefore beg to recommend to your Lordships, in the first place, that English Prices Current, and Publications of a similar nature published in this country, be permitted to pass through the medium of the Post Office without the imposition of a charge so high as to impede their general circulation.... We hope ... your Lordships may find it practicable to permit the free transmission of Prices Current by post, if printed on paper bearing a halfpenny stamp."—Fifth Report of Commissioners (11th April 1836), pp. 3, 4.

[519] "Cette assimilation les soumettait à des taxes exorbitantes; elle provoquait la fraude, et multipliait les contraventions au monopole de la poste."—P. Jaccottey, op. cit., p. 319.

[520] See supra, p. [225].

[521] "Als Geschäftspapiere sind zugelassen: alle Schriftstücke und Urkunden, ganz oder teilweise mit der Hand geschrieben oder gezeichnet, welche nicht die Eigenschaft einer eigentlichen und persönlichen Korrespondenz haben, wie Prozessakten, von öffentlichen Beamten aufgenommene Urkunden jeder Art, Frachtbriefe oder Ladescheine, Rechnungen, Quittungen auf gestempelten oder ungestempelten Papier, die verschiedenen Dienstpapiers der Versicherungsgesellschaften, Abschriften oder Auszüge aussergerichtlicher Verträge, gleichviel ob auf gestempelten oder ungestempelten Papier geschrieben, handschriftliche Partituren oder Notenblätter, die abgesondert versandten Manuskripte von Werken oder Zeitungen, korrigierte Schülerarbeiten mit Ausschluss jeglichen Urteils über die Arbeit, Militarpässe, Lohn-, Dienst- oder Arbeitsbücher, u.s.w. (§ 9, Postordnung)."—Finanz-Archiv, 1905, vol. ii., p. 180.

[522] L'Union postale, Berne, 1st July 1876.

[523] A proposal to introduce postcards in France was made by M. Wolowski in the National Assembly on the 23rd August 1871, in the debate on the Bill for raising the rates of postage. The proposal was rejected on account of the probable effect on the revenue. The cards would no doubt substitute letters to some extent, and at the time, of course, the chief object in view was an increase of revenue. M. Wolowski repeated his proposal in 1873 as an amendment to the Budget. He was able to point to the effect in England of the introduction of postcards—an increase of 6 per cent. in the number of letters, as compared with an increase of 6 per cent. in the year preceding their introduction. The proposal was opposed by the Budget Commission and by the Government, but the amendment was voted by the Assembly and was incorporated in the law of the 20th December 1872. The rate of postage was fixed at 10 centimes for cards circulating within the area served by the same office and 15 centimes for others. (The minimum letter rate was at this time 15 centimes for letters circulating in the area served by the same office and 25 centimes for others.) In 1878 the rate was made uniform at 10 centimes for all cards. This rate still continues in respect of cards bearing written messages in the nature of personal communications, but it has been reduced to 5 centimes in respect of picture postcards or commercial advertisement cards which do not boar a written communication of more than five words. The circulation of postcards is naturally much restricted, and the reduction of the general rate to 5 centimes is much desired. There has been a good deal of discussion of the matter by the parliamentary Budget Commissions, but financial considerations have so far prevented the concession of this boon.

[524] See infra, pp. [303-4]; cf. C. H. Hull, op. cit., p. 146.

[525] Annual Report of Postmaster-General, 1913-14, p. 1.

[526] E.g., "As to books for the blind, there can be only one opinion. The afflicted must be looked after before anybody else."—Sir Adolphe Caron, Parliamentary Debates, Canada (Commons), 13th May 1898.

[527] Cf. supra, Chapter II.

[528] "Inland post comprehends all matter deposited in a post office in Canada for delivery either from the same or from any other post office in Canada.

"Such matter is divided into four classes:—

"(1) Letters, postcards, and all matter either wholly or partly in writing or typewriting, except the manuscript of books or newspapers and certain documents of the Dominion and Provincial Governments and of Municipal Authorities, which belong to Class 3.

"(2) Newspapers and periodicals.

"(3) Printed matter not included in Class 2, samples, and certain miscellaneous matter.

"(4) Merchandise."—Canada Official Postal Guide, 1912, p. 4.

[529] See supra, p. [158].

[530] See infra, pp. [336-7].

[531] See The Practical Method of the Penny Post, London, 1681.

[532] The "General Post" was the term applied to the service throughout the country as distinguished from local services.

[533] The General Post Office only provided for the delivery of letters within a restricted area. See Ninth Report of Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, 1837, p. 5.

[534] 12 Car. II, cap. 35, § 2.

[535] 9 Anne, cap. 10, § 6.

[536] 4 Geo. II, cap. 33. See D. Macpherson, op. cit., vol. iii., p. 169.

[537] Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, 1837, pp. 1 and 2.

[538] "We have said that to us who live at the end of the nineteenth century it may appear incredible that up to April 1680 the General Post Office in Lombard Street was the only receptacle for letters in the whole of London. But it is by no means certain that our descendants may not think it more incredible still that London, with all its boasted progress, has only now recovered a post which, in point of convenience and cheapness, at all approaches that which an enterprising citizen established more than two hundred years ago."—H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, pp. 41, 42.

[539] "No stage-coach entered London without the driver's pockets being stuffed with letters and packets, and he was moderate indeed if he had not a bagful besides. The waggoner outstripped his waggon and the carrier his pack-horse: and each brought his contribution. The higgler's wares were the merest pretext. It was to the letters and packets that he looked for profit."—H. Joyce, ibid., p. 55.

[540] When threatened by the Postmasters-General with prosecution "according to the utmost rigour of the law," he replied, according to their account, that "he should not be so unjust to himself as to lay down his undertaking at our demand, that his case was not as Mr. Dockwra's was, neither did we live under such a constitution as he did when the penny post was first set up (that is, an arbitrary government and bribed judges)."—Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, 1837, p. 71.

[541] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25, § 11.

[542] Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, 1837, p. 66.

[543] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25, § 14.

[544] 34 Geo. III, cap. 17.

[545] 41 Geo. III, cap. 7.

[546] Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, 1837, p. 6.

[547] 45 Geo. III, cap. 11.

[548] Clause 1.

[549] These changes followed the recommendations of the Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, who, in their Twenty-first Report (1830), remarked strongly on the intricacy and confusion of the boundaries of the posts in London, viz. the General Post, the Foreign Post, the twopenny post (town delivery), and the twopenny post (country delivery). All these had different delivery areas, and in addition there was the "threepenny post town delivery," comprising the area lying between the limits of the General Post delivery and those of the town delivery of the twopenny post.

[550] The following statement shows the rates charged in the twopenny post:—

"For every letter transmitted by such Post within the limits of
delivery for the time being of the General Post 2d.

For every letter transmitted by such Post between a place within
the said limits and any place beyond the same, or between places,
both of which are beyond the said limits 3d.

And for every letter originally sent by the General Post directed
to places beyond the said limits, and for every letter originally sent
by the Twopenny Post, and afterwards passing through the General Post,
in addition to all other rates chargeable thereon 2d.

Newspapers sent by the Twopenny Post, and not passing or intended
to pass by the General Post, are charged each 1d.

But newspapers by the General Post and delivered by the Twopenny Post, received by the Twopenny Post and afterwards passing by the General Post, have, since August 1836, been exempted from postage."—Ninth Report of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, 1837, p. 4.

[551] "It is on this principle that it has been found that where a letter has been dropped into the post office in a city, and delivered by a letter-carrier, it does not pay to deliver it for 1 cent, which is just half the rate charged in any other country in the world; and this provision is to assimilate the rate to that prevailing in other countries."—Mr. Haggart, Parliamentary Debates, Canada (Commons), 9th April 1889.

[552] "We have been influenced to make this change from the fact that in large cities and towns the departmental stores, the manufacturing establishments, and other concerns which do a large postal business, use the messenger service to deliver their letters as they found it cheaper, and in this way a large amount of revenue was lost to the Post Office.... Several firms will amalgamate their messenger service, employing say five or ten boys, to whom they will pay 1 cent or ½ cent for each letter, and in that way they will make a profit. Of course, this action on their part is illegal, but it is one of those illegalities that we can hardly prosecute, and we thought it was better to adopt the uniform 1-cent rate which we had formerly."—Hon. R. Lemieux (Postmaster-General), Parliamentary Debates, Canada (Commons), 16th June 1908.

[553] A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres, Paris, 1879, p. 98.

[554] "16 août 1653.—On fait à sçavoir à tous ceux qui voudront écrire d'un quartier de Paris en un autre, que leurs lettres, billets ou mémoires seront fidèlement portés et diligemment rendus à leur addresse, et qu'ils en auront promptement responce, pourvu que lorsqu'ils escriront, ils mettent avec leurs lettres un billet qui portera: port-payé, parce que l'on ne prendra point d'argent; lequel billet sera attaché à la dite lettre, ou mis autour de la lettre ou passé dans ou en telle autre manière qu'ils trouveront à propos, de telle sorte néanmoins que le commis le puisse voir et oter aisément. La date sera remplis du jour ou du mois qu'il sera envoyé. Le commis général qui sera au Palais rendra de ces billets de port-payé à ceux qui en voudront avoir, pour le prix d'un sol marqué; et chacun est adverti d'en acheter pour sa nécessité le nombre qu'il lui plaira, afin que lorsqu'on voudra escrire, l'on ne manque pas pour si peu de chose à faire ses affaires."—Advertisement issued by M. Velayer, cited A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la Poste aux Lettres, Paris, 1879, p. 101.

[555] A. de Rothschild, ibid., p. 145.

[556] A. Belloc, Les Postes françaises, Paris, 1886, p. 200.

[557] Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1893, p. 38.

[558] 30th May 1865.

[559] Order of 22nd October 1869.

[560] Moch, ibid.

[561] Moch, ibid.

[562] Administrative order of 18th December 1874.

[563] Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1900, p. 735.

[564] "Als Nachbarorte im Sinne des Gesetzes sollen solche Orte der engen unmittelbaren Nachbarschaft gelten, deren bebaute Ortsgrenzen nicht zu weit von einander entfernt bleiben und die wegen ihrer Lage und ihres wirtschaftlichen Zusammenhanges als ein einheitlicher Verkehrsbezirk (Taxgruppe) angesehen werden können, ferner aber solche Orte, die zwischen zwei hiernach eine Taxgruppe bildenden anderen Orten an der diese verbindenden Strasse oder Eisenbahn liegen, auch wenn ein wirtschaftlicher Zusammenhang hier nicht vorhanden ist."—Moch, ibid.

[565] Ibid., p. 736; Articles 2 and 3 of law of 20th December 1899.

[566] Reichstag, Official Reports, vol. ii., p. 1006.

[567] "Um ein klar wirkendes Bild von dem Umfange der Verkehrszunahme zu geben, sei nur erwähnt, dass die Ober-Postdirektion in Berlin im Kalenderjahre 1900 eine um 106 Beamte und 1,606 Unterbeamte höhere. Personal verstärkung für ihren Bezirk hat eintreten lassen mussen als im Jahre vorher; am 1 April 1900 sind allein—ohne die zahlreichen Aushülfskräfte—860 Unterbeamte neu eingestellt worden."—Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung, Berlin, 8th March 1901, p. 131.

[568] Ibid.

[569] Ibid., p. 132.

[570] Order of 20th March 1900. See Moch, Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, Berlin, 1900, p. 737.

[571] Order of 29th March. W. Hess, ibid., 1910, p. 448.

[572] Reichstag, Official Reports, 17th May 1906.

[573] Finanz-Archiv, 1906, vol. ii., p. 253.

[574] "Une partie des pays qui out pris part au Congrès de Berne avait fixé le maximum du poids des lettres à 250 grammes; l'autre partie n'avait fixé aucune limite de poids. Dans certains pays, l'épaisseur des lettres était limitée. Au Danemark, par exemple, elle ne pouvait pas dépasser 2⅝ centimetres. La Grande-Bretagne avait fixé le maximum de dimension des lettres pour l'étranger à 2 pieds (60 centimètres) en longueur et à 1 pied (30 centimètres) en largeur ou épaisseur.

"Le port des lettres se calculait tantôt pas 7½ grammes, tantôt par 10 grammes et tantôt par 15 grammes; parfois aussi l'échelle de progression ne comportait que deux poids (lettres de 15 grammes et lettres de plus de 15 grammes).

"Les taxes des lettres d'un pays différaient presque pour chaque pays correspondant; en outre, la taxe d'une lettre pour un seul et même pays variait fréquemment suivant la voie d'expédition. L'Allemagne n'avait pas moins de 7 taxes pour les lettres affranchis à destination des autres pays d'Europe (abstraction faite des taxes réduites pour les rayons limitrophes); la France n'en avait pas moins de 6, et la Grande-Bretagne pas moins de 9; les Etats-Unis d'Amérique en avaient 5 pour leurs rapports avec 10 pays européens. La moins élevée de ces taxes était, pour l'Allemagne, de 10 pfennig jusqu'à 15 grammes (20 pfennig de 15 à 250 grammes); pour la France, de 25 centimes par 10 grammes; pour la Grande-Bretagne, de 3 pence par ½ once; pour les Etats-Unis d'Amérique, de 6 cents par ½ once. La plus élevée était, pour l'Allemagne, de 30 pfennig par 10 grammes; pour la France, de 70 centimes par 10 grammes; pour la Grande-Bretagne, de 6 pence par ¼ once; pour les Etats-Unis d'Amérique de 10 cents par ½ once.

"Les taxes des lettres à destination des pays d'outre-mer variaient davantage encore; elles étaient, en outre, toujours extrêmement élevées. Une lettre affranchie de l'Allemagne pour le Pérou, à expédier par la voie de Hambourg, payait 100 pfennig par 15 grammes; si elle était expédiée par la voie d'Angleterre ou de France, elle payait 120 pfennig par 15 grammes. Pour une lettre d'une ½ once de la Grande-Bretagne pour la Bolivie, l'expéditeur devait payer 1 shilling 6 pence et une taxe additionnelle était, en outre, réclamée du destinataire. Une lettre simple de la Russie pour la Cochinchine (voie des paquebots français) payait 75 kopecks; de l'Autriche pour la République de Honduras (voie de Panama), 84 kreuzer; de l'Italie pour la République Argentine ou l'Uruguay (voie de Belgique), 2 lire 40 centesimi.

"Pour ses relations avec le Japon, la Russie no disposait pas de moins de 9 voies d'éxpédition, pour lesquelles il existait 8 taxes différentes rien pour les lettres affranchies."—M. E. Ruffy, L'Union postale universelle; sa fondation et son développement, Lausanne, 1900, pp. 20, 21.

[575] Austria, Belgium, Costa-Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Prussia, the Sandwich Islands, Switzerland, and the Hanse Towns.

[576] M. E. Ruffy, L'Union postale universelle; sa fondation et son développement, Lausanne, 1900, p. 13.

[577] Or, as they were called, "principes généraux de nature à faciliter les relations de peuple à peuple par la voie de la poste et pouvant servir de base aux conventions internationales destinées à régler ces relations."—Ibid.

[578] Documents du Congrès postal international, Berne, 1874, pp. 3-7. See M. E. Ruffy, ibid., pp. 39, 40 and 41.

[579] Documents du Congrès postal international, Berne, 1874, p. 23.

[580] "Toutefois, comme mesure de transition, il est réservé à chaque pays, pour tenir compte des convenances monétaires ou autres, la faculté de percevoir une taxe supérieure ou inférieure à ce chiffre, moyennant quelle ne dépasse pas 32 centimes et ne descende pas au dessous de 20 centimes....

"Pour tout transport maritime de plus de 300 milles marins dans le ressort de l'Union, il pourra être ajouté au port ordinaire une surtaxe qui ne pourra pas dépasser la moitié de la taxe générale de l'Union fixée pour la lettre affranchie."—Article 3 of Convention, ibid., p. 140.

[581] Documents du Congrès postal international, Berne, 1874, pp. 41-2.

[582] Règlement de Détail, secs. xi, xii and xiii, ibid., p. 158.

[583] "La Belgique occupe une position pour ainsi dire unique dans le monde. Placée au centre de la partie la plus riche, la plus active et la plus peuplée de l'Europe, elle forme, en quelque sorte, le carrefour des grandes voies postales de notre continent. Il s'en suit que la Belgique rend de très grands services à tous les Etats de l'Europe, tandis qu'elle-même n'a à réclamer que fort peu de services de ses voisins."

Belgium received 946,235 fr. net annually in respect of transit traffic, and the ratio between the transit services rendered by Belgium to other countries and by other countries to Belgium was 20 to 1.—Documents du Congrès postal international, Berne, 1874, pp. 37-8.

[584] Ibid., p. 23.

[585] Changed in 1878 to "L'Union postale universelle."

[586] Those countries which were unable to adopt the metric system of weights were given liberty to substitute the ounce avoirdupois (28.3465 grammes), a half-ounce being reckoned the equivalent of 15 grammes, and 2 ounces the equivalent of 50 grammes.—Documents du Congrès postal international, Berne, 1874, p. 66.

[587] "En accédant, disent-ils, à l'Union postale, la France s'est imposé des sacrifices considérables dont elle a d'avance calculé la portée. Elle est prête à en faire de nouveaux aujourd'hui en vue de compléter la grande œuvre de Berne; et, à ce propos, M. Ansault a cru devoir déclarer que les subsides accordés à des lignes de paquebots ne peuvent pas être considérés comme ayant un caractère postal, c'est-à-dire, que l'on ne doit pas chercher dans le produit de la taxe des lettres une rémunération de ces services, lesquels sont établis principalement pour les besoins du commerce et de l'industrie, aussi bien que dans un intérêt politique. En proposant une taxe maritime de fr. 6.50 par kilogramme de lettres et de 50 ct. par kilogramme de journaux, le Gouvernement français a eu en outre pour but de faire cesser une anomalie injustifiable aux yeux du public, à savoir qu'une missive pour les Colonies françaises paie une taxe plus élevée qu'une lettre pour la partie la plus reculée des Etats-Unis d'Amérique."—Actes de la Conférence postale de Berne, 1876, p. 29.

[588] Ibid., p. 30.

[589] Ibid., pp. 13, 14.

[590] Actes de la Conférence postale de Berne, 1876, p. 34.

[591] Thus in 1913-14 the number of foreign reply-paid postcards in the case of the United States was 130,596. The total number of foreign postcards posted in the United States in the same year was 42,252,570.

[592] "M. Buxton Forman, délégué de la Grande-Bretagne, ne voit pas l'utilité de la mesure proposée, qui, on son pays du moins, n'est pas demandée par le public. Il serait d'ailleurs presque impossible à l'Administration britannique d'y adhérer...." The French view was stated by M. Ansault: "La modification demandée ne répond à aucun besoin. Les statistiques tenues en France témoignent que le poids moyen de la lettre n'atteint pas 10 grammes; il reste donc une marge de 5 grammes avec le poids actuel. C'est largement suffisant; en augmentant cette marge, on risquerait de provoquer le groupement des lettres au détriment de la recette postale."—Documents du Congrès postal de Washington, 1897, p. 421.

In the same year the limit of weight for the single letter in the British inland service was raised from 1 to 4 ounces.

[593] Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, vol. ii., p. 163.

[594] Ibid., vol. ii., p. 165.

[595] "Pour nous, le service gratuit est un rêve, un beau rêve, si vous voulez, mais que nous ferions bien, en gens pratique, de laisser aux rêveurs."—A. B. Walkley, British Delegate, ibid., vol. ii., p. 106.

[596] Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, vol. ii., p. 168.

[597] "The British Post Office itself is unable to agree with the New Zealand Government that the sacrifice of net postal revenue involved would be 'temporary in duration and inconsiderable in amount.'

"The experience of the British Post Office in connection with the Imperial Penny Postage Scheme shows that if the increased cost of dealing with increased quantities of postal matter be taken into account, as it should be, the department has not recovered, and cannot recover, the loss of net postal revenue involved by the reduction of the Imperial letter rate, which was estimated in 1898 at £108,000 for the first year.

"Recent calculations show that, in the case of a letter for a foreign country, the expense to the Exchequer can be taken at about one penny per half-ounce rate, and in the case of a letter for a Colony, where a long sea transit is generally involved, at about a penny farthing, excluding the heavy cost of subsidized packet service."—Papers laid before the Colonial Conference, 1907: Memorandum by General Post Office (Cd. 3524), p. 499. It was estimated that the introduction of universal penny postage, together with the ounce unit (vide supra), would involve an initial loss of £610,000 a year. Ibid., p. 500.

[598] The United States, Australasia, and Egypt voted in favour of the universal penny rate. Canada, Great Britain, British India, and Japan abstained from voting. The remainder voted against the proposal.—Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, vol. ii., p. 181.

[599] "Chaque jour de nouvelles difficultés surgissent, soit dans les rapports du public avec les Administrations, soit dans les rapports entre les Administrations, sur la definition de l'échantillon. Tel objet est admis dans un pays et refusé dans un autre. Ici, on repousse un article sans valeur, uniquement parce qu'il est entier et on en exige la détérioration ou lacération; là, au contraire, ce même article passe sans observation, par la raison qu'il n'est suj'et à aucun droit de douane. Cette dernière doctrine paraissant la plus logique et la plus conforms à l'esprit libéral de l'Union, qui ne saurait refuser au commerce des facilités compatibles avec les exigences du service, on a pensé que, sous la double réserve d'une limite de poids de 300 grammes et de la prohibition des articles sujets aux droits de douane, il y aurait un simplification, profitable à tout le monde, à étendre la qualification d'échantillons aux menus objets, même entiers et non détériorés."—See M. E. Ruffy, L'Union postale universelle: sa fondation et son développement, Lausanne, 1900, p. 67.

[600] "La proposition d'élever le poids des paquets de 3 à 5 kilogrammes modifie notablement l'économie du projet; c'est la substitution d'un vrai service de messagerie au transport de simples colis postaux. Le Gouvernement anglais estime que le transport de paquets d'un tel poids est de domaine de l'industrie privée."—S. A. Blackwood, Documents de la Conférence postale de Paris, 1880, p. 60.

[601] "Si on transporte à perte, plus le trafic sera grand, plus les dépenses augmenteront. II serait en désaccord avec les vrais principes d'économie politique, d'entreprendre un service postal dont les frais pèseraient sur une autre branche de l'exploitation ou seraient à la charge du Trésor. Un économiste aussi distingué que M. Fawcett ne pourrait admettre cette théorie."—S. A. Blackwood, Documents de la Conférence postale de Paris, 1880, p. 60.

"M. Günther fait remarquer à M. le délégué de la Suéde que le nombre des colis échangés entre la Suède et l'étranger n'étant pas très important, son Administration aurait à faire peu de sacrifices."—Ibid., p. 55.

[602] "Il paraît de toute nécessité d'adopter un droit uniforme, car autrement, avec un tarif variable suivant le poids ou le lieu de destination, on aurait un service des messageries, avec de nombreuses taxes, graduées, et non plus un service très simple de colis postaux."—M. le Président; ibid., p. 55.

[603] "Quant à la taxe internationale de 50 centimes, sans addition possible, elle ne peut être accepté par l'Administration britannique qu'elle constituerait en perte. La taxe devant être partagée entre l'État et les Compagnies, une somme de 50 centimes ne couvrirait les frais."—S. A. Blackwood, ibid.

[604] "Le commerce surtout vous saura le meilleur gré d'avoir élevé jusqu'à 3 kilogrammes le poids des petits colis transportés par la poste, et d'avoir abaissé la taxe à un chiffre minime. Dans bien des cas même, ce prix ne sera pas l'équivalent des frais; et les Gouvernements qui consentent à ce sacrifice méritent une gratitude toute particulière; je vous l'exprime ici bien volontiers et bien hautement au nom de la France, au nom de l'Europe et au nom de l'humanité, qui profiteront si largement du progrés nouveau que vous venez de réaliser."—M. Barthélémy Saint-Hilaire, Foreign Minister of France, to the Conference; Documents de la Conférence postale de Paris, 1880, p. 180.

[605] The convention of Washington, 1897, defined cumbersome parcels (colis encombrants) as follows:—

"(a) Les colis dépassant 1 mètre 50 centimètres dans un sens quelconque;

"(b) Les colis qui, par leur forme, leur volume ou leur fragilité, ne se prêtent pas facilement au chargement avec d'autres colis ou qui demandent des précautions spéciales, tels que plantes et arbustes en paniers, cages vides ou renfermant des animaux vivants, boîtes à cigares vides ou autres boîtes en fardeaux, meubles, vannerie, jardinières, voitures d'enfants, rouets, vélocipedes, etc.

"Les Administrations qui n'admettent pas les colis encombrants ont la faculté de limiter à 60 centimètres le maximum de dimension de ces objets. Les Administrations qui assurent des transports par mer ont aussi la faculté de limiter à 60 centimètres le maximum de dimension et à 25 décimètres cubes le volume des colis postaux destinés à être transmis par leurs services maritimes et de ne les accepter au delà de ces limites qu'à titre de colis encombrants."—Documents du Congrès postal de Washington, 1897, p. 887.

[606] Ibid. pp. 881-2.

[607] "M. Herman, délégué de la France, déclare qu'il est impossible d'entrer dans les vues de l'Administration bulgare, laquelle semble ne plus tenir compte de l'idée première qui a conduit à la création des colis postaux pour l'échange d'objets de petit poids, à des prix très modérés. En créant les colis postaux, les Administrations participant n'ont pas eu l'intention de faire concurrence aux compagnies de transport. Si les tarifs des articles de messagerie sont trop élevés, ce n'est pas évidemment à l'Union postale de les diminuer."—Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, Berne, 1906, vol. ii., p. 381.

[608] "Il n'y a aucun besoin ou avantage à son avis, d'avoir une taxe uniforme pour les colis de même catégorie de poids expédiés de différents pays. Pour les lettres, cette uniformité a l'avantage, pour l'expéditeur, de connaître, dans n'importe quel pays, le prix du port des lettres. Mais, pour un colis postal, l'expéditeur doit toujours aller au bureau de poste pour y déposer la déclaration en douane et, aussi, pour connaître le tarif qui varie selon le nombre des pays et services intermédiares."—M. Kisch, Delegate for India, Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, Berne, 1906, vol. ii., p. 391.

[609] "N'est-ce pas précisément l'unité de tarif qui caractérise le colis postal? Elle est très appreciée du commerce dont elle facilite les opérations. Si l'on entre dans la voie de la taxation au poids, comme pour les articles de messagerie, ce sera un recul."—M. Mazoyer, Documents du Congrès postal de Rome, 1906, Berne, 1906, vol. ii., p. 393.

[610] The analysis relates to the British inland service in 1913-14.

[611] The number of packets sent at the blind post rate is very small comparatively (some 300,000 a year), and those packets are therefore not considered separately.

[612] In general, for any supplemental service an additional fee is charged, the only exceptions being that, in the case of a packet sent at the letter rate of postage, if the person to whom it is addressed cannot be traced, the packet is returned to the sender without charge; and that under certain conditions the address written on any packet (but not the name of the person to whom it is addressed) may be amended, and the packet sent forward, without payment of additional postage. Parcels are forwarded to a second address in this way free of charge only when the first address and the substituted address are within the delivery of the same post office, or are within the same "town delivery area." In certain circumstances the Post Office itself undertakes to amend the address and forward packets in this way free of charge—that is to say, to "redirect." These are, however, minor services, and apply only to a small fraction of the total number of packets posted. For example, the actual proportion redirected is as follows:—

Per cent. of
Total Number posted.
Letters2.2
Postcards4.0
Halfpenny packets2.0
Newspapers1.7

The service of free redirection applies to all classes of packets; but for the return to the sender in case of non-delivery of postcards, halfpenny packet, or newspapers, an additional rate of postage is charged, and the packets are only so returned when they bear on the outside a written or printed request for return in case of non-delivery. This inquiry relates only to the cost of the simple transmission and delivery of the packet, and consideration of all other services, such as registration or express delivery, is excluded.

[613] In London there are the following divisions:—

(1) "Short Letters" (including postcards and a large proportion of the halfpenny packets). Halfpenny packets which are of such size as to admit of handling with the short letters are referred to as "short halfpenny packets."

(2) "Long Letters" (for the most part letters of foolscap size).

(3) "Circulars" (that is, packets sent at the letter rate or by the halfpenny packet post, posted in large numbers at one time and generally of uniform size but which cannot conveniently be dealt with at the ordinary letter-sorting frames).

(4) "Packets" (that is, packets which are bulky or of irregular shape and cannot therefore be sorted at the ordinary sorting frames).

(5) "Newspapers."

[614] Divisions 2 and 3, and divisions 4 and 5, described in the preceding footnote, being combined.

[615] The postman does not rely on his memory to discover at which houses he has packets to deliver. Usually he reverses in the bundle of letters that letter for delivery next preceding a packet. A complication is thus introduced in the preparation of the short letters for delivery.

[616] 2 & 3 Vict., cap. 98 and 56 & 57 Vict., cap. 38.

[617] In recent years the stamping at the office of receipt has been to a large extent dispensed with.

[618] In addition to these principal operations there are certain minor operations. The packets are in general sorted on frames, from which they are collected at intervals and taken to the despatching table for enclosure in the mail-bags. Here the short letters, etc., are tied in bundles (as explained above), and in many cases a label is affixed, on which the name of the office of destination is written by the despatching officer. Next a letter bill is prepared. On this are entered particulars of the mail and of registered letters. The bundles of letters, etc., the loose packets, the registered letters and the letter bill (to which are tied all packets which are insufficiently prepaid and are to be charged on delivery), are enclosed in a mail-bag on which is stencilled the name of the office of destination, and in some cases particulars of the route to be followed. The bag is then tied, sealed, and sent forward. The despatch of each bag is recorded, as is the receipt of each bag from another office.

The opening of bags at the office of receipt also comprises a distinct series of operations. First the letter bill is obtained and examined. The receipt of the registered letters and charged packets is verified, and the letters and packets are withdrawn for special treatment. The bag is then emptied on the "opening table," reversed, in order to ensure that no packets are overlooked, and the contents distributed for sorting.

[619] See infra, p. [297] (from Postmaster-General's Report, 1913-14, Appx. N).

[620] Cf. supra, p. [285].

[621] See The Post Office, an Historical Summary, London, 1911, p. 11.

[622] There is practically no short-distance newspaper traffic, and it is probable that, on the average, newspaper packets undergo one more intermediate handling than packets sent at the letter rate. In the absence of precise information, no adjustment of the relative cost for sorting has been made on this account. The result will, therefore, be slightly to the advantage of the newspaper packets.

[623] It has been estimated at .075d. per letter.

[624] Cf. supra, p. [158].

[625] See supra, p. [127], n. 2, and infra, p. [334].

[626] In this number 35.5 million undelivered packets and 124.5 million redirected packets are included twice. The service performed in respect of both these classes of packet is, however, at least twice as great as that performed in respect of an ordinary packet; and as it is desired to estimate the cost of the normal service, no adjustment of the numbers is made on this account.

The total number actually delivered was 3,477,800,000, but of these, 162.3 millions were foreign and colonial letters. As the number of foreign and colonial letters despatched (184.3 millions) exceeds the number received, and a foreign or colonial letter received plus a foreign or colonial letter delivered may be taken as equivalent to an inland letter fully dealt with, the number delivered in the United Kingdom has been adjusted by adding half the difference between the number of foreign and colonial letters despatched and received respectively.

[627] Number of postcards delivered, 926.5 millions.

Number of foreign and colonial postcards delivered in the United Kingdom, 23.3 millions; number despatched, 18.8 millions.

[628] Number of packets actually delivered, 1,172.3 millions.

Number of foreign and colonial packets of printed matter, commercial papers, and samples received, 44.7 millions; number despatched, 122.9 millions.

[629] Number of parcels delivered, 132,700,000. Number of foreign and colonial parcels received, 1,991,975; number despatched, 3,917,860.

[630] This definition indicates the strict nature of "forward" packets. In practice it is, however, impracticable to divide postal packets precisely on these lines, and the actual statistics of "forward" packets are not exactly accurate. The practical division approximates, however, to the line of the exact division.

[631] Adjusted to allow for the fact that two men are needed to work the machine-stamp. The cost of the machine-stamp itself is a negligible item.

[632] For the relative cost of delivery the same rates are taken as for the cost of sorting. There are no data on which any actual comparison can be based, but it is obvious that the same features, viz. irregularity of shape and size, which lead to differences in the cost of sorting lead to similar differences in much the same degree in the cost of delivery.

[633] The average weight of letter packets not exceeding 1 ounce is 0.357 ounce. The average weight of all letter packets is 0.747 ounce. In the case of packets between 1 ounce and 2 ounces the average weight is assumed to be 1.4 ounces; and 2.6 ounces in the case of those between 2 ounces and 4 ounces.

Of ordinary letter packets, 86.34 per cent. do not exceed 1 ounce in weight, 5.25 per cent. are between 1 ounce and 2 ounces, and 4.53 per cent. are between 2 ounces and 4 ounces in weight.

The average weight of a postcard is 0.142 ounce, of a halfpenny packet 0.498 ounce, and of a newspaper packet 4.264 ounces (97.57 per cent. containing only one newspaper, average weight 4.159 ounces; 2.43 per cent. containing two or more newspapers, average weight 8.461 ounces).

[634] Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, vol. i., p. 249.

[635] Sir Rowland Hill was strongly of opinion that the use of the railway increased the cost of conveyance of mails (Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, vol. i., pp. 329 and 412). The cost of conveyance by stage-coach from London to Edinburgh was, according to Sir Rowland Hill, about 1/36th of a penny per letter, and less for the whole country (ibid., vol. i., p. 249; Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, pp. 18-19). The cost of conveyance by railway at present averages for the whole kingdom about .05d. per letter.

[636] An important fact in this connection is that the service is adjusted to the circumstances of the respective countries. Thus, in England and France, provision is made for the delivery of letters at every house in the country, while in the United States and Canada there is in general no house-to-house delivery in rural districts. Until recently there was no rural delivery service of any kind in the latter countries. Letters could be obtained only at the rural post offices. And the system now being introduced provides only for delivery into roadside boxes at the points on the rural deliverer's route nearest to the house of the addressee. Such adjustments, of course, materially affect the cost and profit of the service.

[637] E.g. the war increases in the United Kingdom and in other countries. The point is further considered in the Appendix "Post Office Revenue," infra, p. [358] ff.

[638] Graphically, the variation of the number of letters with changes in the rate of postage would be represented by an asymptotic curve.

[639] It appeared in the English letter rate of 1885, but disappeared with the changes of 1897. It has been reintroduced into the letter rate with the war changes of November 1915, and the result is an awkward scale.

[640] This point is dealt with more fully in connection with the parcel rate.

The whole question of subsidiary rates is dismissed by Bastable with the following:—

"One of the principal distinctions now turns on the character of the articles transmitted. Circulars and postcards would not bear the same charge as ordinary letters. The transmission of newspapers gives a yet smaller fund of utility on which to levy a tax, and is affected by the competition of carrying agencies. The result is seen in the lower halfpenny rate."—C. F. Bastable, Public Finance, London, 1903, p. 208.

[641] In England two-fifths of the total number of postal packets pass at a halfpenny.

[642] The concession of specially low rates for these classes of packets has given rise to a noteworthy general line of division between postal packets. All packets passing at privileged rates must obviously be subject to examination and check by the Post Office in order to ensure that the privilege is not abused, a necessity which leads immediately to the principle of the "open" post, as contrasted with the "closed" post, the ordinary sealed letter packet. The difference in charge is not, however, based on the consideration that the packets are open to inspection. The effect is in the reverse direction. The view of practical officers is that, other things being equal, the treatment of a packet sent by the Open Post is more expensive to the Post Office than its treatment if sent by Letter Post.

The requirement is imposed in order that compliance with other conditions may be ensured. In none of the five countries are ordinary letters allowed to pass at postcard rate if merely enclosed in open covers. But a printed circular letter, if sent in a sealed cover, would lose its claim to the privileged rate.

[643] "Fixing a railway rate is, in one word, an art—not a science, and it is an art which, in Bagehot's phrase, must be exercised 'in a sort of twilight, ... in an atmosphere of probabilities and of doubt, where nothing is very clear, where there are some chances for many events, where there is much to be said for several courses, where, nevertheless, one course must be determinedly chosen and fixedly adhered to.'"—W. M. Acworth, Elements of Railway Economics, Oxford, 1905, p. 73.

"The problem of railway rates has not, like that of postal charges, passed beyond the domain of current discussion. This is in part due to the fact that railways are universally regarded as a source of profit, to companies when privately owned, to the State when public property; but it is in larger measure due to the fact that the social significance of railways is not yet clearly understood. The problem of railway rates is a problem by itself, and stands as one of the most important of the unsettled problems of the day."—H. C. Adams, Science of Finance, New York, 1909, p. 280.

[644] "The cost of the service of transport for any given commodity cannot, under the varying conditions of railway operation, be even approximately calculated. The first insuperable difficulty is the division of the expenditure for any given work. Though railway economists have endeavoured, by means various and ingenious, to allocate the different items of railway expenditure, they have been unable to determine such a relatively simple matter as the division between passenger and goods traffic, and though estimates have been formulated, many of the charges have been allocated to one head or another by arbitrary decision, and not as a result of positive knowledge."—Railway News, London, 6th September 1913, p. 396.

[645] "Though all the rates must be so fixed as to pay all the expenses both of construction and working, separate rates cannot be fixed according to cost of individual service or even according to the average cost of services to traffic in the same group. For in the first place the cost of the service cannot be ascertained. And secondly, if it could be ascertained, it would be of no use as a standard. To charge the average cost would be to drive away a large portion of the traffic and so increase almost proportionately the average cost of the remainder. This increase would then drive away a fresh portion, and so once more increase proportionately the cost to that still remaining. And so on."—W. M. Acworth, "The Theory of Railway Rates," Economic Journal, London, 1897, p. 324.

[646] "The process is in practice worked out as follows. First comes classification. The whole of the commodities known to commerce are entered on a list divided into classes, eight in number here, six in France, and about ten in number in the United States. To each class belongs a normal scale of rates, ranging, let us say, from ¾d. per mile in the lowest to 4d. per mile in the highest. The classification undoubtedly takes account of greater or less cost of carriage to the companies, arising out of the differences of packing, liability to theft or damage, proportion of space occupied to weight, etc. But it is safe to say that its main principle is, the more valuable the commodity, the higher the rate it can afford to pay."—Ibid., p. 325.

[647] "Historically this theory has been recognized and approved by English legislation from the time when Adam Smith applauded the equity of statutory turnpike tolls at the rate of one shilling for a light carriage and eightpence for a heavy dray, through the whole long series of Canal Acts and Railway Acts, down to the elaborately careful revision of the railway companies' charging powers in the series of Provisional Order Confirmation Acts dated 1891 and 1892. The opinion of modern economists all over the world as to the justice of the underlying principle may be conveniently summarized in a sentence borrowed from the first annual report of the American Interstate Commerce Commission: 'With this method of arranging tariffs little fault is found, and perhaps none at all by persons who consider the subject from the standpoint of public interest.'"—Ibid., p. 317.

[648] "One great element of the reform introduced by you in the postage was, that there should be one uniform rate throughout?—Yes, it was proposed with a view to simplification, but the principle has been carried to an extent that I did not contemplate, and did not recommend."—Evidence of Sir Rowland Hill, Report of Select Committee on Newspaper Stamps, 1851, Question No. 1945.

[649] In the same way that the soap-makers of Port Sunlight secured a large sale by the simple expedient of refraining from varying the price of their tablets of soap with the variations in the cost of raw materials, making the adjustment in the weight of the tablets instead of in the price; and for the same reason that many people prefer restaurants widely known and with numerous branches, not always because the charges are less, but because it is well known what the charges and what the service obtained will be.

[650] In the United Kingdom less than 50 per cent. exceed 2 pounds in weight, and not more than 1 per cent. exceed 10 pounds. The proportion for short-distance parcels is much less, and the proportion for foreign parcels is very much greater, over 15 per cent. being above 10 pounds in weight.

[651] Even in the London postal area, which is of considerable extent, the local traffic is quite small, amounting to some four or five million parcels only per annum in a total traffic of some 130 millions.

[652] I.e. the actual cost incurred by a Government in providing packet services, not the amounts paid to intermediate countries as "transit rates" under the International Convention.

[653]

Total areaof Europe3,800,000square miles.
"   "United States (with Alaska)3,600,000"
"   "Canada3,700,000"

Of the total area of Europe, Russia accounts for some 2,100,000 square miles.

[654] E.g. the transportation of Indian mails through France and Italy. For this service a special train in each direction between Calais and Brindisi is provided by the French and Italian Governments, and the payment made by the British Government in respect of the service is much in excess of the ordinary transit rates fixed by the Postal Union Convention.

[655] The following particulars relate to the British Packet Service in 1860:—

Packets.Contract Payments.Other Payments.Sea Postage.Profit
or Loss.
££££
Dover and Calais}18,6004,10079,000+56,300
Dover and Ostend
Peninsular5,0008004,000-1,800
North American189,500400112,000-77,900
West Indian}
Pacific293,5008,900103,600-198,800
Brazilian
West Coast of Africa30,000—4,500-25,500
Cape of Good Hope38,000—9,300-28,700
Australian90,2004,30030,300-64,200
East Indian163,00017,300111,000-69,300
On the whole service the figures were827,80035,800453,700-409,900

—Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, 1860, Appx. H, pp. 34-7.

[656] In 1860, when the total number of foreign letters was very much less than at present, the cost of the British foreign packet service was some £860,000, and in 1913 the cost had fallen to some £700,000.—Annual Reports of the Postmaster-General, 1860, pp. 34-7; 1913-14, p. 51.

[657] Vide supra, Chapter VI.

[658] E.g., parcel mails are not forwarded by the train between Calais and Brindisi run specially for the Indian mails. Parcels are, it is true, forwarded to America by the Cunard packets which carry the letter mails, but this arrangement is due to special circumstances. The Cunard line, being heavily subsidized (with other than Post Office ends in view), is required to carry all mails tendered. Otherwise it might be found economical to send parcels by slower cargo boats.

[659] Wealth of Nations, ed. 1904, vol. ii., p. 303.

[660] "The business being one which both can and ought to be conducted on fixed rules, is one of the few businesses which it is not unsuitable to a Government to conduct."—J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, London, 1871, vol. ii. bk. v. chap. v. § 2.

"It is clear that the restriction put upon the liberty of trade by forbidding private letter-carrying establishments is a breach of State duty. It is also clear that were that restriction abolished, a natural postal system would eventually grow up, could it surpass in efficiency our existing one. And it is further clear that if it could not surpass it, the existing system might rightly continue; for the fulfilment of postal functions by the State is not intrinsically at variance with the fulfilment of its essential function."—Herbert Spencer, Social Statics, London, 1910, p. 120.

Professor Cannan sums the matter up from the point of view of modern opportunism:—

"Much too great importance is commonly attributed to this part of State action: the sale of commodities. We may be sure that if the State had not happened to undertake the business of carrying letters, some private organization would have been established for the purpose. Whether it would have done the work better or worse than the present State Post Office does it, is a question which we have no means of answering. So, too, on the other hand, if the State in this country had undertaken the provision of railways, we should have had a railway system of some sort; it might have been a better or it might have been a worse system; whether it would have been better or worse would have depended on the wisdom of those who had the largest share in devising and extending it, and who these persons would have been, and what their wisdom would have been, we have no means of telling."—Edwin Cannan, Elementary Political Economy, London, 1903, p. 132.

[661] "Before the rise of the economic schools that opposed industrial action on the part of the State, the method of public postal service was firmly established, and was seen to give, on the whole, sufficiently satisfactory results. It, therefore, escaped the hostile criticism that economists freely bestowed on the less efficient public departments."—C. F. Bastable, Public Finance, London, 1903, p. 208.

[662] "He was always eager to improve the mail service to remote towns; and would observe that one good result of State management was the consideration of out-of-the-way places. A private management, he said, might probably have introduced a halfpenny post in London, and have left the country worse served than at present."—Leslie Stephen, Life of Henry Fawcett, London, 1885, p. 438.

[663] "The Post Office is properly a mercantile project. The Government advances the expense of establishing the different offices and buying or hiring the necessary horses or carriages, and is repaid with a large profit by the duties upon what is carried. It is perhaps the only mercantile project which has been successfully managed by, I believe, every sort of Government. The capital to be advanced is not very considerable. There is no mystery in the business. The returns are not only certain but immediate."—Wealth of Nations, ed. 1904, vol. ii., p. 303.

[664] Vide supra, p. [26].

[665] In the United Kingdom the expense incurred in providing specially for the disposal of parcels in this way often exceeds the total amount of the postage paid on the parcels.

[666] In the United Kingdom, horse-posts or cycle-posts are in general provided in view of the length of the route to be traversed, rather than in view of the weight of traffic to be carried.

[667] The need for such a separation between ordinary letters and packets of appreciable weight is felt even in regard to the letter post itself. In England, the extension of the weight limit for penny letters, and the reduction of the rates for the heavier letters, has led to serious practical difficulties and has impeded smooth and rapid working. In the larger offices the letter post traffic is dealt with in two divisions: (1) the lighter, homogeneous traffic, the light letters and postcards; and (2) the heavier packets, and packets of irregular shape (p. [285]). In France, the extension of the maximum limit of weight gave rise to similar difficulties; so much so that the question of establishing a separate slower post for such packets has been seriously considered. In Paris, at the present time, there is a completely separate indoor and outdoor staff for the newspapers and packets.

[668] It is only necessary to glance into a van containing railway parcels in order to realize how impossible it would be to apply to such packages the usual postal method of enclosure in sacks; and conveyance à découvert by railway companies on behalf of the Post Office would give rise to obvious practical difficulties. In Germany and Switzerland postal parcels are so despatched, but the railways are State-owned in those countries, and the service is in many respects a railway service.

[669] The railways frequently establish receiving offices in various parts of a town. The services necessary for the conveyance of parcels from these offices to the railway stations are not, however, comparable with the services for closed parcel mails between the post offices and the stations, but rather with the services between branch post offices and the chief post office. The service from the chief post office to the railway station is a further service.

[670] In France heavy parcels are not accepted at post offices, but must be taken to a railway station. Vide supra, p. [206].

[671] The general proportion of parcels to letters for the United Kingdom as a whole is 1 in 40; but on some of the remoter rural routes the proportion of parcels frequently rises to 1 in 20, and sometimes to more than 1 in 10.

[672] Vide supra, pp. [190] and 219.

[673] The naval operations during the present war in regard to neutral mails have brought out clearly the essential distinction between letters and parcels. The arguments as to the customary inviolability of mails have been based on the idea of free communication. But parcels containing goods, possibly contraband, e.g. rubber, obviously cannot claim the privileges of communications, and the right of sea-power to interfere with parcel mails has been admitted. "The Government of the United States is inclined to regard parcels post articles as subject to the same treatment as articles sent by express or freight in respect of belligerent search, seizure, and condemnation."—United States Note to Great Britain, 10th January 1916.

[674] For particulars of other Acts relating to packet postage, and of Acts relating to Ship Letters, and to rates of postage within Ireland, see Schedule A of 1 Vict., cap. 32. Rates for transmission within Ireland were also fixed by 1 Vict., cap. 34 (§ 4).

[675] Vide supra, p. [6], n. 1.

[676] Ibid., p. 7.

[677] Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series), 1625-6, p. 523.

[678] H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, p. 12.

[679] H. Scobell, A Collection of Acts and Ordinances, London, 1658, p. 513.

[680] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 72.

[681] Ibid., p. 73.

[682] H. Scobell, ibid.

[683] Historical Summary of Post Office Services, London, 1911, p. 47.

[684] The number of letters still handed in to the General Post Office was, however, quite considerable. Thus, in 1686, 60,447 ship letters were received.—Vide H. Joyce, ibid., p. 74.

[685] London Gazette, No. 3247, 21st-24th December 1696; cited H. Joyce, ibid., n. 2.

[686] 9 Anne, cap. 10, § 16.

[687] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 329.

[688] Act of 39 Geo. III., cap. 76, §§ 1 and 2; H. Joyce, ibid.; J. C. Hemmeon, History of the British Post Office, p. 124.

[689] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 330.

[690] 54 Geo. III, cap. 169.

[691] H. Joyce, ibid., p. 362.

[692] Ibid., p. 363; 55 Geo. III, cap. 153.

[693] The Marquis of Clanricarde.

[694] "The principle upon which the postal communication between England and the Australian colonies has latterly been conducted is, that a postage of 6d. for a single letter has been charged, of which 4d. was understood to represent the sea rate, 1d. for collecting or delivering a single letter in any part of the United Kingdom, and the same in any part of the colonies; so that the whole cost of sending a letter from any part of the United Kingdom to any part of the Australian colonies, or vice versâ, should not exceed 6d.

"As the whole cost of the packet service has hitherto been borne by the Imperial Government, the portion of the postage which represented the sea service has been accounted for to the Home Post Office, so that of the 6d. charged, 5d. has been appropriated to England, and 1d. to the colony receiving or despatching the letter, as the case might be."—Second Report of the Postmaster-General, London, 1856, p. 66.

[695] Cf. H. Joyce, ibid., pp. 138-9.

[696] Cf. note 1, opposite.

[697] 18th Report, 1829, and 22nd Report, 1830.

[698] Historical Summary of Post Office Services, p. 52.

[699] Historical Summary of Post Office Services, p. 55.

[700] "The advantage of Imperial unity, which was held in 1898 to justify the sacrifice of revenue incidental to a measure calculated to bind together the United Kingdom and her possessions beyond the seas, cannot, of course, be urged as a plea in favour of universal penny postage; but apart from all other arguments for and against the proposal, the decisive consideration is that the British Government are not at present in a position to bear the very heavy loss that would be involved in the reduction of foreign postage from 2½d. to 1d."—Papers laid before the Colonial Conference, 1907; Memorandum by General Post Office (Cd. 3524), p. 500.

[701] H. von Stephan, Geschichte der preussischen Post, Berlin, 1859, p. 3.

[702] "Kommt es doch vor, dass ein Bote eines deutschen Reichsfürsten ausser dem Botenlohn noch eine besondere Vergütung beansprucht, weil er auf dem Botengange gleichzeitig einige Schweine für die Herrschaft nach dem Bestimmungsort hat treiben müssen. Da diese Begleitung auf kein besonders lebhaftes Gangtempo schliessen lässt, so dürfen wir es dem Garzonus nicht verdenken, wenn er die deutschen Boten zum Wetteifer mit ihren Collegen im alten Persien ermahnt, deren Geschwindigkeit Xenophon in der Kyropädie mit dem Fluge der Kraniche vergleicht."—Ibid., p. 15.

[703] Ibid., p. 4.

[704] B. E. Crole, Geschichte der deutschen Post, Eisenach, 1889, p. 214.

[705] "Die Vereinigung Oesterreichs mit den Burgundischen Niederlanden ruft die erste Reichspost, die Vereinigung von Brandenburg, Preussen, Cleve und Hinterpommern unter einem Scepter die erste Brandenburgische Staatspost hervor."—H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 5.

[706] F. Ohmann, Die Anfänge des Postwesens, Leipzig, 1909, pp. 49, 86, and 92.

[707] "(1) Die Unterhaltung solcher Boten lange Jahre vor Errichtung der Posten üblich gewesen; (2) dem Taxis wäre nur das Post-, nicht das Botenwesen zu Lehen gegeben; (3) es würden ihnen (den Boten nämlich) viele Waren und Kostbarkeiten anvertraut, welche sie überliefern und dafür stehen, welches wieder der Postillone Werk nicht sei; (4) die Posten dienten wohl zu Briefen, nicht aber zu Bestellung anderer Sachen, also könnten Posten und Boten wohl nebeneinander bestehen."—Imperial Rescript of 1686, given by Beust, Teil 1, s. 149 ff; cited F. Haass, Die Post und der Charakter ihrer Einkünfte, Stuttgart, 1890, p. 93.

[708] "For very good and potent reasons, especially on account of the troublesome war, as also for the purpose of obtaining good and reliable information about the Turks, the hereditary enemies of the whole of Christendom, and other potentates, adjacent to the Empire, in order that the Emperor, the King, and other potentates may exchange their correspondence."—Dr. Joseph Rübsam, L'Union postale, 1892, p. 126.

[709] "Es lag allweg 5 Meil wegs ein Post von den andern, einer war zu Kempten, einer zu Bless, einer an der Bruck zu Elchingen und also fortan imerdar 5 Meil wegs von einander und must allweg ein Pot des andern warten, und so bald der ander zu ihm ritt, so bliess er ein hörnlin, das hört ein bott der in der Herberg lag und must gleich auf sein. Einer musste all Stand ein Meil, das ist 2 Stund (wohl für den Fussgänger berechnet) weit reiten, oder es ist ihm am Lohn abzogen, und musten sie reiten Tag und Nacht."—"Memminger Chronicle," cited F. Ohmann, Die Anfänge des Postwesens, Leipzig, 1909, p. 102.

[710] Dr. Joseph Rübsam, ibid., p. 157.

[711] Ibid., p. 127.

[712] "Contrary to what was usually the case with the postal arrangements in antiquity and the Middle Ages, the institution founded by Francis von Taxis, though chiefly intended to serve the purposes of the State, assumed from its very beginning a character of public utility and political economy, for it was at the disposal of anybody wanting a rapid, cheap, and safe means of conveyance for his letters."—Dr. Joseph Rübsam, ibid., p. 128.

[713] Ibid., p. 130.

[714] Von Beust, cited H. von Stephan, op. cit., p. 6.

[715] B. E. Crole, Geschichte der deutschen Post, Eisenach, 1889, p. 201; H. von Stephan, Geschichte der preussischen Post, Berlin, 1859, pp. 6-10.

[716] Proclamation of 6th November 1597; B. E. Crole, op. cit., p. 205.

[717] An account of the struggles between the Taxis family and the princes is given in Crole's Geschichte der deutschen Post (Part III, chaps. iv. and v.).

[718] "Trotz der Ausdehnung der Taxis'schen Posten im 'Reich' hörte das Botenwesen in den einzelnen Ländern und in den Reichsstädten keineswegs auf sondern entwickelte sich fort und fort und hatte seine Botenmeister, auch Postmeister und andere Bedienstete."—B. E. Crole, op. cit., p. 213.

[719] Ibid., p. 231.

[720] E. Gallois, La Poste et les Moyens de Communication des Peuples à travers les Siècles, Paris, 1894, p. 94.

[721] B. E. Crole, op. cit., p. 247.

[722] The territory of the Taxis posts shrank between the years 1790 and 1811 from 3,922 square (German) miles to 745 square (German) miles, and a number of territorial posts took the place of the Imperial posts. In 1810 there were no less than 43 of these territorial posts.—Die Brieftaxe in Deutschland, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1862, p. 4; C. F. Müller, Die Fürstlich Thurn und Taxis'schen Poster und Posttaxen, Jena, 1845, p. 7.

[723] Oskar Grosse, Die Beseitigung des Thurn und Taxis'schen Postwesens in Deutschland, Minden in Westf., 1898, p. 33.

[724] C. F. Müller, op. cit., p. 13.

[725] The rates for a letter weighing 1 loth (½ ounce) were:—

Distance
(German Miles).		In Würtemberg
(Taxis Posts).		In Prussia
(State Post).
1-32 kr. = 6-6/7 pf.2¼ sgr.D1½ sgr.E
3-63 kr. = 10-2/7 pf.3 sgr. 2¼ sgr.
6-124 kr. =1 sgr.1-5/7 pf.4½ sgr. 3 sgr.
12-186 kr. =1 sgr.8-4/7 pf.6 sgr. 3¾ sgr.
18-248 kr. =2 sgr.3-3/7 pf.7½ sgr. 4½ sgr.
24-3010 kr. =2 sgr.10-2/7 pf.7½ sgr. 4½ sgr.
30-3612 kr. =3 sgr.5-1/7 pf.9 sgr. 6 sgr.
36-4214 kr. =4 sgr.—10½ sgr. 6 sgr.
42-4816 kr. =4 sgr.6-6/7 pf.10½ sgr. 6 sgr.
48-5418 kr. =5 sgr.1-5/7 pf.12 sgr. 7½ sgr.
54-6020 kr. =5 sgr.8-4/7 pf.12 sgr. 7½ sgr.

D: Rates established 18th December 1824.
E: Rates established 1st October 1844.—Ibid., pp. 9 and 39.

[726] K. A. H. Schmid, Zur Geschichte der Briefporto-Reform in Deutschland, Jena, 1864, p. 36.

[727] Oskar Grosse, Die Beseitigung des Thurn und Taxis'schen Postwesens in Deutschland, pp. 98-9.

[728] Ibid., p. 47.

[729] Ibid., p. 66.

[730] The conditions were in many respects similar to those obtaining in the United States. Vide supra, p. [191].

[731] "In England you have thickly congested rural districts, large towns every few miles, and tremendous cities: in Canada you have a population of less than 8,000,000 spread over a vast area, with few cities or large towns, and with vast spaces that must be traversed where no population exists.... We are giving, as compared with England, a flat rate in an area twice as great as Britain gives parcel post, and where all the conditions are much less favourable."—Hon. L. Pelletier, Parl. Debates, Canada (Commons), 4th June 1913.

[732] Canada Official Postal Guide, 1917, pp. 27-8.

[733] Such improvements as the introduction of letter-cards, reply-paid postcards, etc., afford conveniences to the public, but they have little bearing on general questions of rates of charge. The number of such articles passing by post is insignificant in comparison with the total postal traffic.

[734] Thus, in the United Kingdom, the number of letters registered in 1913-14 was .68 per cent. of the total number posted. The total cost of the supplemental services, including registration, insurance, and express delivery, was in 1913-14 only about a million, out of a total cost for all postal services of over £17,000,000 (Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, 1913-14, p. 92).

[735] "In the present century the Post Office has assumed three new functions—the transmission of money, and telegrams, and the custody of savings. These are alike only in requiring a widespread system of branch offices."—A. M. Ogilvie's article on "The Post Office" in R. H. Inglis Palgrave's Dict. Political Economy, London, 1899, vol. iii. p. 175.

"The so-called 'Post Office' is in fact a collection of different, though connected, industries."—C. F. Bastable, Public Finance, London, 1903, p. 206.

[736] See H. R. Meyer, Public Ownership and the Telephone in Great Britain, New York, 1907.

[737] "To-day, State ownership is the general rule over Europe, and only in America is there private ownership on a large scale. It is significant that the first seizure of this monopoly of the State was in France, on the simple ground that it was not safe to allow so important a device to be in other than the hands of the State. In 1837 a law was passed making every kind of telegraph a State monopoly. This was due to Napoleonic influence. It was not until 1870 that the British Government claimed the monopoly."—John Lee, Economics of Telegraphs and Telephones, London, 1913, p. 2.

[738] "No man can feel a more intimate conviction than I do that, whatever our financial difficulties may be, we must not take measures to meet them which should bear upon the comforts of the labouring classes.... Well, then, I must, with my sense of public duty, abandon the idea of raising a revenue from the Post Office."—Sir R. Peel, 11th March 1842, Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. lxi. col. 434.

"If, therefore, it should also happen that it (the penny) is the best rate adapted ultimately to produce the largest amount of money profit, such a coincidence would be the result of accident, not of design."—Report from Select Committee on Postage, 1843; evidence of Sir Rowland Hill, Answer 74.

"The Post Office, and, since the fall in silver, the Mint, both produce in England a net revenue, but the yield of revenue ought to be considered as purely incidental if not accidental."—J. Shield Nicholson, Principles of Political Economy, London, 1901, vol. iii. p. 372.

As a war measure the United Kingdom has now increased the rate on letters over one ounce in weight. Such letters are, however, only a small proportion of the total number of letters posted (vide supra, p. [33]). Canada has imposed a war tax of one cent on all letters, and on postcards (supra, p. [57]).

[739] Vide Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, London, 1907, vol. i. p. 124.

"If I put a letter in the pillar-box rather than walk half a mile to deliver it by hand, it is clear that I value the service at one penny at least, and if its true value is to be taken at less than a penny, it must be assumed that some one would have carried the letter for less than a penny if the Post Office monopoly had been absent. But to deal thoroughly with this question it would be necessary to enter on a discussion of the Austrian theory of value and Marshall's conception of 'consumer's rent.'"—E. Cannan (Memoranda on Classification and Incidence, p. 163).

[740] "Notre système fiscal demande aux impôts indirects la plus grande partie de nos recettes budgétaires. Les allumettes sont lourdement taxées. Écrire une lettre est, malgré tout, moins indispensable à l'homme qu'allumer du feu. Tant que les objets de première necessité sont frappés, il n'y a pas raison décisive pour refuser de laisser prélever sur les correspondances de toutes sortes un impôt indirect, qui apparaît, dans les écritures budgétaires, comme un excédent de recettes des Postes, Télégraphes, et Téléphones sur leurs dépenses.

"Si légitimes que soient en principe les bénéfices de l'État-postier, tenons pour certain que le public, à moins de quelque catastrophe imprévue, ne permettra pas de les accroître beaucoup, et que les Ministres de Finances de demain auront beaucoup de peine à conserver le peu qui leur en reste."—Rapport portant fixation du Budget général, Chambre des Députés, Session 1909, No. 2767.

[741] "The widest division of public revenue is into (1) that obtained by the State in its various functions as a great corporation or 'juristic person,' operating under the ordinary conditions that govern individuals or private companies, and (2) that taken from the revenues of the society by the power of the sovereign."—C. F. Bastable, Public Finance, London, 1903, p. 158. Of. C. C. Plehn, Introduction to Public Finance, New York, 1909, p. 79; E. B. A. Seligman, Essays in Taxation, New York, 1913, p. 400, et seq.; see also Bastable, op. cit., p. 156.

[742] E.g. "The common mode of levying a tax on the conveyance of letters is by making the Government the sole authorized carrier of them, and demanding a monopoly price. When this price is so moderate as it is in this country under the uniform penny postage, scarcely if at all exceeding what would be charged under the freest competition by any private company, it can hardly be considered as taxation, but rather as the profits of a business; whatever excess there is above the ordinary profits of stock being a fair result of the saving of expense, caused by having only one establishment and one set of arrangements for the whole country, instead of many competing ones."—J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, London, 1871, vol. ii. p. 461.

[743] Vide note 2, opposite.

[744] "Wherever the benefit to the individual can be even approximately estimated there is a strong presumption in favour of levying the cost incurred from him and converting the tax into a 'fee.'"—C. F. Bastable, op. cit., p. 267.

"To be properly remunerative to the State, as to a private individual, the price at which a commodity is sold must be sufficient to pay interest on the capital invested in the business, that is to say, to pay for the use of the property which must be used in producing the commodity, as well as to pay the more immediate cost of its production in wages and materials. There is no ground at all for the theory sometimes put forward that the State should deliberately abstain from making a profit from the working of an institution like the Post Office. Taxpayers are indeed nearly all users of the Post Office, and users of the Post Office are nearly all taxpayers, but there is nothing to show that people are taxed in the same proportion as they use the Post Office—the largest taxpayers are not necessarily the largest users of the Post Office. Consequently it is not a matter of complete indifference whether the State, which in this case means the taxpayers, makes a profit on the business or not. The only question difficult to decide is how much interest on the capital invested the State ought to obtain, in order to make the business remunerative but not a source of taxation. When the State has no monopoly, or only a monopoly secured by driving out all competitors in fair commercial rivalry (if such a case has ever occurred), it may charge what it can get for the commodity sold without making the business a source of taxation. But when the State has conferred on itself a monopoly of a business, it is evident that to charge the price which would bring in the largest profit would often be simply equivalent to laying a tax on the commodity. In this case, the price charged should only be such as would produce a rate of interest which would satisfy private individuals or joint-stock companies, supposing there were no monopoly. The rate of interest should be reckoned in relation to the actual market value of the property used, not in relation to what it may have originally cost the State. When the State makes a bad investment the loss should be written off once for all as soon as it is discovered. If, for instance, a State has bought telegraph apparatus for far more than it is worth, there can be no reason why the senders of telegrams, and not the whole body of taxpayers, should pay for the mistake."—Edwin Cannan, Elementary Political Economy, London, 1903, pp. 130-1.

The cost which ought in strictness to be taken is the cost of the most economical private commercial undertaking which would provide an equal service if the monopoly of the Post Office were withdrawn:—

"I do not regard the greater part of the Post Office revenue as a tax at all. If all of it were earned by doing for the public on a large scale work that no private company could do as cheaply, because it would have to do it on a small scale, then I should say that none of the Post Office revenue was a tax. That part, however, of its revenue which it gets by prohibiting others from performing services for the public is a tax."—Alfred Marshall, The Times, 6th April 1891.

[745] The terms "Mixed Taxes" and "Quasi-Taxes" have been applied to charges of this character. "Mixed Taxes, or Quasi-Taxes, naturally arise when a governing body makes demands for payments, and gives something in return, but without any pretence of equivalence between individual payments and individual returns."—R. Jones, The Nature and First Principle of Taxation, London, 1914, p. 7.

[746] E.g. "Many definitions of the word 'tax' have been proposed, but I know of none which would include just so much of the Post Office revenue as happens to be in excess of the amount expended in the year and no more.

"I believe that the desire to reckon this amount and no more as a tax, arises from a somewhat dim impression that it is the sum which the State exacts in excess of what a private company, without any legal or natural monopoly, would have to be satisfied with for performing the same services. But it is not. In the first place, such a private company would expect and receive about 3 per cent. on its capital in addition to the mere working expenses. We do not know what the capital of the Post Office is, but it must be very great, seeing that all the more important offices are owned in fee simple. Secondly, a company would raise new capital for new buildings and the purchase of more land, instead of defraying the expense as if it were current working expenditure. Thirdly, a company would not 'encourage thrift' by giving away upwards of £700,000 a year to the depositors in the savings bank, by paying 2½ per cent. Fourthly, in all sorts of ways the Post Office is not conducted as a commercial enterprise would be. For example, it spends more than a company would do in the less profitable districts.

"The only argument I know of in favour of treating the so-called 'net revenue' alone as a tax, thus breaks down. If any part of the gross revenue is a tax, the whole must be."—E. Cannan (Memoranda on Classification and Incidence, p. 163).

[747] "The payment for the same service may be a price in one State, a fee in a second, or a tax in a third.... The controlling consideration in the classification of public revenues is not so much the conditions attending the action of government or the kinds of businesses conducted by the government, as the economic relations existing between the individual and the government."—E. R. A. Seligman, Essays in Taxation, p. 423.

[748] This has been held a justification for regarding the letter rate as a whole as a pure tax:—

"A special service is no doubt rendered to each contributor of the tax, as well as a general service to the whole community, by means of the facilities of communication always available; but the charge is what is technically known as a tax, and the fact that a particular, as well as a general, service is rendered, does not alter the tax nature of the charge. Apart from the theory it has also to be considered that the productive portion of the Post Office revenue is derived from charges where the cost is very little—from letters, for instance, in the metropolitan district, or in and between great centres of population, where the cost of conveyance and delivery does not exceed, probably, one-tenth of a penny per letter, and the surplus of nine-tenths is spent on other services of the Post Office on which there is a deficit."—Sir Robert Giffen, K.C.B. (Memoranda on Classification and Incidence, p. 94).

The argument is that in large towns the cost of the service is infinitesimal, and the charge is therefore tax. Obviously this has no application to country services.

Plehn does not take this view:—

"Postal surplus not the result of taxation."

"There are some writers who regard any surplus acquired in this way as practically the result of taxation, and class any charge for the public service, above the cost thereof, as a special tax. This classification presupposes that the service is, by nature, of a public character, an assumption contrary to the fact, for no function except that of governing itself, in the narrowest possible sense, is by nature of a public character, nor, on the other hand, by nature of a private character. On this consideration, therefore, it is better to class these gains, not as taxes, but as the earnings of a public industry."—C. C. Plehn, Introduction to Public Finance, p. 358.

[749] "On the purely financial side the gain from the service must generally be a small one; the return for capital employed is little, and the only remaining element would be the economy that results from the application of monopoly, and the consequent unity of the service. Any further charge is really a form of taxation."—C. F. Bastable, Public Finance, London, 1903, p. 209.

"When we come to look more closely into the essential character of this 'public utility' in respect of its economic and financial value, it will appear that in this case an important administrative function has attached to it, as it were involuntarily, an effective contrivance for the levying of a tax, such as to require that the Post Office be taken up in connection with the theory of taxation."—G. Cohn, Science of Finance, translated by T. B. Veblen, Chicago, 1895, p. 126.

[750] The rates for postcards, printed matter, and samples roughly correspond with the cost of service and are perhaps to some extent prices.

[751] The suggested classification, if satisfactory from the speculative point of view, does, however, give rise to practical difficulties. In public financial statements it is, of course, impossible to show the actual nature of the revenue on such a basis. The only practicable course is to classify as a whole the gross revenue and the net revenue for the entire service. There is difference of opinion even as to this apparently simple problem. The common-sense solution would seem to be that recommended by Sir Edward Hamilton, viz. to reckon the net revenue as a tax and the balance of gross revenue as payment for services rendered; although in view of the complications resulting from the existence of unremunerative services, and the failure to make proper allowance in respect of the capital employed in the service, such a course is unscientific and misleading.

"The whole of the receipts from the various sources administered by the Post Office has always been treated in our Public Accounts as 'Non-Tax Revenue.' It is all carried to the Exchequer; and the whole cost is annually provided by Parliament. Therefore, to omit altogether this public receipt from a classification of taxes would seem to be the natural course to take. But the charge which is made for the carriage of letters, telegrams, and parcels, so far as the Post Office services are a State monopoly, is unquestionably 'an obligatory contribution by persons in respect of or incidental to something which they do.' Accordingly, to take no account of this charge, which nobody can avoid, would be to omit something which falls within our definition of a tax. At the same time it is obvious that to treat the whole of the Post Office revenue as a tax would for present purposes be misleading, inasmuch as the amount actually expended by the State represents direct and immediate service rendered to those who write letters or send telegrams. Regard being had to these considerations, when balanced one with another, it appears to me that the least incorrect course to adopt is to treat as a tax the amount by which the revenue derived from Post Office services exceeds the cost of administering those services."—Sir E. W. Hamilton, K.C.B. (Memoranda on Classification and Incidence, p. 36).

See also p. [361], n. 2, supra.

[752] "There cannot be devised a more eligible method than this of raising money upon the subject; for therein both the Government and the people find a mutual benefit. The Government acquires a large revenue, and the people do their business with greater ease, expedition, and cheapness than they would be able to do if no such tax (and of course no such office) existed."—Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, London, 1783, vol. i. p. 324.

"Nor, while the rates of postage are confined within due limits, or not carried so high as to form any serious obstacle to correspondence, is there, perhaps, a more unobjectionable tax."—J. R. McCulloch, Taxation and Funding, p. 320.

[753] "The Post Office in reality is neither a commercial nor a philanthropic establishment, but simply one of the revenue departments of the Government. It very rightly insists that no country post office shall be established unless the correspondence passing through it shall warrant the increased expense, and it maintains a tariff which has no accordance whatever with the cost of conveyance. Books, newspapers, and even unsealed manuscripts, can be sent up to the weight of 4 ounces for a penny; whereas if a sealed letter in the least exceeds ½ ounce it is charged 2d. It is obvious that the charges of the Post Office are for the most part a purely arbitrary system of taxes, designed to maintain the large net revenue of the Post Office, now (1867) amounting to a million and a half sterling.

"It will thus be apparent that Sir Rowland Hill's scheme of postal tariff consisted in substituting one arbitrary system of charges for a system more arbitrary and onerous."—W. S. Jevons, Methods of Social Reform, London, 1883, p. 280.

[754] "Will it pay?

"I will here lay down what may seem to financiers in this House a somewhat startling position. I hold that the State has no right to make a profit out of the Post Office. (Cheers.) ... Probably half the letters sent are business letters; and another very large share is sent by persons of small means who have many stern inducements to take care of their pence. In other words, one half of your postal revenue is derived from a tax on the machinery of trade, and another large share from the poorest class of citizens.

"This is practically a tax on commerce."—Sir J. Henniker Heaton, Parl. Debates (Commons), 30th March 1886.

[755] "Regarded as a tax diffused over the whole community, it is on the whole defensible, though the tendency to insist that the postal profits shall be devoted to improving the service is already becoming more pronounced."—C. F. Bastable, op. cit., p. 575.

"The Post Office, therefore, is at present one of the best sources from which this country derives its revenue. But a postage much exceeding what would be paid for the same service in a system of freedom is not a desirable tax. Its chief weight falls on letters of business, and increases the expense of mercantile relations between distant places. It is like an attempt to raise a large revenue by heavy tolls: it obstructs all operations by which goods are conveyed from place to place, and discourages the production of commodities in one place for consumption in another; which is not only in itself one of the greatest sources of economy of labour, but is a necessary condition of almost all improvements in production and one of the strongest stimulants to industry and promoters of civilization."—J. S. Mill, Principles of Political Economy, London, 1871, vol. ii. p. 462.

"It may happen (quite acceptably) that a surplus comes in from an undertaking which is primarily carried on for administrative purposes alone. A striking instance of this is afforded by the letter post. If the administrative purpose in question admitted of no aim beyond the covering of its own expenses, such a surplus would have no meaning, or at any rate no other meaning than that of a surplus in the hands of a consumers' club, which is returned to the members, on the closing of the accounts for the year, in the proportion in which they have contributed to it. The fact that the postal service not only retains any such surplus but even (with due regard to its primarily administrative function) consciously seeks it, is to be explained on the ground that, without hindrance to the administrative function, the different abilities of the citizens to contribute to public purposes may be drawn on by this means, with desirable results which are not attainable in any other way."—G. Cohn, op. cit., p. 94. Cf. The Development of the Post Office, Fabian Research Department, London, 1916, pp. 43-7.

[756] The extent to which any such disadvantage may be experienced is, of course, largely minimized by the existence of a low rate containing no element of tax, (see supra Chapter IV) for most of the formal documents of commerce.

[757] "It is wholly misleading to point to the fact that the business of the Post Office now yields a very considerable profit, and to suggest that increased remuneration can easily be provided from that source. That profit is not in a bag to be drawn upon at will. It goes into the National Exchequer, and forms part of the revenue of the country, and if two or three millions is taken from it, the deficit in the Exchequer must be made good in other ways. And it has never been admitted, nor can it now be admitted, that the profits of the Post Office belong in equity to the staff rather than to the taxpayer. The Post Office is not like a private business. Parliament has established a monopoly, and has fixed certain rates of postage. If Parliament chose to relax that monopoly, or to reduce those rates of postage, the profit would straightway disappear. It does not do so, because it desires to retain for the Exchequer the sums so brought.

"Parliament has also established the sixpenny telegram, extended the telegraph service into remote rural districts, and has given very cheap rates to the Press. This has resulted in the telegraphs being worked at a loss of over a million a year. No one would suggest that it would be just, because of this loss, to reduce the wages of the men and women employed in the telegraph service, and it is equally beside the mark to quote the profits on the postal side as though the pay of the staff should be determined by their amount."—The Right Hon. Herbert Samuel, British Postmaster General, to a deputation from the staff, 19th November 1913.

[758] Pekin.

[759] From the British Official Records.

[760] Exeter.

[761] From the British Official Records.

[762] From the British Official Records (undated).