Charles Sumner: his complete works, volume 18 (of 20)

by Charles Sumner

VICTORY.

At last victory was assured. The Parliamentary Committee reported in favor of change. But Parliament hesitated to fix the change in permanent form. By Act of 17th August, 1839, the Lords of the Treasury were empowered by warrant under their hands to declare the rates of postage according to weight, “without reference to the distance or number of miles the same shall be conveyed,”—and also to suspend, wholly or in part, “any parliamentary or official privilege of sending and receiving letters by the post free of postage, or any other franking privilege of any description whatsoever.” The Lords of the Treasury were contented with ordering a uniform rate of fourpence, and without the abolition of the franking privilege. This was not enough. The people called for more, and the Lords of the Treasury by another warrant declared the rate at one penny and suspended the franking privilege.[63] This was followed by the Act of Parliament passed 10th August, 1840, in which the great change was consummated. The rate was established at one penny, with stamps; and the franking privilege was abolished, except in the case of petitions to the Crown or to Parliament not exceeding thirty-two ounces in weight. The clause of abolition was as follows:—

“That, except in the cases herein specified, all privileges whatsoever of sending letters by the post free of postage, or at a reduced rate of postage, shall wholly cease and determine.”[64]

The abolition of the franking privilege was more than Rowland Hill had proposed. In his testimony before the Parliamentary Committee he undertook to account for the anticipated increase of letters “in some measure from the partial voluntary disuse of the franking privilege,”[65]—thus mildly forecasting, not its abolition, but its voluntary renunciation. And the Committee, in their recommendations, treated its abolition as incident to cheap postage. This is their language:—

“It would be politic, … if, on effecting the proposed reduction of the postage rates, the privilege of Parliamentary franking were to be abolished, and the privilege of official franking placed under strict limitation,—petitions to Parliament and Parliamentary documents being still allowed to go free.”[66]

Thus was the abolition of the franking privilege announced as subordinate to the reduction of the postage rates, which was the main object.

Thus, after inquiry and debate lasting for three years, this great reform was accomplished, and the English Post-Office assumed an unprecedented character. The new system was founded on a uniform rate for uniform weight without regard to distance, and this rate the lowest unit of coin,—with prepaid stamps, and the abolition of the franking privilege. The experiment was a prodigious success, although the first results showed a falling off financially. The Post-Office authorities had predicted that it would not pay expenses; but the diminished receipts were more than enough for the expenses, while the number of letters was more than doubled.[67] There was a smaller net revenue for the National Treasury, but an infinite benefit to the people. The surplus of the first year was £500,789, against £1,633,764 of the previous year.[68] But the improvement financially was constant, so that here Rowland Hill became a prophet. He had predicted that the increase of correspondence and the economy of management would in a reasonable time afford a probable net revenue of £1,278,000.[69] In 1856 the net revenue had reached £1,207,725,—while at the same time the letters were 478,393,803 in number, with 6,178,982 money orders, against 75,907,572 letters, with 188,921 money orders, in the last year of the old system.[70]

The smallest part of the result was in the revenue,—except so far as this was advanced by the increased activity of the country, represented by the added millions of correspondence. Commerce and business were quickened infinitely, while the ties of social life were brightened and the heart was rejoiced. Here the testimony is complete. Tradesmen wrote to Rowland Hill, their benefactor, saying how their business had increased. Charles Knight, the eminent publisher, who did so much for the literature of the people, wrote that every branch of bookselling was stimulated, while the country seller was brought into almost daily communication with the London houses. The publisher of the Polyglot Bible in twenty-four languages, requiring a peculiar revision, declared that it could not have been printed but for penny postage. The Secretary of the Parker Society, composed of Church dignitaries and influential laymen, which has done so much for ecclesiastical literature by reprinting the works of the early English Reformers, stated that without penny postage the Society could not have come into existence. Secretaries of other societies, literary and benevolent, wrote how their machinery had been improved; conductors of educational establishments testified that people were everywhere learning to write for the first time, in order to enjoy the benefits of untaxed correspondence, and that night classes of adults for this purpose were springing up in all large towns. A leading advocate for the repeal of the Corn Laws gave it as his opinion that this reform must have waited but for penny postage,—that through this ally it reached its triumph two years earlier than it otherwise could have done. All this is easy to believe; for penny postage lends itself to all knowledge and to every reform. Others wrote with rapture of its operations. The accomplished naturalist, Professor Henslow, of Cambridge, rejoiced over its “importance to those who cultivate science,” and pictured the satisfaction of the humble people about his country parsonage “at the facility they enjoy of now corresponding with distant relatives,” together with what he calls “the vast domestic comfort which the penny postage has added to homes like my own, situate in retired villages.” Miss Martineau described its social benefits. Rowland Hill himself, showing how much it had done for the poor, said, “The postman has now to make long rounds through humble districts where heretofore his knock was rarely heard.”[71] And from the outlying Shetland Islands a visitor in May, 1842, reported: “The Zetlanders are delighted with penny postage. The postmaster told me that the number of letters was astonishing.”[72] But perhaps the heartfelt exultation was never better expressed than by the accomplished traveller, Mr. Laing, when, after describing the Prussian system of education, and giving the palm to penny postage as “a much wiser and more effective educational measure,” destined to be “the great historical distinction of the reign of Victoria I.,” he proceeds to say, that “every mother in the kingdom, who has children earning their bread at a distance, lays her head upon her pillow at night with a feeling of gratitude for this blessing.”[73] Such was the unbought tribute from all quarters,—alike the cottage of the lowly and the home of the professor, the counting-house of the merchant and the activities of benevolence, business in its various forms, and the commanding efforts of the political reformer, all, all confessing their debt to penny postage.[74]

The benefactor was honored in no common way, but not without tasting the lot of others who have served Humanity. At first assigned to a position in the Treasury connected with the Post-Office, then dismissed, and then, with a change of Administration, not only restored to the service, but appointed to a high position in the Post-Office itself, he had the inexpressible satisfaction of witnessing the triumph of his efforts and receiving the grateful regard of a happy people. He was not rich, and the considerable sum of £13,000 was presented to him by a public subscription throughout the country, with an address declaring the reform he had accomplished “the greatest boon conferred in modern times on all the social interests of the civilized world.” The knighthood bestowed by his sovereign was another attestation of his prevailing merit, destined to be followed by a further gift from Parliament itself of £20,000.[75] This episode of honor and gratitude to the benefactor has a peculiar interest for us, as furnishing new testimony to the cause with which the name of Rowland Hill is forever associated.