FOOTNOTES:
[226] On leaving office he drew up a short paper entitled, “Results of Postal Reform,” a copy of which appears in the Appendix.
[227] He was, indeed, never likely to err as once did the unpopular Postmaster-General who summoned to his presence the head of one of the departments to give an explanation of some difficult matter that was under consideration. The interview was bound to be lengthy, but the unfortunate man was not invited to take a chair, till Rowland Hill, who was also present, rose, and, by way of silent protest against an ill-bred action, remained standing. Then both men were asked to sit down.
[228] “Life,” ii. 411-414.
[229] “Life,” ii. 363, 400.
[230] It is well to reproduce these remarks of one who could remember the old postal system, because among the younger generations who know nothing of it, a belief seems to be prevalent that the plan of penny postage was merely an elaboration of the little local posts. Gladstone was thirty when the great postal reform was established, and was therefore fully qualified to speak of it as he did.
[231] His love for “the Queen of all the Sciences” was gratified one cloudless day in the late autumn of his life by following through his telescope the progress of a transit of Mercury, which he enjoyed with an enthusiasm that was positively boyish. An early lesson in astronomy had been given him one wintry night by his father, who, with the little lad, had been taking a long walk into the country. On their return, young Rowland, being tired, finished the journey seated on his father's back, his arms clasped round the paternal neck. Darkness came on, and in the clear sky the stars presently shone out brilliantly. The two wayfarers by and by passed beside a large pond, in which, the evening being windless, the stars were reflected. Seeing how admirable an astral map the placid waters made, the father stopped and pointed out the constellations therein reproduced, naming them to his little son. The boy eagerly learned the lesson, but his joy was somewhat tempered by the dread lest he should fall into what, to his childish fancy, looked like a fathomless black abyss. Happily, his father had a firm grasp of Rowland's clinging arms, and no accident befell him.
[232] “Life,” ii. 401.
[233] A more recent instance of killing a man before he is dead, and raising his spirit to talk at a séance, was that of Mr Sherman, the American statesman. His ghost expatiated eloquently on the beauties and delights of Heaven—with which region, as he was still in the land of the living, he could hardly have made acquaintance—and altogether uttered much unedifying nonsense. The following veracious anecdotes show what hazy views on history, postal or otherwise, some children, and even their elders, entertain. A school mistress who had recently passed with honours through one of our “Seminaries of Useless Knowledge,” was asked by a small pupil if Rowland Hill had not invented the penny post. “No, my dear,” answered the learned instructress. “The penny post has been established in this country for hundreds of years. All that Rowland Hill did was to put the Queen's head on to a penny stamp.” The other story is of a recent viva voce examination in English history at one of our large public schools. “Who was Rowland Hill?” was the question. “Rowland Hill,” came without hesitation the reply, though not from the grand-nephew who was present and is responsible for the tale, “was a man who was burned for heresy.” Could the boy have been thinking of Rowland Taylor, a Marian martyr? The fact that my father was not exactly orthodox, lends piquancy to the story.
[234] While we were children our father used often to read aloud to us—as a schoolmaster and elocutionist he was a proficient in that comparatively rare art—and in course of time we thus became acquainted with nearly all these books. He probably missed the occasional lengthy introductory chapters and other parts which well bear pruning, for memory holds no record of their undeniable tediousness. We certainly did not find Scott “dry.” Why should we? Through him we came to know chivalric Saladin, David of Huntingdon, and tawny-haired Richard of the Lion's heart; to love the noble Rebecca, and to assist at the siege of Torquilstone Castle; to look on at the great fight between the Clan Chattan and the Clan Quhele, and to mourn over Rothesay's slow, cruel doing to death; to know kings and queens, and companies of gallant knights and lovely ladies, and free-booters like Rob Roy and Robin Hood, and wits and eccentric characters who were amusing without being vulgar or impossible. Also was it not Sir Walter who “discovered” Scotland for our delight, and through that discovery contributed largely to his native land's prosperity?
[235] The Mercantile Committee suggested a National Testimonial in March 1844, but Mr Estlin's proposal was yet earlier.
[236] A third letter to the postal reformer, also delivered, came directed to the General Post Office to “Mr Owl O Neill.” Owing to the present spread of education, the once numerous (and genuine) specimens of eccentric spelling are yearly growing fewer, so that the calling of “blind man”—as the official decipherer of illegible and ill-spelled addresses is not very appropriately termed—is likely to become obsolete. It would surely have given any ordinary mortal a headache to turn “Uncon” into Hong-Kong, “Ilawait” into Isle of Wight, “I Vicum” into High Wycombe, “Searhoo Skur” into Soho Square, or “Vallop a Razzor” into Valparaiso. Education will also deprive us of insufficiently addressed letters. “Miss Queene Victoria of England” did perhaps reach her then youthful Majesty from some Colonial or American would-be correspondent; but what could have been done with the letter intended for “My Uncle Jon in London,” or that to “Mr Michl Darcy in the town of England”? The following pair of addresses are unmistakably Hibernian. “Dennis Belcher, Mill Street, Co. Cork. As you turn the corner to Tom Mantel's field, where Jack Gallavan's horse was drowned in the bog-hole,” and “Mr John Sullivan, North Street, Boston. He's a man with a crutch. Bedad, I think that'll find him.” That the French Post Office also required the services of “blind man” these strange addresses, taken from Larouse's “Dictionnaire du XIXe Siècle,” vol. xii. p. 1,497, demonstrate. The first, “À monsieur mon fils à Paris,” reached its destination because it was called for at the chief office, where it had been detained, by a young man whose explanation satisfied the enquiring official. Whether the letter addressed to Lyon, and arriving at a time of thaw, “À M. M., demeurant dans la maison auprès de laquelle il y a un tas de neige” was delivered is not so certain.
[237] He had long before added to his name the justly-prized initials of F.R.S. and F.R.A.S.
[238] This last statue had not long been unveiled when the street boys—so reported one of our newspapers—began to adorn the pedestal with postage stamps.
[239] These were Mr Washington Lyon, mover of the resolution; Sir John Bennett, the seconder; Mr Peter M'Kinley, the Chairman of General Purposes Committee; Mr (afterwards Sir Benjamin) Scott, F.R.A.S., the City Chamberlain; and Mr (afterwards Sir John) Monckton, F.S.A., the Town Clerk.
APPENDIX
RESULTS OF POSTAL REFORM
Before stating the results of Postal Reform it may be convenient that I should briefly enumerate the more important organic improvements effected. They are as follows:
1. A very large reduction in the Rates of Postage on all correspondence, whether Inland, Foreign, or Colonial. As instances in point, it may be stated that letters are now conveyed from any part of the United Kingdom to any other part—even from the Channel Islands to the Shetland Isles—at one-fourth of the charge previously levied on letters passing between post towns only a few miles apart;[240] and that the rate formerly charged for this slight distance—viz. 4d.—now suffices to carry a letter from any part of the United Kingdom to any part of France, Algeria included.
2. The adoption of charge by weight, which, by abolishing the charge for mere enclosures, in effect largely extended the reduction of rates.
3. Arrangements which have led to the almost universal resort to prepayment of correspondence, and that by means of stamps.
4. The simplification of the mechanism and accounts of the department generally, by the above and other means.
5. The establishment of the Book Post (including in its operation all printed and much M.S. matter), at very low rates; and its modified extension to our Colonies, and to many foreign countries.
6. Increased security in the transmission of valuable letters afforded, and temptation to the letter-carriers and others greatly diminished, by reducing the Registration Fee from 1s. to 4d., by making registration of letters containing coin compulsory, and by other means.
7. A reduction to about one-third in the cost—including postage—of Money Orders, combined with a great extension and improvement of the system.
8. More frequent and more rapid communication between the Metropolis and the larger provincial towns; as also between one provincial town and another.
9. A vast extension of the Rural Distribution—many thousands of places, and probably some millions of inhabitants having for the first time been included within the Postal System.
10. A great extension of free deliveries. Before the adoption of Penny Postage, many considerable towns, and portions of nearly all the larger towns, had either no delivery at all, or deliveries on condition of an extra charge.
11. Greatly increased facilities afforded for the transmission of Foreign and Colonial Correspondence; by improved treaties with foreign countries, by a better arrangement of the Packet service, by sorting on board and other means.
12. A more prompt dispatch of letters when posted, and a more prompt delivery on arrival.
13. The division of London and its suburbs into Ten Postal Districts, by which, and other measures, communication within the 12-miles circle has been greatly facilitated, and the most important delivery of the day has, generally speaking, been accelerated as much as two hours.
14. Concurrently with these improvements, the condition of the employees has been materially improved; their labours, especially on the Sunday, having been very generally reduced, their salaries increased, their chances of promotion augmented, and other important advantages afforded them.
RESULTS
My pamphlet on “Post Office Reform” was written in the year 1836. During the preceding twenty years—viz., from 1815 to 1835 inclusive—there was no increase whatever in the Post Office revenue, whether gross or net, and therefore, in all probability, none in the number of letters; and though there was a slight increase in the revenue, and doubtless in the number of letters, between 1835 and the establishment of Penny Postage early in 1840—an increase chiefly due, in my opinion, to the adoption of part of my plan, viz., the establishment of Day Mails to and from London—yet, during the whole period of twenty-four years immediately preceding the adoption of Penny Postage, the revenue, whether gross or net, and the number of letters, were, in effect, stationary.
Contrast with this the rate of increase under the new system which has been in operation during a period of about equal length. In the first year of Penny Postage the letters more than doubled, and though since then the increase has, of course, been less rapid, yet it has been so steady that, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of trade, every year, without exception, has shown a considerable advance on the preceding year, and the first year's number is now nearly quadrupled. As regards revenue, there was, of course, at first a large falling off—about a million in gross and still more in net revenue. Since then, however, the revenue, whether gross or net, has rapidly advanced, till now it even exceeds its former amount, the rate of increase, both of letters and revenue, still remaining undiminished.
In short, a comparison of the year 1863 with 1838 (the last complete year under the old system) shows that the number of chargeable letters has risen from 76,000,000 to 642,000,000; and that the revenue, at first so much impaired, has not only recovered its original amount, but risen, the gross from £2,346,000 to about £3,870,000, and the net from £1,660,000 to about £1,790,000.[241]
The expectations I held out before the change were, that eventually, under the operation of my plans, the number of letters would increase fivefold, the gross revenue would be the same as before, while the net revenue would sustain a loss of about £300,000. The preceding statement shows that the letters have increased, not fivefold, but nearly eight-and-a-half-fold; that the gross revenue, instead of remaining the same, has increased by about £1,500,000; while the net revenue, instead of falling £300,000, has risen more than £100,000.
While the revenue of the Post Office has thus more than recovered its former amount, the indirect benefit to the general revenue of the country arising from the greatly increased facilities afforded to commercial transactions, though incapable of exact estimate, must be very large. Perhaps it is not too much to assume that, all things considered, the vast benefit of cheap, rapid, and extended postal communication has been obtained, even as regards the past, without fiscal loss. For the future there must be a large and ever-increasing gain.
The indirect benefit referred to is partly manifested in the development of the Money Order System, under which, since the year 1839, the annual amount transmitted has risen from £313,000 to £16,494,000, that is, fifty-two-fold.
An important collateral benefit of the new system is to be found in the cessation of that contraband conveyance which once prevailed so far that habitual breach of the postal law had become a thing of course.
It may be added that the organisation thus so greatly improved and extended for postal purposes stands available for other objects; and, passing over minor matters, has already been applied with great advantage to the new system of Savings Banks.
Lastly, the improvements briefly referred to above, with all their commercial, educational, and social benefits, have now been adopted, in greater or less degree—and that through the mere force of example—by the whole civilised world.
I cannot conclude this summary without gratefully acknowledging the cordial co-operation and zealous aid afforded me in the discharge of my arduous duties. I must especially refer to many among the superior officers of the department—men whose ability would do credit to any service, and whose zeal could not be greater if their object were private instead of public benefit.
Rowland Hill.
Hampstead,
23rd February 1864.