The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by Sir Rowland Hill; George Birkbeck Norman Hill

FOOTNOTES

[1] See p. 235.

[2] See pp. 234, 292.

[3] “Life of John Sterling,” p. 198. Edition of 1857.

[4] See “Miscellanies,” by J. A. Symonds, M.D. Edited by his son.

[5] Butler was a Worcestershire man.

[6] In looking over some old records at the General Post-office I noticed that the first Kidderminster postmaster, who was appointed about the beginning of last century, was named Hill. Likely enough he was an ancestor of Sir Rowland Hill.

[7] An instance of the manufacture of a new kind of faggot-vote.

[8] In this, as in other cases, I quote from the fragments of an autobiography which Mr. T. W. Hill left behind him at his death. As he did not begin to write it until he had by some years passed fourscore, it is scarcely surprising that he never finished it.

[9] He was also related through her to Dr. J. A. Symonds, the late eminent physician of Clifton, and his son, Mr. J. A. Symonds, the accomplished essayist, to the Rev. Morell Mackenzie, who showed such noble fortitude at the shipwreck of the Pegasus, and to the admirable comedian, the late Mr. Compton.

[10] Vol. I., p. 9.

[11] “Essays of a Birmingham Manufacturer.” By William Lucas Sargant. Vol. II., p. 186.

[12] The definition is as follows:—“A straight line is a line in which, if any two points be taken, the part intercepted shall be less than any other line in which those points can be found.”

[13] “The strength of prejudice at the time is well exemplified by the following epigram, written in all earnestness and sincerity, by one of my father’s intimate friends:—

“‘And what did Watt accomplish for mankind?—

What was the produce of his powerful mind?

He found machinery a deadly curse;

And what did Watt? He left it ten times worse!’”

[14] See page 69.

[15] Prefatory Memoir.

[16] Prefatory Memoir.

[17] The following table may be of some service to the reader.

Thomas Wright Hill,	Born,	April 24, 1763.	Died,	June 13, 1851.
Sarah Lea	”	August 23, 1765.	”	April 9, 1842.
Married, July 29, 1791.
Their Children.
Matthew Davenport,	Born,	August 6, 1792.	Died,	June 7, 1872.
Edwin	”	November 25, 1793.	”	November 6, 1876.
Rowland	”	December 3, 1795.	”	August 27, 1879.
Arthur	”	August 27, 1798.
Caroline	”	August 18, 1800.	”	September 16, 1877.
Frederic	”	June 29, 1803.
William Howard	”	July 26, 1805.	”	November 30, 1830.
Sarah	”	July 9, 1807.	”	June 12, 1840.

[18] For the sketch of this house, as it was at the time of Sir Rowland Hill’s birth, I am indebted to the kindness of William Bucknall, Esq., of Franche Court, Kidderminster.

[19] “Henry Crabb Robinson’s Diary.” Vol. I., p. 80.

[20] The Peace of Amiens was not signed till March 27, 1802. But the general rejoicings were on the conclusion of the Preliminary Articles on October 1, 1801.

[21] The battle was fought on the twenty-first.

[22] Prefatory Memoir.

[23] Prefatory Memoir,

[24] I remember how, at the age of eight, I was myself set for a short time to teach some still smaller children to read. The book we used was Mrs. Barbauld’s “Early Lessons.” We came to the word mezereon. I was ashamed to own that I did not know how it was pronounced. With great gravity I informed my class that this was a word that no one knew how to read. So far as I can remember there was no doubting Thomas present.

[25] For many years he was engaged to give private lessons in mathematics to some of the boys in the Grammar School. Among his pupils were Dr. Kennedy, the Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge, and Dr. Guest, the Master of Caius College, Cambridge.

[26] “I shall never forget the joy I felt on taking the first spark from the prime conductor.”—Rowland Hill’s Journal.

[27] Prefatory Memoir.

[28] See Appendix A.

[29] See Appendix A.

[30] Prefatory Memoir.

[31] “At the first meeting in April, and also in October, a Committee shall be elected, which shall consist of at least one-fifth of the members of the Society. The mode of election shall be as follows:—A ticket shall be delivered to each member present, with his own name at the head of it, immediately under which he shall write the name of the member whom he may wish to represent him in the Committee. The votes thus given, shall be delivered to the president, who, after having assorted them, shall report to the meeting the number of votes given for each nominee. Every one who has five votes shall be declared a member of the Committee; if there are more than five votes given to any one person, the surplus votes (to be selected by lot) shall be returned to the electors whose name they bear, for the purpose of their making other nominations, and this process shall be repeated till no surplus votes remain, when all the inefficient votes shall be returned to the respective electors, and the same routine shall be gone through a second time, and also a third time if necessary; when if a number is elected, equal in all to one-half of the number of which the Committee should consist, they shall be a Committee; and if at the close of the meeting the number is not filled up, by unanimous votes of five for each member of the Committee, given by those persons whose votes were returned to them at the end of the third election, then this Committee shall have the power, and shall be required, to choose persons to fill up their number; and the constituents of each member so elected shall, if necessary, be determined by lot. The President, Secretary, and Treasurer, all for the time being, shall be members of the Committee, ex-officio, whether elected or not. In the intervals between the general elections, it shall be competent to any four members of the society, by a joint nomination, in a book to be opened for the purpose, to appoint a representative in the ensuing Committee; such appointment being made shall not be withdrawn, nor shall the appointers give any vote in the choice of a Committee-man, as such, until after the next election. A register shall be kept by the Secretary of the constituents of every member of the Committee; and the constituents of any member, except those appointed by the Committee, (upon whose dismissal that body may exercise a negative,) shall have the power of withdrawing their representative, by a vote of their majority, of which vote notice in writing shall be given (subscribed by the persons composing such majority) both to the member so dismissed, and to the Chairman of the Committee; and in the case of a vacancy occasioned by a dismissal as above, or by any other cause, the constituents of the member whose place becomes vacant, may elect another in his stead, by a unanimous vote, but not otherwise; if such election be not made within a fortnight after the vacancy has occurred, the appointment shall devolve upon the Committee.”

[32] I give this Preface in Appendix B.

[33] A young man to whom he was strongly attached. He also had been bent on doing something for the world—something which should make his name live. He was studying engineering, and it was his great hope that he should live to make a canal through the Isthmus of Panama. Unhappily he died at an early age.

[34] Published in London by Sir Richard Phillips.

[35] Prefatory Memoir.

[36] Prefatory Memoir.

[37] “Of course I do not mean by these quotations to set up for my father or myself any claim to invention, seeing that we merely formed crude ideas which were never elaborated or even published.”—Prefatory Memoir.

[38] Prefatory Memoir.

[39] Sir Rowland Hill, to a considerable extent at all events, recovered the process. It is described in Appendix C. He adds: “As it is fully fifty years since I gave any thought to the subject, and as, in the eightieth year of my age, I find my brain unequal to further investigation, I must be contented with the result at which I have arrived.”

[40] “Essays by a Birmingham Manufacturer,” Vol. II., p. 188.

[41] This expression is not strictly correct, as it was impossible to maintain absolutely the same level throughout without using stools of an unmanageable height. What was done was to keep the rods in a right line until a new gradient was designedly taken; the angle of rise or fall being in each instance carefully measured, and the whole afterwards reduced by computation to the exact horizontal distance. It may be added, that in order to make due allowance for the elongation or contraction of the rods by change of temperature, thermometers were attached to the apparatus, and the rise and fall of the mercury duly recorded.

[42] “These manuscripts were unfortunately destroyed two years afterwards in a fire which will be mentioned hereafter, and with them perished not only my water alarum, but also my planispheres, and various other results of past labour.”

[43] Colonel Mudge’s “Report of the Trigonometrical Society of England and Wales.” Vol. III., p. 156.

[44] Alphabetical Index to the third volume of the “Report.”

[45] Prefatory Memoir.

[46] “Southey’s Life and Correspondence,” Vol. I., p. 39.

[47] “Plans for the Government and Liberal Instruction of Boys in Large Numbers. Drawn from Experience.” London: Printed for G. & W. B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria Lane, 1822. A second edition was published in 1825.

[48] He was speaking of the system as it was in his time. His only son, and all his grandsons, have been pupils of the school.

[49] “When Dr. Johnson read his own satire, in which the life of a scholar is painted with the various obstructions thrown in his way to fortune and to fame, he burst into a passion of tears.”—“Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson.” By Madame Piozzi, p. 50.

[50] This Society, which was thus founded more than sixty years ago, has existed ever since. Many hundreds of pounds have been raised by successive generations of the pupils of Hill Top, Hazelwood, and Bruce Castle. Why should not every school in the country have its Benevolent Society?

[51] This officer, I believe, kept the punches with which the number that each boy bore in the school was stamped on certain articles of his clothing.

[52] See page 112.

[53] “By this institution, successive committees of boys (generally, indeed, presided over by a master, but still free in action) must have disposed of little less, perhaps more, than four thousand pounds.”—Prefatory Memoir.

[54] “Essays by a Birmingham Manufacturer,” Vol. II., p. 187.

[55] Emilius. Book II.

[56] Prefatory Memoir.

[57] Prefatory Memoir.

[58] “The ammunition with which these poor fellows were to overturn the government was kept in an old stocking.”

[59] The passage quoted begins, “Deep-toned the organ breathes,” and ends, ‘He smiles on death.’

[60] It was part of Uriconium.

[61] It was at a time of grievous distress and loud discontent that the suspension of this Act was carried. In few places was there greater suffering than in Birmingham. Rowland Hill, before he set out for London, had passed near the Birmingham Workhouse while a crowd was gathered round the doors waiting for their weekly dole. One of them called out to him, “Look there, Sir; there’s a sight, while they’re a-passing their Horpus Corpus Acts. Damn their Horpus Corpus Acts, say I.”

[62] There existed at this time in Birmingham, as Sir R. Hill subsequently recorded, “a very exclusive society for procuring private concerts. It was supposed that the society’s strict rule would be waived in favour of so distinguished a visitor as Mr. Campbell; but upon application being made for his admission to one of these performances, answer was returned that no exception had been made even in the case of an officer who had bled for his country, and whose claims were of course very superior to any that could be advanced by Mr. Campbell.”

[63] See page 87.

[64] Joseph Hodgson, Esq., F.R.S., late President of the College of Surgeons.

[65] M.P. for Midhurst.

[66] “The Recorder of Birmingham.” A Memoir of Matthew Davenport Hill. By his daughters. Page 76.

[67] “History of my Religious Opinions.” Page 290.

[68] See page 47.

[69] See Mr. Trevelyan’s “Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay.” Second edition. Vol. II., p. 463.

[70] “By a mistake of the Secretary, my name was omitted in the first list of the Committee.”

[71] Writing to his wife from Hazelwood on January 12th, 1830, he says: “I am engaged in my experiments with pendulums, which at present promise very well. Father is much interested in the matter. I tell you this, my dear, because I know you take a lively interest in everything I undertake.”

[72] Published by Simpkin and Marshall.

[73] The Arthur Hill Lifeboat, stationed at Fowey, is a memorial of the affection of many generations of scholars for their old master.—Ed.

[74] This was written in the year 1869. Eight years later—seventy-four years after the opening of Hill Top, and fifty years after the opening of Bruce Castle—the school passed out of the hands of any member of Sir Rowland Hill’s family. In justice to the present head-master, it should be stated that in the fifty-eight years that have elapsed since the publication of “Public Education,” great changes have been made in the system of government of the school.

[75] The reader will find the scheme described in Appendix E.

[76] The late Sir John Shaw-Lefevre, K.C.B.

[77] Assistant Secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners.

[78] The Society was later on joined by Dr. Arnott, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Mr. Edwin Chadwick, Mr. Henry Cole, Mr. Arthur Symonds, Mr. Dilke, and Mr. Frederic Hill.

[79] See Southey’s “Life and Correspondence.” Vol. I., p. 216.

[80] We may compare with this what Gibbon says of his own training. “Whatsoever have been the fruits of my education, they must be ascribed to the fortunate banishment which placed me at Lausanne.”—Ed.

[81] Sir R. Hill, in after years, saw a good deal of Lord Brougham. He thus writes of him:—“Judging by what I observed, I should say that, wide as was the range of his knowledge—far wider, indeed, than I could measure,—it was deficient in accuracy, and therefore in profundity. This, indeed, must be evident to all who regard the undulatory theory of light as now fully established.... Other instances of inaccuracy, doubtless of a minor, but yet of a serious character, I found in his essay on Hydrostatics, written for the Useful Knowledge Society, and, as it happened, referred to me by the Committee for report thereon. On the other hand, I found much more of kindliness in him than the world generally gave him credit for, and in particular I remember with gratitude the important help which he freely and promptly rendered to myself.”—Ed.

[82] Writing to Mr. M. D. Hill on September 5, 1834, he says:—“However absurd it may appear, I do really believe that Mr. Spring Rice [at that time Secretary to the Colonies] has jumbled up together in his mind the statements as to the sterility of some parts of the Continent with the ample evidence of the fertility of other parts, and has got a notion that the evidence is contradictory.”—Ed.

[83] See “First Annual Report of the Colonisation Commissioners for South Australia,” pp. 7 and 13, and “Fourth Report,” p. 3.

[84] “Third and Fourth Reports of the South Australian Commissioners.”

[85] “Third Report,” p. 18.

[86] See page 69.

[87] The office was No. 6, next door to the house in which Garrick had died; and this, on an alarm of fire, I once entered at the request of the occupant. I need not say with what interest.

[88] It was in the same year that he received this refusal that he and Mr. Lefevre formed the small society which has been described on page 209. He has recorded that the society discussed “the possibility of feeding the machine mechanically with a continuous supply of sheets.... I scarcely need add that we found the problem insoluble.”—Ed.

[89] The offer was made by Mr. Wm. Clowes, Sen. I should have had to contribute, I think, about £5,000 of capital, and my share of the profits was estimated at £2,500 a-year.

[90] See Appendix E for letters by Mr. John Forster, late Member for Berwick, and Sir Rowland Hill, on the subject of the printing machine.

[91] The employment of existing stage-coaches instead of slow and irregular horse and foot posts, a change made in the year 1784.

[92] In Sir R. Hill’s Pamphlet on “Post Office Reform,” (Third Edition, p. 86), is the following passage:—

“Coleridge tells a story which shows how much the Post Office is open to fraud in consequence of the option which now exists. The story is as follows. ‘One day, when I had not a shilling which I could spare, I was passing by a cottage not far from Keswick, where a letter-carrier was demanding a shilling for a letter, which the woman of the house appeared unwilling to pay, and at last declined to take. I paid the postage, and when the man was out of sight, she told me that the letter was from her son, who took that means of letting her know that he was well; the letter was not to be paid for. It was then opened and found to be blank!” (“Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge,” Vol. II., p. 114).

In Miss Martineau’s “History of England During the Thirty Years’ Peace,” which was published thirteen years after “Post Office Reform,” this story appears in the following shape:—

“Mr. Rowland Hill, when a young man, was walking through the Lake District, when he one day saw the postman deliver a letter to a woman at a cottage door. The woman turned it over and examined it, and then returned it, saying that she could not pay the postage, which was a shilling. Hearing that the letter was from her brother, Mr. Hill paid the postage, in spite of the manifest unwillingness of the woman. As soon as the postman was out of sight, she showed Mr. Hill how his money had been wasted, as far as she was concerned. The sheet was blank. There was an agreement between her brother and herself, that as long as all went well with him, he should send a blank sheet in this way once a quarter, and she thus had tidings of him without expense of postage. Most people would have remembered this incident as a curious story to tell; but Mr. Hill’s was a mind which wakened up at once to a sense of the significance of the fact. There must be something wrong in a system which drove a brother and sister to cheating, in order to gratify their desire to hear of one another’s welfare, &c.” Vol. II., p. 425.

A few years ago Sir R. Hill drew my attention to the blunder into which Miss Martineau had fallen. The following is my note of what he said:—“He remarked on her carelessness, and the trouble it had cost him. He had sent her, on her application, his pamphlet. She read it carelessly. The story Miss Martineau tells is, in the pamphlet, told of Coleridge. He (Sir R. Hill) had been attacked in some of the papers for taking credit to himself for charity. Cornewall Lewis asked him one day whether he had seen an attack on him in ‘Notes and Queries.’ On his answering ‘No,’ he showed it him, and undertook to answer it himself. The story was so believed and amplified, that a friend of his, when travelling in the Lake District, was shown the very room in an inn where Rowland Hill had first thought of penny postage.”

I am informed that two old ladies who lived in No. 1, Orme Square, Bayswater, used to show to their friends the room in which Rowland Hill devised Penny Postage, though he only took that house in 1839, a few months before the Penny Postage Act was passed.—Ed.

[93] In “Post Office Reform” this anecdote is given as of a friend, but in truth I was my own hero. It must not be supposed that in franking these newspapers I was usurping a privilege. In those days newspapers, unless franked, at least in appearance, were charged as letters. But any one was at liberty to use the name of any Peer or Member of the House of Commons without his consent. The publishers of newspapers had a name printed on the wrapper.

[94] A short time since Sir William Armstrong told me that a pound of coal contained a greater latent power than a pound of gunpowder.

[95] See page 23.

[96] “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, and I discussed the subject with members of my family. My brother Matthew, who was expecting Mr. Parker, (M.P. for Sheffield, one of the Lords of the Treasury), to dine at his house, invited me to meet him. Leading the conversation to the reduction of taxation, he said my attention had been turned to the subject, and I explained to Mr. Parker the method of relief that had occurred to me. Afterwards, at my brother’s suggestion, I wrote down my views, the whole not exceeding three or four pages of foolscap. Although occupied with other affairs, the reduction in the postal rate was not then dismissed from my thoughts. The interest it had excited induced me to read Reports, &c., on postal administration, and it was in the perusal of their contents that the question arose in my mind, whether the cost of a letter was affected by the distance it had to be conveyed.”—Note of a conversation with Sir R. Hill two or three years before his death, by Miss F. Davenport-Hill.—Ed.

[97] “Post Office Reform; its Importance and Practicability.” By Rowland Hill. Published by Charles Knight and Co., London. 1837.

[98] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 2.

[99] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 3.

[100] p. 4.

[101] Ibid.

[102] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 5.

[103] pp. 5, 6.

[104] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 9.

[105] “Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Enquiry,” p. 4.

[106] I applied for permission to see the working of the London office, but was met by a polite refusal.

[107] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 10.

[108] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 16.

[109] Ibid.

[110] When at length I obtained precise information, I found that in taking care not to make my estimate too low I had made it considerably too high; and I think the history of this rectification too curious and characteristic to be omitted. Two years later, the Parliamentary Committee appointed to consider my plan ordered, at my suggestion, a return on the subject; when, to my surprise and amusement, the report of the Post Office gave as the cost of this mail the exact sum estimated by me, viz., £5. Struck with the coincidence, the more so as I had intentionally allowed for possible omission, I suggested the call for a return in detail; and, this being given, brought down the cost to £4 8s. 7¾d. In the return, however, I discovered an error, viz., that the charge for guards’ wages was that for the double journey instead of the single; and when this point was adjusted, in a third return, the cost sank to £3 19s. 7¾d. When explanation of the anomaly was asked for, it was acknowledged by the Post Office authorities that my estimate had been adopted wholesale.—Appendix to Second Report of Select Committee on Postage, 1838, pp. 257-259.

[111] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 18.

[112] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 12.

[113] Returns, 1830, Nos. 293 and 478.

[114] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 55.

[115] By statistics published in the Journal of the Society of Arts (Oct. 28th, 1870), it appears that the plan of secondary distribution, (though perhaps not under that name) actually exists in North Germany, concurrently with complete distribution from house to house; and, doubtless, the one arrangement has facilitated and justified the other.

[116] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, pp. 34 and 83.

[117] Parl. Return, 1834, No. 19.

[118] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 83.

[119] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 83.

[120] p. 85.

[121] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, pp. 86, 87.

[122] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, pp. 94-96.

[123] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, pp. 66, 67.

[124] “Post Office Reform,” p. 67.

[125] From this pamphlet many extracts are given in the course of this chapter. I have not thought it necessary to follow Sir R. Hill in giving, in each case, the reference.—Ed.

[126] The following extract from a letter by the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., to Mr. Frederic Hill, most fittingly comes in here. It was written, indeed, a few days after Sir Rowland Hill’s death, but the writer was carried back in his thoughts to the earliest days of the great struggle for postal reform, in which he himself had played no mean part:—

... “His time, probably from fulness of years, had arrived for leaving us. Still those who appreciated his rare qualities, and the great service he had rendered the country, liked to think that he was yet amongst them, and could observe, with justifiable pride, the continued and increasing success of his great and beneficial scheme.... I remember well, indeed, the frequent communications I had with your brother when he was first bringing his plan before the public, and also (to his honour) the great disinterestedness that he showed when he requested me to submit the scheme then in MS. to the Government, offering to allow them to have the entire credit of its introduction, if they chose to undertake it, stipulating only that, if they should refuse, he should then refer it to the Press, and make it known to, and understood by, the country. The apprehensions that were then expressed at head-quarters (when I executed his commission) are still fresh in my recollection, and most certainly was he left free to do what he liked about a measure that, in their view, would require such a sacrifice of revenue, and the success of which was so extremely problematical. I always considered it fortunate (with regard to its success) that the measure was thus left to the unbiassed judgment of the public, and to the energetic support which such men as Grote, Warburton, and Hume, and the really intelligent reformers, then in the House, gave to your brother.”—Ed.

[127] Within the last few months (November, 1869) I have privately recommended to Government the contingent adoption of this measure, as well as of others for giving increased facilities and greater speed of conveyance.

[128] See p. 218.

[129] Neither Mr. Knight nor I was then aware of an earlier though long abandoned use of stamped covers in France. See p. 377.

[130] “Ninth Report of Commissioners for Post Office Enquiry,” pp. 32, 33. Same substantially, “Post Office Reform,” second edition, pp. 41-45.

[131] “Ninth Report of Commissioners for Post Office Enquiry,” pp. 38, 40.

[132] “Ninth Report of Commissioners for Post Office Enquiry,” p. 34.

[133] “Ninth Report of Commissioners for Post Office Enquiry,” p. 87.

[134] “Ninth Report,” pp. 8, 9.

[135] “Post Office Reform,” first edition, p. 53; second edition, p. 65.

[136] “A curious incident happened to-day while Mr. Thrale and I sat with Dr. Johnson. Francis announced that a large packet was brought to him from the post office, said to have come from Lisbon, and it was charged seven pounds ten shillings. He would not receive it, supposing it to be some trick, nor did he even look at it. But upon inquiry afterwards he found that it was a real packet for him, from that very friend in the East Indies of whom he had been speaking; and the ship which carried it having come to Portugal, this packet, with others, had been put into the post office at Lisbon.”—Boswell’s Life of Dr. Johnson (8vo edition), p. 501.—Ed.

[137] “Hansard,” Vol. XXXVIII., p. 1464.

[138] pp. 1462-1464.

[139] Post Office advertisement, Morning Chronicle, August 22, 1837.

[140] The Bill for effecting this was drawn by my friend Mr. Arthur Symonds.

[141] “Eighteenth Report of the Commissioners of Revenue Enquiry,” p. 66. “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 69.

[142] “Post Office Reform,” third edition, p. 49.

[143] “Ninth Report of Commissioners of Post Office Enquiry,” p. 22.

[144] “Third Report of the Select Committee on Postage,” p. 2.

[145] Ibid.

[146] That their opposition was altogether official is shown by the fact that when the Government subsequently adopted my plan, they all three became its advocates.

[147] “Hansard,” third series, Vol. XXXIX. pp. 1115, 1116.

[148] The word “penny,” though found in “Hansard,” is, as shown by what follows, erroneously inserted.

[149] “Hansard,” third series, Vol. XXXIX. pp. 1201-1210.

[150] “Hansard,” Vol. XXXIX. p. 1207.

[151] “Mirror of Parliament,” Vol. XXXVIII. p. 833.

[152] Now (Sept., 1875) Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B.

[153] “Third Report of the Select Committee on Postage,” p. 3.

[154] See page 251.

[155] See my letter to the Chairman of the Committee. “First Report,” p. 424.

[156] “Third Report from the Select Committee of Postage (1838),” p. 6.

[157] “Third Report,” p. 43.

[158] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 78.

[159] “Third Report,” p. 339.

[160] Speech of Lord Lichfield in House of Lords, November 30th, 1837.

[161] “Third Report,” p. 7.

[162] “Third Report,” p. 8.

[163] “Third Report,” p. 7.

[164] “Third Report,” p. 8.

[165] “Third Report,” p. 9.

[166] Ibid.

[167] “Third Report,” p. 12.

[168] Ibid.

[169] Ibid.

[170] “Third Report,” p. 13.

[171] Ibid.

[172] Ibid.

[173] Ibid.

[174] Ibid.

[175] Ibid.

[176] Ibid.

[177] “Third Report,” p. 14.

[178] “Third Report,” p. 15.

[179] “Third Report,” p. 17.

[180] “Third Report,” p. 18.

[181] “Third Report,” p. 19.

[182] Ibid.

[183] “Third Report,” p. 20.

[184] “Third Report,” p. 21.

[185] Ibid.

[186] “Third Report,” p. 21.

[187] “Third Report,” p. 22.

[188] “Third Report,” p. 22.

[189] Ibid.

[190] Ibid.

[191] “Third Report,” p. 23.

[192] “Third Report,” p. 24.

[193] Ibid.

[194] “Third Report,” p. 25.

[195] Ibid.

[196] “Third Report,” p. 25.

[197] “Third Report,” p. 26.

[198] Ibid.

[199] Ibid.

[200] “Third Report,” p. 27.

[201] “Third Report,” p. 27.

[202] “Third Report,” p. 28.

[203] “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 55.

[204] Ibid.

[205] “Third Report,” p. 29.

[206] “Third Report,” p. 33.

[207] “Third Report,” p. 34.

[208] Ibid.

[209] “Third Report,” p. 34.

[210] Ibid.

[211] Ibid.

[212] Ibid.

[213] “Third Report,” p. 41.

[214] “Second Report,” question 11,110.

[215] “Second Report,” question 11,111.

[216] “Second Report,” question 11,112

[217] Ibid.

[218] “Third Report,” p. 42.

[219] “Third Report,” p. 43.

[220] Ibid.

[221] “Third Report,” p. 44.

[222] “First Report,” questions 1,369, 1,372.

[223] “Third Report,” p. 45.

[224] “Third Report,” p. 45.

[225] “Third Report,” p. 46.

[226] “Third Report,” p. 47.

[227] “Third Report,” p. 48.

[228] Ibid.

[229] “Third Report,” p. 49.

[230] “Third Report,” p. 50.

[231] “Third Report,” p. 52.

[232] “Third Report,” p. 53.

[233] “Third Report,” p. 54.

[234] “Third Report,” p. 56.

[235] “Third Report,” p. 60.

[236] Ibid.

[237] “Third Report.” p. 61.

[238] “Third Report,” p. 63.

[239] “Third Report,” p. 65.

[240] “First Report,” p. 79.

[241] “First Report,” p. 106.

[242] “First Report,” p. 109.

[243] “First Report,” p. 189.

[244] “First Annual Report of the Postmaster-General,” pp. 65, 68.

[245] “Third Report,” p. iv.

[246] Ibid.

[247] “Third Report,” p. iv.

[248] This is strikingly shown by the following extract from the First Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, published in 1854. “In 1844 the Post Office received from the coach contractors about £200 a year for the privilege of carrying the mail twice a day between Lancaster and Carlisle; whereas, at the present time, the same service performed by the railway costs the Post Office about £12,000 a year.”—Ed.

[249] Times, May 31, 1839.

[250] See p. 268.

[251] In grateful recollection of Mr. Warburton’s friendship and assistance in the cause of Penny Postage, I am glad to say that my son has christened one of his children Henry Warburton (1877).

[252] The eminent Liverpool merchant.—Ed.

[253] A periodical of which Mr. Henry Cole (now Sir Henry Cole, K.C.B.) was the editor. It was brought out in support of the cause of Penny Postage.—Ed.

[254] Times, March 16, 1839.

[255] Morning Chronicle, May 3, 1839.

[256] “In 1839, I think it was, he [Mr. Warburton] urged upon me the adoption by the Government of the plan of penny postage which had been made known to the public by Mr. Rowland Hill. I said I thought the plan very ingenious, and likely to confer great benefits upon the public, but that it would make a temporary deficit in the revenue, which would probably require to be filled up by new taxation. Mr. Warburton said that a new tax was a great evil, and he hoped it would be avoided. No further conversation passed at that time. Unfortunately the Government adopted both parts of Mr. Warburton’s advice. The Cabinet was unanimous in favour of the ingenious and popular plan of a penny postage; but they ought to have enacted at the same time such measures as would have secured a revenue sufficient to defray the national expenditure. Failing to do this, there was for three years together a deficit, which exposed the Government to the powerful reproaches and unanswerable objections of Sir Robert Peel. Public opinion echoed those reproaches and those objections, and produced such a degree of discontent as was in itself a sufficient ground for a change of Administration.”—Extract from Earl Russell’s “Recollections,” &c., p. 231.

[257] Earl Russell states in his “Recollections,” &c., that “the Cabinet was unanimous” in this decision (vide p. 231).

[258] This passage is entirely omitted in “Hansard,” but is recorded partly in the “Post Circular,” No. 14, p. 59; and partly in the “Mirror of Parliament,” Vol. XXXVIII., p. 2578.

[259] The paper in question will be found among those “issued by the Mercantile Committee on Postage.” It is No. 65.

[260] In speaking of labels I recommend that they “should be printed on sheets, each containing twenty rows of twelve in a row; a row would then be sold for a shilling, and a whole sheet for £1.”

[261] The offer of prizes for suggestions noticed hereafter. See page 381.

[262] “Mirror of Parliament,” Vol. XXXVIII., p. 3298.

[263] Ibid.

[264] “Hansard,” third series, Vol. XLVIII., p. 1360.

[265] pp. 1361.

[266] “Hansard,” third series, Vol. XLVIII., p. 1365.

[267] “Hansard,” third series, Vol. XLVIII., p. 1387.

[268] “Mirror of Parliament,” Vol. XXXVIII., p. 3695.

[269] “Hansard,” Vol. XLIX., pp. 277-307.

[270] “Hansard,” Vol. XLIX., p. 494.

[271] “Mirror of Parliament,” Vol. XXXVIII., p. 4171.

[272] “Hansard,” Vol. XLIX., pp. 623-641.

[273] “Hansard,” Vol. XLIX., p. 687.

[274] “Hansard,” Vol. XLIX., p. 936.

[275] “Mirror of Parliament,” Vol. XXXVIII., p. 4206.

[276] “Hansard,” Vol. XLIX., pp. 1207-1239.

[277] “Mr. Rowland Hill was then pondering his scheme, and ascertaining the facts which he was to present with so remarkable an accuracy. His manner in those days—his slowness and hesitating speech—were not recommendatory of his doctrine to those who would not trouble themselves to discern its excellence and urgent need. If he had been prepossessing in manner, and fluent and lively in speech, it might have saved him half his difficulties, and the nation some delay; but he was so accurate, so earnest, so irrefragable in his facts, so wise and benevolent in his intentions, and so well-timed with his scheme, that success was, in my opinion, certain from the beginning; and so I used to tell some conceited and shallow members and adherents of the Whig Government, whose flippancy, haughtiness, and ignorance about a matter of such transcendent importance tried my temper exceedingly. Rowland Hill might and did bear it; but I own I could not always. Even Sydney Smith was so unlike himself on this occasion, as to talk and write of ‘this nonsense of a penny postage.’.... Lord Monteagle, with entire complacency, used to smile it down at evening parties, and lift his eyebrows at the credulity of the world which could suppose that a scheme so wild could ever be tried.... The alteration in Rowland Hill himself, since he won his tardy victory, is an interesting spectacle to those who knew him twenty years ago. He always was full of domestic tenderness and social amiability; and these qualities now shine out, and his whole mind and manners are quickened by the removal of the cold obstruction he encountered at the beginning of his career. Grateful as I feel to him as the most signal social benefactor of our time, it has been a great pleasure to me to see the happy influence of success on the man himself. I really should like to ask the surviving Whig leaders all round what they think now of ‘the nonsense of the penny postage.’”—“Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography,” Vol. I., p. 410.—Ed.

[278] Mr. Gardiner was Secretary to the Commissioners of Post Office Enquiry; Mr. Ledingham was his clerk.

[279] “Report on the French Post Office,” p. 2.

[280] “Report on the French Post Office,” p. 5.

[281] “Report on the French Post Office,” p. 6.

[282] Ibid.

[283] “Report on the French Post Office,” p. 11.

[284] “Quarterly Review,” No. 128, p. 555.

[285] “Quarterly Review,” No. 128, p. 524.

[286] “Quarterly Review,” p. 531.

[287] “Quarterly Review,” p. 551.

[288] On this day, so long as his health lasted, the great postal reformer loved to gather his friends around him.—Ed.

[289] This system was very unwisely abolished some years ago.—Ed.

[290] “We are all putting up our letter-boxes on our hall doors with great glee, anticipating the hearing from brothers and sisters,—a line or two almost every day. The slips in the doors are to save the postmen’s time—the great point being how many letters may be delivered within a given time, the postage being paid in the price of the envelopes, or paper. So all who wish well to the plan are having slips in their doors. It is proved that poor people do write, or get letters written, wherever a franking privilege exists. When January comes round, do give your sympathy to all the poor pastors’, and tradesmen’s and artizans’ families, who can at last write to one another as if they were all M.P.’s. The stimulus to trade, too, will be prodigious. Rowland Hill is very quiet in the midst of his triumph, but he must be very happy. He has never been known to lose his temper, or be in any way at fault, since he first revealed his scheme.”—Extract of a letter from Harriet Martineau. “Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography,” Vol. III., p. 250.—Ed.

[291] I have been told that Mr. Lines, the Birmingham drawing-master, proud of his old pupil of some thirty years ago, was bent on being the first man in his town to send a letter by the penny post. The old man waited accordingly outside the Birmingham Post Office on the night of the ninth. On the first stroke of twelve he knocked at the window, and handed in a letter, saying “A penny, I believe, is the charge?” “Yes,” said the clerk, in an angry voice, and banged the window down.—Ed.

[292] See page 225.

[293] Subsequently the salary was raised.

[294] I have received from an esteemed correspondent the following cutting from the City article of one of the London Daily Papers:—

“MONEY MARKET AND CITY INTELLIGENCE.

“Friday Evening.

“Considerable diversion was created in the City to-day by the appearance of the new penny-post devices for envelopes, half-sheet letters, and bits of ‘sticking plaster,’ about an inch square, for dabbing on to letters. The surface of the latter is filled up with a bust of Her Majesty, or what is guessed to be intended for such, but which is much too vulgar of expression so to be mistaken by any of the loyal subjects who have had the good fortune to see the graceful original herself. But for this unlucky perversion of the royal features, the penny-post ‘sticking-plaster’ might appropriately have come into fashion and superseded the court sticking-plaster, so common for the concealment of trifling cutaneous cracks on the face of beauty. Thus women and men, too, might have carried sovereigns on their countenances as well as in their hearts and purses, and many a decayed beauty might have refreshed her faded charms with the renovating representation of royal youth and loveliness. It is shrewdly suspected that this untoward disfiguration of the royal person has been the studied work of ministerial malevolence and jealousy, desirous of rendering their royal benefactress, if possible, as odious as themselves. The envelopes and half-sheets have an engraved surface, extremely fantastic, and not less grotesque. In the centre, at the top, sits Britannia, throwing out her arms, as if in a tempest of fury, at four winged urchins, intended to represent post-boys, letter-carriers, or Mercuries, but who, instead of making use of their wings and flying, appear in the act of striking out or swimming, which would have been natural enough if they had been furnished with fins instead of wings. On the right of Britannia there are a brace of elephants, all backed and ready to start, when some Hindoo, Chinese, Arabic, or Turkish merchants, standing quietly by, have closed their bargains and correspondence. The elephants are symbolic of the lightness and rapidity with which Mr. Rowland Hill’s penny post is to be carried on, and perhaps, also, of the power requisite for transporting the £1,500 a-year to his quarters, which is all he obtains for strutting about the Post Office, with his hands in his pockets, and nothing to do like a fish out of water. On the left of Britannia, who looks herself very much like a termagant, there is an agglomeration of native Indians, Missionaries, Yankees, and casks of tobacco, with a sprinkling of foliage, and the rotten stem of a tree, not forgetting a little terrier dog inquisitively gliding between the legs of the mysterious conclave to see the row. Below, on the left, a couple of heads of the damsel tribe are curiously peering over a valentine just received (scene, Valentine’s Day), whilst a little girl is pressing the elders for a sight of Cupid, and the heart transfixed with a score of arrows. On the right again stands a dutiful boy, reading to his anxious mamma an account of her husband’s hapless shipwreck, who, with hands clasped, is blessing Rowland Hill for the cheap rate at which she gets the disastrous intelligence. At the bottom of all there is the word ‘Postage,’ done in small upon a large pattern of filagree work. With very great propriety the name of the artist is conspicuously placed in one corner, so that the public and posterity may know who is the worthy Oliver of the genius of a Rowland on this triumphant occasion. As may well be imagined, it is no common man, for the mighty effort has taxed the powers of the Royal Academy itself, if the engraved announcement of W. Mulready, R.A., in the corner may be credited. Considering the infinite drollery of the whole, the curious assortment of figures and faces, the harmonious mélange of elephants, mandarin’s tails, Yankee beavers, naked Indians, squatted with their hind-quarters in front, Cherokee chiefs, with feathered tufts, shaking missionaries by the hand; casks of Virginia threatening the heads of young ladies devouring their love letters, and the old woman in the corner, with hands uplifted, blessing Lord Lichfield and his Rowland for the saving grace of 11d. out of the shilling, and valuing her absent husband’s calamity or death as nothing in comparison with such an economy—altogether, it may be said, this is a wondrous combination of pictorial genius, after which Phiz and Cruikshank must hide their diminished heads, for they can hardly be deemed worthy now of the inferior grade of associates and aspirants for academic honours. Withal the citizens are rude enough to believe that these graphic embellishments will not go down at the price of 1s. 3d. the dozen for the envelopes, and half or quarter sheets, for the size is somewhat of the mongrel sort, and of 1s. 1d. per dozen for the bits of ‘sticking plaster,’ with a head upon it which looks something like that of a girl, but nothing of a Queen. As a very tolerable profit may be made out of the odd pence thus charged over the stamp, the penny-postman calculates, no doubt, to make up the deficit in the Post Office revenue by the sale of these gimcrack pictures for babes and sucklings.”—Ed.

[295] In Sir R. Hill’s Journal is the following entry;—“I fear we shall be obliged to substitute some other stamp for that designed by Mulready, which is abused and ridiculed on all sides. In departing so widely from the established ‘lion and unicorn’ nonsense, I fear that we have run counter to settled opinions and prejudices somewhat rashly. I now think it would have been wiser to have followed established custom in all the details of the measure where practicable.”—May 12th, 1840.—Ed.

[296] “First Report of the Postmaster-General,” pp. 65-68.

[297] The late Professor R. Phillips, F.R.S.

[298] Now Sir Charles Pressly, K.C.B. He was then Secretary, and afterwards Chairman, of the Board of Stamps and Taxes.

[299] The extracts which I have given in Appendix I from the Annual Reports of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, show how well my brother discharged the duties of his office.

[300] See p. 346.

[301] Up to December 31st, 1879, have been printed more than twenty thousand millions of penny stamps. By the kindness of the Board of Inland Revenue, I am able to print the following statement, which I have received from the Secretary to the Board, Mr. Frederick B. Garnett—Ed.:—

Issues of Postage Labels from the 27th April, 1840, to 31st December, 1879.

1,600,276,320	Labels at	½d.
20,699,858,040	”	1d.
42,638,160	”	1½d.
338,540,280	”	2d.
105,829,824	”	2½d.
158,526,040	”	3d.
153,815,820	”	4d.
158,721,280	”	6d.
4,608,720	”	8d.
7,635,080	”	9d.
5,963,476	”	10d.
126,968,940	”	1s.
6,475,820	”	2s.
5,174,262	”	5s.
6,014	”	10s.
6,014	”	£1.

[302] Among other matters, attempts were made at reduction of rates in reference to correspondence with France; though, for a time, without success. “A letter has been received from Thiers—he appears willing to meet our views, but does not accept the invitation to negotiate the matter in London. Wishes to settle it with Lord Granville, our ambassador, who, not understanding the matter, very properly objects to undertaking the negotiation. Mr. Baring says he has observed that, if any course is pressed on the French Government, they immediately suspect some sinister motive, and that the only way to bring them to is to turn our backs upon them.... We made them a very good offer which they ought to have accepted.”—Sir R. Hill’s Journal, June 24th, 1840.—Ed.

[303] “First Report of the Postmaster-General,” p. 66.

[304] “First Report of the Postmaster-General,” p. 68.

[305] See “Post Office Reform,” second edition, p. 14.

[306] Finance Account for 1840.

[307] “Fifteenth Report of the Postmaster-General,” p. 15.

[308] “Report of the Select Committee on Postage, 1843,” p. 92.

[309] About seventeen years later Sir R. Hill, writing to his wife, says:—“T—— has just received a letter from Lord Canning, containing a very friendly message to myself—part of which informs me that ‘a pillar letter-box has just been set up in the bazaar of Allahabad,’ the place at which Lord Canning now is.”—Ed.

[310] The hydrographer to the Navy.

[311] The first Reform Act.

[312] See page 451.

[313] “April 4th, 1854.—The Postmaster-General showed me a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, marked ‘secret,’ stating that additional taxes will be required on account of the war, and asking his opinion as to the probable effect on the Post Office revenue of increasing the inland rate to twopence.... I am to prepare an estimate, but to consider the whole matter as most strictly secret. I expressed great regret, in which Lord Canning concurs, that such a project should be entertained, adding, perhaps a little hastily, that ‘I could not assist in giving effect to the measure.’ It is very disappointing that this new difficulty should arise just as I am about to overcome all the old ones.”—Sir R. Hill’s Journal.—Ed.

[314] See page 433.

[315] “Appendix to the Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 56.

[316] See page 446.

[317] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” Appendix, p. 7.

[318] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” Appendix, p. 11.

[319] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” Appendix, p. 11.

[320] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 28.

[321] “Hansard,” Vol. LXIV., p. 321.

[322] “Tenth Report of the Postmaster-General,” pp. 37, 38; “Eleventh Report of the Postmaster-General,” pp. 16, 17; “Twelfth Report of the Postmaster-General,” pp. 34, 35.

[323] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” Appendix, p. 11.

[324] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 28.

[325] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 29.

[326] Between the dates of these letters, occur the following entries in Sir R. Hill’s Journal:—

“April 9th.—Left the office early and went to Tottenham, in consequence of the approaching dissolution of my dear mother—she died very soon after I reached the house. Thank God without pain.

“April 15th.—Did not go to the office. Attended my dear mother’s funeral.”—Ed.

[327] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 30.

[328] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 31.

[329] Mr. Goulburn’s letter was as follows:—

Downing Street, July 11th, 1842.

“Dear Sir,—By the letter which my predecessor, Mr. Baring, addressed to you previous to his retirement from office, he intimated to you his intention of continuing your employment by the Government, which was originally limited to two years, for another year, ending the 14th September next. I had much pleasure in recommending to the Treasury to give effect in this respect to Mr. Baring’s intentions; but feeling that the time is arrived at which your further assistance may safely be dispensed with, I take the opportunity of apprising you that I do not consider it advisable to make any further extension of the period of your engagement beyond the date assigned to it by the Lords of the Treasury.

“In making this communication, I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of expressing my sense of the satisfactory manner in which, during my tenure of office, you have discharged the several duties which have been from time to time committed to you.

“I have the honour to be, dear Sir,

“Yours ever most faithfully,

“Henry Goulburn.”—Ed.

[330] Parliamentary Return, 1843, No. 119, p. 5.

[331] Parliamentary Return, 1843, No. 119, p. 8.

[332] Parliamentary Return, 1843, No. 119, p. 10.

[333] The word “important” occurs in the original MS. letter, though, no doubt by accidental misprint, it is omitted in the official copy.

[334] Parliamentary Return, 1843, No. 119, p. 11.

[335] Better known as Viscount Althorp.—[Ed.]

[336] See page 485.

[337] In a note on this passage, written in the year 1874, Sir R. Hill thus speaks of Sir James Stephen:—

“It had long been the practice with the Liberal party to speak of Mr. Stephen, or, as some of them called him, King Stephen, in very disparaging terms, representing him as the chief obstacle to colonial reform; and I must confess that it was under this prejudice that I began my intercourse with him. Soon, however, I saw reason to doubt the soundness of such views—certainly they received no confirmation whatever in his treatment of South Australia. He invariably received me and my suggestions—some of which departed widely from ordinary routine—in a friendly spirit, and the result of several years of intimate official communication with him, was that I formed a very high estimate of his character.”—Ed.

[338] The following entry is in Sir R. Hill’s Journal, under the date of March 11th, of this year:—

“Goulburn refuses to give any letters, except those on List No. 97, which excludes all those urging progress in the adoption of my plan, and the final letter to Peel. He considers these ‘unnecessary.’ The shabbiness of this conduct is only equalled by its folly. I shall, of course, publish the whole correspondence, distinguishing the letters which are given from those which are withheld.”

[339] See p. 470.

[340] Vide Return, 1843, No. 119.

[341] “Report of the Committee on Postage (1843),” p. 54.

[342] Their names are as follows:—George Moffatt, William Ellis, James Pattison, L. P. Wilson, John Dillon, John Travers, J. H. Gledstanes, W. A. Wilkinson, all from the first warm supporters of my plan.

[343] “Report of the Committee on Postage” (1843), p. 43.

[344] See ante, pp. 433 and 450.

[345] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., pp. 399-445.

[346] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 420.

[347] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., pp. 399, 400.

[348] See p. 327.

[349] The sole ground of this statement was that Lord Lowther had recommended a penny rate for Prices Current.

[350] This assertion was obviously made in reliance on the “Fallacious Return.” So gross an error in a finance minister showed an ignorance hardly credible.

[351] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., pp. 420-434.

[352] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 435.

[353] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 435.

[354] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., pp. 435, 436.

[355] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 437.

[356] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 438.

[357] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 439.

[358] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., pp. 439, 440.

[359] Lord Lowther voted for a uniform rate, but against any reduction below twopence.

[360] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., pp. 440, 441.

[361] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 442.

[362] “Hansard,” Vol. LXX., p. 445.

[363] I give the following draft, which did not, however, take full shape as a letter, as a record of my feelings during the Parliamentary Inquiry of 1843, and of the facts which produced them:—

“Orme Square, Bayswater,
“August 12th, 1843.

“Sir,—The scenes of yesterday, and your part in them, will form my justification for the unusual course which I am taking.

“The open display of your hostility would not alone have moved me to it; but, unhappily, that hostility has taken a form which, if persisted in, will most effectually suppress the greater part of my evidence in reply. You will be aware that I refer not merely to the perpetual interruptions which I receive, but the contradiction of my testimony, of which those interruptions so frequently consisted.

“Sir, I must use the freedom of reminding you of the positions in which we respectively stand. I have appealed to Parliament against the Treasury Board of which you are an active member. This appeal is now trying before a Committee of which you are chairman. You are, therefore, already a party and a judge. If you desire to add to these characters that of witness, I have no power to object; and, if I had the power, I should be far from wishing to exercise it.

“When you present yourself as a witness your statements will be sifted by cross-examination, and I should evince a distrust of my own evidence if I could wish to throw any obstacle in the way of such a proceeding. But I must object—most earnestly object—to your giving evidence while in the act of examining me. Such a course is monstrous in itself, and can only lead to a repetition of personal altercation, to which, although it has been forced upon me, I cannot revert without a deep sense of humiliation. Such courses are foreign to my habits and most repugnant to my feelings.

“Be pleased, Sir, to recollect that the result of this investigation is of vital importance to the public and to myself, and that I am contending single-handed against the whole force of Government. If you have the slightest confidence in the justice of your cause, you will not deny me the full benefit of the very brief period which is allotted to me for my evidence in reply to the numberless misstatements (as I maintain them to be) which I anxiously desire to answer. Depend upon it, I have every motive to be as short as I can be with justice to myself. The treatment which I have received will make the termination of this inquiry a most welcome relief.

“If, however, it should still be your pleasure to subject me to the annoyances which I have endured, I must beg leave to state that, after much thought, I have come to this resolution: I will answer any question, however insulting, and will reply to any statement, whatever imputation it may convey, provided the question and statement, together with its answer, are permitted to make part of the evidence on the short-hand writer’s notes. Let the House of Commons see the animus which prompts the treatment of which I complain, and I shall not despair of redress sooner or later; but I shall steadfastly decline answering whenever the short-hand writer is ordered to desist from recording. I know of no right which any member has to subject me to an examination which is to be kept back from the House. I regret I did not act on this principle from the first. Probably the knowledge that an offensive examination would be recorded would have been quite sufficient to prevent its being made.

“R. H.

“Sir George Clerk, Bart., M.P., &c., &c., &c.”

[364] The following extract from a letter from my father, dated “Hazelwood, Birmingham, October 2nd, 1832,” shows at once his interest in Astronomy, and his practical knowledge of the subject:—

“My dear Son,—You, like myself, will probably be asked questions about the comet now talked of as visible. I have just found an account of its movements in the Supplement of the “Nautical Almanac” for this year, page 43rd. I find on calculation that it will be to-night on one side, and to-morrow night on the other side, of a star marked on my globe θ Geminorum. I do not find the star in any of my catalogues—no doubt it is in Wilkinson’s, if I could find time to consult it at the New Library. Its right ascension is at present about 6 hours 39 minutes. Its declination about 30° N. It will be found betwixt the Twins and Capella, much nearer to the Twins. The comet is moving forward at about 7 minutes of right ascension per day, and approaching the ecliptic and the equator 27´ of declination daily. These movements will shortly bring it betwixt the Twins, namely, about the 10th October, at about ¼ of the space from Castor and ¾ from Pollux. I cannot advise dependence on these calculations as exact. I have corrected them by allowing for the errors of prediction as found by some observations quoted from the Atlas newspaper of 30th instant, and have done my best. The course points towards Regulus, which will be found within about 1½° on the 1st November, the comet on the south.

“By these indications, and the help of your telescope, I hope you may find it out.

* * * * *

“P.S.—Will you oblige me by procuring me the means of studying the course of the present comet. I find it called Biela’s comet in the Atlas—the comet of 6·7 years in the ‘Nautical Almanac.’ I mean of knowing what is known by others of its history.”

[365] I am informed by Sir G. B. Airy, the Astronomer-Royal, that “M. Biot’s expedition was not to measure an arc of meridian, but to ascertain the force of gravity by vibrations of a pendulum, a matter connected physically with the other.”—Ed.

[366] This refers to the Vernier pendulum, spoken of at length in the “Prefatory Memoir.”

[367] “History of England.” Vol. V., p. 96.

[368] “Whiteladies.” Vol. II., p. 37.

[369] Vol. I., p. 133. First Edition.

[370] Vol. II. p. 41. First Edition.

[371] Report of the thirty-fifth meeting of the British Association, p. 52.

[372] Sir John Herschel, by very careful experiments, found that, when the temperature of the air is 62° of Fahrenheit, the rate of progress is 1125 per second. This is a mile in 4·7 seconds.

[373] The usual mode of dating astronomical papers. See the Astronomer Royal’s reply.

[374] June, 1874.

[375] “Monthly Notices,” Vol. XXVI., p. 157.

[376] “Monthly Notices,” Vol. XXVIII., p. 124.

[377] This might involve the necessity of calculating or remembering the cubes of all numbers up to 21 inclusive; but such necessity would have presented no difficulty to practised calculators like Zerah Colbourn or my class.

[378] This equality is not exact, but the difference is immaterial.

[379] No. 307, Session 1838.

[380] No. 184, Session 1839.

[381] The increase has been from £84,000 to £116,000 per annum.—(Vide First Report on Postage, p. 472).

[382] Third Report, Abstract, p. 24.

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