[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.