[4] These papers are in the Art Library of the South Kensington Museum.
[5] The perforated sheets were not introduced until the year 1852. This improvement was the invention of a Mr. Archer, for which he got the sum of £4,000.
[6] In his "Life" lately published, written by himself, Sir Rowland Hill omits the clause in his original evidence which restores the payment of the penny in cash and does away with any necessity for an adhesive stamp, even in the exceptional case he had supposed. Not only does Sir Rowland Hill omit this clause, but he even gives the reader to understand that to the year 1837, the year of his pamphlet, is to be ascribed his adoption of the adhesive stamp. How then, it will be asked, does Sir Rowland Hill account for the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the 5th July, 1839, and the interposition of Mr. Wallace in favour of an adhesive stamp? This difficulty Sir Rowland Hill surmounts by simply taking no notice of either.
[7] In his letter to Lord Litchfield of 9th January, 1838, Mr. Hill states his plan to be:—"That the payment should always be in advance. And to rid this mode of payment of the trouble and risk which it would otherwise entail on the sending of letters, as well as for other important considerations, I propose that the postage be collected by the sale of stamped covers."
[8] The "Times" of this date has the following paragraph:—"The Penny Postage will commence, we learn, on the 1st January next. It is intended that stamped envelopes shall be sold at every Post Office, so that stationers and other shopkeepers may, as well as the public, supply themselves at a minute's notice." Not a word as to an Adhesive Stamp being known as in contemplation. It will be evident from these two instances alone, independent of the proceedings in Parliament and of Mr. Hill's letter to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March, 1838, that the Adhesive Stamp formed no part of the original proposals or intentions of Sir Rowland Hill.
[9] See "The World," "Daily Chronicle," &c., also "Proceedings of the Commissioners of Sewers" for July, 1881, as reported in the "City Press."
[10] The "Christian Leader" of Glasgow ably puts the matter thus:—"Sir Rowland Hill seems to have been at pains to obscure the facts of the case for the purpose of claiming to himself the credit of an invention which really belonged to the Dundee bookseller."