Rambles on Railways

by Sir Cusack P. Roney

In 1867 one horse—of the railway the iron-clad—invented, not conceived, not created—a living, but lifeless thing—yet withal of terrible power, draws, in addition to the same number of passengers that the fifty-two horses could draw, the mails which are to be carried to Stafford and beyond it. Instead of the weight being four tons, it is often nearly twenty, and instead of bulk being ten, it is seldom less than forty, often fifty, and sometimes it mounts up to even four or five tons further. But no matter, the iron horse is ready to take its load, and does take it at speed four times as great as the speed of thirty years ago.

If we had to go back to mail coaches, and each were only to carry the average of 1837, we should require 100 mail coaches and 13,300 horses; but if each were loaded to its Post Office maximum of former times, then only 27 coaches and 3,591 horses would be requisite. At what cost for 27 coaches? Certainly, the former average of 2½d. a mile would no longer be attainable. More than double would be demanded. 13s. 6d. a mile per diem for 133 miles, multiplied by 365 days, is £32,785. Yet the highest price that the London and North-Western ever had for its night mail service was 4s. the double mile, £9,709.

This is one answer to the assertion of Mr. Page in his report, “Not only, therefore, would penny postage without railways have been both practicable and remunerative, but it would have been even more profitable[35] (assuming the increase of letters) than it is now.”

We learn from Mr. Howell, the Secretary of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company, that on Australian mail mornings the weight of mails is 46 tons; to carry these at the rate of 15 cwt. per mail coach from London to Southampton, 78 miles, it would he necessary to have 61 coaches and 4,758 horses, besides guards and coachmen. As mails, although not near so heavy as the Australian, are continually arriving at and departing from Southampton, it would be necessary to keep up at least the above stock both of bi-and quadru-peds for these 78 miles, at a cost of about £30,000 a year; but reference to the Post Office estimates will show that the annual payment made by the department to the London and South-Western Company is £21,950, and for that sum the Post Office has the right not only to receive and despatch its sea-going mails, but to use every one of the Company’s trains over the 503 miles which constitute its system, for Post Office inland business. How, it may be asked again, can any officer of the department assert in a report (designated by the Postmaster-General “an able report”) that the penny postage “would have been even more profitable without railways than it now is”?

There is a point in connection with this subject that may as well be referred to here. The Isthmus of Suez Railway[36] was opened for traffic in 1858, the same year that the Australian mail service by way of Egypt was commenced. The India and China mails had increased very rapidly during the few previous years, and the greatest trouble and difficulty were experienced in getting them across the desert. The addition of the Australian mails would have overwhelmed the service, but for the opening of the railway. For let it be asked, What number of camels would be required, or what time would they require to take some fifty tons of mails (adding to the transmissions viâ Southampton, those from England and France viâ Marseilles, and from Germany viâ Trieste) across the desert? By means of the Suez Railway, the cost to this country for the conveyance of the mails outwards and inwards through Egypt is £8,000 a year, and eight Janissaries accompany the mails in both directions, for which they are paid £750 per annum. The cost of a combined army of camels, camel drivers and Janissaries would be at least £60,000 a year, and it would be simply impossible to perform the service satisfactorily.

We think we have demonstrated that even in 1855 the Post Office services of the country must have totally broken down, were it not for railways. But between 1855 and 1865 the postal business has increased enormously. The number of receptacles for letters[37] has risen from 10,498 to 16,246, the number of letters delivered from 456,276,176 to 720,467,007, of newspapers and book parcels,[38] from 71,000,000 to 97,252,766; samples and patterns, an item of Post Office transmission introduced in 1863, 1,286,116. The amount, in money, of the Money Orders issued has increased from £11,009,279[39] to £17,829,290. With the increase comes the concomitant increase of transmissions through the post. The weight of the Eastern mails has risen from 250 tons a year to nearly 2,000.

In 1861, the operations of the Post Office Savings Banks commenced, and by the 31st December, 1865, 3,321 banks had been established all over the kingdom. The total number of persons who had become depositors from the commencement was 857,701, of whom 245,882 had closed their accounts, leaving 611,819 on the books. The total number of deposits received had been 3,895,135. The total withdrawals 1,011,379. Without railways, the operations of those banks could never have been attempted. See what they have to carry? Every person on making his first deposit receives gratis, a numbered book, in which all deposits are to be entered. The weight of this book is about three quarters of an ounce; advice of each deposit is to be sent on the day of its receipt, by the Postmaster to the Post Office, London. The amount of the deposit is to be acknowledged, and the acknowledgment is to be transmitted by post to the receiver. Every depositor’s book must be forwarded each year (even from the remotest part of the kingdom), on the anniversary of the day on which the first deposit was made, to London, in a cover to be obtained at any savings bank. This cover exempts the book from postage charge, and it is also returned free from the London office to the depositor. Every necessary letter of inquiry respecting deposits in savings banks, and their replies are carried by the railways, and travel free of postage. If a depositor want to withdraw a part or the whole of the amount to his credit, he must make application on a form a copy of which can be obtained at any savings bank. It is sent free to London, as also the warrant from London payable at the place named by the applicant. The warrant when paid and receipted is returned by the Postmaster to London.