Report by Mr. Edward Page, Inspector-General of Mails, on some points connected with the relations between the Post Office Department and Railway Companies.
(See page [85].)
General Post Office,
29th February, 1856.
Sir,
In the First Annual Report of the Postmaster-General, presented to Parliament last year, it is stated by Lord Canning as one of the reasons for instituting such a report, that “many misapprehensions arise from an imperfect knowledge of matters which might, without any inconvenience, be placed before the public.”
That such misapprehensions do exist as to several matters connected with the railway branch of the Post Office Service has lately been exemplified in an address by Mr. Robert Stephenson, M.P., on his election as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
In that address Mr. Stephenson (no doubt without any intention whatever to mislead) puts forward, in effect, the following statements, which I believe to be inaccurate:—
1st. That the scheme of penny postage, to the extent to which it has so far been developed, would have been impracticable, or, if practicable, unremunerative, but for the facilities afforded by railways for conveying bulk.