“Experience,” says the Report, “has confirmed the advantages to be derived from the use of Travelling Post Offices, and several additional offices of this kind have been provided. Much greater use has also been made of the apparatus for exchanging mail bags.”

The Report argues, that Mr. Rowland Hill’s plans would have been as well carried out, under the old mail coach system, as under the railway system. If so, what are “the advantages derived from the use of Travelling Post Offices”? There was no “Travelling Post Office” on the Holyhead road: why should there be a Travelling Post Office on a railway? The answer obviously is, that the immense increase of correspondence renders necessary new appliances; that if the letters all remained to be sorted when they arrived at what are called the “forward” offices, the delay would be so great that the public would have to wait much longer for their letters.

It is further said: “Against these great advantages, there is an important set-off in increased expense; for, strange as it may seem, the change which to the public at large has so much reduced the charge for the conveyance, whether of persons or of goods, has had precisely the reverse effect as respects the conveyance of mails.”

Now, I am prepared to show that, notwithstanding the enormous increase in their bulk, there has been no real increase in the charge for conveying the mails.

The charge for conveyance of the mails by railway is stated at page 14 of the Report, to be as follows:—

MAILS CONVEYED BY RAILWAYS.
Average charge
per mile.		Maximum.Minimum.
s.d.s.d.d.
England09¼4100¼
Ireland15½460¼
Scotland08¾320¾
United Kingdom010320¼

The rates, therefore, for conveying the mails on railways are very unequal: varying from ¼d. a mile to 4s. 10d., according to the services performed. The rates paid to the old mail coach proprietors were also very unequal: varying from nothing to 1s. per mile. But the fact is, that whilst the payments by the Post Office to the railways, represent all they get for conveying the mails, the payments by the Post Office to the mail coach proprietors only represented, in a very minor degree, the cost to the public of conveying the mails, and the advantages to the coach proprietors consequent on carrying them.

All mail coaches in England were entirely free from tolls for the maintenance of turnpike roads, the cost of which is now, in effect, transferred from the public to the railways. Mr. Harker, the Surveyor and Superintendent of Mail Coaches, gave evidence before the House of Commons, in 1811, that “the toll duties from which the mail coaches were exempted amounted to nearly £50,000 a year,” upon the very limited mileage then performed. This evidence was confirmed by Sir Francis Freeling; and, taking all the data that can be obtained upon the subject, no doubt remains that the tolls on turnpike roads in England and Wales averaged, for a coach with four horses, nearly 5d. per mile. From this heavy payment the mail coaches were free; though, of course, the charge had to borne in another shape by the public. Besides this, it is to be remembered, that the mail coach was, in many cases, paid for by the Post Office, at the rate of 1-1/16d. per mile. I will not, however, include that as a distinct item in my computation, but will reckon tolls and coach together as costing 5d. per mile. Beyond this, I may add, that whenever the bags were large and bulky, the Post Office paid extra. They then took the places of the two outside passengers, allowed to be carried on the roof of every mail coach (exclusive of the box seat), and whose fares probably averaged 2d. per mile each. In many cases, also, the Post Office was obliged to employ extra post-chaises and coaches, to carry the mails. The Greyhound Coach, from London to Birmingham, was permanently engaged for the carriage of newspaper-bags between London and Birmingham, at the rate of 1d. per pound, or £9. 6s. 8d. per ton, for the newspapers carried.