The first circumstance that I have to record in 1839 was the receipt of a letter from Sir William Brown,[252] written from Washington, and informing me of an interview which he had had with the Postmaster-General of the United States on the subject of my pamphlet. The Postmaster-General told him that it had afforded him a great deal of information, and further that it was the intention of the United States Government to remodel the Post Office laws in the next session of Congress, and that he thought five cents for all distances would be a postage sufficient to cover expenses. This rate was afterwards adopted, though subsequently the charge was yet further reduced. Sir William gave it as his own opinion that the action of the American Government would materially assist the movement at home. Three weeks later, however, he wrote expressing his opinion that my best course would be to write to the Hon. Mr. Kennedy, who was very desirous of moving in the matter, and to whom it was wished that I should send the reports, pamphlets, &c., bearing upon the subject. In writing to this gentleman, I expressed an opinion that on account of the great extent of territory and the sparseness of population in the United States, penny postage might not be so applicable to that country as to England; but added that, as the American people did not look to their Post Office for revenue, I thought the general rate, even if not reduced to a penny, might yet be a low one.
The Report so laboriously prepared by Mr. Warburton appeared, I believe, early in March.
Of this Report (the third of the Committee of 1838) I forbear to give even a summary; not only because this would involve the repetition of much that has been already said, but because I have no hope whatever of doing justice to so very able a document, the result of many months of hard labour, the very model of a Report, and which, as such, will even now amply repay the trouble of perusal. It is invaluable as an authoritative record of a state of things so absurdly strange as to be now almost incredible, but which was nevertheless justified and upheld at the time by many able and excellent men. Moreover, its elaborate calculations, which I was called upon to check, put some of the most important questions at issue in a clear, striking, and often even amusing light. On all important points it gave to my statements and conclusions the sanction of its powerful authority. Nevertheless, as the committee had determined on the recommendation of a twopenny rate, the Report had to be framed in, at least, formal accordance with this fact; though both Mr. Wallace, in whose name it went to the committee, and Mr. Warburton, by whom it was actually drawn, were strongly in favour of the penny rate. A careful perusal of the document, however, will show that, though the twopenny rate is formally recommended, the penny rate is the one really suggested for adoption. In this sense it was understood by the public, and to my knowledge it was wished that it should be so understood. It only remained to see what effect this masterly Report would have on the country, the Parliament, and the Government. As respects the first, enough has been mentioned to justify good expectation; the same might be said in a less degree of the second; but of the third, all indications were as yet adverse.
On the 12th of April appeared, in some of the London papers, a letter which I had felt called upon to write in reply to an article in the Supplement to McCulloch’s “Commercial Dictionary,” then lately published, extracts from which had appeared in some of the newspapers. Mr. McCulloch’s opposition came very unexpectedly, since he had previously been a decided supporter of the general plan; his name having appeared amongst the select signatures to the important London petition presented to Parliament in the year 1837, and already mentioned at page 289 of this history. He had likewise supported the cause in the Courier newspaper, resented the delay in adopting my plan, had, in conversation with myself, strongly condemned the Ministers, and threatened to expose them in the “Edinburgh Review.” The only circumstance to which I could attribute his change of opinion was that he had recently been appointed head of the Stationery Department. We all know, and I myself have been charged with such experience, that questions often assume a new aspect when viewed from the windows of a Government office.
Meanwhile, meetings were taking place in various towns to petition in favour of penny postage, and strong articles on the same side appeared in many of the leading newspapers. Mr. Wallace, as chairman of the late committee, received so many letters on the subject of the movement, as to be under the necessity of publicly acknowledging them en masse, mentioning, by way of instance, that on the single day of writing he had received nine written communications in reference to various petitions, together with eight newspapers.
The Post Office, too, began to show signs of uneasiness, and made a few very cautious reductions; lowering, for instance, the postage between London and Keswick from thirteen pence to a shilling, and granting similar indulgence on London letters to twenty-one other places; the amount of reduction being in each instance the same, or, as the “Post Circular”[253] put it, not to a penny, but by a penny.
On March 23rd a somewhat remarkable scene occurred in the House of Commons; Mr. Scholefield having presented a petition from Birmingham, for which he was member, the Speaker desired all honourable members who had petitions to present on Penny Postage to bring them up; when instantly a great number of members on both sides of the House “advanced in a crowd to present them, amidst cheering on all sides.” The petitions on the subject in the course of six days amounted to two hundred and fifteen.
The number of the “Post Circular” from which I have taken this account (No. 12) contains, also, one of those amusing devices with which my friend Mr. Henry Cole knew so well how to strike the public eye. Probably the reader will not be displeased at its reproduction. The Edinburgh mail coach, it will be seen, is depicted, with its guard, coachman, and two outside passengers; the letter bags—which, as all the world knows, or then knew, usually occupied the hind boot, so as to lie under the guard’s foot—are by an artistic liberty placed on the roof, the whole being arranged in divisions of franks, newspapers, Stamp-office parcels, and chargeable letters; the first three (which are free of postage) occupy the whole roof, the last lying in small space on the top of one of the bulky divisions, the proportions being those of the mail conveyed on March 2nd, 1838. The legend below sums up the tale.
GREAT WEIGHT AND NO PRICE! LITTLE WEIGHT AND ALL PRICE!!