“I am prepared to see all the world sorely puzzled and surprised, to find that the revenue from the penny postage exceeds the first year any former income of the Post Office.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer consulted me as to the policy of taking advantage of the willingness, as reported by Dr. Bowring, of the State of Hamburg to reduce the charge on English transit letters from fourpence to a penny in consideration of their letters being charged a penny for passing through England. I strongly advised that the treaty should be concluded forthwith, which was accordingly done.
When, however, I was consulted as to the policy of further reducing the inland rate on foreign letters generally, before negotiating similar reductions with foreign powers, I advised against that course, as likely to render such negotiations more difficult; and the project was abandoned.
The question of probable forgery of the stamp still causing much anxiety, various conferences were held on the subject. Not to go into tedious details, it may be mentioned that the three kinds of stamps now in use, though in very different degree, viz., stamped letter-paper, stamped envelopes, and adhesive stamps, were agreed upon, and obtained the approval of the Treasury.
In the minute establishing the fourpenny rate, care had been taken to show that the measure was only temporary, and merely intended to give needful practice in the new mode of charge, viz., by weight, before the great expected increase in the number of letters should occur. The explanation, however, did not give universal satisfaction, and I began now practically to feel how great an advantage had been neglected when Government declined to take up postal reform without awaiting the coercion of popular demand. The spontaneous reduction of the existing high rates to a maximum of even sixpence or eightpence, would have been welcomed with joy and gratitude; now so low a maximum as fourpence, though this was the lowest of all General Post rates when my pamphlet was published, was received with no small amount of dissatisfaction. Suspicions arose that the concession would go no further; Government was accused of an intention to cheat the public; and I, too, had a share in the accusation, being charged in some of the newspapers with having betrayed my own cause. Hitherto denunciations had fallen on me from above; my elevation to office now gave opportunity—speedily seized on—for attacks from below. I had learnt, however, before this time that all this was to be expected and endured; that the only chance of escaping obloquy is to avoid prominence; that the thin-skinned should keep within the pale of private life.
December the 5th, the day appointed for the first change, was of course passed in considerable anxiety as to the result, but of necessity I had to await the next morning for the satisfaction of my curiosity. The following is from my Journal, December 6th:—
“There was an increase of about fifty per cent. in the number of letters despatched from London on Thursday as compared with the previous Thursday, and a loss of about £500 out of £1,600 in the total charges. The number of paid letters in the district post has increased from less than 9,000 to about 23,000; the number of unpaid letters remaining about the same as before, viz., 32,000. No doubt the increase is greater at present than it will be in a day or two, as comparatively few letters were written the day before the reduction; still the result is as yet satisfactory. The Chancellor of the Exchequer thinks very much so.
“December 7th.—As I expected, the number of letters yesterday was less than on Thursday; the increase as compared with the previous Friday being about twenty-five per cent. only.”
When it was found that the immediate increase was so very moderate, the moment had arrived for exultation in those who had predicted failure; and, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, I was fortunate enough to have more than one “damned good-natured friend” to keep me sufficiently informed of the jubilation.
Whilst, as I have said, angry voices arose at the limited extent of the first reduction, there were at least some persons who, being out of the reach of general information, received the change much as I had once hoped the whole public would do, viz., as a great and unexpected boon. A poor Irishman, for instance, who brought a letter to the Chief Office, with one shilling and fourpence for the postage, upon having the shilling returned to him, with the information that the fourpence was all that was required, broke out in acknowledgment to the window-clerk with a “God bless your honour, and thank you.”