Mr. Rowland Hill, 2, Burton Crescent.
“It may not be without interest to the public to show how easily ‘insuperable’ official objections can be overcome, when those who raise them desire it. Many years afterwards, when the proprietors of a London newspaper were making improvements in their printing machinery, and required the very facility for which my father had vainly contended, the Board of Inland Revenue, as I am told, on looking into the Act of Parliament on the matter, found that though the printing of the impressed stamp at the same time as the rest of the newspaper was clearly illegal, the only parties who could proceed against any newspaper proprietor so offending were the Commissioners of Inland Revenue themselves. Now as the Commissioners had made up their minds to allow the change, not only was an intimation given to the proprietors of the newspaper in question that they would not be interfered with, but the officers of the Stamp Office—Mr. Edwin Hill especially—gave most valuable assistance in devising the means of carrying out the improved (though decidedly illegal) arrangement.
“I may add that at the Caxton Exhibition in 1877, a copy of my father’s patent, as well as a type cylinder, inking apparatus, and such other portions of his printing machine as, after a lapse of forty-two years, could be got together, were exhibited, and are now to be seen by any one interested in the matter in the South Kensington Museum.”
[Though the employment of his printing machine for newspaper work was rendered impossible by the obstacle described above, it might still have been available for other purposes, had he been able to give it his attention. He thus continues his narrative:—]
“It was about this time that I began to entertain distinct hopes, however slight as yet their foundation, of employment in relation to postal affairs; and as usual in cases of great difficulty, I consulted my father and my brothers on the subject of future proceedings. I represented that I found myself unable to continue my duties in relation to the Australian Commission, and, at the same time, both to take effectual means for establishing the success of the printing machine, and to labour efficiently at my project for postal reform. Here was grave matter for consideration, the invention having already cost a large amount of labour, spread over a whole year, from both my brother and myself, besides £2,000 in hard cash; while, on the other hand, postal prospects, in which every one present took a deep interest, all having indeed already laboured with me in the cause, were regarded as promising. It was inquired whether my brother, who had thus far assisted me in the printing machine, could not himself carry the matter to completion; but unhappily his health was at that time in too depressed a state to leave any hope that he could alone surmount obstacles so formidable. Here I may remark that, at one time or other, every member of our family has fallen, at least once in his life, through excessive labour and anxiety, into severe, protracted, and even dangerous illness—illness involving consequences which nothing but our unshaken union could have enabled us to support. After long and careful consideration, they concurred in advising that the Post Office should be preferred to the printing machine; and as this recommendation seconded my own opinion, I decided to act upon it.
“I have only to say, in conclusion, that a printer of the highest standing in his trade, induced, I suppose, partly by what I had done in this matter, partly by a general knowledge of my antecedents, offered me in 1839 a very advantageous partnership,[89] which I should certainly have accepted, but that it would have involved my refusal of the offer which Government had just then made me, viz., of a post in the Treasury for the prosecution of my plan of postal reform.”[90]
[This account of Rowland Hill’s printing-press may be well brought to an end by the following extract from a letter which he wrote to his wife on July 17th, 1835:—]
“I have a good account to give of the printing machine. We have now completed the single machine, and the night before last we gave it a trial. It worked better than I hoped even, and fully established, I think, the correctness of the views we have entertained. Miss D——, who left for Birmingham this morning, has taken with her the scroll of paper which was printed.... It will be forwarded to you. I need not ask you to take care of it, and to return it when you come back to me. Some day or other it may be a great curiosity.”