I set to work, therefore, to give my matter such shape as seemed best fitted to illustrate my facts and give force to my arguments. In urging the various benefits to be anticipated from cheap and easy postal conveyance, I did not fail to dwell on its aid to education, which was then at length beginning to be regarded as a matter of national interest and national duty, though the movement in its favour was still grievously clogged by sectarian prejudice and political animosities. The following passage will show that I gave it the chief place in my summary:—[123]
“Its object is not to increase the political power of this or that party, but to benefit all sects in politics and religion; and all classes from the highest to the lowest. To the rich, as to the less wealthy, it will be acceptable, from the increased facilities it will afford for their correspondence. To the middle classes it will bring relief from oppressive and irritating demands which they pay grudgingly; estimating them even beyond their real amount, because probably of their frequent recurrence—which they avoid by every possible contrivance, and which they would consider quite intolerable if they knew that nearly the whole is a tax. And to the poor it will afford the means of communication with their distant friends and relatives, from which they are at present debarred. It will give increased energy to trade; it will remove innumerable temptations to fraud; and it will be an important step in general education; the more important, perhaps, because it calls on Government for no factitious aid, for nothing in the shape of encouragement, still less of compulsion; but merely for the removal of an obstacle, created by the law, to that spontaneous education which happily is extending through the country, and which, even the opponents of a national system will agree, ought to be unobstructed in its progress.”[124]
CHAPTER II.
PROMULGATION OF MY PLAN.
As yet I had proceeded almost alone; but when I had made a draft of my intended pamphlet, our usual family council was convened, to hear it read and consider its contents. I cannot now recall, even vaguely, the various discussions that ensued, nor the suggestions and modifications to which they gave rise; but the general result was a hearty approval of the plan, and that ready co-operation in promoting it which never failed me in any need, either before or after. Probably the wording of the draft underwent various changes, but the general tenour remained unaltered; and when all had been done that our united care could effect, the paper was printed (though marked “Private and Confidential.”) With certain exceptions, to be named hereafter, and with some additions to the Appendix, it was substantially and almost literally the same as that subsequently published under the title of “Post Office Reform, Second Edition.”[125]
When, however, I placed my paper in the hands of Government (which I did early in January, 1837), it was in the earnest desire that no publication might be necessary.[126] Hoping, with the sanguine expectation of an inventor, that a right understanding of my plan must secure its adoption, and relying with confidence on the clearness and force of my exposition, I little knew as yet the endless complexities in the machine of Government, the deep-rooted prejudice of routine, or the countless interests ready to start up in alarm at the appearance of innovation.
The first result, however, of my sending in my treatise was encouraging, as I received a summons to wait upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Spring Rice. I must add that he received me courteously, that he listened attentively to my representations, and seemed to imply a sort of general approval of my plan, by suggesting some modification in detail, advising the reconsideration of some of its parts, and recommending that in some others the facts and arguments should be given more in detail; and, in conclusion, by requesting me to send in a supplement to my paper.
In this document, which I sent in on the 28th of the same month (January), I gave more in detail my reasons for expecting a great increase in the number of letters. The ounce, which I had taken merely as the lowest rate then recognised in the Post Office, having been objected to as too large for the minimum weight and measure of increase (on the ground that it would allow several letters to be sent under one cover, to be afterwards distributed by private hand), I adopted the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s suggestion for the substitution of the half-ounce. Perhaps some future reformer may recommend the restoration of the original standard.[127] On the other hand, the pound having been objected to as too high a maximum, since its use might excite discontent among coach proprietors and other carriers, who would probably regard it as an interference with their trade, I proposed a reduction to four ounces. At a later period, however, if I may so far anticipate events, when penny postage came to be established, the pound limit was the one adopted, and even this limitation was afterwards withdrawn, so as to leave no restriction in weight save what would arise from augmented charge.
I had also to deal with the question of prepayment, on which difficulties had been raised both in the office and by some persons without; the former taking alarm lest its establishment, however attained, should greatly diminish the amount of correspondence, and the latter objecting that it would enable the clerks in the Post Office to become possessed of information relative to parties corresponding which might be used for the commercial injury of one or other, and also pointing out that servants or others intrusted with money for the payment of postage might be tempted to keep this for their own use, destroying the letters to conceal their dishonesty. While giving various reasons, which I need not repeat, for declining to share in the alarm of the Post Office, I suggested, as a means of obviating the other difficulties, the use of stamped covers, a device which, as I have already mentioned,[128] had been originally recommended, not, indeed, for letters, but for newspapers, by Mr. Charles Knight; and I take occasion to remark that the mention of this expedient, as applied to letters, occurred for the first time in this supplementary paper. I pointed out at the same time that, to whatever extent the covers might be used, to that extent, or nearly so, the revenue would be collected in large sums instead of small, a change obviously tending to the simplification of accounts in the department concerned.