The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the History of Penny Postage, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by Sir Rowland Hill; George Birkbeck Norman Hill

Lord Palmerston’s notice relative to a pension to my wife produced a good deal of discussion amongst my friends; and owing to their earnest advice an address from Lady Hill to the Queen was prepared, and a communication made to Lord Palmerston on the subject. A meeting was then held, and arrangements were made for postponing further proceedings in Parliament till after Easter. With these and the after proceedings connected with the Parliamentary grant, except as to my unavoidable correspondence with Mr. Moffatt, I took no part whatever, but left the matter entirely in the hands of my friends.[238] The purport of Lady Hill’s address to the Queen was to pray that any reward to which Her Majesty might consider me entitled should take a form which should be beneficial to our children. A deputation, with Sir Francis Baring at its head, then waited upon Lord Palmerston, and in consequence of the representations then made to him, the motion of which he had given notice was postponed, and, when actually brought forward, was greatly modified.

Lord Palmerston’s motion was finally made on June 11th, the following message from the Queen having been brought up by his lordship on the 6th:—

“Victoria Regina.—Her Majesty, taking into consideration the eminent services of Sir Rowland Hill, the late Secretary of the Post Office, in devising and carrying out various important improvements in the postal administration, and being desirous, in recognition of such services, to confer some signal mark of her favour upon him, recommends to the House to concur in enabling Her Majesty to grant Sir Rowland Hill the sum of £20,000.”

The following report of the proceedings is taken from the Times:—

Mr. Massey having read Her Majesty’s message, recommending the grant of a sum of £20,000 to Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B., in recognition of his services in connection with postal reforms,

“Lord Palmerston rose and said: I trust that the Committee will be disposed to concur without any objection in the recommendation which her Majesty has been graciously pleased to make. (Cheers.) Sir Rowland Hill is a man of great genius, of great sagacity, of great perseverance and industry, and he has rendered great services both to this and other countries. He formed the opinion that the Post Office was more properly a department for the performance of service than for the mere collection of revenue, and with a boldness which staggered a great number of persons who had not looked at the matter from the same point of view, he recommended a very large reduction in the rate of postage, with the confidence that it would in the end bring up the revenue to the same amount to which it had previously stood, and would in the mean time confer the greatest possible benefit upon the community. (Hear, hear.) Many people thought that he was too sanguine in his calculations, and that, although the number of letters might increase, the revenue would not recover the great shock which the introduction of the penny postage would inflict upon it. Those anticipations have been falsified, and the calculations of Sir R. Hill have turned out to be correct. Sir R. Hill had for nearly a quarter of a century performed, with some slight interval, the arduous duties which had devolved upon him in connection with the scheme, and he is now at a time of life when his health must have suffered from the great labour which attaches to his office. The Treasury have on that ground, given him permission to retire, and have done that which I am sure this house will not think too much—they have given him his full salary for life. He is now, I believe, in the seventieth year of his age, and his health has been shattered by the labours which he has had to perform. Under these circumstances, Her Majesty thought that this House would be of opinion that the great services which he has performed would recommend him for a grant which should enable him to make those arrangements for his family which the short period during which he may probably enjoy his pension would not otherwise permit him to make. His labours have produced more beneficial results than may strike persons at first sight. It is quite clear that the facilities which the penny postage has given to the transactions of commerce, and to all communications connected with business, must have been infinitely advantageous to the industry, and, by that means, to the general revenue of the country. (Hear, hear.) In that view Sir R. Hill has performed great services to the country; but there is another view in which he has produced still more startling results, namely, in the amount of happiness and comfort which his invention—if I may call it an invention—his plan, has conferred upon millions of the poorer classes of the community. (Hear.) When the rate of postage was as high as it was before that plan was introduced, communication between the members of a poor family who were scattered about the country was impossible. How could a poor labouring man pay a shilling or sixpence for a letter? Communication between the members of such families was more difficult than the communication between England and Australia is now. (Hear, hear.) The cultivation of the affections raises men in their own estimation and in the standing which they occupy in society. It improves their morals, and develops all those qualities which tend to make useful members of the community. Therefore I say that Sir R. Hill, independently of the benefits which his plan has conferred upon the general interests and prosperity of the country, has the merit of having conferred a great benefit upon the labouring and poorer classes of the people, which would of itself entitle him to any mark of approbation and reward which the House may be disposed to confer upon him. In the year 1838, before the penny postage was introduced, the number of letters transmitted through the Post Office was 76,000,000; in 1863 the number was 642,000,000. (Hear, hear). That is a measure of the extent to which that plan has assisted the industry and contributed to the comfort and happiness of the community. There are many matters connected with the plan which are independent of the mere reduction of the amount paid for the postage of letters. Among others, there is the facility which his arrangements have given for the transmission of money in small sums from one part of the country to another. The amount of the money orders taken out in 1838 was £313,000; in 1863 it was £16,494,000. (Hear, hear.) What an immense advantage must have resulted from the facility for the safe transmission of so large an amount of small sums, which it would otherwise have been very difficult and expensive to transmit. Then there is the book-post. It is greatly conducive to the interests of literature, and the arrangements have been most extensively taken advantage of. The gross revenue of the Post Office has increased very considerably, but of course the increase of facilities has led to the multiplication of establishments and officers, and has therefore largely increased the outgoings. In 1838 the gross receipts were £2,436,000; in 1863 they were £3,870,000; showing that Sir R. Hill was perfectly right in anticipating that at no distant period the receipts of the Post Office would recover from the diminution which the first introduction of his plan naturally produced. In point of fact everybody is so well acquainted with the merits of Sir R. Hill’s plan and the good effects which it has produced, that I shall content myself with moving the resolution of which I have given notice. (Cheers.) The noble Viscount concluded by moving that a sum not exceeding £20,000 should be granted to Her Majesty as a provision for Sir Rowland Hill.”

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“Sir F. Baring, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time when Sir R. Hill’s plan was introduced (hear, hear), wished to bear testimony to the ability of that eminent public servant, and to the good sense, intelligence, and good humour with which he met and surmounted the innumerable difficulties that it was then thought right to throw in his way.”

Mr. Neate, who had been at the time Sir Francis Baring’s private Secretary, most justly dwelt on the support given to me by Sir Francis, when my official superior.