| British Inland Postage | 1d. | or | 2 | cents. |
| Sea Postage | 4d. | " | 8 | " |
| United States' Inland Postage | 1d. | " | 2 | " |
| 6d. | 12 | cents. |
In the event of the American Government not being prepared to agree, Lord Elgin proposed that a disinterested third party should be called in, to whom the whole matter might be amicably referred. To this communication no answer whatever was returned, and the English Department had to wait until the next report of the United States Post-Office was published, in order to ascertain how the proposals had been received. It was found that Mr. Holt here complained that a reasonable offer that he had made to England had been declined there, "and for reasons so unsatisfactory, that for the present no disposition is felt to pursue the matter further." It is sincerely to be regretted that this great improvement, which would have been gladly hailed by thousands on both sides of the Atlantic, should have been so arrested, and especially that the United States' Government should have been deaf to the proposition to send the matter to arbitrament. Unquestionably, the present results, as well as the responsibility of future exertion, lies at the door of the United States; and it is to be hoped that, in justice to the thousands whom the Americans have eagerly invited to populate their country—not to mention other considerations—they will soon renew their efforts to obtain the boon of a sixpenny postage, and be prepared to meet the mother-country on reasonable grounds with equal terms.
The postal service with Ireland being considered deficient, so much so, that frequent mention was made of the subject in the House of Commons, a new and special service was brought into operation on the 1st of October, 1860. Night and day mail-trains have, on and from that date, been run specially from Euston Square Station to Holyhead, and special mail-steamers employed, at enormous expense, to cross the Channel. Letter-sorting is carried on not only in the trains, but on board the packets; nearly all the Post-Office work, including the preparation of the letters for immediate delivery at London and Dublin respectively, being accomplished on the journey between London and Dublin, and vice versâ—a journey which is now accomplished in about twelve hours. By means of this new service, a great saving of time is also effected on the arrival and departure of most of the American and Canadian mails. It cannot but be interesting to the reader who may have followed us as we have endeavoured to trace the progress of post communication in this country, to know how much is really possible under the improved facilities of our own day. A better instance could not be afforded than that occurring at the beginning of the year 1862, when the important news on which depended peace or war was hourly expected from the United States. Before the packet was due, the Inspector-General of Mails took steps to expedite the new Irish mail service, to the greatest possible extent, in its passage from Queenstown to London, and the result is so clearly and accurately given in the Times of the 8th of January, 1862, that we cannot do better than quote the account entire:—
"The arrangements for expressing the American mails throughout from Queenstown to London, which we described as being so successfully executed with the mails brought by the Africa last week, have been repeated with still more satisfactory results in the case of the mails brought by the Europa. These results are so exceptional that we record them in detail. The Europa arrived off Queenstown, about five miles from the pier, at 9 P.M. on Monday night. Her mails and the despatches from Lord Lyons were placed on board the small tender in waiting, and arrived at the Queenstown Pier at 10.5 P.M., at which point they were transferred to an express steamboat for conveyance by river to Cork. Leaving Queenstown Pier at 10.10 P.M., they arrived alongside the quay at Cork at 11.15 P.M. and thirteen minutes afterwards the special train left the Cork station for Dublin, accomplishing the journey to Dublin (166 miles) in four hours and three minutes, i. e. at a speed of about 41 miles an hour, including stoppage. The transmission through the streets between the railway termini in Dublin and by special train to Kingstown occupied only thirty-six minutes, and in four minutes more the special mail-boat Ulster was on her way to Holyhead. The distance across the Irish Channel, about sixty-six statute miles, was performed by the Ulster, against a contrary tide and heavy sea, in three hours and forty-seven minutes, giving a speed of about seventeen and a half miles an hour. The special train, which had been in waiting for about forty-eight hours, left the Holyhead Station at 8.13 A.M., and it was from this point that the most remarkable part of this rapid express commenced. The run from Holyhead to Stafford, 130½ miles, occupied only 145 minutes, being at the rate of no less than fifty-four miles an hour; and although so high a speed was judiciously not attempted over the more crowded portion of the line from Stafford to London, the whole distance from Holyhead to Euston, 264 miles, was performed by the London and North-Western Company in exactly five hours, or at a speed of about 52⅔ miles an hour, a speed unparalleled over so long a line, crowded with ordinary traffic. The entire distance from Queenstown Pier to Euston Square, about 515 miles, was thus traversed in fifteen hours and three minutes, or at an average speed of about thirty-four and a quarter miles an hour, including all delays necessary for the several transfers of the mails from boat to railway, or vice versâ.... By means of the invention for supplying the tender with water from a trough in transitu, the engine was enabled to run its first stage of 130½ miles, from Holyhead to Stafford, without stopping."
During the session of 1860-1, an Act was passed through Parliament for the establishment of Post-Office Savings' Banks on a plan proposed by Mr. Sykes, of Huddersfield.
In order to encourage the registration of letters containing coin or valuable articles, the registration fee was reduced, in 1862, from 6d. to 4d. each letter. At the same time, the plan of compulsory registration of letters was revived, and applied to all letters passing through the London Office which contained, or were supposed to contain, coin. Last year the plan was found to have been so successful in its results, that it was extended to all inland letters. The public may judge of the benefits and blessings of this proscriptive measure—to the officers of the Post-Office at any rate—when we state that the convictions for letter-stealing, since the plan was fully adopted, have been reduced more than ninety per cent.
In 1862, the Pneumatic Conveyance Company set up a branch of their operations at the Euston Square Station, London. The Post-Office took advantage of this new mode of conveyance to send the mail-bags to the North-Western District Office from this important railway terminus. The work is, of course, accomplished with marvellous expedition. The machinery for other localities is in course of construction, and may ultimately extend all over the metropolis, to the supercession, as far as the Post-Office is concerned, of the existing mail-vans.
During the month of May, 1863, a Postal Congress—the first of the kind—originated, we believe, by Mr. Rasson of the United States, assembled at the Bureau des Postes, in the Rue Jean Jacques, Paris, under the presidency of the French Postmaster-General, M. Vandal. The object of the Congress was "the improvement of postal communication between the principal commercial nations of the world." As we find that the little republic of Ecuador was represented, the postal affairs of little kingdoms were also not overlooked. Each civilized nation was asked to send a delegate, and all the most important States responded. Mr. Frederic Hill, brother of Sir Rowland Hill, and Assistant Secretary, was the English representative; the President represented France; M. Metzler, Prussia; Mr. Rasson, the United States; M. Hencke, Hamburg, &c. &c. The prepayment of foreign letters was one of the most difficult subjects discussed. The Congress came to the conclusion that it would be best to leave it optional with the writer of the letter whether the postage should be paid to its destination, or paid on receipt; in the latter case, however, it was thought desirable that a moderate additional postage should be charged. Another important matter was settled in a conclusive manner. It was first decided that the postage of foreign letters should be regulated by weight: it then became highly necessary, in order to the carrying out of this decision, that the postage should be calculated by a common standard; hence the following resolution, which was agreed to—"The metrical decimal system, being of all systems of weighing that which is best suited to the requirements of the postal service, it is expedient to adopt it for the international postal relations, to the exclusion of every other system." Other subjects of lesser importance, such as the route of foreign letters, the division of postage rates, the transmission of coin in letters (which they agreed to allow), were discussed very fully and, we are assured, very amicably. The Congress seems to have arrived at a good understanding of the principles of postal reciprocity, and good will doubtless be the result. The Postal Congress of last year was a Peace Congress of the most efficient kind, and in every sense of the term.
Within the last ten years the facilities offered to letter-writers by the Post-Office have materially increased. Four thousand additional persons have had to be employed in the service, one half, at least, of whom are engaged on account of the facilities and improvements in question, whilst the remainder may be said to have been required by the gradual increase of work in the establishment. The establishment of mid-day mails, increasing the number of daily deliveries in almost every provincial town; the acceleration of night-mails, allowing more time for posting in some places, and earlier deliveries in all; the increase in the number of village posts, to the extent of between three and four hundred every year; the gradual extension of free deliveries; the establishment of pillar letter-boxes as receptacles for letters; reductions in the rate of foreign and colonial letters, and also in the registration fee for home letters; the division of London, and to some extent other large towns, like Liverpool, into districts; and above all, the establishment of thousands of new savings' banks on safe principles, in connexion with improved money-order offices; are some of the principal advantages and facilities to which we refer. The past ten years have been years of great, gradual, and unexampled improvement. Nor is there anything but progress and advancement in prospect. The fact is, that the Post-Office is capable of infinite extension and growth: besides it belongs to the nation, and the people will expect the development of the utmost of its utilities. At the present time the experiment is being tried whether, without impairing its efficiency or the performance of its more proper business, the Post-Office can undertake the distribution of stamps; and it is not impossible, considering that it has at its command an organization which penetrates the entire kingdom, as no other private or public institution does, that the Stamp Department may be transferred to the control of the Postmaster-General.
Further, there is no doubt but that Mr. Gladstone's Bill, if passed through Parliament, "to amend the law relating to Government Annuities," will have a most important effect upon the Post-Office institution.[138] It is true that under the Savings' Bank Act any person may purchase a deferred annuity through the Post-Office, only the clause making it necessary to pay the purchase-money in one sum has a direct deterrent effect upon the measure. The provisions of the new Bill, on the contrary, allow the purchase-money to be paid in even weekly instalments. Equally important is the second part of the Bill, which empowers the Government to assure a person's life for 100l. It is proposed to draft all this extra business on to the Post-Office establishment, and no interest, except the insurance company interest, is likely to say nay. Until assurance or other companies can appoint agents, and open out offices in every town and village, the Government is likely to have a monopoly of any business it chooses to undertake.