Transcriber's note

There are numerous quotations from documents in German, French and archaic English which use many abbreviations, variant spellings and inconsistent spellings which are retained, unless an obvious typographical correction is [listed at the end of this document]

The Table of Contents is found on [page vii] and the alphabetical Index is found on [page 425].

STUDIES IN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.

Edited by the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, Ph.D., Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

No. 50 in the Series of Monographs by writers connected with the London School of Economics and Political Science.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RATES OF POSTAGE

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RATES OF POSTAGE

AN HISTORICAL AND ANALYTICAL STUDY

by

A. D. SMITH, B.Sc. (Econ.)

of the secretary's office,
general post office, london

with an introduction by

THE RIGHT HON. HERBERT SAMUEL, M.P.
Postmaster-General 1910-14 and 1915-16

LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1

[Thesis approved for the Degree of Doctor of Science (Economics) in the University of London]

First published in 1917

(All rights reserved)

PREFACE

This study, which was prepared primarily as a Research Studentship Report for the University of London, is intended to be a contribution to the history of rates of postage, and an attempt to ascertain the principles, economic or otherwise, on which they are and have been based.

The Postmaster-General accorded me permission to consult the official records at the General Post Office, London, and through this courtesy I have been enabled to include a detailed examination of the economic aspect of the rates in the inland service in this country, and to place in the Appendix copies of some original documents which have not before been printed. Without this permission, which I desire here to acknowledge, it would, indeed, scarcely have been possible to undertake the inquiry. It must be made clear, however, that the work is of entirely private character, and cannot be taken as in any way expressing the views of the British Postal Administration.

In 1912, as the holder of the Mitchell Studentship in Economics at the University of London, I visited Ottawa and Washington; in 1913 I visited Paris and the International Bureau at Berne; and in 1914, Berlin. I am much indebted to the various postal administrations visited, to whom, by the courtesy of the Postmaster-General, I carried official letters of introduction in addition to my letters from the University, for facilities to consult official papers relating to the subject of investigation, and for assistance from members of the staff with whom I was brought into contact.

The work was all but completed at the outbreak of war, but publication has been unavoidably delayed. The overpowering necessities created by the war have caused Governments again to look to postage for increased revenue.

Penny postage itself has been in danger in the country of its origin. Various war increases of postage have already been made, both here and abroad, and brief particulars of the changes in the countries dealt with have been included. Further proposals for increasing the revenue from postage will possibly be made, and I am hopeful that these pages, in which the course of postage is traced, may then be found of service.

For the privilege of numerous facilities in connection with my work on the rates in this country I am indebted to Mr. W. G. Gates, Assistant-Secretary to the Post Office; and for assistance in my inquiries abroad I am indebted to Dr. R. M. Coulter, C.M.G., Deputy Postmaster-General, Ottawa, and Mr. William Smith, I.S.O., at the time of my visit Secretary to the Canada Post Office; to Congressman the Hon. David Lewis, of Maryland, and Mr. Joseph Stewart, Second Assistant Postmaster-General, United States Post Office; to M. Vaillé, of the Secrétariat Administratif, Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, Paris; and to M. Ruffy, Director of the International Bureau, Universal Postal Union, Berne.

I am especially indebted to Professor Graham Wallas for valuable suggestions and advice.

A. D. SMITH.
London School of Economics,
1917.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

This book contains a collection of facts and an examination of principles which will be of value to all students of the subject with which it deals. It is more comprehensive than any book on rates of postage yet published in the English language, or, I believe, in any other. It is careful and unbiased, and although here and there some of the author's conclusions may not meet with unanimous acceptance, they cannot fail to stimulate useful discussion on a matter which is far more important than is often realized.

The whole of our social organization has come to depend in large degree upon the post. Commerce, in all its departments, relies upon it. All the variety of associations which are, in their wide expansion, distinctive of modern civilization and necessary to its life and energy—employers' associations, trade unions, co-operative societies, friendly societies, religious bodies, political and propagandist organizations of every kind, local, national, and international—the whole nervous system of the modern State, depends upon the quick transmission of information and ideas; it would never have reached and could not maintain its present development without cheap, reliable, and speedy means of communication. The indirect effects of changes—even small changes—in the postal system are often extensive and almost incalculable.

Where the State itself conducts an industry there is always a risk that commercial considerations and fiscal considerations will not be sufficiently distinguished. Charges may be fixed at a higher point than is warranted by the cost of the services rendered. The surplus goes to the national revenue. It is a tax, but a concealed tax, and in the case of postal rates it is one of the worst kinds of tax, a tax on communications.

On the other hand, charges may be fixed at a lower point than will cover the cost of the service. The deficit is a subsidy, but a concealed subsidy. The halfpenny postage rate for bulky newspapers, for example, or the extension of telegraph offices to rural districts, may be socially useful, but they are unremunerative. The loss that they involve to the Exchequer may be justifiable, but if so it should be deliberately incurred. It should not be hidden in the profit that is made on the letter post. Without a scientific examination into the actual cost of each part of the postal and telegraphic service, and into the precise relation of revenue to cost, the charges may include, haphazard, an excess which is nothing but pure taxation, the expenditure may include an addition which is nothing but pure subsidy, and neither the administrator nor the taxpayer may be aware of the fact.

It is therefore one of the essential duties of the Post Office to make such examinations, and of students or critics of postal affairs to check or to supplement them. Mr. A. D. Smith has made a useful contribution to the application, in this sphere, of the methods of science to the conduct of industry; and since the postal service is the most international of all forms of social activity, it may be expected that his contribution will be of value, and will have its influence, far beyond the limits of our own country.

HERBERT SAMUEL.

I
THE RATE FOR LETTERS

LETTER POST IN ENGLAND

In England the postal service, as an organized means for the carrying of the King's despatches, dates back some four hundred years, and as a recognized arrangement for the carrying of letters for the public, some three hundred years. Before the establishment of a regular system of posts, provision had been made for carrying the King's despatches by special messengers, called nuncii or cursores, attached to the royal household.[1] Their function was naturally one of importance, and, from early times, large sums were expended in their maintenance. They were employed on the private and confidential business of the Crown and of members of the royal household, and on affairs of State, both in England and abroad, although their function was primarily to serve the convenience of the King.

This was a system for the conveyance of official despatches only.[2] No public provision was made for the conveyance of letters for private individuals. Such letters were conveyed by servants, by special messengers, or by the common carriers,[3] and there is evidence of the existence of a considerable private correspondence in the frequent issue of writs during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ordering supervision of the traffic in private letters, the uninterrupted transmission of

which was a source of much anxiety to the Crown from fear of the fomenting of sinister and treasonable plots against itself.[4]

The establishment of the nuncii or cursores developed into a regular system. On certain lines of road relay stages were set up, at which the messengers might without delay obtain a change of horses, a system first set up by Edward IV in 1482, during the war with Scotland.[5] Such relay messengers were called "posts," a word borrowed from the French.[6] The term was also applied to the line of route, and the expression "post," or "line of posts," was used to denote a route along which, at certain stages, post-horses were kept in readiness for the use of the King's messengers. Travelling in this way the messengers were able to cover a hundred miles a day. The establishment of lines of regular posts became a feature of the administrative system, and a special officer of the royal household was appointed to control them.

The first recorded Master of the Posts was Brian Tuke, who held the office in 1512. The posts, like the establishment of special messengers, were maintained solely at the cost of the King. The master received a salary from the King (which in a patent issued in 1545 is given as £66 13s. 4d. a year), and also the amount of his expenses incurred in providing for the carrying of letters. The regular postmasters

received a daily wage from the King. On lines along which no regular post had been established, but along which it might on occasion be necessary to send special messengers, the townships were obliged to furnish horses for the service of the messengers. Remarks in contemporary papers suggest that no payment was made in such cases, but that horses were supplied gratis for the King's service.[7] There is no record of the early days of Tuke's tenure of the office of Master of the Posts; but in 1533 Thomas Cromwell complained to Tuke concerning the condition of the posts, and the great default in the conveyance of letters.[8]

The posts were in many cases established on account of some special circumstance, and were of a temporary character. The first regular post—that established in 1482 during the war with Scotland—was, of course, temporary; but at much later dates, when "ordinarie," or permanent, posts had been established, such as the post from London to Berwick and that from London to Beaumaris, it was still usual to establish "extra ordinarie" posts "in divers places of the Realme" as occasion might from time to time require, as, for example, during the periods of the sovereign's progresses.[9]

The early posts had a second function, not less in importance than that of providing for the conveyance of the sovereign's despatches, and despatches sent on affairs of State viz. the provision of means by which persons actually travelling on the business of the sovereign, though not bearing despatches,

might do so with facility. This second function, the travelling post, continued until the eighteenth century. It is a function which is essentially akin to the provision of a means of intercommunication by means of letters. In many parts of the United Kingdom, and also in other countries, the means provided for the conveyance of the mail are still largely used by persons desiring to travel.[10]

The use of the post-horses by ordinary travellers commenced at an early period. In 1553, when the posts had been in existence only some fifty or sixty years, a rate of a penny a mile for persons riding post was fixed by statute.[11]

Great abuses grew up round the travelling post, or "thorough post," as it was called.[12] Riders in post frequently failed to pay a reasonable sum for the hire of horses; and since King's

messengers, although paying no fixed rates, obtained better accommodation than others, riders in post travelling on their own affairs made no scruple to represent themselves as travelling on public service. Orders directed against these abuses were issued in 1603. Riders in post on the King's affairs, with a special commission signed either by one of the Principal Secretaries of State, by six at least of the Privy Council, or by the Master of the Posts, were to pay at the rate of 2½d. a mile for a horse. All others riding post about their own affairs were to make their own terms with the postmaster, and to pay in advance.[13] The net result was that for all persons riding with the special commission a fixed rate was payable in place of uncertain rates as hitherto, and the postmasters were protected from being imposed upon by persons riding post on their private business. Without the special commission it was useless to pretend to be travelling on the King's affairs. By this proclamation the postmasters were also given the exclusive right of letting horses to travellers.[14] The wages of the postmasters in respect of the "post for the pacquet" were a fixed sum per day, and a certain number of horses had to be kept in readiness, in proportion to the amount

of the wages paid. As regards the service for the State, the system of posts was therefore on a complete and definite financial basis. The rates for the thorough post, although not in any way rates of postage in the modern sense, were the first rates applied to the service of the posts (the pay of the postmasters for the packet post being merely wages per diem), and it was to them that the term "postage" was first applied. These rates were in fact the original "postage."

The number of regular posts was in early times quite small.[15] In order to provide a means of reaching other parts of the kingdom with some degree of facility, the municipalities were required to maintain, or at least provide when required, post-horses for the use of the King's messengers.[16] Some municipalities made definite provision of horses: Leicester, for example, maintained "certen poste-horses" (four in number) for the service of the Prince; but if horses were not provided voluntarily, the magistrates and constables were authorized to seize them for the King's service wherever they could be found.[17] Many of the posts continued for a long period to be of a temporary nature. Even in the seventeenth century some which it might be thought would have been important at any time, were regarded as extraordinary posts, and were discontinued with the disappearance of the special circumstances on account of which they had been established.[18]

A third function became attached to the posts, viz. the transmission of private letters. As it is impossible to say at what date the posts began to be used by ordinary travellers, so it is impossible to say at what date they were first used for the conveyance of letters other than those on the affairs of the King or of the State. The universities and municipalities provided services for the carriage of their own letters;[19]

but from a very early period the posts were also made use of for the conveyance of unofficial letters. The Master of the Posts received no direct profit from the carrying of such letters,[20] but the price paid to him for the office of Deputy Postmaster was probably thereby increased.[21]

A Proclamation of 26th April 1591 prohibited the conveyance of letters to or from countries beyond the seas by any person other than the ordinary posts and messengers; and referred to previous similar prohibitions. The object of this prohibition, which foreshadowed the monopoly of the carriage of all letters, whether for places within the realm or to or from foreign countries, was alleged to be the redress of disorders among the posts in general, and particularly to prevent inconveniences both to the royal service and the lawful trade of honest merchants.[22] A Proclamation of 1609 repeated this prohibition.[23]

In 1626 a legal struggle was in progress between Matthew de Quester and Lord Stanhope, both of whom claimed to hold a King's Patent conferring the right to carry foreign letters.[24] This litigation led to laxity and omission in the conduct of the foreign service, so that merchants trading

abroad were put to great inconvenience. In consequence, in November of that year, the King granted the Merchant Companies permission to arrange for the conveyance of their foreign letters by their own messengers. The high authorities were disturbed by the grant of this permission,[25] and in October 1627 it was revoked "upon weightie reasons of State." Only the Merchant Adventurers were still permitted to use their own messengers, and they and all other merchants were required in times of war and danger to the State to acquaint the Secretaries of State from time to time with what letters they forwarded abroad.

The foreign post continued in an unsatisfactory state, and a reorganization in accordance with a proposition submitted by the Master of the Foreign Posts, Thomas Witherings, was notified in orders issued on the 28th January 1633. In consequence of complaints, both of Ministers of State and merchants, it was decided to send no more letters by the carriers, who came and went at pleasure, but, in conformity with other nations, to erect "stafetti," or packet posts, at fit stages, to run day and night without ceasing. Under this new system the Foreign Postmaster of England undertook, with the consent of the foreign Governments, to provide "stafetti" for the conveyance of foreign letters on the Continent, e.g. he arranged the "stafetti" between Calais and Antwerp.

For the inland posts the financial arrangements of 1603 remained some thirty years undisturbed, and notwithstanding that the posts were used by travellers, and for the general conveyance of private letters, they remained a charge on the King's revenue. In 1633 the deficit was some £3,400, and in that year Witherings submitted a plan for the complete reorganization of the inland posts.[26] The new

system, which applied only to the "post for the pacquet," was to be based on a definite scale of charges. Previously, there had been no regular system of charging letters carried for the public, and it is at this point that the modern Post Office emerges. Up to this time the conveyance of letters for private individuals, although it may have been a source of emolument to the postmasters and couriers, was not recognized by the State as part of the function of the service. Under the proposed system, a charge was to be made for every letter or packet, varying in accordance with the distance for which the letter or packet was conveyed, and its size. The latter was to be graduated for light letters according to the number of sheets, and for heavier letters and packets according to weight, starting from the ounce. Here, therefore, is to be seen at the inception of "postage" in the modern sense a definite distinction between the rate charged on the ordinary letter, the weight and bulk of which are in general insignificant, and that charged on the larger and heavier packets of deeds, or what not, which might be forwarded by post.

The reform of the posts on these lines was carried out by Witherings in October 1635, and constitutes a remarkable development of the Post Office system. The rates of charge were as follow:—

The great change of 1840 modified this system only at two points, viz. (1) uniformity of rate, that is, the elimination of the table of distances from the rate-table, and (2) the introduction of the method of charge according to weight for all letters and packets.

The monopoly of foreign letters was by this time well established, and the reason for its existence well defined. A further proclamation of the 11th February 1637-8 again declared this monopoly, and proceeded to declare a monopoly of letters between persons within the realm, the second

monopoly being justified, not on the ground of necessity in order to guard the safety of the State, but on the ground that commerce and correspondence within the realm would benefit.[27] The real explanation of the new prohibition for inland letters was no doubt the fact that Witherings had been appointed Master of the Inland Letter Office for the purpose of bringing into operation his scheme for reorganizing the posts, and it was essential to the success of the scheme that he should have the sole right of carrying letters. There was, of course, the political reason of danger to the State from free and uncontrolled transmission of letters, but the feeling in that respect seems not to have been so strong regarding the inland letters as regarding the foreign letters. It developed later, however.[28]

In 1640 Witherings was displaced on some charge of maladministration, and the office was given to Philip Burlamachi, a merchant of the City of London. Witherings did not

give up the office without a struggle. For two years he strove to retain it, but without much success; and in 1642 he assigned his patent to the Earl of Warwick, who continued the struggle. Burlamachi was backed by Edmund Prideaux, afterwards Attorney-General. Into the merits or progress of the contest it is unnecessary to enter. It will be sufficient to record that the Lords espoused the cause of the Earl of Warwick and the Commons that of Burlamachi; that the contest continued some two years; and that in the end the Lords gave way, and Burlamachi continued Master of the Posts.

The office fell vacant in 1644, and Parliament appointed Prideaux to the charge of the posts.[29] This task he entered upon with some seriousness, and with considerable success. He extended the service, but raised the minimum postage to 6d. From a report submitted by him to the Council of State in 1649, it appears that he had established "a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation," and that with the moneys received as postage he had been able to defray the whole cost of the postmasters of England with the exception of those on the Dover Road.[30] At the time of his appointment the posts involved a charge to the State of some £7,000 a year.[31] It might therefore be thought that for Prideaux to be able to carry on the system, to give a despatch of letters to all parts of the kingdom every week, and at the same time make the proceeds of postage cover the whole cost, except for the Dover Road, was a considerable achievement. The Commons were not, however, altogether satisfied. The long disputes between the various patentees, and their anxiety not to lose any part of the business of conveying letters, made it evident that there was a profit other than the salary paid by the King, notwithstanding that funds for the maintenance of the posts were drawn from the Exchequer year by year. The office of Master of the Posts was bought and sold. Witherings sold part of his wife's estate to the value of £105 a year in land to obtain the office. The deputy postmasters also bought their offices. And in 1642, by vote of both Houses, Burlamachi had been required to give an account of the profits of the Letter Office. The Letter Office was in

fact not on the simple basis of payment by the messengers to the Master of Posts of all receipts, payment by the Master of Posts from the receipts of the ordinary fixed wages of the deputy postmasters (together with the cost of special expresses) and of his own salary, and payment from the Exchequer of the balance necessary to complete such payment. The deputy postmasters took, and retained for their own use, the postage received on private letters, paying a percentage to the Master of the Posts; and they had also the monopoly, which was very lucrative, of letting horses to travellers riding post. In view of these profits they were prepared to purchase from the Master of the Posts the office of deputy postmaster, and sums received from that source, together with the percentage of the postage of private letters, constituted the emoluments of the Master of the Posts, additional to his salary. The Commons, being no doubt aware of this, concluded that there ought to be a net revenue from the Office, and required Prideaux to pay the sum of £5,000 a year.[32]

Witherings, who by some strange chance seems never to have been altogether ousted from his offices, but to have retained that of Master of the Foreign Post, died in 1651, and there were numerous claimants for the succession to the office. The Council of State invited all persons with claims to submit them, and in reporting on the claims, suggested the farming of the Inland and Foreign Letter Offices. The question was put to the House of Commons that the whole business be "recommitted to the Council of State to take into consideration and present their opinions to the Parliament how the same may be managed for the best service of the State and ease of the people." The addition of the words "by contract or otherwise" was suggested, and accepted by the House.[33] The question was considered by a Committee, who, having found much difficulty in dealing with the numerous claims in respect of the Foreign and Inland Letter Offices, decided on the 7th November 1651, probably as a way out of the difficulty, to recommend that the offices should be let to farm. The matter was not hurriedly disposed of. On

the 7th May 1653,[34] resolutions were passed by the House of Commons asserting the State monopoly of the carriage of letters, and directing the Committee appointed to consider the posts to fix rates for private letters, to obtain tenders from persons for farming the carrying of letters, and to recommend what annual sum in their opinion the State should require in case it were thought well to let the posts to farm.

On the 30th June 1653 the Inland and Foreign Letter Offices were let to John Manley at a rent of £10,000 a year,[35] and thus was instituted the system of farming, which continued until 1677 as regards the main posts, and until the late eighteenth century as regards the bye posts. The rent continuously increased. Shortly after the Restoration it was raised to £21,500 a year, and in 1667 to £43,000 a year.

The rate for a single letter, which had been raised by Prideaux to 6d., was in 1655 or 1656 reduced to 3d., owing to the efforts and competition of Clement Oxenbridge and others, who established and maintained rival services for the carriage of letters. These "interlopers" received scant consideration from Prideaux, and the services which they had established were suppressed.[36] In 1657 an Ordinance of the Commonwealth Parliament further reduced the rate to 2d. for a single letter sent for distances under 80 miles, and 3d. for distances over 80 miles. The rates were not, however, as low

as would appear at first sight. There is the difference in the value of money to be allowed for; and there is the further consideration that postage was not charged according to the direct distance. All the post roads converged on London, and there were no cross posts. All letters from towns on one post road for towns on another post road must therefore pass through London, and all letters passing through London were subjected to an additional rate of postage;[37] that is to say, they were charged the appropriate rate in respect of the distance to London, and then, in addition, the appropriate rate in respect of the distance from London to destination.

The Ordinance of 1657 placed the Post Office system for the first time on a statutory basis.[38] The objects for which such an Office was required were given as three in number: first, to maintain certain intercourse of trade and commerce; secondly, to convey public despatches; and thirdly, to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs against the peace and welfare of the Commonwealth. In 1660 an Act of Parliament was passed, dealing with the Post Office.[39] Essentially it was the Ordinance of 1657, passed as an Act to give it legal validity under the changed order of things. The clauses relating to the use of the Post Office as a means of detecting plots against the State were included in a modified form, and this function was by no means lost sight of.[40] During the excitement caused by the Popish Plot it was freely exercised.

The general farm of the posts was abolished in 1677, and the administration of the Office undertaken by the Government, except in the case of the smaller branch posts, in regard to which the practice of farming was even extended in the early years of the eighteenth century.[41]

The revenue yielded by the Office continued to expand. In 1694 it had reached £60,000; and when, for various reasons, but chiefly to provide for the control of the Post Office in Scotland, which had been brought under the English authorities by the Act of Union, a new Post Office Act became necessary, the Ministers, involved in a protracted war, seized the opportunity to obtain an increased revenue from the Office. Under William III this had been thought of.[42]

The Act of 1711,[43] which remained for over fifty years the principal Act relating to the Post Office, was to be an instrument of taxation. For some fifty years the Post Office had been yielding a revenue, constant and increasing, but nevertheless more or less fortuitous. Its functions had always been defined as primarily to provide for the transmission of letters, for the benefit of commerce, and for the safety and security of the kingdom, by bringing all letters into "one Post Office settled and established in this Kingdom," and conducted immediately under the eye of the King's Government. The amount paid for the farm had increased with the passing of the years, in measure with the increase of the business of the Office—not by any change in the scale of charges, which remained as fixed in 1660. Now, however, the Office was made a financial instrument, the proceeds of which were to be regulated by manipulation of the rates of charge. The results of the Act of 1711 did not fulfil the anticipations of its framers. Provision had been made for the disposal of that increase of revenue which was looked for: "the full, clear, and entire Weekly Sum of Seven Hundred Pounds of Lawful Money of Great Britain" was to be paid out of the revenues of the Post Office "towards

the Establishment of a good, sure, and lasting Fund, in order to raise a present Supply of Money for carrying on the War and other her Majesty's most necessary Occasions."[44] This £700 was to be paid entirely from the proceeds of the increase in the rates. The existing revenue of £111,461 a year was to be disposed of as theretofore. All pensions and charges on the revenue were to continue, and were to have preference over the payment of £700 a week. Of the surplus over and above the £111,461 a year and the £700 a week, one-third part was to be at the disposal of Parliament, the rest to be paid into the Exchequer with the £111,461.

But the increase of revenue was so small that some of these provisions remained for many years inoperative. The increase of rate was found burdensome. Merchants resorted to every available means of avoiding the additional expense.[45] A large clandestine traffic in letters grew up. The very postboys were found carrying letters outside the mail for what fees they could obtain. In 1710 the net revenue had been £66,822. In 1721 it was £99,784, an increase of £32,962. After the deduction, therefore, of the £700 a week (or £36,400 a year), the payment of which had preference over all other payments chargeable on the Post Office revenue, excepting only the expenses of management, the actual net revenue of the Post Office available for the purposes prescribed by the Act was in 1721, £63,384, or less than the revenue of 1710 by £3,438. The Act provided that one-third of the surplus of the yield of postage over and above the sum of £147,861 (£111,461 plus the £700 a week) should be at the disposal of Parliament for the use of the public; but although the gross revenue had exceeded that sum, there was no surplus for the use of the public, the explanation being that the sum mentioned in the Act, viz. £111,461, was the amount of gross revenue, which could only serve as a basis provided the cost of management remained stationary. As a

matter of fact, the cost so greatly increased that the net revenue was not sufficient to provide the sum of £700 a week and also a revenue equal to that obtained before 1711. As Mr. Joyce has pointed out, the Treasury had confounded gross and net revenue.[46]

The essentially fiscal character of the rates of 1711 is evidenced by a provision of the Act that from and after the 1st June 1743 the rates charged under the previous Acts were to be restored.[47] But after 1743, although they were without legal sanction, the rates of 1711 continued in operation, and by an Act of 1763 they were made perpetual.[48]

The fifty years following the Act of the 9th of Anne were uneventful.[49] The chief development was in connection with the cross posts; a development which, although not having direct reference to the question of the rates of postage, was yet of importance. At the commencement of the eighteenth century the main system of the Post Office still centred on London. All the main post routes radiated from London, and the great bulk of the letters passing by post were either for or from London, or passed through London. But there were, of course, numbers of letters which were not sent to London at all: letters between two towns on a post road, or letters between towns on different post roads, which could be sent direct and not by way of London. These letters were known as bye letters and cross post letters.[50] Since they were not handled in London, the authorities had not the same

means of checking their numbers, and the postmasters' accounts of postage in respect of them, as could be applied in London, and grave irregularities arose. The revenue was continually defrauded by the failure of the postmasters to bring to account the postage on such letters. No record was made in respect of many of them, and their transmission became so notoriously unsafe that illicit means of conveyance were constantly resorted to. The matter was already so serious that a special clause was included in the Act of the 9th of Anne, providing that for the suppression of the abuse any postmaster found guilty of embezzling the postage of bye or way letters should forfeit £5 for every letter and £100 for every week during which he continued the practice.[51] Even this penal clause was insufficient to check the abuse, as owing to the unsatisfactory method of dealing with bye and way letters there was small risk of detection in fraud.

In 1719 Ralph Allen, then postmaster of Bath, proposed to the Postmasters-General that the management of the bye and cross post letters should be leased to him for a term of years, and offered a rent one and a half times as great as the revenue from the letters at that time. The offer was accepted, and the lease, which in the first instance was for seven years, was renewed from time to time. Allen, whose discovery was merely that of a method of check on the receipts of the postmasters from the bye and cross letters, was able to pay the rent agreed upon, largely to suppress the illicit transmission of the letters, and to make a handsome profit.[52] The

chief importance of Allen's work lies, however, not so much in the fact of his rendering the bye and cross post letters subject to effective check, as in the fact that in order to retain his lease he, on each occasion of renewal, undertook the provision of additional facilities. By this means a daily post was gradually extended to almost all the post routes.[53]

In 1765 the inland rates for short distances were reduced, and a new standard of charge was introduced. Hitherto, all charges had been regulated on a mileage basis. For short distances they were now based on the number of post stages. For one post stage the rate was made 1d. for a single letter, for a double letter 2d., for a treble letter 3d., and for every ounce 4d.; for two post stages, 2d., and in proportion for double, treble, and ounce letters.[54] The financial result of the change was unsatisfactory.[55]

Up to this period the mails were carried by postboys riding horse. Notwithstanding that on all the chief roads stage-coaches were running more expeditiously than the post-horses, the Post Office kept to the old way. The superiority of the stage-coaches as means for the conveyance of letters was noticed by Mr. John Palmer, proprietor of the theatre of Bath,[56] who was so greatly impressed with the fact that he devised a complete and definite plan for the establishment of a system of mail conveyance by coach. The cost of the riding post (boy and horse) was 3d. a mile, and Palmer estimated that the change could be carried out without involving any increase of cost, especially if, as he proposed, the coaches carrying the mails should be exempted from toll. The proposal was severely criticized by the district surveyors of the Post Office, who reported on it.[57] At the Treasury,

however, the proposal met with a more favourable reception. Pitt called a conference on the 21st June 1784, and after hearing the explanations of Palmer and the criticisms of the representatives of the Post Office, decided that the plan should be given a trial. Accordingly, on the 2nd August 1784 the first mail-coach ran. The experiment, which was conducted on the Bath Road, proved successful, and the plan was rapidly extended throughout the kingdom. The first coach cost 3d. a mile, the same rate as the riding post; but ultimately the coaches proved to be cheaper than the horse posts. In 1797 the rate was no more than a penny a mile.[58]

Almost simultaneously with the introduction of mail-coaches there was an increase in the rates of postage, made solely with a view to increased revenue.[59] The alteration was more or less fortuitous. In his Budget of 1784 Pitt had proposed a tax on coals which had not been well received, and the increased postage was substituted. Palmer is said to have claimed the credit of suggesting the substitution.[60] If so, his faith in his plan was abundantly justified. Notwithstanding the handicap of increased rates, it was an

unqualified success, and the effect on the revenue was immediate and considerable.

At about this time several horse and cross post mails had been molested, and it was desired, in response to a considerable public agitation, to establish mail-coaches on the minor posts. This would have involved heavy cost, and as an alternative Freeling (Secretary to the Post Office, afterwards Sir Francis) suggested that only responsible persons should be employed—at this time the post riders, in fact as well as name, were in many instances mere boys—and that the riders should be armed. In order to obtain funds to meet the cost of this scheme, the rates of postage were again increased in 1797.[61] A further increase was made in 1801 in order to-provide an additional contribution of £150,000 a year to the Exchequer.[62] The new rates were elaborate and complicated, comprising no less than thirteen rates for each class of letter, according to the distance of transmission. Another increase followed in 1805, when the Post Office was called upon to provide an additional £230,000 a year.[63] This time the increase was made in a very simple manner, viz. by increasing the rates of 1801 in every case by 1d. for a single letter, 2d. for a double letter, 3d. for a treble letter, and 4d. per ounce.

All these increases, made with the avowed intention of increasing revenue, were successful in their main object. The net revenue, which in 1796 was £466,457, had risen in 1804 to £956,212, and in 1806 reached the sum of £1,119,429. The fiscal results seemed, therefore, to justify the Government in turning again and again to the Post Office when they were hard pushed to find revenue. This must be the justification of the further increase of 1812.[64] The rates then established were the highest ever charged in England. The net revenue rose slightly after their establishment, but never increased materially. These rates continued in operation until 1839, when they were completely swept away, and new rates based on principles fundamentally different were established.

This was the system, due to Sir Rowland Hill, of uniform rates, irrespective of distance of transmission, first introduced in the United Kingdom in 1839, and since adopted throughout the civilized world, not only for inland services, but for the international service.[65] The story of the conception, advocacy, and adoption of uniform postage is fully told by Sir Rowland Hill in his History of Penny Postage,[66] and need be only briefly dealt with here. The plan itself is described in the famous pamphlet, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, which was issued by Sir Rowland Hill in 1837.

The reform was directly related to the great reform movement in England of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and is a brilliant example of the application of the deductive method in politics. Sir Rowland Hill was a member of a Radical family, remarkable even in those days for its zeal for reform. It was the ambition of all members of the family to aid as far as possible the great movement; and all the brothers interested themselves in the study of social and economic questions, with a view to reform and improvement.[67] In the year 1835 there was a large surplus of revenue, and the brothers speculated on the direction in which reduction of taxation might best be made.[68] Sir Rowland Hill examined

carefully the results of the financial reforms which had been introduced in recent years, and found that the effect on the revenue of reductions in the rate of tax showed very considerable variations. While in some cases, as, for example, leather and soap, a reduction of the duty by one-half had reduced the revenue by one-third, a similar reduction of the duty on coffee had increased the revenue by one-half. From this Sir Rowland Hill concluded that it was of the utmost importance to select carefully the taxes to be reduced, and he cast about for some guiding principle in the light of which the most suitable tax for reduction might be discovered. This principle he deduced to be as follows, viz. that the tax which most called for reduction was that which had failed most to keep pace with the increasing numbers and prosperity of the nation.[69] Tested in this way, the tax on letters proved unsatisfactory. While in most other departments of the revenue the preceding twenty years had been years of expansion and progress—as might be anticipated during a period of peace following great and exhausting wars—in the case of the Post Office the period had been one of stagnation.

Attention had already been directed to this fact by Sir Henry Parnell.[70] Between the years 1815 and 1835 the duty on stage-coaches had increased from £218,000 to nearly £500,000 a year. During the same period the revenue of the Post Office, both gross and net, had not increased at all—in point of fact, it had slightly decreased. If it had kept pace with the increase of population, the annual net revenue would have increased by half a million. If it had

increased in the same proportion as the duty on stage-coaches, the revenue of 1835 would have exceeded that of 1815 by no less than £2,000,000. These facts convinced Sir Rowland Hill that a reduction of the rates of postage was urgently necessary; and apart from financial considerations, the moral and intellectual results which would follow a facilitation of intercourse appealed powerfully to a reforming Radical.[71] Having arrived at the conviction that the Post Office offered most scope for his zeal, he found no lack of material to work upon. A Commission of Inquiry into the Revenue Departments had reported on the Post Office in 1829. A Commission of Inquiry on the Post Office had been sitting for some years, and had made numerous voluminous reports. Sir Rowland Hill set to work to make a careful study of the information contained in these reports, and as the result of this study evolved a complete plan for the reform and reorganization of the whole Post Office system, a plan involving the transformation both of the theory of Post Office finance, and of the methods of practical working.[72]

His inquiries led him to examine the cost of the Post Office service as a whole, and its relation to the work performed by the Post Office in respect of individual letters, or, as he termed it, "the natural cost of conveying a letter."[73] The investigations

and calculations made in this connection elucidated a fact of first importance, viz. that the cost of the conveyance of a letter from one town to another was exceedingly small, being on the average no more than nine-hundredths of a penny—in the case of a mail from London to Edinburgh the cost of conveyance was no more than one-thirty-sixth of a penny. This fact was developed. It was shown that not only was the cost for conveyance for the average of distance exceedingly small, but that it did not vary with the distance. The variation was rather in the inverse proportion to the number of letters enclosed in a mail.[74] Thus, while the average cost of the conveyance of a letter from London to Edinburgh was one-thirty-sixth of a penny, the cost of the conveyance of a letter for a shorter distance was often greater, owing to the small number of letters included in the mail. On these facts rests the whole case for uniformity of rate irrespective of distance:[75]

and they are sufficient to demonstrate that the principle is fundamentally sound.

The proposal for a uniform rate was the outstanding feature of the plan, but there were others of importance. It was a chief merit that the plan might be introduced without causing any serious diminution of net revenue, and the object of the further proposals was so to modify and simplify the working methods of the service as to enable the increased traffic which a low uniform rate would inevitably bring into the post to be dealt with without a proportionate increase in working expenses.

A vast increase in the number of letters must occur if the revenue was to be maintained, and this increase was confidently anticipated. With the existing rates there was a very large clandestine traffic in letters outside the Post Office, and it was calculated that a low uniform rate would effect the complete suppression of that traffic, and attract all letters into the post. But in order to maintain the net revenue, it was essential to simplify effectively the methods of working. This simplification was to be secured by the introduction of the system of prepayment, and the principle of charging by weight.

Covers and sheets of paper bearing the revenue stamp already impressed were to be sold at all post offices. The postage label, which has become so characteristic a feature of post office business throughout the civilized world, was proposed as an expedient to meet a certain exceptional case. If any person bringing a letter to the post should not be able to write the address on the stamped cover in which the letter was to be enclosed, Sir Rowland Hill suggested that "this difficulty might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter, so as to avoid the necessity for redirecting it."[76]

Letters prepaid in either of these ways were to pass through the post as franks,[77] i.e. without change or record. By this method a great reduction in the work of the Post Office

would be effected. Under the existing system it was necessary to record and charge forward on the postmasters all letters the postage of which was to be collected on delivery, and these letters formed the vast majority. All such labour would be dispensed with. The increase of the number of letters was to be further encouraged by the provision of additional facilities, such as the establishment of day mails and increased frequency of deliveries in towns.[78]

It has sometimes been thought that Sir Rowland Hill's theory included the proposition that the increase of the number of letters varied in inverse proportion to the reduction of rate effected, that is to say, that if the rate were reduced by one-half, the number of letters posted would be doubled; if the rate were reduced by two-thirds, the number of letters posted would increase threefold.[79] This is not the case. His estimate was that with the reduction of postage in the United Kingdom to the uniform rate of one penny, i.e. an average reduction of seven-eighths (from about eightpence), an immediate fourfold increase in the number of letters might be anticipated. This estimate was framed with regard to the circumstances existing in the United Kingdom at the time, and there is no other rule applicable to the relation between reduction of postage and resultant increase of postal traffic than that it is relative to the particular circumstances of time and place. Especially, it may be said, where postage is already low, further reduction is hardly likely to result in largely increased traffic.

In brief, Sir Rowland Hill calculated that by the adoption of his proposals for the modification of methods of working, the

letter postage in the United Kingdom might be reduced to the uniform rate of one penny irrespective of distance, without causing loss to the net revenue of more than £300,000 a year.

The pamphlet, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, in which the plan was embodied, was first issued privately in January 1837 for circulation in political and official circles, to which Sir Rowland Hill had access, partly through the celebrity of his family on account of their school system, but chiefly through his brother Matthew Davenport Hill, then a member of Parliament. In February 1837 the author was invited to give evidence before the Commissioners for Post Office Inquiry.[80] The proposals were not, however, viewed favourably by the Government, and were resolutely opposed by the Postmaster-General and many of the high authorities of the Post Office.[81]

Finding it impossible to impress the official mind, Sir Rowland Hill issued the pamphlet to the public,[82] and it met with immediate, widespread, and influential support. The Press, Chambers of Commerce, and other bodies actively supported propaganda for the adoption of the scheme.[83] Public meetings in support of it were held in all parts of the country, and numerous petitions in its favour were submitted to Parliament. So strong was the public feeling that in November 1837 the Government were constrained to appoint a Select Committee of the House of Commons for the express purpose

of considering Sir Rowland Hill's proposals. This Committee took a vast amount of evidence. The contentions of Sir Rowland Hill were in the main sustained by this evidence, and the Committee recommended (but only by the casting vote of its chairman) the adoption of a uniform rate. They were not, however, satisfied that the net revenue would be maintained if the uniform rate were made as low as one penny, and they therefore recommended the rate of twopence.[84] The Committee reported in August, 1838, but no immediate steps were taken by the Government to carry out their recommendations. The condition of the national finances was not so healthy as in 1837, when the proposals were first broached, and they did not improve in the following years.[85] The doubt as to the financial result of the scheme therefore made its early adoption in the normal course unlikely. The reform was, however, warmly taken up by the Radicals,[86] and in 1839 party exigencies enabled them to insist on the introduction of uniform penny postage as the price of their support in Parliament.[87]

On the 10th January 1840, therefore, the reform was introduced.[88] The new rate was one penny for each of the first two half ounces, and twopence for each additional

ounce. The results were disappointing financially. The reduction in net revenue in the first year was one million pounds sterling (from £1,500,000 to £500,000), instead of £300,000 as forecasted. The number of letters, also, was doubled only, instead of quadrupled (in 1839, 82 millions, in 1840, 169 millions). But the numbers continued to increase rapidly, in agreeable contrast to the stagnation under the old system. By 1847 they had quadrupled; by 1860 they had reached 564 millions; and the expansion has since been continuous.[89] The gross revenue of 1839 was equalled in 1850, and the net revenue of 1839 was reached in 1863. It has since gone on increasing. The plan was not an immediate financial success: neither was it a complete financial failure, as sometimes alleged.[90] The recovery of revenue was slow, but it was constant; and ultimately the plan has abundantly justified itself as a financial arrangement.

The changes in the British letter rates since 1840 have not been numerous or fundamental. The limit of weight for letters, viz. 16 ounces, fixed in 1840, was abolished in 1847. In 1865 the progression of weight and charge above one ounce was made a penny the half-ounce. In 1871 the rates were reduced. Letters up to 1 ounce in weight became transmissible at the penny rate; for the second ounce, and for every succeeding 2 ounces up to 12 ounces, the rate was

made ½d.; and for letters weighing more than 12 ounces, 1d. the ounce, including the first ounce. In 1885 the rate of ½d. for every 2 ounces after the second ounce was continued without limit; and in 1897, on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, a further reduction of the rate for heavier letters was made. The scale of 1d. for the first 4 ounces, and ½d. for each succeeding 2 ounces, was then introduced. This method of effecting a reduction was dictated largely by a desire to simplify the rates of postage. It admitted of the abolition of the Sample Post, and of the Book Post (except as regards packets not exceeding 2 ounces in weight), and thus removed a source of confusion and loss of time both to the staff and the public.

In recent years postal traffic of all kinds has increased rapidly. The growth in numbers is shown by the following table:—

The ordinary letter, however, remains the characteristic of Post Office business and the sheet-anchor of postal finance. The vast proportion in point of numbers still consists of packets of small weight.[92] In 1913-14, of a total traffic of

some six thousand million packets (including parcels), nearly three thousand five hundred millions passed at the letter rate of postage (less than 14 per cent. of which exceeded 1 ounce in weight), one thousand millions at the postcard rate, another thousand millions at the ½d. packet rate (none exceeding 2 ounces in weight). The average weight of the two hundred million newspapers was just over 4 ounces, and of the hundred and thirty million parcels, some 2 to 3 pounds. Of the total traffic (including parcels), more than four thousand millions, consisting in general of ordinary letters and postcards, were under 1 ounce in weight; and of the remaining two thousand millions (including parcels) only some five hundred millions exceeded 4 ounces in weight.

The Post Office, in addition to its ordinary function of providing for the transmission of letters and packets, undertakes a number of subsidiary services. There are, of course, the telegraphs and telephones, the money order, postal order, and Savings Bank business, which have for many years been an integral part of the business of the Post Office. In recent years the Post Office has also undertaken the issue of certain local taxation licenses, and the payment of Old Age Pensions and Army Pensions. Now it has undertaken the sale of War Loan Stock, Exchequer Bonds, and War Savings Certificates. Apart from the telegraphs, telephones, and Savings Bank, however, these services form only a small part of the work of the Post Office. While the total cost of the ordinary postal services (i.e. excluding telegraphs, telephones, and Savings Bank) was in 1913-14 some £17,000,000, the cost of the subsidiary services was only about a million.

The staff of officers has increased as follows:—

Concurrently with the increase of the number of officers, the rate of wages has been revised on several occasions, as the result of the recommendations of Parliamentary and other Committees appointed to consider the question of Post Office wages. The cost of the increases of wages which have been granted as the result of these revisions, calculated on the basis of the staff at the dates of the respective revisions, without allowance for subsequent growth of force, is some £3,674,950 per annum.[94] The increase of the number of officers has, of course, increased the ultimate cost of each successive improvement in pay and conditions of service.

The increased wages of the staff have naturally counterbalanced to some extent the economies resulting from the large increase of business. Since the first of these revisions, the Fawcett of 1881-2, the wages of the staff have absorbed a larger percentage of the total revenue of the postal services,[95] and the cost for staff per packet handled has increased from

.288d. in 1880-1 to .329d. in 1890-1, and .418d. in 1913-14.[96] During the same period the cost of conveyance of postal packets has decreased from .131d. per packet other than a parcel in 1880-1, to .119d. in 1890-1, and .080d. in 1913-14.[97] The total cost of dealing with a postal packet other than a parcel has in recent years shown a small decrease. The cost in 1913-14 has been estimated at .520d.[98]

The gross revenue of the postal services, i.e. excluding telegraphs and telephones, has increased from £7,130,819 in 1880-1 to £9,851,078 in 1890-1, and £21,928,311 in 1913-14. The net revenue from postal services has increased from £2,720,784 in 1880-1 to £3,163,989 in 1890-1, and £6,642,067 in 1913-14. The expansion of net revenue has not kept pace with the increase in the total number of packets passing by post. Since 1880 the total numbers have increased some 3½-fold, and the net revenue some 2½-fold.[99] The relation

between the gross revenue and the total expenditure on the postal services, which in recent years has not shown any large variation, fluctuates in the neighbourhood of 70 per cent.[100]

Note.—On the 1st November 1915, in order to secure increased revenue for war purposes, the inland letter rate was increased to the following:—

Under the existing abnormal circumstances it is difficult to form a satisfactory estimate of the result of this increase. Numerous contrary forces are in operation. The growth of the Army and the dislocation of private business resulting from the war have had important effects on the number of letters posted. Large numbers of letters are exchanged with men in the Army, but, on the other hand, all letters from troops on active service pass free of postage. It has been estimated that in the first five months the new rates yielded an increased revenue of nearly half a million.—See Postmaster-General's statement, 3rd July 1916 (Parl. Debates (Commons), vol. lxxxiii. cols. 1231-2).

LETTER POST IN CANADA

When Canada came into British hands after the capture of Quebec, no postal arrangements existed in the province. The population numbered only some 60,000, excluding the Indians, and with so small a number spread over so vast a territory it was not to be expected that any Post Office establishment of the ordinary type could be maintained.[101] Very soon, however, the English merchants interested in the Canadian trade urged upon the British Government the necessity for a regular service from New York to Quebec, and in this they were supported by the Governor of the province. The Government instructed the Deputy Postmasters-General in America to take steps for the establishment of the post, and they accordingly proceeded to Quebec. There they met a young Scotsman, Hugh Finlay, who offered to conduct a regular post between Quebec and Montreal, undertaking all risks, for a commission of 20 per cent, on all revenue collected on the post,[102] and, in addition, a monopoly of licensing persons to provide horses and conveyances for the use of travellers—the old monopoly which had existed for so long in England as a source of emolument to the postmasters. Finlay contracted for the conveyance of the mail with a number of men, to whom he made over the exclusive right of furnishing travellers on the route. In addition to this privilege, these men, who were styled maîtres de poste, were remunerated by payment at the rate of 6d. a league (2d. a mile) for providing horses and carriages for the couriers. Between Quebec and Montreal, a distance of 180 miles, there

were twenty-seven maîtres de poste and two post offices, viz., Three Rivers and Berthier. On the whole route, which was not of the easiest, there was not a single inn; there were six ferries to cross, that at Three Rivers being three miles wide, and one near Montreal nearly three-quarters of a mile. There was a service twice a week in each direction, and the journey occupied about forty hours, the courier who left Quebec at five o'clock on Monday afternoon arriving at Montreal on Wednesday morning, and the courier leaving Montreal on Thursday evening reaching Quebec on Saturday morning.

The statutory authority for the establishment of posts in Canada, as in other parts of North America, was section 4 of the Act of the 9th of Anne. This Act, however, failed to prescribe for North America rates of postage for letters passing greater distances than 100 miles. Hence, for the post from Quebec to Montreal no legal rate was ascertainable. The rate actually charged was 8d. for a single letter, and so in proportion for double, treble, and ounce letters, which was not an excessive charge, seeing that the legal charge for distances up to 100 miles was 6d. for a single letter. It proved sufficient, however; the whole scheme was completely successful and greatly appreciated by the colonists. To link this local post with the service from England, the Postmasters-General at New York arranged a connecting post to run monthly in connection with the arrival and departure of the English packets. They realized that the number of letters likely to be carried by such a post would be small and would not yield a revenue nearly equal to the expenses, the more so as, in any case, a comparatively high rate of postage would be payable on account of the great distance, and in recommending its establishment, they suggested moderate rates of charge.[103]

The Act of 1765 provided reduced rates of postage for North America. "The vast accession of territory gained by the late Treaty of Peace," and the establishment of new posts in America, for which rates of postage could not be ascertained

under the existing law,[104] made a new Act necessary, and the rates prescribed in that Act were fixed under the enlightened principle that moderate rates might yield increased revenue.[105] The rate which would apply to Canada, for the greatest distances, was fixed at 8d. for a single letter for not more than 200 miles, and 2d. for each 100 miles beyond 200 miles—double letters double rates, treble letters treble rates, ounce letter four times the single rate, in the usual way.

In January 1774 Finlay was appointed joint "Deputy-General for the Northern District of America" in the room of Dr. Franklin. He was allowed to retain, for the time being, the benefits of the Post Office at Quebec, which, in the words of the letter of appointment, he had been "so instrumental in bringing to a degree of perfection."[106] The disturbances of 1775 in the coast colonies soon affected the post to Canada. In September of that year, the prospect of getting mails through from Canada to New York was so slight that Finlay was anticipating the suspension of all communication with the rest of the world during the whole of the winter, unless letters could be conveyed to Halifax. The couriers were frequently held up by armed men and robbed, and by November matters had become so serious that all postal arrangements in the province were stayed. Quebec was besieged throughout the winter and spring. After its relief Finlay tried to set up the posts again, but unsuccessfully, as the Governor refused to re-establish the monopoly of the maîtres de poste, on the ground that travellers in Canada were very well accommodated in horses and conveyances and did not desire its re-establishment. Without it Finlay was unable to maintain a service, and no posts existed during the remaining period of the war.

After peace had been restored, Finlay represented the matter so strongly that the monopoly was re-established. The posts were again set up, and Finlay was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General of Canada, Nova Scotia, and

New Brunswick. The mails for Canada were still sent by way of New York, as before the war, but for military reasons it was important that a mail route should be established from Halifax, the military headquarters, to run altogether within British territory. In 1787 a fortnightly post (monthly in winter) was accordingly established between Quebec and Halifax.[107] The mail went by River du Loup, near the Grand Portage, where the courier from Quebec handed over his mail to the courier from Fredericton; by the Madawaska to the Grand Falls; thence by boat to Fredericton. A fresh courier went by boat from Fredericton to the mouth of the St. John's River. Here the mail was transferred to a sloop of about 34 tons burthen for conveyance across the Bay of Fundy to Digby, whence the route lay by Annapolis. The total distance from Quebec to Halifax was 633 miles, and the time required for the trip varied from twenty-one to thirty-one days.

A mail route from Montreal into Upper Canada was also established, but this was rather a military post, intended to serve the military stations and frontier settlements. The mail was despatched only once a year and was, in consequence, known as the "yearly express." The route followed was by the St. Lawrence from Montreal to Matilda, Augusta, and Kingston; across Lake Ontario to Niagara; thence to Detroit Fort, at the base of Lake St. Clair, and across Lake Huron to Michilimackinac, at the head of Lakes Huron and Michigan. After continuing some six years this post was curtailed and went no farther than Niagara.[108]

In 1800 Finlay was succeeded in the deputy ship by John Heriot. The population had now increased to 450,000, but there were only twenty post offices in the whole of the five provinces. Heriot's patent gave him authority to establish new routes and offices, but, in accordance with the general policy, only when in his opinion their establishment would be likely to benefit revenue. The rates at this time were, of course, nominally based on the Act of the 5th George III, but as the routes had never been properly measured, the distances on which the rates were actually based were

largely a matter of conjecture. The posts were said, however, to have paid their way and even to have yielded a surplus revenue, which was transmitted to England.[109]

The administration of the posts rested ultimately with the Postmasters-General in London. The service could be extended only by their authority, and the colonists found that the Deputy in the colonies, being bound by his instructions from the Postmasters-General, was unable to extend and improve the service in the manner which they themselves thought desirable. A large number of immigrants entered the provinces, especially Upper Canada, during this period, and settlements were springing up in remote districts far away from the post routes. Heriot was admonished from London that in considering the provision of new services he must look to the revenue to be anticipated as well as to the convenience of the public, and to adopt no scheme involving sacrifice of revenue. His instructions forbade the opening of any post office or post route unless the anticipated revenue was sufficient at least to pay the postmaster and courier. He found that these restrictions prevented him from providing a service in any degree adequate to the demands of the settlers, or indeed adequate to their real needs. It was essential that the settlers in the remote districts should be kept in touch with civilization. They could not be allowed to pass beyond the reach of the Government. They must be kept in contact with the means provided for the administration of the law.

For these reasons it was essential to provide post accommodation, although in the nature of the case it could not be expected that a revenue sufficient to cover the cost would be obtained. All these considerations were pressed on the Deputy, and he was so far persuaded as sometimes, in response to urgent local representations, to depart from his specific instructions. But such cases usually led to a reprimand. The natural result was that the province was driven itself to undertake by grants from the public funds the provision of many local services which it deemed essential.

Thus grew up the anomalous system under which the colonies made large grants in aid of the service, but were unable to exercise any substantial control over its administration. The more important routes were self-supporting and were controlled entirely from England. In order to obtain extensions of the service the colonists, through the Governor, requested the establishment of certain services, undertaking that, if the revenue derived from these services should prove insufficient to meet the expenditure, the balance should be made up by the colony. A regular post was established in 1801 between Quebec and York (Toronto) under a guarantee of this kind. The colonists naturally wished to have some controlling voice in the administration; but the Deputy, holding office under the Imperial authorities, was not bound to concede to them any rights over the administration of the service, however great sums they might pay towards its maintenance—a situation which was sure to lead to difficulties. Whether or not serious trouble occurred depended in large degree on the character of the Deputy.[110] In later years there was considerable friction and much irritation on the part of the colonists.

In Nova Scotia the system of grants in aid was developed to an even greater extent than in Upper Canada. When Sir George Provost became Governor in 1808, there were only five post offices in Nova Scotia—Halifax, Windsor, Horton, Annapolis, and Digby—and they were all on the line of the Quebec post. Sir George was anxious for an extension of the posts on military rather than general grounds, and he asked the postmaster of Halifax, John

Howe, to establish several new routes. Howe was inclined to favour the projected posts, but Heriot realized that they could not be expected to yield a revenue equal to their cost, and he informed the Governor that his instructions from England prevented compliance with the request. Sir George Provost thereupon induced the Legislature to appropriate a sufficient sum for the establishment of the posts. The Governors of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island followed this example, with the result that a large part of the Post Office establishment in these provinces was outside the jurisdiction of the Imperial authorities.

This development is noteworthy. It has always been found in Canada that for a large part of the country the circumstances are such that a postal service adequate to the necessities of the inhabitants cannot be self-supporting, but the Legislature has never hesitated to make grants from general taxation in order to provide means of communication. In the early days the question of post office communication was intimately bound up with the question of general means of communication, and was usually treated in connection with the making or maintenance of roads. For a long period the posts in Canada were maintained not solely for the transmission of letters, but to a great extent on account of collateral advantages. They were largely military in character, and were identified with the military routes.[111]

In 1816 Daniel Sutherland was appointed Deputy Postmaster-General for Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Under his administration the development of the service was pushed forward, and so far as was found consistent with the interests of revenue, new offices and routes were established. But in 1820 there were still no more than forty-nine post offices in the whole of British North America, distributed thus: in Lower Canada twenty offices, in Upper

Canada nineteen, in Nova Scotia six, in New Brunswick three, and in Prince Edward Island one. The progress was from this time somewhat more rapid. By 1824 the number of offices in the Canadas alone had risen to sixty-nine, and during the next ten or fifteen years the growth, both of Post Office accommodation and of Post Office revenue, was more rapid than the growth of population.

The settlers were not, however, completely satisfied. Their complaints were to some extent laid against the administration of the office—they claimed, for example, that gross overcharges of postage were being made, through incorrect computation of the distances on the post roads—but they became more and more dissatisfied that the control of the whole of the service and its officers should rest with the Postmaster-General in England. The question was, of course, to a large extent political, and one only among the several general grievances of the colonists at this period, which caused so much anxiety to the Home authorities.

As early as 1819 a movement began in Upper Canada to obtain the transference of the administration to the provincial authorities. A Committee of the House of Assembly considered the abuses of the existing Post Office system, and on presentation of their report, in March 1820, the House passed a resolution condemning the administration of the service. The question continued to receive a good deal of attention. The chief complaint of the colonists was that a net revenue was year by year transmitted to London. There is no doubt that a balance was paid over to the Imperial administration year by year, but it is questionable whether any of this balance was a net revenue on the local service.[112] The colonists chose so to regard it. They advanced the contention that the legal right of the Imperial Government to levy postage rates in the colonies at all was doubtful, because postage was a tax; and the raising of money by authorities outside the colonies was a direct infringement of their own constitution, which provides that "no tax shall be levied on the people of this country except such as shall be appropriated for the public use and accounted for by the Legislature,"[113] and of the Declaratory Act, in which Great Britain disclaimed the

right to impose upon a colony any duty, tax, or assessment, except where necessary for the regulation of commerce.[114] The Government were advised by the Law Officers that it would not be wise to contest the point, and proceeded to consider a measure for placing the establishment on a more satisfactory basis.

If the Home Government could have agreed to hand over the entire administration of the office in British North America to the local Legislatures, there would have been an end of the matter. But such a course would have left the interior provinces at the mercy of those on the seaboard as to the conveyance across those colonies of the mails to and from England. Although there was no desire to continue the appropriation to the Imperial revenue of any surplus which might arise on the service in North America, it was felt to be highly desirable that the Imperial Government should retain control over the administration of the office, particularly in the matter of fixing the rates of postage, since by that means excessive charges for transit across other provinces would be prevented. But in controlling the administration from London there was the difficulty that any alteration of the rates of postage by Act of the British Parliament might be an infringement of the rights of the colonists under the Declaratory Act of 1778. Accordingly, all intention of direct legislation by the British Parliament was abandoned, and in 1834 an Act was passed,[115] repealing the Act of the 5th George III, on which the whole Post Office establishment of North America rested, conditionally on the passing by the Legislatures of all the provinces of a Bill for the regulation of the colonial Post Office service, which had been prepared in London. This Bill provided that the ultimate control of the whole service in British North America should remain in the hands of the Postmaster-General in London, but that the rates of postage should be fixed by the local Legislatures, and any surplus of revenue over expenditure should be divided between the provinces.

Nova Scotia was prepared to accept the Bill, but only with modifications which would have prevented its adoption as the basis of a general service throughout the five provinces. New

Brunswick and both Upper and Lower Canada rejected the Bill. The Assembly of Lower Canada substituted a Bill of its own.[116] The Legislative Council were indisposed to accept the substituted Bill,[117] and in March 1836 adopted an Address to his Majesty, explaining that in their view it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impracticable, to secure the co-operation between the separate Post Office establishments of the several provinces essential for the attainment of the purpose of the original measure, and they pointed for illustration to the United States, a country where, notwithstanding a keen regard for State rights, the whole control and management of the Post Office department had been delegated to the Federal Government. Since the Post Office establishment was a most effective means for strengthening the ties connecting the several provinces, as well as an essential aid and convenience of commerce, they deemed the best course to be the retention by the Imperial Parliament of the exclusive power of legislating for the control and management of the Post Office in all parts of the Empire. In March of the following year, there being still no prospect of the adoption of the Bill by the provinces, the House of Assembly and Legislative Council of Upper Canada adopted a joint Address to his Majesty, substantially identical with that adopted a year earlier by the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. It was clear that little progress was to be anticipated.[118]

In 1840 a Commission was appointed. Its attention was directed more especially to the faulty administration of the office and the excessive rates of postage. To remedy the former, and to make the administration more amenable to local control, they suggested placing the Deputy Postmaster-General under the control of the Governor-General in all matters which did not conflict with the authority of the Postmaster-General in England. As to postage, they were satisfied that the rates at that time in operation were too high. They considered that the rates should be such as would yield a revenue sufficient to meet the expenses of the department, and no more; and in their view, if the revenue improved after the establishment of such rates, which there should be no difficulty in calculating, the proper course would be either to grant further facilities or further to reduce the rates. There should not in any case be a net revenue of any magnitude. The Commissioners themselves made an estimate of the rate which should fulfil the requirements they had detailed. In so doing they proceeded on much the same lines as Sir Rowland Hill in his pamphlet Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability. They had no difficulty in answering the demand for penny postage in British North America, a demand based on its successful inauguration in England. The circumstances in the two countries were not comparable. England, small and densely populated, the first industrial and commercial nation of the world, could not in such a matter be compared with a country of vast extent, sparsely peopled and almost entirely agricultural. While Sir Rowland Hill had been able to show that in the case of letters conveyed for comparatively long distances in England the actual cost of carriage was only one thirty-sixth part of a penny, the Commissioners found that in British North America the actual average cost of conveyance was no less than 3d., and the actual average total cost of dealing with letters no less than 5½d. Uniformity of rate at a penny, which had been justified in England on

existing facts of the service, could therefore find no similar justification in North America.

There could, however, be no doubt that with a reduction of the rate, which then averaged 8½d. a letter, the number of letters would be very greatly increased and the cost per letter consequently reduced. The public were in the habit of making use of every available means other than the post for forwarding their letters. Steamboats which carried a mail would carry outside the mail many times the number of letters that were enclosed in the mail. Teamsters, stage drivers, and ordinary travellers all carried large numbers of letters, and in cases where no such opportunity offered, persons had been known to enclose the letter in a small package, which could be sent as freight at less charge than the rate of postage on the single letter. If, therefore, all these letters, and the many additional letters which would be written if transmission were cheap and easy, were sent in the mails, the cost of the service would not be by any means proportionately increased, and the average cost per letter would be very greatly reduced. It would still, however, have been considerably more than a penny. Their conclusions were less satisfactory in regard to the rates actually recommended. They proposed a graduation according to distance of no less than five stages, starting with as short a distance as 30 miles. For this the rate was 2d., and the scale rose to 1s. for distances over 300 miles. The only virtues of the rates were that they were lower than those in operation in the United States and were to be charged by weight.[119]

The chief recommendations of this report were carried out under the authority of the Colonial Office. The weight basis for determining rates of postage was adopted, and the Deputy Postmaster-General's authority was restricted. His privilege of sending newspapers free of postage was also taken away, and in compensation he was given a salary of £2,500 a year—personal to himself, and high on account of his long enjoyment of the lucrative newspaper privilege. That for his successor was fixed at £1,500 a year. The agitation in the provinces in regard to the Post Office continued during

the succeeding years, but it was less vehement and concerned itself more with the question of rates than with questions of administration.

In 1842 a member of the headquarters staff of the British office (Mr. W. J. Page) was commissioned to examine and reorganize the service in the Maritime Provinces, with the object more especially of introducing such measures of reform as should bring the expenditures of the department in those provinces within the revenue. His reports throw a flood of light on the state and methods of the service.[120] He found extraordinary anomalies in the methods of charging postage, in the methods of remunerating the Deputy-Postmasters, the couriers, and the Way Office keepers, and in the relations subsisting between the Post Office and the local Legislatures. The financial arrangements of the office were in a condition which can only be described as chaotic. Postage was, of course, chargeable on the total journey of the letter. But in Nova Scotia letters were charged with a new rate at each office through which they passed, and postage became an excessive charge on all letters which passed through two or three offices. Deputy-Postmasters were paid a percentage, usually 20 per cent., on the amount of postage collected by them, but their chief remuneration in many cases arose from the right which they exercised of franking all their private and business correspondence, a consideration which they had principally, if not exclusively, in view in taking up their appointments. Many of the deputies were lawyers or other professional men. The privilege was nominally subject to the limitation of four single letters, or two double letters, or one packet of an ounce by each mail; but this limitation was very generally disregarded. To such an extent was this the case that one-half of many mails consisted of free letters.

Couriers received fixed wages, which were either paid by the Deputy Postmaster-General out of the general funds of the department, or from grants in aid, given by the Legislature specifically for the support of the respective routes. Way Office keepers received no remuneration from the department: in many instances the existence of the Way

Offices was unknown at Halifax. This was explained in great part by the manner in which such offices were usually established. A courier travelling a particular line of road received from the despatching postmaster a number of "way letters," or letters for persons living on or near his route. Partly for his own convenience, and partly for the accommodation of the persons addressed, the courier would leave packets of the letters at some house on the route, and the occupant would collect the postage on behalf of the courier. In course of time the courier induced the postmaster to make up the letters for this particular place separately, and to open a private account with the householder, who thus became an agent for the postmaster, and the house became a Way Office. The keepers of these Way Offices usually charged a fee of 2d. on each letter received or sent. The Post Office was not in any way concerned in the transactions, except that in some cases, where it was not always possible for the Way Office keeper to obtain his fee in advance, the practice grew up, with the co-operation of the Deputy-Postmaster, of charging forward the unpaid Way Office keeper's fee as unpaid forward "postage." Some of the Way Office keepers also claimed and exercised the same rights of franking as the Deputy Postmasters. Others were paid on the basis of a percentage of 20 per cent. of the postage collected; and in such cases some of the keepers still collected their fee of 2d., and some did not.

When letters were sent from one Way Office to another—as was frequently the case, since often there were several Way Offices in succession—a fresh fee was charged; and a letter might be charged four or five twopenny fees and no postage, the fees all being appropriated by the Way Office keepers and nothing finding its way to the Post Office revenue. Indeed, the Post Office department received scarcely any revenue from the Way Offices, and no sort of control over them was even attempted.

The House of Assembly was in the habit of establishing post routes, and of voting increases in the salaries of existing couriers, the resulting expense of which was to be paid by the Post Office. The action of the Legislature was often taken on the presentation of memorials from persons interested, or on the initiative of a member specially interested

in Post Office matters with some axe to grind. The Legislature would vote, say, £10 or £20, for a courier to some remote place, for which the number of letters was negligible—perhaps a dozen in a year, perhaps two a week and a few newspapers. The resolution of the House would then be forwarded to the Postmaster-General, who by virtue of his delegated authority established the route, the cost over and above the amount voted by the House being drawn from Post Office funds. The whole system was permeated with jobbery, and the House used to become more than usually active in these matters as the elections approached. In Cape Breton, in 1841, the expenses of the couriers amounted to some £604, and the revenue, after deducting the commission of the three postmasters in the island, was some £308—the explanation being that the member for the island was one of the leaders in Post Office matters in the Legislature.

Internal correspondence was at this time literally nonexistent, many of the couriers conveying only newspapers (which in general went free), and fee letters (that is, letters charged only with the Way Office keeper's fee, and no postage). Except in five towns (Halifax, Yarmouth, and Picton in Nova Scotia; and St. John and Fredericton in New Brunswick) there was no provision for the delivery of letters except at the post office window. In those towns, delivery was made in the first instance at the post office, but all letters which were not called for within a short time after the arrival of the mail, were sent out for delivery throughout the town by letter carrier. An additional charge of 1d. per letter was made by the carrier, and retained by him as his remuneration. In some cases 1d. was charged also for the delivery of newspapers; in others this penny was charged only where the receivers could be induced to pay; and in some cases newspapers were delivered free. At Halifax two letter carriers were employed, and their total weekly earnings were estimated at £4 10s., indicating 1,080 as, approximately, the weekly number of letters and newspapers received. At Fredericton a charge of 1d. was made on letters and on newspapers, but the amount was taken by the postmaster, who paid a weekly wage to the carrier. The postmaster estimated his annual receipt at about £19 10s., corresponding with a weekly

average of 90 letters and newspapers delivered in Fredericton. He paid the carrier £14 10s. per annum.

Up to 1827 there were no internal posts in Prince Edward Island. The only post office in the province was at Charlottetown. In 1827 the Legislature resolved to establish an inland service, and appointed couriers to travel weekly for the conveyance of letters. Way Office keepers were also nominated at various places. A uniform rate of 2d. for single letters, and ½d. for newspapers published in the island, was fixed for transmission within the island, and, in consideration of the whole expense being borne by the Provincial Treasury, the Deputy Postmaster-General of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick agreed to the retention by the province of the net revenue. The Way Office keepers received as their remuneration 20 per cent. on the postage collected, with the privilege of franking for transmission within the island. The province made a small grant, at first £20 per annum and later £30, in aid of the administration of the posts.

The first wish of the Home authorities was to bring the expenditure within the revenue, and after he had been in the colony some two months Mr. Page submitted a scheme which should remove the deficit in Nova Scotia, then over £1,000 a year.[121] This scheme, which was not lacking in boldness, proposed the discontinuance of no less than twenty-four couriers, and reduction of the frequency of the mail in two other cases, involving towns of some importance.

On the 6th July 1843 the Post Office of New Brunswick was separated from that of Nova Scotia and a large number of services abolished. Following on these drastic measures, the New Brunswick Legislature, in 1844, adopted a joint Address to his Majesty, praying for redress. They asked for a reduction of letter rates, for the abolition of newspaper rates, and for the application of all surplus revenue to the extension of facilities for inter-provincial communication, adding that in consideration of the introduction of these changes the Legislature would guarantee to provide such sums as might from time to time be necessary to defray the expenses of the department. The reply of the Colonial Office was that the prayer of the petition could not be granted, since other

provinces were involved; but that, so long as the province guaranteed the charges, the proposal as regards newspapers, taken by itself, was unobjectionable.

The Home authorities, seeing that in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the service still showed a deficit year by year, remained indisposed to introduce reduced rates; but when Lord Clanricarde was appointed Postmaster-General there was a change of policy. Lord Clanricarde came to the conclusion that the time was ripe for a reduction of rates in British North America, although he was convinced that such a reduction would entail heavy postal deficits in all the provinces. It would be for the provincial Legislatures to make good these deficits, and he concluded it was therefore expedient that the full control of the service should be handed over to the provincial authorities, subject to certain conditions imposed with the view of preventing friction between the provinces over the transit across the sea-board provinces of mails for or from the interior.

Lord Elgin, Secretary of State for the Colonies, suggested to the Governor-General[122] that one or two members of the Executive Councils of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island should meet at Montreal to discuss the question and mature a plan, which could be submitted to the respective Legislatures, for the assumption by the provinces of the administration of the Post Office. A conference was arranged, and a plan for the establishment of a uniform system throughout the British North American Colonies elaborated.

The conference made clear that in the repeated remonstrances against the "transfer of assumed surplus receipts" to the revenue of the British office there was no desire on the part of the provinces to make the Post Office a source of revenue, or, indeed, to call into question the prudent management of the Imperial Government; but that the remonstrances were prompted by a growing conviction of the great importance of an efficient postal system as a factor in their social and commercial welfare, and as "a means in a new country of extending civilization." The provinces were impressed by the great social and moral benefits which

had followed the introduction of cheap postage in the Mother Country, and were anxious to extend to their own land the benefits of the system, which had already been introduced by their great neighbour. The delegates were satisfied that the most suitable rate would be 3d. the half ounce, uniform, irrespective of distance; but, thinking it likely that some of the provinces might be unwilling entirely to disregard distance, they recommended that an option be suggested for any province that wished so to do to charge double rates for distances greater than 300 miles. They recommended the establishment throughout British North America of a uniform system and rate of postage, with as little local modification as the circumstances of the various provinces might demand. But for two main reasons they were opposed to a common administration: (1) they considered that the control by each province of its postal establishment would be a powerful aid to economy in administration, would prevent imprudent extensions of postal accommodation, and would prevent also any feeling of jealousy between the provinces with regard to the application of the funds of the establishment to the extension of services in the respective provinces; (2) they thought the various provinces would be more likely to accept a system under local control, each province defraying the entire cost of its service, and retaining all postage collected within its limits, whether prepaid or post-paid.[123]

The Home authorities accepted the recommendations of the conference, subject to a few slight modifications in non-essentials, and an Act, passed in 1849, authorized provincial Legislatures to establish posts within their respective territories, but gave them no authority over the posts between the colonies and places abroad.[124]

The transfer of the Post Office systems to the provincial Governments was accomplished in 1851.

Delegates from all the colonies met to consider the arrangements to be made for conducting the office under the new conditions. With the example of England before them, as before the world, the delegates were anxious for a uniform rate, and for a low uniform rate. They realized, however,

that conditions vastly different from those prevailing in England prevailed in British North America. With their great distances and their thinly settled districts, with the rigours of the American climate and the generally poor state of the roads, it could not be anticipated that rates which had been found successful in England, with its comparatively small area and dense population, with its less difficult climate and its better facilities for intercommunication, would prove equally successful. In the end a compromise was adopted—uniformity of rate, but a rate moderately high, viz. 5 cents.[125]

A period of great development ensued, especially in the Maritime Provinces. Under the stimulus of the reduction of the rate to the new uniform charge of 5 cents per ½ ounce, in place of a charge graduated by distance which had averaged over 8d. a letter, the number of letters increased so rapidly that in four years the gross revenue had recovered its former level.[126] But in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick the account regularly showed a heavy deficit, in partial explanation of which there was the fact that both Governments carried newspapers in the mails free of charge. In Canada, with a larger number of commercial communities, the results were somewhat better. But even there the accounts showed a deficit until 1859. From that year there was an annual surplus until 1865, when the heavy charges for conveyance of the mails by railway began to tell.

These conditions continued until the confederation of the British North American Colonies in 1867. The control of the Post Office was within the powers assigned to the new Dominion Government. The Government was desirous of not falling behind other countries in the provision of Post Office services, and it was necessary for political reasons to take advantage of every available means for facilitating intercommunication between the different parts of the Dominion. Shortly after confederation, therefore, a Bill to establish and regulate a Federal Dominion Post Office was brought before the Dominion Parliament.

A reduction of the letter rate of postage from 5 cents to

3 cents per ½ ounce was proposed, and a rate of postage on newspapers. In some of the provinces newspapers had previously been carried by the posts free of charge; and the establishment of a rate of postage for them was to some extent bound up with the reduction of the letter rate, since with the lower rate for letters the free transmission of newspapers would have proved so great a strain on the revenue, that either the Government would have been compelled to make larger grants in aid, or services would have to be withheld in districts where it was desirable they should be provided. Some members were disposed to think the better course would have been to retain the old rate for letters and to allow newspapers to pass free, as had long been the practice in the Lower Provinces; and the imposition of a rate on newspapers was characterized as a tax on the dissemination of public intelligence and a retrogressive step towards old and exploded abuses.[127]

Other members desired to follow the English example and reduce the letter rate to 2 cents, the equivalent of a penny; but this was deemed impracticable on account of the different conditions under which the Post Office was conducted in Canada, where the mails were carried very long distances through a sparse population.[128] In the United States, where the circumstances were more nearly comparable, the rate was still 3 cents. With a rate of 3 cents in Canada, as proposed, it was anticipated that there would be a considerable deficit, but that the deficit would soon disappear.[129] It was alleged that there was no demand for a reduction and that everybody was willing to pay 5 cents; but the real objection was not to a reduction in the letter rate per se. The objection arose from the assumption, fairly well grounded, that the reduction was only possible if accompanied by the establishment of a postage on newspapers, to which a number of

members were strongly opposed. The rate of 3 cents for ½-ounce letters was, however, adopted. In three years the yield of postage at 3 cents surpassed the former yield at 5 cents.[130]

In 1898 a Bill for modifying rates of postage was introduced. The main propositions of the Bill were (1) to reduce the letter rate to 2 cents per ounce, and (2) to impose a postage on newspapers. Since 1867 there had been several changes in newspaper postage, and for about nineteen years newspapers had been passing through the post in Canada free of any charge for postage.[131] The postal service was at this time being carried on at some loss to the general Dominion revenue, and, as in 1867, the proposal to charge postage on newspapers was made to counterbalance any loss of revenue which might result from the reduction in the letter rate of postage. It was hoped that with this counterbalance any such loss would soon be made good, and that, indeed, the Post Office would become a self-sustaining department.[132]

The arguments in Parliament were almost identical with those of 1867, when the previous similar proposals as regards the letter and newspaper rates were before it. Stress was, however, now laid on the contention that letter-writing was the pursuit of the wealthy, and of business and commercial men, who were well able to pay for their correspondence, while the newspapers were sent mainly to the farmers of the country, who wrote few letters. The Government were proposing at this time to raise a million dollars by a tax on sugar, a course denounced as an imposition by the Government on the poorer classes, to whom sugar is a necessity, while the reduction of postage would present the wealthier classes with some $650,000 a year.[133]

The reduction was carried, and the 2-cent rate has proved successful. The gross revenue recovered within four years.[134] The number of letters has largely increased, especially in

recent years, largely, no doubt, in consequence of the growing commercial prosperity. The total number, which in 1876 was some 41 millions, had in 1913 increased to 633 millions. The financial result has also proved satisfactory. The Post Office service in Canada as a whole in 1913 showed a profit of some $1,200,000, and there is no doubt that the greater part of this profit was derived from letters.

Note.—In 1915 a war-tax of ½-d. was imposed on all letters and postcards. On the assumption that the numbers posted would not be appreciably diminished, the increase of revenue was estimated at $6,000,000 a year, and this estimate has been realized.

LETTER POST IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

The New England colonies had not been long established when the public authorities first took cognizance of the arrangements for the distribution of letters. In 1639 the general court of the Massachusetts Bay colony made an order for the establishment of a service in respect of letters for or from places abroad. A house-to-house delivery of letters received from abroad at the low uniform rate of 1d. would seem to have been contemplated.[135] At various intervals during the latter half of the century, Post Offices were established in most of the other colonies—in Virginia in 1657, in New York in 1672, in Connecticut in 1674, in Philadelphia in 1683, and in New Hampshire in 1693.[136] These Post Offices were set up in the various colonies by legal enactment, but they were in general local and municipal in character. In the circumstances of the case they could at that time hardly have been otherwise. The colonies were independent of each other in administrative matters, and seldom acted together for any purpose. The population relatively to the extent of the colonies was extremely small, the settlements were scattered, and the roads were mere trails.[137] In general there was very little intercourse between the various colonies. Such

intercommunication as was carried on usually went by means of coastwise vessels or by occasional travellers. The one exception was a post route from New York to Boston, established in 1672 to go monthly. The system established in Virginia in 1657 was of a primitive character, being merely a requirement that every planter should furnish a messenger to convey the mail to the next plantation, under penalty of forfeiting a hogshead of tobacco in default.

In 1688, by an Order in Council, the establishment of a Post Office in Jamaica, and such other of his Majesty's plantations in America "as shall be found convenient," was authorized. On the 17th February 1692 the Crown granted a patent to Thomas Neale (then Master of the Mint) vesting in him the American post, with full power and authority to erect post offices in the chief parts of the American colonies "for the receiving and despatching of letters and pacquets, and to receive, send, and deliver the same under such rates and sums of money as the planters shall agree to give." It was no light matter to obtain the acquiescence of all the colonies in the exercise of general rights as regards the Post Office in North America, especially as they had previously been free to make their own arrangements in this respect. Neale was himself never in North America, but his deputy there, Andrew Hamilton, who was a very capable man, was able not only to secure the acceptance by the colonies of a general postal system under Neale's patent, but to obtain from some of them small grants in aid.

Most of the colonies passed Acts authorizing the establishment of Post Offices under the provisions of the patent; and the principle of postal monopoly was introduced in these enactments.[138] The General Assembly of Virginia authorized a Post Office in the colony, believing such an office to be of "generall concernement and of great advantage for the increase and preservation of trade and commerce therein, for

thereby speedy and safe despatch may be had."[139] The rates of postage were as follows:—

The rates established in the other colonies were similar but not identical.

The new postal service under the authority of the patent was commenced on the 1st May 1693. A post was set up from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Boston, Saybrook, New York, Philadelphia, Maryland, and Virginia. Five stages were fixed, and a rider was appointed to each stage. In summer the service was performed weekly, and in winter fortnightly. At the commencement, as may be readily understood, the conditions were somewhat difficult.[140] But with the growth of population and commerce, conditions improved. The service to the South was for many years subject to general irregularity and temporary suspension, especially at times of flood.

The Post Office in America has from its first establishment as a general system, as distinguished from the merely local or municipal posts, had to reckon with two factors which have been of great importance in relation to all the main services—a vast extent of territory and a sparse population. The rates were higher than those in operation in England,

but at first, and for many years, the revenue was insufficient to defray the expenses. The finance of the American Post Office consequently differed fundamentally from that of the English office.

Neale was required by the terms of his patent to render an account at the end of three years of the receipts and expenditures of the American post. His first account was not, however, rendered until 1698. It showed that the expenses up to May 1697 were £3,817, and the receipts £1,457, there being thus a loss of £2,360. The account was accompanied by a statement prepared by Hamilton, explaining the great advantages to the trade and commerce of the colonies, as well as to their security, which the Post Office provided; showing how necessary in consequence was the continuance of the office, and recommending that definite rates of postage for the whole territory be fixed by statute. Other regulations for the conduct of the system were also suggested, as the existing arrangement, involving such serious loss to the patentee, could not be continued indefinitely. Neale contented himself with a brief remark to the effect that whenever his Majesty should see fit to take the conduct of the posts into his own hands, he (Neale) would be glad to surrender his patent—of course, for a consideration.[141]

The Postmasters-General opposed the suggested increase of rates on general grounds, their experience having taught them that "the easy and cheap corresponding doth encourage people to write letters, and that this revenue was but little in proportion to what it is now, till the postage of letters was reduced from sixpence to threepence."

Neale died shortly afterwards, and his rights in the patent were transferred to his creditors, who were Hamilton himself and an Englishman named West. Hamilton died in 1703, and his widow carried on the posts for some two or three years. In 1706 she and West endeavoured to obtain an extension of the term of the patent; so that, although the posts had been conducted for some years at heavy loss, both by Hamilton and by his widow, the conditions had improved, and there was now reasonable anticipation of a profit from the office. The view of the Postmasters-General, however,

ultimately prevailed, and in 1707 the patent was bought back for the Crown for the sum of £1,664. When, a few years later, a general Act of Parliament was found necessary, the opportunity was taken to place the American posts on a definite statutory footing.[142]

The preamble recites that posts had at great charges been established on the mainland of North America through most of her Majesty's plantations and colonies, and the Postmasters-General were authorized to establish a "Chief Letter Office" in New York, and other chief offices at some convenient place or places in each of the colonies in America, and to appoint deputies for the "better managing, ordering, collecting, and improving the Revenue" granted by the Act. Rates for the transmission of letters between England and America were fixed, and detailed rates for transmission between specific towns within the North American colonies. The rates between London and America were 1s. for a single letter, 2s. for a double letter, and so on. For transmission within the colonies the rates were, broadly, for distances under 60 miles, 4d. the single letter, 8d. the double letter, and so on; distances under 100 miles, for a single letter 6d., and so in proportion for double and treble and ounce letters.

These rates were, in general, higher than those which had been fixed by the colonies under the Neale patent, but for several years they did not produce sufficient revenue to meet expenses. In 1722 the Postmasters-General were for the first time able to say that in the future the Post Office in North America, even if it yielded no net revenue, would no longer involve a charge, and there was a good prospect of a profit. The Act of 1765 provided rates for the longer distances and made a general reduction of nearly 30 per cent. The rates now became, for a single letter, for conveyance for any distance not exceeding 60 miles, 4d.; from 60 to 100 miles, 6d.; from 100 to 200 miles, 8d.; for each additional 100 miles, 2d.[143] In the intervening period the chief events had been the appointment of Benjamin Franklin, in 1737, to be Postmaster of Philadelphia, and in 1753, to be joint Postmaster-General for

British North America, and the acquisition of Canada in 1763. The latter event had, indeed, been one of the reasons assigned for the passing of the Act of 1765.[144]

Under Andrew Hamilton the posts had run only along the coast, the great main route extending from Portsmouth, N.H., through Boston and New York to Maryland and Virginia. Under his son, John Hamilton, who succeeded him in the office, the posts were pushed inland as occasion offered or circumstances demanded, and for these extensions John Hamilton adopted the principle of establishing routes in those cases where the postage was sufficient to maintain them. On such a basis the system could not, however, be very largely developed. The circumstances of the country made any great extension impossible, and in 1766 the posts still went mainly along the sea coasts.[145]

Franklin was dismissed in 1774. The Crown Post Office was continued in North America, but about this time a competing system arose. For some years there had been friction in the colonies between the authorities and the publishers of newspapers. The anomalous English system of the distribution of newspapers free by post by certain favoured individuals had been introduced in America. The favoured officials were the American Postmasters-General, and for that reason the office was much sought after by publishers. Both Franklin and Hunter, who were joint Postmasters-General (Franklin from 1753 to 1774, and Hunter

from 1753 to his death in 1761), were printers, and Franklin's dismissal is sometimes attributed to a desire on the part of the British Government to hamper the distribution of his publications, and so restrict their influence. Great efforts were at this time made by the Crown authorities in America to prevent the dissemination of ideas contrary to the British ascendancy. As early as 1757 the Governor of Pennsylvania endeavoured to prevent the publication of improper intelligence in newspapers, and suggested that special instructions should be given to the Postmasters-General. The feeling against the newspapers grew with the developments of the years that followed, and by 1774 much trouble was being caused by the Crown Postmasters to the publishers of newspapers. Many were toning down their comments in order to retain the privilege of free transmission, but some began to look for other means of distributing their papers. William Goddard of Baltimore, publisher of the Maryland Journal, suggested the establishment of "an American Post Office on constitutional principles," and visited various colonies in the early part of the year 1774 with the object of enlisting support for his project. He received a good measure of approval, and on the 30th April 1774 subscriptions were invited from the public towards the establishment of an American Post Office. The scheme of this Post Office was that subscriptions should be invited for its establishment and maintenance, and "for the necessary defence of post officers and riders employed in the same"; and that the subscribers in each colony should appoint a committee from among themselves, whose business should be to appoint postmasters at places where offices had hitherto been kept or might be judged necessary, "and to regulate the postage of letters and packets, with the terms on which newspapers are to be carried."[146]

Meantime the committees of safety and the Assemblies of the various colonies made certain provision for the transmission of mails, both within and between the colonies. In

May 1775 the New York Committee appointed a sub-committee to inquire of the postmaster, Mr. Foxcroft, the reason for the recent discharge by him of the post riders. The postmaster's explanation was that the last four mails between New York and Boston had been held up and violated on the journey, and he had discharged the post riders on the ground that it was no longer safe to send them with mails. The committee thereupon themselves immediately arranged for the despatch of mails from New York, and a few days later issued a notice "to acquaint the publick that a constitutional Post Office is now rising on the ruins of the parliamentary one."

In the course of the next few months several provincial congresses passed resolutions establishing Post Offices in the respective colonies. Massachusetts fixed rates of postage at 5¼d. for a single letter for not more than 60 miles, and increased rates for greater distances. The whole matter was at the same time under the consideration of the Continental Congress sitting at Philadelphia. Goddard had, from the first establishment of the constitutional Post Office, expected Congress to assume control.[147] In May, Congress appointed a committee to consider the matter, and on the 26th July, having received the committee's report, agreed to resolutions providing for the establishment of a Post Office. Benjamin Franklin, who had been a member of the committee, was unanimously chosen to be the first Postmaster-General. It was provided that the remuneration of the deputies should, in general, be 20 per cent. on the sums they collected, the rate which had usually been paid under the parliamentary system.[148] Postage of letters was to be 20 per cent. less than those appointed by Act of Parliament. It was feared that such rates would prove too low, and the proceeds of the office be insufficient to support the necessary riders; and as people were in general well satisfied with the rates lately paid, or at least had made no complaints regarding them, the lowering of the rates was deferred.[149]

The parliamentary post continued for some years, concurrently with the constitutional post, as the new independent Post Office was called. On the 7th October 1775 a debate arose in Congress as to the expediency of stopping the "parliamentary or ministerial posts." The stopping of the post was desired chiefly as a means for hindering the correspondence of their enemies. Inaction in the matter was advocated by some who professed to find the royal post of great convenience; and by others who, although desirous of seeing the parliamentary post stopped, thought it unnecessary to take active measures against it, since it would soon cease in any case.

On Christmas Day, 1775, the Secretary to the Post Office in New York issued a notification to the public that, in consequence of the decision of a provincial convention at Annapolis not to permit the parliamentary post to travel through the province, that mail would be discontinued, and the letters held at New York at the disposal of the persons to whom they were addressed. The parliamentary post did not, however, altogether die. As late as 1779 the Secretary in London wrote to the Deputy-General at New York that the Postmasters-General were glad to find that a number of letters were being brought to the Post Office to be delivered, and as they hoped that method would be continued, the deputy would, no doubt, soon have sufficient funds to pay the expenses of the establishment. But in 1780 the Postmasters-General were concerned to find that the whole postage would not defray the cost of management, a circumstance attributed to the fact that the mails were often seized on arrival and carried first to the headquarters of the Army. In consequence of this, a great part of the letters were never delivered at all. Very little postage could be collected, and the Postmasters-General addressed strong representations to Lord George Germain, his Majesty's principal Secretary of State.[150]

In 1776, in view of the great necessity, for the safety of the colonies, that means should be provided for the frequent and rapid transmission of intelligence, further dispositions with regard to the posts were made by the Congress. Riders were appointed for every twenty-five or thirty miles

on the several post roads. They were required to proceed through their respective stages three times a week. They were to set out immediately on the receipt of the mail and were to travel "by night and by day, without stopping," until they had delivered the mail to the next rider. It was found that the revenue produced by the existing rates of postage fell far short of the expenses, and on the 17th October 1777 the rates were raised by 50 per cent. The difficulties of the administration continued, and various committees of inquiry were appointed. In April 1779 one of these committees recommended the doubling of the rates, a course which met with approval from patriotic Americans.[151]

Even this increase was not sufficient. In October of that year there was a balance of £375 18s. 6d. due to the Postmaster-General, and arrears of £17,666 1s. 3d. to the post riders. For the discharge of these liabilities and for the continuance of the functions of the office a draft on the Treasurer was authorized. In December 1779 a further grant was found to be absolutely necessary in order to maintain the service, and the sum of $30,000 was voted.[152] The establishment of express riders which had been maintained in conjunction with the postal service was at the same time abolished, and the rates of postage raised 20 per cent. on those paid in 1775. But the cost still outran the revenue, and in May 1780 sums amounting to $100,000 were voted in aid of the service. The finances of the posts became involved in further difficulties through the general depreciation of money, and Congress found it necessary in December 1780 to make good the depreciation on the pay of post riders, and to raise their nominal pay to double the sum received before the war.[153]

Several minor changes of the rates of postage were made in this period. In December 1780 the Congress fixed the rates on letters at half the rates paid at the commencement of the war: and in October 1781 at the actual rates charged at the commencement of the war. But, whatever the rates, during the war they never produced sufficient revenue to meet expenses, and the controlling factor in the administration of the service was the necessity for a means of circulating the earliest intelligence of the movements of the enemy, and of their ally, in order to make the best disposition of their own forces.

By the Articles of Confederation Congress was vested with the sole and exclusive rights and power of establishing a Post Office for the United States; and, deeming "the communication of intelligence with regularity and despatch from one part to another of the United States essentially requisite to the safety as well as the commercial interest thereof," in 1782 revised all the regulations made theretofore in respect of the Post Office, and reduced them to one Act. The Postmaster-General was required to cause the mail to be carried with all care and despatch at least once in every week to and from each of the stated post offices, and was given a monopoly of "letters, packets, or other despatches." Postmasters were to be paid such commission as the Postmaster-General might think their services merited, not exceeding 20 per cent. of the postage collected by them. Rates of postage on single letters were fixed as follows:—

And so on, advancing 16 grains for every hundred miles.

For all letters for or from Europe by packet or despatch vessels, the charge was 4 dwt. The rates were doubled for double letters; trebled for treble letters; and a packet weighing an ounce was charged equal to four single letters, and in that proportion if a greater weight. In the event of a surplus of Post Office revenue over expenses, the Postmaster-General

was required to pay the amount to the Treasurer of the United States "until the sums of money heretofore advanced by the United States for the support of the General Post Office, with the interest thereon at 6 per cent. per annum," should be repaid, after which any such surplus was to be devoted to the establishment of new post offices or other improvements of the service. If the necessary expenses were found to exceed the revenue, the excess was to be paid to the Postmaster-General by the Treasurer of the United States.[155] Cross posts were farmed in much the same way as the cross posts and bye posts had been farmed in England,[156] and the farmers were bound by contract not to charge rates in excess of those fixed by the ordinance.[157]

After the adoption of the Constitution an Act of the Constitutional Congress became necessary. The President, in recommending to Congress the provision of the Post Office and post roads on a liberal and comprehensive scale, referred to the political importance of such a service as aiding the diffusion of a knowledge of the laws and proceedings of the Government,[158] a consideration which was paramount in determining the attitude of the United States Government towards the posts. It was held to be a first duty of the Government to afford every possible means for the dissemination of intelligence—general intelligence for the information and education of the people, and more especially political intelligence for the education of the people as citizens of the Republic. They were making, it was their legitimate boast, a tremendous experiment in politics. They were essaying to demonstrate to the world whether a people had the genius to govern itself, whether democracy and the republic were abstract political ideas only, or whether they could be made actual living things. The English Commonwealth had failed. The French Revolution had come after their own and was still in doubtful case. They could therefore neglect no means likely to strengthen the foundation of their own Republic, and in this view must consider seriously the question of providing effective means for the enlightenment

of the sovereign people on all matters pertaining to the executive Government and the Legislature.[159] In order to secure the dissemination of such intelligence members of Congress were given extensive powers of franking both letters and newspapers.

On the question of rates, opinion in Congress was divided. Although at the time the gross revenue of the Post Office was small, some members anticipated an increase sufficient to yield a net revenue, as in England and most other European countries; whilst others, with more wisdom, pointed out the vital difference in the case of America on account of "its great extent and uncultivated state, as well as from a thousand other causes."[160] The new rates were based on eight zones of distance. For distances under 30 miles the charge for single letters was 6 cents; for distances over 450 miles the charge was 25 cents; every double letter, double rates; every triple letter, triple rates; and every packet weighing 1 ounce avoirdupois, the rate of four single letters for each ounce.

The rates for letters fixed by the Act of 1792 continued some thirty years, except for slight modifications in 1799 and 1816, and except for a brief period at the time of the war of 1812-14 with Great Britain. The Government then attempted to obtain an increased revenue from the Post Office, and the rates of postage were increased 50 per cent. The effect on the revenue and on the business of the country was, however, so disastrous that the increased rates were maintained only for about a year.[161]

In 1825 the laws relating to the Post Office were codified. The codifying Act placed on the Postmaster-General the duty of establishing such post offices, and appointing such postmasters on the post roads as should appear to him expedient, and of providing for the carriage of the mail on all post roads that were or might be established by law,[162] with such frequency as he should think proper, "having

regard to the productiveness" of the routes, the means of the department, and other circumstances. Errors and irregularities crept into the service; but they were for the most part the result of "the representations and pressing solicitations of the citizens," sustained by members of Congress from almost every section of the country, of the extension of the franking privilege, of the desire of the head of the department "to extend the benefits of mail facilities and stage-coach accommodations to every portion of the community," and of legislation extending the transportation of the mail over unproductive routes. The deficits which resulted were not regarded altogether as an evil, because the public had greatly benefited by the measures which had produced them.[163] Despite the solicitude of Congress the revenue failed to recover, and in 1837 and several succeeding years showed a deficit.

Sir Rowland Hill's pamphlet Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability attracted attention in America, and as early as 1839 the question of applying the principle of uniformity of rate to the American service was under consideration. The rate proposed was not, however, 2 cents, the equivalent of a penny, but 5 cents. Sir Rowland Hill himself expressed the opinion that owing to the widely different circumstances penny postage might not be applicable to the United States, but that, as the American people did not look for a revenue from their Post Office, a low general rate might be feasible.[164]

Although a low and uniform rate was not immediately adopted, the example of Great Britain had great influence.[165] There was considerable public agitation in favour of reduction of rates, and in many respects the circumstances resembled those obtaining in England before the reform. The high rates of postage led to constant and widespread evasion, advantage being taken of all available private means for the transmission of letters, and an association formed in New

York to work for the adoption of reduced postage held meetings in the large cities. In 1844 the finances of the department were in a more nourishing condition. For four years the service had been able to maintain itself. The state of the public Treasury had prevented any material change in previous years, but as difficulties under that head had ceased, the Government recommended the introduction of low rates—gradually, in order to prevent any serious dislocation of the finance of the department.[166] A statute was accordingly passed which, while not introducing uniform postage, went a great way in that direction. There were to be only two distance charges, viz. for distances not exceeding 300 miles, or greater than 300 miles, respectively. The new rate for ordinary letters was 5 cents for distances not exceeding 300 miles, and 10 cents for any greater distance. This statute also introduced the principle of charge by weight instead of by sheets, the half-ounce being taken as the unit weight.[167]

The reduction resulted in so great a fall in the revenue that in the first year at the reduced rates there was a deficit of between one and two million dollars. In calling attention to this deficit, the President, in his Message to Congress, said that no principle had been more generally acquiesced in by the people than that the Post Office should sustain itself, but Congress had "never sought to make it a source of revenue except for a short period during the last war with Great Britain." At the same time the service should not become a charge on the general Treasury, and it would be necessary either to curtail the existing service or so to modify the Act of the previous March as to improve the revenue. As curtailment of service was out of the question, revision of the rates was recommended.[168]

But the rates were not revised. Revision in an upward direction was, indeed, hardly feasible. The public agitation for low rates continued after the passing of the Act of 1845. Many citizens were convinced that the system already adopted in England might be introduced in the United States. The benefits which had resulted in England in the way of commercial, social, and moral betterment were largely dwelt upon. The chief demand was for a uniform rate, which now meant simply the abolition of the increased charge for distances over 300 miles. There was, of course, Sir Rowland Hill's calculation in regard to cost of conveyance, which showed the futility of any attempt to make distance the basis of charge; and the further consideration that the actual cost of transit for each letter sent in a mail varies not in accordance with the distance travelled, but inversely as the number of letters contained in the mail. Moreover, it was not considered just that the letters of the people of the populous Eastern States should

be taxed in order to provide unremunerative mail services to the remote and newly settled Western States.[169]

Under the old high rates the revenue had not increased in proportion to the increase of population, but since the reduction of 1845 the increase was so much more rapid that even with the reduced rates the revenue was greater than ever before. The Government preferred rates of postage which were too low to rates which were too high, arguing that in the former case the great mass of the people would benefit, whilst in the latter case the benefits would extend only to a few.[170] The need for some further reduction was well illustrated by the fact that the ordinary charge for transporting a barrel of flour from Detroit to Buffalo was at this time the same as the charge for carrying in the same conveyance a letter weighing half an ounce, viz. 10 cents.

In 1851 an Act reduced to 3 cents the rate of postage on letters not going over 300 miles, with a fourfold charge on Pacific mails, on account of the great expense incurred by the department. It was estimated that the expense of such mails was four times as great as in the case of ordinary mails, but the proposal met with opposition.[171]

In 1863 mail matter was classified in three groups: (1) letters, (2) regular printed matter, (3) other miscellaneous matter. The charge for letters (first-class mail matter) was made 3 cents a half ounce irrespective of distance. The rate was reduced

to 2 cents a half ounce in 1883, in deference to the wish and determination of the public, supported by a very decided vote in Congress. It was anticipated that the revenue would not suffer severely, but that, as in the case of the earlier reductions, there would be an increase in the number of letters. It was also anticipated that many letters sent unsealed at 1 cent would be transferred to the sealed post, thus yielding an additional cent. The number of groups or classes of mail matter had been increased to four in 1879, and the department was now asked to consider whether by rearranging the third and fourth class matter additional revenue could be obtained from such matter in order to diminish the deficiency resulting from the reduction of letter postage. The department was unable to suggest any method for achieving this object; but the contemplated reduction was not delayed. The condition of the Treasury was good, "there being money enough to meet any deficiency, even if it were as large as the maximum ($8,550,000)," estimated on the basis of the number of letters then passing by post without allowance for any increase.[172] The actual loss of revenue consequent on the reduction was only $1,660,000. A large stimulus was given to general correspondence, and, as anticipated, to the use of the sealed letter in place of postcards or unsealed circulars, whereby the department reaped considerable profit. In 1885 the allowance for weight was raised, and the rate became 2 cents for each ounce or fraction of an ounce.

Since that date the rate has not been changed, although from time to time proposals have been made for a reduction to 1 cent. The public and the department realize that the 2-cent rate is immensely profitable. It not only sustains the service for letters: it enables the department to carry the heavy burden of both the second-class matter and the expensive rural delivery service, both of which involve heavy deficits, and still to show only a comparatively small, though fluctuating, deficit.[173] As early as 1890 the question of 1 cent letter postage had attained considerable prominence.

Many newspapers were advocating the reduction, and numerous associations and conventions had declared for it. The Postmaster-General, Mr. Wanamaker, himself declared that great numbers of the people believed in 1 cent postage and wanted it, and that the existing rate yielded a large profit which would permit of a reduction of letter postage if it could be devoted to that purpose.[174] In 1891 Mr. Wanamaker expressed the view that in time not only would 1 cent postage be successfully demanded, but that the time was not far off; although he himself thought that many other improvements and extensions ought to be provided before such reduction was made, and that it would not be just and fair to the service, upon which much effort had been spent in order to make it self-supporting, to heap upon it a burden of millions from which it could not recover for years.[175]

The question was by no means lost sight of.[176] With the department showing a deficit in most years, pressure could not be brought to bear for a reduction of postage which could only result in throwing a heavy charge on the public Treasury. Should, however, the department succeed in its efforts to obtain a higher rate of charge on second-class matter, and such higher charge results as satisfactorily to the revenue as the department anticipates, there can be little doubt that reduction of letter postage would soon follow.[177]

LETTER POST IN FRANCE

The Roman posts in France disappeared in the confusion which followed the incursions of the barbarians. Charlemagne repaired the roads to Germany, to Italy, and to Spain, in the early part of the ninth century, and established on them a system of relays; but with the passing of the Carlovingian Empire these arrangements fell into decay. The feudal system which arose after the break-up of the Empire was little adapted for the encouragement of posts. Its tendencies were rather towards disintegration and isolation. Although some of the services survived, there was for centuries no general system of posts in France.[178] During this period the chief means of communication were provided by the monasteries, which maintained regular intercourse between their various establishments scattered throughout France, Spain, Germany, and other countries; by travelling merchants, and by journeymen.

When a regular service of posts was again established in France, it was provided, not by the State, but by the University of Paris, which in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries increased in importance and renown, and attracted large numbers of students from all parts of France, and from foreign countries. In order to provide a means of communication between the students and their homes, the University obtained from the King authority to employ for the purpose messengers, to whom were accorded certain special privileges. Thus, in 1296, the messengers of the University were exempted from payment of tolls, or of fees for entry into towns. At first they travelled on foot, but at a later date on horseback or by carriage. The system developed regularity

and rapidity, and in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was employed, although without authority, by the public generally.[179]

This service continued until 1720, when the privileges of the University were suppressed, monetary compensation (120,000 fr.) being paid from the revenue of the posts.[180]

An ordinary postal service was re-established by Louis XI in 1464.[181] Relay stations were set up on the main routes, four leagues apart. At each station four or five horses were provided by the postmasters, who were required to convey the royal despatches without special remuneration. For conducting the royal couriers from stage to stage, however, payment was made at the rate of 10 sous for each stage for every horse.

In 1527 the postmasters were given the exclusive right of furnishing horses for the use of couriers. In order to provide accommodation for travellers, a system of relays was established in 1597, in addition to the ordinary posts.[182] The stages were fixed at distances varying from twelve to fifteen leagues, and the charge for a horse was 20 sous for each stage. This system was amalgamated with the posts in 1602, and the functions for which the relays had been established were exercised by the posts until after the Revolution. They were definitely abandoned to private enterprise in 1797.

The transmission of ordinary letters for private individuals was not at first contemplated,[183] but it became common for the royal messengers to carry letters for the public. The conveyance of private letters was first definitely provided for by the State in 1576. In that year a special system of messengers was established, whose function was to convey legal documents between the Parliament and the inferior courts, and was

limited to the period during which Parliament was sitting. These messengers were required to carry letters for private individuals at the following rates:—

irrespective of distance.[184]

Under Richelieu the ordinary posts were given a regular organization. Fixed days of departure and arrival were appointed; offices were established in the towns; and in 1627 the first general table of rates was issued.[185] Previously the rate was fixed mutually between the couriers and the senders or receivers of letters.[186]

For single letters the tariff of 1627 prescribed rates of 2 sous for transmission between Paris and Dijon, and 3 sous for transmission between Paris and Lyons, Paris and Bordeaux, Paris and Toulouse. For letters composed of more than one sheet, but less than ½ ounce in weight, the rate varied from 3 to 5 sous; and for larger packets the rate was from 5 to 8 sous per ounce. In 1637 the posts were given the monopoly of the carriage of letters.[187]

In the first years the posts had been a charge on the State, but at about this time they were let at farm, and proved a fruitful and growing source of revenue to the State. By 1672 the annual rent of the farm had risen to 1,700,000 livres, and in 1791, the last year of the farm, the net revenue was about 12,000,000 fr.

A new tariff was established in 1676, as follows:—

The progression for distance was in decreasing proportion.

In 1703 the rates were raised mainly in order to provide funds to meet the expenses of the wars of Louis XIV. Two reasons were assigned: the necessity for increased revenue, and the necessity for remedying certain defects in the existing rates, in regard to the distances and the progression of weight—the charges should be proportionate to the actual distance traversed by the couriers; and the existing rate of charge for ounce letters was therefore unjust, because it required at least six single letters to make up a weight of 1 ounce.[188]

As a matter of fact, the new rates fixed in 1703 did not vary exactly with distance. The number of zones was doubled, and the distances were reckoned according to the number of stages, and the routes actually followed by the couriers. The charge for a single letter varied from 3 to 10 sous.

These rates remained in force until 1759, when a variety of causes led to a further increase of rates. The Seven Years' War had made an increase of taxation necessary; there had been a depreciation of money, and an increase in the cost of all commodities, which had resulted in an increase of the expenses of conducting the posts. Under the tariff of 1759 the eight zones of 1703 were maintained, and the rate for single letters varied from 4 to 14 sous, with an additional rate of 1 sou for all letters enclosed in an envelope. The principle of charge according to weight was introduced for letters weighing less than 1 ounce, which up to this time had been charged only according to the number of sheets. Double letters weighing more than ¼ ounce and less than ½ ounce, were rated at 7 sous for the first zone, and for the other zones a "rate 2 sous less than the ordinary rate for double letters." Packets were charged by the ounce, and the rate per ounce was four times that for a single letter. As with the tariff of 1703, distances were calculated according to the route actually followed by the couriers.

No further modification of the rates was made until after the Revolution. The lease of the posts was due to expire

on the 31st December 1791, and it was decided that the Legislature should rectify the tariff before the date at which the posts would revert to the State.[189] A rectification was accordingly announced by the decrees of the 17th-22nd August 1791. This revision slightly increased the rates of 1759. The initial rate of 4 sous for single letters circulating within the same département was retained; the rate for letters circulating in the same arrondissement was fixed at 3 sous; between départements the rate was increased, and varied from 5 to 15 sous, according to distance of transmission; and the number of zones was increased to eleven.[190]

Distances were no longer to be reckoned according to the length of the route actually traversed, but from point to point as the crow flies. The points were not, however, the actual points of posting and of delivery. In each department a point was fixed upon, and the rate for all letters posted or delivered in the département was calculated as from that point; so that for a given weight the same rate was payable on all letters exchanged between the same two départements. This system, though comprising a very large number of rates, was much simpler than the earlier systems. Any one town or village now had only 82 rates for each step in the scale of rates, whereas under the previous system a special rate must be calculated for every other town or village in France. To assist the application of this tariff, a map showing the central point fixed upon for each of the 82 départements, and the distances from each central point to all others, was prepared and supplied to every post office in France.

The tariff of 1791 also abolished the method of charge according to the number of sheets, and substituted the simpler method of charge according to weight alone. The maximum weight for a single letter was fixed at ¼ ounce, and for heavier letters the rates were—

and so on, the increase being one single rate for each

¼ ounce increase of weight. The rate for letters circulating within the same town remained 2 sous an ounce.