Pearson Hill

“ It is not in human nature that the gentlemen of the Post Office should view your plan with friendly eyes. If they are good-natured persons, as I dare say they are, they will forgive you in time; but they have much to overlook. That a stranger should attempt to understand the arcana of our system of postage better than those whose duty it was to attain to such knowledge, was bad enough; that he should succeed, was still worse; but that he should persuade the country and the Parliament that he had succeeded is an offence very difficult to pardon. ”

“ Very different is the case of the new postage. By the same means which are yearly augmenting the revenue, there is a strengthening of social and domestic charities. The same arrangements which carry more money into the Treasury, which stimulate commerce and encourage science and literature, serve to expand the influences of home, and to repeal for the dispersed the sentence of banishment from the best influences of life. From this strong and honourable peculiarity our new Post Office system will, I imagine, take rank in history above all fiscal arrangements of any former time. ”

“ Society seems to be awakening to a sense of the hardship of ill-requited labour—of the extreme scantiness of the recompense of the toil of women especially. However grievous the hardship may be, the case was worse when the solitary worker felt her affections crushed—felt as if forsaken under an enforced family silence. Far more important is the opening of the Post Office to hundreds and thousands of these industrious workers than an increase of earnings would be ”

“ This appears to me to be undesirable: every branch of the Post Office ought, in my opinion, to defray its own expenses, although it is, at the same time, important that the ramifications should be as numerous as possible. The most equitable arrangement appears to be this: let the whole weight of taxation be thrown on the primary distribution, which ought to include every place which can be reached without absolute loss to the revenue, and let each department of the secondary distribution just defray its own expenses. ”

“ It would be agreeable that a small adornment of such graces should accompany the grand utilities of the system, but when it is considered to what an extent this benefit spreads, that not a day of any year passes that a multitude of sick and infirm are not thus cheered, these humanities and graces command a gratitude seldom due on so large a scale.
Then, again, there is a diffusion of the advantages gained by one member of a family or society, so that the recompense of one person's talents or merits becomes a benefit to many. ”

“ With national resources, the transaction of any conceivable amount of Post Office business must be easy; and let it not be forgotten, that under able direction, the more extensive the business, the more systematically it may be conducted, and, consequently, with greater effect, economy, and facility.
The nation can always command the services of men of first rate ability; let that be done, and then we may safely rest assured that all visionary obstacles will at once disappear, and that real difficulties will be vigorously grappled with, and in time overcome. ”

“ We hear less of this class of results than of others—partly because they are of a delicate nature, involving feelings which individuals shrink from laying open, and partly because they are so universal (where the privilege of cheap postage extends) , that it seems to be no one's especial business to declare them; but there can be no doubt that this class of blessings is felt with a keenness and a depth of gratitude which, if they could only find expression, would overwhelm the author of this reform with a sense of the magnitude of his own work. ”

“ At a rate of postage so low as one penny, a great number of explanatory letters on business, and letters on matters of detail, would be written. Occasions are of constant occurrence in which we do not write, and are not written to, because the matter, though important enough to write upon, is not important enough to pay, or to cause others to pay, the postage. I refer here to questions as to the mode of conveyance of goods, as to the colour or pattern of articles ordered, or to an ambiguous or an illegible phrase in a letter received, and a thousand other matters. ”

“ There would be nothing to undo, except to amend an act which had not been carried into effect, as the practicability of the proposed reduction of postage in the metropolitan district is undoubted, the whole cost of management, even under the present expensive arrangements and restricted correspondence, being only two-thirds of a penny per letter. To effect such a relief from taxation, and to render the facilities of communication adequate to the wants of the people in a district containing about one-twelfth of the population of the United Kingdom, would of itself be an immense improvement. ”

“ It will stand alone as being not only tolerated and obeyed, but as having won for Government a gratitude and attachment such as no other single measure could win, and such as will deepen with every passing year. My own belief is that at this moment such grateful attachment is already a set-off against a large measure of disaffection, partial and imperfect as is, as yet, the working of the system. ”

“ But your personal weight and importance as compared with that of others who it is reasonable to believe will, in the first instance at least, be opposed to you, will be measured very much by comparison of salary. We may say what we will, but Englishmen are neither aristocratic nor democratic, but chrysocratic (to coin a word) . Your salary will, therefore, if you have one at all, fix your position in the minds of every functionary of the Post Office, from the Postmaster-General to the bellman, both inclusive. ”

“ The period during which Sir Rowland Hill has held office, either by a temporary or a permanent appointment, is but little in excess of 20 years; yet my Lords have to regret that while he remains full as ever of ability, energy, and resources, and of disposition to expend them for the public good, the state of his health, due, without doubt, in great part to his indefatigable labours, compels him to solicit a retirement.
It is not, however, by length of service that the merits and claims of such a man are to be measured. ”

“ Uniformity of postage, doubtless, at the present time, seems to most persons so completely in accordance with the fitness of things, that it may appear strange when we state that in 1837 it was so startling an innovation that, when publishing his pamphlet, Sir Rowland Hill thought it prudent to reject a suggestion to entitle it "Uniform Penny Postage," fearing lest the mere title should cause people to throw away the pamphlet unread, as something too ridiculous to deserve perusal. ”

“ It is manifest, however, that that which produces the increase of consumption is a decrease not in duty, but in price. It is of no practical importance to the consumer how this price is made up, and it is only in its tendency to lower the price, or, what is the same thing, to improve the quality, or increase the facility of purchase, that the diminution in duty concerns him. ”

“ As regards the author of the penny postage system, I know, of my own knowledge, that a multitude of persons are, like myself, really oppressed by the sense of obligation as yet almost unacknowledged and wholly unrequited. ”

“ All that is necessary to secure the revenue from any diminution is, that the public should be willing to expend as much in postage as at present. Now it would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to point out any instance in which a reduction in the price of any particular article has not eventually, and even speedily, been followed by such an increase in demand, as has at least sustained the total expenditure in that article at its former amount. ”

“ It appears, then, that during the last twenty years, the absolute revenue derived from the Post Office has slightly diminished; whereas, if it had kept pace with the growth of population, there would have been an increase of £507,700 per annum. As compared with the population, then, the Post Office revenue has fallen off to the extent of more than half a million per annum; but if the extension of education, and the increasing trade and prosperity of the country, during this period, be taken into account, there can be no doubt that the real deficit is even much greater. ”

“ There cannot be a doubt that if the law did not interpose its prohibition, the transmission of letters would be gladly undertaken by capitalists, and conducted on the ordinary commercial principles, with all that economy, attention to the wants of their customers, and skilful adaptation of means to the desired end, which is usually practised by those whose interests are involved in their success. But the law constitutes the Post Office a monopoly. ”

“ If one member of a family attains a position in literature, or any other pursuit which gives him a command of information or other interests, he needs no longer to confine it to himself for want of means to communicate the luxury. The infirm father, the blind mother, whose pleasures are becoming fewer and fewer, may now not only enjoy the fame of an eminent son and daughter as a matter of complacency, but may share that portion of the results which consists in correspondence. ”

“ Formerly, the monthly or fortnightly letter—a stated expense, to be incurred only with regularity, and the communication itself confined to a single sheet—had nothing of the familiarity of correspondence. At present, when on any occasion, on the slightest prompting of inclination, the youth can pour out his mind to his best friends—no sudden check upon family confidence being imposed, and no barrier becoming gradually erected by infrequency of intercourse—the moral dangers of a young man's entrance upon life are incalculably lessened. ”

“ If the objector can be supposed to mean that the number of letters will probably become so great that no practicable increase of the Post Office establishment will be sufficient for their distribution, I may remark upon so extraordinary a supposition, that I never yet heard of a merchant, a manufacturer, or a trader, possessed of sufficient capital and other adequate means, being frightened lest his business should become too large. ”

“ If 2,000 such lists could be circulated monthly for about £8,—which they would be under your plan,—I should be too glad to spend £100 a year in placing these lists periodically in the hands of country booksellers, professional men, and literary societies;—and I have no doubt that every publisher in London would feel it his interest to adopt the principle. Advertisements in the newspapers, however efficient and indispensable for attracting public attention to new books, are random shots which may or may not reach the individuals and classes for whom they are meant. ”

“ When a man goes on the tramp—i.e., when he travels in search of employment—he must either take his family with him, perhaps one child in arms, or else the wife must be left behind; and the misery I have known them to be in from not knowing what has become of the husband, because they could not hear from him, has been extreme. Perhaps the man, receiving only sixpence, has never had the means, upon the whole line, of paying tenpence for a letter, to let his wife know where he was. ”

“ The loss to the revenue is, however, far from being the most serious of the injuries inflicted on society by the high rates of postage. When it is considered how much the religious, moral, and intellectual progress of the people, would be accelerated by the unobstructed circulation of letters and of the many cheap and excellent non-political publications of the present day, the Post Office assumes the new and important character of a powerful engine of civilization ”

“ But whatever distinction may be observed between the more general and primary purposes of this institution, and its value separately regarded as an immediate source of revenue to the Crown, it will be found that the same means may be employed to promote its several objects; and that, in a prosperous state of the country, its productiveness, in a financial calculation, will be measured by the proportion in which, under judicious management, it is made to contribute to the interests, the convenience, and the habitual indulgence of the community. ”

“ The rapid extension of railroads now going on would of itself, in a short time, inevitably work a revolution in the system of the Post Office. Between Manchester and Liverpool, instead of one direct post per day, as before the construction of the railroad, there are now four, which alone produce a revenue of nearly £11,000 per annum. Indeed, it is obvious that the extensive employment of railroads will render it necessary to re-model the whole system of distribution. ”

“ The essential elements of such a plan are, first, a very low rate of postage, to neutralise the objections on the part of the public to its being demanded in advance; and, secondly, a uniform rate of postage, to simplify the mode of accounting for its receipt. With respect to the latter element, it has already been shown (p. 19) that in fairness the rates of postage for primary distribution ought to be uniform; the cost of transit along the mail-roads, even for the greatest distances, being so trifling, as not to be expressible by the smallest coin. ”

“ These facts show that when a reduction of taxation is about to take place, it is exceedingly important that great care and judgment should be exercised in the selection of the tax to be reduced, in order that the maximum of relief may be afforded to the public, with the minimum of injury to the revenue. ”

“ The only objection which occurs to me to the universal adoption of this plan is the following: Persons unaccustomed to write letters, would, perhaps, be at a loss how to proceed. They might send or take their letters to the Post Office without having had recourse to the stamp. It is true that on presentation of the letter, the Receiver instead of accepting the money as postage, might take it as the price of a cover, or band, in which the bringer might immediately inclose the letter, and then re-direct it. But the bringer would sometimes be unable to write. ”

“ When the hurried manner in which these complex operations have to be performed is considered, it is manifest that errors must frequently arise. There is also an obvious danger of extensive frauds on the Revenue from collusion between some of the Deputy Post-masters and those whose duty it is to charge them with the postage. The examination of each letter by a candle too, by revealing the contents, creates temptations to theft, which have too often been irresistible. ”

“ Not the least important of the reforms Sir Rowland Hill effected was the transformation of St. Martin's-le-Grand from a sort of official "Sleepy Hollow" into a department taking a just pride in the efficiency of the postal service, and eagerly and constantly seeking to extend its usefulness. The good that men do lives after them, and Sir Rowland Hill's views and principles—once regarded by the Department as "wild, visionary, and absurd"—have long become its fundamental rules, and daily receive practical recognition. ”