Penny post

“ As much more than half the present generation have had no experience of any other system than that of [238] penny postage, it must be difficult, if not impracticable, to give an adequate conception of the state of things at the time referred to, of the height and variety of rates charged, and of the multitudinous shifts resorted to for their evasion. The law gave the Post Office a monopoly, and respect for the law is considered characteristic of our countrymen ”

“ With reference to the above memorandum, it may be useful to state that ever since the Uniform Penny Postage became an admitted success, numerous claimants—generally insane—have come forward from time to time, each asserting that he, and not Sir Rowland Hill, was the real originator of the plan, or of some of its essential features. Similar claims—mostly founded on some hallucination—are constantly forthcoming to every important improvement. ”

“ This I conceive to have been a main cause of delay in the recovery of the gross revenue.
4th. Above all, the execution of my plan was, during the early years of penny postage, entrusted almost entirely to men whose official reputation was [348] pledged, not to its success, but to its failure. Even after I entered the Post Office, near the close of the seventh year of penny postage, obstacles were so continually thrown in my way that for many years I could do comparatively little to promote the measure ”

“ Therefore I say that Sir R. Hill, independently of the benefits which his plan has conferred upon the general interests [397] and prosperity of the country, has the merit of having conferred a great benefit upon the labouring and poorer classes of the people, which would of itself entitle him to any mark of approbation and reward which the House may be disposed to confer upon him. In the year 1838, before the penny postage was introduced, the number of letters transmitted through the Post Office was 76,000,000 ”

“ March 7th, 1842.—To-day’s Morning Post has a leader on the subject of the financial measures to be brought forward by Sir Robert Peel on Friday, from which the following is an extract:—‘It is conjectured by some that Mr. Rowland Hill’s Penny Postage inroad upon a revenue which could ill afford such an experiment, is to be counteracted, not by the restoration of the old system, but by an increase to the uniform rate of postage. ”

“ Had he not had such a father, he would not have devised his plan of Penny Postage. Had he not had such a mother, he would not have succeeded in making what seemed the scheme of an enthusiast a complete and acknowledged success. ”

“ TRADE, ETC. The penny post — Dockwra's vindication of himself — Abolition of penny post — Post days and rates — Halfpenny post — Method of doing business — The Exchange — Description of frequenters — Bankers — Curious advertisement of Sir Richard Hoare's.
Among the social institutions then in existence, was the penny post, which cannot be better, or more tersely, described than in Misson's own words: 'Every two Hours you may write [164] to any Part of the City or Suburbs, he that receives it pays a Penny, and you give nothing when you put it into the Post ”

“ Grateful as I feel to him as the most signal social benefactor of our time, it has been a great pleasure to me to see the happy influence of success on the man himself. I really should like to ask the surviving Whig leaders all round what they think now of ‘the nonsense of the penny postage.’”—“Harriet Martineau’s Autobiography,” Vol. I., p. 410.—Ed.
[278] Mr. Gardiner was Secretary to the Commissioners of Post Office Enquiry; Mr. Ledingham was his clerk. ”

“ Whatever is new is sure to be opposed, apparently on no other ground than that of novelty, and in this bearing men are often not unlike some of the lower creatures in the scale of animated nature, that start and fly from things which they have not seen before, though they may have no more substance than that of a shadow. However this may be, the Penny Postage measure has produced stupendous results. In 1839, the year before the reduction of postage, the letters passing through the post in the United Kingdom were 82,500,000. ”

“ Hill had been sedulously striving from the period of penny postage, was to avoid the waste of time, trouble, and expense consequent on two different men going over the same ground to distribute two classes of letters which might, without any real difficulty, be delivered together. The greatest objection in the Post-Office itself to completing the change, arose from the different status of the two bodies of men, the one class being paid at a much higher rate of wages and with better prospects than the other class. ”

“ The changes introduced by Johnson and the act of 1794 were in the right direction. This seems a reasonable conclusion not so much on account of the increase in net product, which was not great, as on account of the increase in gross product, showing that the number [52] of letters and parcels sent by the Penny Post had doubled. The financial condition of the Penny Post before and after the reform is shown by the following figures:—
London was not the only place which could boast a Penny Post in 1793. ”

“ Lord Duncannon replied that, “after mature consideration, it was found to be inexpedient to try the experiment of Mr. Hill’s plan to the full extent that had been proposed. The Chancellor of the Exchequer did not intend to carry the suggestions of the Commissioners into effect in the way proposed, but he determined on the issue of penny [148] stamp covers for the short distances, and to reduce the fourpenny post [290] to twopence. ”

“ The expense of the packet service, which was said to swallow up the whole of the revenue now derived from the [461] Post Office, had no more to do with the penny postage than the expense of the war in Afghanistan or China. It was as distinct from the Post Office as the expense of the army or navy.”
At a subsequent period, as will appear in its proper place, I was called upon to expose the fallacy more in detail; but everybody knows that an error once adopted is slow of eradication. ”

“ The only instance of national trading in this Country is the General Post Office, and I think it is correct to say that the original intention when Penny Post was established was to so carry it on that working expenses only should be covered by the revenue. ”

“ If so, the effective saving will be enormous.”
[78] It may be added that this expectation was confirmed by the event.
“March 8th, 1848.—The Postmaster-General, in speaking of the many improvements which I have effected, remarked the singular absence of all complaints from the public, though some [of the improvements] are more or less restrictive.”
Among the means formerly taken to account for the existence of a revenue under what it regarded as the ruinous system of penny postage, the Post Office had uniformly maintained that a large profit was obtained in the Money Order Department. ”

“ Dear Sir,—Captain Beaufort [310] told you very truly that I take a strong interest in the progress of the Penny Postage—both a public and a private interest; and I truly think that the British nation, the united empire, owes you millions of thanks for the improvements that have been made in social intercourse—in all the intercourse of human creatures for pleasure or business, affection or profit; including the profits of literature and science—foreign and domestic. ”

“ My dear Matthew,—Thank you very much for your kind and affectionate letter. Fortunately, the members of our family have always been ready to assist one another—consequently, each has worked with the combined force of all. This was markedly the case as regards Penny Postage, as I have endeavoured to show in the history. ”

“ My communication will be anonymous, and, as you perceive, in the handwriting of a female. The dangers which beset the “usual channel,” have forced me to take this course in offering an observation or two on the opposition to the extension of Sunday duty. This opposition in the office is not really against the duty, but is a strong attempt to level the author of Penny Postage, and was originated in Mr. ——’s room! The Clerks received the cue, and artfully led the Subsorters, Letter-carriers, and Messengers to believe that the duty was to be performed without pay. ”

“ There is something very pleasing, not to say fascinating, in his appearance and manner.” Mr. M. D. Hill replied, “I was very glad to hear you were able to go to the Fishmongers’, and very much amused to find that you consulted Garibaldi on Italian Penny Postage. When you go to heaven, I foresee that you will stop at the gate to inquire of St. Peter how many deliveries they have per day, and how the expense of postal communication between heaven and the other place is defrayed.” ”

“ The facilities it has afforded for epistolary intercommunication are so wonderful and self-evident, that we who benefit by them are blinded to the hidden impulses it has given to social improvement and to commerce. Regarded only as the origin of the present money-order system, penny postage has occasioned the exercise of prudence, benevolence, and self-denial; it has, in many instances, stopped the sufferings of want by timely remittances ”

“ I cannot touch upon this subject without mentioning the remarkable fact that, whereas the introduction of penny postage was really followed by a reduction in the hours of work, and at the same time by an increase in the remuneration to almost every man in the department, save only the Postmaster-General and the Secretary, an impression has very generally prevailed, and still, I believe, remains in many quarters, that the truth is the very reverse. ”

“ His labours have produced more beneficial results than may strike persons at first sight. It is quite clear that the facilities which the penny postage has given to the transactions of commerce, and to all communications connected with business, must have been infinitely advantageous to the industry, and, by that means, to the general revenue of the country. ”

“ For the introduction of penny postage alone—a measure which, in itself, and in all its ramifications, has conferred such vast benefits on all classes of the community, and with which the name of Sir Rowland Hill will ever be identified—he deserves the gratitude of his country—indeed of the civilized world, which, no doubt, will not be niggardly expressed. ”

“ We have now completed the single machine, and the night before last we gave it a trial. It worked better than I hoped even, and fully established, I think, the correctness of the views we have entertained. Miss D——, who left for Birmingham this morning, has taken with her the scroll of paper which was printed.... It will be forwarded to you. I need not ask you to take care of it, and to return it when you come back to me. Some day or other it may be a great curiosity.”
[231]
BOOK II.
HISTORY OF PENNY POSTAGE.
“There is good to a man’s self in doing good to others ”

“ On March 23rd a somewhat remarkable scene occurred in the House of Commons; Mr. Scholefield having presented a petition from Birmingham, for which he was member, the Speaker desired all honourable members who had petitions to present on Penny Postage to bring them up; when instantly a great number of members on both sides of the House “advanced in a crowd to present them, amidst cheering on all sides.” ”

“ On the following day the public anxiety relative to the House of Lords showed itself in a petition “signed by the Mayor and upwards of twelve thousand five hundred of the merchants of the city of London, which the Noble Lord who presented the petition understood had been signed in twelve hours,” praying that no temporary deficiency of revenue might delay the establishment of penny postage. ”

“ In the year 1872 he asked me to examine it carefully, and to point out whatever might strike me as being defective either in its method or its execution. I found, as I told him, that the “Prefatory Memoir” was too short, and “The History of Penny Postage” too long. Too little was told of the way in which his character had been trained for the hard task which awaited it, and too much was told of the improvements which had been effected. In the case of inventors it is not so much what a man does, as how he learns to do it, and how he does it, that we all care to know. ”

“ The public, satisfied with having obtained the adoption of the penny rate, the reform in which it was most interested, bestirred itself little in advocacy of those further improvements in which its interest was less direct and far less obvious; many persons, indeed, regarding penny postage pure and simple as the be-all and [462] end-all of the matter. ”

“ Penny postage, it is contended, is eminently successful at home, therefore it must needs succeed abroad; distance is not taken into account on land, therefore it need not be reckoned by sea; home letters have multiplied enormously under reduced rates in the United Kingdom, and the same [242] result may be counted on in our correspondence with the most distant colonies. Here it is forgotten that before a penny postage was established at home it was ascertained that a penny charge was more than sufficient to defray all expenses, while no such proof has been given with regard to expenses abroad. ”

“ The true classification rests on the conception that the character of public revenue (including Post Office revenue) varies with varying circumstances. [747]
The penny letter rate is a source of very considerable profit, and is therefore not a pure price. Nor can it be said that this penny rate, although it is the source of practically all the profit, is a pure tax. In the case of a large number of letters there is no surplus beyond the cost of the service, and often the cost is greater than the yield of the postage on the particular letters dealt with. ”