i\ 

 
 N3QOO TI '0 
 
 THE 
 
 THE POST OFFICE, 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF MR. ROWLAND HILL'S PLAN OF 
 PENNY POSTAGE UP TO THE PRESENT TIME, 
 
 GROUNDED ON PARLIAMENTARY DOCUMENTS, 
 
 EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON POSTAGE 
 AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE LAST SESSION OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
 
 THE LAST RETURNS TO THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 J. HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1844.
 
 LONDON : BLACKBURN AKO PARDON, PRINTERS, 6, HATTON GARDEN.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE following remarks would scarcely have 
 been called for, had it not been for the breaking 
 up of the Select Committee on Postage, on 14th 
 August last, 1843, without drawing up a full 
 report upon the matters of inquiry which came 
 before them ; to which may be added the pam- 
 phlet of Mr. Hill, published in the beginning of 
 the present year, which, to say the least of 
 it, gives a garbled account both as to the bear- 
 ings of the evidence, and as to the general object 
 itself. 
 
 We here speak without the slightest dispo- 
 sition to censure the Committee, but, certainly, 
 the omission of any report upon the evidence, 
 has disappointed many, and afforded an oppor- 
 tunity of circulating a* great deal of mis-state- 
 ment, and, not to use a harsh word, of 
 calumnious misrepresentation, against public 
 officers in no respect deserving such treatment. 
 In all probability it, also, drew from Mr. Hill 
 
 A2
 
 the boastful pamphlet which he has so recently 
 discharged against the Post Office, and all con- 
 nected with that department. 
 
 "Your Committee regret that, on account 
 of the late period of the session to which their 
 inquiries were extended, they find it imprac- 
 ticable to report their opinions on these various 
 matters, involving, as they do, many minute 
 details. They are unable to do more than report 
 the evidence which they have taken ; to which 
 they beg leave to refer, as well as to the cor- 
 respondence, which will be found in the Appen- 
 dix, in connexion therewith, between the Trea- 
 sury and the Post Office; from both of which 
 departments they entertain no doubt these pro- 
 positions will receive the fullest consideration." 
 
 If a person, unacquainted with the Post 
 Office, could induce himself to read six hundred 
 closely printed folio pages, which compose the 
 evidence taken before the Select Committee, he 
 would, perhaps, have no difficulty in forming 
 an opinion upon the case. On the one part, 
 he would find a great mass of criminating 
 evidence presented before the Committee from 
 one side only, indeed, from one witness only ; 
 whilst on the other, he would meet with as 
 complete and overwhelming a contradiction and
 
 confutation as was ever given in a litigated case 
 -in a court of justice; and which, from the 
 comparative weight of the defence beyond the 
 charge, called for an instant report. 
 
 In all matters of an accusatory kind, it is an 
 old and striking observation, that the criminatory 
 matter necessarily first catches the eye and the 
 ear; being from its very nature, and from the 
 course of human passions, more prominent and 
 vehement ; whilst, on the other hand, the matter 
 of defence naturally goes into more length, is 
 more calm and sober. 
 
 Mr. Hill claims, and his friends also claim for 
 him, that he has established his case before the 
 public; and this is triumphantly repeated, not 
 only by Mr. Hill himself, but by all the party 
 journals who seek for a case to assail the Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Before entering more fully into the question, 
 it will be expedient to explain the circumstances 
 under which the Select Committee on Postage 
 was appointed, and the Minutes of Evidence 
 taken. 
 
 On 10th of April, 1843, Mr. Baring, the late 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented to the 
 House of Commons a Petition from Mr. R. Hill. 
 This Petition will be found in the Report, page
 
 6 
 
 54, and it will only be necessary here to give it 
 in substance. Mr. Hill states, that early in the 
 year 1837, he published a pamphlet, recommend- 
 ing that the Postage rate should be uniformly 
 reduced to one penny the half ounce, and gene- 
 rally developing his plans ; in the latter part of 
 the same year, the matter was taken up by the 
 House of Commons, arid a Committee appointed 
 to inquire and report upon the plan proposed, 
 so far as such a reduction could be made with- 
 out injury to the revenue; and that about the 
 end of the year 1838, the Committee reported in 
 favour of the plan, and strongly recommended 
 its adoption. That on 12th July, 1839, the 
 House passed a resolution to the same effect; 
 that a Bill was immediately brought in, founded 
 upon such resolution, and that the Penny Post- 
 age thus became the law of the land. That on 
 14th of September, 1839, Mr. R. Hill was ap- 
 pointed for two years certain, at a salary of 
 1500 a year, to carry his plan out, and on the 
 expiration of those two years, he was continued 
 another year by the present ministry. But from 
 the date of this latter appointment in August, 
 1841, he had experienced little or no co-operation 
 in carrying out his plan on the part of the Post 
 Office; that all the inquiries which he had in-
 
 7 
 
 stituted towards carrying out an important im- 
 provement were stopped, and that all his efforts 
 to promote economy and public convenience 
 were ultimately frustrated. That at the expiration 
 of the further year for which he was appointed, 
 his engagement was terminated by the Lords of 
 the Treasury, and that he was deprived of every 
 chance of completing his appointed task. The 
 petitioner further proceeds to state, that his Plan 
 consisted of the following parts, the most mate- 
 rial of which he was thus prevented from com- 
 pleting. 
 
 1 st. A uniform and low rate of Postage. 
 
 2ndly. Increased speed in the delivery of letters. 
 
 3rdly. Greater facilities for the despatch. 
 
 And 4thly. Simplifi cation in the operations of 
 the Post Office, with the object of reducing the 
 cost of the establishment to a minimum. 
 
 That of those four main heads of his plan, the 
 first only, that of the One Penny Rate, was all 
 that had been carried into effect; that little or 
 nothing had been done either to increase the 
 speed in delivery, or to simplify the operations 
 of the Post Office. That the stopping of these 
 inquiries and arrangements involved savings to 
 the extent of hundreds of thousands per annum ; 
 and finally, that in despite of this want of due
 
 8 
 
 economy in the Post Office, and of the well- 
 known dislike to the measure entertained by 
 many of those persons to whom its execution 
 was entrusted, still the result of the Petitioner's 
 plan, in the third year of its partial trial, was a 
 gross increase of two-thirds, and a net increase 
 of more than one-third of the former amount. 
 The Petition then concluded with praying the 
 House to institute inquiry, &c. 
 
 After a lapse of nearly three months, the 
 matter was brought before the House by Sir T. 
 Wilde, re-stating the substance of Mr. R. Hill's 
 petition, and that his engagement had been ter- 
 minated by a letter from Mr. Goulburn, admit- 
 ting the zeal of his services, but alleging that 
 the retention of an independent officer in the 
 Post Office, for the purpose of carrying out the 
 improvements suggested, would necessarily lead 
 either to an entire supersession of the responsible 
 officers now in the management of that de- 
 partment, or to a conflict of authorities, highly 
 prejudicial to the public interest. Upon a re- 
 monstrance of Mr. Hill, addressed by letter to 
 Sir B. Peel, the same answer was returned by 
 the Premier ; he was fully satisfied with the zeal 
 and fidelity of Mr. Hill's services, but that he 
 concurred with the Chancellor of the Exchequer
 
 9 
 
 in the impolicy of employing an independent 
 officer in the management of the Post Office. 
 He did not doubt that there were improvements 
 still to be effected, but he presumed that they 
 could be accomplished by the constituted and 
 responsible authorities of that Office. 
 
 After contesting the two points alleged in 
 the letters of Mr. Goulburn and Sir R. Peel, 
 that of employing an independent officer in 
 the Post Office, and that of the officers of 
 this Office being the most competent and 
 suitable instruments to carry out any further 
 arrangements and improvements, Sir T. Wilde 
 proceeded to allege two points in particular, 
 which he deemed to be proofs of the counter- 
 action and impediments alleged by Mr. Hill. 
 The first related to the establishment of Post 
 Offices in rural districts. There were four hun- 
 dred districts, he said, in which there was a 
 registration of births, marriages, and deaths, 
 and each containing on an average four thou- 
 sand inhabitants, and in some of them there 
 was not a Post Office within fifteen miles. 
 Upon a memorial of Mr. Hill, this subject 
 having been taken into consideration by the 
 Treasury in 1841, a minute was issued, ordering 
 the establishment of a Post Office in each
 
 10 
 
 district. Now it appears, said Sir T. Wilde, 
 by a note signed by the Secretary of the Post 
 Office, that up to the present time no definitive 
 arrangement has been made by the Post Office 
 in conformity with this minute. The second 
 point was : That payments had been made to 
 a Railway Company for a greater distance than 
 the Mails had really been conveyed; that the 
 Post Office had replied, indeed, to the inquiry 
 of the Treasury, that this statement was erro- 
 neous, but that one payment of 400 a year 
 was sufficiently established. Sir T. Wilde pro- 
 ceeded to state other alleged obstructions and 
 neglect of Mr. Hill's suggestions on the part 
 of the Post Office, and urged that a Committee 
 ought to be appointed to inquire into the affairs 
 of the Post Office, if only for the satisfaction 
 of the public, who were so deeply interested 
 in the result, as he was informed that Mr. Hill 
 had submitted distinct details of reforms, show- 
 ing savings to the amount of about 100,000 
 per annum, which had not been gone into, 
 but strangely neglected by the authorities in 
 the Post Office. It was the same with many 
 other items, which would produce an enormous 
 saving. That he must say, that the dismissal 
 of Mr. Hill was an abandonment of his whole
 
 11 
 
 plan as regarded facility and economy. He 
 finished by moving for a Select Committee to 
 be appointed for inquiring into the progress 
 which had been made for carrying into effect 
 Mr. Hill's plan for Post Office improvement. 
 
 To this speech it was replied in substance by 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that abundant 
 opportunities had been afforded to Mr. Hill of 
 bringing forward his suggestions, and that they 
 had all been laboriously examined by the prac- 
 tical men in the Post Office, and, amongst 
 others, the establishment of rural Post Offices. 
 They found that this arrangement would cost 
 the public 70,000 annually, and that many of 
 the districts would have such a limited amount 
 of correspondence as to leave no chance of 
 repayment. Where the district afforded one 
 hundred letters within the week, the plan had 
 been adopted. Mr. Hill's next suggestion of 
 seven deliveries, instead of four, in the day, had 
 been declined on the same principle of a large 
 increased expence without any corresponding 
 advantage. The leading fault of Mr. Hill was 
 that he was totally ignorant of details ; he made 
 no calculations of the physical powers of the 
 postman to execute the enlarged duties which 
 he required, or of the great expence, which the
 
 12 
 
 increase of their numbers from 568 to 756 would 
 cost the country. 
 
 With respect to the registration of letters, 
 upon which Mr. Hill calculated so much, it 
 would interfere with the Money Order system, 
 the amount of which, if it continued at the rate 
 with which it was now proceeding, would reach 
 8,000,000 in the year. The plan, therefore, 
 was declined, both upon this ground, and upon 
 its further expence in the multiplication of 
 offices. With respect to the general allegations 
 of Mr. Hill, that there was any disposition to 
 counteract him either on the part of the Govern- 
 ment or the Post Office, he (the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer) thought that the best answer 
 was to point to the nobleman whom the present 
 Government had selected for the office of Post- 
 Master General. Was that nobleman a person 
 who was bigoted to the old system, or who 
 was likely to thwart Mr. Hill in his improve- 
 ments ? Was he a person likely to be imposed 
 upon with respect to the disadvantages of the 
 plan by persons in the Post Office? On the 
 contrary, had he not been formerly praised and 
 described by Mr. Hill as one of those enlight- 
 ened men who fully saw the advantages of the 
 system? Could the Government give a better
 
 13 
 
 pledge of its sincerity than by the selection of 
 such a Post-Master General ? Was it not a 
 matter, indeed, of notoriety, that Lord Lowther 
 was really the first person to suggest the adoption 
 of a Penny Postage for a certain class of letters ; 
 and that, in the discussion of the general mea- 
 sure, though he himself voted in the Committee 
 for a Twopennj 7 general rate, he conceded his own 
 proposition rather than defeat Mr. Hill's plan ? 
 In fine, Mr. Hill had failed in all his calcula- 
 tions he had stated that the result of his plan 
 would be, that the number of letters would be 
 increased five-fold. Now, the former number of 
 letters was 80,000,000. The number of the 
 present year ought, therefore, to be 400,000,000, 
 instead of which, it was only 229,000,000. Mr. 
 Hill had also stated, that the loss to the revenue 
 would be only 500,000, instead of which it was 
 1,500,000. As to the allegation, that nothing 
 had been done by the Post Office, he held in his 
 hand a list of 128 places, which were now 
 served by day mails in addition to the usual 
 night mails. He must also add, the Treaties 
 which had been concluded with foreign coun- 
 tries to facilitate the postage of letters abroad. 
 He could not agree to the form of the Com- , 
 mittee moved by Sir T. Wilde, which would
 
 14 
 
 effectually transfer the whole administration of 
 the Post Office to a Committee of the House of 
 Commons; but he was anxious for the fullest 
 inquiry into the manner in which the Post Office 
 had given effect to the determination of Parlia- 
 ment with respect to the Penny Postage. The 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded by pro- 
 posing a select Committee for the purpose of an 
 inquiry upon Postage.* 
 
 The Committee having been appointed, com- 
 menced their sitting on the 3rd July, and broke 
 up on the llth August, without making any 
 other report than the short one prefixed to the 
 Minutes of Evidence. 
 
 It is the purport of the following remarks to 
 lay the substance of this evidence before the 
 public on both sides, accompanied by such 
 documents as are necessary to illustrate the 
 case, and to show the full bearing of the testi- 
 mony as regards the charge made against the 
 Post Office by Mr. Hill, and the answers and 
 evidence brought forward to repel the accusation. 
 
 For this purpose it becomes necessary to 
 arrange the subject of these remarks under three 
 heads. 
 
 * The debate will be found in Hansard, 420^ et sequenter.
 
 15 
 
 First, To take the plan of Mr. Hill from the 
 year 1837 up to the time of his dismissal from 
 the Post Office, September, 1842. 
 
 Secondly, To examine the charges and sug- 
 gestions made by Mr. Hill, and to collate them 
 with the evidence and explanations given by 
 the witnesses called, and who were most com- 
 petent to elucidate the subject. 
 
 Thirdly and Lastly, To show the present 
 condition of the Post Office, and the prospects 
 held forth of augmentation and improvement, 
 both as regards REVENUE and ADMINISTRATION.
 
 POST OFFICE ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE publication in 1837, of Mr. Hill's pam- 
 phlet, suggesting Cheap Postage, was received 
 with such avidity amongst the merchants and 
 traders of London, as to force itself almost in- 
 stantly upon the attention of Government. The 
 argument of Mr. Hill was stated with great inge- 
 nuity, and with such a confident and apparently 
 statistical precision, as gave to the whole the 
 character of a sober financial measure, by which 
 the public would derive an immense advantage, 
 and at a very slight hazard to the existing re- 
 venue. 
 
 No proposal, indeed, is more readily received 
 at all times than the repeal of a tax, and more 
 particularly where it is urged upon reasons, 
 which not only point to the convenience and 
 relief of large bodies, but which, uniting the 
 utile and dulce, also captivate the imagination, 
 and kindle our sympathies by appealing to home 
 feelings, common to all of us. When Rousseau 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 took education into his hand, and engaged in an 
 attempt to teach his French pupils how easy it 
 was to sweep away all the prejudice of ages, 
 and to build up a human perfectibility on a new 
 and economical system, he had the dexterity to 
 add a part of the cunning of Franklin to the 
 novelties of the sophist, and to show how youth 
 might be made wise, religious, moral, and philo- 
 sophical, upon the lowest rate of expenditure. 
 
 It appears that the projector of Cheap Postage, 
 whose natural abilities it is not our purpose to 
 disparage, was himself a pupil in the Rousseau 
 school, and had drunk deep at Tottenham and 
 Edmonton of those lessons which the philoso- 
 pher of Geneva had taught under the enchant- 
 ment of scenery of a very different description. 
 The project by which he started into notoriety, 
 gave a popularity to his pamphlet, which, if not 
 altogether so great as the celebrated Heloise, was 
 calculated to attract as large a number of read- 
 ers ; certainly amongst a different class of pur- 
 chasers. The merchant and the banker became 
 interested both in his passions and in his purse ; 
 and whilst he looked to the improved receipt of 
 his counter, to the extent of between 500 and 
 1000 a year, he had his humanity and benevo- 
 lence extensively awakened for the plan, by 
 considerations of a more interesting nature, for 
 instance, that in the statement of Mr. Hill, the 
 plan proposed had its smallest recommendation
 
 19 
 
 in mere economy. "That it was to keep alive 
 feelings of kindness and affection on the part of 
 separated relatives, which might otherwise be- 
 come blunted or obliterated by disuse ; and that 
 young persons of both sexes, continually drawn 
 to this metropolis from distant parts of the king- 
 dom, and cut off from their communication with 
 their early guardian, might be kept from entering 
 upon vicious courses, to which the temptations 
 are so great, and against which the restraints in 
 their case are so few."* 
 
 Again, that facts had come to his (Mr. Hill's) 
 " knowledge, tending to show, that but for the 
 high rate of postage, many a letter would have 
 been written, and many a heart gladdened too ; 
 where the revenue and the feelings of friends now 
 suffer alike. In one instance with which I be- 
 came acquainted, a brother and sister, residing, 
 the one at Reading, and the other at Hampstead, 
 had suspended intercourse for nearly thirty 
 years; that they were deterred solely by the 
 expence, is proved by the fact, that on franks 
 being furnished by the kindness of a member of 
 Parliament, a frequent interchange of letters was 
 the immediate consequence.''^ 
 
 We should scarcely have mentioned this very 
 touching anecdote, had it not been to show with 
 
 * See Mr. Hill's Pamphlet, 3rd ed. 
 f See Appendix, 3rd ed., pp. 78, 79. 
 B 2
 
 20 
 
 what dexterity the snare of Cheap Postage was 
 spread ; that it was represented as a case, not of 
 mere business, but of feeling, and won immediate 
 access to the heart of a large class of people, of 
 whom it can be no disparagement to say, that 
 they at least felt for themselves as well as for 
 others ; and that, in a case where the repeal of a 
 large Government tax was proposed, concur- 
 rently with the most extensive gratification of 
 philanthropy, the scale of novelty against present 
 use would naturally incline to that side which 
 would get rid of the tax, and leave them all the 
 luxury of a refined benevolence. 
 
 For the popularity of this plan, from its first 
 commencement, it is easy to account. It was 
 indeed caught at by some cool and solid heads 
 amongst the leading members of the House of 
 Commons and the Government, in the same 
 spirit of sincere fanaticism in which it was pro- 
 bably proposed; for we must do Mr. Hill this 
 justice, that he perfectly believed, for a short 
 season at least, the truth of the theory which he 
 taught. 
 
 Perhaps a little of the popular ardour abated, 
 when a ministry, not remarkable for caution, 
 thought proper to interpose, by stipulating for 
 a guarantee from the House of Commons, that 
 they would make good any deficiency of reve- 
 nue; and when, in consequence of what every 
 reasonable man foresaw, the inevitable failure
 
 21 
 
 which took place, the assessed taxes were 
 increased ten per cent., and the customs five, 
 to carry Mr. Hill's reduction into full effect. 
 
 But even this was considered a trifle too 
 insignificant to oppose to the benefit of cheap 
 Postage. We have, therefore, at the present 
 time, the machinery of Mr. Hill's project in 
 undisturbed enjoyment ; and if he would con- 
 sent even now to leave it to itself, and behold it 
 as a spectator from the shore, viewing his 
 little bark sailing in safety, navigated by those 
 who are practically best acquainted with the 
 charts, the winds, and the waves, we, amongst 
 the public in general, should never have ques- 
 tioned that there is due to him a certain portion 
 of merit for the principle of his original concep- 
 tion, and for the well-intended, although hitherto 
 unsuccessful, labours with which he has pursued 
 it. But it is the misfortune of every thing in 
 this country, whether, like Cheap Postage, it 
 appeals to revenue and feeling together, or to 
 either in part, that it is sure to become tinctured 
 with the passions of party, and, as the lawyers 
 say, quacunque via data, affords an argument 
 on both sides. 
 
 Mr. Hill's late discharge from the Post Office 
 has thus been seized upon as a topic of political 
 attack; he is now held out as suffering a 
 public grievance, and is pressed forward upon 
 the notice of mankind as a victim of party
 
 22 
 
 negligence or malice. Indeed, invectives have run 
 so high, that he has been pictured as another 
 Columbus sent back in chains and ignominy 
 from the New World which he had discovered ; 
 that not only the gates of the Post Office had 
 been shut upon him, but that all his employment 
 in the public service had ceased; and unless 
 he should be brought back to resume the 
 management of that department which he has 
 so successfully purged from all abuses, and 
 raised to such renown, the whole scheme of 
 Cheap Postage will altogether fail, and the 
 public lose the enjoyment both of the luxury 
 of feeling, and the solid comforts of revenue. 
 
 Under these circumstances, and more espe- 
 cially since the publication of Mr. Hill's pam- 
 phlet in the beginning of the present year, and 
 with reference to motions for papers, and, we 
 presume, also, to a new attack on the Post Office 
 in the House of Commons, it becomes necessary 
 to compare the original plan of Mr. Hill, and 
 the promises it held forth, with its actual 
 results, within a period of four years, during 
 three of which Mr. Hill was himself placed, 
 if not in the chief direction, at least pretty 
 close to the helm. For this purpose it will 
 be our duty to advert, in some detail, to his 
 original pamphlet, citing, as we shall do, from 
 the third edition, in 1837.
 
 23 
 
 MR. HILL S PLAN. 
 
 Mr. Hill's plan, as stated by himself, and in 
 his own words, was as follows : 
 
 " 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, he observes, 
 it has already been shown,* " That in fairness 
 the rates of postage for primary distribution 
 ought to be uniform ; the case of transit along 
 the several roads, given for the greatest distance, 
 being so trifling, as not to be expressible by the 
 smallest coin. This part of the plan, therefore, 
 appears to present no difficulty, and the only 
 question is, whether it is possible to reduce the 
 postage sufficiently low""f 
 
 The plan ultimately settled itself under the 
 following heads : 
 
 " 1st. A uniform and low rate of postage, viz. : 
 one penny per half ounce. 
 
 2nd. Increased speed in the delivery of 
 letters. 
 
 3rd. Greater facilities for their despatch. 
 
 * See p. 14. f Post Office Reform, p. 25.
 
 24 
 
 4th. Simplification in the operations of the 
 Post Office, with the object of reducing the cost 
 of the establishment to a minimum." 
 
 In looking back to this extraordinary scheme, 
 suggested only at the distance of six years, it is 
 really surprising how sensible men could be 
 deluded to such an excess upon points which 
 scarcely required the experience of twelve 
 months to bring them back to a sober estimate 
 of what was proposed. 
 
 That the Post Office was open to improve- 
 ment, no man can doubt. It was liable to 
 many objections on the score of gross inequali- 
 ties, high charges, and, perhaps, of an adminis- 
 tration too complicate. It was liable to many 
 other objections, and reform had been recom- 
 mended in this department by the finance 
 committee in the House of Commons, in 1798. 
 But though we are willing to allow that the 
 Post Office, at that period, might admit of some 
 improvement, it was still not in that inactive 
 state which Mr. Hill represents it to have been, 
 when he introduced his plan. Day mails were 
 in use long before Mr. Hill ; they began, if we 
 recollect, at the time when George the Fourth 
 resided at Brighton, and they had been in 
 repeated discussion at the Post Office and the 
 Treasury long before Mr. Wallace thought of 
 them. A reduction in the rates, both of foreign 
 and inland postage, had been also anxiously
 
 25 
 
 pressed by Sir F. Freeling, but Mr. Spring Rice, 
 and the Treasury at that period, refused to 
 assent to it, because it involved a risk of revenue 
 to the extent of 400,000 annually. 
 
 As to the ostentatious and boasted uniformity 
 of Mr. Hill's plan, it is really difficult to con- 
 ceive in what way gentlemen were so rapidly 
 converted into this enthusiasm for uniformity, 
 and even into a confusion of ideas. " The 
 postage," Mr. Hill says,* " must be brought 
 sufficiently low to secure the advantages at 
 which we aim, remaining only sufficiently high 
 to afford the required revenue j " and he thence 
 argues, that in fairness " this rate of postage 
 ought to be uniform, which he tells us would 
 simplify the mode for accounting for its receipts, 
 whilst the low rate of postage would neutralise 
 the objection, on the part of the public, of its 
 being demanded in advance. 
 
 " If, therefore, the charge for postage be 
 made proportionate to the whole expence in- 
 curred in the receipt, transit, and delivery of 
 letters, and in the collection of the postage, it 
 must be made uniformly the same from every 
 post town to every other post town in the United 
 Kingdom, unless it can be shown how we can 
 collect so small a sum as the thirty-sixth part 
 of a penny." f 
 
 * See p. 26. f See p. 14.
 
 26 
 
 It is difficult to imagine anything more incon- 
 clusive and absurd than this argument, which, in 
 truth, concludes in proving nothing as to the ad- 
 vantages of uniformity, except as to simplifying 
 the mode of accounts; and that simplification has 
 not been effected by adding stamped letters to 
 the two classes of paid and unpaid letters ; and 
 the extension of the money orders and registra- 
 tion must be obvious enough. Indeed, the duties 
 of a post-master are three times more compli- 
 cated than under the old system, whilst the 
 expences of the establishment have been in- 
 creased, instead of diminished, by the measures 
 proposed by Mr. Hill for simplification. 
 
 In what consists the "fairness" of demanding 
 a uniform postage for services so widely different 
 in degree, it is difficult to comprehend. If the 
 Post Office were to be considered in the light of 
 a merchant's factor and agent, distributing his 
 letters, his parcels, his bills, his invoices, &c., 
 throughout every part of the country, it might 
 be deemed reasonable enough that, in the account 
 taken between the Post Office and the country 
 at large, the net charge and expence only should 
 be paid which it cost the Post Office ; and that 
 where fractions of charges were so small as to 
 be almost indistinguishable, all should be charged 
 the same sum alike. 
 
 But is this the condition and public relation 
 of the Post Office or any other department of
 
 27 
 
 revenue in Great Britain? The Post Office, 
 whatever its original institution, has now be- 
 come, for more than a century and a half, a 
 Board of Revenue ; and must thus be regarded 
 in the light of having to contribute to the public 
 service upon equitable rules and principles 
 adjusted between the community and the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 To raise revenue by means of a Board is one 
 thing ; to accommodate the public, and all the 
 individuals which compose it, equally, and at all 
 places, and upon an abstract principle, is an- 
 other. To a philosopher who assumes to regu- 
 late a department on a theory of his own, the 
 argument for uniformity in the case put by Mr. 
 Hill is specious enough ; but to a Minister who 
 wishes to derive revenue from it, it is totally 
 inconsistent and irreconcilable with common 
 sense. 
 
 There is undoubtedly a fascination in the 
 mere notion of an abstract equality; and the 
 Post Office, like many other subjects, opens 
 a field for latitudinarian discussion ; and in a 
 sense in which all men are to be considered as 
 equal, there would be no harm, (if the matter 
 were confined to a mere statistical lecture,) so 
 to deal with them in the eye of the Post Office. 
 
 But it must be borne in mind, that the Post 
 Office is not under any obligation to convey the 
 correspondence of the public. It is an instru-
 
 28 
 
 merit in which the convenience of the subject is 
 to be blended with the profit of the government. 
 The Post Office is as much intended to bring its 
 quota to the service of the State as the Excise or 
 Customs. In arguing, therefore, upon the fair- 
 ness of uniformity, Mr. Hill should have pro- 
 ceeded further than by showing its abstract 
 equity. 
 
 It is inconceivable, we must repeat, how gen- 
 tlemen of experience and education could be 
 misled by such a confused notion of the nature 
 and just principles of uniformity, more espe- 
 cially upon a purely financial question. 
 
 If uniformity be defined to be the like mode 
 of doing the same thing under the same circum- 
 stances, the idea is clear, and the utility of it 
 self-evident. It becomes a safe and convenient 
 rule of practice ; safe because tried, and conve- 
 nient, because, like all rules, it saves time and 
 deliberation as to the choice of means. But 
 where is the common sense of conceiving this 
 uniformity to consist in the like mode of doing 
 the same thing under all those innumerable 
 unlike circumstances which totally vary its 
 original nature, and all its dependent relations ? 
 
 Because a letter is carried twenty or thirty 
 miles for one penny, where is the common 
 sense that it ought to be carried fifty miles for 
 the same price? Where is the greater reason 
 for a letter being carried these unequal distances
 
 29 
 
 for the same cost, than for the writer himself, as 
 a passenger in a mail or stage coach, being so 
 carried ? As between passenger and post-master, 
 there would obviously be no equity in such 
 a mode of dealing ; the passenger would have 
 no equity in expecting it, and the post-master 
 would lose his fair profit in affording it. In the 
 case of the Post Office the Government must 
 lose its revenue. 
 
 So far as to the principle of uniformity. 
 
 As regards the lowness of price, the argument 
 of Mr. Hill is : that such is the smallness of the 
 expense of transit to the Government, that if 
 the Postage can be made exceedingly low to 
 neutralise all objections to its being invariably 
 paid in advance, the object would be attained. 
 The increased number of letters at one penny 
 would, " after defraying the expence of franks 
 and newspapers, produce a net revenue to the 
 Exchequer of about 1,278,000 per annum, or 
 only about 280,000 less than the present 
 amount."* And again, in speaking upon the 
 same point, Mr. Hill asserts, that the proposed 
 low rate of Postage would yield a profit or tax 
 of two hundred per cent. ; and would have the 
 effect of increasing the number of chargeable 
 letters in all probability at least five and a 
 quarter fold.j- " And I feel assured," he adds, 
 
 * Post Office Reform, pp. 26, 27. ] Ib. p. 44.
 
 30 
 
 " that no misconception can possibly have arisen 
 which can materially affect the results at which 
 I have arrived." 
 
 Such is the plan developed by Mr. Hill in his 
 pamphlet ; and it must be admitted, that if he 
 can show such to be the result, and that the 
 Post Office and Government now possess a net 
 revenue of 1,278,000 per annum from this 
 department, his plan has succeeded, and he has 
 established his point. But if it appear on the 
 other hand that, instead of this net revenue of 
 1,278,000, such net revenue has become reduced 
 to something very little exceeding 100,000 per 
 annum, it must be equally clear that his plan 
 has totally failed ; that the Post Office has lost 
 by it to an alarming extent, and that there has 
 arisen some " misconception which has mate- 
 rially affected the results at which he has ar- 
 rived." 
 
 It was upon this statement, in his pamphlet 
 of 1837, that in February, 1838, " a Committee 
 of the House of Commons was appointed to 
 inquire into the present rates and mode of charg- 
 ing postage, with a view to such a reduction as 
 might be made, without injury to the revenue ; 
 and for this purpose to examine especially into 
 the mode recommended for charging and collect- 
 ting the postage in a pamphlet published by 
 Mr. R. Hill." 
 
 The inquiry was as full as Mr. 'Hill desired.
 
 31 
 
 In Q. 11,137, of that Report,* Lord Seymour 
 puts a question to Mr. Hill " Has any evidence 
 been omitted in any branch of this inquiry, which 
 you consider necessary to a fair investigation of 
 your plan ?" To which Mr. Hill replies, " I do 
 not recollect any omissions, but there are, no 
 doubt, many points in the pamphlet which have 
 not been made the subject of inquiry." Lord 
 Seymour : " Do you think there is any material 
 part omitted, which will prevent the Committee 
 from forming a fair opinion of the merits of the 
 plan ?" To which Mr. Hill replies " I can only 
 say that I do not at the moment recollect any 
 such part, but I think it very probable that there 
 are omissions." 
 
 A further question was put to Mr. Hill, which 
 will be found of great importance in the further 
 prosecution of the inquiry now in hand. Mr. 
 Hill is asked "You statef the present cost of 
 distribution at 575,384 ; that is taken from the 
 Finance accounts is it not ?" To which Mr. Hill 
 replied, " It is taken partly from the Finance 
 accounts, but the authority for the deductions is 
 a return from the Post Office, which was made a 
 day or two ago ; the Post Office was required to 
 give in a statement of the expenditure, of which 
 I have a copy before me. The deductions in one 
 instance differ from that return, but by a few 
 
 * Postage Eep. for 1838, p. 377. 
 t Q. 11,139, Post Office Rep. 1838, p. 377.
 
 32 
 
 hundred pounds only j there appears to me to be 
 an inaccuracy in the return, but only of a few 
 hundred pounds." 
 
 In order that there might not be the slightest 
 doubt that all the charges upon the Post Office 
 were intended by Mr. Hill to be deducted from 
 its expenditure in his calculations, and that no 
 distinction was to be made whether the corre- 
 spondence of the country with its colonies was to 
 be carried on by the Post Office immediately, or 
 through the Admiralty, a further question is put 
 to him.* " You deduct the expence in the 
 COLONIES, of course ?" To which Mr. Hill 
 replies, " The object has been to ascertain the 
 cost of the conveyance in the BRITISH DOMI- 
 NIONS." 
 
 Questionf "In the 570,384, you take in 
 not only the cost of conveyance, but the cost of 
 all the establishment?" To which Mr. Hill 
 replied, " Exactly ; EVERY EXPENCE." 
 
 We should not have interposed, in this place, 
 any remarks upon the two last questions and 
 answers, had it not been that in the evidence 
 taken before the Committee in August, 1843, Mr. 
 Hill expresses great dissatisfaction that the cost 
 for the conveyance of foreign letters is charged 
 upon the Post Office, although it is placed under 
 the management of the Board of Admiralty. 
 
 * 11,140, Post Office Rep. p. 377. 
 f 11,141, Post Office Rep. 1838, p. 377.
 
 33 
 
 But it is surely a sufficient answer, that if the 
 expences are charged against the Post Office, 
 so also is credit given for the receipts. 
 
 INCREASE OF LETTERS. 
 
 As to the five-fold increase of letters, as 
 promised by Mr. Hill in his pamphlet, it is 
 only necessary to refer to the evidence in the 
 Report, and to the answer 11,151.* Again, 
 as to Mr. Hill's confidence in his plan, after 
 having heard all the evidence of practical men 
 acquainted with the Post Office, it will be suffi- 
 cient to refer to the like answer to q. 11,158 
 of the same Report, in which he says, that 
 " My views remain quite unchanged on that 
 subject as to the practicability of the measure, 
 without loss to the revenue, provided that the 
 measure be taken up as a whole, as I recom- 
 mended it to the Commissioners of the Post 
 Office Inquiry." To which Mr. Hill added 
 in another part of the Report, (723,) p. 76, 
 " The difficulty which strikes me is this : how 
 to improve the mechanism of the Post Office 
 sufficiently fast to meet the increasing demand 
 for the distribution of letters." 
 
 It would be a waste of time to go further into 
 the statement of Mr. Hill, either in his pam- 
 phlet of 1837, or before the Postage Committee 
 
 * Post Office Report, 1838, p. 378. 
 C
 
 in the House of Commons. It will be sufficient 
 to say, that with the usual confidence of a 
 speculator, all difficulties vanished before him ; 
 that the public, as well as the Committee, seem 
 to have been caught by a common enthusiasm ; 
 and that although a Twopenny Postage had 
 been recommended in the greater calmness of 
 the Committee, in preference to a Penny Post- 
 age, the tide ran so strong in favour of Mr. 
 Hill's plan, that it forced its way in spite of all 
 resistance, and the public and the Government 
 are now enjoying its results. 
 
 In fine, as to this point of a uniform Penny 
 Postage, Mr. Hill's plan was adopted by the 
 Legislature ; but with a wise misgiving as to 
 some possible mischance, the House of Com- 
 mons consented to an increase of ten per cent, 
 on the assessed taxes, and five per cent, on 
 the customs, in order to meet any deficiency 
 of revenue, should it arise. 
 
 In reading the evidence taken before the Post 
 Office Committee of 1838, and 1843, it will 
 be seen that Mr. Hill requires his plan to be 
 taken as a WHOLE : by which he appears to 
 intimate that he should be put into the superin- 
 tendence of it in the first instance, and be 
 placed in a condition to watch and direct its 
 operations. This also was granted to him by 
 his very friendly patron, at that time Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer.
 
 35 
 
 . It now becomes necessary to repeat, that the 
 whole of Mr. Hill's plan was as follows : 
 
 That all letters, not exceeding half an ounce, 
 should be charged, whatever might be the 
 distance, one penny ; that letters exceeding 
 half an ounce, and not exceeding one ounce, 
 should be charged twopence, and so on for 
 each half ounce ; that the Postage should 
 be paid in advance ; that to facilitate this, 
 Postage Stamps should be sold at the Post 
 Office ', and that to provide for the more 
 frequent delivery of letters, day mails should 
 be established on the great lines of com- 
 munication. 
 
 In order that no complaint might exist that 
 this plan was not carried through as a whole, an 
 immediate communication took place between 
 Mr. Hill and the Government, for the purpose 
 of appointing him to carry out his own concep- 
 tions. The offers of Mr. Hill were at first 
 gratuitous, but in coming into a direct dealing 
 with the Treasury, he seems to have taken 
 another view of the value of his services. At 
 first the salary of 500 a-year was offered it 
 was declined. 800 was then offered this 
 also was declined. Ultimately the salary was 
 fixed at 1500, under the following Treasury 
 Minute: "Mr. R. Hill shall be attached to 
 the Treasury, and that the employment shall be 
 
 c 2
 
 36 
 
 for two years certain, at a salary of 1500 
 a-year; that the employment shall be considered 
 as temporary, and not to give a claim to con- 
 tinued employment in office at the expiration of 
 two years." 
 
 In the speech of Sir T. Wilde, Mr. Hill's 
 advocate, June 27th, 1843, proposing a Com- 
 mittee of Inquiry upon his complaints, the 
 learned gentleman expresses his astonishment 
 that Lord Lowther, who had voted for a penny 
 rate in the House of Commons, should now 
 appear unfriendly to the plan; but he presumed 
 that he must impute such change to the atmo- 
 sphere of the Post Office, for that opinions were 
 much changed when persons had been occupied 
 for a certain period on that spot. 
 
 Now to what must we impute it, that Mr. 
 Hill was so rapidly converted from the patriot 
 to the pensioner, haggling through all the inter- 
 mediate stages, from 500 to 1500 per annum? 
 Let us, at least, hear nothing further of the 
 gratuitous services and injured patriotism of 
 Mr. R. Hill. 
 
 But we must now look at Mr. Hill as settled 
 down in his Treasury Office, and appointed 
 to carry into effect his Penny Postage. His 
 first engagement was for two years certain, 
 which expired shortly after a change of Govern- 
 ment had taken place. During ^his time it
 
 -37 
 
 .does not appear that Mr. Hill made any objec- 
 tion that he was thwarted in his office, or 
 that his plans were not fully carried out. He 
 had full and free access to every department 
 in the Post Office; but what appears extraor- 
 dinary, he availed himself so little of it, that 
 he rarely visited any of them. 
 
 As regards one particular department, in which 
 he desired so much change and increased activity, 
 the office for assorting letters, he says, that 
 he doubts whether " he had been at the Post 
 Office to see the mode of sorting letters since 
 the year 1840."* And although the Post Office 
 is a matter altogether of detail, in answer to the 
 question, (690,) whether he did not feel it to be 
 his duty to inquire into the minute details of 
 the mode of transacting business there; he 
 replied, " I have stated that I did not feel it 
 necessary to the due performance of my duty, 
 that I should be familiar with the minute details 
 on all points." 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Hill also found that " the atmo- 
 sphere of the Post Office had a particular effect."f 
 It would be otherwise very difficult to assign a 
 reason why he made no recommendation to carry 
 his extraordinary savings and improvements 
 
 * Report of Select Committee on Postage, July, 1843. 
 Question 660. 
 
 f See Sir T. Wilde's speech, Hansard's Debates, p. 400.
 
 38 
 
 into operation during the three years he was 
 employed at the Treasury. 
 
 We cannot help thinking, that whilst Mr. Hill 
 was officiating in his new department, he devoted 
 the leisure of his valuable time rather to new 
 speculations than to any practical detail, inas- 
 much as in looking through the proceedings of 
 the Post Office, we find him doing very little 
 towards the movement of the great machine 
 in St. Martin's-le-grand, after having given it the 
 stimulus of the Penny duty. 
 
 We have looked anxiously to find indications 
 of what really was the nature of Mr. Hill's em- 
 ployment in the Treasury, during two years and 
 a half of his official superintendence. To our 
 great surprise we find no details at all ; no plan j 
 no scrap of useful suggestions, beyond those 
 contained in his original scheme. 
 
 We find a very scanty correspondence between 
 himself and the Post Office, or between the Post 
 Office and the Treasury through the channel of 
 Mr. Hill, which can at all reconcile us to the 
 receipt of his very large salary. There was a 
 perpetual bustle and movement, it is true; but 
 like a ship at anchor in a rough roadstead, there 
 was motion enough with little progress. Mr. 
 Hill was, perhaps, just as satisfied with his place, 
 as the Treasury were with their adviser; but a 
 more complete sinecure we have scarcely known. 
 There was, however, a further account due to
 
 39 
 
 the public, who were naturally anxious, though 
 for a different reason, to know the success of 
 Mr. Hill's plan. 
 
 As appears by the evidence, it was deemed 
 that one year would be sufficient to give a trial 
 of the success of the project; and it was not 
 until a considerable time had elapsed, that the 
 public had the benefit of this disclosure; and 
 with the exception of what they had learned to 
 their evident surprise from the returns moved for 
 in Parliament, and a declining revenue, no other 
 account was furnished them, except one by Mr. 
 Hill himself, an unexceptionable authority no 
 doubt upon this point, and who, in order that it 
 might have all the advantage which a grave 
 Quarterly Journal of Science could give it, pub- 
 lished his own financial statement, in the shape 
 of a tract or a lecture, in the proceedings of the 
 Statistical Society. The paper bears date, May 
 17th, 1841; that is, about eighteen months after 
 Mr. Hill's Treasury appointment, and sixteen 
 months after the Penny rate had been brought 
 into operation; namely, 10th January, 1840. 
 
 The reader will recollect that Mr. Hill had 
 repeatedly stated, that if his plan were adopted, 
 the number of letters would at once increase 
 five-fold ; and that he added that " failure here 
 would be a failure indeed, since it would, so far 
 as present experience goes, deprive the measure 
 of all those recommendations, moral, social, and
 
 40 
 
 commercial, on which alone it can securely 
 stand." We give Mr. Hill's own words. 
 
 But has there been a failure, or not? Let Mr. 
 Hill give the answer. He is here speaking in 
 May, 1841. " It is as yet impossible to test my 
 expectations, as to the effect of a five-fold in- 
 crease ; but we have the means of testing them 
 on such increase as has been obtained. The 
 increase on the chargeable letters is now about 
 two-and-a-half-fold"* 
 
 And here we may interpose a remark as to 
 Mr. Hill's anticipation of a five-fold increase. 
 Was it built upon any just premises or data? 
 Had he made any previous calculation ? Cer- 
 tainly none ; it was merely adopted as a measure 
 which would answer his purpose. His calcula- 
 tion was this : " Five-fold and a quarter increase 
 will produce a sum equal to the old revenue; 
 and when I came before the Committee, I found 
 that I could reduce the estimate to five-fold." 
 Now mark the reason ! " My view was this 
 I calculate that a five-fold increase of letters 
 would produce the same gross revenue as be- 
 fore, and I allowed for the increase of expences 
 300,000." Thus it appears, that the increase 
 of five-fold was adopted by Mr. Hill, to show 
 that there would be no loss, and not as matter 
 of calculation. f 
 
 * Quarterly Journal of Statistical Society, p. 95. 
 f Postage Report, July, 1843, Q. 13, p. 8.
 
 41 
 
 Again, Mr. Hill stated, that the loss to the 
 revenue would be 300,000; it is more than 
 1,100,000. Again, Mr. Hill had also said in 
 his pamphlet, that the adoption of his plan 
 would increase the expences of the Post Office 
 about 300,000 a year. The expences of the 
 Post Office, when Mr. Hill began to bring his 
 plan into effect, were about 600,000, and 
 they are now more than 900,000; and this 
 increased expenditure, the public had been told, 
 was absolutely necessary to secure the accom- 
 plishment of his plan.* 
 
 But it becomes necessary to examine this 
 paper more closely, as it is Mr. Hill's own 
 account of his failure, in May 17th, 1841. His 
 statement had of course reference only to the 
 revenue when it was made, and we propose to 
 deal with it as such. 
 
 " As the question," says Mr. Hill, " most rife 
 on the Penny Postage is, how far the recent 
 change has affected, and is likely to affect the 
 revenue, I propose to treat the subject, first, in 
 regard to its fiscal relations. In doing so, how- 
 ever, I must renew the protest which I made 
 from the beginning against considering its fiscal 
 effects, and especially its direct fiscal effects, as 
 the criterion of success. Admitting, however, 
 that the question of direct revenue, though far 
 from being the main point, is of great import- 
 
 * See Hansard's Debates, House of Commons, June 27, p. 431,
 
 42 
 
 ance, I proceed to the consideration of this part 
 of the subject." * 
 
 It suits Mr. Hill here to undervalue the fiscal 
 effects of his plan, and the reason is obvious : 
 because the result on this point has been a com- 
 plete failure; in a word, what Lord Ashburton 
 himself said in the committee, " That with re- 
 pect to the revenue, he thought it would com- 
 pletely destroy the revenue." 
 
 Again, Mr. Hill well knew that the evidence 
 taken before the committee of the House of 
 Commons was with the express object of such 
 a reduction of the rate of postage, as might be 
 made without injury to the revenue. 
 
 Again, Mr. Hill himself, in his pamphlet, had 
 mainly rested his project upon its close approx- 
 imation to a fiscal indemnity to the government 
 concurrently with the increased energy which it 
 afforded to the trading and commercial interests 
 of the country. We must not suffer him to 
 forget, that he told the public in his pamphlet, f 
 that a uniform postage of one penny, after 
 defraying the expence of conveying franks and 
 newspapers, would produce a net revenue of 
 1,278,000 per annum. 
 
 In explaining to the Statistical Society the 
 actual results, so unhappily the reverse of his 
 promises, Mr. Hill proceeds to say, and it is to 
 
 * See Remarks, &c., p. 1. f P. 33, first edit.
 
 43 
 
 be observed that this is the first information 
 which the public had heard of the extent of his 
 failure that the net revenue of the Post Office 
 had fallen from upwards of 1,600,000, its 
 produce in the year 1839, to less than 500,000, 
 which was the produce of the year 1840; "the 
 falling off being not much less than 1,200,000, 
 or three-fourths of the whole." * 
 
 It would have startled any one but a projector 
 to have attempted a satisfactory defence to 
 this unanswerable argument of figures against 
 him ; a total loss of three-fourths of the revenue, 
 and one-half only of the promised increase of 
 letters, and which he himself assumed to be the 
 proper test of his plan, and a failure in which 
 he said would be "a failure indeed." Not so 
 Mr. Hill. He proceeds to assert that the govern- 
 ment estimated the deficit of the revenue at a 
 still larger amount, and then makes an awkward 
 attempt to knock off 40,000, or 50,000, a 
 most immaterial item in a deficit exceeding one 
 million, by attributing it to some increased 
 charges ; and, secondly, by complaining that 
 the expences of the Admiralty transmission of 
 foreign letters was included in the account 
 against him, but most strangely omitting that 
 the receipts of the large branch of foreign and 
 colonial postage, nearly equal to the whole of 
 
 * See Remarks, p. 1.
 
 44 
 
 the packet expenditure, were also passed to the 
 credit of the net revenue.* 
 
 The pressure upon Mr. Hill to account for 
 this deficit, throws him upon the expedient of 
 showing that new charges and expences had 
 been heaped upon him by the Post Office which 
 had no reference to his plan, and were not in 
 his contemplation. 
 
 Now, in the situation in which Mr. Hill was 
 placed at the Treasury, nothing of this could 
 come upon him unawares; and it is not too much 
 to say, as regards the two first years of his man- 
 agement, nothing could occur without his co-ope- 
 ration and assent. The new day-mails, and of 
 course this added expence, were part of his 
 original plan. Again, he must have known that 
 throughout the long lines of railroad communica- 
 tion, the letters must be conveyed by railway 
 carriages. Again, as he was to give half an ounce 
 for a penny, and that packages and other parcels 
 were to be charged in this proportion, he must 
 have inferred that the railroads would make some 
 corresponding increased charge upon their part. 
 And, as respects the transit of foreign letters, it is 
 quite evident that this charge could not have come 
 upon him by surprise, inasmuch as he had been 
 expressly interrogated upon it in the Committee 
 of 1838, by a very acute nobleman then in the 
 Treasury ; Mr. Hill then undertook that his plan 
 
 * The Admiralty had undertaken the packet' service nearly 
 three years before Mr. Hill's penny postage.
 
 45 
 
 should extend throughout all Her Majesty's 
 dominions, and of course the Post Office to 
 bear the expenditure, and to take the receipts. 
 
 In explaining some unexpected charges which 
 had appeared against him, Mr. Hill says, " that 
 the cost of management had increased from 
 750,000, in 1839, to about 850,000 in 1840." 
 Of course whatever increase was produced by 
 the natural operation of his plan, is justly 
 chargeable upon him; but he labours to prove, 
 that, of the 100,000 increase in 1840, a fraction 
 only is attributable to his new postage. He 
 thus proceeds to show that he is entitled, in the 
 first place, to cut off 70,000, because "the cost 
 of management in 1839 was greater than that of 
 1838, by 70,000." But he forgets to state 
 that the four-penny rate had commenced in 
 December, 1839, and that the penny rate, having 
 been decided upon before that time, the Post 
 Office had to make corresponding arrangements ; 
 that twelve new clerks had been added in No- 
 vember, 1839, and that the cost of this single 
 addition had amounted to 3,900 ; and that 
 another portion of expence, which Mr. Hill 
 charged upon 1839 namely, the concurrent 
 increased charges of the railway and mail-coach 
 contractors, can only fairly be attributed to the 
 circumstance, that if these contractors necessarily 
 lost the profit of carrying small parcels under the 
 reduced rate of postage, they naturally strove 
 to indemnify themselves for this loss by the
 
 46 
 
 increased rate of their contracts with the Post 
 Office. 
 
 It is thus evident that Mr. Hill had no right 
 to take credit for the 70,000, upon the reasons 
 which he states namely, the increased expence 
 of the transit of the mails, the establishment of 
 the day mails, and the increase of transit post- 
 age paid to foreign countries. As to the first, 
 amounting to 34,000 in 1839, and which he 
 says is the most important item in the increase, 
 and which had advanced in 1840, by 33,000 
 more, it was occasioned by the preparations 
 necessary to the introduction of his system ; 
 namely, the 34,000 in 1839, when the first step 
 was made to introduce the cheap postage; and 
 the 33,000 in 1840 was a consequence of its 
 introduction. The increase of the Post Office 
 in 1839 must have been foreseen by him, and 
 the increased rate of charge in 1840, was neces- 
 sarily incident to his plan, which, by making 
 mails convey Post Office parcels as well as 
 letters, naturally introduced a higher rate of 
 charge. 
 
 Mr. Hill expresses a disappointment, that the 
 establishment of mail-coaches, instead of dimin- 
 ishing as the railway charge increased, actually 
 increased with it. But surely this was to be 
 expected ; the day mails would naturally charge 
 higher by losing the profit of their own parcels, 
 and in all probability losing many of their pas-
 
 47 
 
 sengers; and as respects the increase of the 
 transit of postage paid to foreign countries, even 
 supposing that he is allowed to make this reduc- 
 tion, it would amount only to 13,000. But, 
 considering the bold evidence given by Mr. Hill 
 before the Committee of 1838, we should be 
 inclined to litigate with him even upon this item. 
 As to the increased Post Office charge of 
 10,000, we will here fix Mr. Hill to his own 
 words: "Indeed I may observe, that the charge 
 for conveying letters of the Office itself (about 
 10,000) is a mere matter of account, and no 
 real increase of expence." Then why claim to 
 deduct it, Mr. Hill ? 
 
 Having thus cleared himself, as he thinks, of 
 the whole increase of 70,000, out of the general 
 increase of expenditure of 100,000, for which 
 he claims credit, and " of which no appreciable 
 part," he says, " is referable to the reduced rate 
 of postage ;" although it has been shown that, 
 with the exception of the portion of the 13,000, 
 he can claim no set-off of any part of it, Mr. 
 Hill proceeds, as in expectation of future defi- 
 ciencies, to make this remarkable avowal. He 
 says, " That as the number of railways is rapidly 
 increasing, the expence of transmitting the mails 
 must be expected to undergo further augmenta- 
 tion." And, again, having apprised the reader 
 that the present rate of payment from the Post 
 Office to the Birmingham and Grand Junction
 
 48 
 
 
 
 railways alone is as high as 32,000 per annum, 
 he adds, " Whatever opinion the Society (that is 
 the Statistical Society) may form as to the value 
 received for this enormous payment, the whole 
 question has no further connexion with the 
 subject of the Penny Postage, than as it tends to 
 explain that diminution in the net revenue, for 
 which, at the first view, the Penny Postage 
 appears responsible." 
 
 At the first view appears responsible, Mr. Hill, 
 Why, Mr. Hill, is it not responsible ? Surely 
 it was the very essence of your plan that you 
 should have a rapid transmission, together with 
 a low and uniform rate of postage. The cost 
 of transmission was, therefore, the first and 
 necessary charge, the means to the end ; and 
 how, therefore, are these not to be taken into 
 account? If you have the increase of railroad 
 charge on the one hand, you have also all the 
 advantages of the speed of railroad transmission 
 on the other. With this stimulus of increased 
 transmission, you might naturally expect to add 
 to the number of your letters, and gross amount 
 of Post Office receipts ; and if you are met by 
 a higher charge upon the part of the railroad 
 proprietors who charge by weight only your 
 letters, parcels, &c. you are surely indemnified 
 by this increased energy of transmitting the 
 correspondence of the country. 
 
 There is another fact which, in Mr. Hill's
 
 49 
 
 reasoning, explains the non-increase of the Post 
 Office revenue. But why does he here mince 
 his words ? Instead of " non-increase/' why 
 does he not say at once the enormous deficit? 
 For who is here talking of the " non-increase"? 
 Are we not speaking of the enormous deficit of 
 1,200,000 ? " Non-increase," indeed ! But let 
 us look to the cause assigned by Mr. Hill, 
 namely, "That the number of letters which, 
 from not being paid in advance, are subject to 
 double postage, had been greatly diminished ever 
 since the period of the great reduction." 
 
 Now Mr. Hill calculated and asserted that his 
 plan would produce a net revenue of 1,278,000 
 at the uniform Pre-paid Penny Rate, and never 
 calculated upon the unpaid double letters ; and 
 indeed they never formed a part of his plan in 
 the first edition of his pamphlet. He only sug- 
 gested the penalty of double rates when he 
 found that pre-payment was out of the question. 
 But these double-rate letters made no part of 
 his first proposal, and any considerable result 
 from this source was never reckoned upon by 
 him. In his evidence before the Committee, 
 llth June, 1838, (Question and Answer 11,042) 
 he says, " I calculate the total net revenue on 
 the same principle as the present net revenue is 
 reckoned, namely, that a certain number of 
 letters, at a penny rate, will produce so much.'* 
 
 D
 
 50 
 
 Not a word here of unpaid letters or a Two- 
 penny rate. 
 
 As respects the non-increase of letters to the 
 extent of five-fold and a quarter, which Mr. 
 Hill's plan held forth to the public, and in which 
 he said that " Failure here would be failure 
 indeed," his account, as made to the Statistical 
 Society, is so mystified as to be difficult of 
 comprehension. The promise was large enough, 
 the performance is thus given in his own words:* 
 " By comparing the returns," says Mr. Hill, 
 " for the twelve weeks ending 27th April, 1839, 
 with the returns of the corresponding period of 
 1840, it will be found that the immediate effect 
 of the measure was fully to double the number 
 of letters; and by a similar comparison of 1839 
 with 1841, it will be found that the double is 
 now increased to treble." This is so far satis- 
 factory ; but, unfortunately, the increase has not 
 gone on as Mr. Hill expected. It is now, we 
 believe, less than three-fold; and according to 
 the account given before the Committee in 
 August, 1843,f the witness, Mr. Bokenham, 
 superintendent and president of the Inland Post 
 Office, says, "I reckon the increase about 175 
 per cent. not quite three-fold." 
 
 Mr. Hill had promised that the increase should 
 
 * Paper laid before the Statistical Society, 17th May, 1841, 
 p. 89. f See Minutes of Evidence, 1843, q. 2590, p. 238.
 
 51 
 
 be five-fold and a quarter ; and when explaining 
 his disappointment in May, 1841, he points to 
 the increase which had taken place in the week 
 ending March 22nd, 1840, with the correspond- 
 ing week of March 1841, and proceeds to say: 
 " Assuming, then, as I believe I am warranted 
 in doing, that this enormous rate of increase 
 remains in undiminished operation, I have 
 further to remark, that with little exception, 
 it is attributable to the single fact of reduced 
 postage." 
 
 The best answer to the proposition implied in 
 the above words is in the fact stated by Mr. 
 Bokenham in his evidence. [August, 1843.] 
 
 With the usual zeal of a projector, Mr. Hill, 
 though thus manifestly disappointed in the in- 
 crease of letters, assures his statistical friends, 
 that he is still confident of a restoration of re- 
 venue. As to whether the direct revenue of the 
 Post Office shall rise to its former level, he ex- 
 presses some doubt. " I have," he says, " never 
 calculated upon obtaining so desirable a con- 
 summation; the utmost which I have ventured 
 to predict is, that at no very long time this end 
 will be obtained, so far as relates to the gross 
 revenue."* 
 
 Without following Mr. Hill through these 
 distinctions of net revenue and gross revenue, a 
 sufficient answer appears upon the face of the 
 * See Address to Statistical Society, p. 91.
 
 figures. We have shown that Mr. Hill had 
 reckoned upon a five-fold increase, and in his 
 address to the Statistical Society, in the face of 
 his existing deficiency, had assured them that 
 there was no reason for distrust for that the 
 increase would proceed. But, instead of this, 
 Mr. Bokenham's evidence, taken more than two 
 years afterwards, shows that it had not reached 
 even a three-fold augmentation, taking into ac- 
 count the vast mass of circulars, packets, parcels, 
 &c. &c., which were not within the proper scope 
 of Post Office conveyance. And as regards the 
 loss to the revenue, without any distinction taken 
 between net and gross, Mr. Hill stated it to be 
 500,000 : whereas, in June, in the last year, 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking " from 
 the documents in his hand, stated that the loss 
 was 1,500,000." And adverting to Mr. Hill's 
 distinction, that he had calculated on the gross 
 revenue, and that therefore he was not responsi- 
 ble for any disappointment that had taken place ; 
 he (Mr. Hill) having always said that the adoption 
 of his plan would increase the expences of the 
 Post Office about 300,000 ; Mr. Goulburn made 
 the following observation : " The expences of 
 the Post Office, when Mr. Hill began to bring 
 his plan into effect, were about 600,000, and 
 they were now about 900,000; and this in- 
 creased expenditure, they were told, was abso- 
 lutely necessary to secure the accomplishment
 
 53 
 
 of the plan. When, therefore, Mr. Hill repre- 
 sented that the Treasury had prevented him from 
 saving hundreds of thousands of pounds, by 
 refusing him the means of fully carrying out his 
 plan, he (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) must 
 say, that such a statement appeared to him as 
 matter of the grossest exaggeration."* 
 
 In this answer to Mr. Hill's assertion before 
 the Statistic Society, we have, in a slight degree, 
 anticipated the course of our inquiry ; but there 
 is really so much cloudiness, we should almost say 
 designed involvement, in this part of Mr. Hill's 
 second pamphlet, that we are obliged to take a 
 step of at least two years onward ; that is, from 
 May, 1841, to April, 1843, in order to meet this 
 part of his defence. And here we do Mr. Hill 
 no injustice; for he expressly tells us, "That 
 tune will solve every thing in his favour, and that 
 the complete restoration of the gross revenue to 
 its former footing will be obtained in about 
 three years and a half from the present time, or 
 in something less than five years from the re- 
 duction of the rate." 
 
 And again, in the next page, speaking on the 
 same subject, he says, that assuming the present 
 rate of increase to continue, " the lapse of an- 
 other year is all that is required for the complete 
 restoration of the gross revenue of this depart- 
 ment." May we venture to remind him, that 
 
 * Hansard's Parliamentary Debate, Sept. 1844, p. 432.
 
 54 
 
 three years have already elapsed from the period 
 of this last prediction. With respect, therefore, 
 to Mr. Hill's distinction of net revenue and gross 
 revenue, they amount to little more than placing 
 in different points of view the failure of his scheme. 
 If we take him as to net revenue, we find him tell- 
 ing the Committee on Postage, 7th Feb. 1838, in 
 answer to Question 154, p. 18, "That the reve- 
 nue of the Post Office would be sustained, and 
 that it is very possible it may be fully sustained, 
 and even increased. I have reckoned upon a 
 reduction in the net revenue of about 300,000 
 per annum." Now, according to this, the public 
 was promised a net revenue of 1,300,000 per 
 annum ; that is a reduction of about 300,000, 
 on the net revenue of 1,600,000 per annum. 
 Finding himself in difficulties in this mode of 
 representing his case, Mr. Hill seeks a refuge in 
 what he calls the "gross Post Office Revenue;" 
 and his sharp-sighted readers of the Statistical 
 Society may, for anything we know to the con- 
 trary, have thought that Mr. Hill had explained 
 himself clearly enough upon this subject; but 
 it appears to us a mere mass of confusion. 
 The GROSS revenue may amount to any con- 
 ceivable sum, and the expences, on the other 
 side, may so much exceed it as to render it 
 an absolute loss to the public. But the Com- 
 mittees of the House of Commons were dealing 
 with Mr. Hill, not upon a question of gross 
 receipts, but of clear receipts, and were anxious
 
 55 
 
 to know to what extent his Penny Postage plan 
 would reduce the revenue, if adopted. He tells 
 them, in language intended to be plain enough, 
 that it would affect the revenue by 300,000 ; 
 in other words, that a net revenue would remain 
 of 1,200,000. What reason, therefore, had they 
 to expect that there was to be a distinction taken 
 between two modes of receipts and disburse- 
 ments ; two distinct forms of accounting ; a jug- 
 gle between NET REVENUE and GROSS REVENUE ? 
 They trusted and dealt with Mr. Hill in one 
 sense, and he vindicates his deficiency in another, 
 namely, in a distinction which no man can un- 
 derstand. 
 
 In addressing philosophical bodies, more espe- 
 cially the gentlemen of the Statistical Society, it 
 usually happens that the subject of discussion 
 is, to them at least, somewhat of an abstracted 
 nature ; it does not touch them in their pockets 
 or immediate interests ; the lecture makes a good 
 figure in their annual volumes and proceedings, 
 and upon the principle of not looking "a gift 
 horse in the mouth/' the whole is received 
 with a good-natured complacency, as a kind 
 of matter of course, and as one which cannot 
 be critically investigated without something like 
 personal incivility. Before the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer and the suffering public, the case is 
 wholly different. 
 
 " Why did you say at the hustings," said an 
 angry radical to the returned member, " what you
 
 56 
 
 will not repeat in the House of Commons?" 
 " Because I was at the hustings," replied the 
 member. 
 
 But we now hasten to the conclusion of 
 the first part of this inquiry. Mr. Hill's 
 second pamphlet was published in May, 1841. 
 Another pamphlet was published by Mr. Hill, 
 in the commencement of the year, which will 
 be a subject of remark as we proceed. 
 
 There were already indications of a storm 
 in the political horizon, and the totum pecus 
 of the Treasury small cattle as well as 
 great were prudently looking out for some 
 defensive shelter. The expected event took 
 place ; a new Treasury Board succeeded ; and 
 Mr. Hill, before the warning given him by 
 his original masters expired, had to seek the 
 continuance of his services from his new prin- 
 cipals. They received him with a prudence and 
 a courtesy usual on such occasions. Perhaps 
 their own new house was not in order to render 
 it politic to dismiss the steward of the old 
 establishment ; one of his alleged improvements 
 was also in hand, and it seemed only fair to 
 give him time to work his guano in his favourite 
 paddock of the Post Office, and to see what he 
 could really make of it. Mr. Hill was full 
 as ever with his promises ; they accordingly 
 took him at his word, and said, " Well, Sir, you 
 may continue for another year; by that time
 
 57 
 
 we shall, probably, become better acquainted 
 with each other." 
 
 Time passed away, and in September, 1842, 
 Mr. Hill's engagement expired. It seems always 
 to have been stated to him by the Ministers 
 in the department to which he had been intro- 
 duced, that, although they had extended the 
 two years to three, at the end of the third year 
 his services were to be dispensed with. In 
 the debate, June 27, 1843, Sir R. Peel, in 
 adverting to this point said, in substance, " That 
 no dissatisfaction with Mr. Hill's conduct, no 
 indifference to his services, had led him and the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer to adopt the 
 course which they had taken, and which they 
 clearly understood had been contemplated by 
 their predecessors in office, and which, a point 
 of still greater importance, they considered more 
 consistent with the public interest." 
 
 We have before alluded to the circumstances 
 which led to the appointment of the Committee, 
 which* sat in August last. On account of the 
 lateness of the session, and of the impossibility 
 of keeping gentlemen together at so advanced a 
 period of the summer, the Committee separated 
 without a report; and as the main object of the 
 present remarks is to collate and examine the 
 minutes of evidence, and the bearing of Mr. 
 Hill's testimony whose Committee in point of 
 fact it was nominated for the express view of
 
 58 
 
 investigating those allegations of obstruction, 
 indifference, and general neglect, which he had 
 charged against the Post Office, and which he 
 contended, and still contends, in his recent pam- 
 phlet, published in January, 1844, defeated the 
 public success of his measure, destroyed the 
 revenue, and produced a general dissatisfac- 
 tion, we shall now hasten to the next branch 
 of our inquiry. This will be occupied solely in 
 the somewhat repulsive, but, we fear, necessary 
 discussion and comparison of the great mass of 
 evidence which was laid before the members, 
 documentary as well as personal. 
 
 It is impossible, however, to look back upon 
 the five years elapsed from the first projection 
 of Mr. Hill, in 1837, to the conclusion of 
 his services in the Treasury, without some mor- 
 tification at the extent of his miscarriage. 
 During this period Mr. Hill had succeeded in 
 doing what no other projector has achieved 
 since the memorable era of Mr. Law, of finan- 
 cial notoriety. He found a net revenue of 
 1,600,000, which he contrived to knock down 
 to a sum very little exceeding, in its net produce, 
 100,000. Instead of simplicity and uniformity 
 in this department, he had rendered it compli- 
 cated and confused. Indeed, if the proposals 
 which he brought forward had been specifically 
 adopted, it would have become such a system 
 of confusion and counteraction, that, besides
 
 59 
 
 absorbing all that remained of the revenue 
 of the department, he would have defeated 
 his own particular object, that of uniformity 
 and expedition. 
 
 Again, instead of increasing or maintaining 
 the safety and security of the Post Office, in the 
 transmission of money letters, the new system 
 of the Penny Postage, in the words of Lord 
 Lowther, the Postmaster General, had rendered 
 this part of the correspondence of the country 
 nearly as insecure " as if such letters had been 
 dropped on the street pavement." 
 
 As regards the illegal conveyance of letters 
 letters and packets above two ounces may now 
 be conveyed by cheaper means than those of 
 the Post Office. 
 
 As respects Mr. Hill's promises, that his new 
 plan would produce a great increase of the trade 
 of the country, no other answer is necessary 
 than to look around us during the three years in 
 which he continued to manage it himself. If 
 trade has increased within the last two years it 
 has not been from the effect of Cheap Postage. 
 
 If we are desired to look at its moral, social, 
 and literary effects, what must we say to the 
 picture lately drawn by Lord Ashley in the 
 Factory Debates, and the lamentable diffusion 
 of seditious and irreligious tracts throughout 
 every nook and corner of the kingdom ? 
 
 It is true, that it distributed nearly 40,000
 
 60 
 
 of the Anti-Corn Law League tracts during 
 the late London election ; and if Mr. Hill 
 chooses to claim any merit on this score, we 
 must be content to leave him in possession 
 of it. But at the same time, we must be 
 permitted to set off, the increase of five per 
 cent, on the Customs, and ten per cent, on 
 the Assessed Taxes.
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE Committee appointed by the House of 
 Commons on the Post Office inquiry, assembled 
 in the beginning of July, in the last session. As 
 the House had been told that the removal of 
 Mr. Hill from his office led to one conclusion 
 only, viz., that the public must give up all 
 expectation of his plan being effectually carried 
 out, and indeed, almost all practicable benefit 
 from cheap postage, unless he was forthwith 
 restored to his superintendence, much interest 
 was necessarily attracted to the course of its 
 proceedings. 
 
 As respects Mr. Hill, the House was acquaint- 
 ed with little more of the matter than what was 
 stated in his petition, and by his advocate, Sir T. 
 Wilde ; but before the Committee, Mr. Hill was 
 his own and sole witness, and was alone to sus- 
 tain his case in the Committee-room, with his 
 pamphlets, first, second, and third editions, his 
 correspondence with merchants, bankers, and 
 philosophers, and a vast bundle of documents 
 under his arm. 
 
 Now, it must be confessed, that, however 
 well equipped as a polemic or lecturer, he had,
 
 02 
 
 financially, at least, a difficult case to fight : 
 such a deficiency in the gross and net revenue 
 staring him in the face was enough to appal the 
 most sanguine projector. 
 
 But to state the case with justice to Mr. Hill, 
 as well as with regard to those officers in the 
 department of the Post Office, whose conduct 
 had been so seriously arraigned, we must com- 
 mence our examination with Mr. Hill's petition 
 drawn up by himself, and made the basis of his 
 charge. 
 
 Mr. Hill's first suggestion is modest enough. 
 He sets out with the principle that the Post Office 
 can never succeed until he himself is appointed 
 Postmaster-General. Mr. Hill, after reading his 
 petition,* thus expresses himself: "I have un- 
 dertaken to show, that intrusting my plan to 
 the Post Office for completion is tantamount to 
 its abandonment." He calls this the first propo- 
 sition which he intends to prove. His second 
 proposition is in his own words : " I also pur- 
 pose to show, that the statistics of the Post 
 Office are presented to Ministers in such a state, 
 as necessarily to mislead them; that they have so 
 misled the Government ; that they have deprived 
 the public of most important conveniences, and 
 the Treasury of no inconsiderable revenue." He 
 proceeds, " That the great question is, are the 
 
 * Post Office Rep. p. 55. Aug. 1843.
 
 63 
 
 returns erroneous, or not ? and if they are, do 
 their errors lead to practical important results ? " 
 We must necessarily touch upon this question 
 in the first place. 
 
 POST OFFICE ESTIMATES. 
 
 The first substantial complaint here is, that 
 the Post Office has made a fallacious return to 
 the Treasury. Let us see what this return is, and 
 in what the alleged fallacies consist. It will be 
 sufficient to refer for this account to the Appen- 
 dix of the Report of the Committee, page 232, 
 No. 20. The document professes to be a return 
 to an order of the House of Commons, April 24, 
 1843, showing the number of inland letters, the 
 gross amount of revenue derived therefrom, the 
 expences of management, &c., and the net 
 revenue for the year ending 5th January, 1843. 
 Also a similar return of the foreign and colonial 
 letters; the gross amount of revenue, the ex- 
 pence of management, including the mainte- 
 nance of packets on foreign stations, &c., and 
 the deficiency of revenue ending 5th January, 
 1843. 
 
 As respects this document, Mr. Hill's state- 
 ment and complaint are, "That the general 
 result which is made to appear is, that the Post 
 Office, instead of affording a net revenue of 
 600,000, as shown by the ordinary accounts,
 
 64 
 
 occasions a loss of abo.ut 10,000 per annum. 
 This result is produced by an innovation made 
 in the return, which has the effect of producing 
 an unfavourable appearance in the account. 
 This innovation," he says, " consists in charging 
 the whole cost of the packet service (612,850) 
 against the Post Office." He afterwards proceeds 
 to enumerate more particularly and methodically 
 what he terms to be the fallacies of the account. 
 " First, as to admitted errors, the estimate is not 
 a return of ascertained facts, as it purports to be ; 
 second, the deductions for dead letters are un- 
 justly divided between inland postage on the 
 one hand, and foreign and colonial postage on 
 the other, to the prejudice of the inland postage; 
 third, the share of expences to be charged 
 against the Money Order Office is greatly under- 
 stated, to the prejudice of the inland postage; 
 being put down at 15,000, whereas they are 
 admitted by Colonel Maberly in the evidence 
 (1203-4) to be about 30,000 ; fourth, the charge 
 of the packet service," he contends, " is admitted 
 by Colonel Maberly to be unjust in principle, 
 and by Lord Lowther to be greatly exaggerated 
 in amount. Lastly, that either the number of 
 inland letters, or the amount of revenue derived 
 from them, must be wrong. Colonel Maberly 
 cannot say which (1475), though elsewhere he 
 attacks the letters'." 
 
 Mr. Hill, besides calling this a fallacious
 
 65 
 
 return, obviously insinuates that it was fabri- 
 cated for the purpose of deceiving the Ministers, 
 and understating the revenue derived from Penny 
 Postage. In question and answer 3223, he thus 
 says, " Two witnesses only speak to this report 
 at all. The first is Lord Lowther, who, having 
 formed the opinion, that all revenue was derived 
 from foreign and colonial postage, ordered an 
 estimate to be made. This estimate, when made, 
 proved to be TOO SHORT; he, therefore, ordered 
 the present return or estimate to be prepared." 
 Any unprejudiced person would understand by 
 this expression that the account did not enter 
 sufficiently into particulars ; but the uncivil insi- 
 nuation of Mr. Hill is here obvious enough. 
 
 In order to clear this point, let us see what is 
 the history in fact of this return. Colonel 
 Maberly says, that it was a statement made by 
 his direction, for the information of Lord Low- 
 ther, to ascertain the exact state of the Post 
 Office revenue. That no exact account of the 
 number of letters could, indeed, be procured or 
 given. The mode adopted was, that one week 
 in every month the letter carriers in London 
 were required to count their letters and deliver 
 in their number. There is reason to think that 
 this is not very accurately done , their accounts 
 are sometimes checked, and generally found over- 
 stated, but never under-stated. No constant 
 check could be kept upon them without great 
 
 E
 
 66 
 
 delay in the delivery of letters, and no important 
 purpose would be answered by it. That the 
 number stated in this account was taken from 
 four successive weeks in December, and, there- 
 fore, the most favourable for the penny rate, 
 as respects the number of letters. The gross 
 amount of revenue is given for one year, viz. : 
 the actual receipts within the year, the accuracy 
 of which Mr. Hill does not question. But this 
 money account does not cover the same space 
 of time for these reasons : 
 
 It contains all the money charged for stamps 
 within the year, the stamps being issued from 
 the Stamp Office. But as it is not to be inferred 
 that all the stamps are used in the same year in 
 which they are issued, it is obvious that some of 
 last year's stamps may be used this year, and 
 that stamps issued this year may not be used 
 until the next. But, as an average account, it 
 may still be sufficiently correct for a general 
 estimate of the gross revenue. Col. Maberly, 
 speaking upon this point, says, (1651,) "My 
 opinion is, that the general result at which we 
 have arrived in this return, is the true one ; that 
 the Penny Postage brings very little revenue to 
 the country, and that by far the greater portion 
 of the revenue is derived, as Lord Lowther 
 thought when he came to the Post Office, from 
 foreign postage." 
 
 But Mr. Hill continues to call this return a
 
 67 
 
 fallacious account, because the receipts exceed 
 the amount of the number of letters, at the rate 
 of one penny each, and he wishes to have it 
 thought that the error is in under-rating the 
 money account, instead of having over-rated the 
 number of letters. But as he admits that the 
 money account is correct, must not the error, if 
 any such exist, lie in the over-statement (favour- 
 able to himself,) in the number of letters ? 
 
 It is true, indeed, that Col. Maberly says, in 
 one part of his evidence, that for exactness in the 
 number of letters, the return is not to be de- 
 pended upon ; but he also says, as before stated, 
 that for an average report, the return is a true 
 one. 
 
 The main complaints of Mr. Hill against this 
 return are : " that the packet service is charged 
 against the Post Office," whereas it is in fact, by 
 a merely departmental arrangement, paid by the 
 Admiralty. But he admits that, on an exact 
 adjustment of the account, the Post Office ought 
 to make no inconsiderable contribution. Lord 
 Lowther, also, admits that perhaps it may not 
 be right to charge the whole expence of the 
 foreign postage to the Post Office, and Col. 
 Maberly expresses the same opinion ; but Mr. 
 Hill seems totally to forget the evidence which 
 he himself gave before the Committee on Postage 
 on llth June, 1838, when several questions were 
 put to him, directed to the expence of the post- 
 
 E 2
 
 68 
 
 age to the Colonies, and Her Majesty's British 
 dominions generally. In answer to a question 
 by Lord Seymour, whether any material point 
 had been omitted, which might prevent the 
 Committee from forming an opinion upon the 
 merits of the plan, and afterwards, whether he 
 deducted the expence in the Colonies, Mr. Hill 
 replies, " The object has been to ascertain the 
 cost of the conveyance in the British dominions." 
 Lord Seymour: "In the 570,384, you take in 
 not only the cost of conveyance, but the cost of 
 all the establishment?" Mr. Hill: " Exactly; 
 every expence." * 
 
 Mr. Hill, indeed, does not deny this, but 
 claims to set off the newspaper stamps against 
 the packet allowance, which newspaper stamps 
 he calculates at 250,000. But the newspapers 
 in 1837 went free, and therefore there is not the 
 slightest pretence for carrying any postage from 
 them to the credit of the Post Office in that 
 account. 
 
 That the accounts which Mr. Hill calls falla- 
 cious were not intended to mislead the Ministers, 
 and could not by any possibility have this effect, 
 is indeed evident upon the very face of the return. 
 
 Mr. Hill's principal charge of purposed decep- 
 tion obviously applies to the packet service. 
 Now, it is stated in the title of the return that 
 
 * Post Office Report, 1838, p. 377.
 
 69 
 
 the packet service is included. How, therefore, 
 could Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Goulburn be 
 deceived upon this point? It has been before 
 stated that it could be no surprise or unlooked- 
 for circumstance on the part of Mr. Hill, as, in 
 his answer to the question of Lord Seymour, 
 whether he, Mr. Hill, had taken into his consi- 
 deration all the Colonial (the packet service), 
 Mr. Hill replies, " Exactly so ; the cost of con- 
 veyance in the British dominions." Could Mr. 
 Hill imagine for a moment that the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer would be deceived as to the 
 point, whether the charge of the packet service 
 was properly charged to the Post Office, instead 
 of being charged to the Admiralty ? 
 
 Mr. Hill proceeds to state that a second 
 return was laid before the Committee, giving 
 a further analysis of the amount of foreign 
 and colonial postage. He charges this, also, 
 with the same fallacy, and in the same uncivil 
 language. " It is painful to observe," he says 
 in his pamphlet, "that these changing results 
 coincide in each instance, with the changing 
 necessities of the Post Office ; which were in the 
 first instance to depress, as much as possible, 
 the apparent number of French letters."* 
 
 The second complaint of Mr. Hill is, that the 
 Post Office endeavours to exalt the foreign 
 
 * See Pamphlet, published Jan. 1844.
 
 70 
 
 
 postage to the prejudice of the inland postage, 
 and that this purpose has been effected by a 
 fallacious division of the revenue between the 
 inland and foreign postage. 
 
 Now let us first look at Lord Lowther's letter 
 to the Treasury, (Appendix, p. 233.) " I have 
 now the honour to transmit an estimate, which, 
 after some considerable difficulty, has been 
 prepared with as much detail as possible, and 
 which will, I believe, show a fair average of 
 the revenue from colonial and foreign corre- 
 spondence." This paragraph refers to the first 
 return. The letter then proceeds to explain the 
 second return, and the mode in which it was 
 made up, which was delivered to the Committee 
 in the course of their sitting. " To insure, 
 however, still further correctness on this impor- 
 tant subject, I have given directions for the 
 preparation of another return, founded on actual 
 accounts of numbers, and amount of foreign 
 letters for two months." 
 
 In allusion to this letter, the Chairman of the 
 Committee (Q. and A. 103) says to Mr. Hill, 
 " If this return is the result of the directions 
 so given by Lord Lowther, is it not clear 
 that such was the only mode in which such 
 a return could be made, viz. by a computation 
 of -the number of letters received during the 
 last two months of the year 1842 ?" Mr. Hill 
 " I have already stated that the data, if correctly
 
 71 
 
 taken, and if correctly dealt with, might pro- 
 duce a correct result; but inasmuch as they lead 
 to a result manifestly impossible, it must be 
 assumed either that they are incorrectly taken, 
 or incorrectly dealt with ; it is not for me to 
 point out which. The result is an impossible 
 result." Question " That is, supposing your 
 calculations are correct ?" Mr. Hill " Whether 
 my calculations are correct, or incorrect, it 
 is an impossible result." Mr. Baring " Do 
 you find in this return, No. 201, any statement 
 which would lead you to suppose that it was 
 a mere estimate ? " Answer " There is nothing 
 more than one note which states that of the 
 respective amounts of postage on inland and 
 foreign dead letters no accurate statement can 
 be furnished ; they are here given so far as they 
 have been separated in the accounts. From 
 which I infer, that the accounts are not in that 
 distinct shape." Question " As to that part, 
 undoubtedly, that note explains that it is taken 
 only loosely ; but is there any other part which 
 leads you to suppose it is a mere conjecture or 
 estimate, and not an actual return of facts 
 ascertained?" "No; there is nothing upon the 
 face of it, and that is one reason why I consider 
 it objectionable: that inasmuch as I must con- 
 sider it as the result of estimate, it appears 
 to me unfair not to state that it is an estimate 
 upon the face of the return." Mr. Cripps
 
 72 
 
 " Then at all events, supposing the accounts are 
 still kept in the manner in which they were 
 when you were acquainted with them, this 
 paper cannot be what it professes to be?" 
 Answer "No, it cannot be; but I wish to con- 
 fine my charges against the department, if they 
 must be so called, within the narrowest possible 
 compass ; all that I have thought it necessary to 
 say is, that I believe it to be an estimate, 
 and then to show that it is a fallacious estimate. 
 I certainly do think that the Post Office is not 
 in a position to make such a return according 
 to the usual acceptation of the word, and that 
 they should not have put forward such a state- 
 ment without stating that it was an estimate." 
 
 Thus Mr. Hill's objection turns out to be a 
 mere quibble upon the words " Estimate" and 
 "Return." Now, in Lord Lowther's letter, 
 above referred to, are not both papers expressly 
 termed " Estimates ?" Mr. Hill himself, indeed, 
 admits that the data, if correctly taken, and 
 correctly dealt with, might produce a correct 
 result. But Colonel Maberly's (1261) points 
 out, not only that the paper was an Estimate, 
 but that it was taken in the manner which 
 Mr. Hill allows would give a fair result ; whilst, 
 as regards the supplemental paper, Lord Lowther 
 also shows by his letter that it was an estimate 
 made upon two months' actual receipts of letters 
 and monev. The accounts, therefore, being
 
 73 
 
 taken in the manner approved of by Mr. Hill, 
 we have nothing but the surmises and calcula- 
 tions of this gentleman out of the Office, and 
 professing to be ignorant of details, opposed to 
 the actual experience and practice of the officers 
 of the Post Office. 
 
 The opposition of Mr. Hill to this account, 
 call it estimate or return, cannot be mistaken. 
 If it be received as a genuine account, it proves 
 the whole case against the Penny Postage ; it 
 shows indeed, upon the inland postage of the 
 United Kingdom, a net revenue and profit of 
 102,268; and a deficiency in the foreign and 
 colonial postage of 113,039; thus, upon the 
 whole, a loss of 10,000, on the general revenue 
 of the whole department, as the result of the 
 system of cheap postage. 
 
 To this deficiency, which goes to the root of 
 the whole plan, Mr. Hill suggests that it is im- 
 possible that there can be this loss on the Post 
 Office revenue, whilst it appears by the finance 
 accounts, that the Post Office yields to the 
 public exchequer an annual revenue of 
 600,000. 
 
 Most undoubtedly it does so appear; but 
 Mr. Hill is aware that, in counting up this 
 revenue to the public, the receipts of the Post 
 Office generally in both its departments, foreign 
 and colonial, are blended. In the finance 
 returns, the Post Office receipts are stated as the
 
 74 
 
 gross product of that particular department of 
 revenue, without distinguishing between the 
 inland and foreign postage. But if from this 
 gross amount we deduct the charge of 600,000 
 paid by the Admiralty for the packet service, 
 the account will, on the whole, show a defici- 
 ency. In taking the government accounts, and 
 exhibiting them to the public, it makes no dif- 
 ference whether a certain branch of expenditure 
 be carried to the account of one department or 
 another ; to the Post Office or to the Admiralty ; 
 but in estimating the productiveness of any par- 
 ticular branch of the revenue, every expenditure 
 incurred, on account of that branch, ought pro- 
 perly to be charged against it. Now the Post 
 Office is the department which receives payment 
 for all foreign letters by the packet service. It 
 may be said to have the munus, and ought pro- 
 perly to sustain the onus ; but by a government 
 arrangement the profits of the foreign corre- 
 spondence are received wholly by the Post Office, 
 whilst the expenditure of the service is exclu- 
 sively borne by the Admiralty. 
 
 On the other hand, it is but fair to state that 
 the packet establishment, being more expensive 
 than is necessary for mere Post Office purposes, 
 that department ought not to be charged with 
 the whole expence. 
 
 But we cannot dismiss the account (201) 
 without some further remarks. Mr. Hill claims
 
 75 
 
 to have credit for 15,000 as improperly charged 
 to the inland instead of to the foreign postage. 
 He claims, also, the further sum of 3000, for 
 a proportion of parliamentary grants chargeable 
 on the foreign postage, and the sum of 40,000, 
 which he calls a low estimate of the sum unduly 
 charged to the Post Office for Irish packets. 
 And lastly, the sum of 171,000, for correction 
 in the amount of inland postage.* 
 
 As to the first item of 15,000 for dead 
 letters. In the account (201) there is charged 
 against the inland postage the sum of 17,293. 
 This sum Mr. Hill states to be too large a pro- 
 portion charged on the inland postage, and that 
 15,000 of it ought to be charged to the foreign 
 and colonial letters. He rests his claim upon 
 the ground, that in the account of the foreign 
 postage, the sum there charged for dead letters 
 includes only the losses incurred abroad, and 
 that there must have been some losses upon the 
 foreign correspondence in England, which 
 ought to have been charged against the foreign 
 postage, but which are included in the sum of 
 17,293, charged against the inland postage. 
 He therefore proposes to transfer the sum of 
 15,000, from the inland to the foreign postage, 
 upon this principle : that the loss abroad 
 amounts to 15,000; and that it is but fair to 
 
 * See Report of Evidence, p. 49.
 
 76 
 
 assume the loss at home to be equal to the loss 
 abroad. 
 
 It is but equitable that some allowance 
 should be made on this account; but surely a 
 moment's consideration will show the fallacy of 
 this random mode of calculation, and that 
 Mr. Hill is too precipitate when he assumes this 
 as an ascertained fact, a better method of 
 computation might have sugggested itself, in 
 taking the relative proportion between the 
 number of inland and foreign letters. 
 
 Now the number of inland letters in the 
 account stated is 209,600,000, and the number 
 of foreign and colonial letters is 6,718,320; that 
 is, about a 34th part. Instead, therefore, of 
 Mr. Hill's taking credit for 15,000, out of 
 17,000, he ought obviously to take credit for 
 one 34th part only of 17,000 ; in other words, 
 for about 500. 
 
 The next claim of Mr. Hill is to deduct 
 40,000 for the Irish packet service, which he 
 challenges upon the ground that there are two 
 lines of packets between Liverpool and Dublin, 
 (one of which is managed by the Admiralty, and 
 is kept up principally for political purposes,) 
 whereas one line would be sufficient for merely 
 Post Office purposes. This admits of the same 
 answer as has been given with respect to the 
 foreign packets. If it be proper to charge the 
 Post Office with the expence in one instance, the
 
 77 
 
 same reason applies for charging it in the other. 
 The packets are employed in the service of the 
 Post Office for the conveyance of the mail, and 
 the Irish packets have been properly charged to 
 the Post Office revenue, though the expence has 
 been defrayed by the Admiralty since 1837. 
 
 The next claim made by Mr. Hill to be added 
 to the inland revenue of the Post Office, as stated 
 in (201,) is 171,000; upon the ground that 
 the number of letters shown in the return, calcu- 
 lated at one penny and a fifth, would produce 
 that sum, whereas he charges the Post Office 
 with having made their calculations at one penny 
 per letter. To support this specious charge, he 
 deducts from the number of letters the govern- 
 ment postage, calculated upon an average of his 
 own at 4,362,000 ; leaving, as he states, for the 
 inland postage, 205,249,508 letters. Upon this 
 ground he proceeds to deduct from the revenue, 
 the government postage ; that is, the actual sum 
 paid by the public offices, 66,554, amounting 
 with registration fees, money orders, &c., to an 
 aggregate sum of 172,625; leaving 854,449 
 as the produce of the 205,249,508 letters ; and 
 as this pretty nearly amounts to a penny per 
 letter, he charges the Post Office with having 
 formed then* return upon this method of calcula- 
 tion. 
 
 Before we proceed to analyse the calculation 
 of Mr. Hill, thus impeaching the Government
 
 78 
 
 return, it may be as well to refer to the descrip- 
 tion which he gives of the return itself: "The 
 
 ASCERTAINED FACTS of THE RETURN are the total 
 
 number of letters ; the total gross amount of 
 revenue, (together with the receipts of money 
 orders, and perhaps official postage included 
 therein,) the total expence of management, the 
 costs of the packets, and the total deductions 
 for returned letters ; every thing else, including 
 the division of these several amounts (except as 
 regards the packets,) is, I have reason to believe, 
 mere conjecture" As for the really ascertained 
 facts, though they are not in all cases stated with 
 perfect accuracy, yet the statement is in no 
 instance, that I am aware of, materially incorrect; 
 the conjectures, for I can hardly call them esti- 
 mates, are in almost every instance wide of the 
 mark ; all the errors being to the disadvantage 
 of the inland postage." 
 
 Question 97 "What reason have you to sup- 
 pose, that the facts have not been accurately 
 ascertained, or that, having been accurately 
 ascertained, they have not been accurately dealt 
 with ? " " Because the results of the returns are 
 impossible. I demonstrate the return to be 
 incorrect by a reductio ad absurdum it leads 
 to absurd results." 
 
 Question 98 " Have you ascertained that that 
 return leads to absurd results ?" 
 
 " By the course of examination I have laid
 
 before the Committee, by deducting from the 
 inland revenue, as stated in the return itself, 
 all those small sources of revenue which are 
 necessarily included in the account, so as to 
 leave the inland postage only which would have 
 been received, if all the letters had been prepaid ; 
 and then I show that that amount is such, that 
 it leaves but a penny for every letter ; and inas- 
 much as the average rate is assuredly more than 
 a penny, it follows that the return is incorrect, 
 however made out." 
 
 Mr. Hill's first proposition here is, that the 
 facts have not been accurately dealt with, 
 because they lead to absurd results, which he 
 afterwards explains by stating that, after making 
 all proper deductions, the amount leaves but 
 a penny for every letter. 
 
 Now, the answer to this charge is, that 
 the return does not profess to be an exact 
 account. That the revenue is an ascertained 
 fact, but that the number of letters, and the 
 division between the inland and foreign revenue, 
 are matters of calculation. 
 
 As to the correctness of the calculation, let us 
 see what Mr. Hill himself says on the method 
 pursued to get at these results. 
 
 Question 92 " But the amount of the inland 
 and foreign postage you do not object to ?" 
 
 "No, that is correct; the sum of the two 
 together is correct."
 
 
 
 Question 93 " You state if that return should 
 have been made up in the manner in which Lord 
 Lowther stated that he intended to make it 
 up in his letter of 2nd November, it would 
 not be so much matter of conjecture as you at 
 first supposed ?" 
 
 " Certainly it would not be so much matter 
 of conjecture as I at first supposed, if made 
 up in the way described ; but there is nothing 
 that I am aware of, which attaches that state- 
 ment to the particular return before the Com- 
 mittee." 
 
 Question 94 " It may be so for anything 
 you know to the contrary ? " 
 
 " Most assuredly." 
 
 [This examination alludes to an estimate of 
 the foreign and colonial postage for the year 
 1842, calculated from an account kept for the 
 months of November and December, and which 
 does not materially vary from the account in 
 question. Appendix 243.] 
 
 Question 95 " Supposing that so, that would 
 remove the objection you have made, that 
 that return was purely conjectural ? " 
 
 " I am not aware that that would make it 
 less conjectural than I supposed when I wrote 
 the paper." 
 
 Question 96 " If it gives the result of an 
 exact account kept for two months, of inland 
 and foreign postage respectively, do you think
 
 81 
 
 that would be a just basis for calculating what 
 would be the produce of twelve months of the 
 year?" 
 
 "There is no question that that would be a 
 correct basis, if the facts were accurately ascer- 
 tained, and accurately dealt with." 
 
 Question " You have been asked whether, if 
 this is founded on an accurate return of the dif- 
 ferent accounts during two months, you would 
 consider that a fair way of giving the return for 
 a twelvemonth ; do you not understand by the 
 heading of this, that it is for the year ending the 
 5th of January, 1843?" 
 
 " It is returned for the year unquestionably ; 
 still a return for the year might be calculated on 
 a state of things for two months, provided they 
 are correctly dealt with." 
 
 The dealing with the account (No. 201) 
 which Mr. Hill assumes to be unfair, is the 
 division of inland and foreign postage. Now it 
 turns out, that on a more accurate account 
 (Appendix 243) being taken upon an average 
 of two months instead of one, which Mr. Hill 
 allows to be an accurate test, the account is 
 shown not to vary materially, or in a greater 
 degree than averages taken on a different basis 
 may fairly be presumed to vary. The one 
 amounts to 506,774; the other to 508,305, 
 and shows, that so far from over-stating the 
 
 F
 
 82 
 
 revenue from foreign postage in No. 201, it 
 is actually understated. 
 
 Mr. Hill's next proposition is, that the results 
 of the return are impossible, and therefore, that 
 the accounts must be incorrect, that is to say, 
 that the side of the account which is founded 
 on ascertained facts, does not tally with the 
 other side, which is arrived at by an estimate. 
 
 What is this more than saying, that an esti- 
 mated account does not give an exact result ? 
 
 But the result is not such as Mr. Hill repre- 
 sents it, if we proceed to examine it more par- 
 ticularly in Mr. Hill's mode of treating it. 
 
 In his answer to Question 99 " Are not 
 many of your calculations founded rather on 
 estimate, than on ascertained facts?" He 
 replies " My calculations are to a very small 
 extent founded on estimate; to so small an 
 extent, that after making the most ample allow- 
 ance for all possible errors, the result will not be 
 materially affected." 
 
 Now is it a fact that Mr. Hill's calculations 
 are not founded on estimates? His first item 
 is founded on estimates based on the Govern- 
 ment Postage for one week in the year; and 
 a most erroneous estimate it is, for it makes that 
 which he states to be somewhat above one penny 
 and one-fifth per letter, amount to threepence 
 and seven-tenths. 
 
 But let us see what Mr. Hill has said on this
 
 83 
 
 average amount of general post letters. He 
 says, (p. 48,) " The return by the Post Office 
 shows that the average postage of all the pre- 
 paid inland letters delivered in London on 28th 
 of April, 1841, (exclusive of government letters,) 
 was one-twenty-second of a penny." We must 
 observe that this average of the general post 
 letters is taken upon one day in 1841, when 
 the Penny Postage had only been one year in 
 operation, and thus before the public had 
 become familiar with the payment by weight. 
 But there is a much greater objection to Mr. 
 Hill's average of the addition to be made to 
 each letter, supposing it even to include the 
 stamped letters. There is still another description 
 of letter which is excluded from this average; 
 for upon what ground were the unpaid letters, 
 which amount to one-tenth of the whole, 
 entirely excluded? Was it because the average 
 would have been thereby lessened? 
 
 Again, Mr. Hill says, that the average of the 
 London district letters is taken from the return 
 of 1842, compared with the Finance accounts. 
 Mr. Hill continues, (p. 48,) " Now assuming 
 these averages to represent respectively the 
 averages, at the same period, of prepaid inland 
 general and of prepaid district post letters 
 (exclusive of government letters) throughout the 
 kingdom, the average of both classes united may 
 be calculated as in Note E, p. 14. That is, if 
 
 F 2
 
 84 
 
 the district post letters of the United Kingdom 
 be called one, the general post letters will be 
 about five. It is not stated on what basis this 
 proportion of general and district letters is cal- 
 culated ; but if it be from the London general 
 and London district post, as in Note E, p. 47, 
 there is one of those small possible errors 
 which, Mr. Hill says, will not materially affect 
 the result. 
 
 The proportion between the district letters and 
 the general, is as one to three, and not as one to 
 five, as will appear by the return of Appendix 236; 
 a small error only of somewhat above 8000. 
 
 But the question which we have now under 
 discussion, is not, whether Mr. Hill's estimates 
 are correct, but whether his calculations are 
 founded on estimates to a very small extent 
 only : and we point out this error merely for 
 the purpose of showing what Mr. Hill considers 
 a very small error. 
 
 To return, therefore, to his stated number of 
 government letters. This number is estimated 
 by the number of general post letters delivered 
 in one week, with a surmise as to the number of 
 district letters, and on this basis he calculates 
 the number of government letters for the year 
 at 4,362,000. 
 
 Now it is in evidence, (1271, ) that the govern- 
 ment letters amounted, in 1842, to 4,585,110, in 
 London alone, exclusive of Ireland and Scotland ;
 
 85 
 
 for which 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 must be added, 
 (1463.) Taking it at 2,500,000, it makes the 
 total of 7,885,000, a difference of 2,723,000, or 
 in money 13,600. 
 
 Without following Mr. Hill through all his 
 calculations, which are for the most part founded 
 on estimates, let us see how many estimates are 
 involved in this first item. First, there is an 
 estimated number for the government postage. 
 Secondly, in order to obtain an average price, 
 there is another estimate of the excess of the 
 London general postage above Id. Thirdly. 
 There is a like estimate of the London district 
 postage. Fourthly. We have a guess, for we 
 cannot call it an estimate, without any basis, of 
 the proportion between the London postage and 
 that of the whole kingdom. Fifthly. An esti- 
 mate of the proportion between the general and 
 the district postage. Thus we find in this one 
 item no less than five estimates. So much for 
 Mr. Hill's calculations not being founded on 
 estimates. 
 
 Having already shown that the Post Office 
 return has been tested by an estimate made on 
 a basis, which Mr. Hill admits would give a 
 correct result, and the result agreeing within a 
 few pounds with the return in question, it 
 becomes unnecessary to detail the fallacies in 
 Mr. Hill's calculations. Suffice it to say, that he 
 has entirely omitted to make any deduction from
 
 86 
 
 the number of letters on account of the dead 
 letters, which are counted in the total number; 
 the amount of the postage on which is deducted 
 from the gross revenue, and, therefore, their 
 number ought to be deducted from the total 
 number. This item amounts to no less than 
 17,293. Another item omitted to be deducted, 
 is the number of money order advices, which 
 Col. Maberly states to have been counted in the 
 number of letters, but which pay no postage; 
 their amount is two millions in the year. The 
 money orders, according to the returns, are in 
 number upwards of 1,600,000. A third ingre- 
 dient has also escaped Mr. Hill's attention : 
 namely, the number of stamps issued in 1841, 
 more than were used in that year, and which 
 amount to upwards of 67,000. The stamps 
 are issued by the Stamp Office to distributors of 
 stamps, so that it is impossible to calculate 
 correctly the numbers sold in a given time by 
 the numbers used; and this circumstance alone 
 would account for a large discrepancy between 
 the number of letters and the cash received 
 within a given period, if any such discrepancy 
 exists. 
 
 It might have been sufficient under this 
 head to have answered Mr. Hill more sum- 
 marily ; that he had assumed that the amount, 
 of revenue in that return derived from inland
 
 87 
 
 postage was calculated on the number of letters 
 stated. 
 
 But we have preferred going more largely 
 through the estimate 201, in order to show that 
 Mr. Hill's proofs are founded on false premises ; 
 and that his charge of fallacy, therefore, falls 
 to the ground. We now purpose to pass to 
 those complaints which he makes against the 
 Post Office, and to an examination of those sug- 
 gestions which he holds out for its improve- 
 ment. These may be conveniently arranged 
 under the two heads of " Defects of Present 
 Arrangement ; together with the ' Savings' 
 pointed out by Mr. Hill ;" and secondly, " His 
 Proposed Remedies." 
 
 I. SUGGESTIONS FOR POST OFFICE REFORM. 
 
 Mr. Hill cannot complain of any want of 
 indulgence or courtesy on the part of the 
 Committee to which his case was referred. He 
 is heard one long July day, from ten o'clock 
 in the morning until four o'clock in the after- 
 noon, upon a subject of which one would think 
 the Committee would be intolerably weary after 
 the speech of Sir T. Wilde, and the debate in 
 the House of the preceding week. The praises 
 of cheap postage and his pamphlets are here
 
 88 
 
 repeated, enlivened, nevertheless, by a few short 
 and spirited narratives, which we do not re- 
 collect before, and cannot in justice withhold. 
 
 After reading an extract from an " Address to 
 the People of Wolverhampton," and a very 
 kind and affectionate letter from his brother 
 Mr. M. D. Hill, "to himself," he executes 
 in a masterly manner a picture of the past, 
 and also of the forthcoming blessings of a cheap 
 post. " Not only have great advantages 
 been derived to literature, science, and friendly 
 union, evinced by the transmission of scientific 
 specimens, evinced, too, by the productions 
 of writers, and the formation of even large 
 societies, to the existence of which, as their 
 authors and promoters assure me, the establish- 
 ment of the penny rate was an essential con- 
 dition ; but others, again, tell me of pains 
 relieved, affections cultivated, and mental efforts 
 encouraged, by a correspondence to which the 
 former rates would have acted as an absolute 
 prohibition." 
 
 Really, we did not know before how exten- 
 sive a public benefactor Mr. Hill deemed him- 
 self; but he does not speak without solid 
 proofs. Professor Henslow had written a letter 
 from Hadleigh, Suffolk, to Mr. Hill, in which he 
 informed him, that since the welcome day of a 
 cheap post, " he had been continually receiving 
 and transmitting a variety of specimens, living
 
 89 
 
 and dead, by post. Among them, my dear sir, 
 you will laugh to hear that I received three 
 iiving carnivorous slugs, which arrived safe in a 
 pill box. This day I have received from a 
 stranger, (by post,) a parcel of young wheat 
 plants, attached by the larva of some fly ; and 
 these having arrived in a living state, I can 
 readily hand them over to an entomologist."* 
 
 Mr. Dent, a chronometer maker, is also 
 spoken of by Mr. Hill, as hastening with his 
 tribute of congratulation by availing himself of 
 the facility of the Penny Post to convey 
 watches, " which go to remote places, where 
 watches could not otherwise be purchased." 
 This is a little extraordinary; but Mr. Dent 
 adds the positive fact, that by means of the 
 cheap post " he frequently receives watches to 
 be cleaned, and sometimes as many as four a 
 day." 
 
 Mr. John Travers, a wholesale grocer, states 
 that his " correspondence is quadrupled, that his 
 credits are shortened, his payments more quick 
 and punctual, and his orders more numerous." 
 This is certainly a very agreeable result of cheap 
 postage. Mr. Charles Knight's panegyric ex- 
 ceeds all description ; but he is Mr. Hill's 
 publisher: still there are some who fall little 
 short of Mr. Knight. 
 
 * See Report, p. 13.
 
 90 
 
 Mr. Stokes says " That a society for reprint- 
 ing the works of the English Reformers would 
 riot have come into existence but for the Penny 
 Postage ;" and Mr. Bagster, of Paternoster Row, 
 goes further, and, according to Mr. Hill, states 
 " That the Bible could not have been printed 
 but for the Penny Postage." We must do Mr. 
 Bagster the justice to say, that he is here speak- 
 ing of a work of his own, the Polyglot Bible, in 
 twenty-four languages, recently published by 
 himself, and not the vulgate Bible published by 
 the two Universities and the King's printer. Mr. 
 Peacock, of Manchester, and the Rev. T. Mosse, 
 curate of Ashbourne, express themselves in the 
 warmest language ; and Mr. Hill, by implication 
 at least, held out very strong promises of laying 
 before the committee a letter from Miss Harriet 
 Martineau, whch he afterwards unkindly with- 
 holds ; assuming, as his reason, that, " though it 
 contains an excellent description of the social 
 benefits of the Penny Postage, it furnishes no 
 facts for abstraction"* 
 
 Thus passes the first day of the sitting of the 
 committee ; and on the second, the 5th of July, a 
 remarkably hot day, as we recollect, it became 
 necessary to pull down Mr. Hill a little from his 
 raptures, and to ask of him what he proposed. 
 After a flourish upon improvements in Postage 
 
 * Possibly Mr. Hawes will move for this Letter.
 
 91 
 
 economy, extraordinary facilities of communica- 
 tion, vast addition to revenue, and increased 
 security to correspondence, Mr. Hill handed in 
 a paper, entitled " Suggested Improvements," 
 which, as being something tangible, we now 
 propose to examine in detail. 
 
 And, first, following Mr. Hill's own order, we 
 proceed to his suggestion of 
 
 HOURLY DELIVERY.* 
 
 "The interchange of letters by the District 
 Post is too slow. In London make the collection 
 and delivery of letters once an hour, instead of 
 once in two hours, and establish District Offices, 
 so as to avoid making all letters, as at present, 
 pass through St. Martin's-le-Grand." 
 
 Now what is the answer to this suggestion ? 
 First, that it would be almost physically impos- 
 sible ; and next, that it would lead to enormous 
 expence, without a prospect of repayment.! ^ ls 
 the random suggestion of a man who knows 
 nothing of details. 
 
 Colonel Maberly, being interrogated upon this 
 point, says : " The whole system of Hourly 
 Delivery is a mere question of expence, and was 
 so treated (when suggested) by the Postmaster- 
 General." 
 
 * See Report, p. 35. t Minutes of Evidence, p. 35,
 
 92 
 
 Again, when asked whether it would be prac- 
 ticable to increase the number of deliveries in 
 London with the present force of letter-carriers 
 and sorters, if the two corps of the General Post 
 and the District Post letter-carriers were united, 
 his answer is, " There is no difficulty in the 
 consolidation of the two offices ; it is all a ques- 
 tion of expence; whether the increased advantage 
 to the public would compensate for the additional 
 expence which the public would have to incur."* 
 
 Surely this answer is sufficient. To what ex- 
 tent was Mr. Hill to be further permitted to beat 
 down the revenue of the Post Office? He had 
 already reduced it upwards of one million was 
 he to accumulate fresh losses upon this depart- 
 ment? 
 
 But what did his HOURLY DELIVERY in fact 
 mean ? It was a mere trick upon the public. 
 It meant nothing like what it was paraded to be. 
 Mr. Hill could not but know, that what he called 
 an HOURLY DELIVERY, could amount to no more 
 than a delivery every two or three hours, as 
 respects the great mass of letters, much the same 
 as under the present system. An HOURLY DELIV- 
 ERY, simultaneously throughout the metropolis, 
 he must have known to be a physical impossi- 
 bility. The Pimlico district was suggested in 
 the committee. Now, undoubtedly, a letter, 
 
 * Report, p. 133,
 
 93 
 
 posted in the Pimlico district might be delivered 
 in that district within the hour. But a question 
 immediately arises how many of the general 
 mass of letters, posted at a particular office, are 
 posted in that district in which the HOURLY DE- 
 LIVERY is to take place, or one intended for 
 deli very in that district ? It is clear that the pro- 
 portion must be exceedingly small. Let us put 
 the case of a letter addressed beyond Whitechapel, 
 and posted at Pimlico, which will sufficiently try 
 the practicability of Mr. Hill's theory. 
 
 First, the letter in question must be collected 
 by the letter carrier; it has then to be conveyed 
 to the District Office, and then to the General 
 Post Office to be sorted there ; the sorting itself 
 will take some time ; it has then to be despatched 
 to the District Office, Whitechapel ; it has there 
 to be taken out by the letter carrier and 
 delivered. "The collection will occupy ten 
 minutes or a quarter of an hour at least." 
 
 Now the transmission from Pimlico, adds 
 Col. Maberly, to the General Post Office, will 
 occupy twenty minutes, or nearly half an hour ; 
 the sorting will occupy twenty minutes at least ; 
 the despatching again will occupy a quarter of 
 an hour; and the delivery again, if the place 
 of address be situate in the middle of a walk, 
 will occupy another twenty minutes. So that, 
 from the time of posting this letter at Pimlico, 
 until the time it reaches its destination at White-
 
 04 
 
 chapel, more than an hour is consumed; con- 
 sequently the posting and delivery of a letter 
 every hour, from one part of London to another, 
 is impossible.* 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that this suggestion 
 of Mr. Hill amounts to nothing. At an increased 
 and disproportionate expence, an HOURLY DELI- 
 VERY might, indeed, be effected in a small dis- 
 trict; but the whole affair is a delusion as 
 applied to the mass of letters posted at the 
 district offices, and intended for delivery beyond 
 them, as would necessarily be the case, since 
 persons, living within a stone's throw, or a short 
 walk from each other, do not ordinarily write 
 letters. 
 
 And here it is but justice to Colonel Maberly 
 to state, in answer to the calumny thrown 
 upon him in common with all the other officers 
 of the Post Office, as obstructing Mr. Hill's 
 plans, and clinging to ancient prejudices, that 
 there seems to be no gentleman less deserving 
 of the attack. 
 
 COLONEL MABERLY " What we have always 
 wished to obtain from Mr. Hill, has been what 
 he meant." 
 
 This, indeed, seems to be the difficulty 
 throughout with this gentleman, and appears 
 to increase, since the publication of his last 
 
 * Evidence of Colonel Maberly, Report, p. 135.
 
 95 
 
 pamphlet. The "facilities" of which he talks 
 are in truth so many random proposals of a 
 man wholly ignorant of the details of the Post 
 Office business, and his "suggestions" rather 
 embarrassed than assisted all attempts at inquiry 
 and examination for the purpose of giving them 
 a practical effect. Colonel Maberly proceeds : 
 " What we have always wished to ascertain from 
 Mr. Hill has been the exact plan by which we 
 should work out in detail his ' suggestions,* 
 if we were to carry them out, and to that we 
 have never yet been able to fix him ; I mean 
 how many men, and what means, he proposes 
 to employ to convey the letters from one office 
 to another; how many offices he proposes to 
 have; how many sorters, how many letter car- 
 riers in each walk, and the expence of them. 
 Let him work it out in detail, in the way in 
 which we work out a Post Office arrangement, 
 and then we can meet him."* 
 
 On the same point we now pass to the evi- 
 dence of Mr. Smith, a gentleman who appears 
 to have superintended the Twopenny Post for 
 more than thirty-eight years, a person of strong 
 observation, and exact knowledge of detail, and 
 as wholly free from party feelings as the cashier 
 of a bank. He admits that there may be an 
 Hourly Delivery, but that it would not be 
 
 * Report, p. 172.
 
 96 
 
 worth its cost. "It would require a new 
 strength of one hundred and eighty additional 
 letter carriers."* 
 
 This witness, being pressed on a favourite 
 suggestion of Mr. Hill, as to the saving of 
 labour and expence, " If, instead of bringing in 
 the letters to the head office, they were sorted 
 in the various branch offices, and delivered 
 within their respective districts thence," gives 
 the following opinion : " No ; my opinion is 
 decidedly the contrary ; ' the expence would be 
 considerably increased by sorting in the district 
 offices." Mr. Smith then states his reasons. 
 Now is the evidence of this experienced officer 
 to pass for nothing as weighed against the 
 utter ignorance of all detail upon the part of 
 Mr. Hill? 
 
 Again, as to another " facility" of Mr. Hill ; 
 the division of the districts into two parts for 
 the General and Twopenny Post letter carriers, 
 so that the one might be delivered indiscrimi- 
 nately, viz., the General and Twopenny Post 
 letters in the one part,f and the other in the 
 other part of London at the same tune. What 
 is the reply of this gentleman? "It would 
 answer no purpose ; it would delay the General 
 Post letters, and they could not get the letters 
 
 * Report, p. 231. 
 
 t See Report Mr. Smith's Evidence, p. 257.
 
 97 
 
 in sufficient time at Charing Cross, to deliver 
 the Twopenny with the General Post letters ; 
 they would be retarded if the number of General 
 Post letters were to be increased, and we should 
 require more force to deliver them." 
 
 The examination of this gentleman discloses a 
 fact which must not be passed over, though 
 forgotten by Mr. Hill, both in his evidence and 
 in his pamphlets. It was an attempt made by 
 the Post Office to carry into effect a " sug- 
 gestion" of Mr. Hill ; that of " giving increased 
 facilities for the delivery of letters in the suburbs 
 of London, by the use of omnibuses, and short 
 stages." All Mr. Hill's " suggestions" are 
 facilities; and he was as confident in this pro- 
 posal, as in those which he urged on the Com- 
 mittee in August last. But let Mr. Smith be 
 heard upon this point. He states that the plan 
 was suggested by Mr. Hill. One of the charges 
 brought against the establishment was that of 
 extravagance, and that we did not use the best 
 and cheapest means of getting in tenders for 
 contracts. " I said, By all means, let us do all 
 we can ; if we can save money and get the work 
 well done, let it be done." The attempt was 
 made, and the contracts laid before Mr. Hill, 
 who revised the conditions. After a great exer- 
 tion, two tenders only were procured ; one from 
 the London Parcels Delivery Company, and 
 another from a Hampstead carrier. The expe- 
 
 G
 
 98 
 
 riment was tried for three months, when the 
 failure was so complete, that the parties peti- 
 tioned to be released, and were accordingly 
 released.* 
 
 And yet this is the man whose dismissal, in 
 the language of Sir T. Wilde, was to be the 
 " KNELL ** of the Post Office reform, and whose 
 restoration was required to recover it from the 
 barbarism of ancient practice ; and by the new 
 spirit which his " suggestions" would introduce, 
 to render it again one of the abounding streams 
 of national revenue, to put to shame the anti- 
 quated system of Sir F. Freeling, and to show 
 that Penny Postage was entitled to take its 
 rank among the new discoveries and inven- 
 tions of the age. Like steam in our navigation 
 and railroads, it was to escape from the control 
 of space and time, and to add new sources of 
 wealth to an unproved civilization. 
 
 * Evid. Rep. p. 258.
 
 LORD LOWTHEB'S ADDITIONAL DELIVERY. 
 
 About September or October, 1842, Lord 
 Lowther established an additional delivery 
 within six miles of London. It is well known 
 that all places within six miles from the General 
 Post Office have six deliveries per diem ; within 
 three miles there are six and seven ; between 
 three and six miles there are five. Lord 
 Lowther gave an additional delivery to places 
 within six miles of London. Whether this 
 additional delivery has yet repaid the expence 
 of establishing it, we are unable to say; but 
 Mr. Hill will at least allow it to be a step in 
 the right path. Now this addition, according 
 to Mr. Smith, cost 3,500, or thereabout. Has 
 it repaid the expence? " No," says Mr. Smith, 
 " I do not think it has at present." He is again 
 interrogated as to the hourly delivery, and 
 answers in the same terms, " It would be 
 attended with considerable expence \ it could not 
 be carried out for less than 19,000 or 20,000 
 per annum." But is this experiment worth 
 trying on the crude notions of Mr. Hill, which 
 would require an increase of one-fifth of the 
 whole number of letters, to cover this increased 
 expence ; that is to say, an augmentation of at 
 
 least FOUR MILLIONS AND A HALF LETTERS in the 
 
 course of the year. And where were those new 
 correspondents to be found ? "I have often 
 
 G2
 
 100 
 
 been remonstrated with," says Mr. Smith, " upon 
 the inconvenience of repeated deliveries." " Your 
 letter carriers," say some, " are a perfect nui- 
 sance ; they are knocking at my door all the day 
 long." * 
 
 As respects this matter, Mr. Smith may surely 
 be considered a competent judge, and Mr. Hill 
 no judge at all ; for, with whatever confidence, 
 and however glibly he speaks of letter carriers 
 and the sorting department, he seems never to 
 have visited that branch of the establishment 
 more than three times altogether. f 
 
 Mr. Bokenham, Superintendent President of 
 the Inland Post Office, was also examined on 
 Mr. Hill's Hourly Deliveries ; and his evidence 
 confirms that of Mr. Smith, both as to the 
 expence and inefficiency of the project. J He is 
 of the same opinion as to another " suggestion" 
 of Mr. Hill; viz., the division of London into 
 ten different districts for Post Office purposes. 
 " I do not use the word impracticable, (he says) 
 but it really amounts to it in my opinion. The 
 effect of the branches would be this ; that every 
 Post Office in the kingdom would necessarily 
 have ten bags to make up for London ; the con- 
 sequence would be that the country postmaster 
 
 * See Evid. of Mr. Smith. Rep. 260 to 269. 
 
 f Report, Smith's Evid. 269. 
 J Evid. Report, Mr. Bokenham, passim.
 
 101 
 
 could never sort the London letters. It would 
 lead to endless confusion."* Again, supposing 
 this absurd project of Mr. Hill to be adopted, 
 Mr. Bokenham adds, " In the country they 
 must have 6000 bags instead of 600 to make up, 
 and we (the London Post Office) should have 
 6000 bags to open." It is needless to say what 
 increase of expence both in London and the 
 country this plan would involve. 
 
 It has been the misfortune of Mr. Hill, that 
 having first been successful in deceiving the 
 country into a notion that it would get an 
 enormous reduction of taxation, and would yet 
 raise nearly the same revenue by his Postage 
 reforms, he has at length deceived himself into 
 a belief that we are actually raising revenue 
 when there is none, and that every step which 
 he advances in increasing his deficiency by new 
 expenditure, will bring him nearer to that point 
 of his calculation with which he first set out: 
 namely, that if he were permitted in the first 
 instance to sacrifice a revenue of 1,600,000, he 
 should infallibly reproduce an income, minus 
 the sum sacrificed by 300,000 only, to the great 
 benefit of the public and to the relief of a 
 pressing burden. 
 
 If this object cannot be effected by one means, 
 Mr. Hill is always ready with another. If the 
 
 * Rport, p. 281.
 
 102 
 
 country people are slack in writing, it is not 
 because they want matter or occasion, but they 
 want, and therefore they must have a rural post 
 office in every village. The village post office, 
 like the village public-house, is to make its own 
 customers ; and people are to be led to take the 
 trouble of writing, as they are led to the 
 pleasure of drinking, by having the means at 
 hand for the immediate gratification of their 
 passion. 
 
 If letters fall off in manufacturing towns, it is 
 not because business has declined or become 
 stationary, but because there are no district 
 divisions or new facilities for separating and 
 sorting the bags. If a tradesman in Market- 
 street, Manchester, does not write to Cateaton- 
 street, as he certainly ought to do every hour, for 
 the public good, if not for his own business, it 
 is because his letter must go mixed up with 
 some "universal bag" of London letters, instead 
 of being confined to one bag especially sorted 
 and ticketed in the Manchester post town for 
 the Cateaton district. The grievance also, of his 
 London correspondent is precisely of the same 
 kind, and his letters are equally obstructed by 
 the obstinate non-compliance of the Post Office 
 with Mr. Hill's " FACILITIES." When his letter 
 reaches Manchester, it has to undergo three 
 sortings in the place of one; and instead of 
 being delivered by a special district letter carrier,
 
 103 
 
 he is kept upon the rack by having to wait for 
 the more circuitous conveyance of the ordinary 
 "street postman. 
 
 Thus, in the opinion of Mr. Hill, "Man is 
 made for the Post Office, and not the Post Office 
 for man." Letter-writing is as much a natural 
 propensity, and as in controllable a passion, as 
 love, avarice, or ambition. The object of seduc- 
 tion, the village or district Post Office, is only to 
 be at hand, and the appetite runs headlong to 
 its gratification. Men and women are only so 
 many machines for writing letters, and can only 
 be considered as fulfilling their destiny when 
 "hourly" contributing to the penny fund. Give 
 us a Post Office " Virginibus puerisque scribi- 
 mus indocti doctique" passim. 
 
 Mr. Hill appears, also, to entertain another 
 strange fancy, that, like those newly-invented 
 machines which now sweep our streets, the Post 
 Office is to gather into its capacious arms, not 
 only the whole correspondence of the country 
 by letter, but " quicquid agunt homines" what- 
 ever is the subject of conveyance or transmission. 
 Specimens of vegetable seeds ; cuttings of trees 
 from Professor Henslow's shrubberies ; wet 
 mosses, new manures, books of patterns, fish, 
 game, oils, patent medicines, venison, and tur- 
 tle ; in short, to act as a general Carrier Com- 
 pany, and to break up those humbler occupations 
 hitherto performed by a lower species of capital
 
 104 
 
 and industry, and to create a kind of huckster, 
 a monopoly of parcel carriages for the purposes 
 of government revenue. Is there anything 
 gained by way of expedition in making the 
 Post Office a competitor with the general carrier, 
 by this conveyance of parcels of all descriptions, 
 and of parcels which, in many cases, the 
 senders lying secret and hid, are not only com- 
 mon nuisances, but very frequently offensive, 
 nauseous, and, in a very high degree, mischievous 
 and dangerous ? None, whatever. Bankers' par- 
 cels are rarely delivered by the Post ; first, be- 
 cause the hazard is greater ; and next, because 
 the parcel, under ordinary circumstances, is not 
 so quickly delivered. Again, was it ever intended 
 by these Post Office reforms, to run a race against 
 the ordinary carrier, to beat down his fair profits 
 by Post Office competition, and to extend a 
 branch of revenue, hitherto so honourable and 
 profitable, when earned and collected within its 
 proper sphere, by applying it to purposes of 
 traffic and dealing, totally alien from the original 
 principle of a Government Board? 
 
 Before we part with Mr. Bokenham, as we 
 shall not have to return to his evidence, except 
 for a very few details, it is due to him to exhibit 
 his exposure of another of the "Suggestions" 
 of Mr. Hill ; that of arranging the letters for 
 despatch on the evening by the post- towns, alpha- 
 betically, instead of by the divisions into particu-
 
 105 
 
 lar roads. The Post Office, he says,* is " a mass 
 of details" of which, we regret to say, Mr. Hill 
 is altogether ignorant, having never probably 
 condescended to direct his attention to it. He 
 proceeds : " The plan for sorting might be 
 adopted as regards post-towns, but it would be 
 of no use whatever ; it would not save anything 
 in the Post Office ; in fact, I must confess I was 
 surprised that Mr. Hill had proposed such a 
 plan, after seeing the details of the Post Office. 
 The difficulty in getting the letters to their final 
 places of disposal, would be very great by alpha- 
 betical sorting; for instance, there are a number 
 of letters addressed to Strathfieldsaye ; (the 
 Duke himself will never address to Hartford 
 Bridge, but simply Strathfieldsaye ;) such letters, 
 with an alphabetical sorting, would be sent to 
 letter S, whereas they ought to go to letter H. 
 There are thousands of other cases to which the 
 same thing applies. I have marked in the book 
 produced a number of places which we think it 
 necessary the sorters should know at once. The 
 objection applies to every place in the kingdom, 
 with the exception of about 620 post-towns." 
 
 Here we have another of Mr. Hill's " Sugges- 
 tions " proved to be nugatory ; not, indeed, that 
 he omitted to look into the matter at the Post 
 Office, for, according to Mr. Bokenham, helmet 
 
 * Report, p. 286.
 
 106 
 
 nim there three times. (Query, Was Mr. Hill ever 
 there more ?) Mr. Bokenham frequently explained 
 the sorting system to him, but whether or not he 
 wanted a capacity to profit by it, it is difficult to 
 say. It is, however, a piece of intolerable assur- 
 ance, to persist in the enumeration of these plans, 
 after the unanswerable evidence of Mr. Boken- 
 ham. What has been done by the silent and 
 unostentatious labours of the present Postmaster- 
 General in this department, without any prompt- 
 ing, or suggestion, by Mr. Hill, will be shown in 
 a future page of this pamphlet.* 
 
 Before we dismiss the " suggestion" of 
 Hourly Delivery, we must beg the reader's 
 short attention to the evidence of the Post- 
 master-General ; indisputably, at the outset, 
 favourable to Mr. Hill's general plan, but 
 obviously very shy at his recent " suggestions." 
 He considers himself, and very properly, bound 
 by the Treasury, by whom, on hinting an 
 alteration, he is invariably met with the ques- 
 tion Will it pay its expences ? " If I knew," 
 says his Lordship, " where an additional accom- 
 modation could be given, without its costing 
 money, or where there was a fair prospect of 
 a return, I would adopt it almost without the 
 sanction of the Treasury. But in the present 
 staTe of the finances, they are very slow, or 
 
 * Report, p. 289.
 
 107 
 
 at least very considerate, before they will 
 sanction any measure which will cost some 
 10,000." 
 
 Now Mr. Hill's Hourly Delivery would have 
 hazarded, according to Mr. Bokenham's esti- 
 mate, 20,000 ; and if the two classes of letter 
 carriers were embodied, 26,500. 
 
 " If I go to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 and say we wish to do this and that, he says, 
 What will it cost how many letters will there 
 be?"* Thus, we see, the course taken by this 
 high officer, is just what might be expected. 
 He must consult the Treasury before he venture 
 on any considerable outlay. 
 
 Lord Lowther concurs with Colonel Maberly, 
 Mr. Smith, and Mr. Bokenham, as to the effect 
 of an Hourly Delivery ; that it was a question 
 of expence, and with the consolidation of the 
 letter carriers, would cost the Post Office the 
 large sum stated. "And, as Mr. Hill," he 
 adds, " complains of the expences incurred by 
 the late improvements, as respects the additional 
 delivery within six miles of London, he refers 
 Sir R. Peel to the report of Mr. Smith, 1st 
 September, 1842."f 
 
 * Lord Lowther's Evidence, Report. 
 
 f See Extract of a Letter from the Postmaster-General 
 to Sir R. Peel, on the suggestions of Mr. R. Hill, Report, 
 p. 334.
 
 108 
 
 OF THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE POST OFFICE 
 SYSTEM ORIGINATING IN ITSELF. 
 
 It is strongly urged by Mr. Hill, (Rep. 84) 
 that the opinion adopted by the Government, 
 "that the further progress in Post Office im- 
 provement may be left to the Post Office itself," 
 is contrary to all past experience, and is contra- 
 dicted by measures recently adopted by that 
 establishment. He then notices the improve- 
 ment made by Mr. Palmer more than 60 years 
 ago, who succeeded indeed, he says, in accom- 
 plishing an almost total revolution in the Post 
 Office ; but, " the utter hopelessness of improve- 
 ments originating in the Post Office itself, has 
 been practically acknowledged by the different 
 governments which have been in office for the 
 last fifteen years." Again, " Not only has the 
 Post Office," says Mr. Hill, "been barren of 
 improvement itself, but its weight is thrown into 
 the opposite scale." In justice to the officers 
 of the present day, it must be admitted that they 
 act strictly according to the unvarying precedents 
 of former times. 
 
 " With regard to my own plan," he proceeds, 
 " considering that it was recommended by a 
 committee of the House of Commons, that it 
 passed through one House of Parliament by a 
 large majority , and through the other without a
 
 100 
 
 division; and, moreover, that the opposition it 
 received in part was not to the plan itself, but 
 .only to its being carried into execution in the 
 then depressed state of the revenue, it will not 
 be held presumptuous in me to cite the deter- 
 mined hostility of the Post Office, which found 
 vent in the most unqualified expressions of con- 
 demnation and contempt, as furnishing even a 
 stronger proof than those drawn from the treat- 
 ment which was received by the earlier Post 
 Office reformers ; so that to deliver my plan into 
 the hands of the gentlemen of St. Martin's-le- 
 Grand, is in truth, to abandon it to its fate, which 
 must either be neglect, or a mutilation more 
 unfortunate in its consequences than even utter 
 neglect." 
 
 There is an impertinence in these observations 
 which renders it almost difficult to deal civilly 
 with Mr. Hill himself. So then, Mr. Hill is a 
 martyr to the authorities of the Post Office ; and 
 instead of the public being a victim to his absurd 
 speculations, he has been undone by a con- 
 spiracy amongst the officers of this establishment! 
 The charge is incredible, considering that 
 Mr. Hill, upon the adoption of his plan, was 
 taken into the immediate patronage of the 
 Government itself; that he was appointed the 
 chief superintendent of his own measure, and 
 actually received a salary of 1500 per annum, 
 for carrying it into effect ; add to which, that he
 
 had an office at the Treasury, and possessed the 
 privilege of dictating, or, at least, of enforcing 
 all details ; and that although he failed to render 
 himself acquainted with his business by a vigo- 
 rous attention to the practical routine of the 
 Post Office, he encountered no obstruction 
 from the officers of the establishment. If Mr. 
 Hill was resisted, he was at the elbow of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and had a prompt 
 remedy against any reluctance or impediment. 
 The Secretary of the Post Office, Colonel 
 Maberly, had been appointed only a short time 
 previously, by Mr. Baring himself, and was, 
 therefore, the last person likely to obstruct him. 
 It is true, that the Earl of Lichfield, at that time 
 at the head of the establishment, had stated, 
 " that, were the plan of Mr. Hill adopted, 
 instead of a million and a half being added to 
 the revenue, after the expenditure of the estab- 
 lishment was provided for, he was quite sure 
 that such a loss would be sustained, as would 
 compel them to have recourse to Parliament for 
 money to maintain the establishment." But it 
 is equally true that the Earl of Lichfield had 
 too high a sense of public duty to obstruct the 
 progress of a law, and accordingly Mr. Hill 
 suffered no impediment in this quarter. Mr. 
 Hill, indeed, though he is always employing the 
 term " obstruction," nowhere proves any thing 
 of the kind. The witnesses called before the
 
 Ill 
 
 Committee are severally and acutely examined 
 upon this point; but what are their answers? 
 That every facility was given to him ; every 
 hint received; every "suggestion" cautiously 
 examined ; nothing withheld, and no attempt to 
 thwart him in any one thing. If in any part of 
 their statement and evidence the officers of the 
 Post Office are triumphant, it is clearly in this, 
 which is not a matter of opinion or insinuation, 
 but of positive fact. Observe, moreover, the 
 display of himself, and by himself, on a smart 
 cross-examination by the Committee. If ever 
 there was a living spectacle of a witness forced 
 to recant, and almost swallow his words, 
 escaping from a direct charge into an indirect 
 implication ; even giving up that upon a pres- 
 sure, and chased, after many shiftings and wind- 
 ings, into a mere vagueness and generality, 
 the reader has only to refer to Mr. Hill's 
 evidence, pp. 71 74, of the Keport. 
 
 It is true, indeed, that several of the gentle- 
 men of the Post Office very clearly foresaw and 
 lamented, as the Government now probably 
 does, the total failure and miscarriage of this 
 piece of folly and presumption on the part of 
 Mr. Hill, the Penny Post measure. And herein 
 consists the difference between the opponents of 
 Mr. Palmer, and of the earlier Post Office 
 reformers, and the case of Mr. Hill. Mr. Pal- 
 mer's measure, though opposed at the begin-
 
 112 
 
 \ 
 
 ning, was ultimately successful. Mr. Hill's 
 plan, opposed, as he says, by the Post Office 
 in the beginning, has been ultimately unsuc- 
 cessful, and has every prospect of continuing 
 so. Mr. Palmer's plan laid the basis of a solid 
 and increasing revenue; it gave a degree of 
 security before unknown to Post Office corre- 
 spondence; and keeping within the proper 
 province and business of a Post Office, it be- 
 came a source of public improvement, and was 
 adopted as an example by all the governments 
 of Europe. 
 
 But what has Mr. Hill's plan effected ? It 
 has falsified every promise held out ; it has 
 prostrated the public revenue; instead of being 
 auxiliary to safety, it has so impaired the former 
 security of transmission, that a money letter 
 sent by the post, since Mr. Hill's plan, might as 
 well, says the Postmaster-General, " be cast 
 down on the pavement of the street." It has 
 changed the whole character of the department ; 
 it has pretty nearly converted it into a parcel 
 and conveyance delivery company, a public 
 general carrier, a kind of flying bazaar, instead 
 of maintaining its former and permanently 
 honourable position as a board of revenue, and 
 a safe and effective instrument of conducting the 
 correspondence of a great commercial empire. 
 
 But it now answers the purpose of Mr. Hill to 
 throw the odium of his miscarriage upon Colonel
 
 113 
 
 Maberly, Mr. Bokenham, Mr. Smith, and others, 
 who certainly still retain their opinions of the 
 folly and empiricism of a rash projector, and 
 have ventured to pronounce that every one of 
 his late " suggestions," so far as they have any 
 novelty, to be only a further step in advance of 
 the waste of public money, but who, as faithful 
 public officers and honourable men, have most 
 solemnly stated, in answer to the pressure of 
 questions, as pointed as they well could be 
 that so far from obstructing the plans of Mr. 
 Hill, or suppressing them on examination and 
 trial, that they have, with a uniform zeal and 
 promptitude, given him all the confidence and 
 assistance in their power. 
 
 Having thus disposed of Mr. Hill's " Hourly 
 Delivery," let us take another of his " sugges- 
 tions," or " facilities," as he is pleased to call 
 them ; that of the establishment of District 
 Posts. The plan appears to be this, (Report 
 p. 68.) 
 
 DISTRICT POSTS. 
 
 " In Manchester," says Mr. Hill, " instead of 
 making up one great bag for all London letters, 
 they might make up, say eleven bags, one 
 for each of the ten districts, into which I pro- 
 pose to divide London, and the eleventh to 
 contain those letters which could not be readily 
 
 H
 
 sorted in Manchester. According to my plan, 
 there would be one office near to the terminus 
 of each railway ; the letters coming from Man- 
 chester would, therefore, be taken in the first 
 instance to the office in the neighbourhood of 
 Euston Square: there they would be assorted, 
 if not previously sorted at Manchester, for the 
 ten districts, into which I propose London 
 should be divided, and the letters for each dis- 
 trict sent to such district." He goes on further 
 to state, that he would attach district letter- 
 carriers to each office; but he here skilfully 
 avoids going into any matters of detail ; being in 
 truth afraid, and unequal to it; but with con- 
 summate artifice thus explains himself to the 
 Committee : " But this I consider matter of 
 detail, which is rather a refinement of the plan." 
 Again, "It is a matter of detail, into which, 
 perhaps, it is not the desire of the Committee 
 that I should enter." (Report, p. 68.) 
 
 " A refinement of the plan, rather than an 
 essential feature of the plan ; it is a matter of 
 detail!" 
 
 What does Mr. Hill mean by a refinement 
 of the plan, and not a matter of detail ? Is not 
 the whole meant to be a practical improvement, 
 and is not detail the main and most important 
 feature in any plan proposed for practice in 
 a public office of such complex business as the 
 Post Office? How strongly does this confirm
 
 115 
 
 the observation previously made by Colonel 
 Maberly : " I could never get any details from 
 Mr. Hill, I could never fix him to anything." Is 
 it not, indeed, obvious, in all his " suggestions," 
 severally and collectively, that he thus proves 
 himself to be utterly destitute of all useful know- 
 ledge on the subject ; that he speaks at random, 
 and upon guess, and when pressed upon any 
 point, flies at once from all explanation of 
 details, and has nothing to say or offer as to the 
 possibility in practice of carrying out his propo- 
 sals? Is it not evident that this "suggestion," 
 in particular, would almost wholly do away 
 with the necessity of the General Post Office, 
 accumulate new expences, and cast the deliveries 
 into confusion ? 
 
 It is to be regretted that the examination of 
 the Committee on this point had not been 
 pressed further; but, unfortunately, the gentle- 
 men did not see, perhaps could not at the 
 moment see, the importance of pressing it. If 
 they had followed up the examination, Mr. Hill 
 would have entangled himself in such a manner, 
 as to preclude all escape. This will be seen 
 upon looking to Mr. Bokenham's Evidence, 
 p. 283, Questions 2238 down to 2259. It is 
 evident that Mr. Hill, when pressed to explain 
 his plan, caught a glimpse on a sudden of the 
 error into which he had fallen ; and, as the Post 
 Office was fully aware of its absurdity, and 
 
 H 2
 
 116 
 
 proposed to show its impracticability, he wisely 
 made the best retreat he could, by saying, in 
 answer to Quest. 2245, that he was not certain 
 that he did not " for a moment forget that [his 
 previous] statement." It is evident, that he 
 directly contradicts himself, and forgets what he 
 stated in answer to question 229. This evidence 
 of Mr. Hill's has reference to letters to and from 
 London, and not to the local letters for the 
 environs of London, and was properly met by 
 the evidence of Mr. Bokenham, the head of 
 the Inland and Foreign Office. 
 
 But, let us hear upon this point, Mr. Smith, 
 thirty-eight years in the office and superintend- 
 ency of the Twopenny Post. He is asked, " Do 
 you consider that there would be any saving of 
 labour and expence, if, instead of bringing in 
 the letters to the head office to be sorted there, 
 they were previously sorted at the various 
 branch offices, and thence delivered within their 
 several districts ?" " No ; my opinion is deci- 
 dedly contrary. The expence would be deci- 
 dedly increased, by having district offices. We 
 formerly had two offices, one in Gerrard-street, 
 and the other in Lombard-street. Difficulty was 
 found in passing the letters from one office to 
 the other." This witness proceeds further to 
 state, that a consolidation was afterwards 
 effected by the Postmaster General; that it 
 had at first saved nine clerks and some portion
 
 117 
 
 of time; but, that afterwards, it had been found 
 necessary to have a strong, and therefore, costly 
 force at head-quarters to meet those duties 
 arising from concentration. 
 
 Here again, is an exposure of the ignorance 
 of Mr. Hill, as to all detail. He appears not to 
 have known even, that his " suggestion" of sepa- 
 ration and consolidation had previously been 
 tried, and that the result was as above stated. 
 " This district division," concludes Mr. Smith, 
 " would be really impracticable, and lead to 
 endless confusion." [P. Report, 281.] 
 
 The reader will observe, that the "suggestions" 
 of Mr. Hill throughout are supported by his 
 own authority solely; they have no testimony 
 of others to recommend or enforce them, no 
 collateral confirmation whatever. They stand 
 upon opinion merely ; upon the same opinion 
 which set up stage-coaches and omnibuses to 
 convey letters around the suburbs of London ; 
 and which caused such a ludicrous failure in the 
 course of a few months. It is precisely the 
 same as respects his project of consolidating the 
 two corps of letter-carriers, which, in the judg- 
 ment of all the witnesses, could not be done 
 without great delay and expence; a delay, 
 which would interrupt the general business of 
 the Post Office, and an expence, for which there 
 would exist no chance of compensation. If the 
 reader will peruse the evidence of Mr. Bokenham
 
 118 
 
 on this subject, to which we have referred, he 
 will at once be convinced that this project of 
 Mr. Hill's is as raw and crude as the rest ; that it 
 proceeds from his total ignorance of all business, 
 and is no more to be ascribed to the Post Office 
 prejudices of the witness, than the result of any 
 sum in plain arithmetic is to be charged to the 
 caprice of the reckoner. 
 
 It really gives us pain to be compelled to 
 pursue this Post Office mystic through the rest 
 of his " suggestions," all brought forward with 
 so much arrogance, and all repeated and per- 
 sisted in, with the same conceited pertinacity, 
 against common sense and experience, and the 
 overwhelming evidence of all the practical officers 
 of the Post Office. 
 
 RURAL POSTS. 
 
 We now come to another" suggestion" of Mr. 
 Hill's, the extension of Rural Posts. We must 
 first see, whether he has the slightest conception 
 of his own plan ; and next, whether all that is 
 practicable on this head has not been carried 
 out by the Post Office. Previous to the change 
 of the ministers, in August, 1841, a Treasury 
 Minute had been made on the subject, we pre- 
 sume on the prompting of Mr. Hill ; for a more 
 rambling, inconclusive note cannot easily be 
 imagined. It will be found in the Appendix to
 
 119 
 
 the last Keport, 144. Let those who can under- 
 stand it, read it. After a preamble of enormous 
 length, it appears to mean this : " What my 
 Lords propose is founded on the principle, that 
 the number of the offices founded in every dis- 
 trict should be somewhat in the proportion of 
 the amount of population and extent of surface 
 combined ; that is to say, they should be nearer 
 to one another where the population is dense, 
 but more numerous as compared with the in- 
 habitants where the population is scattered." 
 
 After this pompous announcement, in lan- 
 guage scarcely intelligible, of a very common- 
 place notion, reference is made to the registrars' 
 districts, and something is said with respect to 
 the establishment of a Post Office in each of the 
 four hundred registrars' districts, which would 
 cost, probably, about 8000 per annum : a sum 
 " which, in the opinion of my Lords, would be 
 well expended in effecting so important an 
 extension of the benefits of cheap, rapid, and 
 secure communication by post." 
 
 Their Lordships make no exact estimate of the 
 cost of these Rural Post Offices ; but it is their 
 desire, " that should the cost of establishing any 
 single Post Office exceed 50, a special report 
 should be made to the Board, and they direct 
 the Postmaster-General to carry their views into 
 effect, as completely, as early, and as economi- 
 cally as possible."
 
 120 
 
 After explaining that these Post Offices have 
 not been hitherto regulated upon any well- 
 defined principle, Mr. Hill recommends that an 
 Official Post should be established in every 
 registrar's district, according to the Treasury 
 minute of August, 1841 ; that the system should 
 be extended to smaller districts, by establishing 
 weekly Posts in every village and hamlet, in- 
 creasing the frequency of such Posts in propor- 
 tion to the number of letters ; he proposes that 
 this system, if needful, should be extended to 
 England and Ireland, and concludes by esti- 
 mating the expence at an outlay of about 
 70,000 per annum, " which," he says, " would 
 suffice for the addition of six hundred daily 
 Posts, and many thousand weekly Posts; in 
 short, for the completion of the whole plan of 
 rural distribution, as here indicated." And when 
 it is considered that the arrangement would in 
 all probability add one-third to the population 
 now included within the range of the Post Office, 
 there can scarcely be a doubt that the increased 
 receipts would far more than cover the additional 
 expenditure. 
 
 Here, also, Mr. Hill gives us no sufficient 
 facts from whence to infer such a conclusion : it 
 is all mere opinion. 
 
 The Post Office would naturally pause before 
 they carried into effect the " suggestion," in the 
 manner proposed. Mr. Hill's proposal of con-
 
 solidating the two corps of letter carriers, and 
 his "hourly" delivery in London and the 
 suburbs, had already been estimated at an ex- 
 pence of little short of 30,000 per annum ; and 
 his rural fdte, according to his own account, 
 amounted to 70,000 more. Thus, there were 
 two projects threatening to consume the whole 
 remaining revenue of the department in an un- 
 tried speculation, estimating it as still produc- 
 ing a net surplus of 103,000 yearly. 
 
 Instead of adopting this " suggestion" of Mr. 
 Hill, the Postmaster-General preferred the wiser 
 course which is now in operation, and which 
 holds out the promise of benefiting the rural 
 districts without incurring any serious loss. 
 
 In a letter to the Lords of the Treasury, 
 August, 1843, Lord Lowther states in substance, 
 that he had found that the Treasury minute of 
 August, 1841, would be attended with many 
 practical difficulties ; and that being an arrange- 
 ment confined to England and Wales only, it 
 was partial in its operations, and open to strong 
 objections on that account. His Lordship, there- 
 fore, submitted as a general principle, First, 
 That all places, the letters of which exceeded a 
 hundred per week, should be deemed entitled to 
 a Receiving Office. Secondly, That when two 
 or more small places could be combined within 
 one carrier's walk, the whole district should be 
 considered but as one post. Thirdly, That the
 
 122 
 
 expence of setting up any Post should be limited 
 to 50, according to the Treasury minute of 
 August, 1841, which he proposed to adopt. 
 
 We need scarcely add, that this sensible and 
 economical plan was immediately adopted by a 
 Treasury minute of June, 1843.* 
 
 Thus we have something distinct and practical 
 for the establishment of these Rural Posts, 
 instead of the vague and random proposal of 
 Mr. Hill, for establishing "a Rural Post" in 
 every village and hamlet, increasing the fre- 
 quency of such Posts according to the number 
 of letters." f 
 
 REGISTRATION OF LETTERS, MONEY ORDERS, ETC. 
 
 We must now draw attention to another 
 branch of Mr. Hill's " suggestions," his plan for 
 improvement in the registration of letters, money 
 orders, &c. But the reader will bear in recollec- 
 tion, that the money-order office and establish- 
 ment originated with the Post Office, and not with 
 Mr. Hill ; no other single measure came from 
 him but the newly-discovered Penny uniform- 
 ity ; Mr. Hill contends, then, the revenue derived 
 from the Post Office is a tax, and that a tax 
 ought to be equally levied from all, that the 
 cost of conveyance is so trifling, that it ought 
 
 * Appendix to Report, 149. f Hill's Evid. Report, p. 38.
 
 123 
 
 not to be taken into consideration. But he is 
 mistaken in calling postage a tax : it is in fact a 
 monopoly, and not a tax, a profit upon the 
 carriage of letters. 
 
 A government-monopoly is for the benefit of 
 the public revenue, and exists for the sole pur- 
 pose of profit. Nothing, therefore, can be so 
 ignorantly absurd as this mode of reasoning by 
 Mr. Hill : that because government possesses 
 this monopoly, it is therefore under an obligation 
 to do its work for NOTHING, and to afford a 
 public accommodation, at an enormous outlay 
 and expenditure in the language of Mr. Hill, 
 " whether in any particular instance it paid or 
 did not pay ! " * 
 
 Mr. Hill had previously told the Committee 
 that the means which he had been long urging 
 for giving security to correspondence, were, 
 1st, The establishment of a cheap system of 
 registration, with a view to the security of jewel- 
 lery, and other articles of value, as well as money; 
 2dly. The adoption of receipts, for a small fee 
 to be given by the Post Office, if required,f when 
 a letter is posted ; and 3dly, the extension of 
 the money-order system to every Post Office in 
 the United Kingdom. J He afterwards explains 
 himself on this subject. 
 
 * Rep. p. 69. Q. 247. f Rep. p. 75. 
 
 \ Rep. p. 27. There are also some minor " Suggestions," to 
 which the reader is referred, Rep. 41.
 
 124 
 
 " The present fee for registration is much too 
 high; the registered letters are very few not 
 more than 300 per diem, or, on an average, about 
 2000 per week ; the consequences are frequent 
 inconvenience and loss to the public; continual 
 prosecution and punishment, and no inconsider- 
 able injury to the revenue. Reduce the fee say, 
 in the first instance, to 6d., and, afterwards, as 
 far as may be consistent with sound policy. 
 The Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, in 
 their Tenth Report, recommended that the fee 
 should not exceed 2d. Colonel Maberly pro- 
 posed 6d. But now the Post Office objects even 
 to a 6d. fee, on the ground, that, with that re- 
 duction, the registered letters would be so nu- 
 merous as to produce a detention of the mails an 
 apprehension altogether unfounded." (Rep. 41.) 
 
 This plan of a reduced fee upon registration, 
 can only be examined, first, upon its own prin- 
 ciple, and the experience of practical persons, 
 and next upon its general bearing upon the other 
 branches of Post Office business. 
 
 It has already been stated by persons best 
 acquainted with the Post Office, that such is the 
 serious insecurity of conveying money by the 
 Post under Mr. Hill's system, that a letter posted 
 with money in it might as well be thrown down 
 in the street as to be put into the Post Office. 
 But is it evident that a reduction of the fee 
 would increase the public security ? Money sent
 
 125 
 
 through the Money Order Office is a safe trans- 
 mission, because liable to the simple risk of the 
 personation of the party to whom it is sent, or 
 forgery ; but articles of value, however registered, 
 must involve the additional hazards of robbery, 
 subtraction, and interception, and therefore 
 the extension of the system became well 
 worthy of the grave consideration of the 
 Treasury. Money orders offered no tempta- 
 tion to clerks and servants; the transmission 
 of jewels, etc., afforded a very dangerous 
 one. Again, the condition in which the govern- 
 ment was here placed as a carrier without re- 
 sponsibility, naturally called for the greatest 
 caution, that it should not invite the public by 
 holding out a low premium to engage in a dan- 
 gerous adventure, and to undertake an office in 
 which, whatever its solicitude and good faith, it 
 could scarcely perform its own part of the con- 
 tract with reasonable satisfaction. 
 
 Mr. Hill knew very well that this matter had 
 been frequently canvassed at the Treasury, and 
 rejected upon the grounds stated by Lord 
 Lowther, First, That it was incompatible with 
 the despatch required in Post Office business. 
 Secondly, That the plan proposed by Mr. Hill 
 afforded no security to the public.* 
 
 Mr. Hill is here ignorant of the very rudiments 
 
 * Report, 335.
 
 126 
 
 of his office. The Post Office was established for 
 correspondence and communication, and was 
 never intended for a common carrier, more espe- 
 cially of that description which should be per- 
 mitted to shift off the common law responsibility 
 of the realm, and stand answerable only in a 
 qualified and moral sense, that of using a certain 
 amount of caution in all articles entrusted to it. 
 
 It might, indeed, be suffered in some instances 
 to give facilities to this traffic ; but it was foreign 
 from its general purpose, and it had surely a 
 right to restrain this part of its very hazardous 
 trust by demanding a higher class of premium 
 in all cases where it undertook it; to guard 
 against excess, and to maintain its own cha- 
 racter and the public security. 
 
 The proper Post Office object of a high regis- 
 tration fee is to reduce the number of letters to 
 such a compass as the Post Office can deal with, 
 and in the words of Colonel Maberly, "To take 
 care that the public should not be sacrificed in 
 any experiment which we might undertake, and 
 should not risk the commerce and manufactures 
 of the country in any foolish experiment of their 
 own." 
 
 Mr. Bokenham's evidence is most important 
 on this point. He says he cannot agree with 
 Mr. Hill for many reasons.* " If the registra- 
 
 * Report, p. 299.
 
 127 
 
 tion fee be reduced, the undermentioned classes 
 will avail themselves of the system to an over- 
 whelming extent persons who now make use 
 of the Money Order Office, bankers, lawyers, 
 jewellers, and watchmakers, in every branch of 
 the trade." What, indeed, might not be ex- 
 pected from Mr. Hill's friends, Mr. Dent, the 
 chronometer maker; Mr. Travers, the grocer; 
 and even from Mr. Charles Knight, the pub- 
 lisher; and Professor Henslow? Again, this 
 witness being asked, if he imagined the expence, 
 incident to the increase of registration, would 
 exceed the revenue derived from it? He answered, 
 " Certainly not ; but it is the want of security 
 that I feel." He is again asked, "But might you 
 not leave the public to judge for themselves as 
 to the security ? " He replies, " I think not ; 
 I think a government department should not 
 lead the public to suppose that they afford a 
 security, when really no security exists." 
 
 Thus we see that the Treasury and the Post 
 Office object to the enlargement of registration, 
 which would be consequent on a reduced fee, 
 not that it involves the Post Office, a respon- 
 sible risk, (because, with respect to the Post 
 Office, there is no such legal risk,) but because it 
 holds out an unsafe and immoral mode of deal- 
 ing with the public ; unsafe as to the sender 
 of the registered letter, inasmuch as it tempts 
 him to incur a danger by the bribe of a cheap
 
 postage ; and immoral, as regards the servants of 
 the Post Office, as it holds out increased tempta- 
 tion to robbery and subtraction. 
 
 "The Post Office," says Mr. Bokenham,* 
 " is not responsible certainly ; but we take every 
 means to secure these letters ; we trace them from 
 hand to hand ; whereas, if we had a much larger 
 number of registered letters, they must go into 
 an office with twenty or thirty clerks, and we 
 could not tell which of the clerks took any of 
 the letters which might be lost." f 
 
 But does the objection to the reduced fee 
 stand upon these satisfactory grounds alone? 
 
 It is evident that a large increase in this 
 office would seriously encroach upon the Post 
 Office time, and, besides occasioning more 
 expence than it could repay, would cause the 
 most inconvenient detention of the mails. 
 
 It was upon these grounds that Mr. Hill's 
 "suggestion" was rejected, after a very cau- 
 tious examination, in the course of which it 
 is impossible to discover the slightest tincture of 
 any prejudice or ill feeling towards him. 
 
 MONEY ORDER SYSTEM. 
 
 Mr. Hill has his " suggestion," also, upon 
 this branch of the Post Office; but it seems, 
 
 Report, p. 296. f Report, 299.
 
 129 
 
 in the language of the Postmaster-General, to 
 be but " a very barren one." It is very easy to 
 say, " extend it to every post town and village 
 of the kingdom ;" but surely Mr. Hill ought 
 first to have provided himself with some details 
 as to its practicability and safety. No doubt, 
 indeed, can exist, that this system of money 
 orders is most beneficial to the middle classes; 
 it greatly abridges the temptation to carriers, 
 and has hitherto been worked profitably to 
 the Post Office. But a question here arises, 
 whether, if pushed to any greater extent, it 
 might not interfere too much with the private 
 trade of bankers. Such is the present facility 
 of this branch of the service, that any person 
 may now get, if he pleases, 500, provided 
 he takes it out in sums not exceeding 5 each. 
 Mr. Hill would absorb all the trade of the 
 country in a Post Office conveyance. But it is 
 surely a wise policy to attend to large classes of 
 individuals, and not to trample down by a 
 Government monopoly those who can never 
 equally compete with it. The general banking 
 system is a species of commerce with which the 
 public have long been acquainted, and which, if 
 left to itself, within its proper province, will be 
 found fully adequate to the wants of the coun- 
 try, and capable of discharging its particular 
 functions better than if they were all thrown 
 under the management of a Government Board. 
 
 i
 
 130 
 
 \ 
 
 It surely becomes a generous and high-minded 
 government to respect the feelings and interests 
 of large bodies of men in every innovation which 
 is made for the sake of profit and advantage, 
 and more especially in cases where there can be 
 no compensation. The money-order system is 
 now extending itself rapidly; it has increased 
 nearly twenty -fold within the last few years, and 
 requires no additional impulse. 
 
 MONEY PREPAYMENT. 
 
 This is another of Mr. Hill's " suggestions," 
 and would certainly be advisable, if it were 
 either practicable or consonant with public feel- 
 ing. There is no question, that, if every letter 
 were refused at the Post Office unless prepaid, 
 it would conduce to more simplicity in the 
 accounts ; but, we must be permitted to doubt 
 whether it would accomplish the magnificent 
 vision of Mr. Hill, "In getting rid of nearly 
 3,000 daily accounts between the receivers and 
 chief office in the London district only." On 
 this subject, the Postmaster General expresses 
 himself with his usual acuteness, "That if 
 compulsory payment would be a public con- 
 
 * Report, 308.
 
 131 
 
 venience upon one point, it would also be 
 intolerably harsh, as respects the public, on the 
 other." 
 
 PARCEL POST. 
 
 Mr. Hill has also another class of " sugges- 
 tions," by which he proposes to extend further 
 the duties of the Post Office, in matters not at 
 all connected with it. He would have a method 
 devised by the Post Office, of which he gives no 
 details, by which, maps, prints, and articles 
 liable to injury, should be put under trust to 
 the Post Office, and conveyed either with the 
 bags, or in large flat boxes and wooden cases, 
 so as to secure them against damp or injury. 
 Again, he would remove all restrictions as 
 to weight, and make railway stations under all 
 circumstances Post Offices, receiving letters until 
 the last moment. 
 
 As respects the transmission of prints, maps, 
 and other articles, we have already pointed out 
 the objection. Besides, how are these large 
 parcels to be carried by foot-messengers in 
 country districts, to which, doubtless, many 
 would be addressed? Surely, this unnecessary 
 loading of the shoulders of country postmen, 
 not receiving more than twelve shillings per 
 
 i2
 
 132 
 
 week, and walking so many miles ou foot, 
 would be at once oppressive and useless. There 
 are public means of conveyance for this large 
 dealing of trade and commerce just as expe- 
 ditious. 
 
 Next, as to the removing the restrictions of 
 weight, Mr. Hill does not explain as to what 
 extent he would carry this relaxation ; and if 
 the ordinary postage be paid of Id. per oz., we 
 know of no limitation at present. He suggests, 
 however, that parcels containing a certain weight, 
 might perhaps, be carried at even a reduced rate; 
 such parcels to be invariably prepaid, and to be 
 marked " parcel post," where it was intended to 
 claim the privilege. "This arrangement," he 
 adds, " would not only afford a considerable reve- 
 nue, but by justifying more frequent deliveries 
 in the several districts, would greatly conduce 
 to the perfection of Post Office mechanism ; 
 whilst arrangements were made with contractors 
 to carry mails by weight, they, as well as the 
 public, would profit by the change. The con- 
 venience of such an arrangement in communi- 
 cating with the rural districts, (to which it might 
 perhaps, in the first instance be confined,) would 
 be very great indeed. 
 
 But surely this dreamy nonsense is wholly 
 unworthy of comment; it has neither the par- 
 donable enthusiasm of a projector to recommend 
 it, and still less anything which bears upon
 
 133 
 
 practice and business. We are told, indeed, by 
 Mr. Hill, that there is " a Banghy post," called 
 a " parcel post," established in the East Indies. 
 Our good friend and ally, Mohammed Ali, Pasha 
 of Egypt, has probably another. But what of 
 all this, except that barbarous countries have 
 one mode of doing business, and European 
 knowledge and civilization another? 
 
 Besides, Mr. Hill must have known of the 
 complaints in the inland offices, of the inconve- 
 nience created by the multiplication of packages.* 
 Mr. Bokenham was interrogated upon this point. 
 " Packages are attended," he says, " with much 
 inconvenience ; they require more space for sort- 
 ing, and small letters are very apt to get entan- 
 gled in them. There is, also, a further inconve- 
 nience in the kind of article conveyed in them. 
 I have seen some of the mail-bags coming up in 
 such a filthy state, that they were scarcely fit to 
 be touched fish, game, oil, and every kind of 
 article." Mr. Dennison. " Do you mean to say 
 that the Post Office carry fish and game?" 
 "Yes ; they have been reduced to it by the 
 Penny Postage; the stench is so bad in the 
 Office, that sometimes you can scarcely breathe 
 
 init."t 
 
 But what would be the state of things, if a 
 
 * Col. Maberly's Evidence, p. 237. 
 f Mr. B.'s Evidence, p. 311.
 
 134 
 
 " parcel post" were to be established on Mr. 
 Hill's plan the present restrictions as to weight 
 removed altogether, and at a reduced rate of 
 charge ? Instead of revenue, it would obviously 
 cause an enormous increase of expence in the 
 Post Office charge on the country districts, where 
 Mr. Hill proposes it should commence; and 
 instead of tending to the perfection of Post 
 Office mechanism, it would only embarrass it. 
 
 Here, again, the answer of the Postmaster- 
 General meets every point; both as to the 
 suggested mode of conveying maps, prints, &c., 
 and as to the effect of removing all restrictions as 
 to the weight of parcels, and thereby encourag- 
 ing a parcel post. 
 
 "My opinion is against employing the Post 
 Officeas a parcel office." Again, as to the conveying 
 of prints, maps, and articles liable to injury, he 
 adds : " This would entail upon the Post Office 
 much additional labour, without any adequate 
 advantage. Parcels of such a description ought 
 to be forwarded by carriers. The Post, in my 
 opinion, was never intended for them. They are 
 the occasion of letters being hidden and lost, by 
 being enclosed in others. It would add much to 
 the burden of letter-carriers, and would render it 
 necessary to employ carts and gigs where Post- 
 messengers are now employed in the several dis- 
 tricts." The Committee saw the good sense of 
 this remark ; that it could result in nothing but
 
 135 
 
 mischief; would increase expence ; absorb reve- 
 nue, and infringe upon the fair rights of the 
 general carrier. 
 
 As to the making of Railway Stations, Post 
 Offices, and receiving letters to the last moment, 
 Mr. Hill here again shows his extraordinary 
 ignorance of detail. "Upon the Birmingham 
 and Great Junction lines," says Lord Lowther, 
 " where the letters could be sorted in the tra- 
 velling office, this ' suggestion' might be carried 
 out ; but it would be impracticable on the other 
 lines, unless a sorting office should be estab- 
 lished at each station. Besides, most of the 
 stations are at a considerable distance from the 
 post towns. I apprehend that very few letters 
 would be posted at them, and consequently ' the 
 too-late fees' would bear no proportion to the 
 expence which must be incurred. As regards 
 London and the great towns, I fear that such 
 offices would be quite overwhelmed with news- 
 papers." 
 
 Undoubtedly; and newspapers, Mr. Hill 
 knows, pay nothing. A traveller from Euston 
 square buys his Times when he starts for 
 Birmingham in the morning, and would doubt- 
 less send it back to his family by post, when he 
 had reached Watford or Tring.
 
 136 
 
 DAY MAILS. 
 
 Mr. Hill proposes to extend them to every 
 principal town, within eight hours of London ; 
 to start late, so as to be due in London by five 
 o'clock. This " suggestion" seems founded upon 
 that perpetual craving for letters, which Mr. Hill 
 thinks to be the ruling passion of the British 
 public. 
 
 In the establishment of day mails generally, 
 Mr. Hill admits that there is nothing new in 
 his " suggestions ;" in most instances they were 
 adopted previous to his plan. They have since 
 been largely increased. But we pass this point 
 for the present, as we shall have to return to it 
 before concluding. We shall simply confine 
 ourselves to the usefulness and practicability of 
 Mr. Hill's scheme as respects a delivery in 
 London, from certain distances, so late as five 
 o'clock in the afternoon. 
 
 What is the answer of Colonel Maberly to 
 this " suggestion ;" and what the observation 
 of the Postmaster-General, in his letter to Sir 
 B. Peel? 
 
 Colonel Maberly. " If there were day mails 
 not arriving before five o'clock, London letters 
 conveyed by them could not be delivered until 
 the next morning, except some few by the 
 Penny Post, which would be practically 
 useless."
 
 137 
 
 The Postmaster-General's remark is : " The 
 establishment of day mails to every provincial 
 town within an eight hours' journey to London, 
 must be attended with expence if carried out. 
 They are already established on those lines 
 where the amount of correspondence would 
 justify it, looking at the expence of the convey- 
 ance. With respect to the hour of the day 
 mails arriving in London, being fixed at five 
 o'clock, I am of opinion that it would answer no 
 good purpose whatever, beyond giving the pro- 
 vincial towns three hours longer for posting 
 forward their letters ; which would be more than 
 counterbalanced by the loss which the mer- 
 chants would sustain by the non-delivery of 
 their letters during the hours of business." 
 Surely this is an answer at once plain and intel- 
 ligible, and disposes of Mr. Hill's " suggestions" 
 on this point. 
 
 SAVINGS. 
 
 We now come to an important branch of 
 Mr. Hill's evidence before the committee; and 
 although we have examined some portion of it 
 under the previous heads of " Suggestions and 
 Facilities," it will require a further very strict 
 analysis, in order to exhibit the extraordinary 
 ignorance and delusions of this Post Office 
 Reformer.
 
 138 
 
 In page 90 of the Keport, Mr. Hill thus delivers 
 himself. " The questions to which your peti- 
 tioner sought to gain the attention of the 
 Treasury, involved savings to the extent of 
 hundreds of thousands of pounds ; an advantage 
 to the revenue entirely independent of that 
 augmentation of letters, which the whole expe- 
 rience of the Post Office shows may safely be 
 anticipated by the adoption of the measures 
 suggested by your petitioner." These savings, 
 he says, may be effected to an enormous amount 
 without any sacrifice of public convenience, or 
 loss to individuals. He proceeds, " I propose to 
 begin my estimate of reductions by an account 
 of specific savings recommended by me to the 
 Treasury between the months of April and 
 September, 1842. The aggregate of these esti- 
 mated savings appears, by Mr. Hill's account, 
 to amount to 276,000. He divides them into 
 four classes. 1. Specific savings recommended 
 to the Treasury between April and September, 
 1842, 93,000. 2. Additional items laid before 
 the committee, 45,000. 3. Savings in salaries 
 and allowances, special services and travelling 
 charges, 78,000. 4. Savings in ordinary convey- 
 ance, 49,000. Aggregate of estimated savings, 
 276,000. 
 
 In the first class, Mr. Hill takes credit for 
 7,000, by the mere simplification of the money 
 order system. But, when he is interrogated as
 
 139 
 
 to details, he appears to have none whatever, 
 and takes refuge in mere vague generalities. 
 Being asked upon what ground he rests this 
 estimate, he replies, " That is my present esti- 
 mate." "But, can you lay any details before 
 the committee, on which that estimate is formed ?" 
 Mr. Hill " The estimate is necessarily a very 
 rough one. The committee is well aware, that 
 access to the Post Office, or other sources of 
 information, has not been open to me since I left 
 the Treasury; therefore, I cannot profess to give 
 either a detailed or a very accurate account." 
 
 There is an effrontery in this, sometimes to be 
 found in a projector. You come forward as a 
 public accuser to convict the Post Office and the 
 Treasury alike of a wasteful undervaluing and 
 contempt of your recommendations of economy ; 
 you point to particular acts of profusion, and 
 even name precise sums, in which you allege the 
 extravagance to consist, and are not prepared 
 with one atom of proof.* 
 
 But, Mr. Hill must not escape in this way 
 from the heavy charge which he brings against 
 his former associates and allies. There was a 
 member on the committee who resolved to see a 
 little further. 
 
 Question "Lay before the committee such 
 data as you possess, on which you make the 
 total sum of 7,000." 
 
 * Report, 110.
 
 140 
 
 > 
 
 Mr. Hill " I consider the money order sys- 
 tem as now costing nearly 30,000 a year. I 
 have shown in the paper to which I have referred, 
 (we presume No. 10 in the appendix,) that the 
 present system is a very complex one, and I 
 have suggested means, by which its complexity 
 would be very greatly reduced. Of the extent 
 of the reduction, the Committee will be able to 
 judge, when I mention, that under the existing 
 arrangement, every money order payment is 
 entered ten times in the account, and that under 
 the arrangement which I propose, it would be 
 entered five times only. Speaking of the accounts, 
 I include the letters of advice, and all other 
 documents. These, and some other simplifica- 
 tions which I have recommended, would, in my 
 opinion, lead to a saving of at least one-fourth 
 of the present cost." 
 
 The member who put the question was, of 
 course, not satisfied with this rambling answer, 
 and pushed Mr. Hill again to something more 
 precise. 
 
 Question " The question is, Whether you can 
 lay before the Committee the details on which 
 you made that estimate in April last ? " 
 
 Mr. Hill " I did not make the estimate in 
 April last, but two or three days ago." 
 
 Question "Are you able to lay before the 
 Committee the information on which you made 
 that estimate?"
 
 141 
 
 Mr. Hill " I have no more information than 
 that which WILL be laid before the Committee 
 when the papers are printed, to which I have 
 alluded." 
 
 Now Mr. Hill had before told the Committee, 
 (of course he had forgotten this,) and professed 
 to hand in a list, amongst which this reduction 
 of 7000 is to be found as one of the " SPECIFIC 
 SAVINGS," which he had recommended to the 
 Treasury between April and September, 1842 \ 
 and it turns out that it was only concocted about 
 a fortnight after the Committee had been sitting. 
 This evidence was given on 17th of July last; 
 and the Committee began its sittings on 3rd 
 of July. 
 
 It will be remarked that Mr. Hill, though he 
 cannot state the precise cost of the money order 
 system, tells us positively, that every money 
 order payment is entered ten times in the 
 account, and that he proposes to cut down 
 the entries to five only. But in fact, does he 
 know anything about the matter, and is he 
 acquainted with this branch of Post Office busi- 
 ness better than any other ? He here speaks to 
 a matter of fact, and he will readily admit that 
 Colonel Maberly is an unexceptionable witness 
 on this point. 
 
 In page 206, Colonel Maberly is asked 
 
 Question " You have stated that the money 
 orders, in passing through the Post Office, have
 
 142 
 
 six entries in one case, and seven in another is 
 that really the whole number?" 
 
 COLONEL MABEBLY " I cannot recollect more, 
 and I do not think there are more." 
 
 Reference is then made to Mr. Hill's statement. 
 
 Question " It has been stated that there are 
 ten entries upon each money order." 
 
 Colonel Maberly " All that I can say is, that 
 I cannot see how that can be; I saw it in 
 Mr. Hill's evidence, and I went over it with the 
 gentleman at the head of the Money Order 
 Office, and I could not make out more entries 
 than I have mentioned." 
 
 Question " But of your own knowledge, you 
 are not prepared to say, whether it is so or not ?" 
 
 Colonel Maberly " I cannot see how there 
 can be any more, and I myself arranged the 
 system with the Accountant-General."* 
 
 What then becomes of Mr. Hill's savings, 
 by simplification and cutting down the ten 
 conjectural entries in the Money Order Office to 
 five? 
 
 It appears by the evidence, that Sir R. Peel 
 sent certain suggestions of Mr. R. Hill's to the 
 Postmaster-General; who, instead of writing a 
 pamphlet in reply, made short marginal notes, 
 which will be found in the Report, at page 335. 
 In one of these, Lord Lowther terms his " pro- 
 posed saving," a " barren suggestion, no better 
 
 * Report, p. 206.
 
 143 
 
 plan being proposed." And Colonel Maberly is 
 of opinion, that there can be no further improve- 
 ment, except by obtaining a daily account from 
 the Postmasters, which would be a matter of 
 extreme difficulty. But what basis is here laid 
 for Mr. Hill's proposed " saving" of 7000 per 
 annum? It is idle trash. 
 
 FRENCH POSTAL TREATY. 
 
 This is the next "suggestion" made by Mr. 
 Hill, by which, according to his statement, 
 4000 per annum has been lost to the country. 
 He has here provided himself with some details 
 and calculations which turn out to be altogether 
 erroneous ; indeed we scarcely know a more 
 melancholy ignorance than he shows upon this 
 head. 
 
 We should have thought Mr. Hill had been 
 long enough in the Treasury to learn, that trea- 
 ties, particularly of commerce, are not very easily 
 adjusted, and that there are two sides at least to 
 a bargain. Nations, like individuals, do not 
 always become enlightened precisely at the same 
 time. Previous to the reduction of postage the 
 British rates had been obviously too high ; those 
 of France were comparatively low. France might 
 thus be expected to say : " Your postage was 
 very high ours very moderate; you cannot call 
 upon us to reduce our postage to a still lower 
 rate, ours being already low, and yours having
 
 144 
 
 been so high ; and when, by reducing yours to 
 a half, you have only got to a fair standard." 
 
 We cannot but admit that this is fair Treasury 
 logic. Again, the French minister had not, 
 perhaps, such an original genius as Mr. Hill at 
 his elbow, and might think it reasonable not to 
 expose himself to a like " copper" shower with 
 ourselves preferring his accustomed francs and 
 half-francs to this promised copious descent of 
 sous and Hards. 
 
 But to talk of a loss to the revenue of 4000 
 a year, is a monstrous exaggeration. The ques- 
 tion was, whether the international postage should 
 be charged by bulk or numerically, that is, by 
 weight or number. The terms settled were these : 
 that the French should have credit at the rate of 
 20d. per oz., and the British government at the 
 rate of Is. per oz. Now, it appears that the basis 
 of an exchange at Is. per oz. on the part of 
 England, and 20d. per oz. on the part of France, 
 was sanctioned by Mr. Baring, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, at the time when Mr. Hill was in 
 office. 
 
 No doubt we were compelled to yield in some 
 points, but we gained on others ; the general 
 basis of the treaty was adopted; that is Is. per 
 oz. on our part, for 20d. on the part of France, 
 with a qualification by the French negotiator, 
 that the amount of postage for the half-ounce, 
 taken as the British rate by the British Post
 
 145 
 
 Office, should be only 5d. instead of 6d. This 
 being conceded by the British government, the 
 treaty was concluded. But was this a barren 
 sacrifice ? Mr. Hill must be aware that we gained 
 on our part a reduction on the transit postage 
 of letters to India at the rate of two francs, the 
 charge being previously four francs. 
 
 What, then, was the result? Supposing with 
 Mr. Hill that we lost by this treaty 4000 
 which upon a general view of the tables is more 
 than four-fold the amount* we gained by it 
 between 5000 and 6000 per annum to and 
 from India alone, on the transit postage. 
 
 " The payment to France, on the transit of the 
 Indian mail," says Col. Maberly, " may be cal- 
 culated roughly at 11,000 to 12,000 a year, 
 on which we saved [by the reduction from four 
 francs to two francs] 5000 to 6000 a year, in 
 addition to the other sacrifices ; in consideration 
 of which, alone, the Lords of the Treasury were 
 willing to agree to the present convention." 
 
 Col. Maberly is afterwards called upon to 
 state the other advantages of this treaty by 
 which compensation was made to the British 
 public by the mode of charging the postage in 
 bulk, and not numerically. These benefits are 
 so ably and perspicuously stated, that it would 
 be injustice to withhold them. "The treaty," he 
 says, " was divided into four parts : the first, 
 
 * See Mr. Bokenham's Evidence, ante, 307. 
 K
 
 146 
 
 that which related to international letters ; the 
 next was the communication with the Mediter- 
 ranean, separate from the international corre- 
 spondence ; the third was the transit correspond- 
 ence ; and the last point related to the Indian 
 correspondence ; also to newspapers, and some 
 miscellaneous items. On the first branch, the 
 international correspondence, an advantage to 
 both countries, was a great reduction of the 
 rate, in the first instance. The next advantage 
 was the establishment of a communication be- 
 tween the Channel Islands and France on a 
 regular footing, which had previously not ex- 
 isted. The next advantage was a communication 
 between France and England at various points 
 of the coast, as to which we never could get them 
 to treat previously not only a communication 
 at various points of the coast, but a provision 
 that letters, when landed on those parts of the 
 coast, should not be confined, in their circula- 
 tion, to the ports themselves, as formerly, but 
 they should go through the interior of France, 
 and vice versa, in transit to foreign countries."* 
 Thus it appears that neither in a political nor 
 in a pecuniary sense did Mr. Hill understand 
 this French postal treaty, which he charges with 
 fixing a loss upon the country of 4000 per 
 annum. As regards Mr. Hill's assertion, that 
 this treaty is operating very unfavourably on 
 
 * Report, p. 157.
 
 147 
 
 our revenue, from errors in the details, that is, 
 on the postage of French and English letters 
 between the two countries, we deny the fact. 
 
 The Postmaster-General being asked as to the 
 effects of this treaty, states, that " it is advanta- 
 geous upon two points, a greater facility of 
 correspondence, and less charge." Surely these 
 are the elements of a good postal treaty; but he 
 goes on to add, that the treaty is not only pro- 
 fitable to France and England, " but to the rest 
 of the world ; for other countries are now finding 
 out the advantage, and asking for treaties on 
 the same principle of transit and optional pay- 
 ment."* At the present moment the French 
 treaty, as a financial measure, is yielding a 
 weekly profit. Thus, whilst Mr. Hill is anxious to 
 fix on the Post Office a wasteful expenditure, with 
 regard to any advantages conferred by this treaty, 
 he has the assurance to claim the merit of it.f 
 
 To sum up this matter at once; the opinion 
 of the Post Office was from the beginning that 
 there would be a gain upon this treaty, as the 
 greater proportion of letters are paid in this 
 country. It is a habit amongst our countrymen 
 to pay the Postage on the majority of letters to 
 France ; and yet Mr. Hill calls this a bad treaty. J 
 
 * See Report, Lord Lowther's Evidence, 350. 
 f See Answers to Questions 574 and 575, by Mr. Ricardo. . 
 Report of Evidence. 
 t Q. 528. Rep. 
 
 K 2
 
 148 
 
 Add to which, it must not be forgotten that 
 this treaty was the first step to the adoption of a 
 great system for the convenience of the world, 
 and the Post Office have regularly followed it up 
 in subsequent treaties.* 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF MAIL GUARDS. 
 
 Mr. Hill here proposes a saving of 8000 a 
 year. But here, again, we find him without any 
 details to support his estimate; he merely says, 
 Reduce the number of your guards, and the 
 amount of their salaries.f Question " Have 
 you formed any estimate of the extent as to 
 which the number of guards should be reduced ?" 
 " No ; I have not attempted it." Question " Are 
 you aware whether the number of guards has 
 been increased or reduced since August, 1841 ?" 
 " There has been no increase or diminution up 
 to the time I left the Treasury." 
 
 Thus it turns out that Mr. Hill knows nothing 
 about the matter, has made no estimate, and is 
 wholly ignorant of all existing arrangements; 
 he has yet the confidence to maintain that there 
 is a waste of money, and thus loosely and at 
 random asserts, that a saving of 8000 per 
 
 * Mr. Hill finds fault with every thing not done by himself : 
 he somewhere complains of lowering the Postage too much to 
 France. This comes with an ill grace from a man who origin- 
 ally proposed that all letters should go for One Penny per ounce. 
 
 f Report, p. 111.
 
 149 
 
 annum might be made under this head. What 
 confidence is to be placed in the conjectures of 
 such a man ? Are they entitled to the credit of 
 serious suggestions, or rather ought they not at 
 once to be regarded as the bold and frontless 
 assertions of a wild speculator, to make out his 
 own particular case ? 
 
 But there are others who have looked into the 
 matter a little further, because it was their duty, 
 and have exercised their judgment upon the 
 more solid foundation of actual facts. Lord 
 Lowther " There are twenty-seven guards now 
 fewer than in 1840; and they will be further 
 reduced as the mail coaches are discontinued."* 
 
 Again, Colonel Maberly "The number of 
 these guards in 1841 was 365; at the present 
 time the number is 327." Question " Have 
 there been any new appointments of these 
 guards since 1841 ?" " Lord Lowther has, I 
 think, told me, that he has only made one since 
 he has been in office." Question " Are they all 
 fully employed, or are any of them supernume- 
 raries?" "I think there may be two or three 
 supernumeraries. About six months ago, there 
 were eight or ten; Lord Lowther was asked 
 whether he would pension them off at once, or 
 whether he would give them the chance of being 
 absorbed into the establishment upon vacancies ; 
 he decided upon absorbing them." In another 
 * Report, p. 335.
 
 150 
 
 part of his evidence, Colonel Maberly gives solid 
 reasons for no further reduction of their number. 
 " You cannot reduce more than one or two ; we 
 are sometimes forced to employ two guards on 
 short journeys, because two lines (of railroads) 
 cross each other. In many instances we do not 
 employ guards at all, where the mails are 
 light, and the duty devolving upon the guard 
 is not great."* Might it not have been as 
 well if Mr. Hill had acquainted himself with 
 some of these particulars before bringing for- 
 ward his round retrenchment of 8000 per 
 year, under this head of Post Office extra- 
 vagance ? 
 
 It is singular enough that this reduction of 
 guards did not arise from any suggestion of 
 Mr. Hill, as it appears by Colonel Maberly's 
 evidence (1607.) "Was there any recommend- 
 ation made to the Post Office to reduce the 
 number of guards ?" " None." We presume, 
 therefore, that the saving contemplated must be 
 cutting down the salaries, a saving inconsistent 
 with all due feeling towards this industrious 
 class of men, in a station of much trust, and 
 exposed to all weathers, and during night. 
 
 RAILWAY CARRIAGES. 
 
 His next proposed saving is in the expence of 
 the railway carriages, 10,000 per annum. Here 
 * Report, 225.
 
 151 
 
 Mr. Hill thinks the space in the carriages set 
 apart for the mails, is unnecessarily great. " In 
 consequence," he says, " of a very startling dis- 
 covery, (Mr. Hill is here alluding to something 
 which occurred on the York and Normanton 
 line,) the Post Office was directed to report upon 
 the rate of these railway lines, with the view 
 to the preparing some very stringent resolutions, 
 and putting a stop to the waste of public money 
 which was then going on, and which, for aught 
 I know, may still be proceeding. The report, 
 however, was not received when my services 
 came to an end. In the absence of the required 
 information, it is impossible for me to offer more 
 than a rude estimate of the loss resulting from 
 this mismanagement; but forming the best judg- 
 ment I can on the facts which have come before 
 me, I cannot put this loss down at less than 
 10,000 a year."* 
 
 " This waste of public money, which was then 
 going on," says Mr. Hill, "and may be still 
 going on, for aught I know to the contrary "-\ 
 Mr. Hill's estimate on this saving seems to have 
 been founded on a solitary case of a change of 
 carriages on the York and Normanton line, 
 without having been reported to the Post Office ; 
 but it is not in proof that any extra charge was 
 occasioned by this circumstance, which was 
 remedied as soon as discovered, and has not 
 
 * Report, 81. f Ibid. 81.
 
 152 
 
 
 
 occurred since. It appears by Colonel Maberly's 
 evidence,* that no more space is taken in the 
 railway carriages by the Post Office, than what 
 is necessary for their purposes, and that no 
 reduction can be made. 
 
 In all dealings between the Post Office and the 
 railroads, the Post Office, in the first instance, 
 requires a conveyance for the mail ; the railroad 
 company name their price; if the Post Office 
 deems the charge too high, arbitrators are 
 appointed, and the matter is fixed by their 
 award. All this is done under the powers of 
 Acts of Parliament. Where, therefore, is there 
 room for an annual saving of 10,000 per 
 annum, according to the idle evidence of Mr. 
 Hill ? The thing is perfectly impracticable. 
 
 CHANNEL ISLAND PACKETS. 
 
 The next saving proposed by Mr. Hill, is 
 6000 in the Channel Island Packets. The 
 amount of the charge for this service was 
 founded on a tender to convey the mails from 
 Southampton to the Channel Islands. Upon 
 this subject a commission was appointed to 
 consider the best port for transmission ; they 
 reported in favour of Weymouth, but the Post 
 Office had no discretion, as the whole matter 
 rested with the general Government. Add to 
 which, if the service were to be performed at all, 
 
 * Report, 221.
 
 153 
 
 it would have been under the Admiralty, and 
 not the Post Office ; the packets having been 
 transferred to the former in 1837. But to show 
 the folly of the whole thing in a very brief 
 sentence, the following question is put to 
 Colonel Maberly by Mr. Estcott, in the Com- 
 mittee: "What is the whole expence of the 
 Channel Island Packets?" "I think I made 
 it out from the Admiralty return to be about 
 5300." " Then the saving estimated by Mr. 
 Hill as 6000, is 700 more than the whole 
 expence is that so ? " " Yes ; it seems to 
 be so." 
 
 SPECIAL TRAINS. 
 
 The next saving brought forward by Mr. Hill 
 is, what he calls the unnecessary expence of 
 " special trains" on the Birmingham and Glou- 
 cester Railway, one of which he proposes to 
 discontinue; the amount of which is 5000 per 
 annum. But let us hear Colonel Maberly, 
 (1567.) "This is an expenditure which I am 
 perfectly prepared to defend. The object of the 
 first train from Birmingham to Gloucester, is to 
 get to Gloucester in time to meet the London 
 mail, in order to send on the letters to Wales. 
 That mail conveys a correspondence from Liver- 
 pool, Scotland, the manufacturing districts, and 
 Ireland. If that first train were not despatched 
 at that early hour, the London mails must be 
 detained at Tewkesbury and Gloucester, or else
 
 154 
 
 the London mails would go forward, leaving 
 all the correspondence from Ireland, Scotland, 
 Liverpool, and Manchester, behind. The injury, 
 therefore, to commerce and trade, from the stop- 
 ping of that train, would be excessive. The 
 second communication is the main communica- 
 tion from Sheffield, and all the eastern coast, 
 with the west of England, Exeter, Bristol, and 
 Falmouth. This second communication cannot 
 be interfered with, without great inconvenience 
 to all that part of the country." 
 
 Is not this another example both of the 
 looseness and wildness of Mr. Hill's " sugges- 
 tions," and of the common cause from which 
 they all arise his total ignorance of all details, 
 and of the established course of Post Office 
 business ? 
 
 COMPENSATION FOR LATE LETTER FEES. 
 
 Under this head Mr. Hill proposes an annual 
 saving of 4000; and having accompanied it 
 with a very long memorial to the Treasury, which 
 was referred to the Postmaster-General, his 
 Lordship replied to it in the following terms : 
 
 " After a careful perusal of Mr. Hill's report, 
 and a full consideration of the whole question, 
 I am of opinion that the claims for compen- 
 sation, and that the allowance proposed by my 
 predecessor, are proper and equitable in all 
 classes."
 
 155 
 
 It thus appears to be a question between Mr. 
 Hill ancf the Post Office authorities ; they think 
 one way, and Mr. Hill another; but they act 
 upon their own judgment, founded upon expe- 
 rience, and the determination of Lord Lichfield, 
 adopted by him after a long and laborious 
 consideration of the whole matter. We must, 
 therefore, strike off this sum as one of the 
 impracticable savings proposed by Mr. Hill. 
 
 DAY MAILS. 
 
 Mr. Hill's next proposed saving is the sum 
 of 8000 per annum by a better regulation 
 of the day mails.* This saving seems to resolve 
 itself almost into the single case of an obstruc- 
 tion which Mr. Hill alleges that he met with in 
 his attempt to establish a Newcastle mail. 
 
 With respect to Day Mails generally, there 
 seems little difference of opinion ; and it appears, 
 also, to be admitted, that the main advantage of 
 a Day Mail is, that it affords an acceleration 
 of the letters passing through London. They 
 are now established on all the principal roads 
 leading out of London ; and in most instances, 
 as Mr. Hill himself admits, they were established 
 previous to the adoption of his plan, and there 
 can be little doubt but that they have greatly 
 increased the number of letters. It appears, 
 further, that the establishment of Day Mails 
 
 * Hill's Evidence, 75, Report, and Appendix, No. 15.
 
 156 
 
 has been carried into effect, according to the 
 evidence of Colonel Maberly, on all lines but 
 one or two. Mr. Bokenham tells the Com- 
 mittee, that it is the wish of the Postmaster- 
 General to establish Day Mails wherever they 
 can be established j and Lord Lowther himself 
 declares, that when time, and money, and cir- 
 cumstances allow, some further few morning 
 mails will be established.* But according to 
 the Post Office evidence, it is obvious that all 
 such extra accommodation can only be attended 
 with extra expence. Thus, for instance, in 
 establishing morning mails in all cases where 
 there are railroads ; and again, in the extension 
 of Day Mails to all the principal towns within 
 eight hours' journey from London, of the ineffi- 
 ciency of which we have before spoken. Again, 
 as to the proposal of Mr. Hill for the delivery 
 of the Day Mails so late as five o'clock in 
 the evening, which appears upon the evidence 
 of Colonel Maberly to be an absurd waste 
 of Post Office money and time. 
 
 But, as Mr. Hill's project for establishing a 
 Newcastle Mail, &c. makes so conspicuous a 
 figure in his " savings," amounting to no less 
 than 8000 per annum, according to his own 
 estimate, and which he charges the Post Office 
 with opposing with great pertinacity, this point 
 requires a few words. 
 
 * See the last division of this Inquiry .
 
 157 
 
 The " Newcastle day mail, &c.," says Mr. Hill, 
 "was a measure of great importance. In this 
 one mail, I had well-grounded expectations for 
 believing that the changes I proposed, if I had 
 had the regulation of the details, would have 
 produced a saving of not less than 7000 or 
 8000 a year." 
 
 Accordingly, Mr. Hill puts this down in his 
 schedule of " savings" as amounting to the latter 
 sum. 
 
 As respects this mail, Mr. Hill very candidly 
 tells us, that the difficulty, both with the Treasury 
 and the Post Office, arose from the great expence 
 which was anticipated. There was also another 
 difficulty in one stage of the business, with some 
 of the directors of the railway companies.* But, 
 with what propriety can Mr. Hill deliver this in 
 as an annual saving of 8000 a year, when he 
 knew, at the period he was giving his evidence, 
 July 13th, 1843, that Newcastle-on-Tyne was 
 at that very time receiving the advantage of a day- 
 mail? It is true, that this is by means of Carlisle, 
 but it appears that it was the only satisfactory 
 alternative which could be adopted, according to 
 the evidence of Colonel Maberly ; whilst there is 
 every reason to suppose that the plan of Mr. 
 Hill would have incurred an expence of between 
 5000 and 6000, to which the Chancellor of 
 
 * See Keport.
 
 158 
 
 the Exchequer, on consulting with Lord Lowther, 
 was unwilling to consent.* 
 
 The details of the attempt made, of the esti- 
 mated expence, and the propriety of adopting 
 the Carlisle rail line at that time, will be found 
 in Colonel Maberly's evidence, and must satisfy 
 every candid person, that the government, with 
 a just regard to the public money, adopted the 
 only expedient course then open to them. 
 
 Mr. Hill then comes forward with another 
 " saving," which we have fully answered under 
 the head of his " suggestions" and " facilities." 
 It is a saving of 6000 per annum by the union 
 of the two corps of letter-carriers and sorters. 
 Mr. Hill proposed to combine this union of the 
 sorters and carriers with the London hourly 
 deliveries. We have before proved, that this 
 would involve an additional expence of 26,597, 
 instead of a saving of 6000 per annum.f 
 
 We ought not to dismiss this subject, without 
 a word upon Mr. Hill's recommendation of 
 female sorters; it is difficult to believe him 
 serious. But we pass it over by giving only one 
 very proper and just remark of Lord Lowther, 
 in considering this amongst others of Mr. Hill's 
 " facilities" and " suggestions." 
 
 * The mail to Newcastle was a proposal of Lord Lichfield, 
 and did not originate with Mr. Hill. There is now a day- 
 mail to Newcastle, the contractors having agreed to perform 
 the service on fair terms. 
 
 f Report, 334, and the Evidence of Mr. Smith and Mr. 
 Bokenham, passim et ante.
 
 159 
 
 " It is apprehended that Mr. Hill could never 
 contemplate the employment of females in the 
 London sorting office, or indeed in any other 
 large office. In some of the small provincia. 
 towns, the wives and daughters of post-masters 
 are employed \ but, if this were to be applied to 
 London, or to large offices, I do not think it 
 would tend to the discipline of the office."* 
 
 CONVEYANCE OF THE INDIA MAILS. 
 
 We now come to another " saving" of great 
 magnitude ; let us see how Mr. Hill proposes to 
 establish it. It is by discontinuing the direct 
 line of packets to Gibraltar, and sending the 
 slower class of India letters via Falmouth, by 
 the packets which touch at Oporto, &c. By 
 this, he says, there will be an estimated annual 
 saving of 30,000 per annum. 
 
 A question was here put by Mr. Baring at the 
 outset : " Are you aware that this line, to which 
 your evidence alludes, was in operation ?" What 
 was Mr. Hill's answer? " I was not aware." 
 
 Q. " Might not a great irregularity arise from 
 their not tallying with the period of the arrival 
 of the Post through France ?" Mr. Hill "That 
 is possible." 
 
 Q. " Are you aware of the great complaints 
 which were made, on the part of the public, from 
 those circumstances, at the time the present 
 arrangements were made ? " " No, I am not. 11 
 
 * Report, Evidence of Lord Lowther, 326.
 
 By the present arrangement, the India mail is 
 conveyed by the Oriental Company from Eng- 
 land to Alexandria. Mr. Hill's proposal was, 
 that it should be taken by the Gibraltar mail as 
 far as Gibraltar, to which there is a packet every 
 week ; but he made no provision for conveying 
 it from Gibraltar to Alexandria. The following 
 question was put to him upon that subject. 
 
 Q. " Is there at the present moment any line 
 of communication established between Alexan- 
 dria and Gibraltar, by Malta, other than the 
 Oriental Company's vessels, sailing once a 
 month ?" A. " / do not know whether there is or 
 not" 
 
 Q. " The overland despatch is sent through 
 France ; are you aware whether an advantage is 
 not derived, by that mail being conveyed in the 
 Oriental packets between Malta and Alexan- 
 dria?" Mr. Hill. "If the Oriental packets 
 carry those letters from Malta to Alexandria, the 
 saving to be effected by the plan I propose has 
 been somewhat over-estimated, but not much" 
 
 Thus Mr. Hill's saving of 30,000 per annum 
 turns out, upon his own confession, to have 
 been made without any knowledge of details, 
 and to be in fact nothing but a recurrence to a 
 plan which had been abandoned, because the 
 public had suffered an inconvenience by it. 
 
 In the same examination Mr. Hill is asked a 
 few further questions ; and as they afford a curi-
 
 161 
 
 ous illustration of this gentleman's accuracy, by 
 which a saving of 30,000 per annum is to be 
 made, we shall give an extract. 
 
 Q. "It appears by the Navy Estimates before 
 the Committee, that the expence is only 3 1,000; 
 on what ground do you state it at 40,000?" 
 Mr. Hill. " On the authority of a return which 
 was made by the Admiralty to the Treasury last 
 summer, in which the expence was put down for 
 six months at 20,000." 
 
 Q. " The whole expence of carrying the mails 
 to Alexandria is stated in the Navy Estimates at 
 31,000 from Southampton, and 34,000 if the 
 packet goes into Falmouth." Mr. Hill. " If the 
 return is erroneous, I have been misled by it." 
 
 Chairman. "At what do you calculate the 
 expence of the communication between Alexan- 
 dria and Gibraltar?" Mr. Hill. "I think an 
 addition of 10,000 per annum would be enough, 
 and more than enough, for that." 
 
 By the Chairman. "The expence, as it ap- 
 pears by the Navy Estimates, being 31,000, 
 you think the estimate of a saving of 30,000 is 
 an over-estimate, but not much ? " Mr. Hill. 
 " No, that is not, I submit, a fair mode of putting 
 the case ; my estimate is founded upon a manu- 
 script return, made to the honourable chairman 
 himself, by the Admiralty, dated 23d April, 1842; 
 in which it is stated, that the cost of the packets 
 between Falmouth and Alexandria, from 1st 
 
 L
 
 162 
 
 of September, 1840, to 31st of March, 1841, was 
 20,910. 14s. 3d; they are described as the 
 contracts from Falmouth to Alexandria, and the 
 return is verified." 
 
 Q. " How does it appear that that is a half- 
 year's expence?" A. "The return stands thus 
 under the general head of ' Packets between the 
 British Isles and the colonial or foreign coun- 
 tries, or between one colony or foreign country 
 and another;' there is 'Falmouth and Alexan- 
 dria, from 1st September, 1840,' (which to 31st 
 March, is six months,) ' 20,910. 14s. 3d: " 
 
 Q. " Do you mean that if the whole contract 
 from Falmouth to Alexandria is 40,000, a saving 
 may be effected of 30,000, by the Post Office 
 not availing itself of those packets between Fal- 
 mouth and Gibraltar is that a short statement 
 of your position ? " A. " That is a short state- 
 ment of my position, with this addition that I 
 was not aware of that which has been adverted 
 to, but which is not as yet distinctly stated, that 
 the mails which go through France are conveyed 
 from Malta to Alexandria by this same line." 
 
 The reader will not be a little surprised at the 
 evidence by which this saving of 30,000 a year 
 is made out, and persisted in by Mr. Hill after 
 a long examination. But is it made out ? Or, 
 rather, is not the evidence what may be called in 
 some degree felo de se ? Mr. Hill has several 
 sums proposed to him by the Committee, First,
 
 163 
 
 31,000, the total sum, according to the Navy 
 estimates, out of which it seemed difficult to 
 make savings to the amount of 30,000 ; and 
 to carry the mails from Alexandria to Falmouth, 
 more especially by Southampton. But even 
 this does not appal him. But it is a mistake, 
 he says, for in the summer of 1842, the expence 
 for six months was put down by the Admiralty 
 at 20,000, and the expence must, therefore, be 
 40,000. "If the return is erroneous, I have 
 been misled by it." As to the expence between 
 Alexandria and Gibraltar, Mr. Hill sets that 
 down at 10,000 ; but when the several sums are 
 brought before him by the chairman and the 
 committee, and he is informed that the Oriental 
 packets carry certain Indian letters between 
 Malta and Alexandria, it is but justice to say 
 that he immediately corrects himself. "If the 
 Oriental packets carry those letters from Malta 
 to Alexandria, the saving to be effected by the 
 plan I propose, has been somewhat over-esti- 
 mated, but not much."* 
 
 But is this all ? Has Mr. Hill no further ex- 
 planation to give, first of saving 30,000 in the 
 Admiralty charges out of 31,000 ; next, of saving 
 the like sums out of 40,000, which he contends 
 is the real amount of charge ? Mr. Hill has a 
 further account, and he lays it before the Com- 
 mittee the next morning. 
 
 * Report, p. 131. 
 L 2
 
 164 
 
 " The Committee are informed that you wish 
 to make an explanation of a part of your evi- 
 dence."* 
 
 Mr. Hill " I am desirous to take the first 
 opportunity of requesting permission to with- 
 draw from the estimate of * savings,' which now 
 amount to 276,000, f the sum of 30,000, stated 
 at page 90 of my evidence, as arising from a new 
 arrangement of transmitting part of the Indian 
 correspondence. In consequence of what oc- 
 curred at the last day's examination, I fejt it my 
 duty to make further inquiries on the subject, 
 which have satisfied me that I have been mis- 
 informed as to the services performed by the 
 Admiralty packets; and that they do not, as I 
 understand, convey the direct India mail between 
 Malta and Alexandria, as well as between Malta 
 and Marseilles. Still, I think it possible to save 
 THIS SUM by other means." 
 
 The reader will observe, that this sum, this 
 identical sum, is no other than the 30,000 of 
 which we are speaking. 
 
 Mr. Hill proceeds : " And should a further 
 investigation of the subject confirm this opinion, 
 I shall ask permission to submit my views to 
 the Committee. In the mean time, I beg to 
 
 * Report, 134. 
 
 f We have before shown that not one single shilling of these 
 savings has hitherto been established ; on the contrary, flatly 
 contradicted.
 
 165 
 
 reduce the estimate of practicable ' savings,' to 
 the sum of 246,000 per annum." 
 
 In other words, Mr. Hill strikes off the whole 
 sum. There can be no doubt that Mr. Hill has 
 a right to his locus penitentiae, and his correction 
 of an error in an estimate, as well as other men ; 
 but there is something so conceited, not to say 
 shuffling and most disingenuous, in this mode 
 of disposing of this alleged saving, that it cannot 
 escape the strongest censure of every candid and 
 discreet mind. 
 
 Having now gone through, under their re- 
 spective heads, the principal branches of Mr, 
 Hill's savings, as stated in page 90 of the Report, 
 with the exception of a " saving" by improving 
 the Post communication with Dublin, amounting 
 to 50,000, we come to what he calls his Third 
 account, which consists, as he tells us, of several 
 heads of saving, which may be effected in ^alaries 
 and allowances, and in special services and 
 general charges." This "suggestion" is alto- 
 gether so vague and indefinite that we are at a 
 loss how to deal with it. He begins by stating 
 the salaries, allowances, &c., as by the finance 
 accounts, 1842, to be 406,000. From this, he 
 says, deduct 17,000, viz., a portion of the pre- 
 vious savings already examined, and the re- 
 mainder is 389,000. He proceeds : " Of this 
 sum, I calculated, at a low estimate, that the 
 adoption of the measures enumerated at page 34,
 
 166 
 
 would gradually effect savings to the following 
 extent." 
 
 We must refer the reader to p. 91 of the 
 Report for the enumeration : the result of Mr. 
 Hill's calculation of savings is, however, as fol- 
 lows : 1st. In the number of persons employed, 
 twelve per cent. 2ndly. In individual salaries, 
 &c., eleven per cent., altogether twenty-three 
 per cent. Now, as the per centage, he says, in 
 each case can only be calculated on the remain- 
 der, after effecting the previous reductions, this 
 twenty-three per cent, would be equal to about 
 twenty per cent on the whole." 
 
 v (389,000 
 
 Equal to say j 78 ; ooo 
 
 This, unquestionably, would be a large 
 saving, and worthy of the thanks of the Govern- 
 ment ; but let us see how it is made out. It is, 
 in fact, nothing more or less than the " sug- 
 gestions" for the further improvements of the 
 Post Office, and increased " facilities" for distri- 
 bution, which are methodically drawn up in page 
 34 of the Report, and which have been the sub- 
 ject of previous comment in the evidence of 
 Colonel Maberly, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Boken- 
 ham, and more especially of the Postmaster- 
 General, in his Answers to Sir R. Peel, page 334. 
 They consist of a recommendation of " hourly 
 deliveries," district posts, cheap registration, 
 simplification of money orders, reduced costs in
 
 167 
 
 the conveyance of railroads, reduction of mail 
 guards, revision of salaries, union of corps of 
 letter carriers, &c. &c.* 
 
 It is but justice, however, to say a word upon 
 the revision of salaries, and the abolition of 
 money payments. 
 
 In page 127 Mr. Hill says, that he can save 
 four per cent, by the revision of salaries ; the 
 revision to take place on the receipt of the in- 
 tended annual return of fees. 
 
 Mr. Hill is here reminded of the constant 
 application for the increase of salaries made by 
 the Deputy Postmasters. " This," he says, " has 
 always been the case, but he is firmly of opi- 
 nion, that there might be a decrease of four per 
 cent, on their amount. The reason which he 
 assigns is, (and a very solid reason it would be, 
 if not explained,) that since the year 1836 down 
 to 1841, the emoluments of the Deputy Post- 
 masters had been increased twelve per cent. 
 Upon this a very pointed question is put by 
 Mr. Baring.f 
 
 Q. " Are you aware that all increase of salary 
 had been suspended for a great many years in the 
 Post Office, in consequence of inquiries before 
 
 * For those measures previously carried, the reader must 
 consult the Report, pp. 30, 34 41, and ante. See also Lord 
 Lowther's Evidence, and the Evidence of Col. Maberly, Messrs. 
 Smith, and Bokenham. 
 
 f Rep. 127.
 
 168 
 
 the commission, and that it was not till 1830 
 that the Treasury began to reconsider the cases, 
 and to make up for what had been suspended 
 for a long time ?" 
 
 Mr. Hill. " I was not aware of that fact. In 
 speaking of 1841 I took rather an average time; 
 the return for some is for the year 1840 ; for 
 others, for the year 1842." 
 
 Here again, we observe the defect in Mr. Hill's 
 evidence all through ; he does not acquaint him- 
 self with facts; he has little if any knowledge 
 of the cases to which he applies his reductions. 
 If we are not misinformed, he became better 
 acquainted with the geography of the Treasury, 
 considering the short time he was in it, than 
 with the Post Office ; and is altogether unac- 
 quainted with any other office. Thus, on his 
 examination on this point by the chairman, the 
 question is put to him : 
 
 Chairman "This is one of the points, in 
 which you have not entered into minute details." 
 
 Mr. Hill " No ; I have not minute details on 
 any of these points." 
 
 SALARIES. 
 
 On the subject of salaries, it is but fitting that 
 some of the officers of the Post Office should be 
 heard, as well as Mr. Hill. 
 
 Colonel Maberly says the salaries are very 
 low. " I fear that if you were to revise them,
 
 you would pay more than less." Almost every 
 officer in London has petitioned for an increase 
 of salary since Lord Lowther came to the Post 
 Office; they did so in Lord Lichfield's time. Not 
 long ago, Lord Chief Justice Clerk, in passing 
 sentence on a convicted criminal in Scotland, 
 observed on the serious complaints made of the 
 very low salaries paid to the officers of the Post 
 Office.* 
 
 In Colonel Maberly's office the clerks are only 
 paid 90 per annum for the first three years ; in 
 the accountant's office, the same ; in the inland 
 office, about 70; a very large class of indi- 
 viduals are at 65, who, whatever their length 
 of service, remain stationary until a death or 
 vacancy. Mr. Baring raised the latter scale to 
 70 ; thinking 65 a year too low for a clerk 
 in a public office to subsist upon in London. 
 
 But it is time to dismiss this pitiful affair of 
 retrenchment. The saving which Mr. Hill would 
 make is opposed to all humane and equitable 
 consideration. 
 
 SAVING IN CONVEYANCE OF MAILS. 
 
 Mr. Hill then passes to what he calls his 
 fourth account, which he says, consists ill 
 " savings" in the conveyance of mails. For this, 
 
 * Report, 229. See Colonel Maberly's Evidence.
 
 170 
 
 he takes credit as follows. 1st. On railway con- 
 veyance 77,000, including annual expenditure, 
 exclusive of guards. To which he adds his other 
 savings enumerated at page 90 ; viz., By eco- 
 nomy of space in the railway carriages, 10,000. 
 By discontinuing one of the special trains on the 
 Birmingham and Gloucester railway, 5000 ; 
 and lastly, by a better regulation of the day 
 mails, amounting to 8000; making altogether, 
 23,000; being a total of 100,000; or, in- 
 cluding some other minor savings, stated by Mr. 
 Hill to be in the aggregate, 106,000. Leaving 
 for the expence of ordinary conveyance, exclu- 
 sive of guards, a sum of 326,000. 
 
 " Of this sum," he proceeds, (the sum of 
 326,000,) "I calculate that the adoption of the 
 measures enumerated at page 34,* which, except- 
 ing those taken into account, are reductions in 
 the cost of the railway conveyance by establish- 
 ing a fairer principle of arbitration, by discon- 
 tinuing useless lines, by substituting, when 
 practicable, cheaper means of conveyance, and 
 by discontinuing as much as possible the use of 
 special trains, would effect savings to the extent 
 of twenty per cent., say 11,000." 
 
 Mr. Hill does not seem at all aware that the 
 present mode of arbitration between the Post 
 Office and the proprietors of railways is estab- 
 
 * The "suggestions" and "facilities" previously examined.
 
 171 
 
 lished by Act of Parliament, 1 and 2 Vic. c. 89. 
 Upon what principle the Post Office is to be 
 blamed for acting in strict conformity with an 
 Act of Parliament, it is difficult to make out. 
 
 Now, as respects these latter savings of 
 11,000, Mr. Hill's remarks are altogether loose 
 and wild; they are crude general suggestions, 
 without any details. He might as well have 
 estimated these reductions at fifty per cent, as at 
 twenty per cent., and have claimed 50,000 as 
 11,000. Anything more conjectural and at 
 random cannot be conceived. He goes on, 
 " Next, as regards the ordinary conveyance ; 
 annual expenditure as above, 326,000. Of 
 this sum, I calculate the adoption of the measures 
 recommended at page 34, viz., reduction in the 
 costs of ordinary conveyance by discontinuing 
 all useless lines, by invariably resorting to public 
 competition. 
 
 " Avoiding all unnecessary restrictions as to 
 the description of carriages, speed, number of 
 horses, passengers, and by invariably adopting 
 the cheapest suitable means, would effect savings 
 to the extent of fifteen per cent, say 49,000." 
 (Mr. Hill must have known that competition is 
 always resorted to, and, as far as possible, the 
 cheapest suitable means adopted. Why did he 
 not bring forward instances to the contrary? 
 Simply, because he had none.) 
 
 Now is it possible to deal with a projector
 
 172 
 
 and accountant of this sort, who takes an 
 imaginary scale of per centage, sometimes high 
 and sometimes low, and strikes off what he 
 conceives to be a redundance, or pieces up a 
 deficiency, without any intelligible rule or prin- 
 ciple? Where Mr. Hill goes into detail, as in 
 his " suggestions" in page 34, or in his 
 " savings " in certain branches in page 90, enu- 
 merating particulars, we readily follow him, 
 and, as we think, sufficiently expose his gross 
 blunders and ignorance by unanswerable evi- 
 dence; but it is impossible to deal with these 
 imaginary "savings" and per centages, these 
 flights of pure conjecture and random assertions. 
 "The aggregate of the estimated" savings, he 
 says, is as follows : 
 
 Specific savings recommended to the 
 Treasury, between April and Sep- 
 tember, 1842, (page 90.) 93,000 
 
 Additional item laid before the Com- 
 mittee 45,000 
 
 Savings in salaries and allowances, 
 atid special services, and travelling 
 charges, in addition to the above, 
 (page 91.) 78,000 
 
 Savings in railway conveyances, in 
 
 addition to the above 11,000 
 
 Savings in ordinary conveyance, in 
 
 addition to the above, (page 92.) 49,000 
 
 Aggregate of estimated savings 276,000
 
 173 
 
 This sum is afterwards voluntarily reduced by 
 Mr. Hill, by disallowing the sum of 30,000 on 
 the Indian Packets, and, therefore, brings down 
 the balance to the sum of 246,000.* 
 
 COMMUNICATION WITH DUBLIN. 
 
 As respects the suggested saving of 50,000, 
 by improving the post communication with 
 Dublin, this question seems altogether out of 
 the control of the Post Office ; it is an Admiralty 
 arrangement in subordination to the Treasury. 
 If the reader wishes to see the progress of the 
 discussion on this question, he is referred to the 
 Appendix, No. 21, in which the correspondence 
 between the Treasury, the Post Office, and the 
 Admiralty, is printed at great length. 
 
 Mr. Hill claims the credit of having submitted 
 this "suggestion" to the Treasury on the day 
 on which he quitted office, and, subsequently, 
 in a further letter to the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer. Mr. Hill was, of course, aware, 
 that in the year 1842, a Select Committee of the 
 House of Commons sat upon this subject, 
 and he was reminded that the " suggestions" 
 in his paper, a document dated 13th September, 
 1842, arose very much out of the recommenda- 
 tion in the Committee; but he adds, that these 
 recommendations were immediately connected 
 with a Report of the Post Office. 
 
 * Report, p. 134.
 
 174 
 
 All this is very probable ; but Mr. Hill has 
 yet to establish two points, to claim merit on this 
 head. First, as to the originality of the sugges- 
 tion. He must have known that the improvement 
 of the communication between the two countries 
 was a matter of frequent discussion, both at the 
 Admiralty, Treasury, and the Post Office; inde- 
 pendently of the appointment of a Select Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons to report upon 
 this very subject, ever since the conveyance of 
 letters by steam-packets had been in existence. 
 Mr. Hill's Report, on the day when he left the 
 Treasury, is dated 13th September, 1842; and 
 we find a correspondence between Sir J. Barrow 
 and the Secretary of the Treasury, Sir George 
 Clerk, and Mr. Maberly, and the Secretary of the 
 Admiralty, six months previous to this.* A Re- 
 port, also, of the Select Committee had been 
 published before Mr. Hill's communication to 
 the Treasury, of 13th September, 1842. 
 
 As Mr. Hill's " suggestions " are still under 
 consideration, (or at least were at the time when 
 the Committee sat, in August last,) we do not 
 venture to pronounce upon their value. But 
 hitherto Mr. Hill has founded no just claim for 
 originality. 
 
 Secondly, as respects the possible saving of 
 50,000 by the adoption of his plan, we must 
 
 * See Appendix to the Report, p. 171.
 
 175 
 
 be permitted to be a little credulous recollecting 
 that all others of Mr. Hill's " suggestions " have 
 been found rather calculated to increase expence, 
 than to diminish it. But we may have to return 
 to this subject ; we have, indeed, reason to be- 
 lieve, that before these remarks shall be laid 
 before the public, a most important acceleration 
 of the conveyance between England and Dublin, 
 will be carried into effect, but, instead of a 
 saving of 50,000 per annum, according to Mr. 
 Hill, there will be some small additional expence, 
 beyond the present cost. 
 
 IRISH POSTAGE. 
 
 We cannot quit the head of Irish communi- 
 cation without a glance at the result of the 
 Penny Postage on the revenue of that country ; 
 the Postage of Ireland having scarcely paid its 
 expences since Mr. Hill commenced its opera- 
 tion. Now Ireland is destitute almost entirely 
 of foreign correspondence ; the state of Post 
 Office revenue and expenditure in that country, 
 since the introduction of the Penny Postage 
 system, affords, therefore, a just criterion of its 
 effect on the inland Postage. We have here the 
 revenue clear of many of the disturbing causes 
 which apply to England, and are thus enabled 
 to come to a juster estimate of its result than in 
 England. The state of the Irish Postage will,
 
 176 
 
 also, afford an answer to a vehement complaint 
 of Mr. Hill's, that there is a perpetual shuffle 
 between foreign and inland revenue in the British 
 Post Office, and that one branch or other is de- 
 pressed or exalted, as it suits the exigencies of 
 the Post Office. Now, the correspondence of 
 Ireland, being almost wholly inland, no such 
 confusion can arise. Add to which, that Mr. 
 Hill can complain of no injustice, inasmuch as 
 the number of letters in Ireland has increased in 
 nearly the same proportion as in England.* 
 
 The gross revenue of Ireland, after deducting 
 returns in the year ending 5th January, 1840, 
 was 227,848 ; the expenditure 109,000; and 
 the net produce 118,000. Mr. Hill's plan 
 came into effect; and on the 5th January, 1841, 
 the gross produce, after deducting returns, was 
 97,000; the expenditure was 116,000; the 
 net produce, NOTHING. It must, however, be 
 stated, in justice to Mr. Hill, that stamps were 
 at that time introduced into England, but not 
 into Ireland, which may account for the great 
 difference. But what was the result in the year 
 1842 ? In the year ending 5th January, 1842, 
 the gross produce, after deducting returns, was 
 126,000 ; the expenditure was 125,006 ; the 
 net produce was 1094. In the year ending 5th 
 January, 1843, the gross produce, after deduct- 
 
 * See Col. Maberly's Evidence, Report, p. 231.
 
 177 
 
 ing returns, was 128,000 ; the expenditure 
 127,000 ; the net produce was 1027. In the 
 year ending 5th of January, 1844, the gross 
 produce, after deducting returns, was 136,768 ; 
 expenditure, &c. 139,931 ; net produce, 5,836. 
 That Mr. Hill may have no quibble here on the 
 return of 5th January, 1841, which includes the 
 postage of the year 1840, during which a large 
 deficiency occurred of 19,000 we have already 
 stated, that stamps, though introduced in Eng- 
 land, were not used in Ireland : but the whole 
 of Ireland was furnished with stamps about the 
 end of the year 1840 certainly at the beginning 
 of 1841.* We thus see that, since the intro- 
 duction of Mr. Hill's plan, the net produce of 
 the Irish Post Office, which 5th January, 1840, 
 stood at 118,000, had been reduced to 5,836. 
 
 * See Report, p. 231, and the Returns from the Accountant- 
 General's Office, p. 232.
 
 STATE AND PROSPECTS OF PENNY 
 POSTAGE. 
 
 WE have now done with Mr. Hill's exhibition 
 of himself in the Committee; and probably 
 nothing but his late pamphlet, published in 
 January last, would have induced us to take up 
 the question of the Penny Postage at the length 
 we have done. We should have left the evidence 
 of the officers of that department to have made 
 its way by its own intrinsic strength ; and the 
 public opinion would soon have come to a 
 right conclusion upon the testimony of so many 
 practical men. Mr. Hill has to blame himself if 
 he has provoked further remarks by tenaciously 
 adhering to fallacies so , amply detected and 
 exposed. 
 
 Whilst Mesmerism, and the other attractive 
 novelties of the day, have had their hour, and 
 are passing away, the quackery of Penny 
 Postage ought surely now to follow the same 
 course. 
 
 What, in truth, is this new STATEMENT of
 
 179 
 
 Mr. Hill ? It is merely a bold repetition of the 
 same nugatory suggestions, and nearly in the 
 same words ; it is a republication of his evidence 
 before the Committee, sinking all the replies 
 against him. It is a reiteration of the same 
 charges of obstruction, opposition, and counter- 
 action on the part of the Post Office, whilst 
 he suppresses or garbles all the answers and 
 defence. What will the reader say to this state- 
 ment in the second page ? " Had the investiga- 
 tion before the Committee been completed, or 
 had the evidence, so far as it is given, been made 
 the subject of report, accompanied by the usual 
 digest, the necessity of my present task would 
 probably have been obviated."* 
 
 Now, could the Report of the Committee have 
 had any other result than that of absolutely 
 quashing all that impertinence and futility with 
 which Mr. Hill had kept them occupied for 
 more than six weeks ? 
 
 The reader is again called upon to review 
 his original plan, so fully considered by the 
 Committee ; and to read again the valuable cor- 
 respondence of Professor Henslow, and Mr. 
 Travers, the wholesale grocer, with a little epi- 
 sode of Messrs. Pickford and Company. Mr. 
 Stokes, the Secretary to the Parker Society, 
 is again produced ; but, rather ungratefully, 
 
 * Meaning his Pamphlet in January last, 1844. 
 M 2
 
 180 
 
 Mr. Hill has omitted the Secretary of the Anti- 
 Corn-Law League. 
 
 We scarcely find any one of the points in 
 Mr. Hill's printed evidence before the Committee, 
 from the postal treaty with France down to the 
 Birmingham and Gloucester mails, which is 
 not brought forward in almost the same identical 
 terms, accompanied with the same wild and 
 random conjectures, and with the same utter 
 ignorance of detail, which characterised the 
 whole of his statement in July and August last. 
 Unabashed by defeat, and turning a deaf ear 
 to all the answers of practical men, he repeats 
 in his pamphlet the same charges, and resuggests 
 the same follies and quackeries. 
 
 We have pointed out before, and it must not 
 be forgotten, that Mr. Hill suggested nothing 
 originally but the Penny Postage ; and that the 
 restoration of his errors, and the counteraction 
 of his follies, and all other improvements of 
 whatever kind, as in day mails, money orders, 
 &c., have proceeded from the Post Office itself.* 
 
 Mr. Hill's complaint is little more than mor- 
 tified vanity; his plan having totally failed, he 
 is desirous to cast the failure upon the Post 
 Office in a neglect of his " suggestions," his 
 " facilities," " remedies," and " savings." Now 
 
 * For instance, what can we say to his first suggestion of a 
 penny an ounce upon all letters; since reduced to a penny per 
 half-ounce, which must infallibly have destroyed the Post Office.
 
 181 
 
 all of these, as we have specifically shown in 
 the preceding pages, have received the consider- 
 ation which was due to them, and have been 
 laid aside only as nugatory, or, as accom- 
 panied with such sacrifices and expence, as must 
 in all probability have absorbed what remains of 
 Post Office revenue. 
 
 But let Mr. Hill soberly consider how much 
 better his lot has been than that of other pro- 
 jectors ; he has kept the bubble up longer than 
 any one of them. He has had cheap postage 
 in the mouths of statesmen and reviewers, and 
 for a more extensive period than naturally 
 belonged to such a fallacy. He has been 
 listened to in lectures upon it at statistical meet- 
 ings ; it has procured him the warm admiration 
 and friendship of Mr. Hawes ; and indeed there 
 is every present indication that he is about to 
 retire upon a good subscription list. With an 
 inverse fate to the celebrated patentee of a new 
 Irish metallic coinage, Mr. Hill seems about to 
 be hailed as the great patron of this valuable 
 branch of our currency, and has succeeded in 
 indissolubly binding that " copper chain," which 
 the first writer of his age, little more than a 
 century ago, found it so difficult to relax, by all 
 his ingenuity and wit, in his own country.* 
 
 * " And thy grieved country's copper chains unbind." 
 
 Pope's Dunciad.
 
 182 
 
 Mr. Hill has fixed the nation with a Penny 
 Postage; and (exoriare aliquis) what states- 
 man is likely hereafter to come forward and 
 release us ? Like the Sphynx in the palace of 
 Thebes the Post Office may only deem itself 
 too happy if some future Treasury should send 
 forth another GEdipus to redeem it from this 
 intolerable plague. 
 
 But there are some charges and some mis- 
 statements brought forward in this second pam- 
 phlet, which require a cursory answer. 
 
 Why will Mr. Hill so egregiously err in his 
 reasoning on the principle of UNIFORMITY ? The 
 principle of uniformity will not apply to matters 
 totally dissimilar. Mr. Hill's original argument 
 is founded on this principle : that all taxes should 
 be equally borne, and that the amount paid by 
 each individual for the same subject should be 
 the same without any regard to the expence 
 of collecting it in the one case or in the other. 
 This principle is perfectly correct as applied to 
 taxation, but the mistake is in treating postage 
 as a tax. All sources of public revenue do not 
 arise from taxation. The Post Office is a source 
 of revenue, but the revenue does not arise from 
 taxation, but from the profits of a public mono- 
 poly. The Post Office has the sole right of 
 conveying letters for hire ; this is nothing in 
 the nature of a tax but a mere monopoly of 
 employment or service. Now, what are the
 
 183 
 
 circumstances which will justify the grant of a 
 monopoly, and the restrictions which it may be 
 proper to place upon it ? If the public at large 
 are benefited by a monopoly, as well as the 
 party to whom it is granted, the advantage is 
 mutual, and no reasonable objection can be 
 urged ; but all monopolies ought to be so re- 
 strained that the profits be not exorbitant, or, 
 in other words, that the price should be propor- 
 tioned to the services. But Mr. Hill's argument 
 f&r uniformity treats the conveyance of letters, 
 not as a valuable service performed, for which 
 a remunerating price ought to be paid, but as 
 a means of collecting a tax.* 
 
 Again, why repeat the confident assertion so 
 fully answered in the evidence before the Com- 
 mittee : that he was the author of increased 
 speed in the delivery of letters, day mails, &c. ? 
 " none of which existed previous to my recom- 
 mendation thereof." The next paragraph in his 
 own pamphlet puts him down : " The plan 
 originated with Mr. Wallace, Member of Parlia- 
 ment for Greenock."f Indeed, long before that 
 time, as we have shown, when George the Fourth 
 resided at Brighton. Again, what had Mr. Hill 
 to do with increased speed in the delivery of 
 
 * See Mr. Hill's pamphlet, 1837 ; as well as his last pam- 
 phlet, Jan. 1844. 
 
 f See pamphlet, p. 3.
 
 184 
 
 letters? It was principally owing to the rail- 
 roads and the regulations made by the Post Office 
 since 1839. It had been going on daily before 
 1837, since it took six days to reach Edinburgh. 
 The only limit or restriction to making the 
 improvement was the expence ; the same as 
 to facilities of despatch. 
 
 Again, as to simplification. Instead of claim- 
 ing merit on this score, Mr. Hill must know 
 that his plan has introduced confusion and em- 
 barrassment has rendered the duties of a 
 Postmaster more complicate and has largely 
 added to the expenses of the establishment.** 
 Again, as to the reduction of the foreign rates of 
 postage, we have before shown that a reduction 
 of inland and foreign rates had been proposed 
 by Sir F. Freeling, but that the Treasury, dur- 
 ing the time of Mr. Spring Rice, rejected the 
 plan, because it involved a risk of 400,000. 
 
 THE USE OF MONEY ORDERS. Mr. Hill has 
 no claim to this invention ; it sprang wholly from 
 the Post Office ; but Mr. Hill boasts that he has 
 greatly extended it by recommending the lower- 
 ing the money order fees. Mr. Hill might have 
 recommended, but it was the previous sug- 
 gestion and act of the department. 
 
 The number of the Letters. Rather say, Mr. 
 Hill, not of letters but of circulars, parcels, 
 bills, and all sorts of articles, knives, scissors, 
 
 * See the former part of this pamphlet.
 
 185 
 
 &c., which did not previously come into the 
 Post Office. Carriers suffer, and the Post Office 
 is compelled to pay to the Directors of railroads 
 large sums to remunerate them for the loss 
 of their most profitable business. 
 
 Mr. Hill again brings forward, and dwells 
 upon the Financial returns, which gives the 
 Post Office a net revenue of 600,000. They 
 do so ; but Mr. Hill has been told ten times 
 over, that this 600,000 is exclusive of the costs 
 of the packet service. The principal revenue 
 arises from foreign and colonial postage, and, of 
 course, a portion of this expenditure must be 
 placed against the cost of conveyance, though 
 that charge, under a Treasury arrangement, 
 is carried on by the Admiralty, and not by 
 the Post Office. It may be, and is in truth, 
 a question of quantum what proportion of the 
 costs of the packets should be borne by the 
 Post Office. 
 
 Again, as to savings. This, also, is brought 
 forward in the same undaunted confidence.* 
 On this head we have only to refer to Mr. Hill's 
 evidence, on sorting alphabetically, pp. 730, 731 ; 
 and also to his evidence, p. 778, and the follow- 
 ing questions, on an alteration in the Mediter- 
 ranean Packets. This will sufficiently show 
 how well acquainted he is with the subject. 
 
 * See p. 4.
 
 180 
 
 GROSS REVENUE. Mr. Hill says in the eighth 
 page of his pamphlet, that " the gross revenue 
 of 1842 was 1,578,000, which must be in- 
 creased to forty-eight per cent., in order to 
 raise it to an equality with the gross revenue 
 of 1837, which, in the Committee, was taken as 
 a standard." The absurdity of such a calculation 
 is easily shown. The revenue here quoted is 
 made up principally of foreign and colonial 
 postage rates, which it is proposed yet further 
 to reduce : no great increase can be expected 
 in this branch. The revenue, therefore, on the 
 Penny Post, must be very much greater than 
 forty-eight per cent., to produce the same 
 amount of returns. 
 
 As regards the Post Office estimate, No. 201 ; 
 as the calculation, and the mode of making 
 it, are now printed, and on the table of the 
 House of Commons, the fairness of the state- 
 ment will speak for itself. 
 
 Mr. Hill says, "It is remarkable that Lord 
 Lowther should have said in evidence, * It is a 
 return in which I still have confidence, (2988,) 
 it is, I think, a fair return.' ' Lord Lowther's 
 reply was to the question whether No. 201 
 was a fair estimate of Post Office expences ? It 
 is clear, that if the Admiralty did not maintain 
 the packets, the Post Office must, and, con- 
 sequently, that the conveyance of mails to 
 foreign parts must be placed to the account
 
 187 
 
 of the Post Office. Whether the Post Office 
 itself would justify the maintenance of such 
 an expensive conveyance is not the question. 
 The expence was incurred, and, therefore, must 
 justly and fairly be placed in the return.* Mr. 
 Hill's complaint is, that there is an attempt 
 to exalt the foreign postage to the prejudice of 
 the inland. How very foolish is such an accu- 
 sation; as if the Postmaster-General, and the 
 officers of the establishment, could have any 
 preference in such a case ! 
 
 In order that he may seem to have sustained 
 a contest not wholly unprofitable with the Post 
 Office, Mr. Hill contends that his recommenda- 
 tions have been adopted, " and savings thence 
 effected of 11, 000 on the Birmingham railroad 
 and the Channel packets." 
 
 No such thing ! Not, indeed, from any indis- 
 position on the part of the Office to adopt 
 savings recommended from any quarter, but 
 from the utter ignorance of Mr. Hill on the 
 subjects proposed. As to the savings of 5000 
 per annum on the Birmingham and Gloucester 
 railway, the savings would only have been one 
 single sum of 2000, if carried into effect ; but 
 as the acceleration of the Irish mails has now 
 
 * The disputed return, or Estimate 201. Appendix, p. 232. 
 Report of Evidence.
 
 188 
 
 taken place, and as the train from Birmingham 
 to Gloucester will thus be dispensed with, this 
 saving and suggestion are hors de combat.* 
 And as to the extravagance on the Channel 
 Island packets, we have before shown that 
 there is no pretence for Mr. Hill's suggested 
 savings of 6000. It is pure blundering and 
 ignorance. First, It is an Admiralty charge 
 altogether; and it assumes that the Admiralty 
 would otherwise have put on other packets, at 
 an increased expence. And, secondly, Mr. Hill 
 strangely enough calls this latter piece of 
 economy a saving to the revenue of the Post 
 Office, although, elsewhere, he protests against 
 the expence of packets being charged to that 
 establishment at all. 
 
 RURAL POSTS. Why bring forward this refuted 
 folly again, particularly when the writer is 
 recommending economy ? We find in the evi- 
 dence, page 141, that the average expence of 
 setting up the Posts in the registrars' districts, 
 according to the plan of Mr. Hill, is 38 15s. 6c?., 
 and, consequently, the expence of establishing 
 a Post in each of the 400 registrars' districts, 
 which he mentions as being at present without 
 a Post, would be about 16,000, while the 
 
 * See Colonel Maberly's Evidence. Report of Evidence, 
 page 223.
 
 189 
 
 average expence of the Posts established, or to 
 be established under the regulation of the Post- 
 master-General, is 29 18s. lid. ; and taking 
 the same calculation, 400 of these Posts will be 
 set up for about 12,000, or one- third less ex- 
 pence. Mr. Hill himself estimates the total 
 expence of carrying out his own plan of daily 
 and weekly Posts in every village and hamlet, at 
 about 70,000 per annum, (page 39 of the 
 Evidence.) 
 
 According to the regulations now in force, no 
 place is excluded from the benefit of official 
 accommodation. If the place has a corre- 
 spondence amounting to 100 letters a week for 
 delivery, the Postmaster-General is then em- 
 powered at once to set up the Post ; but if the 
 letters do not amount to 100 in a week, the pri- 
 vilege is granted, provided the parties will give a 
 guarantee to pay the expence. There is, there- 
 fore, every reasonable convenience given, com- 
 bined with a just economy. Lord Lowther's 
 evidence, 2946, gives the most satisfactory 
 reasons for preferring the present plan of Rural 
 Posts. 
 
 As to economy, and a saving of 50,000 
 yearly, by a new arrangement of the communi- 
 cation with Ireland, Mr. Hill's proposition has 
 been fully answered in a previous part of these 
 remarks. How much has been accomplished
 
 190 
 
 > 
 
 for Ireland, and how advantageously, without 
 any suggestions from Mr. Hill, even beyond his 
 anticipations, has recently been explained. 
 
 As to the charges under the " Gloucester and 
 Birmingham railway" abuses, the " excessive 
 railway overpayments, and the excessive space ;" 
 after what has been previously stated, it would 
 be absurd to waste a word; but, as regards 
 the wanton occupation of unnecessary space, 
 Mr. Stow, to whom the question was referred by 
 the Post Office, ought to be heard. "No reduc- 
 tion," he says, " would be made in the charge of 
 conveyance, were any curtailment made in the 
 space allotted. My reason is, that upon more 
 than one line of railway, the directors have pre- 
 ferred furnishing a compartment of a carriage, to 
 providing an imperial with a seat outside for the 
 guard. Such was the case in the Carlisle and 
 Newcastle lines, and such the case lately, on the 
 lines traversed by the Lancaster day mail. No 
 material savings would be effected by these 
 means." 
 
 There are other points of economy brought 
 forward with a gloss of novelty, even in this 
 pamphlet, which we indirectly recognise in Mr. 
 Hill's evidence before the Committee, four 
 months previous. Now, it strikes us as strange, 
 taking an example at hazard ; 1. " The economy 
 resulting from a compulsory pre-payment ;"
 
 191 
 
 how it is that Mr. Hill made no recommendation 
 to carry this into effect during the three years he 
 .was at the Treasury.* Again, we have now two 
 despatches and two arrivals daily, of the London 
 mails to most of the principal places in England, 
 Ireland, and Scotland. Can Mr. Hill explain, 
 how, under all these aids to his original project, 
 his plan of a penny-postage has so totally 
 miscarried ? Again, the franking privilege has 
 been abolished since Mr. Hill's first calculations, 
 and franked letters are now chargeable. Yet, 
 with this addition to Mr. Hill's anticipations, the 
 revenue on the number of letters is not yet 
 threefold ; whilst the charges of management, as 
 shown by his own statement, f are increased 
 from 558,733, in 1836, to 864,157, in 1842; 
 and in the present year fall little short of one 
 million. How widely at variance is this state- 
 ment with the sanguine anticipations of Mr. Hill 
 on the first adoption of his project ! 
 
 As the pamphlet of January last is intended 
 as a reply to the evidence given by the authori- 
 ties of the Post Office to Mr. Hill's suggestions 
 and complaints, he has availed himself of several 
 pages in his Appendix, to expose what he is 
 pleased to call "Post Office contradictions." 
 A more gross attempt to misrepresent and cast 
 
 * See Evidence, pp. 8 and 9, Report. 
 
 f Page 10, Report of Evidence. J See p. 2 of the Report.
 
 192 
 
 discredit on fair and candid evidence has scarcely 
 ever been made. 
 
 Mr. Hill has given garbled extracts of the 
 answers without giving the questions, and which 
 answers, if the whole of the examination had 
 been laid open, would be discovered to apply 
 to a particular part of the subject, whilst he 
 wishes it to be understood as applying to the 
 whole matter. We do not think it necessary 
 to follow Mr. Hill through this portion of his 
 charge, Post Office contradictions. Mr. Hill is not 
 familiar with the nature of evidence, and when it 
 serves his purpose, has not a very charitable 
 mode of examining it. If we had used Mr. Hill, 
 as he uses his opponents of the Post Office, it 
 strikes us, that we might have exhibited him in 
 a less favourable light than we have done. He 
 mistakes differences of opinion and discrepan- 
 cies for contradictions ; and by an artful jumble, 
 which he designedly makes, he produces oppo- 
 sition and contradiction where there is really 
 none at all. But this part of his pamphlet is 
 beneath criticism.
 
 193 
 
 MORAL AND SOCIAL EFFECTS OF THE PENNY POST. 
 
 Upon these alleged proofs of his Penny 
 Postage, Mr. Hill dwells with as much triumph 
 in his last pamphlet as in all his former publi- 
 cations. Mr. Hill has also succeeded in making 
 two species of converts of a very singular kind, 
 both agreeing in the same practical results, but 
 both alike abandoning, by necessary implication, 
 the scheme and arguments of the advocate and 
 projector himself. Perhaps, in the operations of 
 the human mind, there is nothing more extraor- 
 dinary than this frequent effect of the long 
 discussion of questions, either complicate in 
 themselves, or becoming so under a hazy and 
 confused advocate. The two parties of friends 
 and opponents are alike mystified, and led in 
 their conclusions to a kind of discordia concors, 
 which practically agrees in nothing but in the 
 surrender of the whole subject. 
 
 It is pleasantly related of two judges, the 
 late Mr. Baron Wood and Mr. Justice Chambre, 
 that happening to differ upon some important 
 legal point, each, upon the request of the other, 
 corresponded during the long vacation upon the 
 subject of their respective difference. The result 
 was, that each converted the other ; Mr. Baron 
 Wood taking up Mr. Justice Chambre's opinion 
 
 N 
 
 I
 
 194 
 
 as tenaciously as he formerly held his own, and 
 Mr. Justice Chambre returning the compliment 
 with equal tenacity as regarded Mr. Baron 
 Wood's opinion. Thus in the same manner 
 with respect to Mr. Hill's two species of con- 
 verts. The one set seeing all the Postage reve- 
 nue about to depart, and no hope of recovering 
 it, practically concur with Mr. Hill in seeking 
 to abolish it altogether ; employing the postage 
 in future as a mere instrument of commercial 
 and general communication, and no longer 
 expecting anything from it as a board of reve- 
 nue. The other party, carried away with Mr. 
 Hill's representation of the moral and social 
 effects of the Penny Post, and of its benefit to 
 the poor, say in like manner, let us be content 
 under the necessity of the case with this surren- 
 der of revenue, and let us remain satisfied with 
 the large resulting advantages to the comfort of 
 the poor, the diffusion of moral and religious 
 knowledge, and the extensive gratification of the 
 kindly and domestic feelings amongst all classes 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 Now, is this Penny Postage such a sure, large, 
 and unmixed benefit to the poorer classes ? 
 
 We are not disposed to deny that it is some 
 benefit to them ; we question only its extent, 
 and still more its unmixed good. It is scarcely 
 necessary to observe how very small the corre-
 
 195 
 
 spondence of the poor is ; let any man only 
 consider the known correspondence of his own 
 servants ; " sufficit una domus." Let any man 
 acquainted with the country, and rural villages 
 and hamlets, recal to his memory the habits of 
 the agricultural poor; how few of them can write, 
 or procure a letter to be written ; what a labour 
 it is to do so ; how hardly the necessity of the 
 day presses upon them, and how few are the 
 occasions which arise. 
 
 The very failure of Mr. Hill's computation in 
 his estimate of the annual number of letters, and 
 still more, the practical difficulty of establishing 
 rural posts for a district of villages, is an unan- 
 swerable argument for the paucity and narrow 
 limits of this village correspondence. Business, 
 pleasure, vanity, the luxuries and wants of the 
 rich, and the leisure of those in competent cir- 
 cumstances, call indeed, and do not call in vain, 
 on the pen of the ready writer ; but the poor are 
 no ready writers ; unhappily their wants and 
 vanities, as well as their business and enjoy- 
 ments, are circumscribed within the narrow limits 
 of their condition. Thus, the benefit which this 
 class derives from cheap postage amounts to 
 nothing, when compared with the benefit derived 
 from it by mercantile firms, the class of bankers, 
 London and provincial, and by the rich gene- 
 rally. 
 
 N 2
 
 196 
 
 If the state of our finances had been such as 
 to admit the surrender of a million and a half 
 a year for the benefit of the poor, it might surely 
 have been administered in a way so as to give 
 them a greater share of the benefit. But 
 according to Mr. Hill's plan, the rich have 
 derived a greater benefit than the poor, almost 
 by a hundred fold; indeed, in a proportion, 
 which, except by way of example, we should 
 almost fear to assert. Thus, where the poor 
 man receives, say eight letters, from his sailor- 
 son, or his daughter in service in the capital, 
 or in some distant town, and thus gains a 
 shilling in the year by cheap postage, let any 
 one consider how much is gained and saved 
 by this Penny Postage in such houses as Loyd, 
 Jones, and Co. ; Baring Brothers and Co. ; 
 Morrison and Co., &c. 
 
 Indeed, the point is too plain for argument, 
 that Penny Postage is a boon to the rich instead 
 of to the poor, and is a sacrifice of national 
 revenue to swell the coffers of a class which do 
 not require it. Again, let it be remembered 
 that the compensating tax of five per cent, upon 
 tea, sugar, beer, coffee, tobacco, &c., all of them 
 articles in daily use for the poor, falls with 
 greater comparative weight upon this poorer 
 class by the advance which they cause on the 
 price of these commodities ; an advance always
 
 enhanced beyond its own intrinsic weight, and 
 which takes, at least, twice as much from the 
 poor man, as he can possibly gain by cheap 
 postage in the year. 
 
 But we must now proceed to the conclusion 
 of this inquiry.
 
 PART in. 
 
 OUR design in this last and concluding part is 
 to show the present condition of the Post Office, 
 and the prospects held forth of augmentation 
 and improvement, both as regards revenue and 
 administration. 
 
 With respect to its present condition, the 
 Penny Postage brings very little revenue to the 
 country; by far the greater proportion of the 
 revenue is derived from the foreign and colonial 
 postage.* By the return,f the result of the 
 Penny Postage, as charged with the expences, 
 is a surplus net revenue of 103,268. Mr. 
 Hill's plan was to produce a gross revenue of 
 2,000,000, and 1,300,000 net revenue, 
 viz., 300,000 less than it was before. The 
 expressions used in the earlier part of his evi- 
 dence are, " I think the revenue will be sus- 
 tained ; " evidently showing that he contem- 
 plated a short reduction only from the original 
 revenue. He anticipated a five-fold increase in 
 
 * Maberly Report of August last, 1651, 1659, and follow- 
 ing questions. 
 
 f Returns, p. 201, 1843.
 
 199 
 
 the number of his letters, and " this," says 
 Colonel Maberly, " was to take place, as I 
 understand the evidence, immediately after the 
 passing of the Penny Post.* My impression is, 
 that people believed they were to get nearly the 
 same revenue, whilst they got an enormously 
 reduced taxation, and this led to the adoption of 
 the plan." The inevitable inference was, that 
 the result of Mr. Hill's plan would be imme- 
 diate ; there is, indeed, no express reservation in 
 any part of his publication, or in his evidence, 
 if we except his latter pamphlets of 1841 and 
 1844. The revenue is made contingent upon 
 the increase of the number of his letters, but 
 then Mr. Hill anticipated that increase imme- 
 diately. We are now in the fifth year of the 
 system; and he can have no just complaint that 
 time has not been given to him. But it is 
 expedient to throw the blame on the Post 
 Office because the system has not been adopted 
 as a whole.-f Has he shown one " saving," or 
 " facility," or produced one " suggestion," which 
 would not have led to a further embarrassment, 
 increase of expence, and diminution of revenue ? 
 The Postmaster-General is asked, " If he has 
 heard of any improvement which would be likely 
 to raise the revenue to Mr. Hill's anticipated sum 
 
 * See Report, p. 247. 
 
 f This whole is a mere after-thought. See his original 
 plan. Report, p. 247.
 
 200 
 
 of 1,300,000 per annum?" "No; in my view 
 1,300,000 is perfectly hopeless." He is then 
 requested to state his opinion of the operation 
 of the Penny rate on the inland revenue. 
 " I think there is a slight balance in its favour." 
 So far, Lord Lowther, not at all unfavourably 
 disposed to Mr. Hill, having no voice in the 
 dismissal of Mr. Hill; nor consulted on the dis- 
 continuance of his services, agrees with Colonel 
 Maberly "I think," he says, "the balance in 
 favour of the revenue is something more than 
 ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS ! " 
 
 A motion by an honourable member of the 
 House of Commons, for a return of papers from 
 the Post Office, has furnished us with the fol- 
 lowing results, which will place the present 
 condition of that establishment more distinctly 
 and prominently before the reader. 
 
 RETURNS DATED APRIL 2, 1844. 
 
 It appears by the return No. 1, that the num- 
 ber of letters, which have passed through the 
 London General Post Office, has increased three- 
 fold and three-quarters, comparing the average 
 of the first twelve weeks of the present year with 
 the average of the four weeks of 1839, as stated 
 in the return ; whilst, as to the number in the 
 London district, which is usually what is called 
 the Twopenny Post District, the letters have 
 little more than doubled.
 
 201 
 
 No. 1. London General Post Office, four weeks 
 in 1839, 1,622,147. In 1844, 6,097,401. 
 
 No. 2. London District Post, in 1839, 
 1,021,386. In 1844, 2,102,410. 
 
 No. 3. This is a mere comparative statement 
 of the number of letters, including franks, 
 (during the existence of the franking privilege,) 
 delivered in the United Kingdom in one week of 
 each calendar month, beginning November, 
 1839, and ending at the present time. This 
 paper is useful for Post Office accounts, but 
 does not bear upon any point in the present 
 inquiry which has not been fully explained. 
 
 No. 4 is a very important account, showing 
 the gross and net Post Office revenue, and the 
 costs of management, for the United Kingdom, 
 for each of the years beginning 5th January, 
 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, and ending 5th 
 January, 1844. This return, which we give at 
 length, furnishes the following facts. First. It 
 shows that the cost of management, since 5th 
 January, 1839, has increased nearly one- third; 
 that is, from 686,768 to 980,650. It shows, 
 also, that the net revenue has diminished from 
 1,659,509, in 1839, to 554,565, notwith- 
 standing the letters have increased nearly three- 
 fold. But it must be remembered, that this net 
 revenue of 554,565 is subject to the deduction 
 of the packet-service, which, in 1842, amounted 
 to 560,433; thus showing a balance against
 
 202 
 
 the Post Office revenue of 5868* in that 
 year. 
 
 According to the financial accounts, the net 
 revenue of the Post Office for the year ending 
 5th Jan. 1844, was 628,000; an advance of 
 28,000 since the year 1842. This statement 
 was made by Mr. Goulburn in the budget of last 
 April, but, anticipating some extra charges arising 
 from foreign treaties and regulations, he took his 
 estimate for the current year at 600,000 only. 
 
 According to the account returned by the Post 
 Office, No. 4, the net revenue of the Post Office 
 to 5th January, 1844, falls short of the financial 
 return, which is much more favourable to Mr. 
 Hill than the Post Office return. But it is to 
 be observed that the financial return does not 
 include the payment of old debts and East India 
 postage. The return upon the table of the 
 House of Commons gives a net revenue of 
 554,565, which is less than the revenue to 
 Jan. 1843, by 46,076, and less than the revenue 
 to Jan. 1842, by 2,806. It is also worthy 
 of remark, that the gross revenue of the year, 
 ending 5th Jan. 1844, is less than the gross 
 revenue of the preceding year by a sum of 
 43,000. It is thus quite evident that the Post 
 Office revenue has not been on the increase. 
 
 * In the Navy estimates for the present year, the packet- 
 service is estimated at the sum of 589,494.
 
 203 
 
 Again, upon looking at the table, No. 4, and 
 taking into account the postage charged on the 
 Government departments, to which Mr. Hill 
 had no right to look in his original plan, the 
 net revenue, including this charge, instead of 
 628,000, would be diminished to the sum of 
 431,068 ; that is, less by 48,000 than the net 
 revenue of the preceding year, 1843, and less 
 also than that of 1842 by more than 6000 !
 
 204 
 
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 205 
 
 No. 5 is a gross amount of Postage revenue 
 for England and Wales, for one month. 
 
 No. 6 is an account of the payments by the 
 Post Office, for the conveyance of mails by rail- 
 way, and forms part of the general expenditure ; 
 but nothing arises upon it, except that it appears 
 that, in the year 1842, the total payments were 
 94,18. In 1843, when Mr. Hill's Committee 
 sat, 77,000, and in the present year, 5th Jan. 
 1844, 96,000. 
 
 No. 7 is a return of the money-orders issued 
 by the Post Office, and shows an increase from 
 the quarter ending 5th January, 1843, of nearly 
 3,000,000 of money-orders issued. 
 
 No. 8 is a like return of money-orders issued 
 and paid in London, where the augmentation 
 seems in proportion. 
 
 No. 9 is an account, showing the expence of 
 the packet-service, in 1842, between places in 
 the United Kingdom. This paper is of little 
 importance; inasmuch as the total amount is a 
 sum short of 20,000. To this is subjoined the 
 contract packet-service in 1842; the net expences 
 of which, for the United Kingdom and parts 
 abroad, amount to 560,431. Is. lOd. which, 
 as above said, if it be passed to the Post Office 
 revenue, stated on the returns 5th January last, 
 turns the balance against the revenue of that 
 establishment to the amount of 4900. 
 
 No. 10 is an account of compensations and
 
 206 
 
 allowances made to country postmasters, and 
 the expences attending other minor arrange- 
 ments consequent upon the establishment of the 
 Penny Postage. 
 
 No. 11 is a return regarding railway mail 
 expenditure, and actual payments by the Post 
 Office, with an explanation of certain discrepan- 
 cies, which have been before explained in the 
 course of these remarks. 
 
 The account No. 12, is not yet completed. 
 
 No. 13 contains a more detailed and expla- 
 natory account of the Postage revenue of the 
 year ending 5th January, 1843 ; that is to say, 
 what Mr. Hill has been pleased to call the 
 "fallacious return," No. 201. It shows a very 
 trifling variation from that return, delivered into 
 the Committee in August last, except that this 
 account does not include the expence of packets. 
 It is, in truth, an explanation merely of the 
 Post Office estimate, No. 201, which has been the 
 subject of so much examination. 
 
 No. 14 is a return showing the number of 
 registered bye-letters, and is of no importance, 
 but as a matter of Post Office detail. 
 
 With the exception of the return No. 4, a 
 return which we have given in full, these tables 
 afford no matter of comment whatever, except 
 that they are confirmatory, in the strongest 
 manner, of all the points which have been before 
 amply discussed in these remarks.
 
 TREATIES WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES, PUBLIC 
 ACCOMMODATION, AND FACILITIES. 
 
 As respects Treaties. In addition to the 
 Postal Treaty with France, a convention has 
 been concluded with Holland, introducing 
 optional payment, and a reduction of postage, 
 January, 1844. 
 
 With Belgium, a treaty has been agreed upon, 
 lowering postage, particularly on transit letters, 
 and giving an optional payment. We ought 
 also here to add, that in the French treaty addi- 
 tional articles have been introduced, giving 
 optional payment to the Austrian dominions, 
 Southern Russia, Southern Poland, European 
 Turkey, etc. 
 
 To these accommodations, thus amply extend- 
 ing to foreign countries, may be added the large 
 facilities afforded to our own colonies and de- 
 pendencies. For example, the North American 
 provinces. Forward and Dead Letter systems, 
 similar to those used in the United Kingdom, 
 have been introduced. 
 
 New South Wales. An establishment of 
 monthly packets ; and Post Office regulations 
 extended to it. 
 
 India. Introduction of optional payment of 
 British rates, via Southampton. Hong Kong.
 
 208 
 
 Post Office established, and monthly mails up 
 for this island, January, 1844. To the North 
 American Provinces and the West Indies, there 
 has been a further introduction of a system of 
 charging by weight, a reduction of postage, and 
 a very beneficial regulation for the transmission 
 of letters and newspapers. 
 
 In the Ionian islands, optional payments 
 have been introduced, vid Southampton. St. 
 Jago de Cuba second mail established. 
 Ireland acceleration of mails about three 
 hours. 
 
 Paris. Proposed Day Mail to Paris. United 
 Kingdom nearly all the mails accelerated. 
 Rural Posts established, serving about a thou- 
 sand villages. London District Post three 
 additional deliveries daily, to commence the 
 First of May. 
 
 DELIVERY OF LETTERS. Amongst other im- 
 provements we must not pass over the variations 
 which have taken place in the time occupied in 
 the General Post Delivery in London, since 
 1839, up to the present time, May 1st, 1844. 
 
 Previous to the introduction of the Penny 
 Postage system, the delivery was completed, on 
 ordinary days, at about fifteen minutes past ten, 
 A.M. On Mondays, it was, of course, proportion- 
 ably later. In 1841, the letters were delivered 
 considerably later, but by the appointment of 
 twenty sub-sorters, from twenty to thirty minutes
 
 209 
 
 per diem were saved in the completion of the 
 delivery. In 1842, it appeared that three-quar- 
 ters of an hour had been lost in the delivery, 
 as compared with 1839. About twenty-five 
 minutes of the lost time were recovered by the 
 earlier arrival of mails, &c.j and in 1843, it 
 was calculated that the delivery was completed 
 within about twenty minutes of the time at 
 which it had been done before the commence- 
 ment of the Penny Postage. Within the last 
 month a calculation made, shows that the 
 letters were thus delivered within a very few 
 minutes of the time in which they were delivered 
 in 1839. This improvement was effected by 
 the appointment of fifteen additional sub-sorters 
 in November last. 
 
 In addition to the establishment of day mails 
 to almost all the principal towns of the empire, 
 and other facilities and improvements in the 
 Post Office, since May, 1843, for which 
 the reader is referred to the Appendix of 
 the Postage Report,* many other minor im- 
 provements have taken place, which must 
 greatly benefit^the public, both as regards an 
 extension of time of closing the letter boxes 
 in London for letters to be despatched the same 
 evening, and also in the receipt of letters with- 
 out fees, or in the reduction of fees. We shall 
 
 * Report, p. 256. Appendix. 
 O
 
 - 
 
 210 
 
 give one instance of this consideration of public 
 convenience carried into effect, in Dec. 27th, 
 1843. In the Branch Office, for example, in 
 Lombard-street, six, P.M., without a fee ; seven, 
 P.M., with a penny fee. At Charing Cross, 
 Cavendish-street, and the Borough, six, P.M., 
 without a fee ; forty-five minutes past six, P.M., 
 with a penny fee. At the commencement of the 
 Penny Postage the hours were fixed upon a less 
 accommodating scale. Notwithstanding the 
 large increase of letters, it is to the credit of the 
 Postmaster-General, that since the commence- 
 ment of the Penny Postage, and the increase of 
 letters, parcels, &c., which it has brought with 
 it, the time of closing the letter boxes has been 
 prolonged a full hour, and an early delivery, 
 both in London and the suburbs, established. 
 
 We here bring to a close our Remarks on the 
 Administration of the Post Office, and it was not 
 our intention to have added another word ; but it 
 happened, that during the time these sheets were 
 in the press, Mr. M'Culloch published a new 
 edition of his " Commercial Dictionary;" and on 
 turning to it, we find a spirited article on the 
 Post Office, and the new system upon which it 
 has been worked since Mr. Hill's Penny Reform. 
 Mr. M'Culloch speaks with proper contempt of
 
 the "miserable quackery" of a uniform Penny 
 Rate of Postage, and handles the subject through- 
 out with his usual dexterity and keenness. As 
 this opinion proceeds from a grave and acute 
 writer, a Free-Trader, a friend rather to pre- 
 cipitate innovation, than to a more sober and 
 cautious system of financial change and a man 
 whose reputation has become universally estab- 
 lished by a well-directed industry and knowledge 
 of details, both abroad and at home ; the opinion 
 of such an investigator will doubtless command 
 attention. Mr. M'Culloch makes no hesitation 
 in stating that the revenue has lost 1,135,874 
 by this change. This statement is obviously 
 made without deducting the cost of the Packet- 
 service, and resting merely on the financial ac- 
 counts of the year. Let the Packet-service be 
 deducted from the receipts, and the total loss of 
 revenue in the year ending 5th January, 1844, 
 will be found to amount, within a few pounds, 
 to the total gains at the period when Mr. Hill 
 took this establishment into his hands, namely, 
 in January, 1840. In a word, to a complete 
 shipwreck of the whole revenue. 
 
 It is but justice to Mr. M'Culloch, to give his 
 able and judicious comments on the NEW SYSTEM 
 OF POSTAGE in his own words :
 
 THE POST OFFICE. 
 
 From M'Culloch's Commercial Dictionary. Last Edition. 
 Page 990. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE NEW SYSTEM. The increase of the 
 Post Office revenue, as evinced by the above statements,* has 
 been very remarkable. It is mostly, no doubt, to be ascribed 
 to the increase of population, the diffusion of education, and 
 the growing intercourse among all classes of the community ; 
 though a good deal must also be ascribed to the efforts made 
 in the early part of the reign of George III. to suppress some 
 of the grosser abuses that had grown out of the privilege of 
 franking, and still more to the additions that were repeatedly 
 made to the rates of postage. Unfortunately, however, the 
 latter were in the end carried far beyond their proper 
 limits, imposing a heavy burden on the public, without any 
 corresponding advantage to the revenue. This is obvious 
 from the fact of the Post Office revenue having continued 
 stationary for the twenty years ending with 1 839, though, 
 from the great increase of population and commerce during 
 that period, it is obvious, had the rates of postage not been 
 so high as to force recourse to other channels, the revenue 
 must have rapidly increased from the termination of the war 
 downwards. 
 
 When the rates of postage are moderate, the greater despatch 
 and security of their conveyance by post prevent any con- 
 siderable number of letters being sent through other channels. 
 But when the rates become oppressive, when for example a 
 postage (as under the late system) of eleven-pence is charged 
 on the conveyance of a single letter between London and 
 York, of thirteen-pence between London and Edinburgh, and 
 so on, a serious interruption is given to that facility of inter- 
 course which is so important, at the same time that a very 
 large proportion of the correspondence which is carried on is 
 unavoidably forced into private channels. 
 
 It was no doubt attempted to prevent the transfer of letters 
 from the post by forbidding, under heavy penalties, their 
 
 * The statements here alluded to are those under the old Post Office 
 arrangements.
 
 213 
 
 conveyance by private parties. But, as might have been 
 anticipated, this prohibition could not be enforced, and had 
 little or no effect. Considering indeed the facilities which 
 have long existed for the transmission of letters in parcels 
 between different parts of the country, and the oppressive 
 rates of postage, the wonder is not that the Post Office 
 revenue was nearly stationary previously to 1839, but that it 
 did not fall off. Although, however, the rates of postage 
 then existing, amounting, as already stated, to an average 
 charge of about Id. or 1\d. on all single letters conveyed by 
 the General Post, were very decidedly too high, it did not, 
 therefore, follow that an invariable charge of one penny, 
 whether a letter were conveyed one mile or one thousand 
 miles, or singly or with ten thousand others, was the precise 
 charge that should have been imposed. But notwithstanding 
 this was rushing blindfold from one extreme, or rather 
 absurdity, to another, and endangering a large amount of 
 revenue without any equivalent advantage, the project brought 
 forward by Mr. Rowland Hill for a uniform penny postage, to 
 be paid in advance, was eagerly adopted. 
 
 It must be admitted, too, that it had various recommenda- 
 tions in its favour. Being calculated to obviate trouble and 
 save expence to the public, it could not fail to be generally 
 acceptable, (what reduction of taxation is not ?) especially to 
 mercantile men and others having an extensive correspond- 
 ence. No doubt, however, the scheme was far more indebted 
 for its popularity to the oppressiveness of the old rates of 
 postage, than to any intrinsic merits of its own. 
 
 Had these rates been properly reduced in 1837 or 1838, 
 that is, had the postage of letters of half-an-ounce weight, 
 passing between Scotland and Ireland, and London, been 
 reduced to 4d. or 6d. and other letters in proportion, and 
 mercantile circulars, advertisements, and notices of sales, &c. 
 been allowed to pass under covers open at the ends at Id. or 
 Id. each, we venture to say that the clamour for a uniform 
 penny postage would never have made any way. But govern- 
 ment, though hostile to the project, took no step calculated to 
 stop the agitation in its favour. They neither reduced the 
 old rates of postage nor attempted to give any increased faci- 
 lities for the conveyance of letters by post. And it happened 
 in this, as it all but invariably happens on similar occasions,
 
 214 
 
 that those who decline making reasonable and necessary 
 concessions at the outset, are in the end compelled to concede 
 a great deal more than would at first have been satisfactory. 
 Such, at all events, was the case in this instance. The 
 clamour for a uniform penny rate became too powerful to be 
 resisted, and parliament, whether it were so inclined or not, 
 was obliged to lend its sanction to the measure. 
 
 The Act 2 and 3 Victoria, cap. 52, for regulating the duty 
 on postage, did not indeed enact that the charge for conveying 
 letters of a given weight, should in all cases be reduced to 
 one penny, but it was introduced for the avowed purpose of 
 enabling the Treasury to take the necessary steps to bring the 
 change about with the least inconvenience to all parties. In 
 this view it gave the Treasury power to alter and reduce the 
 rates of postage^ without reference to the distance which 
 letters may be conveyed, according to the weight of the 
 letters, and not to the number or description of their enclo- 
 sures ; it also gave them power to adopt such regulations as 
 they might think expedient as to stamped covers or envelopes ; 
 to suspend parliamentary franking, &c. 
 
 In virtue of the powers so conveyed, regulations have been issued, 
 (rendered permanent by the Act 3 and 4 Vic. c. 96,) by which, all 
 inland letters, without regard to the number of enclosures or the distance 
 conveyed, provided they be paid when posted or despatched, are : 
 
 If not exceeding half-an-ounce weight, charged Id. ; one ounce, 2d. ; two 
 ounces, 4rf. ; three ounces, 6rf.; and so on ; 2d. being added for every 
 additional ounce up to sixteen ounces ; beyond which, with the following 
 exceptions, no packet, whether subject to postage or not, is received. 
 
 1st. Parliamentary petitions and addresses to Her Majesty. 
 
 2nd. Parliamentary proceedings. 
 
 3rd. Letters and packets addressed to or received from places beyond 
 sea. 
 
 4th. Letters and packets to and from public departments. 
 
 5th. Deeds, if sent open, or in covers open at the sides. They may be 
 tied with string and sealed, in order to prevent inspection of the contents, 
 but they must be open at the sides, that it may be seen that they are 
 entitled to the privilege. 
 
 6th. Bankers' parcels, despatched from London, and specially delivered 
 at the General Post Office under certain regulations. 
 
 With these exceptions, all packets above the weight of sixteen ounces 
 will be immediately forwarded to the dead letter office. 
 
 All letters not paid when they are posted or despatched, are charged 
 double the above rates.
 
 215 
 
 All Parliamentary and official franking has been put an end to ; but 
 members of either house of parliament are entitled to receive petitions 
 and addresses to Her Majesty and petitions to Parliament, free of charge, 
 provided such petitions and addresses be sent in covers open at the ends , 
 and do not exceed thirty-two ounces weight. 
 
 The punctual delivery of letters may be insured by getting them 
 registered when posted. A fee of one shilling is charged for the regis- 
 tration of each letter, over and above the rate of postage to which it may 
 be liable. To facilitate the working of the plan, government furnish 
 adhesive stamps at one penny, &c., each; which being pasted on letters, 
 they are of course delivered to those to whom they are addressed, free of 
 any farther charge for postage ; and it also furnishes stamped envelopes 
 at the low rate of twenty-four for 2s. 3d., the 3d. being for the paper and 
 manufacture. Hence, as any quantity of stamps or stamped envelopes 
 may, in most parts of the country, be procured beforehand, the necessity 
 that must otherwise have existed of paying the postage at the moment 
 when letters are posted, has been pretty generally obviated. 
 
 Such are the more prominent features of the new system ; 
 and no doubt it has the recommendation of simplicity, (if we 
 may apply such a phrase to a uniform charge for services costing 
 widely different sums,) and cheapness in its favour, and has 
 greatly facilitated correspondence. But it may, notwith- 
 standing, be easily shown that its adoption was most unwise. 
 It is, no doubt, very convenient for merchants, bankers, 
 middlemen, retail dealers, and indeed for most persons, to get 
 letters for Id., that previously cost them Id. or 7$d. ; but 
 their satisfaction is not the only thing to be attended to in 
 forming a fair estimate of the measure. 
 
 The public exigencies require that a sum of about fifty 
 millions a year should be raised, one way or the other ; and 
 so long as we are pressed by an unreasoning necessity of this 
 sort, it is not much to say in favour of the repeal or dimi- 
 nution of any tax, that those on whom it fell with the 
 greatest severity are delighted with the reduction. Sugar 
 has, in England, become a necessary of life ; and its con- 
 sumption, to say the least, is quite as indispensable to the 
 bulk of the people, and especially to the labouring classes, as 
 the writing of letters. But, would it therefore be a wise 
 measure to repeal the duty on sugar, or to reduce it to 1*. 
 per cwt. ? It has been alleged indeed, that taxes on the 
 transmission of letters are objectionable on principle, and 
 should therefore be repealed, independently altogether of
 
 216 
 
 financial considerations ! But it is easier to make an allega- 
 tion of this sort than to prove it. All taxes, however imposed, 
 if they be carried (as was the case with the old rates of 
 postage) beyond their proper limits, are objectionable ; but, 
 provided these be not exceeded, we have yet to learn why a 
 tax on a letter should be more objectionable than a tax on the 
 paper on which it is written, on the food of the writer, or on 
 fifty other things. 
 
 It was contended, when the plan was under discussion, that 
 there would be no loss of revenue, and that the increase of 
 correspondence growing out of the reduction of the postage 
 would be so vast, as fully to balance the reduced rate of 
 charge ! But though there has been a great increase in the 
 number of letters, it has fallen far short of this. Notwith- 
 standing all that has been said about the furor scribendi, 
 letter-writing is generally looked upon as a duty rather than 
 as a pleasure ; and it does not follow, when the expence of 
 postage is reduced, that the occasions for writing letters are 
 proportionally increased. 
 
 The total gross receipt of the Post Office revenue of the 
 United Kingdom, deducting overcharges and returned letters, 
 amounted in 1838, (before the late change began,) to 
 ^62,346,278 ; while the expences of the establishment for the 
 same year, amounted to ^6686,768, leaving a net revenue of 
 ,\, 659,510. In 1842, however, two years after the new 
 system had been in full operation, the gross receipt of the 
 Post Office revenue amounted to only .1,578,146; while the 
 expences of the establishment for the same year, amounted to 
 977,505, leaving a net revenue of only ^6600,641 ; being 
 no less than 1, 058,869 under its amount in 1838. This, 
 however, is not all. Of the Post Office revenue in 1838, 
 ^645,156 consisted of postage paid by public offices; which, 
 being a mere charge by one government department against 
 others, must be deducted in order to learn the net available 
 revenue produced by the Post Office. Owing, however, to 
 the abolition of franking, the postage charged against 
 government departments is now greatly increased, and in 
 1842 amounted to no less than ^6122,161. Hence it will be 
 found, on deducting these sums, that, in 1838 the Post Office 
 produced to government, over and above all charges, a clear 
 available income of 361,614,354, which in 1842 was sunk to
 
 217 
 
 .478,480, being a net diminution of ^1,135,874! The 
 subjoined account sets these important particulars in the 
 clearest point of view. 
 
 An account showing the gross and net Post Office revenue 
 and the cost of management for the United Kingdom, for 
 each of the years ending oth January, 1839, 1840, 1841, 
 1842, and 1843, excluding from the account, whether of gross 
 revenue or cost of management, any advances that may have 
 been made by the English to the Irish Post Office, and 
 advances to the money-order office. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Postage 
 
 Net Revenue, 
 
 
 
 
 
 charged 
 
 exclusive of 
 
 Year ending 
 
 Gross 
 Revenue.* 
 
 tCost of 
 Management. 
 
 Net 
 Revenue. 
 
 on the 
 Govern- 
 
 Charges on 
 the Govern- 
 
 
 
 
 
 ment 
 Depart- 
 
 ment Depart- 
 ment . 
 
 
 
 
 ments. 
 
 
 Jan. 5, 1839 2,346,278 
 
 686,768 
 
 1,659,509 
 
 45,156 
 
 1,614,353 
 
 " 1840+ 2,390,763 
 
 756,999 
 
 1,633,764 
 
 44,277 
 
 1,589,486 
 
 " 1841 
 
 1,342,604 
 
 858,677 
 
 483,927 
 
 90,761 
 
 393,166 
 
 " 1842 
 
 1,495,540 
 
 938,168 
 
 557,371 
 
 113,255 
 
 444,115 
 
 " 1843 
 
 1,578,145 
 
 977,504 
 
 600,641 
 
 122,161 
 
 478,479 
 
 * Namely, the gross receipts, after deducting the returns for " Refused 
 Letters," &c. 
 
 t Includes over and above what are properly the expences of collection, 
 all payments out of the Revenue in its progress to the Exchequer, amount- 
 ing to about 10,000 a-year, in pensions to the Duke of Marlborough and 
 others, except advances to the Money-Order Office. 
 
 J This year includes one month of the Four-penuy Rate. 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that the adoption of the new Post 
 Office system has occasioned the sacrifice of above \, 058,869 
 a-year of revenue. And, though it be true, that a sacrifice of 
 this amount might not under other circumstances, have been 
 of much consequence, it is to be borne in mind that it was 
 incurred when the revenue was already inadequate to meet 
 the expenditure, and when, consequently, the deficiency had 
 to be otherwise provided for, though probably, in some more 
 onerous way we should not, however, have thought the loss 
 of revenue, nor even the MISERABLE QUACKERY of a uniform 
 penny rate, a valid objection to the new plan, had there been 
 no means other than its adoption of getting rid of the 
 
 P
 
 218 
 
 inconveniences attached to the old system. But such was 
 not the case. All its defects might have been effectually 
 obviated without any, or with but a very inconsiderable loss 
 of revenue. Had franking been abolished, and the old rates 
 of postage so reduced that the average charge might have 
 been about 2^d. or 3d. a letter, the revenue would not 
 probably have lost anything, while every really advantageous 
 object effected by the present system would have been 
 secured. Indeed, we see no good reason why the present 
 rates of postage should not, and very many why they should, 
 be doubled, or increased to 2d. for a letter weighing half-an- 
 ounce, 4d. for one weighing an ounce, and so on. We are 
 well convinced that, were this done, and the troublesome 
 practice of forcing the prepayment of letters abandoned, the 
 revenue would be nearly doubled, with little or no incon- 
 venience to the public. 
 
 It will redound nothing to the credit of the new system, 
 should the Post Office revenue increase while it is maintained ; 
 for this will necessarily follow from the increasing population, 
 wealth, commerce, and education of the country ; the revenue 
 would increase quite as fast under any reasonably well-con- 
 trived system : all taxes on articles in general use are sure, 
 provided they be not excessive, to increase with every increase 
 of population and wealth. 
 
 The abolition of franking, which, however, is in no wise 
 connected with a penny rate of postage, is by far the least 
 exceptionable of the late alterations. Franked letters were in 
 most instances addressed to those who could best afford to pay 
 the expence of postage ; and who in this way escaped a burden 
 which fell with its full weight on their less opulent and less 
 known neighbours. 
 
 May 13, 1844. 
 
 BLACKBURN AND PARDON, PRINTERS, 6, HATTON GARDEN, LONDON.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 11, eighth line from the bottom, for " seven" read " hourly." 
 
 Page 12, in line twelve, dele " multiplication of offices." 
 
 Page 13, ten lines from bottom, for " 500,000" read " 300,000." The 
 
 error occurs in Hansard's Report of the Speech of the Chancellor of 
 
 the Exchequer. 
 
 Page 24, seven lines from bottom, for " began" read " proposed." 
 Page 30, add after the word " arrived," eleven lines from the bottom, 
 
 " If the packets be taken into consideration, the net revenue is nothing. 
 
 If the packets are not taken into account, the net revenue for the year 
 
 ending January 5th, 1844, is 554,565. 
 
 Page 70, sixteen from bottom, dele " delivered to the Committee in 
 
 the course of their sittings." 
 
 Page 72, four from bottom, for " supplemental paper" read " actual 
 
 account for two months." 
 
 Page 113, seven lines from bottom, for " District Posts" read " District 
 
 Post Offices." 
 
 Page 120, The quotation to be continued to the end of the paragraph, 
 
 instead of terminating at the word " indicated." 
 Page 121, ten lines from top, after "103,000 yearly," add "from the 
 
 inland letters." 
 
 Page 180, nineteen from top, for "restoration" read "rectification." 
 Page 198, eleven lines from top, add " on inland letters separate from 
 
 foreign and colonial."

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
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