Her Majesty's Mails Part 16

FOOTNOTES:

[166] At this period the packets were worked at a considerable loss; though this large item was occasioned by the war, yet the sea-postage never amounted to half the cost of the maintenance of the mail-packets.

[167] In the American Colonies, Benjamin Franklin was the last and by far the best colonial Postmaster-General. He had forty years experience of postal work, having been appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737. Mr. Pliny Miles, in his history of the Post-Office in America, _New York Bankers' Magazine_, vol. vii. p. 360, has furnished many interesting particulars of this period. It appears that Franklin notified his appointment in his own newspaper as follows: "Notice is hereby given, that the Post-Office at Philadelphia is now kept at B.

Franklin's in Market Street, and that Henry Pratt is appointed riding-postmaster for all stages between Philadelphia and Newport, Virginia, who sets out _about the beginning_ (!) of each month, and returns in twenty-four days, by whom gentlemen, merchants, and others may have their letters carefully conveyed." What follows is also interesting. It would seem that Franklin was somewhat unceremoniously dismissed from his post, upon which he wrote, by way of protest, that up to the date of his appointment "the American Post-Office never had paid anything to Britain. We (himself and a.s.sistant) were to have 600_l._ a-year between us, _if we could make that sum out of the profits of the office_. To do this, a variety of improvements were necessary; some of these were, inevitably, at the beginning expensive; so that in the first four years the office became above 900_l._ in debt to us. But it soon after began to repay us; and before I was displaced by a freak of the Minister's we had brought it to yield three times as much clear revenue to the Crown as the whole Post-Office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction," adds Franklin, with a bit of pardonable irony, "they have received from it--not one farthing!"

[168] The amount of sea-postage collected has never reached within late years to more than _half_ the entire cost of the mail-packet service. In 1860, this cost was 863,000_l._ and the postage collected amounted to 409,000_l._

[169] Postmaster-General's _Ninth Report_, p. 84.

CHAPTER IV.

ON POSTAGE-STAMPS.

The history of postage-stamps is somewhat remarkable. First used, as many of our readers will remember, in May 1840, the postage stamp has only just pa.s.sed out of its years of minority, and yet at this present moment there are more than fifteen hundred different varieties of its species in existence, and the number is increasing every month. The question as to who invented the postage-stamp would not be easily settled; it appears to be the result of innumerable improvements suggested by many different individuals. We will not enter far into the controversy, and would only urge that the discussion as to its origin has once more served to exemplify the truth of the saying of the wise man, "The thing which hath been, it is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun." Post-paid envelopes were in use in France as early as the reign of Louis XIV.[170] Pelisson states that they originated, in 1653, with a M. de Velayer, who established, under royal authority, a private penny post in Paris, placing boxes at the corners of the streets for the reception of letters, which should be wrapped up in certain envelopes. Shopkeepers in the immediate neighbourhood sold the envelopes, some of which are still extant.[171]

In England, stamps to prepay letters were most probably suggested by the newspaper duty-stamp, then, and for some time previously, in use. Mr.

Charles Whiting seems to have thrown out this suggestion to the Post-Office authorities in 1830.[172] Afterwards, Mr. Charles Knight proposed a stamped cover for the circulation of newspapers. Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, claims the credit of having suggested that letters should be prepaid with them, as early as 1834.[173] No steps, however, were taken in regard to any recommendations on the subject till the proposals for post reform; and, consequently, the credit of the improvement has fallen, to a considerable extent, to Sir Rowland Hill.

The use of postage-stamps was scarcely part of his original scheme, though it followed almost as a matter of course: and, indeed, this public benefactor, crowned with so many well-won laurels, may easily afford to dispense with the adornment of this single one.

Mr. Hill's famous pamphlet on _Post Reform_ went through three editions rapidly. In the first edition, which was published privately, we find no mention of the use of stamps--though prepayment of letters was always a princ.i.p.al feature in his proposals--_money payments_ over the counter of the receiving-office being all that was suggested under this head.

Immediately after the publication of the first edition, the members of the Royal Commission on the Post-Office, which had been sitting at intervals since 1833, called the author before them. In connexion with the subject of the prepayment of letters, the officers of the Stamp Office--Mr. d.i.c.kenson, the paper-maker, and several others--were also examined, and the subject was thoroughly discussed.[174] Almost, as it would seem, as a consequence of the proceedings before Committee, Mr.

Hill, in the second edition of his pamphlet, recommended definitely the use of some kind of stamps or stamped envelopes as a means of prepayment. When the Committee of the House of Commons met in 1837-8 to investigate the merits of Mr. Hill's penny-postage scheme, they were, of course, required to express an opinion as to the desirability or otherwise of prepayment by means of stamps. A favourable opinion was given on the subject, so that when the Government brought in and carried the Penny-Postage Act, a clause for their use formed a component part of it.

Though it was agreed on all hands that stamps, or stamped paper of some sort, should come into use with the advent of cheap postage, it was by no means easy to hit upon a definite plan, or, when a number of plans were submitted, to decide upon the particular one to be adopted. Stamped _paper_, representing different charges, was first suggested. Folded in a particular way, a simple revenue-stamp would then be exposed to view, and frank the letter. Another suggestion was that a stamped _wafer_, as it was called, should be used, and, placed on the back of a letter, seal and frank it at the same time. The idea of stamped _envelopes_, however, was at first by far the most popular, and it was decided that they should be the prepaying medium. Plans and suggestions for the carrying out of this arrangement being required at once, the Lords of the Treasury issued a somewhat pompous proclamation, dated August 23d, 1839, inviting "all artists, men of science, and the public in general," to offer proposals "as to the manner in which the stamp may best be brought into use." So important was the subject considered, that Lord Palmerston, the then Foreign Secretary, was directed to apprise foreign Governments of the matter, and invite suggestions from any part of the civilized world. Three months were allowed for plans, and two prizes of 200_l._ and 100_l._ were offered for proposals on the subject, "which my Lords may think most deserving of attention." The palm was carried off by the late Mr. Mulready, Royal Academician, who designed the envelopes now known by his name. These envelopes, which allegorically celebrated the triumphs of the post in a host of emblematical figures, were of two colours; the one for a penny being printed in black, and the other, for the twopenny postage, in blue ink. They gave little satisfaction, however, and at the end of six months were withdrawn from use. There was little room left on the envelope for the address. They left to the common and vulgar gaze, as Miss Martineau, we think, has pointed out, emotions of the mind which had always best be kept in the background, and instead "of spreading a taste for high art," which had been hoped, they brought it into considerable ridicule.[175]

Before the postage-envelope was finally withdrawn from use, the Treasury issued another prospectus, offering a reward of 500_l._ for the best design and plan for a simple postage-_label_. It was made a condition that it should be simple, handy, and easily placed on paper, and of a design which would make forgery difficult, if not impossible. About 1,000 designs were sent in, but not one was chosen. Eventually, the ugly black stamp, said to be the joint production of some of the officers of the Stamp- and Post-Offices, was decided upon and brought into use. Two years afterwards, this black stamp was changed to brown, princ.i.p.ally with a view to make the obliterating process more perfect, and the better to detect the dishonesty of using old stamps. For the same reasons, the colour was again changed in a short time to red, and so it has remained to the present time. The twopenny stamp has been from the first blue. Up to this date, at different intervals, six other stamps have been issued, as the necessities of the inland or foreign postage required them. The tenpenny stamp, of an octagonal shape and brown colour, is now scarcely ever used, if it be not even withdrawn from circulation. The list comprises, besides the stamps we have mentioned, the sixpenny (lilac), the shilling (green), the fourpenny (vermilion), the threepenny (rose), and the ninepenny (yellow). The last two were issued only two or three years ago. The whole of the English labels bear the impression of the head of Queen Victoria, and are all of the same size and shape (if we except the tenpenny stamp), the sole difference being in the colour, and in the various borderings round the Queen's portraits. Besides these distinguishing marks, however, they all tell the tale of their own value.[176]

Soon after the introduction of postage-stamps, stamped envelopes were again proposed. This time the proposition was a very simple one, only consisting of the usual kind of stamp embossed on the right-hand corner of a common envelope; the shape to be oval, round, or octagonal, according to the value of the envelope. For the envelopes themselves, a peculiar kind of paper was prepared by Mr. d.i.c.kenson, and was considered on all hands to be the best possible preventive of forgery. This paper, which was manufactured with lines of thread or silk stretched through its substance, has been used ever since. Russia, in adopting the stamped envelope, guards against forgery by means of a large water-mark of a spread eagle running over the envelope.

The English Stamp-Office affords every facility in the matter of stamped paper and envelopes, and private individuals may indulge their tastes to almost any extent. The officers of Inland Revenue, Somerset House, will place an embossed stamp on any paper or envelope taken to them, equal to the value of any of those above mentioned, or to a combination of any of them, under the following regulations:--

1st. When the stamps required do not amount to 10_l._ worth one shilling is charged, in addition to the postage stamps, for each distinct size of paper.

2d. When the stamps amount to 10_l._ worth no fee is charged if one size of paper only be sent.

3d. When the stamps amount to 20_l._ worth, no fee is charged, and two sizes of paper are allowed; 30_l._ three sizes are allowed; 40_l._ four sizes.

4th. No _folded_ paper can be stamped; and therefore paper, whether intended for envelopes or letters, must be sent unfolded and without being creased.

5th. Every distinct size and form of envelope or paper must be marked so as to indicate the plan on which the stamp is to be impressed, in order that, when the envelope or letter is folded and made up, the stamp may appear in the proper position according to the rules of the Post-Office.

6th. No coloured paper can be received for stamping, nor any paper which is too thin to bear the impression of the dies.

7th. Envelopes provided by the office, with the proper stamps thereon, will be subst.i.tuted for any which may be spoiled in the operation of stamping.

A recent concession made by the Board of Inland Revenue may be regarded as one of the latest novelties in the advertising world. Under the arrangement in question, the Stamp-Office permits embossed rings with the name of a particular firm, _e. g._ "Allsop & Co., Burton-on-Trent,"

"De la Rue & Co.," to be placed round the stamp as a border to it.

In 1844, after the _expose_ of the letter-opening practices at the General Post-Office, Mr. Leech gave in _Punch_ his "Anti-Graham Envelopes," and his satirical postage envelope, afterwards engraved by Mr. W. J. Linton, and widely circulated, represents Sir James Graham sitting as "Britannia." About the same time there might have been seen in the windows of booksellers of the less respectable cla.s.s, a kind of padlock envelope, exhibiting the motto, "Not to be Grahamed."

For eight long years, the English people may be said to have enjoyed a complete monopoly in postage-stamps. Towards the close of 1848, they were introduced into France, and subsequently into every civilized nation in the world. Last year they even penetrated into the Ottoman Empire, and strange as it appears, when viewed in the light of Mohammedan usage, the Sultan has been prevailed upon to allow his portrait to appear on the new issues of Turkish stamps.

In pursuance of a recommendation of a select committee of the House of Commons which sat in 1852, a perforating machine was purchased from Mr.

Henry Archer, the inventor, for the sum of four thousand pounds.[177]

The same committee could not decide, they said, on the "conflicting evidence" whether copper-plate engraving or surface printing would best secure the stamps against forgery, but they considered that the accurate perforation of the sheets would be a valuable preventive against forgery, "inasmuch as it would be exceedingly difficult to counterfeit sheets, and sheets badly done would at once excite suspicion when offered for sale." The invention of the perforating machine is said to have been attended with considerable labour, as, undoubtedly, it was by skill and ingenuity. To the Post-Office and the public the patent was sufficiently cheap. For a number of years the stamps had to be separated from each other by knives or scissors; now one stamp may be torn from the other with ease and safety. The process of puncturing the narrow s.p.a.ces round each stamp--an undertaking not so easy as it seems--is the last the sheet of stamps undergoes before it is ready for sale.

With regard to the other processes, little is known out of the Stamp-Office, beyond what may be gathered from a close inspection of the postage-stamps themselves. For obvious reasons, it has never been thought desirable to publish any account of the manufacture of stamps.

We may simply say that all English postage-labels are manufactured at Somerset House, and the entire establishment, which is distinct from the other branches of the Inland Revenue Department, is managed at the annual expense of thirty thousand pounds.[178] Of this sum, nineteen thousand pounds is the estimated cost for the present year, 1863-1864, of paper for labels and envelopes, and for printing, gumming, and folding. About five thousands pounds will be necessary to pay the salaries of the various officers, including five hundred pounds to the supervisor, and one hundred pounds to the superintendent of the perforating process. Mr. Edwin Hill, a brother of Sir Rowland Hill, is at the head of the department. A large number of boys are employed at the machines, under the superintendence of three or four intelligent superintendents. The paper used for the stamps is of a peculiar make, each sheet having a water-mark of two hundred and forty crowns; the blocks used are of first-rate quality, and only subjected to a certain number of impressions. The blocks are inked with rollers as in letter-press printing. Of course, the stamps are printed in sheets, though each one is struck with the same die or punch. After the printing, and before the sheets are perforated, they are covered on the back with a gelatine matter to render the label adhesive.

Great precaution is taken in the printing of the stamps to provide against forgery. All the lines and marks, as well as the initial letters in the corner, are arranged so as to make the whole affair inimitable. The best preservative, however, in our opinion, against a spurious article, is the arrangement under which stamps are sold. Only obtainable in any large quant.i.ty from the Stamp or Post-Offices, any attempt on the part of the forger to put a base article into circulation is enc.u.mbered with difficulties. Stamps, while they do duty for coin, are used almost exclusively for small transactions, and generally among people well known to each other. Other precautions are nevertheless very necessary; and besides the initial letters on each stamp--different in every one of the two hundred and forty in the sheet--which are regarded as so many checks on the forger, this pest to society would have to engrave his own die, and cast his own blocks, and find a drilling-machine, perhaps the most difficult undertaking of all. The paper, besides, would be a considerable obstacle, and not less so the ink, for that used in this manufacture differs from ordinary printer's ink, not merely in colour, but in being soluble in water.

When postage-stamps were first introduced in England, it was little thought that they would become a medium of exchange, and far less that they would excite such a _furore_ among stamp collectors. The same stamp may do duty in a number of various ways before it serves its normal purpose. It may have proceeded through the post a dozen times imbedded within the folds of a letter, before it becomes affixed to one, and gets its career ended by an ugly knock on the face--for its countenance once disfigured, it has run its course. Besides their being so handy in paying a trifling debt or going on a merciful errand, the advertising columns of any newspaper will shew the reader many of the thousand and one ways in which he may turn his spare postage-stamps to account. You may suddenly fall upon a promise of an easy competence for the insignificant acknowledgment of half-a-crown's worth of this article.

Friends to humanity a.s.sure you a prompt remittance of thirteen Queen's heads will secure you perfect exemption from all the ills that flesh is heir to. For the same quant.i.ty another who does the prophetic strain, will tell you which horse will win the Derby, "as surely as if you stood at the winning-post on the very day." "Stable Boy," promises all subscribers of twelve stamps that if they "do not win on this event, he will never put his name in print again." Of course all this is quackery, or worse; still the reader need not be told how in innumerable _bona fide_ cases the system of postage-stamp remittances is exceedingly handy for both buyer and vendor, and how trade--retail at any rate--is fostered by it. As a social arrangement, for the poorer cla.s.ses especially, we could not well over-estimate its usefulness. Again we see a good result of the penny-post scheme. Since 1840, not only has the use of postage-stamps in this way never been discouraged (as it was always thought that fewer coin letters would be sent in consequence), but the Post-Office authorities have recently made provision for taking them from the public, when not soiled or not presented in single stamps. This arrangement is already in force at the princ.i.p.al post-offices, and will ultimately extend to all. In America, as will be familiar to most readers, postage-stamps have formed the princ.i.p.al currency of small value almost since the breaking out of the present fratricidal war. More recently, the United States Government has issued the stamps without gum, as it was found inconvenient to pa.s.s them frequently from hand to hand, after they had undergone the gelatinizing process. Under an Act, "Postage Currency, July 17th, 1862," the Federal authorities have issued stamps printed on larger sized paper, with directions for their use under the peculiar circ.u.mstances.

The obliteration of postage-labels in their pa.s.sage through the post, requires a pa.s.sing notice. Different countries obliterate their stamps variously and with different objects. In France they obliterate with a hand-stamp having acute prominences in it, which, when thrown on the stamp, not only disfigures, but perforates it with numerous dots placed closely together. In Holland, the word "_Franco_" is imprinted in large letters. Some countries, _e. g._ Italy, Austria, and Prussia, mark on the label itself, the name of the despatching town, together with the date of despatch. In England, the purpose of the defacement marks is _primarily_ to prevent the stamp being used again. It also serves to show--inasmuch as the obliterating stamp of every British Post-Office is consecutively numbered--where the letter was posted, in the event of the other dated stamp being imperfectly impressed. For this purpose the British Postal Guide gives a list of the post-towns and the official number of each. The mark of St. Martin's-le-Grand is a changeable figure in a circle, according to the time of day during which the letter has been posted and struck; for the London district offices, we have the initials of the district, and the number of the office given in an oval.

The figures in England are surrounded by lines forming a circle; in Scotland by three lines at the top and three at the bottom of them; in Ireland the lines surround the figures of the particular office in a diamond shape.

It only remains to refer for a moment to the _timbromanie_, or stamp mania. The scenes in Birchin Lane in 1862, where crowds nightly congregated, to the exceeding annoyance and wonderment of policeman X--where ladies and gentlemen of all ages and all ranks, from Cabinet-ministers to crossing-sweepers, were busy, with alb.u.m or portfolio in hand, buying, selling, or exchanging, are now known to have been the beginnings of what may almost be termed a new trade.

Postage-stamp exchanges are now common enough; one held in Lombard Street on Sat.u.r.day afternoons is largely attended. Looking the other day in the advertis.e.m.e.nt pages of a monthly magazine, we counted no fewer than sixty different dealers in postage-stamps there advertising their wares. Twelve months ago, there was no regular mart in London at which foreign stamps might be bought; now there are a dozen regular dealers in the metropolis, who are doing a profitable trade. About a year ago, we witnessed the establishment of a monthly organ for the trade in the _Stamp-collector's Magazine_; at this present moment there are no less than _ten_ such publications in existence in the United Kingdom. England is not the only country interested in stamp-collecting. As might be expected, the custom originated in France, and has prevailed there for a number of years. In the gardens of the Tuileries, and also to some extent in those of the Luxembourg, crowds still gather, princ.i.p.ally on Sunday afternoons, and may be seen sitting under the trees, sometimes in a state of great excitement, as they busily sell or exchange any of their surplus stock for some of which they may have been in search. The gathering of a complete set of postage-stamps, and a proper arrangement of them, is at least a harmless and innocent amus.e.m.e.nt. On this point, however, we prefer, in conclusion, to let Dr. Gray, of the British Museum, speak,[179] and our readers to judge for themselves. "The use and charm of collecting any kind of object is to educate the mind and the eye to careful observation, accurate comparison, and just reasoning on the differences and likenesses which they present, and to interest the collector in the design or art shown in their creation or manufacture, and the history of the country which produces or uses the objects collected. The postage-stamps afford good objects for all these branches of study, as they are sufficiently different to present broad outlines for their cla.s.sification; and yet some of the variations are so slight, that they require minute examination and comparison to prevent them from being overlooked. The fact of obtaining stamps from so many countries, suggests to ask what were the circ.u.mstances that induced the adoption, the history of the countries which issue them, and the understanding why some countries (like France) have considered it necessary, in so few years, to make so many changes in the form or design of the stamp used; while other countries, like Holland, have never made the slightest change.

"The changes referred to all mark some historical event of importance--such as the accession of a new king, a change in the form of government, or the absorption of some smaller state into some larger one; a change in the currency, or some other revolution. Hence, a collection of postage-stamps may be considered, like a collection of coins, an epitome of the history of Europe and America for the last quarter of a century; and at the same time, as they exhibit much variation in design and in execution as a collection of works of art on a small scale, showing the style of art of the countries that issue them, while the size of the collection, and the number in which they are arranged and kept, will show the industry, taste, and neatness of the collector."

FOOTNOTES:

[170] Fournier.

[171] Vide _Quarterly Review_ for October, 1839.

[172] Report of Select Committee on Postage, vol. iv. p. 391.

[173] _Hand Catalogue of Postage-Stamps_, p. 6.

[174] Dr. J. E. Gray.

[175] The Mulready envelopes are regarded as great curiosities by stamp-collectors, and as their value rose to about fifteen shillings, a spurious imitation found its way into the market, usually to be had at half a crown. In 1862, stamp-dealers were shocked by the Vandalism of the Government, who caused, it is said, many thousands of these envelopes to be destroyed at Somerset House.

[176] Our colonies issue their own stamps, with different designs. Some of them are emblematical; the Swan River Territory using the design of a "Swan," and the Cape of Good Hope choosing that of "Hope" reclining; but they are gradually adopting the English plan of a simple profile of the sovereign. The portrait of our Queen appears on two hundred and forty varieties of stamps. Nearly all those used in the colonies, and even some for foreign governments, are designed, engraved, printed, and embossed in London, and many of them are much prettier than the products of our own Stamp-Office. The princ.i.p.al houses for the manufacture of colonial stamps, are Messrs. De la Rue & Co. and Perkins, Bacon, & Co.

of Fleet Street. See also Dr. Gray's Handbook, p. 8.

[177] "An Abstract of Grants for Miscellaneous Services." Sums voted in supply from 1835 to 1863 inclusive, moved for by Sir H. Willoughby. In the same return we find 7,000_l._ were paid for "Foudrinier's paper-machinery"--we presume for the manufacture of Mulready's envelopes.

[178] For further information of the staff of officers, and the expenses of the Stamp-Office, see Appendix (G).