Her Majesty's Mails Part 6

The rates of postage, as we have before incidentally pointed out, were slightly raised--an addition of a penny to each charge; but, notwithstanding this, the number of letters began at once, and most perceptibly, to increase. So great was the improvement in security and speed, that, for once, the additions to the charges were borne ungrudgingly. Coaches were applied for without loss of time by the munic.i.p.alities of many of our largest towns,[59] and when they were granted--as they appear to have been in most of the instances--they were started at the rate of six miles an hour. This official rate of speed was subsequently increased to eight, then to nine, and at length to ten miles an hour.[60]

The opposition to Mr. Palmer's scheme, manifested by the Post-Office officials before it was adopted, does not seem to have given way before the manifest success attending its introduction. Perhaps Mr. Palmer's presence at the Council Board did not conduce to the desirable unanimity of feeling. However it was, he appears for some time to have contended single-handed with officials determinately opposed to him. When goaded and tormented by them, he fell into their snares, and attempted to carry his measures by indirect means. In 1792, when his plans had been in operation about eight years, and were beginning to show every element of success, it was deemed desirable that he should surrender his appointment. A pension of 3,000_l._ was granted to him in consideration of his valuable services. Subsequently he memorialized the Government, setting forth that his pension fell far short of the emoluments which had been promised to him, but he did not meet with success. Mr. Palmer never ceased to protest against this treatment; and his son, Major-General Palmer, frequently urged his claims before Parliament, until, in 1813, after a struggle of twenty years, the House of Commons voted him a grant of 50,000_l._ Mr. Palmer died in 1818.

Now that Mr. Palmer was gone from the Post-Office, his scheme was left to incompetent and unwilling hands. All the smothered opposition broke out afresh; and if it had been less obvious how trade and commerce, and all the other interests promoted by safe and quick correspondence, were benefited by the new measures; and if it had not been for the vigilant supervision of the Prime Minister--who had let the reformer go, but had no intention of letting his reforms go with him--all the improvements of the past few years might have been quietly strangled in their infancy.

Though we know not what the country lost in losing the guiding-spirit, it is matter of congratulation that the main elements of his scheme were fully preserved. Though the Post-Office officials scrupled not to recommend some return to the old system, Mr. Palmer's plans were fully adhered to until the fact of their success became patent to both the public and the official alike. In the first year of their introduction, the net revenue of the Post-Office was about 250,000_l._ Thirty years afterwards the proceeds had increased sixfold, to no less a sum than a million and a half sterling! Though, of course, this great increase is partly attributable to the increase of population, and the national advancement generally, it was primarily due to the greater speed, punctuality, and security which the new arrangements gave to the service. Whilst, financially, the issue was successful, the result, in other respects, was no less certain. In 1797, the greater part of the mails were conveyed in one-half of the time previously occupied; in some cases, in one-third of the time; and on the cross-roads, in a quarter of the time, taken under the old system. Mails not only travelled quicker, but Mr. Palmer augmented their number between the largest towns. Other spirited reforms went on most vigorously. Three hundred and eighty towns, which had had before but three deliveries of letters a-week, now received one daily. The Edinburgh coach required less time by sixty hours to travel from London, and there was a corresponding reduction between towns at shorter distances. Ten years before the first Liverpool coach was started, a single letter-carrier sufficed for the wants of that place; before the century closed, _six_ were required. A single letter-carrier sufficed for Edinburgh for a number of years;[61] now _four_ were required.

No less certain was it that the mails, under the new system, travelled more securely. For many years after their introduction, not a single attempt was made, in England, to rob Palmer's mail-coaches. It is noteworthy, however, that the changes, when applied to Ireland, did not conduce to the greater security of the mails. The first coach was introduced into Ireland in 1790, and placed on the Cork and Belfast roads, a few more following on the other main lines of road. Though occasionally accompanied by as many as _four_ armed guards, the mail-coaches were robbed, according to a competent authority, "as frequently as the less-aspiring riding-post."

Not many months after the establishment of mail-coaches, an Act was pa.s.sed through Parliament, declaring that all carriages and stage-coaches employed to carry his Majesty's mails should henceforth be exempt from the payment of _toll_, on both post- or cross-roads.

Previously, all post-horses employed in the same service travelled free of toll. This Act told immediately in favour of the Post-Office to a greater extent than was imagined by its framers. Innkeepers, who, in England, were the princ.i.p.al owners of stage-coaches,[62] bargained for the carriage of mails, very frequently at merely nominal prices. In return, they enjoyed the advantages of the coach and its pa.s.sengers, travelling all roads free of toll.

Arrived at the end of the century, we find the mail-coach system is now an inst.i.tution in the country. Other interests had progressed at an equal rate. Travelling, as a rule, had become easy and pleasant. Not that the service was performed without any difficulty or hindrance. On the contrary--and it enters within the scope of our present object to advert to them--the obstacles to anything like a perfect system seemed insurmountable. Though the difficulties consequent on travelling, at the beginning of the present century, were comparatively trifling on the _princ.i.p.al post-roads_, yet, when new routes were chosen, or new localities were designed to share in the common benefits of the new and better order of things in the Post-Office, these same difficulties had frequently to be again got over. Cross-roads in England were greatly neglected--so much so, in fact, that new mail-coaches which had been applied for and granted, were often enough waiting idle till the roads should be ready to receive them. The Highway Act of 1663, so far as the roads in remote districts were concerned, was completely in abeyance.

Early in the century we find the subject frequently mentioned in Parliament. As the result of one discussion, it was decided that every inducement should be held out to the different trusts to make and repair the roads in their respective localities; while, on the other hand, the Postmaster-General was directed by the Government to indict all townships who neglected the duty imposed upon them. Under the Acts of 7 & 8 George III. c. 43, and 4 George IV. c. 74, commissioners were appointed to arrange for all necessary road improvements, having certain privileges vested in them for the purpose. Thus, they recommended that certain trusts should have loans granted to them, to be employed in road-making and mending. Mr. Telford, at his death, was largely employed by the Road Commissioners--the improvements on the Shrewsbury and Holyhead road being under his entire superintendence. And it would seem that the above-mentioned road needed improvement. When, in 1808, a new mail-coach was put on to run between the two places, no fewer than twenty-two townships had to be indicted by the Post-Office authorities for having their roads in a dangerous and unfinished state.

In Scotland and Ireland, great improvements had also been made in this respect, considering the previously wretched state of both countries, Scotland especially. At a somewhat earlier period, four miles of the best post-road in Scotland--namely, that between Edinburgh and Berwick--were described in a contemporary record as being in so ruinous a state, that pa.s.sengers were afraid of their lives, "either by their coaches overturning, their horses stumbling, their carts breaking, or their loads casting, and the poor people with burdens on their backs sorely grieved and discouraged;" moreover, "strangers do often exclaim thereat," as well they might. Things were different at the close of the last century; still, the difficulties encountered in travelling, say by the Bar, may well serve to show the internal state of the country.

"Those who are born to modern travelling," says Lord c.o.c.kburn,[63] "can scarcely be made to understand how the previous age got on. There was no bridge over the Tay at Dunkeld, or over the Spey at Fochabers, or over the Findhorn at Forres. Nothing but wretched peerless ferries, let to poor cotters, who rowed, or hauled, or pushed a crazy boat across, or more commonly got their wives to do it.... There was no mail-coach north of Aberdeen till after the battle of Waterloo.... I understand from Hope, that after 1784, when he came to the bar, he and Braxfield rode a whole north circuit; and that, from the Findhorn being in a flood, they were obliged to go up its bank for about _twenty-eight miles_, to the Bridge of Dulsie, before they could cross. I myself rode circuits when I was an Advocate Depute, between 1807 and 1810." A day and a half was still, at the end of the last century, taken up between Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1788, a direct mail-coach was put on between London and Glasgow, to go by what is known as the west coast route, _via_ Carlisle.[64] The Glasgow merchants had long wished for such a communication, as much time was lost in going by way of Edinburgh. On the day on which the first mail-coach was expected, a vast number of them went along the road for several miles to welcome it, and then headed the procession into the city. To announce its arrival on subsequent occasions, a gun was fired. It was found a difficult task, however, to drive the coach, especially in winter, over the bleak and rugged hills of Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire; the road, moreover, was hurriedly and badly made, and at times quite impa.s.sable. Robert Owen, travelling between his model village in Lanarkshire and England, tells us[65] that it often took him two days and three nights, incessant travelling, to get from Manchester to Glasgow in the coach, the greater part of the time being spent north of Carlisle. On the eastern side of the country, in the direct line between Edinburgh and London, a grand new road had been spoken of for many years. The most difficult part, viz. that between Edinburgh and Berwick, was begun at the beginning of the present century, and in 1824, a good road was finished and opened out as far south as Morpeth, in Northumberland. A continuation of the road from Morpeth to London being greatly needed, the Post-Office authorities engaged Mr. Telford, the eminent engineer, to make a survey of the road over the remaining distance. The survey lasted many years. A hundred miles of the new Great North Road, south of York, was laid out in a perfectly straight line.[66] All the requisite arrangements were made for beginning the work, when the talk of locomotive engines and tramways, and especially the result of the locomotive contest at Rainhill in the year 1829, had the effect of directing public and official attention to a new and promising method of travelling, and of preventing an outlay of what must have been a most enormous sum for the purposes of this great work.[67] The scheme was in abeyance for a few months, and this time sufficed to develop the railway project, and demonstrate its usefulness to the postal system of the country. But we are antic.i.p.ating matters, and must, at any rate, speak for a moment of the services of Mr. Macadam. The improvements which this gentleman brought about in road-making had a very sensible effect on the operations of the mail-coach service. Most of the post-roads were _macadamized_ before the year 1820, and it was then that the service was in its highest state of efficiency. Accelerations in the speed of the coaches were made as soon as ever any road was finished on the new principle. From this time, the average speed, _including stoppages_, was nine miles, all but a furlong. The fastest coaches (known as the "crack coaches" from this circ.u.mstance, and also for being on the best roads) were those travelling, in 1836, between London and Shrewsbury (accomplishing 154 miles in 15 hours), London and Exeter (171 miles in 17 hours), London and Manchester (187 miles in 19 hours), and London and Holyhead (261 miles in 27 hours). On one occasion, the Devonport mail, travelling with foreign and colonial letters, accomplished the journey of 216 miles, including stoppages, in 21 hours and 14 minutes.

In 1836, there were fifty four-horse mails in England, thirty in Ireland, and ten in Scotland. In England, besides, there were forty-nine mails of two horses each. In the last year of mail-coaches, the number which left London every night punctually at eight o'clock was twenty-seven; travelling in the aggregate above 5,500 miles, before they reached their several destinations. We have already stated how the contracts for _horsing_ the mail-coaches were conducted; no material change took place in this respect up to the advent of railways. Early in the present century, it was deemed desirable that the mail-coaches should all be built and furnished on one plan. For a great number of years, the contract for building and repairing a sufficient number was given (without compet.i.tion) to Mr. John Vidler. Though the Post-Office arranged for building the coaches, the mail contractors were required to pay for them; the revenue only bearing the charges of cleaning, oiling, and greasing them, an expense amounting to about 2,200_l._ a-year. In 1835, however, on a disagreement with Mr. Vidler, the contract was thrown open to compet.i.tion, from which compet.i.tion Mr. Vidler, for a substantial reason, was excluded. The official control of the coaches, mail-guards, &c., it may here be stated, was vested in the superintendent of mail-coaches, whose location was at the General Post-Office.

Had Hogarth's pencil transmitted to posterity the _tout ensemble_ of a London procession of mail-coaches, or of one of them at the door of the customary halting-place (what Herring has done for the old Brighton coach the "_Age_," with its fine stud of blood-horses, and a real baronet for driver), the subject could not but have occasioned marked curiosity and pleasure. No doubt he would have given a distinguished place to the guard of the mail. The mail-guard was no ordinary character, being generally _d'accord_ with those who thought or expressed this opinion. Regarded as quite a public character, commissions of great importance were oftentimes intrusted to him. The country banker, for example, would trust him with untold wealth. Though he was paid only a nominal sum by the Post-Office authorities for his official services, he was yet enabled to make his position and place a lucrative one, by the help of the regular perquisites and other accidental windfalls which we need not further specify. Gathering _en route_ sc.r.a.ps of local gossip and district intelligence, he was often "private," and sometimes "special," correspondent to scores of different people. The _Muddleton Gazette_, perhaps the only newspaper on his line of road, was submissively dependent upon him. More of him anon: here we would only add that he had special duties on special occasions. The mail-coach was looked for most anxiously in times of great excitement.

During the trial of Queen Caroline, says Miss Martineau, "all along the line of mails, crowds stood waiting in the burning sunshine for news of the trial, which was shouted out to them as the coach pa.s.sed."[68]

Again, at the different stages in the history of the Reform Bill, the mail-roads were sprinkled over for miles with people who were on the _qui vive_ for any news from London, and the coachman and guards on the top of the coaches shouted out the tidings.[69] When the Ministry resigned, many of the guards distributed handbills which they had brought from London, stating the facts.

In these days of cheap postage and newspapers in every household, it may be difficult to comprehend the intense interest centring in the appearance of the mail on its arrival at a small provincial town. The leather bag of the Post-Office was almost the undisputed and peculiar property of the upper ten thousand. When there was good reason to suppose that any communication was on its way to some member of the commonalty, speculation would be eager among the knot of persons met to talk over the probable event. Thus we may understand with what eagerness the mail would be looked for, and how the news, freely given out, especially in times of war, would be eagerly devoured by men of all ranks and parties.

It only remains to notice, in conclusion, the annual procession of mail-coaches on the king's birthday, which contemporaries a.s.sure us was a gay and lively sight. One writer in the early part of the century goes so far as to say that the cavalcade of mail-coaches was "a far more agreeable and interesting sight to the eye _and the mind_ than the gaud and glitter of the Lord Mayor's show," because the former "made you reflect on the advantages derived to trade and commerce and social intercourse by this _magnificent establishment_" (the Post-Office).

Hone, in his _Every-day Book_, writing of 1822, tells us that George IV., who was born on the 12th of August, changed the annual celebration of his birthday to St. George's-day, April 23d. "According to custom,"

says he, "the mail-coaches went in procession from Millbank to Lombard Street. About twelve o'clock, the horses belonging to the different mails with entire new harness, and the postmen and postboys on horseback arrayed in their new scarlet coats and jackets, proceed from Lombard Street to Millbank and there dine; from thence, the procession being re-arranged, begins to march about five o'clock in the afternoon, headed by the general post letter-carriers on horseback. The coaches follow them, filled with the wives and children, friends and relations, of the guards or coachmen; while the postboys sounding their bugles and cracking their whips bring up the rear. From the commencement of the procession, the bells of the different churches ring out merrily and continue their rejoicing peals till it arrives at the Post-Office again, from whence the mails depart for different parts of the kingdom." Great numbers a.s.sembled to witness the cavalcade as it pa.s.sed through the princ.i.p.al streets of the metropolis. The appearance of the coachmen and guards, got up to every advantage, and each with a large bouquet of flowers in his scarlet uniform, was of course greatly heightened by the brilliancy of the newly-painted coach, emblazoned with the royal arms.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] No one who has read _Roderick Random_ can forget the novelist's description of his hero's ride from Scotland to London. As it is generally believed to be a veritable account of a journey which Smollett himself made about the middle of the last century, the reader may be of opinion that the improvement here spoken of was not so great as it might have been. Roderick, however, travelled in the "_stage-waggon_" of the period. He and his faithful friend Strap having observed one of these waggons a quarter of a mile before them, speedily overtook it, and, ascending by means of the usual ladder, "tumbled into the straw under the darkness of the tilt," amidst four pa.s.sengers, two gentlemen and two ladies. When they arrived at the first inn Captain Weazel desired a room for himself and his lady, "with a separate supper;" but the impartial innkeeper replied he "had prepared victuals for the pa.s.sengers in the waggon, without respect of persons." Strap walked by the side of the waggon, changing places with his master when Roderick was disposed to walk. The mistakes, the quarrels, and the mirth of the pa.s.sengers, are told by the novelist with a vivacity and humour which would have been admirable but for their coa.r.s.eness. After five days' rumbling in the straw, the pa.s.sengers get quite reconciled to each other; "nothing remarkable happened during the remaining part of our journey, _which continued six or seven days longer_."

There were also a few bad roads. Arthur Young, in his famous _Tour in the North of England_, has described a Lancashire turnpike-road of about the same period in the following vigorous phraseology:--"I know not in the whole range of language terms sufficiently expressive to describe this infernal road. To look over a map and perceive that it is a princ.i.p.al road, one would naturally conclude it to be at least decent; but let me most seriously caution all travellers who may purpose to travel this terrible country to avoid it as they would the devil, for a thousand to one they will break their necks or their limbs by over-throws or breakings-down. They will here meet with ruts which actually measured four feet deep and floating with mud, and this only from a wet summer; what, therefore, must it be after a winter? The only mending which it in places receives is the tumbling in some loose stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts, for I actually pa.s.sed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles of execrable memory." The road in question was that between Wigan and Preston, then a regular post-road and now on the trunk line of mail conveyance into Scotland.

[52] Chambers' _Traditions of Edinburgh_, vol. i. p. 168.

[53] Baines's _History of Lancashire_, p. 83.

[54] The Bath post was no exception. The letters which left London at two o'clock on Monday morning did not reach Worcester, Norwich, or Birmingham till the Wednesday, Exeter not till Thursday, and Glasgow and Edinburgh for about a week.

[55] _Vide_ Report of the Committee of House of Commons in 1797, on "Mr.

Palmer's Agreement for the Reform and Improvement of the Post-Office and its Revenue," p. 115.

[56] Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the state of the Public Offices in 1788.

[57] Post-Office robberies had been exceedingly numerous within a few years of the change which Palmer succeeded in inaugurating. Though one prosecution for a single robbery cost the authorities no less a sum than 4,000_l._, yet they regarded the occurrences as unavoidable and simply matters of course.

[58] Mr. M. D. Hill, in _Fraser's Magazine_, November, 1862.

[59] The Liverpool merchants were the first to pet.i.tion the Treasury for the new mail-coach. "This pet.i.tion being complied with in the course of a few months, the letters from London reached Liverpool in thirty hours.

At first these coaches were small vehicles, drawn by two horses, which were changed every six miles. They carried four pa.s.sengers, besides the coachman and guard, both dressed in livery, the latter being armed to the teeth, as a security against highwaymen."--Baines's _History of Liverpool_. In October, 1784, York applied for a mail-coach, to pa.s.s through that place on its way to the North.

[60] This velocity was not attained without considerable misgivings and distrust on the part of travellers. When the eight was increased to ten miles an hour, the public mind was found to be in different stages of alarm and revolt. Vested interests indulged in the gloomiest forebodings on those who should thus knowingly spurn the way of Providence.

Lord-Chancellor Campbell relates that he was frequently warned against travelling in the mail-coaches improved by Palmer, on account of the fearful rate at which they flew, and instances were supplied to him of pa.s.sengers who had died suddenly of apoplexy from the rapidity of the motion.

[61] Sir Walter Scott relates that a friend of his remembered the London letter-bag arriving in Edinburgh, during the year 1745, with but one letter for the British Linen Company. About the same time the Edinburgh mail is said to have arrived in London, containing but one letter, addressed to Sir William Pulteney, the banker.

[62] In Ireland, on the contrary, the trade was in the hands of two or three large contractors, who charged heavily for work only imperfectly performed. Until the introduction of railways, the mail service of Ireland, owing to the absurd system adopted, was always worked at a greater cost, comparatively, than in England. In 1829, the Irish service, of considerably less extent, cost four times as much as the entire mail establishment of England. Mr. Charles Bianconi has been the Palmer of Ireland. In the early part of the present century he observed the want of travelling accommodation and formed plans for serving the country by a regular system of pa.s.senger-cars. He succeeded in inducing the different postmasters (who, up to the year 1830, had the conveyance of mails in their own hands, getting certain allowances for the service from Government, and then arranging for carriage in the cheapest way possible) to let him carry their mails. This he did at a cheap rate, stipulating, however, that he should not be required to run his cars at any inconvenient time for pa.s.senger traffic. On the amalgamation of the English and Irish Offices in 1830, Mr. Bianconi, who had now established a good reputation, entered into contracts with the general authorities to continue the work, though on a larger scale than ever, the extent of which may be judged by the fact that in 1848 he had 1,400 horses employed. The growth and extent of railway communication necessarily affected his establishment, but, with unabated activity, Mr. Bianconi directed his labours into new districts when his old roads were invaded by the steam-engine and the rail. He is described to have been "ready at a moment's notice to move his horses, cars, and men to any district, however remote, where any chance of business might show itself." A year or two ago this indefatigable man was still busy, and held several postal contracts; his establishment (1860) consisting of 1,000 horses, and between sixty and seventy conveyances, daily travelling 3,000 or 4,000 miles and traversing twenty-two counties.

[63] _Memorials of his Time_, vol. i. p. 341.

[64] Dr. Cleland, in his _Statistical Account of Glasgow_, tells us that before this time, viz. in 1787, the course of post from London to Glasgow was by way of Edinburgh, _five_ days in the week. Only five mails arrived in Glasgow from London on account of no business being transacted at the Edinburgh Office on Sundays. It now occurred, however, to some one of the astute managers of the Post-Office, that the _sixth_ mail, which the Sunday regulations of the Edinburgh Office prevented being pa.s.sed through that medium, might be sent by the mail-coach to Carlisle, while a supplementary coach should travel every sixth night between Carlisle and Glasgow. This was done, and the result was the saving of an entire day between London and Glasgow. The other mails continued, as usual, for twelve months longer, it having taken the authorities the whole of that time to discover that the five mails, which required _five_ days to reach Glasgow by way of Edinburgh, might, like the sixth, be carried by way of Carlisle, in _four_ days. Dr.

Cleland, however, does not seem to have perceived that there might be some other reason for adhering to the old route, such as increased outlay, &c.

[65] _Life of Robert Owen._ _Written by himself._ London, 1857.

[66] Smiles' _Lives of the Engineers_.

[67] _Ibid._

[68] _History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace_, vol. i. p.

257.

[69] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 62.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TRANSITION PERIOD AT THE POST-OFFICE.

It must not be supposed that the improvements in mail-conveyance were the only beneficial changes introduced into the Post-Office during the fifty years which we have designated as the mail-coach era. It is true that, compared with the progress of the country in many other respects, the period might be termed uneventful. Still, there are incidental changes to chronicle of some importance in themselves, and likewise important in their bearing on the present position of the Post-Office.

If we retrace our steps to the year 1792, we shall find, for instance, that in that year an entirely new branch of business was commenced at the General Post-Office. We refer to the origin of the Money-Order establishment. The beginnings of this system, which, as the reader must be aware, has of late years a.s.sumed gigantic proportions, were simple and una.s.suming in the extreme. The Government of the day had expressed a desire for the establishment of a medium by which soldiers and sailors might transmit to their homes such small sums as they could manage to save for that purpose. Three officers of the Post-Office jointly submitted a scheme to make a part of the Post-Office machinery available in this direction, and a monopoly was readily conceded to them.

The undertaking was further favoured with the sanction of the Postmasters-General. The designation of the firm was to be "Stow & Co.,"

each of the three partners agreeing to find a thousand pounds capital.

The stipulations made were, that the business should be carried on at the cost and at the risk of the originators, and that they, in return, should receive the profits. It was agreed, also, that they should enjoy the privilege of sending all their correspondence free of postage--no inconsiderable item saved to them. Contrary to antic.i.p.ations, the proceeds were considerable--not so much on account of the number of transactions, as on the high commission that was charged for the money-orders. Their terms were eightpence for every pound; but if the sum exceeded two pounds, a stamp-duty of one shilling was levied by Government in addition. No order could be issued for more than five guineas; and the charge for that sum amounted to four shillings and sixpence, or nearly five per cent. When it is considered that the expense did not end here, but that a letter containing a money-order was subjected to _double postage_, it cannot be wondered at that those who dealt with the three monopolists were few in number, and only persons under a positive necessity to remit money speedily. Such a system, it will be admitted, could not of itself be expected to foster trade. When the general public were admitted to the benefits of the Money-order Office--as they were some few years after the establishment of the office--it does not appear that the business was greatly increased.

Almost from the commencement, the managers drew yearly proceeds, which varied but slightly from year to year, averaging about 200_l._ each.

While, on the one hand, this office was seen to be a most useful inst.i.tution, good in principle, and likely, if properly managed, to contribute largely to the general revenue of the Post-Office; on the other hand, it was clearly stationary, if not retrograde in its movements. In 1834, the attention of practical men was more immediately called to the question by a return which was asked for by the House of Commons, for a detailed account of the poundage, &c. on money-orders of each provincial post-office, and the purpose or purposes to which the monies were applied. The Postmaster-General replied, that the Money-order Office was a private establishment, worked by private capital, under his sanction; but he could give no returns, because the accounts were not under his control. In 1838, a new Postmaster-General, Lord Lichfield, sought and obtained the consent of the Treasury to convert the Office into a branch under his immediate direction. In that year the chief Money-order Office commenced business in two small rooms at the north end of St. Martin's-le-Grand, with a staff of three clerks.

Though the charges were reduced to a commission of sixpence for sums under two pounds, and of one shilling and sixpence for sums up to five pounds, the new branch was worked at a loss, owing to the high rates of postage and the double payment to which letters containing enclosures were subjected. After the introduction of penny postage, the change was so marked, that the immense success of this branch establishment may be considered as entirely owing to the reduction of postage-rates. Had the penny-postage scheme done no more for the nation than a.s.sisted the people in the exercise of a timely prudence and frugality, stimulating them, as it can be proved, to self-denial and benevolence, it would have done much. But we are antic.i.p.ating an important era. Soon after the pa.s.sing of the Penny-postage Act, the commission on money-orders was reduced to threepence instead of sixpence, and sixpence for any amount above two pounds and under five pounds. In 1840, the number of money-order transactions had increased to thousands, in the place of hundreds under the old _regime_. The money pa.s.sed through the office in the advent year of cheap postage amounted to nearly half a million sterling, the Post-Office commission on the sum exceeding 6,000_l._ The rate of increase, subsequently, may best be shown by taking a month's work ten years afterwards. Thus, during one month of 1850, twice as many orders were taken out and paid as were issued and paid during 1840, the particulars of which year were given above. The same rate of increase has continued up to the present moment. During the year 1862, the number of orders had, in round numbers, risen to more than seven and a half millions, or a money-value exceeding sixteen millions sterling, the commission on the whole amounting to more than one hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds.[70]

By the statute of Queen Anne, letters might be brought from abroad by _private ships_ under certain distinctly-specified regulations. On the contrary, no law existed enabling the Postmaster-General to _send_ bags of letters by the same medium until 1799, when an Act was pa.s.sed with this object. Masters of such ships refusing to take bags were subjected to heavy penalties.[71] The postage of letters so sent (on account of the slowness of transit in the majority of cases) was fixed at half the usual rates. This Act is the foundation of the ship-letter system, by means of which, besides the regular packet communication, letters are forwarded to all parts of the world. At the same period the Government rigorously adhered to the law as laid down with regard to letters _brought_ by private vessels. A case was tried in 1806 in the Court of King's Bench--"King _v._ Wilson"--in which the defendant--a merchant who had had letters brought from the Continent in a ship of his own, and pleaded that he had a right to do so--was cast in heavy damages, and told that "all and every such letters, as well as others," must pa.s.s through the Post-Office in the usual way.

In the year 1814, the business of the Post-Office had increased so greatly, that an agitation was commenced with the object of securing better accommodation for its despatch than was afforded by the office in Lombard Street. The first General Post-Office was opened in Cloak Lane, near Dowgate Hill, and removed from thence to the Black Swan in Bishopsgate Street. After the Great Fire of 1666, a General Office was opened in Covent Garden, but it was soon removed to Lombard Street, to a house which had been the residence of Sir Robert Viner, once Lord Mayor of London. It was now proposed that a large and commodious building should be specially erected in some central part of the City, and the business once more transferred. In the Session of 1814 we find a Mr.

b.u.t.terworth presenting a pet.i.tion to the House of Commons from four thousand London merchants, in favour of an early removal of the Post-Office from Lombard Street. He was a.s.sured, he said, that the present office "was so close and confined, as to be injurious to the health of those concerned;" he further stated, that "two guineas were expended weekly for vinegar to fumigate the rooms and prevent infectious fevers." Another hon. member stated that the access to the office was so narrow and difficult, that the mail-coaches were prevented from getting up to it to take the letter-bags. It is curious to note that even this change was contested. Counter-pet.i.tions were presented to Parliament, stating that the Lombard Street office was convenient enough, and that the movement was got up by interested parties. Many years pa.s.sed before the discussions ended and the preliminary arrangements were made.