Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/56

 than in the following letter from Miss Harriet Martineau to Sir Thomas Wilde, M.P. (afterwards Lord Truro), who, at the time it was written, was drawing the attention of Parliament to the difficulties which official jealousy was placing in the way of Postal Reform. This letter gives a vivid picture of the happiness which the Penny Postage system, even in its then imperfect state, had conferred almost at a burst upon the public, and especially upon the poorer classes.

Sir,—While testimonies to the effect of Post Office reform on the interests of Commerce, Science, Literature, &c., abound, the merits of this reform seem to me to be still left half untold.

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

The first mournful event in the life of a happy family of the middle and lower classes—the family dispersion—is softened, has, indeed, assumed a new aspect within the last four years. When the sons go forth into the world to prepare themselves for a