Page:The empire and the century.djvu/336

 for each addition of 100. The average postage per letter was 6¼d. Extra postage had to be paid on letters crossing the sea, the Scottish border, and certain bridges, and even for delivery; while, if there were an enclosure of a piece of paper, however small, the rate was doubled. The addressees had to pay everything; and Rowland Hill relates how his mother dreaded the advent of a letter, not having always the shilling to pay for it. All sorts of tricks were resorted to in order to escape postage. Rowland, on a journey, would send newspapers marked in a preconcerted way to give news of his health and whereabouts. As all Peers and Members had the privilege of franking for themselves and friends, the upper classes were practically exempt from postage. The working-classes hardly corresponded at all, and the revenue came from the middle, or trading, class. Cobden reported that five-sixths of the letters from Manchester to London were smuggled, and the loss through franking was about £1,000,000 a year.

Rowland Hill proved that the cost of conveying a letter from London to Edinburgh did not exceed $1/36$d. He therefore, in 1887, proposed a uniform rate of a penny, which, to save the cost of collecting, should be prepaid by a stamped cover (or an adhesive stamp, as suggested by David Chalmers). As the Government would not move, he issued his famous pamphlet, setting forth his case, and the public instantly and warmly supported him. A Committee of the Commons was appointed to inquire into the subject. The postal officials were bitterly opposed to the plan, and Lord Lichfield, Postmaster-General, said that 'of all the wild and visionary schemes which he had ever heard or read of, it was the most extraordinary.' The officials gravely argued that the General Post-Office would not contain the number of letters that would be written, and that there were not enough coaches to carry them. In 1889, however. Lord John Russell announced that the reform would be brought forward. On January 10, 1840, Inland Penny Postage came into operation, and Harriet