Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/215

 with its chief towns and with the great high roads. The London courier, pressing on to his terminus, was relieved of packets for remote regions by the local postman, who in turn passed them from hand to hand to their destination. In somewhat similar fashion, though less regularly and smoothly, letters intended for Wales or Scotland or Ireland were carried over the long and tedious journey to the hands for which they were laboriously indited. Worcester and Chester were centres whence the Welsh post started, while Berwick was the natural centre of distribution for North Britain.

"The horse-post was a comparatively swift service, and where packets of value were in question, more to be depended on than the carrier or foot-post, if the highwaymen did not cut short the journey."

In 1840 Rowland Hill established Inland Penny Postage, the first great step that was to make the British Post Office the finest in the world. At this distance of time it is hard to realize what such an innovation meant to the poorer classes, nor how much it did to sweeten and brighten their lives. Sir Rowland's scheme was opposed by critics prophesying a loss of revenue, but he lived to see their arguments refuted.

Without detracting from the valuable work of Elihu Burritt, it may be mentioned that he himself explained that when he advocated Ocean Penny Postage he meant in reality threepenny postage: one penny for England, one penny for the ship, and one penny for the land of destination.

The cause that led to H. H. first becoming interested in cheapening postal communication is almost too well known to bear repetition. When quite a