Mr. Hill also contemplated the establishment of rural posts in every village. In 1840, the number of village post-offices was about 3,000. At that time nothing but "guarantee posts"--by means of which parties in the country might obtain additional accommodation on their consenting to bear the whole additional expense--were granted to new localities. Mr.
Hill urged upon the Post-Office authorities the abandonment of this plan, and the gradual establishment of ordinary post-offices. He calculated that an annual outlay of 70,000_l._ would suffice to give 600 additional daily posts to neglected districts, and he pledged his word that the outlay would be remunerative. There are now more than 8,000 additional rural post-offices, the erection of which has done all for the public and the Post-Office revenue that Mr. Hill antic.i.p.ated.
The extension of free deliveries, also strongly urged by Mr. Hill, has progressed fairly from that time to this. Round each provincial town there used to be drawn a cordon, letters, &c. for places beyond which had either to be brought by private messenger, or were charged an extra sum on delivery as a gratuity to the postmaster. From year to year new places have been included in these free deliveries; soon the most remote and inaccessible parts of our country--the nooks and crannies of our land--will enjoy nearly equal privileges with our large towns, more rural messengers being appointed as this work approaches completion.
In 1848, the advantages of a book-post were granted to the country. By the new rate, a single volume might be sent to any part of the United Kingdom at the uniform rate of sixpence per pound. The privileges of this book-post were gradually extended to the colonies. The railway companies, at the time and subsequently, complained loudly that the Post-Office, by establishing the book-post, had entered into an unfair compet.i.tion with them. This compet.i.tion was described as very injurious, on account of the low rates at which books and book-packets were conveyed. It was answered, however--and in this answer the country very generally agreed--that the railway companies had no legal or equitable right to the monopoly of parcel-traffic; and if they had, the exceptions taken in the case of the book-post were only to books and printed matter intimately connected with objects such as the diffusion of knowledge and the promotion of education--matters with which the Post-Office was now most immediately concerned. The facts, however, were, that very few indeed of the packets sent by the book-post were such as had been previously sent by railway. The Post-Office, by offering its vast machinery for the transmission of such articles, especially to remote districts, gave facilities which had never before been offered, and which caused books and doc.u.ments to pa.s.s through the Post-Office which otherwise, had no book-post existed, would not have been sent through any other channel. A Select Committee, which sat in 1854, on the conveyance of mails by railway, took evidence on this point, and in their report stated it as their opinion, that a large proportion of the packets sent would not have been so forwarded but for the facilities offered by the Post-Office in their distribution.
Any loss, however, which the railways might experience in this respect was more than counterbalanced when the Executive abolished the compulsory impressed stamp on newspapers, this arrangement giving rise to a conveyance of newspaper-parcels by railway-trains to an enormous extent, and proportionately lessening the work and profits of the Post-Office.
The year 1849 is princ.i.p.ally remarkable for the agitation which existed with respect to Sunday labour at the General Post-Office. Previous to this year no work was allowed in the London establishment, but now an arrangement was proposed to receive the mails as on other days, officers attending, though not during the period of Divine service, to a.s.sort and dispose of the letters received. Public meetings were held in London and many of the princ.i.p.al towns to protest against any increase of the Post-Office work. Public opinion in the metropolis was pretty unanimous against any change; in the provinces it was more divided. The authorities gave way before the force of opinion, and the London office has remained closed ever since on the first day of the week. In the country different arrangements are made. In Scotland, and in one or two English towns, no letter-delivery takes place from house to house, a short time only being allowed for the public to apply for their letters at the post-office windows. In the majority of English towns the early morning delivery only is made. The day-mails, as a rule, do not run on Sundays. The post-offices in the major part of our English and Scotch villages are entirely closed on Sundays.
Wires having been laid down to St. Martin"s-le-Grand from the different railway stations, telegraph messages were first used to expedite post-office business on the 31st of August, 1849. All important matters, such as bag or registered letter irregularities, requiring prompt notice, are made known or explained through the medium of the electric telegraph.
Commissioners were appointed from about this year to secure the services of railways on the most equitable terms, and to arbitrate for that purpose between the Post-Office and the railway companies. The Committee, on the conveyance of mails by railways, suggested this course. On the debate which followed the report of the Committee to which we have before alluded, Sir Robert Peel frankly acknowledged "the enormous error" into which he, and the House generally "had fallen when the railroad bills were under discussion. They ought to have foreseen,"
said he, "when these bills were before them, that they were in fact establishing a monopoly, a monopoly in respect to which there could be no future condition. They ought to have foreseen that, if the railroads were successful, other modes of internal communication would almost necessarily fall into disuse, and they ought, therefore, to have stipulated--_as it would have been perfectly just and easy for them to have done_--that certain public services should be performed at a reasonable rate." However, as this had not been done, Parliament could only fall back upon its inherent right to say on what terms such services should be provided from time to time; for which purpose they could not do better than employ arbitration, as it was the same course pursued when the companies disputed with the owners of property the value of land compulsorily taken for railway works. Sir James Graham[130] moved a declaratory clause on the occasion, that arbitrators should take into consideration the cost of the construction of the particular lines in awarding the sums for different services. Mr.
Labouchere, the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, speaking for the Government, wished the arbitrators to be wholly free, but he gave a pledge on behalf of the Post-Office that no attempt would be made to exclude the cost of construction from the consideration of the arbitrators. With this a.s.surance, the Opposition expressed themselves satisfied.
In 1855, the Postmaster-General, the late Lord Canning, commenced the practice of furnishing the Lords of the Treasury, and through them the public, with annual reports on the Post-Office. These reports, which have been continued up to the present time, show the progress of the Department from year to year, and present to the general reader, as well as to the statistician, a vast ma.s.s of interesting information. Compared with the reports of the Committee of Revenue Inquiry or of the Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry, they are lucid and interesting in their nature. Though constructed on the same plan and little varied from year to year, they are much above the ordinary run of official doc.u.ments. Lord Canning, in recommending the adoption of the plan, gave as one reason among many, that the Post-Office service was constantly expanding and improving, but that information respecting postal matters, especially postal changes, was not easily accessible. This information, he believed, could be given without any inconvenience, whilst many misapprehensions, and possibly complaints, might be avoided.
The public might thus see what the Post-Office was about; learn their duty towards the Department, and find out--what half the people did not then and perhaps do not even yet understand--what were the benefits and privileges to which they were justly ent.i.tled at its hands.
The Duke of Argyll succeeded Lord Canning in the management of the Post-Office in 1855, and his years of office are distinguished by many most important improvements and reforms. One important change consisted in the amalgamation of the two corps of London letter-carriers, effected soon after the installation of the Duke of Argyll at the Post-Office.
The two cla.s.ses of "General Post" and "London District" letter-carriers were perhaps best known before 1855, by the former wearing a red, and the latter a blue, uniform. The object of this amalgamation, for which Mr. Hill had been sedulously striving from the period of penny postage, was to avoid the waste of time, trouble, and expense consequent on two different men going over the same ground to distribute two cla.s.ses of letters which might, without any real difficulty, be delivered together.
The greatest objection in the Post-Office itself to completing the change, arose from the different _status_ of the two bodies of men, the one cla.s.s being paid at a much higher rate of wages and with better prospects than the other cla.s.s. This difficulty was at length surmounted, when the benefits of this minor reform became clearly apparent in earlier and more regular deliveries of letters. Inside the Post-Office the work was made much more easy and simple, and the gross inequality existing between two bodies of public servants whose duties were almost identical, was done away.[131]
Still more important was the division of London into ten postal districts, carried out during the year 1856. The immense magnitude of the metropolis necessitated this scheme; it having been found impossible to overcome the obstacles to a more speedy transmission of letters within and around London, or properly to manage without some change, the ever increasing amount of Post-Office business. Under the new arrangements, each district was to be treated in many respects as a separate town, district post-offices to be erected in each of them.
Thus, instead of all district post-letters being carried from the receiving houses to the chief office at St. Martin"s-le-Grand, there to be sorted and re-distributed, the letters must now be sent to the princ.i.p.al office of the district in which they were posted; sorted there; and distributed from that office according to their address. The time and trouble saved by this arrangement is, as was expected, enormous. Under the old system, a letter from Cavendish Square to Grosvenor Square went to the General Post-Office, was sorted, and then sent back to the latter place, travelling a distance of four or five miles: whereas, at present, with hourly deliveries, it is almost immediately sent from one place to the other.[132] An important part of the new scheme was, that London should be considered in the princ.i.p.al provincial post-offices as ten different towns, each with its own centre of operations, and that the letters should be a.s.sorted and despatched on this principle. Country letters would be delivered straightway--without any intermediate sorting--to that particular part of London for which they were destined; whilst the sorters there having the necessary local knowledge, would distribute them immediately into the postmen"s walks.
With respect to the _smaller_ provincial towns, it was provided that their London correspondence should be sorted into districts on the railway during the journey to the metropolis. Thus, on the arrival of the different mails at the several railway termini, the letters would not be sent as formerly to the General Post-Office, but direct to each district office, in bags prepared in the course of the journey. It was a long time before this new and important plan was thoroughly carried out in all its details; but now that it is in working order, the result is very marked in the earlier delivery of letters, and in the time and labour saved in the various processes. In fact, all the antic.i.p.ated benefits have flowed from the adoption of the measure.
In the same year a reduction was made in the rates for book-packets. The arrangement made at this time, which exists at present, charges one penny for every four ounces of printed matter; a book weighing one pound being charged fourpence. A condition annexed was, that every such packet should be open at the ends or sides, and if closed against inspection, should be liable to be charged at the unpaid letter rate of postage.
This penalty was soon found to be unreasonably heavy and vexatious, and was therefore reduced to an additional charge of sixpence only. At the present time, the conditions under which such packets may be sent through the post are the same, but the fines inflicted for infringements are still further reduced.
In 1857, a new regulation provided that a book-packet might consist of any number of sheets, which might be either printed or written, provided there was nothing in it of the nature of a letter. If anything of the sort should be found in the packet on examination, it was to be taken out and forwarded separately as a letter, and charged twopence as a fine in addition to the postage at the letter rate. The packet might consist of books, ma.n.u.scripts, maps, prints with rollers, or any literary or artistic matter, if not more than two feet wide, long, or deep.
In the same year, the letter-rate to all the British Colonies (which were not previously under the lower rates) was reduced to the uniform one of sixpence for each half-ounce, payable in advance. The privileges of the English book-post were also extended to the Colonies; the rate at which books &c. might be sent being threepence for every four ounces.
Exceptions were made in respect to the following places, viz.--Ascension Island, East Indies, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and the Gold Coast, to which places the rate charged was fourpence for four ounces, the weight being restricted to three pounds.
Another important improvement was made when, about the same time, the postage on letters conveyed by private ship between this country and all parts of the world, was reduced to a uniform rate of sixpence the half-ounce.
Nor were these reforms the only results of the wise rule of the Duke of Argyll. Through his exertions, a postal convention was concluded with France, resulting not only in a considerable reduction of postage on letters pa.s.sing between the two countries, but in the lowering of the rate to all European countries, letters for which _went by way of France_. An attempt was made to arrange a postal convention with the United States during the year 1857, but like so many previous ones, it came to nothing.
The Duke of Argyll is also favourably remembered in the metropolitan offices, for having granted--to the major establishment at any rate--the boon of a Sat.u.r.day half-holiday.
But perhaps his Grace laboured most arduously to bring about a more satisfactory relation between the railway companies and the Post-Office.
Since the advent of cheap postage, nothing had so much impeded the progressive development of the Post-Office, as the adverse att.i.tude of the companies who must convey the mails, now that all other modes of conveyance had been virtually superseded by the power of steam. Although the Postmaster-General failed in this instance, he is none the less ent.i.tled to the grat.i.tude of the country for his well-meant attempt to repair the mistake which the Executive originally made in not carefully providing for the public service. Few could say that the existing law was, and is, not defective. The gain to the Post-Office through railways is certainly enormous: besides the advantage of increased speed, they make it possible to get through the sorting and the carrying of the mails at the same time. But here the gain ends; and the cost for the service really done is heavy beyond all proportion. The cost of carrying mails by coaches averaged twopence farthing a mile; the average cost under railways is tenpence a mile, some railways charging nearly five shillings per mile for the service they render. The cost of running a train may be reckoned, in most cases, at fifteen pence per mile; and thus the Post-Office, for the use of a fraction of a train, may be said constantly to be paying at the rate of from sixty to three hundred per cent. in excess of the whole cost of running! The Postmaster-General stated that the terms upon which one railway company would undertake postal service was totally disproportionate to those of a neighbouring company. On the other hand, all the companies were alike dissatisfied, however dissimilar the contracts, or the terms imposed and agreed to.[133] Moreover, it was declared next to impossible to secure regularity and punctuality in the conveyance of mails, and to agree to amicable arbitration for the services which were done, until the Legislature should lay down reasonable laws, binding all the companies alike. A Bill was introduced into the House of Lords regulating the arrangements between the Post-Office and the different companies. Though it was carefully prepared, it was strongly opposed by the railway interest in Parliament. The opposition was all the more unreasonable, inasmuch as many of its clauses sought to remove objections to the existing law which railway companies had frequently complained of. As far as the Post-Office was concerned, it seems to have been the extent of the wish of the authorities that the question of remuneration might be based on the actual cost of running the trains, making due allowance, on the one hand, for the benefits accruing to the companies from their connexion with the mail service, and adding, on the other hand, compensation for any special extra expenses to which the companies might be subjected by the requirements of that service, _together with a full allowance for profit_.[134] The Bill also provided for the more extensive employment of ordinary pa.s.senger trains,--not, however, to the supercession of the regular mail-trains--for the _exclusive_ employment of certain trains for postal purposes, for penalties, &c. The measure had been brought in late in the session, and was eventually withdrawn.
The Bill itself, with its twenty-one clauses, forms part of the Appendix to the Postmaster-General"s fourth report; and as the basis of arrangements between the two interests is still unsettled and uncertain, the Duke of Argyll there commends it to the careful attention of the public, as well as to the fair consideration of the railway authorities themselves.
In 1858, on the accession of Lord Derby to power, Lord Colchester was appointed to the Post-Office without a seat in the Cabinet. Improvements continued during his short administration, both as regards inland, foreign, and colonial postages; but nothing calls for special mention here except an attempt on the part of the Post-Office to render the payment of inland letters compulsory. The plan cannot be said to have had a fair trial. Its benefits and advantages were not clearly apparent, except to those who were acquainted with the machinery of the Post-Office. While, without doubt, the principles upon which it was based were sound, the objections to the arrangement lay on the surface, and were such as could not be overcome except by the exercise of great patience on the part of the public: the measure pressed heavily on certain interests: a great portion of the less thoughtful organs of the public press manifested considerable repugnance to it, and, in consequence, the Postmaster-General was led to recommend to the Treasury the withdrawal of the order after the expiration of a few weeks of partial trial. As pointed out by Mr. Hill at the time, compulsory prepayment of letters was a part of the original plan of penny postage; it was one of the recommendations which he made having for their object the simplification of accounts, and the more speedy delivery of letters.
The Secretary of the Post-Office in urging a fair trial of the measure,[135] argued that after the lapse of a few months it would be productive of good even to letter-writers, not to speak of the saving of time, trouble, and expense to the Department. He very truly added that there were no difficulties attributable to the new rule which might not be surmounted by a little care or ingenuity. As it was, the public preferred an immediate termination of the experiment to the possible and problematical advantages that might arise from its continuance; and in this instance the country was indulged by an early return to the old plan.
In the following year, Lord Colchester was succeeded by the late Earl of Elgin as Postmaster-General, with a seat in Lord Palmerston"s Cabinet.
When Lord Elgin was sent on the special mission to the East in 1860, the Duke of Argyll held the joint offices of Lord Privy Seal and Postmaster-General until a permanent successor was appointed in the person of Lord Stanley of Alderley, who now (March, 1864) holds the office.
In 1859, the Money-order Office in London, and the money-order system generally, were remodelled. By a process meant to simplify the accounts, and other judicious alterations, a saving of 4,000_l._ a-year was effected, while the public were benefited by some concessions that had been much desired, such as the granting of money-orders up to the amount of 10_l._ instead of 5_l._ The money-order system was likewise extended to the colonies, the first connexion of the kind having been opened with Canada and our European possessions of Gibraltar and Malta. It has subsequently been extended to the princ.i.p.al British colonies, including the whole of Australia.
Important improvements were also made in the department charged with the transmission of mails. Several accelerations--in one case a most important one--were made in the speed of the princ.i.p.al mail-trains; the number of travelling post-offices was increased; the construction of the whole of them was improved; and the apparatus-machinery, attached to the carriages for the exchange of mail-bags at those stations where the mail-trains do not stop, was called more and more into requisition.
Under the Earl of Elgin, the British Post-Office endeavoured to form conventions with foreign countries, the object in all cases being the increase of postal facilities. In the case of Spain and Portugal, the authorities seem to have been successful, and partially so with the German Postal Union. An attempt to renew negotiations with the United States calls for mention here. The advocates of ocean penny postage (of which so much was heard some years previously--not only a desirable, but a practicable scheme) may thus obtain some idea of the difficulty of coming to any reasonable arrangement between the two countries. We have already stated that a former Postmaster-General urged upon the Government of the United States the necessity of reduction in the rates of postage of letters circulating from one country to the other, but was unsuccessful at the time.[136] In 1859, the Postmaster-General of the United States (Mr. Holt) communicated to the English Department his concurrence in the principle of a reduction in the postage of British letters from twenty-four to twelve cents, providing that England would give America the lion"s share of the proposed postage! The United States" Government would agree to the change provided the new rate be apportioned as follows, viz.:--
United States" Inland Postage 3 cents.
Sea Rate of Postage 7 "
British Inland Postage 2 "
The Earl of Elgin objected to this proposal as not equitable. He argued, with perfect truth and fairness, that each country ought to be remunerated according to the value of the service it rendered, and that, whether the inland service was considered (where the three items of collection, conveyance,[137] and delivery must be taken into account), or the sea service (undoubtedly better worked and regulated with us than in America), this country had a fair claim to a larger share of postage than the United States. As, however, an unrestricted intercourse between the two countries was far more important than a nice adjustment in the revision of the postage, the English Postmaster-General would only press for equality, and proposed the following division:--
British Inland Postage 1_d._ or 2 cents.
Sea Postage 4_d._ " 8 "
United States" Inland Postage 1_d._ " 2 "
----- --------- 6_d._ 12 cents.
In the event of the American Government not being prepared to agree, Lord Elgin proposed that a disinterested third party should be called in, to whom the whole matter might be amicably referred. To this communication no answer whatever was returned, and the English Department had to wait until the next report of the United States Post-Office was published, in order to ascertain how the proposals had been received. It was found that Mr. Holt here complained that a reasonable offer that he had made to England had been declined there, "_and for reasons so unsatisfactory_, that for the present no disposition is felt to pursue the matter further." It is sincerely to be regretted that this great improvement, which would have been gladly hailed by thousands on both sides of the Atlantic, should have been so arrested, and especially that the United States" Government should have been deaf to the proposition to send the matter to arbitrament.
Unquestionably, the present results, as well as the responsibility of future exertion, lies at the door of the United States; and it is to be hoped that, in justice to the thousands whom the Americans have eagerly invited to populate their country--not to mention other considerations--they will soon renew their efforts to obtain the boon of a sixpenny postage, and be prepared to meet the mother-country on reasonable grounds with equal terms.
The postal service with Ireland being considered deficient, so much so, that frequent mention was made of the subject in the House of Commons, a new and special service was brought into operation on the 1st of October, 1860. Night and day mail-trains have, on and from that date, been run specially from Euston Square Station to Holyhead, and special mail-steamers employed, at enormous expense, to cross the Channel.
Letter-sorting is carried on not only in the trains, but on board the packets; nearly all the Post-Office work, including the preparation of the letters for immediate delivery at London and Dublin respectively, being accomplished on the journey between London and Dublin, and _vice versa_--a journey which is now accomplished in about twelve hours. By means of this new service, a great saving of time is also effected on the arrival and departure of most of the American and Canadian mails.
It cannot but be interesting to the reader who may have followed us as we have endeavoured to trace the progress of post communication in this country, to know how much is really possible under the improved facilities of our own day. A better instance could not be afforded than that occurring at the beginning of the year 1862, when the important news on which depended peace or war was hourly expected from the United States. Before the packet was due, the Inspector-General of Mails took steps to expedite the new Irish mail service, to the greatest possible extent, in its pa.s.sage from Queenstown to London, and the result is so clearly and accurately given in the _Times_ of the 8th of January, 1862, that we cannot do better than quote the account entire:--
"The arrangements for expressing the American mails throughout from Queenstown to London, which we described as being so successfully executed with the mails brought by the _Africa_ last week, have been repeated with still more satisfactory results in the case of the mails brought by the _Europa_. These results are so exceptional that we record them in detail. The _Europa_ arrived off Queenstown, about five miles from the pier, at 9 P.M. on Monday night. Her mails and the despatches from Lord Lyons were placed on board the small tender in waiting, and arrived at the Queenstown Pier at 10.5 P.M., at which point they were transferred to an express steamboat for conveyance by river to Cork.
Leaving Queenstown Pier at 10.10 P.M., they arrived alongside the quay at Cork at 11.15 P.M. and thirteen minutes afterwards the special train left the Cork station for Dublin, accomplishing the journey to Dublin (166 miles) in four hours and three minutes, _i. e._ at a speed of about 41 miles an hour, including stoppage. The transmission through the streets between the railway termini in Dublin and by special train to Kingstown occupied only thirty-six minutes, and in four minutes more the special mail-boat _Ulster_ was on her way to Holyhead. The distance across the Irish Channel, about sixty-six statute miles, was performed by the _Ulster_, against a contrary tide and heavy sea, in three hours and forty-seven minutes, giving a speed of about seventeen and a half miles an hour. The special train, which had been in waiting for about forty-eight hours, left the Holyhead Station at 8.13 A.M., and it was from this point that the most remarkable part of this rapid express commenced. The run from Holyhead to Stafford, 130 miles, occupied only 145 minutes, being at the rate of no less than fifty-four miles an hour; and although so high a speed was judiciously not attempted over the more crowded portion of the line from Stafford to London, the whole distance from Holyhead to Euston, 264 miles, was performed by the London and North-Western Company in exactly five hours, or at a speed of about 52-2/3 miles an hour, a speed unparalleled over so long a line, crowded with ordinary traffic. The entire distance from Queenstown Pier to Euston Square, about 515 miles, was thus traversed in fifteen hours and three minutes, or at an average speed of about thirty-four and a quarter miles an hour, including all delays necessary for the several transfers of the mails from boat to railway, or _vice versa_.... By means of the invention for supplying the tender with water from a trough _in transitu_, the engine was enabled to run its first stage of 130 miles, from Holyhead to Stafford, without stopping."
During the session of 1860-1, an Act was pa.s.sed through Parliament for the establishment of Post-Office Savings" Banks on a plan proposed by Mr. Sykes, of Huddersfield.
In order to encourage the registration of letters containing coin or valuable articles, the registration fee was reduced, in 1862, from 6_d._ to 4_d._ each letter. At the same time, the plan of compulsory registration of letters was revived, and applied to all letters pa.s.sing through the _London Office_ which contained, or were supposed to contain, coin. Last year the plan was found to have been so successful in its results, that it was extended to _all inland letters_. The public may judge of the benefits and blessings of this proscriptive measure--to the officers of the Post-Office at any rate--when we state that the convictions for letter-stealing, since the plan was fully adopted, have been reduced more than ninety per cent.
In 1862, the Pneumatic Conveyance Company set up a branch of their operations at the Euston Square Station, London. The Post-Office took advantage of this new mode of conveyance to send the mail-bags to the North-Western District Office from this important railway terminus. The work is, of course, accomplished with marvellous expedition. The machinery for other localities is in course of construction, and may ultimately extend all over the metropolis, to the supercession, as far as the Post-Office is concerned, of the existing mail-vans.
During the month of May, 1863, a Postal Congress--the first of the kind--originated, we believe, by Mr. Ra.s.son of the United States, a.s.sembled at the _Bureau des Postes_, in the Rue Jean Jacques, Paris, under the presidency of the French Postmaster-General, M. Vandal. The object of the Congress was "the improvement of postal communication between the princ.i.p.al commercial nations of the world." As we find that the little republic of Ecuador was represented, the postal affairs of _little_ kingdoms were also not overlooked. Each civilized nation was asked to send a delegate, and all the most important States responded.
Mr. Frederic Hill, brother of Sir Rowland Hill, and a.s.sistant Secretary, was the English representative; the President represented France; M.
Metzler, Prussia; Mr. Ra.s.son, the United States; M. Hencke, Hamburg, &c.
&c. The prepayment of foreign letters was one of the most difficult subjects discussed. The Congress came to the conclusion that it would be best to leave it optional with the writer of the letter whether the postage should be paid to its destination, or paid on receipt; in the latter case, however, it was thought desirable that a moderate additional postage should be charged. Another important matter was settled in a conclusive manner. It was first decided that the postage of foreign letters should be regulated by weight: it then became highly necessary, in order to the carrying out of this decision, that the postage should be calculated by a common standard; hence the following resolution, which was agreed to--"The metrical decimal system, being of all systems of weighing that which is best suited to the requirements of the postal service, it is expedient to adopt it for the international postal relations, to the exclusion of every other system." Other subjects of lesser importance, such as the route of foreign letters, the division of postage rates, the transmission of coin in letters (which they agreed to allow), were discussed very fully and, we are a.s.sured, very amicably. The Congress seems to have arrived at a good understanding of the principles of postal reciprocity, and good will doubtless be the result. The Postal Congress of last year was a Peace Congress of the most efficient kind, and in every sense of the term.
Within the last ten years the facilities offered to letter-writers by the Post-Office have materially increased. Four thousand additional persons have had to be employed in the service, one half, at least, of whom are engaged on account of the facilities and improvements in question, whilst the remainder may be said to have been required by the gradual increase of work in the establishment. The establishment of mid-day mails, increasing the number of daily deliveries in almost every provincial town; the acceleration of night-mails, allowing more time for posting in some places, and earlier deliveries in all; the increase in the number of village posts, to the extent of between three and four hundred every year; the gradual extension of free deliveries; the establishment of pillar letter-boxes as receptacles for letters; reductions in the rate of foreign and colonial letters, and also in the registration fee for home letters; the division of London, and to some extent other large towns, like Liverpool, into districts; and above all, the establishment of thousands of new savings" banks on safe principles, in connexion with improved money-order offices; are some of the princ.i.p.al advantages and facilities to which we refer. The past ten years have been years of great, gradual, and unexampled improvement. Nor is there anything but progress and advancement in prospect. The fact is, that the Post-Office is capable of infinite extension and growth: besides it belongs to the nation, and the people will expect the development of the utmost of its utilities. At the present time the experiment is being tried whether, without impairing its efficiency or the performance of its more proper business, the Post-Office can undertake the distribution of stamps; and it is not impossible, considering that it has at its command an organization which penetrates the entire kingdom, as no other private or public inst.i.tution does, that the Stamp Department may be transferred to the control of the Postmaster-General.
Further, there is no doubt but that Mr. Gladstone"s Bill, if pa.s.sed through Parliament, "to amend the law relating to Government Annuities,"
will have a most important effect upon the Post-Office inst.i.tution.[138]
It is true that under the Savings" Bank Act any person may purchase a deferred annuity through the Post-Office, only the clause making it necessary to pay the purchase-money in one sum has a direct deterrent effect upon the measure. The provisions of the new Bill, on the contrary, allow the purchase-money to be paid in even weekly instalments. Equally important is the second part of the Bill, which empowers the Government to a.s.sure a person"s life for 100_l._ It is proposed to draft all this extra business on to the Post-Office establishment, and no interest, except the insurance company interest, is likely to say nay. Until a.s.surance or other companies can appoint agents, and open out offices in every town and village, the Government is likely to have a monopoly of any business it chooses to undertake.
FOOTNOTES: