Sir Rowland Hill

unto whom it was, as he pathetically writes, “grief and bitterness to be so long kept aloof from my true work,” turned longingly towards th

wards Earl) Russell became Prime Minister. The public voice, clearly echoed in the

management of the Post Office, and so had Mr Parker, the Secretary to the Treasury. The new Postmaster-General, Lord Clanricarde, it was reported, had found “the whole establishment in a most unsatisfactory condition”; and the new Pr

ice. The whirligig of time was indeed bringing in his revenges. An entire decade had elapsed since the reformer, then hopeful and enthusiastic, inwardly digested the cabful of volumes sent him by Mr Wallace, and dictated to Mrs Hill the pages of [Pg 213] “Post Office

r. “Both these remarkable men,” he wrote, “saw their plans adopted, were themselves engaged to work them out, and subsequently, on the complaint of the Post Office, wer

osts of a trial which had been decided unjustly against him, the “merry monarch's” numerous progeny were being lavishly provided for out of the national

subordinate to the inimical permanent head of the Office. Had Mr Warburton's advice been followed, it would have been well for the incompleted plan, the reformer, and the public service. Rowland Hill himself suggested, by way of official designation, the revival of Palmer's old title of Surveyor-General to the Post Office; but the proposal was not received with favour. Ultimately he was given the post of Secretary to the Postmaster-General, a title especially created for him, which lapsed altogether when at last he succeeded to Colonel Maberly's vacated chair. The new office was

ed him the managership of that line. The salary proposed was unusually high, and the invitation was transparently veiled under a Desdemona-like request that he would recommend to the Board some one with qualifications “as much like your own as possible.” But he declined this and

easant one; and he left his new chief's presence much i

met, and went through the ceremony of shaking hands. But the old animosity

one especially satisfactory interview writing that he “never met with a

adly ventilated, and with defective sanitary arrangements; the delivery of letters irregular and unnecessarily late; the mail trains leaving the provincial towns at inconvenient hours; and other vexatious regulations, or lack of regulations. He found that by an annual expenditure o

then about to retire, a handsome tribute of praise, saying, among other things, that, but for Mr Hill, the business of that office could hardly have been much longer carried on. No balance had been struck, and no one knew what

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be submitted to Rowland Hill before being sent to the Treasury, with leave to attack any that seemed unfair to penny postage. Previous to this act of friendliness and justice on the Postm

ion of our liberties; and, half a century ago, a like vigilance had to be exer

rge profit; but a return sent to Parliament in 1848 showed that the expenditure of the year before the change of management exceeded the receipts by more than ￡10,000. In 1849 my father expressed “a confident expectation” that in the course of the year the Money Order Office wou

duction of fees and the greater facilities for the transmission of money given by cheap postage raised the amount sent, in ten years only, twenty-fold. In 1839 about ￡313,

to Parliament of the number and cost of prosecutions [for Post Office offences] from 1848 to [Pg 219] 1852 inclusive, shows an enormous decrease—nearly, I

asters were credited. In consequence of this dilatoriness, the officials themselves were often ignorant of the actual state of affairs, or were sometimes tempted to divert the public funds to their own pockets, while the revenue was further injured by the delay in remitting balances. Under

aid in making up the requisite funds, the proceeds of unclaimed money orders, then averaging [Pg 220] ￡1,100 a year, and all such money found in “dead” letters as could not be returned to their writers, should be used. Accumulations brought the fund up to about ￡12,

rder system to the Colonies, it was not till the Canadian Government took the initiative in 1859 that the Treasury consented to try the

to hope that one may yet arise to set in order the said-to-be-unprofitable Post Office Savings Bank, whose abolition is sometimes threatened? As a teacher of thrift to one of the least thrifty of nations, [Pg 221] it is an institution that

Hill in his diary of 27th May 1847, “has brought me a packet containing whole banknotes to the amount of ￡1,500 so carelessly made up that they had all slipped out, and the packet was ad

a newly-appointed chief of the French Post Office, in the pleasant person of M. Thayer, arrived in this country on official business. He came supported on crutches, having been badly wounded in the foot during the June insurrection in Paris. He told u

thod of writing minutes. These postal parliaments were so satisfactory that henceforth they were often held. They proved “both profitable and pleasant, i

der Department only, but it was now decided to close the offices entirely between the hours of ten and five. To make this easier, it became necessary to provide for the transmission of a certain class of letters through London on the Sunday, and to ask a few men to lend their services on this account. Compulsion there was none: every man was a volunteer; and for this absence of force my father, from beginning to end of the movement, [Pg 223] resolutely bargained. Previous to the enactment of this measure of relief, 27 men had been regularly employed every Sunday at the General Post Office. Their number was temporarily increased

breaker” and a friend and accomplice of His Satanic Majesty. The misunderstanding was not altogether discouraged by some of the old Post Office irreconcilables; but it is only fair to the memory of the chief opponent to reco

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compulsion should the number volunteering for the London work be insufficient. Happily, the supply was more than a

e way to defeat a measure planned for their relief. Others were more discerning, and the postmaster of Plymouth wrote to say that at

ut saying that, during the agitation, numerous letters, generally anonymous, and sometimes violently abusive, deluged the Department, and especially the author of the relief; and that not even Rowland

ened men were the Hon. and Rev. Grantham Yorke, rector of St Philip's, Birmingham; the Professor Henslow already mentioned; and Dr Vaughan, then head-master of Harrow and, later, Dean of Llandaff. All three, although at the time personal stran

editors, had been sent a copy of the published report on the reduction of Sunday labour—had the frankness to express regret for having misrepresented the situation.[186] Other newspapers wer

s for that on Sunday morning. By this plan more than a hundred men would be forthwith released from Sunday duty in the metropolitan district alone.”[188] He further comments, perhaps a little slyly, on the “notable fact t

to good-sized towns too near to London to allow of sorting on the way. The railway in case was the London and North-Western; the towns St Albans and Watford. The thought suddenly flashed upon him that the easiest way out of the difficulty would be to let the down night mail train to Liverpool receive the St Albans and Watford up mails to London; and that on arrival at some more remote town on the road to Liverpool they [Pg

urgh, and, last of all, to London—thus completing, throughout the United Kingdom, the establishment of prepayment by stamps alone, and thereby greatly simplifying the proceedings at all offices. To save trouble to the

ot to fill it, and to employ part of the saving thus effected in giving to the postmaster and each of the remaining clerks in turn leave of absence for a year and a half,[191] with full salary,

mine which, I expect, will have the effect of converting the railway stations in all the larger towns into

er's diary, [Pg 230] under date 5th March 1853, it is recorded that the Postmaster-General received a deputation “which came to urge the extension of penny postage to the Colonies.”[193] It was a reform long delayed; and as usual the Post

mittee a Bill—approved by two successive Postmasters-General—framed to prescribe reasonable rates, and laying down a better principle of arbitration in respect of trains run at hours fixed by the Postmaster-General. The Committee, as shown by their Report, mainly adopted Rowland Hill's views, which were indeed perfectly just, and, if adopted, would, in his estimation, have reduced the annual expenditure in railway conveyance—then about ￡360,000—by at least ￡100,000. The proposals were made to secure fair rates of charge in all new railway bills, but it was intended to extend the arrangement eventually to already existing railways. But the railway influence in Parliament was too strong to allow adoption of these improvements; and att

the use of the rival train and line, my father applied to the North-Western Railway company for such acceleration as would obviate the possibility of such a demand being made. He also suggested the introduction of what are now called limited

proposed that each side should be subjected to fines whenever irregularity occurred, and that punctuality should receive reward. But the proposal was not accepted. In 1855, however, the attempt was again made to induce the railway companies to agree to the payment of mutual penalties in case of unpunctua

n to Ireland was not so successful. The companies which had begun with moderate demands, suddenly asked for lessened acceleration and increased remuneration; and the Government adopted their views in preference to those of the Postmaster-General and the postal reformer. As a natural c

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nded for the carriage of a night mail; and, although the Office offered to furnish a train of its own, as by law any one was entitled to do, and to pay the appointed tolls, though l

letter between Land's End and John O'Groat's should twenty-one separate contracts, irrespective of engagements with rural

sonable tariff of charge for postal services.” He hoped by these means to reduce the annual payments to the companies by about ￡250,000. The Duke of Argyll, then Postmaster-General, and Mr Hutchinson, Chairman of the Stock Exchange, highly approved of the pla

each instance being ascertained by a neutral authority, a certain fixed multiple of that amount should be paid. Captain (afterwards Sir Douglas) Galton, of the Board of Trade, and Sir William Cubitt heartily approved of the plan, the latter estimating the cost in question at 1s. to 1s. 3d. a mile, and advi

on that, as now the steamers so employed carry passengers and freight, these large subsidies could no longer be required. When a new route has been opened for the extension of commerce, [Pg 236] further continuance of the Service, unless desirable on account of important political reasons, should depend on its tendency to become self-supporting. Among other recommendat

eed necessary—reform was accomplished. While in the hands of the former Department, the Service had become a source o

wledge of either the Postmaster-General or of Rowland Hill. The absence in the contracts of stipulations as to punctuality likewise had ill effects. The most punctual service at this time was that between De

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o the Cape of Good Hope and Natal was reduced in six years from ￡28,000 to ￡5,400 per annum. Much of the merit of this diminution of cost, as regards the Packet Service, was always attributed by my father to his youngest brother Frederic; and while that department remained under the latter's control the large annual loss was reduced by more than ￡200,00

lub, Rowland Hill met a friend, a man of superior education and varied knowledge, who had long held an important post in the Far East, almost [Pg 238] on the shores of the Pacific. “Why,” asked this friend, “do you not establish an Australian mail by the Panama route?” “Why should we?” was the counter-question. “Because it is the shortest,” replied the friend. At once

ort on the subject which, backed by the Postmaster-General, Lord Colchester, had the desired effect of p

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1852, and “all London” was in the streets to look at it. The weekly return, published on the 22nd, showed that the number of letters dispatched by the evening mail from the metropolis on that memorable 18th fell off by about 100,000. The next day's letters were pro

same time, the bags to be left behind, being hung out from the mail carriage, are in like manner so struck off as to be caught in a net fixed at the station; the whole of this complex movement being so instantaneous that the uninformed eye cannot follow it.” It was this inability to understand [Pg 240] the movement which led to a ridiculous error. On the first day of the experiment people assembled in crowds to witness it. At Northallerton “half Yorkshire” gathered—ac

ST OFFICE WITH MAIL BA

the Proprietors o

ry to cease using the apparatus till the defect, whatever it might be, could be put right. Several remedies were suggested, but none proved effectual till my brother, then only twenty-one years of age, hit upon a simpl

which a letter had been posted, but the obliterating stamp on the envelope was too indistinct to furnish the necessary evidence. Lord Campbell sharply animadverted upon the failure, and his strictures caused the Duke of Argyll—then Postmaster-General—to write to Rowland Hill upon the subject. The use of inferior ink was supposed to be responsible for the trouble, and various experiments were tried, without effecting any marked beneficial result. Objection was made to abolition of the human hand as stamper on the ground that thus far it had proved to be the fastest worker. Then my

youth, caused a large four-stalled stable adjoining our house at Hampstead to be altered into a well-equipped workshop; and in this many a long evening was spent, the window being often lighted up some hours after the rest of the family had retired to bed, and my bro

e the younger man but working with him at the Post [Pg 243] Office, the elder knew he could rely on unswerving support, on unwavering fidelity. The choice of callings was laid before my brother: life as a civil engineer—a profession in which his abilities could not fail to command success—or the less ambitious career of a clerk at St Martin's-le-Grand. Our father would not dwell upon his own strong leaning towards the latter course, but with the ever-present mental image of harassing official intrigues against himself and his hard-won reform, it is not difficult to picture with what conflicting emotions he must have waited his son's decision. This was left entirely in the young man's hands; and he chose the part which he knew would best serve his

of confusion, apparently beyond rectification by the island authorities. He speedily brought the office into good working order; but perhaps his Mauritian labours will be best remembered by his substitution of certain civilised stamps—like those then used in s