CHAPTER XXIII.

PROGRESS OF REFORM FROM THE MIDDLE OF 1851 TO THE END OF 1854.

Having thus conducted the narrative to that point in my official career to which my hopes and expectations had so long been directed, I now pause again to speak of concurrent events, and particularly to mention the improvements effected during the three years of which I have been treating.[104] I shall, as before, deal separately with the several departments of Post Office administration. I must add that, for the sake of convenience, I have in several departments continued the narrative somewhat beyond the period of my appointment as sole secretary, viz., April, 1854, trenching even, in one or two cases, on the year 1855.

CONVEYANCE OF MAILS.

As the reader is aware, I had long regarded it as of primary importance to obtain a general Act regulating railway charges to the Post Office, an Act that should _fix_ the charges for ordinary trains, and establish some principle applicable to other cases, and thus either supersede arbitration--generally a very unsatisfactory expedient--or confine it within definite bounds. There seemed at one time a prospect of some progress in this direction, a bill being introduced into Parliament by Government, under the administration of Lord John Russell, the object of which was to remove doubts as to our right to send a guard as a passenger by any ordinary train with the mails as his luggage, and also to authorize our sending bags as parcels on payment of the usual parcel rates. If this measure had been adopted, it would have enabled us to establish additional mails, especially between the larger towns, at hours when the correspondence, though important, is not sufficient to justify the high charges usually made by the railway companies. I did all in my power to support such a measure--of which, indeed, I was in great part the author--but nothing was effected. The bill was, first, so modified, through concessions to the railway companies, as to become worse than useless, and then, because yet further modification was resisted by the Government, was thrown out.

Eighteen months later, under the authority of Lord Hardwicke, I prepared clauses, intended to secure fair rates of charge, for insertion in all new railway bills. These his lordship determined to incorporate in a bill, with a view to their extension also to existing railways. I estimated that their adoption (and they were perfectly just) would reduce our annual expenditure in railway conveyance (then about £360,000) by at least £100,000. The overthrow of Lord Derby's administration, which occurred a few days later, transferred the matter to other hands.

A committee being appointed on railway and canal bills in the session of 1853, with Mr. Cardwell as chairman, I gave evidence,[105] of which the following is a summary.

I showed that the existing relations between the Post Office and the railway companies were very unsatisfactory, tending greatly to restrict the use of the railways for the conveyance of mails, to the real injury of the companies, and still more to that of the public. I showed, also, that while the construction of railways had greatly reduced the cost of conveying passengers and goods, it had largely increased that of conveying the mails. Thus, since the opening of railways, although the total weight of mail had increased by only 140 per cent., the cost of its conveyance had increased by nearly 300 per cent., viz., from, £112,000 in 1836 to about £442,000 (of which about £362,000 was for railway conveyance) in 1852. I laid before the committee a bill[106] (approved first by Lord Hardwicke, and afterwards by Lord Canning) framed with a view of prescribing rates of charge for mails conveyed by ordinary trains (those run at hours determined by the companies), such rates being fully equal, all things considered, to those charged to the public for like services, and of laying down a principle of arbitration in respect of trains run at hours fixed by the Postmaster-General. I also laid before the committee a copy of my Report to the Postmaster-General of the 1st of January, 1847.[107]

The committee, in its Report, referred especially to my evidence, and, in the main, adopted my view, expressing an opinion "that the companies should afford to the Post Office, at the same charge as would be paid by private individuals for similar services, every assistance which might add to the convenience of the public. They think that no railway should have any claim to be considered as fulfilling its obligations to the district in which it is situate which fails to facilitate in this way the postal communications of that district."[108]

Nothing, however, was accomplished; and repeated attempts, subsequently made, were equally unavailable. In truth, the railway influence is so strong in Parliament, and, on this point, so little guided by a knowledge of true railway interests, that the injurious law enacted thirty years ago, though avowedly a temporary measure, to last only until experience of the working of railways should have afforded the requisite data for laying down a scale of charges, continues in force to the present day.

Meanwhile, willing to try what could be done with the existing laws, I devised a new application of them. Being pressed to supply Ayr and the neighbouring towns with a more direct communication than they then enjoyed, and finding that the railway company to be dealt with, though having suitable trains actually running, refused to carry the mails, except at prices far beyond what the correspondence would justify, I devised a new kind of notice, which the solicitor to the Post Office regarded as strictly legal, requiring the company to carry the mails by the existing trains, but leaving them at liberty to alter or withdraw these trains altogether on giving us fifteen days' notice. Under such a notice our arbitrator was of opinion that the remuneration awarded would be, as it ought to be, very low. This plan succeeding, I obtained its extension to some other lines, but at length met with resistance from one of the companies. On reference to the law officers of the Crown, our claim was pronounced untenable, they holding that by the law as it stood, the Postmaster-General was bound (whether he desired it or not) to _fix_ the hours for the mail-trains without reference to the arrangements of the companies. The Post Office is thus kept in a position quite unintelligible to the public, who cannot understand why existing trains, obviously capable of employment for postal service, are not used wherever convenience requires; the real obstacle being that the amount of correspondence in question, though sufficient to justify the expense of conveyance at a moderate rate--a rate, however, fully remunerative to the company--is often quite insufficient to meet the heavy cost of a regular mail train.

Amidst these efforts to procure that cheapness of conveyance which would justify greater frequency of despatch, it was clearly of importance to obtain for the conveyance of the mails the greatest practicable speed, though the public can be little aware how many difficulties, direct and incidental, attend acceleration. In the year 1851 we called upon the North Western Company to accelerate its mail trains, but met with resistance. In a conference with Captain Huish, the manager of the line, while explicitly insisting on our right to require the change, I expressed a wish to meet the convenience of the company as far as possible, and proposed a modification, which I hoped would remove objections. After a week's consideration, the company persisted in its refusal, disputing our right to require them to carry mails at a speed exceeding twenty-seven miles an hour, including stoppages. This view unfortunately was supported by our solicitor. Meanwhile, however, at the desire of the Postmaster-General, I made a compromise with the company until the opinion of the Crown officers should be obtained. By this, when given, our right was sustained. Even the amount of acceleration thus procured proved highly valuable, was very popular in the City, and produced some strong expressions of thanks; but before the end of the year I procured sanction for the gradual introduction of a measure to run the mails, at least on the long lines of road, at express speed.

The work of acceleration was quickened by a manœuvre of the Great Northern Railway Company, which, in July of that year (1851), spontaneously began to run a train at night-mail time, and at such speed as to outstrip the mail train on the North Western line. Believing that the object was to force upon us, through the public voice, the use of this train, of course at a large expense, I applied to the North Western Company for such acceleration on their line as would obviate the demand. It was at this time that I first suggested what are now called limited mails, though the expedient was not adopted till some years afterwards.[109]

The plan of limited mails, when brought into operation, raised the speed along the North Western route to forty miles an hour, including stoppages, a rate the very notion of which would have been regarded thirty years before as a madman's dream.

The great extent of the acceleration in the northern mails eventually obtained may be exemplified as follows. When I first took the matter in hand, though there was railway conveyance over the whole distance, a letter leaving London by the night mail for Edinburgh or Glasgow could not receive an answer until the afternoon of the next day but one. The answer to a Monday night's letter, for instance, did not arrive until the afternoon of Wednesday; since the Monday night-mail did not reach its destination until after the departure of the return mail appointed to reach London on Wednesday morning; whereas now (1870)--the Monday night-mail from London reaching Edinburgh or Glasgow on Tuesday morning, and the return mail not starting until Tuesday evening--not only is the answer to a Monday night's letter received on Wednesday morning, but also there is allowed for writing it an interval of not less than ten or eleven hours; in effect, a whole day. This result is easily stated, but were I to attempt to detail the preliminary arrangements essential to the series of changes by which it was effected, or the various devices by which difficulties had to be surmounted, I should weary out the reader and even tire myself. Let it suffice to give some notion of the multiplicity of arrangements affected, and the almost theatrical suddenness of the transition. The day before each successive change everything remained exactly in _statu quo_. Every branch mail along the whole line had to bring up its mail at the established time. Every office, sub-office, receiving-house, and pillar-box, had to yield up its letters in accordance with this arrangement, closing therefore to the public, at such an hour as best suited such requirement. Every rural messenger, on foot or on horseback, had to arrive in accordance with the time for such closing; and, in this case, thousands of receiving places and thousands of messengers were concerned. All this being the proceeding of one day, on the next everything was different, the hour everywhere altered, so much so that, at some of the places remote from the starting point the alteration involved even substitution of day for night or night for day. Of course every person concerned had to be apprised of the change, and prepared for it. A single surveyor might have to issue instructions to a thousand offices, and these to as many messengers, since ignorance or neglect in any member of the force would inevitably have produced confusion fruitful of annoyance and complaint in the places served. It must be added that the highly complicated provision thus made for the mails in one direction had all to be repeated for those in the opposite direction.

I need not say that innovation is often pointed to as the source of evils with which it has no real connection. Thus, great irregularity having occurred in the mails to the north of Scotland, through long detention at Forfar--purposely made by the railway company in consequence of the Post Office disputing their right to claim extra payment for forwarding the mails (when late) by the train which actually carried on their passengers--there was great dissatisfaction and anger at Aberdeen and elsewhere; the blame being unjustly laid on the Post Office, and, through mere coincidence of time, charged upon the recent acceleration of the mails.

Of course the higher the speed the greater, other things equal, is the danger of irregularity; and complaint on this head arose in no measured tone. As our representations to the companies were met by allegations of unpunctuality on our part, I proposed a covenant by which they and the Post Office should be mutually subjected to fine whenever any irregularity occurred, but the offer found little acceptance. Finding this to be the case, and that the continued irregularity of the northern mails still provoked severe attacks on the Post Office, I sought defence by publishing a circular which I had addressed to the railway companies concerned. This step, however, produced a number of letters in reply, some of them equally skilful and unscrupulous. Effectual rejoinder would have made an intolerable demand on my time and strength, so that I began to repent having resorted to publicity at all. Objectionable as it is to allow to misrepresentation the advantage of inferences to be drawn from silence, it may be questioned if it be not better to leave rectification to the hand of time than to involve oneself and one's department in distracting controversy.[110] Indeed, one of our Post Office officials goes so far as to declare that if he found himself charged in a newspaper with parricide, he would hold his tongue lest the accusation should be repeated next day with the aggravation of matricide.

While, however, submitting to misconception, I sought means to obtain substantial ends; and for this purpose, in preparing a scheme of mutual fines, I added premiums for punctuality, hoping thereby both to obtain the consent of the companies to the plan as a whole, and to supply a new motive to exertion and care. I also planned the conveyance of the mails on one of the principal lines by special trains absolutely limited to mail service, which I hoped to accomplish at a moderate expense by inducing the companies to join in an arrangement under which, the bare additional cost in each instance being ascertained by a neutral authority (some eminent engineer), we should be bound to pay a certain fixed multiple of that amount. Captain Galton, of the Board of Trade, and Sir William Cubitt the eminent engineer, entirely approved of both these plans, the latter estimating the cost in question at from one shilling to one shilling and threepence per mile, and advising that we should offer to pay two-and-a-half times that amount. Under this rule, it may be observed, the Post Office would have to pay less for the whole train than it now frequently pays for only a small part of one.

The proposal of mutual fines for unpunctuality, notwithstanding its sweetener of rewards for punctuality, found but little favour with the companies, and the same remark applies to the plan of charge by fixed scale; but the proposed special mail service was ultimately adopted.

The introduction of the apparatus for exchanging bags without the stoppage of the train naturally excited considerable attention. Probably, however, many of my readers know little of the process beyond its result. That which takes place is as follows: The bags to be forwarded, being suspended from a projecting arm at the station, are so knocked off by a projection from the train as to fall into a net which is attached to the mail carriage, and is for the moment stretched out to receive them, while, at the 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.

"_April 9th, 1853._--The mail inspector reports that the people on the line of the [recently] accelerated mail assemble in crowds to see the bags exchanged at those stations at which the train does not stop. 'Half Yorkshire,' he says, 'was assembled at Northallerton; but, though very much delighted, the people appear to have had no notion of what was really accomplished. Seeing a set of bags hanging from a sort of lamp-post before the train arrived, and a similar set in a net below after it had passed, their notion was that the use of the machinery was merely to transfer the bags from the one to the other."

Interest and amusement, however, were not unmingled with feelings of a very different kind. It scarcely need be said that the operation in question requires very careful management both in the train and at the station. Even with such management an element of danger remains, increasing in proportion to the speed of the train and weight of the bags. In fact, as the use of the bag-apparatus extended, some slight accidents occurred. In my anxiety I induced the Postmaster-General to call for a report from Sir William Cubitt on the subject; and this being delayed through Sir William's indisposition, I took upon myself, (the Postmaster-General just then being absent), to issue instructions restricting, and in some cases suspending, their use. This difficulty, I may however state, was ultimately overcome by an improvement, devised by my son, in the bag-exchanging apparatus. I may be allowed to add that Sir William Cubitt, who had himself failed to devise means for surmounting the difficulty, candidly and kindly expressed a very high opinion of my son's expedient.

RECTIFICATION OF ACCOUNTS.

The reader will remember[111] how long and how ineffectually I once strove to obtain the rectification of accounts relative to the true amount of the postal revenue. In 1852, however, I succeeded in demonstrating to Lord Hardwicke that if the Post Office were charged, on the one hand, with a fair share of the packet service, and received credit, on the other hand, for the stamp duty on newspapers,[112] the net revenue would be found, not, as was then maintained by some persons, nothing at all, but, as set forth in the ordinary accounts of the department, more than a million per annum. A year later Lord Canning, then Postmaster-General, giving me the draft Report of the Packet Commission which he had prepared as chairman, with a request that I would look it over, I found that he had adopted my views, though he expressed doubts as to the agreement of his colleagues.[113] I may mention here that ten years later I prepared an elaborate memorandum as to the means of ascertaining the true net revenue of the Post Office. This paper, in which the incidence of the packet service expense, as well as other questions relative to the subject, is duly treated of, will be found in the Appendix (I).

PACKET SERVICE.

_Lord Canning's Commission._

Of the able Report of the Commission, already mentioned, commonly called Lord Canning's Commission, the following are some of the leading points. It will be observed that the question relative to the just incidence of the charge for mail-packets is not directly dealt with, though there is enough to show that the feeling of the Commission accorded with my view.

The Commission, which included not only Lord Canning, but Sir Stafford Northcote, gave, in their Report, a brief history of the introduction of contract mail-packets, explained under what special circumstances heavy subsidies for these packets appeared necessary, and expressed it as their opinion that when use can be made (as is now the case in every instance) of steamers which carry passengers and freight, large subsidies are no longer required. They added that after a new route has been opened for the extension of commerce, and sufficient time allowed for the experiment, the further continuance of the service, unless required for political services of adequate importance, should be made to depend on its tendency to become self-supporting. The Commission also advised the omission in future contracts of many conditions which tend to increase the cost; and recommended that the contract should be reduced to a simple undertaking (with penalties for failure) to convey the mails at fixed periods and with a certain degree of speed. This recommendation was afterwards to a great extent carried into effect; as was also, though not in the same degree, another recommendation, viz., to make the payment, when practicable, consist of a portion of the sea-postage.

The Commission further advised that, except on the establishment of a new route, no contracts should be entered into to run for a long period. On this head, as on that of dispensing with conditions regarding the construction, size, and steam-power of the ships to be employed, and other matters, the course thenceforth generally taken by the Post Office, on my brother's advice, was so to frame the forms of tender as to ascertain the exact amount of expense involved in the several requirements. This specification naturally led to the abandonment of any whose cost exceeded their value, and thus, in effect, produced a large economy.

The following passage shows the opinion of the Commissioners as to the extent to which Government should undertake and maintain transmarine postal communication. The recommendations are still very worthy of attention:--

"In undertaking this duty [transmarine postal communication] the Government will, in the first place, have regard to the national interests, whether political, social, or commercial, involved in the establishment and maintenance of each particular line. Care must, however, be taken, in cases where the communication is desired for commercial purposes, to guard against an undue expenditure of public money for the benefit of private merchants. The extension of commerce is undoubtedly a national advantage, and it is quite reasonable that Parliamentary grants should occasionally be employed for the sake of affording fresh openings for it by establishing new lines of communication or introducing new methods of conveyance, the expense of which, after the first outlay has been incurred, may be expected to be borne by the parties availing themselves of the facilities afforded them. But this having once been done, and sufficient time having been allowed for the experiment, the further continuance of the service, unless required for political reasons of adequate importance, should be made to depend upon the extent to which the parties chiefly interested avail themselves of it, and upon its tendency to become self-supporting."[114]

How valuable these recommendations were, how long they were observed, when they were set aside, and with what result, will appear hereafter.

COLONIAL POSTAGE.

Towards the end of 1851, learning that an influential association had been formed for obtaining a low rate of transmarine postage, and fearing that the Government might be placed in the dilemma of having either to resist a popular demand or to submit to a very serious loss of revenue, I proposed to the Postmaster-General (Lord Clanricarde) a middle course, viz., a reduction of colonial postage generally to sixpence, the rate at the time being for the most part one shilling. Had I foreseen, what experience has now shown, viz., that where long distances are concerned the increase of correspondence bears comparatively little relation to the amount of charge, I should probably have hesitated before advising concession even so far. The proposed measure, however, was not adopted at the time, nor under the administration of Lord Derby. Early in 1853 it was at length sanctioned; too late, indeed, to forestall public demand, but still early enough to prevent this from acquiring troublesome force.

"_March 5th, 1853._--The _Daily News_ of this morning contains an account of the Postmaster-General's reception of a deputation yesterday, which came to urge the extension of penny postage to the colonies."

It may not be amiss to remark here that this demand, which has often been repeated, is generally based on a false analogy. Penny postage, it is contended, is eminently successful at home, therefore it must needs succeed abroad; distance is not taken into account on land, therefore it need not be reckoned by sea; home letters have multiplied enormously under reduced rates in the United Kingdom, and the same result may be counted on in our correspondence with the most distant colonies. Here it is forgotten that before a penny postage was established at home it was ascertained that a penny charge was more than sufficient to defray all expenses, while no such proof has been given with regard to expenses abroad. Distance by land was not disregarded until it was shown that the variation in cost was far too small to be expressed in the lowest coin of the realm. Moreover, where very great distances are concerned, where in the nature of things answer is slow, multiplication of letters is but moderately affected by the lowering of rate. When contractors will undertake to carry letters to India or Australia for the same charge as to Glasgow or Aberdeen--starting at fixed times and proceeding at the highest practicable speed--ocean penny postage will become a practical question. Till then the consideration must, I fear, be postponed.

On the subject of the deputation my Journal thus continues:--

"The Postmaster-General explained the intentions of the Government on the subject. The Treasury authority for the sixpenny rate has now been received; it postpones, however, the extension of the measure to any of the colonies till the necessary negotiations have been entered into with those not under our control."

Here, too, it may be useful to touch on a popular misconception. It is commonly supposed that the Home Government can of its own authority make changes as regards colonial postage, whereas, save in some of the smallest colonies, such changes must await the consent of the Colonial Governments.

"_March 5th, 1853._--The _Times_ of this morning contains an admirable leader on the above subject [the general reduction of Colonial Postage]. A little complaining at the hardship of charging a penny for carrying a newspaper to the antipodes must be forgiven."

From this article I make the following extracts:--

"We have this day to announce a step which, simple and unpretending as it may seem, is really a greater move towards a complete unity of our independent empire than the most splendid conquest or the largest annexation. In reply to a deputation last Friday the Postmaster-General stated that as soon as the colonial assents could be obtained and the proper arrangements made, it was intended to reduce the postage of letters for every part of the British dominions abroad to the uniform rate of sixpence the half-ounce. The present average postage of colonial letters is not less than fourteen-pence. What will be gained is the low rate, _and the uniformity, which experience has shown to be scarcely less appreciated than cheapness_. Very shortly, therefore, it will be in the power of any of our readers to drop a letter into the box of the next cottage or in the next street, to his friends on the slopes of the Himalaya, or at Mount Alexander, or at Vancouver's Island, or at Toronto, with the certainty, as far as the whole power of Government can secure it, of having an answer back at the cost, for the postage of the two letters, of one shilling. The answer from across the Atlantic will probably be within a month; that from Simla or Lahore within three months; and that from the antipodes within half a year. A party of emigrants sailing this week may hope to arrive at Geelong or Adelaide soon after Midsummer, and about Michaelmas their friends at home, supposing the arrangement completed, may hope to receive full accounts of their voyage and safe arrival at the moderate cost of sixpence. Let people talk as they please of the sun never setting on our dominions, and of the British flag waving over every sea and every shore, nothing brings before our mind so forcibly the fact that we are everywhere, and that everywhere we represent the spirit of progress, as this little type of universal power--this letter given to the village postman in March, with an answer from mid-Asia in June. There is something grand and showy enough in the returns that appear from time to time in our military and naval journals, giving the stations of our ships and of soldiers in every part of the world; but the grandeur of the idea is qualified by many painful considerations, for the whole is merely an ill remedy for a still worse evil. But there is no such alloy in the thought that any member of the British Empire, comprehending an eighth of the human species, will be able to communicate with any other within a space of time and at a cost incredible to our forefathers, and even hitherto unattainable. Considering how much there is that is questionable in our dominion, in its means and in its results, it is satisfactory to find one means and one result of undoubted advantage to the whole human race, viz., that we draw mankind together, and bring the whole world, so to speak, within hearing distance."

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL BOOK POST.

The ill-judged treaty which bound us to carry certain printed matter to the United States at the low charge of one penny for two ounces, though with very high charges for greater weights, led to discontent in Canada, which, though enjoying an arrangement far more favourable on the whole, was subjected to a higher minimum charge. The Canadian complaint was backed by Lord Grey, then Secretary for the Colonies. Negotiations were therefore entered into with the United States Government for the substitution of a regular book-post for the existing arrangement.

To recover a false step, however, is notoriously less easy than to make, or even to avoid it, and the negotiation proved fruitless. The failure was the more unsatisfactory because of the motive for the rejection of our proposals (fully shown in the progress of the negotiations), viz., the desire to protect American literary piracy from the competition of our legitimate production. I am happy to record, however (1868), that a better spirit has prevailed, and that books are now sent by post to the United States as elsewhere.

In the year 1852, Lord Wrottesley calling to inform me that the British Association for the Promotion of Science was about to apply to Government for the international transmission of scientific publications at a low rate, I pointed out to him that it would be much better to apply for a general book-post, and the application was modified accordingly.

Meantime, with the concurrence of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry in the East Indies and of the East India Company, I obtained from Lord Hardwicke, though with some difficulty,[115] sanction to a measure for extending the book-post to the East Indies.

SALARIES AND PROMOTION.

Early in 1852 my brother Frederic completed a measure adjusting the salaries of the rural sub-postmasters (about six thousand, I believe, in number), advancing some and depressing others, according to the ascertained amount of work, and laying down a rule for the decision of all future cases. Somewhat later, the Postmaster-General having decided, on receipt of a memorial from the clerks of the Money Order Office, that their salaries should be revised, I prepared a minute, which received Lord Hardwicke's ready sanction, and which I intended to serve as a model for other departments. Its substance was, first, to prepare a scheme of salaries, classes, &c., according to the best practicable ideal; to make this the ground of all future appointments, and gradually to apply it, with due modification, to the clerks already in the service. Further, it assigned to each clerk a small yearly increase of salary in case of continued good conduct, regulated the number of classes and the complement of each by the gradations and amount of duty, made promotion strictly dependent upon fitness for higher service, and laid down "that the amount of salary assigned to the respective classes should be such, and such only, as will suffice to secure the services of thoroughly competent men." My hope that this minute would serve as a model for more general regulations did not wait long for fulfilment.

While these changes were in progress, other departments of the Office were applying for a revision of salaries, and, as a means of securing uniformity of action, essential to general contentment, I offered to deal myself with all such cases. Though this offer was but very partially accepted at the time, a more decided step towards a uniform system was taken soon afterwards, as already mentioned, by the appointment of a Commission for the general revision of salaries in several departments of the Civil Service. My examination before this Commission occupied eight days, and I had the satisfaction to find its views concurring to the full extent with my own and my brother Frederic's on the important points of patronage, promotion, and classification.

The Report of this important Commission was issued in the year 1854. Amongst the many valuable recommendations which it contained, the following are perhaps the most noticeable:--

The Commissioners first object to the double secretariate, and, observing that "the business of the Post Office is of a kind which peculiarly requires centralization," recommend that the whole should be placed under the direction of a single secretary.

They advise that, in order to place "the highest prizes within the reach of every deserving person," means should be taken "for opening the ranks of the Secretary's Office to all members of the establishment."

They further advise that, throughout the department, individual salaries should advance by annual increments, instead of by large jumps at long intervals; all advancement, however, to be contingent on good conduct.

After mentioning the division of the circulation department into the "Inland Office," and the "London District Office," and showing "the analogous character of these two offices," they recommend the consolidation of the two.

They point out that to obtain suitable men on reasonable terms, it is "necessary to hold out prospects of advancement to those who conduct themselves well, and who manifest the qualifications which are required for superior posts," so that "by a proper encouragement to merit, economy and efficiency may be combined."

To improve the discipline of the provincial offices--an improvement then much required--they recommend that the respective postmasters should, under approval and in accordance with prescribed rules, appoint their own clerks.

They proceed to make the golden recommendation that "all promotion should be strictly regulated according to qualification and merit;" a rule which, could its complete observance be secured, would in time raise any department to the highest state of efficiency and economy.

Their next recommendation deals with one of those anomalies in which our political and social structure, from its unsystematic nature, so much abounds. Every uninformed person would naturally assume that all provincial postmasters (deputy-postmasters, as they are technically called) must be appointed by the Postmaster-General; whereas, at the time in question, all such appointments were in the hands of the Treasury. Still worse, the nomination was left in effect to the member of parliament for the district where the vacancy occurred, provided only he were a general supporter of the Government. Of this anomaly the Commissioners recommended the removal, not only on account of the more obvious reasons, but also "because the power which the Postmaster-General would possess of rewarding meritorious officers in his own department, by promoting them to the charge of the important provincial offices, would materially conduce to the general efficiency of the whole body."

This recommendation the Treasury so far adopted as to concede to the Postmaster-General the appointment to all postmasterships where the salary exceeded £175 per annum, observing that the principle of making such appointment the reward of merit "would be inapplicable in all cases where the post office is held in conjunction with a private business or profession." And here I may remark that, though it is true that the powers and responsibilities of the chief office can never be placed on a completely satisfactory footing until all subordinate appointments are placed at its disposal, still the concession made was very large and highly valuable, and the relinquishment of so much patronage reflects great honour on the Liberal Administration then in power.[116]

The last recommendation which I shall cite is one of far more importance than would appear on the face of it, viz., that the Postmaster-General "should determine the future complement of each class according to the nature and amount of duty to be performed in it." It might seem incredible that such a recommendation should be needed, but hitherto the number in a class had had but little reference to the amount of duty that fell to it to perform, and indeed, as mentioned in an earlier part of this narrative,[117] the division implied no real classification whatever, so that in many instances men of high class were, through lack of ability, employed at low-class work, and _vice versa_.

The Report of the Commissioners, being referred by the Treasury to the Postmaster-General, Lord Canning, and having received his almost unqualified approval, was ordered, with little more exception than that already mentioned, to be carried into effect.

_Competitive Examinations._

The following entry is on a subject of some difficulty, and of great importance:--

"_March 4th, 1854._--The Report of the Commissioners on the Civil Service generally has been issued. Some months ago they requested my opinion on the draft of their Report, in which they had recommended that the patronage should be accumulated chiefly in the hands of the Treasury (_i.e._, of the Whipper-in for the time being). To this arrangement I objected decidedly, and I now see that they have abandoned it, making the admission to the Service in all cases to depend on a competitive examination, and thus abandoning patronage altogether. This will not, I fear, work well. The competition will, I think, be necessarily thrown on matters of secondary importance. Indeed the Commissioners propose that it shall be literary. The plan is attracting much notice from the public, and is earnestly backed by the _Times_. The Report is in many respects excellent. Indeed the objects aimed at are, without exception, highly creditable to the Commissioners and to the Government."

As I feared, the plan of competitive examination worked unsatisfactorily, the criteria not being the best, and the responsibility being so divided that no one is in effect answerable for an appointment made under it. The consequence of its adoption has been in many instances the rejection of men who gave promise of great usefulness, and the admission of others whose usefulness has proved very small. If no way had been open to the public service but through competitive examination, as now conducted, I cannot say what might have been my own chance of admission; since, on the plan adopted, no amount of knowledge or power in other departments is regarded as making up for deficiency in certain prescribed subjects. Under such a system neither George Stephenson nor Brindley would have passed examination as an engineer; nor, perhaps, would even Napoleon or Wellington have been admitted to any military command. The principle, if sound, must be equally applicable to manufacturing and commercial establishments; but I have heard of none that have adopted it. Indeed, a wealthy merchant lately declared (and I believe most of his brethren would agree with him) that if he had no clerks but such as were chosen for him by others, his name would soon be in the _Gazette_. I have always been of opinion that the more the appointments to the Post Office, and indeed to other public departments, are regulated on the principles ordinarily ruling in establishments conducted by private individuals, the better it will be for the public service. The question to be decided between candidates should be, I think, simply which is best fitted for the duties to be performed, and the decision should be left to the person immediately answerable for the right performance of the duty.[118]

_Telegraphs._

In the year 1852 I received (through Mr. Nicholson, of Waverley Abbey) a paper drawn up by his son-in-law, Captain Galton, recommending that the Post Office should become manager of the whole telegraphic system. As the communication was private, I replied accordingly, giving, however, a favourable opinion of the project, and, of course, leaving Captain Galton to take such further steps as he should think best. I knew nothing further of this matter at the time, but have recently learnt that his plan was submitted by him to the Board of Trade, and thence referred to the Post Office, but objected to by the Postmaster-General of the day. A few years later, however, the project was revived within the office by Mr. Frederick Baines, who had at one time occupied a post of considerable importance under one of the Telegraphic Companies. This gentleman drew up an elaborate memorandum, comprising a complete plan; and this was referred by the Postmaster-General to the Treasury, but without any result at the time. I need not add that this important measure is now (1869) on the point of being carried into effect, but must regret that it should be at a cost at once so superfluous and so enormous as to make it very doubtful whether the institution can be self-supporting (that is, paying at once interest on money borrowed, its direct working expenses, and a just contribution to the general cost of management), and almost certain that, save at further loss to the revenue, correspondence by its means cannot be cheap.[119]

FOREIGN EXTENSION.

"_October 11th, 1851._--Mr. Von der Heydt (Prussian Minister of Finance), Chevalier Bunsen, and M. Drouet (Chargé d'Affaires for the Belgian Government), met in my room to arrange with me several matters connected with the negotiation for a reduction of rates between this country and the German Postal Union."

The following general record may render further details unnecessary:--

"_November 29th, 1854._--The returns from our Ministers abroad showing the postal improvements in the several foreign countries are now completed. They show that my plan has been adopted more or less completely in the following States: Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Brazil, Bremen, Brunswick, Chili, Denmark, France, Frankfort, Hamburg, Hanover, Lubeck, Naples, New Granada, Netherlands, Oldenburg, Peru, Portugal, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, Saxony, Spain, Switzerland, Tuscany, United States, Wurtemberg.

"The results are in most cases similar to our own [similar mistakes, probably, being made in the mode of adoption]. They are generally an increase in gross revenue and in expenses, and a decrease in net revenue. In some instances the revenue is exceedingly small: thus the kingdom of Portugal produces a less gross revenue than the city of Edinburgh: in no instance is the revenue, whether gross or net, so large as with us. The extent to which my plan has been adopted in almost every part of the civilized world is very remarkable, and very gratifying. In Europe, Sweden is the only considerable State which forms an exception."

Sweden did not very long remain an exception.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXIII.

MONEY ORDER DEPARTMENT.

The secretarial charge of this department had been committed, as I have already said, to my brother Frederic. I cannot better describe the state to which it had by this time been brought than by quoting the following passages from an interesting and amusing article in "Household Words":--[120]

"In 1792, when the true British sailor was stoutly preparing to defy the French in various parts of the globe at thirty shillings a month, and when British military valour was fighting Tippoo Saib in India at a shilling a day, it was felt as a great hardship that the affluent warriors of both services could not transmit, safely and speedily, to their sweethearts and wives, even from one part of the United Kingdom to another, their surplus capital. The Government, seeing the danger of allowing the savings of its servants to burn holes in their pockets, was good enough to concoct a snug little 'job,' by means of which such pocket-conflagrations might be extinguished. The monopoly of transmitting money from one place to another was conceded to three gentlemen in connection with the Post Office. Their terms were--eightpence for every pound; but if the sum exceeded two pounds, a stamp duty of one shilling was levied by Government in addition. Five guineas was the highest amount which could be thus remitted; and the charge for that sum was four shillings and sixpence, or nearly five per cent., besides the price of the postage of the letter which contained the advice--perhaps a shilling more.

"Now, happily, the days of monopoly have passed, and Mr. Rowland Hill does the same thing for the odd sixpence, with an odd penny, at a profit to the Government of about seven thousand pounds a year, exclusive of the gain derived from the enormous number of letters of advice which Post Office orders have created. When the privilege was extended from soldiers and sailors to the general public, the three monopolists of the last century could divide between them, on an average, no more than six hundred and fifty pounds per annum. No longer ago than the year 1838, the Money Order Office was absorbed into the Post Office; and, although the charges were reduced to a commission of sixpence for sums not exceeding two pounds, and of one shilling and sixpence for sums up to five pounds (which was, and is still, the limit), a chief clerk and two assistants were appointed to do all the business the public brought to them; and even they could only do it at a loss to the department. People could not afford to increase even the reduced charges for commission, by the eightpenny and shilling postages for their letters of advice.

"Penny postage, therefore, is the parent of the gigantic money-order system, which now flourishes in full activity. In estimating the advantages of that great stroke of economical, administrative, and commercial sense, many of its less prominent agencies for good are overlooked. The facilities it has afforded for epistolary intercommunication are so wonderful and self-evident, that we who benefit by them are blinded to the hidden impulses it has given to social improvement and to commerce. Regarded only as the origin of the present money-order system, penny postage has occasioned the exercise of prudence, benevolence, and self-denial; it has, in many instances, stopped the sufferings of want by timely remittances; and it has quickened the undercurrents of trade by causing small transactions to be easily and promptly effected. These advantages can only be estimated by a consideration of the following facts.

"During the advent year of penny postage, the commission on Post Office orders was reduced to threepence and sixpence for sums not exceeding two pounds and not exceeding five pounds respectively. In that year the number of orders granted in the United Kingdom was (in round numbers, which we shall use throughout, for the reader's greater convenience) 188,000, for an aggregate amount of £313,000. Even this was a great advance on the business previously done at the old prices; but what are the figures for the tenth year of penny postage? During the year 1850 the number of orders granted in the United Kingdom was 4,440,000, for amounts making up £8,495,000; only a million less than the yearly produce of the income and assessed taxes put together! This marvellous increase can perhaps be better appreciated by being seen through a diminished medium. In the first _month_ of the penny postage (1840), the issue of orders was about 10,000 in number, for something over £16,000; but in the month of December, 1851, the number of orders issued was more than 367,000, for £690,000. That is to say, during that single month twice as many orders were taken out and paid for than were issued and paid in 1840 during the whole year.

* * * * *

"The Central Money Order Office in which these remarkable results have been produced and ascertained is in Aldersgate Street, London, hard by the Post Office. It is a large establishment--large enough to be a very considerable post office in itself--with extensive cellarage branching off into interminable groves of letters of advice and receipts, all methodically arranged for reference. The room in which the orders are issued and paid has a flavour of Lombard Street and money. It has its long banker's counter, where clerks sit behind iron gratings, with their wooden bowls of cash, and their little scales for weighing gold; and vistas of pigeon-holes stretch out behind them--which are not without their pigeons, as we shall presently see. Here, from ten o'clock to four, keeping the swing doors on the swing all day, all sorts and conditions of people come and go. Greasy butchers and salesmen from Newgate Market, with bits of suet in their hair, who loll, and lounge, and cool their foreheads against the grating, like a good-humoured sort of bears; sharp little clerks not long from school, who have everything requisite and necessary in readiness; older clerks in shooting coats, a little sobered down as to official zeal, though possibly not yet as to cigar divans and betting offices; matrons who _will_ go distractedly wrong, and whom no consideration, human or divine, will induce to declare in plain words what they have come for; people with small children, which they perch on edges of remote desks, where the children, supposing themselves to be for ever abandoned and lost, present a piteous spectacle; labouring men, merchants, half-pay officers, retired old gentlemen from trim gardens by the New River, excessively impatient of being trodden on, and very persistent as to the poking in of their written demands with tops of canes and handles of umbrellas. The clerks in this office ought to rival the lamented Sir Charles Bell in their knowledge of the expression of the hand. The varieties of hands that hover about the grating, and are thrust through the little doorways in it, are a continual study for them--or would be, if they had any time to spare, which assuredly they have not. The coarse-grained hand which seems all thumb and knuckle, and no nail, and which takes up money or puts it down with such an odd, clumsy, lumbering touch; the retail trader's hand, which chinks it up and tosses it over with a bounce; the housewife's hand, which has a lingering propensity to keep some of it back, and to drive a bargain by not paying in the last shilling or so of the sum for which her order is obtained; the quick, the slow, the coarse, the fine, the sensitive and dull, the ready and unready--they are always at the grating all day long. Hovering behind the owners of these hands, observant of the various transactions in which they engage, is a tall constable (rather potential with the matrons and widows on account of his portly aspect), who assists the bewildered female public, explains the nature of the printed forms put ready to be filled up for the quicker issuing of orders and the greater exactness as to names, and has an eye on the unready one, as he knots his money up in a pocket-handkerchief or crams it into a greasy pocket-book. If you have any bad money by you, be careful not to bring it here. The portly constable will whisk you into a back office before you can say Jack Robinson, will snip your bad half-crown or five-shilling piece in half directly, and (at the best), after searching inquiry, will fold the pieces in a note of your name and address, and consign them to a bundle of similar trophies for evermore.

* * * * *

"This sort of mystification is even more surprising than that under which certain uneducated individuals (Irish) have been known to labour. The belief has more than once been manifested at a money order office window that the mere payment of the commission would be sufficient to procure an order for five pounds; the form of paying in the five pounds being deemed purely optional. An Irish gentleman (who had left his hod at the door) recently applied in Aldersgate Street for an order for five pounds on a Tipperary post office; for which he tendered (probably congratulating himself on having hit upon so good an investment) sixpence. It required a lengthened argument to prove to him that he would have to pay the five pounds into the office before his friend could receive that small amount in Tipperary; and he went away, after all, evidently convinced that his not having this order was one of the personal wrongs of Ireland, and one of the particular injustices done to hereditary bondsmen only.

* * * * *

"Despite the prodigious increase in the business of the department which we have pointed out, its efficiency has been doubled, and its cost almost halved. By superseding seventy-eight superfluous ledgers, the labour of sixty clerks has been saved; by simply reducing the size of the money orders and advices, the expense of paper and print alone has been diminished by £1,100 per annum; while the abolition of separate advices of each transaction has economised the number of letters by 46,000 weekly. The upshot is, that these economical reforms have effected a saving in the Money Order Office alone equal to £17,000 _per annum_."

As a supplement to the foregoing extracts I quote from my Journal the following statistical record:--

"_June 7th, 1853._--The accounts of the Money Order Office for 1852 show an increase of profit of £4,227, making a total for the year of £11,664. In 1847, when I took to the department, there was a loss of £10,600 a year; so that the effective saving is upwards of £22,000 a year."

GENERAL ECONOMIC MEASURES.

Various improvements noticeable under this head (some of them of considerable importance) are omitted here as being more conveniently mentioned under other categories, as Money Orders, Conveyance of Mails, Packet Service, &c.

The following, though of economic tendency, was, as will be perceived, more beneficial in another respect:--

"_October 29th, 1851._--A clerkship at Hong Kong having become vacant by death, the Postmaster-General has, on my recommendation ... determined not to fill it up, 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, with full salary and an allowance of £100 towards the expense of the voyage. By these means, while ample force will still be left, the poor fellows will have the opportunity of recruiting their health, and a saving will be effected of £183 a year."

By merely entering into negotiations for substituting coach for railway train we obtained from the Belfast and Ballymena Railway Company a voluntary reduction in charge of more than £2000 a year, and this with some gain in time; again, by substituting car for coach between Limerick and Galway, we obtained another reduction of £1,200 a year.

Another measure provided for some immediate and a large prospective saving in the cost of guards, the duties of many amongst whom I found, on examination, to be so light as not to occupy, on the average, more than three or four hours per day. It is a curious fact that I was led to the examination resulting in this discovery by an application for _increased_ force.

In the year 1851 prepayment in money of postage on inland letters was abolished at all those provincial offices where it had been thus far allowed. Early in the following year the abolition was extended to Dublin, next to Edinburgh, and last of all to London--thus completing the establishment of prepayment by stamps alone throughout the United Kingdom, and greatly simplifying our proceedings. To save trouble, however, to the senders of large numbers of circulars, a limited exception was still allowed at the chief office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, the rule eventually taking this form, viz., to receive prepayment in money from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in sums of not less than £2 at a time. And thus, with this trifling exception, was carried into full effect, and I believe without a dissentient voice, a mode of payment which it was at one time maintained that the public would regard with such disfavour that its unpopularity would be found a serious obstacle, if not an insuperable bar, to the whole scheme of penny postage.

MINOR IMPROVEMENTS.

_Early Delivery._

"_December 31st, 1851._--Frederic has succeeded in satisfying Smith (President of the London District Office) of the practicability of a considerable improvement in the delivery of the general post letters in those parts of the suburbs of London which are about four or five miles from the Post Office. For the last three or four weeks the delivery at Brixton and in the neighbourhood has been about two hours earlier than theretofore, and the improvement will shortly be extended to Hampstead, Highgate, Stoke Newington, and many other places about equally distant from the Post Office, if the Treasury sanction the small increase of expense necessary. The measure will be a step towards the more perfect plan which I attempted to carry out more than four years ago, but which I was obliged to abandon for the time in consequence of Smith's objections.

"_January 31st, 1852._--The further improvement in the suburban deliveries commenced this morning. At my house [Hampstead] the general post letters were delivered just before nine o'clock, instead of, as heretofore, about half-past eleven."

The hour of morning delivery has now, for many years, been as early as eight. This acceleration by three hours and a-half in the principal delivery of the day, especially to the large class resident in the suburbs of London, whose occupations require that they shall leave home by nine or ten o'clock in the morning, is obviously very important. In many cases it makes the difference of a day in their ability to reply.

_Facilities for Posting._

Up to this time pillar-boxes were unknown in England,[121] though already in use not only in France, where they were an old institution, but also in some of the principal towns of Germany, and even in the villages of the Channel Islands.

"_January 8th, 1852._--We had a conversation on the subject of street letter-boxes, when I found that the Postmaster-General was not disinclined to a trial of them in the great thoroughfares of London."

Postal convenience at railway stations was also still unknown.

"_February 13th._--The Postmaster-General has sanctioned a measure of mine which, I expect, will have the effect of converting the railway stations in all the larger towns into gratuitous receiving offices."

It was still, however, some time before the plan was carried into effect.

NUMBER OF LETTERS.

The following entries show the progressive increase of letters during this period:--

"_January 19th, 1852._--The number of letters which passed through the London Office last week is the greatest on record, being 2,597,000 general post, and 850,000 district post letters; in all, 3,447,000, or considerably more than twice the number under the old system for the whole kingdom. It is remarkable that the London general post letters, which increased to the extent of about 200,000 a week soon after the opening of the Exhibition [the Great Exhibition of 1851] continue now that it is closed to be as numerous as ever.

"_January 20th, 1853._--The usual annual account of letters gives 379-1/2 millions for the year 1852, or an increase of 19-1/2 millions on the previous year. The number is exactly five times as great as before reduction.... The letters have for the last three or four months increased very rapidly (one of the many signs of prosperity); the last return (for the week ending 21st December) showed an increase of more than 400,000 in the letters passing weekly through London; and on Monday morning last Bokenham tells me that the number of letters which passed through his office was greater than in any previous Monday by 40,000.

"_January 9th, 1855._--The number of letters delivered in the United Kingdom last year was 443-1/2 millions, showing an increase on 1853 of 32-1/2 millions; the largest increase since 1840, the first year of the reduced rates. This great increase is, I think, mainly owing to the extension of rural distribution. In the course of the year, I believe, we have opened more than five hundred offices."

This large increase of correspondence by the admission of the rural districts to the postal system reminded me of a remark which I had heard from my father many years before, viz., that the result of the first census, while it disappointed expectation as to the population of the towns, exceeded it as to that of the whole country; the rural districts proving to be better inhabited than had been supposed.

_Occasional Pressure._

The following entry gives a specimen of the remarkable contingencies to which the Post Office was then liable, and for which therefore it had always to stand prepared. By improved arrangements the difficulty has in great measure been obviated.

"_July 4th, 1853._--On Saturday the despatch of the night mails was three-quarters of an hour late; this was caused by the arrival in the course of the day of heavy mails from the following places, viz., the United States, the West Indies, the East Indies, Australia _viâ_ Singapore, and Australia _viâ_ the Cape. The total number of letters, including inland, which reached the General Post Office that day, was 458,000, of which 212,000 (chiefly Foreign and Colonial) were unpaid. It was with the greatest difficulty that the work was got through at all."

_Increased Honesty._

I need not say that I made the following record with great satisfaction:--

"_July 8th, 1853._--A recent return to Parliament of the number and cost of prosecutions [for Post Office offences] from 1848 to 1852 inclusive shows an enormous decrease, nearly, I think, in the ratio of three to one; this very satisfactory result is, I believe, mainly owing to the improved arrangements in the Money Order Office."

_Titus Oates._

One of my letters of this period refers to a curious document, discovered some time before amongst the records of the Post Office, by which it appears that the infamous Titus Oates received, after the Revolution, by way of recompense, it may be supposed, for the tremendous flagellation he had undergone a few years before, and certainly on recommendation from the House of Commons, a pension of £300 per annum, charged on the revenues of the Post Office. Of this document, when first discovered, I had sent a copy to Lord Macaulay, by whom it is noticed, though slightly, in his account of the period.[122] The document, curious in itself, is too long for insertion, but the following are extracts:--

"We [William the Third] for divers good causes and consideracons Us hereunto moveing.... Have given and granted by these presents ... unto Titus Oates Doctor in Divinity his Executors Administrators and Assignes one Annuity or yearly pencon of Three hundred pounds of lawfull English money ... payable out of Our Revenues ... of the General Letter Office or Post office ... for the term of ninety-nine years ... if he the said Titus Oates and Rebecah his wife or either of them shall soe long live."

_Funeral of the Duke of Wellington._

"_November 22nd, 1852._--The returns for the last week show that the funeral of the Duke of Wellington on the 18th reduced the letters despatched from London by the evening mails of that day by about 100,000. The next day's mails were probably increased by about 10,000."