as the evident weakening of peel's government became more marked, the thoughts of the man who had been sacrificed to official intrigues, and unto whom it was, as he pathetically writes, “grief and bitterness to be so long kept aloof from my true work,” turned longingly towards the post office and to his insecurely established and only partially developed plan. with a change of ministry, better things must surely come.
his hopes were realised. in 1846 the peel administration fell, and lord john (afterwards earl) russell became prime minister. the public voice, clearly echoed in the press, demanded rowland hill's recall to office, there to complete his reform.[174]
one of the first intimations he received of his [pg 212] probable restoration was a letter from mr warburton advising him to be “within call if wanted.” a discussion had risen overnight in parliament. mr duncombe had complained of 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 prime minister himself was “by no means satisfied with the state of the post office,” and did not “think the plans of reform instituted by mr hill had been sufficiently carried out.” messrs hume and warburton urged mr hill's recall.[175]
several of the good friends who had worked so well for the reform both within and without parliament also approached the new government, which, indeed, was not slow to act; and my father entered, not, as before, the treasury, but his fitter field of work—the post office. 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 reform.” he had at the time been denied admission to the post office when seeking for information as to the working of the old system he was destined to destroy. he now found himself installed within the official precincts, and in something resembling authority there.
thus before the passing of the year 1846 he was able to comment yet further in his diary on the curious parallel between his own treatment and that of dockwra and palmer. “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, were turned adrift by the treasury.” we “were all alike in the fact of dismissal.... i alone was so far favoured as to be recalled to aid in the completion of my plan.”[176]
at the time when dockwra, the most hardly used of all, was driven from office a ruined man, and with the further aggravation of responsibility for the costs 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 purse. the contrast between their treatment and that of the man who had been one of the greatest benefactors to his country renders his case doubly hard.
in an interview which mr warburton had with the postmaster-general preparatory to rowland hill's appointment, the member for bridport pointed to the fact that his friend was now fifty-one years of [pg 214] age, and that it would be most unfair to call on him to throw up his present assured position only to run risk of being presently “shelved”; and further urged the desirability of creating for him the post of adviser to the post office, in order that his time should not be wasted in mere routine duty. at the same time, mr warburton stipulated that rowland hill should not be made 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 of inferior rank and of smaller salary than his rival's; and, as a natural consequence, the old hindrances and thwartings were revived, and minor reforms were frequently set aside or made to wait for several years longer. happily, it was now too late for the penny post itself to be swept away; the country would not have allowed it; and in this, the seventh year of its establishment, its author was glad to record that the number of letters delivered within 12 miles of st martin's-le-grand was already equal to that delivered under the old system throughout the whole united kingdom.
by 1846 rowland hill was occupying a better [pg 215] pecuniary position than when in 1839 he went to the treasury. he had made his mark in the railway world; and just when rumours of his retirement therefrom were gaining ground, the south western railway board of directors offered 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 other flattering offers, resigned his three directorships, and thus relinquished a far larger income than that which the government asked him to accept. the monetary sacrifice, however, counted for little when weighed in the balance against the prospect of working out his plan.
his first interview with lord clanricarde was a very pleasant one; and he left his new chief's presence much impressed with his straightforward, business-like manner.
on this first day at st martin's-le-grand's colonel maberly and rowland hill met, and went through the ceremony of shaking hands. but the old animosity still possessed considerable vitality. the hatchet was but partially interred.
with lord clanricarde my father worked harmoniously; the diarist after one especially satisfactory interview writing that he “never met with a public man who is less afraid of a novel and decided course of action.”
early in his postal career, my father, by lord clanricarde's wish, went to bristol to reorganise [pg 216] the post office there, the first of several similar missions to other towns. in nearly every case he found one condition of things prevailing: an office small, badly lighted, badly 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 of ￡125 bristol's chief delivery of the day could be completed by nine in the morning instead of by noon. although unable to carry out all the improvements needed, he effected a good deal, and on the termination of his visit received the thanks of the clerks and letter-carriers.[177]
in 1847 a thorough revision of the money order system was entrusted to him; and, thenceforth, that office came entirely under his control. seventeen years later, lord clanricarde, in the upper house, paid his former lieutenant, 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 assets were in hand. on passing under mr hill's management, the system was altered: four or five entries for each order were made instead of eleven; and official defalcation or fraud, once common, was now no more heard of.[178]
[pg 217]
lord clanricarde placed the management of that office under my father's command in order that the latter should have a free hand; and it was settled that all returns to parliament should 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 postmaster-general's part, papers had generally been submitted to the permanent head of the office and even to officers of lower rank, but had been withheld from the reformer's observation.[179]
“eternal vigilance” is said to be the necessary price to pay for the preservation of our liberties; and, half a century ago, a like vigilance had to be exercised whenever and wherever the interests of the postal reform were concerned.
the arrears in the money order departments of [pg 218] the london and provincial offices were so serious that to clear them off would, it was declared, fully employ thirty-five men for four years. the post office had always maintained that the money order department yielded a large 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 would become self-supporting. by 1850 that hope was realised. by 1852 the office showed a profit of ￡11,664, thereby, in six years, converting the previous loss into a gain of more than ￡22,000;[180] and during the last year of rowland hill's life (1878-79) the profits were ￡39,000.
a reduction of size in the money order forms and letters of advice, and the abolition of duplicate advices effected a considerable saving in stationery alone; while the reduction 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 ￡313,000 passed through the post; and in 1864, the year of my father's resignation, ￡16,494,000. by 1879 the sum had risen to ￡27,000,000; and it has gone on steadily increasing.
perhaps the following extract from rowland hill's journal is satisfactory, as showing improvement in account-keeping, etc. “july 8th, 1853.—a recent return 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 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.”[181]
the new postal system, indeed, caused almost a revolution in official account-keeping. under the old system the accounts of the provincial postmasters were usually from three to six months in arrear, and no vouchers were demanded for the proper disbursement of the money with which the postmasters 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 the new system each postmaster rendered his account weekly, showing proper vouchers for receipts and payments and the money left in hand, to the smallest possible sum. this improvement was accompanied by lighter work to a smaller number of men, and a fair allowance of holiday to each of them.
when, in 1851, my father's attention was turned to the question of facilitating life insurance for the benefit of the staff, and especially of its humbler members, it was arranged with sir george cornwall lewis,[182] at that time chancellor of the exchequer, that, to 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 ￡12,000. in this manner “the post office widows' and orphans' fund society” was placed on a firm footing. a portion of the void order fund was also employed in rescuing from difficulties another society in the london office called “the letter-carriers' burial fund.”[183]
although in 1857 my father, with the approval of lord colchester, the then postmaster-general, had proposed the extension of the money order system to the colonies, it was not till the canadian government took the initiative in 1859 that the treasury consented to try the experiment. it proved so successful that the measure was gradually extended to all the other colonies, and even to some foreign countries.
like palmer, rowland hill was a born organiser, and work such as that effected in the money order office was so thoroughly congenial that it could scarcely fail to be successful. the race of born organisers can hardly be extinct. is it vain 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 should be mended rather than ended. mending must surely be possible when, for example, each transaction of that bank costs 7.55d. exclusive of postage—or so we are told—while other savings banks can do their work at a far lower price.[184]
the following story is illustrative of the strange want of common-sense which distinguishes the race, especially when posting missives. “mr ramsey, (missing-letter clerk),” writes rowland 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 addressed to some country house in hereford, no post-town being named. it had found its way, after much delay, into the post office at ross, and had been sent to london by the postmistress.”
it is not often that the head of so dignified and peaceful an institution as the post office is seen in a maimed condition, and that condition the result of fierce combat. nevertheless, in that stirring time known as “the year of revolutions” (1848), 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 us that his family came originally from london, and that one of our streets was named after them. if, as was surmised, he made a pilgrimage to marylebone [pg 222] to discover it, it must have looked to one fresh from paris a rather dismal thoroughfare.
about 1849 rowland hill instituted periodical meetings of the post office surveyors to discuss questions which had hitherto been settled by the slower method of writing minutes. these postal parliaments were so satisfactory that henceforth they were often held. they proved “both profitable and pleasant, increased the interest of the surveyors in the work of improvement, and by the collision of many opinions, broke down prejudices, and overthrew obstacles.”
one of the greatest boons which, under my father's lead, was secured to the letter-carriers, sorters, postmasters, and others, all over the kingdom, was the all but total abolition of post office sunday labour. in a single day 450 offices in england and wales were relieved of a material portion of their sunday duties. three months later the measure was extended to ireland and scotland, 234 additional offices being similarly relieved. while these arrangements were in process of settlement, rowland hill, in the autumn of 1849, resolved to still further curtail sunday labour. hitherto the relief had been carried out in the money order 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 to 52 in order that some 5,829 men—all of whom were compulsory workers—should elsewhere be relieved, each of some five-and-three-quarters hours of labour every “day of rest.” in a few months, all the arrangements being complete, and the plan got into working order, the london staff was reduced to little more than half the number employed before the change was made. ultimately, the services even of this tiny contingent were reduced, four men sufficing; and sunday labour at the post office was cut down to its minimum amount—a state of things which remained undisturbed during my father's connection with that great public department.
the actual bearing of this beneficent reform was, strange to say, very generally misunderstood, and perhaps more especially by “the lord's day society.” thus for some months rowland hill was publicly denounced as a “sabbath-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 record the fact that when the ill-feeling was at its height colonel maberly called his clerks together, told them that, owing to unjust attacks, the department was in danger, and exhorted them to stand forth in its defence.[185]
[pg 224]
when the turmoil began the postmaster-general was inclined to side with some of the leading officials who advocated compulsion should the number volunteering for the london work be insufficient. happily, the supply was more than ample. but when the trouble subsided lord clanricarde generously admitted that he had been wrong and my father right.
some of the provincial postmasters and other officials, misunderstanding the case, joined in the [pg 225] clamour, and went far on the way to defeat a measure planned for their relief. others were more discerning, and the postmaster of plymouth wrote to say that at his office alone thirty men would be relieved by an enactment which was “one of the most important in the annals of the post office.”
the agitation showed how prone is the public to fly to wrong conclusions. here was rowland hill striving to diminish sunday work, and being denounced as if he was seeking to increase it! it goes without 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 hill's family were spared the pain of receiving from candid and, of course, entirely unknown friends letters of the most detestable description. truly, the ways of the unco gude are past finding out.
while the conflict raged, many of the clergy proved no wiser than the generality of their flocks, and were quite as vituperative. others, to their honour be it recorded, tried hard to stem the tide of ignorance and bigotry. among these enlightened 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 strangers, wrote letters which did their authors infinite credit, and which the recipient valued highly. the veteran free-trader, general peronnet thompson, also contributed [pg 226] a series of able articles on the subject to the then existing sun.
some of the newspapers at first misunderstood the question quite as thoroughly as did the public; but, so far as we ever knew, only the leeds mercury—unto whose editor, in common with other 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 were throughout more discriminating; and the times, in its issue of 25th april 1850, contained an admirable and lengthy exposition of the case stated with very great clearness and ability.[187]
“carrying out a plan of relief which i had suggested as a more general measure when at the treasury,” says rowland hill in his diary, “ i proposed [pg 227] to substitute a late saturday night delivery in the nearer suburbs 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 that while so much has been said by the london merchants and bankers against a delivery where their places of business are, of course, closed, not a word has been said against a delivery in the suburbs where they live.”[189]
to give further relief to sunday labour, rowland hill proposed “so to arrange the work as to have the greatest practicable amount of sorting done in the travelling offices on the railways; the earlier portion ending by five on sunday morning, and the later not beginning till nine on sunday evening. the pursuit of this object led to a singular device.”[190] he was puzzling over the problem how to deal with letters belonging 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 228] should be transferred, sorted, to an up train to be carried to london. no time would be really lost to the public, because, while the letters were performing the double journey their destined recipients would be in bed; nor would any additional expense or trouble be incurred. the plan was a success, was extended to other railways, and the apparently eccentric proceeding long since became a matter of everyday occurrence.
in 1851 prepayment in money of postage on inland letters was abolished at all those provincial offices where it had thus far been allowed. early in the following year the abolition was extended to dublin, next to edinburgh, 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 senders of many circulars, the chief office, st martin's-le-grand, continued to receive prepayment in money from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in sums of not less than ￡2 at a time: an arrangement, later, extended to other offices.
an extract from rowland hill's diary, under date 29th october 1851, says: “a clerkship at hong-kong having become vacant by death, the postmaster-general has, on my recommendation, determined not 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, and an allowance [pg 229] 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.”
early in 1852 rowland hill also writes in his diary that “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.” the plan, convenient as it has proved, was, however, long in being carried out.
the agitation to extend penny postage beyond the limits of the british isles is much older than many people suppose. far back in the 'forties elihu burritt[192] strove long and manfully in the cause of “ocean penny postage”; and in my father'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 office was reproached for not moving with the times, etc. that a large portion of the blame lay rather with the great steamship companies, which have never failed to charge heavily for conveyance of the mails, is far too little considered.
but the great steamship companies are not alone in causing the post office to be made a scapegoat for their own sins in the way of exacting heavy payments. in 1853 rowland hill gave evidence before a parliamentary committee to consider railway and [pg 231] canal charges; and showed that, owing to the strained relations between the post office and the railway companies, the use of trains for mail conveyance was so restricted as to injure the public and even the companies themselves; also that, while the cost of carrying passengers and goods had been greatly reduced on the railways, the charge for carrying the mails had grown by nearly 300 per cent., although their weight had increased by only 140 per cent. he also laid before the committee 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 attempts subsequently made were unavailing to alter the injurious law enacted early in the railway era, and intended to last only till experience of the working of the lines should have afforded the requisite data for laying down a scale of charges.[194] being of opinion that, in order to serve the public more effectually, far greater [pg 232] use should be made of the railways, the reformer tried to procure for the post office the unrestricted use of all trains for a moderate fixed charge. owing, however, to the existing law, the uncertainty of rates of payment, the excessive awards frequently made, and other causes, this useful measure was not adopted, with the result that the subsidies to the companies went on increasing in magnitude.
in the same year the great northern railway had spontaneously begun to run a train at night, at such speed as to outstrip the night mail on the london and north-western line. believing that the object was to tempt the public into agitating for 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 mails; but this idea was not adopted for some years.[195] till the acceleration was accomplished the answer to a letter leaving london by the night mail for edinburgh or glasgow could not be received till the afternoon of the next day but one.
increased speed, however, was found to produce unpunctuality, misunderstandings, and other evils; and the public grew dissatisfied. of course the railway companies blamed the post office, and, equally, of [pg 233] course, though with better reason, the post office blamed the railway companies. my father 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 unpunctuality, coupled with reward to the companies, but not to the office, for punctual performance. only one company—the north british—accepted the proposal, the result being that the instances of irregularity were in half a year brought down from 112 to 9, the company at the same time receiving a reward of ￡400.
later, the railway companies agreed to accelerate their night mails between london and edinburgh and glasgow. an additional payment of some ￡15,000 a year had to be made, but the benefit to the two countries was so great that the outlay was not grudged. the effort to extend a like boon 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 consequence, an annual subsidy of over ￡100,000 had to be paid in addition to the necessary cost of provision for letter-sorting in the trains and steamships. punctuality also was often disregarded, and penalties were suspended on the score of insufficient pier accommodation at holyhead.
[pg 234]
some of the companies were short-sighted enough to refuse what would have been remunerative work offered by the post office. on one short line of 23 miles, ￡3,000 per annum was demanded 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 legally exempt from so doing—such payment to be settled by arbitration—the proposal was rejected. ultimately, a more circuitous route was adopted at a third of the cost first demanded.
there was great need of reorganisation and common-sense rearrangement in these matters. why, for instance, when carrying a letter between land's end and john o'groat's should twenty-one separate contracts, irrespective of engagements with rural messengers and of plans for the conveyance of mail-bags to and from railway stations and post offices, have been required?
with a view to the reduction of these extravagant subsidies, rowland hill proposed that “government should, on ample security, and to a limited extent, advance loans on the terms on which it could itself borrow to such companies as were willing to adopt a reasonable 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 plan; but, though it evoked much interest, and came up again as a public question more than once in later years, no progress was made. were state [pg 235] purchase of the railways to become the law of the land, solution of the difficulty might yet be discovered.
one of the measures rowland hill hoped to see accomplished was the conveyance of mails on one of the principal lines by special trains absolutely limited to post office service. the cost would be moderate if the companies could be induced to join in an arrangement under which, the bare additional expense in 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 advising that two and a half times that amount should be offered. under this rule the post office would pay less for the whole train than it already paid for a small part of one. the plan of charge by fixed scale found little favour with the companies; but the proposed special mail service was ultimately adopted.
the postmaster-general (lord canning's) commission in 1853 on the packet service—which included among its members lord canning himself and the then sir stafford northcote—did much useful work, and published an able report giving a brief history of “contract mail-packets”; explaining why, under older conditions, heavy subsidies were necessary, and expressing their opinion 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 recommendations made were the omission in future contracts of many conditions whose effect is increase of cost; a reduction of the contract to an undertaking (subject to penalties for failure) to convey the mails at fixed periods and with a certain degree of speed, and an agreement that, except in the case of a new route, contracts should not be allowed to exist for a long period.
when at last the management of the packet service was transferred from the admiralty to the post office, a useful—indeed necessary—reform was accomplished. while in the hands of the former department, the service had become a source of very heavy expense, owing, in great part, to its extension for political reasons very far beyond postal requirements.
great inconvenience had resulted also from the slight control possessed by the post office over the service. in 1857, for example, the contract with the west indian packet company was renewed without the knowledge 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 devonport and the cape of good hope, as the union steamship company, into whose contract such stipulations had been introduced in strong form, made during 1859 every one of its voyages within the appointed time.
[pg 237]
investigation of the packet service accounts showed how abundant was the room for diminution of cost. the annual charge to the home government for conveying the mails to and from honduras was, as a consequence, readily cut down from ￡8,000 to ￡2,000, and eventually to ￡1,500. there had always been a heavy loss on the foreign and colonial service. that to 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 ￡200,000—one-half the sum—by the cutting down of expenditure, the other half by increased yield from the correspondence. the cost to the british taxpayer was further lightened by calling upon the colonists, who had hitherto been exempt from all such charges, henceforth to bear their fair share of the expense. thus both punctuality and economy were insisted upon.
about 1857 a persistent demand arose for a mail service to australia by the panama route, the press vigorously taking up the agitation, and the government being accused of “red tapeism” because they did not move in the matter, or not until the outcry grew so loud that it was deemed expedient to apply to the shipping agencies for tenders. being one day at the athen?um club, 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 rowland hill proposed an adjournment to the drawing-room, where stood a large globe; the test of measurement was applied, and thereupon was demonstrated the fallacy of a widespread popular belief, founded on ignorance of the enormous width of the pacific ocean—a belief, as this anecdote shows, shared even by some of those who have dwelt within reach of its waters.[196]
but convincing friends was of far less moment than convincing the public; and rowland hill drew up a report on the subject which, backed by the postmaster-general, lord colchester, had the desired effect of preventing, for the time being, what would have been a heavy and useless expenditure of public money.[197]
[pg 239]
it is found that great public ceremonies affect the weekly returns of the number of letters passing through the post. sometimes the result is a perceptible increase; at other times a decrease. the funeral of the great duke of wellington was held on the 18th november 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 probably increased by an extra 10,000. the revolutionary year, 1848, also had a deteriorating influence on correspondence, the return published in 1849 for the previous twelvemonths showing a smaller increase than, under ordinary circumstances, might have been expected.
in 1853 docker's ingenious apparatus for the exchange of mail-bags at those railway stations through which trains pass without stopping was introduced. the process is described by the postal reformer 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.” 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—according to the mail inspector—and many were under the impression that the outgoing set of bags they saw hanging to the projecting arm in readiness for absorption by the passing train, and the incoming set hanging out from the mail carriage, ready to be caught in the net fixed at the station, were one and the same thing. though what useful purpose could be served by the mere “giving a lift” of a hundred yards or so to one solitary set of bags is rather hard to perceive.
an early travelling post office with mail bags exchange apparatus.
by permission of the proprietors of the “city press.”
the invention was not altogether a success, very heavy bags—especially when the trains were running at great speed—being sometimes held responsible for the occurrence of rather serious accidents. it even became necessary 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 simple contrivance which removed all difficulties, and thenceforth the exchange-bag apparatus worked well. sir william cubitt, who had unsuccessfully striven to rectify matters, generously eulogised his youthful rival's work.
the stamp-obliterating machines which superseded the old practice of obliteration by hand were also my brother's invention. in former days the man who could stamp the greatest number of letters in a given time was usually invited to exhibit his prowess when visitors were shown over the office. [pg 241] the old process had never turned out impressions conspicuous for legibility, and means of improvement had been for some time under consideration. but it was a trial presided over by lord campbell in 1856 which precipitated matters. an important question turned upon the exact date at 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 brother's mechanical skill came to the rescue, and complaints as to clearness and legibility soon became rare.[198] by the machines the obliterations were made faster than by the best hand-work, the increase of speed being at least 50 per cent. about the year 1903 my brother's machines began, i am told, to be superseded by others which are said to do the work faster even than his. judging by some of the obliterations lately made, presumably by these later machines, it is evident that, so far as clearness and legibility are concerned, the newer process is not superior to the older.
my brother was a born mechanician, and, like [pg 242] our uncle edwin hill, could, out of an active brain, evolve almost any machine for which, in some emergency, there seemed to be need. to give free scope to pearson's obvious bent, our father had, in his son's early 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 brother being occasionally obliged to sing out, through the one open pane, a cheery “good-night” to the passing policeman, who paused to see if a burglarious conspiracy was being devised during the nocturnal small hours, from the convenient vantage-ground of the outhouse.
the dream of my brother's life was to become a civil engineer, for which profession, indeed, few young men could have been better fitted; and the dream seemed to approach accomplishment when, during a visit to our father, sir william (afterwards first lord) armstrong spoke most highly of pearson's achievements—he had just put into completed form two long-projected small inventions—and offered to take the youth into his own works at newcastle-on-tyne. but the dream was never destined to find realisation. sir william's visit and proposal made a fitting opportunity for the putting to my brother of a serious question which had been in our father's head for some time. in his son's integrity, ability, and affection, rowland hill had absolute trust. were 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 father. the cherished dream was allowed to melt into nothingness, and my brother began his postal career not as a favoured, but as an ordinary clerk, though one always near at hand, and always in the complete confidence of his immediate chief. whatever regrets for the more congenial life pearson may have harboured, he never, to my knowledge, gave them audible expression, nor could any father have had a more loyal son. when, many years later, it seemed desirable that some official should be appointed to report on the value of the mechanical inventions periodically offered to the post office, and to supervise those already in operation, it seemed when my brother was selected for that post as if he had only received his due, and that merely in part.
he had also administrative ability of no mean order; and when only twenty-eight years of age was selected by the postmaster-general to go to [pg 244] mauritius to reorganise the post office there, which through mismanagement had gradually drifted into a state 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 some of the west indian isles—in place of the trumpery red and blue, penny and twopenny, productions which were the handiwork of some local artist, and which are now so rare that they command amazingly large sums of money in the philatelist world.