The Romance of the Post Office. By Archibald Granger Bowie.
(S. W. Partridge and Co.)—The beginning of the Post Office may be assigned to the eighteenth century, though there was something like a public conveyance of letters long before. In 1710 an Act was passed which remained in force till 1837. In 1720 Ralph Allen, who was at the time Deputy-Postmaster of Bath, founded the cross-posts. He paid £6,000, and made twice that amount of profit for forty-four years. Various changes were made from time to time, but no substantial reform was taken in hand till 1837. At that time the average cost of a letter was 81d. A letter to Edinburgh cost double what it had coat one hundred and twenty years before. What Rowland Hill did is now ancient history. There was no little want of grace in his treatment at first (as John Leech pictured in his "Britannia presenting Row- land Hill with the Sack "), but a pension of £2,000 and a gift of £20,000 was a not inadequate acknowledgment. The great development which Rowland Hill began makes a story of inexhaustible interest. The Department moves, it is true, some- what slowly, and ridiculous red-tapeistn in subordinates is defended at headquarters, but the general result is one at which we cannot seriously cavil. The recent change has been, we imagine, equivalent to a remission of a penny in the Income-tax to a large portion of the professional class.
Previous page
