UNIFORM A.D. 1839-1841. Part II. Mail to GREAT WEIGHT AND NO PRICE! LITTLE THE WEIGHT AND ALL PRICE!! HE "Post Circular " gave the following details of the weight of the mails to accompany the woodcut: "Lord Lichfield, if the Mirror of Parliament' speaks truly, declared in the House of Lords, on the 18th of December, 1837, that 'If the number of letters under the uniform penny post be increased twelvefold, the mails will have to carry twelve times as much in weight; and therefore the charge for transmission, instead of £100,000, as now, must be twelve times that amount.' "Lord Lichfield never asked himself what makes the 'WEIGHT' of the mail; and, besides confounding the letters' as the 'whole weight,' when only a part, and the least part, he assumed that the mails were all filled, and that the cost would be twelvefolded. We pray the Postmaster-General to study our sketch, in which we have placed the letters on the top of the mail, the better to con PENNY A.D. 1839-1841. Selections. Mail to trast them with the newspapers, their usual place being in the hind UNIFORM boot. Is the bag of 40 lbs. of letters the whole weight of the mail? POSTAGE. Does the total weight of newspapers, stamps, franks, and letters, which, with that of their bags, is 531 lbs., exceed the whole weight Part II. of a single mail, stated by the superintendent of the mails to be 1,680 lbs. ? On the contrary, are there not 1,149 lbs. weight to Edinburgh. spare? and will twelve times, or even twenty-four times, the little bag of letters of 40 lbs. fill up this spare weight of 1,149 lbs. ? Alack! alack! his lordship has to learn the A B C of his craft, besides the four simple rules of arithmetic ! "Lest it be supposed that the Edinburgh mail is not a fair sample of the other mails, the five first other cases are taken from the Post-office returns: "The whole of the thirty-two mails going out of London were weighed, and the average weight of each was found to be 463 lbs., divisible in these proportions : 66 2,192 lbs. are the total weight of all the chargeable letters, franks, and parliamentary papers, carried by all the thirty-two mails. Half only, or 1,096 lbs., are chargeable letters; consequently, the chargeable letters of all the mails out of London are 684 lbs. less than the weight which a single mail is able to carry." UNIFORM A.D. 1839-1841. Part II. Illustrative collection for the agitation. A MATERIALS FOR THE AGITATION. VOLUME was formed in 1840 which is to be offered to the British Museum after my death. The following memoranda written at the time were placed in it :-It is stated to contain the most perfect collection of the different papers issued by the Mercantile Committee on Postage, which is now to be made. I believe of materials only one large placard announcing the first public meeting, is wanted to complete the series. Besides this collection, there are various other papers which illustrate the Progress of the Postage Question, and the modes of Charging Postage. The whole furnishes a history showing how the measure was carried, and in what space of time. Rowland Hill issued his first pamphlet at the beginning of 1837; a committee of the House of Commons reported in favour of the plan in 1838, and an Act for giving effect to the measure was passed 17th August, 1839. In the year 1837, five petitions were presented to Parliament; in 1838, 320; in 1839, above 2,000. The Mercantile Committee was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. George Moffatt in the spring of 1838; Mr. Ashurst conducted the Parliamentary Inquiry; and upon myself, as Secretary, devolved the business of communicating with the public. A printing committee consisting of Mr. Travers, Mr. G. Moffatt, and Mr. F. L. Cole was formed at the first meeting of the Mercantile Committee. On some few occasions Mr. Travers was consultedabout the issue of the "Post Circular" for example-but generally the issue of papers was decided by Mr. George Moffatt and myself jointly, or myself on my own responsibility. The illustrations of the "Anomalies of Postage" are perhaps unique. When Circulars were to be sent to Members of Parliament, instead of delivering them by hand, which would have cost about 30s. or £3 3s. through the vote office of the House of Commons, or several pounds by the twopenny post, a messenger was despatched to Gravesend or Watford, being the first general post towns out of London, to post them there; they then came free! and the cost to the Committee was only 6s. or thereabouts for the messenger's expenses. Newspapers were taken free of charge by the PENNY A.D. 1839-1841. Part II. Selections. twopenny post out of the three mile circle, but were charged if UNIFORM brought into it. Instead of sending a messenger to Kensington POSTAGE. with any lot of papers to be addressed, the twopenny post took them free,—they were addressed for the country and put into the Kensington post. On one occasion twenty papers were addressed to Mr. Wallace, M.P., at Greenock, where they would have gone collection free, but being sent with his other papers to the Reform Club by for the his directions, they were charged twopence or a penny each. Illustrative of materials agitation. A LIST OF THE PAPERS ISSUED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE AND MR. H. COLE, SECRETARY. Mr. Ashurst's papers are marked A, the rest are Mr. Cole's. 1. Circular, accompanying Suggestions. (A.) 2. Suggestions, probably prepared by Mr. Moffatt, distributed to Mercantile Firms throughout the country, to Houses of Lords and Commons, &c. (A.) 3. Circular, soliciting information, &c., distributed with the last. (A.) 4. Circular, for Subscriptions, addressed to Fire and Life Offices, Companies of the City, and other Corporate Bodies. 5 to 18. Thirteen numbers of "The Post Circular"- the average number printed of each number was about 1750-the whole set was sent from time to time to every newspaper in the United Kingdom-about 250 of every number to the friends of the Postage Cause, and the Mercantile Committee. One or more numbers were sent to every Town Council, Chamber of Commerce, Public Library, News Room, Mechanics' Institute, Board of Guardians, Clerk of Poor Law Unions, Minister of Religion, Church of England (above 12,000) or otherwise, Country Bankers, &c., throughout the kingdom. 19. Circular, accompanying Petitions. 23. Specimen letter of Single and 24. 25. Do. sent to about 44 Mechanics' Scene at Windsor Castle, 2,000 26. Another Edition, 2,000 printed. 28. 40,000 were stitched in "Nicho- 29. Postage Report, printed by "Spec- 30. Circular to every Newspaper in 31. Letter, about Subscriptions to 32. Subscription list. 33. Letter to Printers, &c., about 34. Bill for Petitions. The volume containing a specimen of each of these papers and other illustrations, will be found, I trust, after my death, in the British Museum. Specimens of Petitions. THE FOLLOWING ARE SPECIMENS OF SOME OF THE PETITIONS UNIFORM PENNY POSTAGE. (FORM OF PETITION.) TO THE HONOURABLE THE LORDS SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL [or, THE The humble Petition of the Undersigned [to be filled up with the name of SHEWETH, That your Petitioners earnestly desire a Uniform Penny Post, payable in advance, as proposed by Rowland Hill, and recommended by the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons. That your Petitioners intreat your Honourable House to give speedy effect to this Report. And your Petitioners will ever pray. |