DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0453
ECONOMIC LEG IS LA TION, 1815-41.
437
Early in 1839 tne Government resigned, and Peel was again
called on to form an administration. It broke down under what
was called a palace intrigue, and Melbourne returned to office.
His Chancellor of the Exchequer went to the refuge of failures,
and Francis Baring succeeded him.
The Whig Government, however, in 1839, resolved on a most
important financial reform. The Post Office was established
during the Protectorate, partly as a convenience for the transmis-
sion of Government despatches, partly, as the Act avowed, for the
purpose of detecting designs against the safety of Government.
This part of the Commonwealth legislation was adopted by the
restored Government ; the conveyance of letters was made a
monopoly, and the Crown of course began to quarter pensioners
on the fund. As time went on the rates of postage were greatly
increased, the charge being founded on a mileage which was arbi-
trary, because the routes over which letters were carried were settled
on no principle whatever. In my youth, the postage from my
native place to one town seven miles off was eightpence, that to
another twelve miles off one penny.
Now for some time before the Act of 1839, Rowland Hill, then
one of the Post Office secretaries, had urged that the real charge
of the Post Office from the point of view of carriage was infinitesi-
mal, the true cost of the service lying in the distribution of the
letters. I am, I think, right in saying that my friend the late
Sir Rowland Hill was the originator of this generality, though I
believe that others have laid claim to it. It is quite certain that
Hill was credited by those who were adverse to the change with
the authorship, and one of the blemishes in Sir Robert Peel's
administration was Mr. Hill's suspension from office, shortly
after the new Government was formed in 1841, on some frivolous
pretext. He was, however, speedily and wisely restored. The
proposal had the warm support of a new school of politicians,
which got the nickname of the Manchester Party, and consisted
chiefly of the manufacturing classes in the north of England, and
was treated with indifference or hostility by the country party, who
were beginning on other grounds to feel the keenest animosity
against their northern critics. The reason of the discrepancy was
obvious. Easy and cheap communication by post .was part, and
437
Early in 1839 tne Government resigned, and Peel was again
called on to form an administration. It broke down under what
was called a palace intrigue, and Melbourne returned to office.
His Chancellor of the Exchequer went to the refuge of failures,
and Francis Baring succeeded him.
The Whig Government, however, in 1839, resolved on a most
important financial reform. The Post Office was established
during the Protectorate, partly as a convenience for the transmis-
sion of Government despatches, partly, as the Act avowed, for the
purpose of detecting designs against the safety of Government.
This part of the Commonwealth legislation was adopted by the
restored Government ; the conveyance of letters was made a
monopoly, and the Crown of course began to quarter pensioners
on the fund. As time went on the rates of postage were greatly
increased, the charge being founded on a mileage which was arbi-
trary, because the routes over which letters were carried were settled
on no principle whatever. In my youth, the postage from my
native place to one town seven miles off was eightpence, that to
another twelve miles off one penny.
Now for some time before the Act of 1839, Rowland Hill, then
one of the Post Office secretaries, had urged that the real charge
of the Post Office from the point of view of carriage was infinitesi-
mal, the true cost of the service lying in the distribution of the
letters. I am, I think, right in saying that my friend the late
Sir Rowland Hill was the originator of this generality, though I
believe that others have laid claim to it. It is quite certain that
Hill was credited by those who were adverse to the change with
the authorship, and one of the blemishes in Sir Robert Peel's
administration was Mr. Hill's suspension from office, shortly
after the new Government was formed in 1841, on some frivolous
pretext. He was, however, speedily and wisely restored. The
proposal had the warm support of a new school of politicians,
which got the nickname of the Manchester Party, and consisted
chiefly of the manufacturing classes in the north of England, and
was treated with indifference or hostility by the country party, who
were beginning on other grounds to feel the keenest animosity
against their northern critics. The reason of the discrepancy was
obvious. Easy and cheap communication by post .was part, and