The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1848] BOOK POST. 87
"
I was at Weymouth when I was Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and busy with you about the reduction [of postage], and used, with
my children, to frequent a shell-shop and gossip with the shopkeeper
a man of some intelligence in his way. I was at Weymouth again
this summer, and having gone to my shell friend, after a little talk,
'
'
'
Oh, Sir ! he said, I must tell you that the penny postage that you
were busy about when you were here last has been a great benefit
to me in my way, which you did not, I dare say, expect, and I am
sure I did not. I now send my shells all over the country.' "
The following is a curious instance of a real advantage figuring as
the reverse. While the year's improvement did not equal my expectation,
a return called for by Parliament was so given as to make
it appear less than it really was, the progress in gross revenue being
in effect understated by about ; 100,000. The following is the
explanation of this anomaly: By the system of prepayment the
number of rejected letters had been so diminished that the deduction
made on their account from the gross postage had been reduced by
that sum, a fact suppressed in the return.* I pointed out the error
to the Accountant-General, who at once admitted it, but explained
that a corrective entry which he had made in the return had been
removed thence by order.
BOOK POST.
The following entries relate to the Book Post :
''January 28th. Went to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
endeavour to remove his objections to the book post. He is afraid
apparently of the railway interest, and dislikes the notion of entering
into competition with carriers. I reminded him that we did not
propose to avail ourselves of our monopoly [I
should have said '
extend our monopoly to the conveyance of books '], but merely to
serve the public better than it is now served ; that no other system
than that of the Post Office would reach the rural districts ; and
pointed out the moral and political importance of enlightening those
districts, &c., &c. We had a stout battle, but in the end he gave up,
suggesting, however, for my consideration, the expediency, in the
first instance at least, of restricting each packet to a single volume."
This suggestion was adopted. The difficulties being thus removed,
the book post was at length established, the necessary warrant
* To make this clear, it may be necessary to mention that the gross postage
includes all postage charged ; and that, to arrive at the real postal revenue, there
has, of course, to be deducted from this total so much as, owing to rejection of
unpaid letters by addressees, or other similar causes, is never received.
to