The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1848] RAILWAY NOTICES. 91
Letter-boxes, however, have become frequent, though far from
being so general as both economy and public convenience require.
Neither the Postmaster-General nor I imagined that the circular,
limited as it was, could give offence to any one. Nevertheless, it
produced some angry letters, among others, one from the late
Marquis of Londonderry, who indignantly demanded whether the
Postmaster-General actually expected that he should cut a slit in his
mahogany
door !
MINOR IMPROVEMENT.
Railway Notices,
The following minor improvement may perhaps be worth men-
tioning, as being, if not particularly beneficial to the department, at
least very economical to that large portion of the public which is
interested in railway extension. Railway notices were at that time
served personally on landholders and occupiers by the solicitors of
the companies, at the rate of one guinea for each notice. The
Speaker of the House of Commons (now Lord Eversley) sent his
private secretary, Mr. (now Sir Erskine) May,* to confer with me on
the expediency of having the notices in question served by means of
registered letters. To this there was a very serious obstacle in the
fact of the delivery not extending to every house, so that I had to
devise means by which this difficulty might be overcome. At the
end of four months, however, and in fair time for the notices of the
season, a plan which Mr. May and I jointly concocted having
received the sanction of Government, the proposed regulations were
issued ; the effect being to reduce the expense of serving a notice
from one guinea to sixpence. I had, in due time, the satisfaction to
learn that the plan, as adopted, worked smoothly, though it certainly
appeared that some solicitors were in no selves of the new facility.
special haste to avail them-
"February 2Oth, 1849. Met at my brother Matthew's house, Mr.
Brooks, the Home Missionary at Birmingham, a very intelligent, active
and benevolent man. He tells me that penny postage is producing
excellent effects as regards the poor, inducing large numbers, even
among the adults, to learn to write, and that their correspondence is
increased, he thinks, a hundred-fold. He thinks requiring prepayment
by stamps (the postmasters being obliged to sell even a single stamp)
will not interfere with the correspondence of the poor, who are rather
proud of sticking the Queen's head on their letters."
* "Mr. May is one of the few men I ever met with who, being improvers
themselves, desire the help of other improvers." Sir R. Hill's Journal. July
8th, 1848. ED.