The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

I849-5 1 ] FOREIGN AND COLONIAL EXTENSION. l8/
The following shows that, six months later, blundering remained
unabated :
"January 2jrd, 1851. A balanced account of revenue for the
quarter ending loth October last has been sent to me containing a
gross error ; an advance from the English to the Irish Office being
so managed as apparently
United Kingdom by ^40,000 !
to increase
"
the balance in hand for the
"January 2$th. The Accountant General persists in it that his
account is correct. (I wish it were ; a means would then have been
devised by which we might readily increase the balance in hand to
any extent.) He will, however, alter '
'
it, if I desire it !
as though
it could be a matter of choice whether the balance can be increased
by ^40,000 or not."
FOREIGN AND COLONIAL EXTENSION.
United States.
While my attention was, of course, mainly absorbed in the im-
provement of our own postal system, I was always glad
to hear of
corresponding progress abroad, whether in the colonies or in foreign
countries.
"January 8th, 1849. Some one has sent me, from New York, a
copy of the American Postmaster-General's Annual Report. Their
reduction to two rates at Midsummer, 1845, nas been very suc-
cessful. Previously to that time the Post Office did not pay its
expenses, and the distribution was curtailed from year to year in a
vain attempt to make it pay. Now with extended distribution and
reduced rates (on the average about half the preceding rates) the
Post Office has a surplus income. The Postmaster-General recommends
making the lower rate (5 cents = 2~ L
/t,d.} general, and
requiring prepayment. This is the more satisfactory as he opposed
the reduction in 1845."
In short, Congress was so well satisfied with the result of its
previous reductions, that, early in the year 1851, it changed what
had been its minimum rate, viz., twopence-halfpenny, into its
maximum, establishing a three-halfpenny rate for distances under
three thousand miles.*
India.
"December 2ist, 1849. Mr. Porter (Secretary to the Board of
Trade) called with a letter which he had received from Lord
* In effect California was the only State not reached at the lower rate.