The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

26O LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1851-4
weekly through London ; and on Monday morning
last Bokenham
tells me that the number of letters which passed through his office
was greater than in any previous Monday by 40,000.
"January yth, 1855. The number of letters delivered in the
United Kingdom last year was 443^ millions, showing an increase
on 1853 of 32^ millions; the largest increase since 1840, the first
year of the reduced rates. This great increase is, I think, mainly
owing to the extension of rural distribution. In the course of the
year, I believe, we have opened more than five hundred offices."
This large increase of correspondence by the admission of the
rural districts to the postal system reminded me of a remark which
I had heard from my father many years before, viz., that the result
of the first census, while it disappointed expectation as to the
population of the towns, exceeded it as to that of the whole
country; the rural districts proving
had been supposed.
Occasional Pressure.
to be better inhabited than
The following entry gives a specimen of the remarkable contingencies
to which the Post Office was then liable, and for which
therefore it had always to stand prepared. By improved arrangements
the difficulty has in great measure been obviated.
"July 4th, 1833.
was three-quarters of an hour late ;
On Saturday the despatch of the night mails
this was caused by the arrival in
the course of the day of heavy mails from the following places, viz.,
the United States, the West Indies, the East Indies, Australia m'd
Singapore, and Australia vt'd the Cape. The total number of letters,
including inland, which reached the General Post Office that day,
was 458,000, of which 212,000 (chiefly Foreign and Colonial) were
unpaid. It was with the greatest difficulty that the work was got
through at all"
Increased Honesty.
I need not say that I made the following record with great
satisfaction :
"July 8lh, 1853. A recent return to Parliament of the number
and cost of prosecutions [for Post Office offences] from 1848 to 1852
inclusive shows an enormous decrease, nearly, I think, in the ratio of
three to one ; this very satisfactory result is, I believe, mainly owing
to the improved arrangements in the Money Order Office."