The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

348 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-9
offer, is the last communication I ever received on
the subject.
The course actually taken, viz., that of abolishing
the limitation on weight and halving the postage, with
no arrangement for economy in operation and no set-off,
save what is implied in the abolition of the impressed
stamp (in itself an important advantage, I acknowledge
one, indeed, for which I had often striven), largely
increases a loss already great, and, what is still worse,
greatly strengthens an example already mischievous.
Its ultimate consequences it is impossible to predict.
Demand has already arisen for the conveyance of
other printed matter at the same rate, a demand
which can plead in its support that such matter
may, by existing rules, be detained to suit the
convenience of the office, while newspapers
of course, be forwarded at once. In short,
must,
I am
which it
myself quite unacquainted with any logic by
can be maintained that while a newspaper weighing
six or eight ounces is conveyed for a halfpenny, a
letter weighing but half an ounce should be chargeable
with a penny, or, in other words, why the lightest
letter should be charged twice as much as the heaviest
newspaper.
On a careful comparison of the two plans, I cannot
but think that mine would have proved not only better
for the Post Office, but also more acceptable to the
publishers and newsvenders, because, while the cost of
transmission would have been practically the same,
they could have been saved the great trouble of
folding, covering, and addressing each separate copy ;
processes necessarily performed at a time when every
minute is of great
value. I may add that, as my
plan is, in its essential features, independent of rates
of it postage, may still be adopted without interfering