The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

350 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1855-9
gratuitous assistance given by two foreign Governments in the con-
veyance of a large mail from India, which was on board a ship
belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
bound for Southampton, when, owing to an accident to the ma-
chinery, the vessel became unable to proceed. The casualty
happened near Tunis ; and the Bey gave immediate orders for
a steam-vessel in his own service to be got ready to convey both
the mail and passengers, without cost, to Marseilles, which was
accordingly done ; and from Marseilles the mail was, by the French
Government, forwarded gratuitously to Calais; whereas, under
ordinary circumstances, a mail of the same weight would for this
part of the journey alone have entailed a charge
^800."
of more than
It has been mentioned that our number of letters
in 1857 was more than 500,000,000; the following
passage shows very strikingly that the correspondence
of a country is not always according to its popu-
lation :
"According
to an official return in a recent number of the
'Journal de Saint Petersbourg," giving various Russian postal
statistics for the year 1855, the whole number of letters posted in
Russia was about 16,400,000, or almost exactly the same as the
number posted in the single city of Manchester and its suburbs."*
It will be remembered that one of the changes
made on the establishment of penny postage was the
total abolition of franking, and some account has been
given of the monstrous abuses which existed under
that pernicious system. As germane to the matter,
I quote the following from " "
Hansard the ; passage
being also curious as recording, I believe, the last
attack ever made on penny postage within the walls
of Parliament :
"fune 22nd, 1857.
Government Postage.
11 On the motion that ^88,045 be voted for the postage
of Govern-
ment letters,
" Mr. Bentinck suggested that it would be better to return to the
* "Fourth Annual Report," p. 17.