The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

368 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1860-3
practice of sending coin in unregistered letters, though
diminished, was by no means extinct ; so that losses
were still reported ; and, what was far worse, sorters
and letter-carriers were exposed to needless temptation,
and individuals of their number occasionally subjected
to undue suspicion. It was consequently resolved,
with the sanction of the Treasury, to make the registration
of coin-bearing letters compulsory ; a double
fee being charged where the duty was omitted by the
sender ; while, to give a compensatory advantage, the
registration fee was reduced from sixpence to fourpence.
Even with this mitigation, however, there was con-
siderable anxiety in the Department as to the light in
w rhich compulsory registration would be viewed by the
public; but Lord Stanley of Alderley,
then Postmaster-
General, being anything rather than deficient in courage,
readily encountered the risk, and the result justified his
boldness ; the speedy consequence being a large in-
crease in the number of registered letters, and a
very great decrease in the number of alleged losses.
It may be added that the near approach to absolute
security obtained by registration was shown by the fact
that out of about nine hundred thousand registered letters
posted in the United Kingdom, whether for delivery at
home or abroad, during the latter half of 1862, the
whole number lost was only twelve.*
PATTERN POST,
In the last year of this period the pattern post was
established. This was done at the express desire of
the Postmaster-General. My own wish was to make
it part of that more extensive arrangement which I
* "Ninth Annual Report," p. 10.