The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

3Q2 LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL. [1864
than one-ninth of the former charge. In numerous respects con-
venience has been consulted and provided for even more than
cheapness.
" Upon the machinery for the transmission of letters there have
been grafted other schemes, which, at a former period, would justly
have been deemed visionary, for the transmission of books with
other printed matter, and of money, and for receiving and storing
the savings of the people.
" While these arduous duties have been undertaken, the condition
of the persons employed in this vast department has been improved,
and, could attention be adequately drawn to what lies beneath the
surface, my Lords are persuaded that the methods of communication
by letter which are now in action have produced for the mass of the
population social and moral benefits which might well have thrown
even these brilliant results into the shade.
" As respects purely fiscal interests, advantages so great as those
which have been recited were, of course, not to be obtained without
some effort or sacrifice. But the receipts on account of postal
service, which on the first adoption of the change were reduced by
above a million sterling, have now more than recovered themselves ;
and if computed on the same basis as under the old system, the
gross sum realised is about ,3,870,000 instead of ^2,346,000, and
the net about ^1,790,000 in lieu of ^1,660,000; at the same time
contraband in letters may be stated to have ceased, and instead of
a stationary revenue, such as that derived from letters between 1815
and 1835, tne State has one which is steadily and even rapidly
progressive.
" My Lords do not forget that it has been by the powerful agency
of the railway system that these results have been rendered practicable.
Neither do they enter into the question, as foreign to the
occasion, what honour may be due to those who, before the development
of the plans of Sir Rowland Hill, urged the adoption of the
uniform penny postage.* Nor are they insensible to the fact that
the co-operation of many able public servants has been essential to
the work performed. But after all justice has been done to others,
Sir Rowland Hill is beyond doubt the person to whom it was given
to surmount every kind of obstacle, and to bring what had been
theretofore matter of speculation into the world of practice, without
whom the country would not have enjoyed the boon, or would only
have it enjoyed at a later date, and to whom, accordingly, its enjoyment
may justly be deemed due.
* See in correction of this mistake, p. 393 and Appendix N.