The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

470
APPENDIX I.
in each case by the amount of ocean postage received,"* the following
is the rule observed :
Whenever the amount of ocean postage is below the cost of the
line of packets by which the service is performed, the Post Office
debits itself, for packet service, with a charge just equal to the ocean
postage received. In the only two lines of packets (viz., those
between England and France, and England and Belgium), in which
the ocean postage exceeds the cost, the department debits itself with
the whole expense of the packet service.
Whatever may be thought of this arrangement, it will scarcely be
maintained that it is too favourable to the Post Office, which, save in
respect of the two packet services just mentioned (which now jointly
yield a surplus of about ^5 6,000 per annum), is debited with an
amount equal to its whole receipts (viz., ^470,000), without even
any allowance for the expense it incurs in that portion
packet administration which is necessarily
of the
carried on within the
department.
The Eighth Annual Report of the Postmaster-General f contains an
estimate of the net revenue of the Post Office for the year 1861,
prepared on the principles laid down in the foregoing remarks, but
including some less important adjustments shown in the document
itself.
The net revenue thus determined is ^1,161,985, the whole, save
the ^56,000 mentioned above, and about ^30,000 derived from
money-order transactions, being the produce of inland postage, which
thus yields a net revenue of about ^1,076,000.
Second. I now proceed to consider the question of net revenue
as to its comparative amount, when contrasted with the net revenue
obtained before the establishment of Penny Postage, the object being
to ascertain the loss consequent on the reduction of the rate. When
proposing Penny Postage, I estimated this loss (under different cir-
cumstances, however,) at about ^300,000.!
The amount of net revenue in the year 1838, the last year
throughout which the old rates were maintained, was, according to
the mode of account then in use, 1, 659,5 IO - For the purpose of
comparison,
it is obvious that a similar mode of account must be
applied to the present state of things.
Bearing this in mind, we have now once more to consider the two
* Letter to Postmaster-General, loth January, 1860. f Pp- 20-22.
I " Second Report of Select Committee on Postage (1843)," question 11,070.
"Eighth Report of Postmaster-General," p. 31.