The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

APPENDIX M. 485
And here it may be observed, that forty years ago our own
journals, though laden with heavy duties, viz., the stamp duty and
those on advertisements and paper, were constantly spoken of as
carried free. An anomaly the more remarkable because if addressed
anywhere beyond the narrow limits of what was termed the " free
delivery," every newspaper bore a postal charge. It scarcely need
be said that to the "freedom" of those earlier days, no one, least
of all the applicants in this case, would wish to return.*
to
It must, therefore, be inquired as respect the countries referred
i st. Whether the postage be in addition to a stamp duty.
2nd. Whether the post office undertakes house-to-house delivery,
and that free of charge.
3rd. What are the restrictions as to weight, as to writing or other
marks, and as to time and place of posting. Whether, in short, the
cheap transmission be not made under be tolerated here.
regulations which would not
4th. Whether the governments concerned have not either the
free use of the railways for the conveyance of mails, or at least
their use on very much lower terms than are conceded here.
5th. Whether lowness of postage on printed matter be not obtained
at the cost of high postage on letters.
6th. What in the countries referred to is the fiscal result of the
postal system ? whether, as here, the production of a large net
revenue (whose diminution would have to be made good by some
weight ; or again, under the impressed stamp, the power of repeated retransmission.
But, above all, the right to resort to other and cheaper means of con-
veyance, a right barred in North Germany by postal monopoly. In short, all
things considered, there can scarcely be a doubt, that even before the reductions
of 1870, our much depreciated newspaper arrangements were more favourable,
alike to publishers and the public, than those of North Germany, which are held
up as our example. Further, that the North German Post Office, instead of
having to pay, like the British Post Office, ,600,000 a year for the railway
conveyance of its mails, has the use of all railways without subjecting itself to any
charge whatever, though its operations include parcels up to the individual weight
of twenty pounds ; lastly, that with all these advantages, and with a higher
postage rate on the prevailing class of letters, the North German Post Office,
though serving a population about equal to our own, yields in annual net revenue
only about .60,000, while the British Post Office, with* all its burdens and its
lower rate of postage, yields, even if debited with the whole expense of the mail
packet service, more than .1,400,000, of course relieving taxpayers to that extent.
Vide Fifteenth Report of the Postmaster-General the latest issued p. 14).
* Full information of this subject may be found in a minute of mine dated
1 3th July, 1858, and included in a Parliamentary Return, No. 302, 1860.