The History of the Postmarks of the British Isles from 1840 to 1876 - John Hendy (1909)

CHAPTER XV.
IRELAND.
The condition of the population of Ireland in
1840, as given in a report on the prospects
Of railway enterprise in Ireland, is sufficient to make any person wonder at the temerity
of the Government in applying to that country the Uniform Penny Post Act. " In the
north," says Mr. Drummond, the writer of the report, " the population is better clothed
and fed than in the other parts of Ireland, the wages of labour being higher (i/-per day).
In the west and south-west poverty and misery are everywhere noticeable. In the
southern districts we find a population whose condition is in every respect inferior to
'that of the northern, while' the population of the midland (eastern) districts does not
differ materially in condition from those in the south." In another part of the same
report it is stated that " the country is covered with small occupiers, ignorant and uneducated,
whose cabins are wretched hovels, their beds straw." To expect any large
increase of correspondence from such an indigent and wretched population was surely
impossible ;
yet it is perfectly plain from the following return of the postal revenue,
expenditure, and number of letters for the year 1839 and the three subsequent years,
that the increase was approaching threefold. The large falling off in revenue in 1840 is
partly accounted for by the fact that postage stamps were not issued for sale in Ireland,
outside Dublin, until the end of that year or the beginning of 1841.
Year.