THE POST OFFICE OF FIFTY YEARS AGO.
post anywhere within the United Kingdom for one halfpenny—i.e., for half the price then paid for the minimum stamp duty alone.
There was no "Book Post" in those days, printed matter, such as trade circulars, being charged the same as letters; and those persons who now declare it a "postal scandal" that they should be charged so extravagant a rate as one half-penny for the collection, conveyance, and delivery of two ounces of trade circulars sent from one end of the United Kingdom to the other—say from London to Cork or Londonderry—may find it profitable to reflect that the charge in 1837 for the same service would have been, in the instance we have given, nearly 240 times as much!—that is to say, somewhat distorting the meaning of the old proverb, they are now only "in for a penny" where formerly they would have been "in for a pound."
As an instance of the extraordinary charges sometimes made under the old system, we may mention that in 1839 Sir John Burgoyne wrote to complain that, for a packet of papers sent to him at Dublin, which had been forwarded from some other part of Ireland by mail-coach, as a letter, instead of a parcel, he had been charged a postage of £11. That is to say, for a packet which he could easily have carried in his pocket, he was charged a sum for which he could have engaged the whole mail-coach—i.e., places for four inside and three outside passengers, with their portmanteaus, carpet bags, &c.
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