THE POST OFFICE OF FIFTY YEARS AGO.
time, seems to most persons so completely in accordance with the fitness of things, that it may appear strange when we state that in 1837 it was so startling an innovation that, when publishing his pamphlet, Sir Rowland Hill thought it prudent to reject a suggestion to entitle it "Uniform Penny Postage," fearing lest the mere title should cause people to throw away the pamphlet unread, as something too ridiculous to deserve perusal. He, therefore, adopted the more modest heading of "Post Office Reform—Its Importance and Practicability," and it was not until the reader had been carefully led, step by step, to the point where no other conclusion would have been logical, that uniformity of postage was suggested.
So difficult, indeed, at that time, was it to convince even intelligent people that this was the true principle, that even after the pamphlet had been widely circulated, and a Parliamentary Committee had heard all the evidence in its favour, the adoption of uniformity of charge was only carried in Committee by the casting-vote of the chairman.
The difficulty the Committee had may perhaps be best understood by the present generation, if they bear in mind that Sir Rowland Hill's proposition to charge letters going long distances no more than those posted and delivered in the same town, was at least as great a departure from what was then believed to be the natural and proper arrangement, as a proposition would be now-a-days, to adopt the lowest railway passenger fare as a uniform charge for all distances.
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