The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-17 00:00:00

SIR ROWLAND HILL.

The following is a copy of a Treasury minute
granting a special superannuation allowanco to Sir
Rowland Hill, K.C.8., Secretary to the General
Post-office :
Treasury Minute, dated March 11, 1861—Read letter
from Sir Rowland Hill, 1i.C.13., dated the 29th of Feb-
ruary, stating that 6 months' absence having elapsed with-
out any satisfactory result as regards the state of his health,
he has now no course left bat resign his appointment as
Secretary to the Post-office. Read also letter from the
Postmaster-General of the instant, stating that Sir
Rowland Hill has, in consequence of the state of his health,
been compelled to retire from the public service, and bear-
ing his testimony to the eminent services which Sir Row-
land Hill has rendered. The retirement of Sir Rowland
Hill from the office of Secretary to the Post-office would, if
treated under the ordinary machinery of the Superannua-
tion Act, afford to my Lords the power of granting him no
more than a pension of £566 13s 4d, or at the utmost £666
13s 4d ; but it supplies, in the judgment of my Lords, an
occasion of peculiar fitness for calling into action the 9th or
special of the Superannuation Act, and thus, by a proceed-
ing which marks their sense of his services, of drawing to
those services the attention of Parliament. The period
during which Sir Rowland II ill has held office, either by
a temporary or by a permanent appointment, is but little in
excess of 20 years; yet my Lords have to regret that while
he remains full as ever of ability, energy, and resources,
and of disposition to expend them for the public good, the
state of his health, due without doubt in great part to his
indefatigable labelers, compels him to solicit a retirement.
It is not, however, by length of service that the merits
and claims of such a man are to be measured. It is not
even by any acknowledgment or reward which the executive
Government, in the exercise of the power confided to it, can
confer. The postal system, one of the most powerful organs
which modern civilization has placed at the command of Go-
vernment, has, mainly under the auspices and by the agency
of Sir Rowland Hill, been, within the last quarter of a
century, not merely improved, but transformed. The letters
transmitted have increased nearly nine-fold, and have been
carried at what may be estimated at little more than one-
ninth of the former charge. In numerous respects conve-
nience has been consulted and provided for even more than
cheapness. Upon the machinery for the transmission of
letters there have been grafted other schemes, which, at a
former period, would justly have been deemed visionary, for
the transmission of books with other printed matter, and of
money, and for receiving and storing the savings of the
people. While those arduous duties have been undertaken,
the condition of the persons employed in this vast depart-
ment has been improved, and could attention be adequately
drawn to what lies beneath the surface, my Lords are per-
suaded that the methods of communication by letter which
are now in action have produced for the mass of the popu-
lation social and moral benefits which might well have thrown
even these brilliant results into the shade. As respects
purely fiscal interests, advantages so great as those which
have been recited were, of course, not to be obtained with-
out some effort or sacrifice, But the receipts on account of
postal service, which on the first adoption of the change were
reduced by above a million sterling, have now more than re •
covered themselves, and if computed on the same basis as
under the old system, the gross sum realised is about
£3,878,000 instead of £2,346,000, and the net about
£1,790,000 in lieuof £1,660,000; at the same time contraband
in letters may be stated to have ceased, and instead of a sta-
tionary revenue, such as was derived from letters between
1815 and 183.5, the State has one which is steadily and even
rapidly progressive. My Lords do not forget that it has been
by the powerful agency of the railway system these results
have been rendered practicable. Neither do they enter into
the question, as foreign to the occasion, what honour may be
due to those who, before the development of the plans of Sir
Rowland llill, urged the adoption of the uniform penny
postage, Nor are they insensible to the fact that the co-opera-
tion of many able public servants has been essential to the
work performed. But after all justice has beendone to others,
Sir Rowland Hill is beyond doubt the person to whom it
was given to surmount every kind of obstacle, and to bring
what had been theretofore matter of speculation into the
world of practice, without whom the country would not
have enjoyed the boon, or would only have enjoyed it at a
later date, and to whom, accordingly, its enjoyment may
justly be deemed due. Nor is it in this country alone that
are to be perceived the happy fruits of his labours ; the
recognition of his plans has spread with a rapidity to be
accounted for only uy their excellence from land to land,
and truly may now be said to have met with acceptance
throughout the civilized world. Under these circumstances
it may justiy be averred that my Lords are dealing on the
present occasion with the case not merely of a meritorious
public servant, but of a benefactor of his race ; and that his
fitting- reward is to be found not in this or that amount of
pension, but in the grateful recollection of his country. But
my Lords discharge the portion of duty which belongs to
them with cordial satisfaction, in awarding to Sir Rowland
Hill for life his full salary of £2,000 per annum. Let a
copy of this minute be laid before Parlia went. Transmit
copy to the Postmaster-General, with a request that it may
be communicated to Sir Rowland Hill.