The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-25 00:00:00

POST-OFFICE REFORM.

The question of the reduc,!on of postage is purely an
administrative question—it is tne upon which both Whigs
and Tories have laboured unremittingly in the same Com-
mittee. There are few who imagined, before Mr. Hill's
pamphlet was published, that the Post-office was any thing
but a well managed machine, aiding and assisting, instead
of retarding, the progress of knowledge, and to a very large
extent, not only retarding, but actually suppressing it.
When Mr. Hill stated to the public that the carriage of
a letter from any post town to any other post town in the
United Kingdom cost but the one thirty-six'h part of a penny,
and that the whole cost of the receipts a.. 4 delivery, added
to the carriage, did not amount to a half-penny, the public
were astonished and incredulous. They could not credit
the calculations till the Postmaster-General, Lord Lichfield,
was examined before the Committee, and a demonstration
obtained from his own mouth of the truth of Mr. Hill's
statement ; and it was shown, that Mr. Hill, who was not
in the Post-office, knew more than they who were, and that
what they both knew, he knew most accurately. Since
then the conviction of Mr. Hill's accuracy has gone on in-
creasing, till at length the Mercantile Committee produced
abundance of evidence, not only of the accuracy of his cal-
culations, but of the certainty of realizing his anticipations

of increase.
Lord Lichfield went before the Committee intending to
refute, but came out of the Committee having confirmed,
all that Mr. Hill had stated upon that subject.
Mr. Hill had estimated the Edinburgh mail to weigh
eight hundred weight ; but since he wrote the Edinburgh
bags have been despatched by the Birmingham railway.
Mr. Hill averaged the unchargeable weights to be about
six-ftld the weight of the chargeable letters. Lord Lich-
field shows the privileged weights to be fourteen times the
weight by that mail, and fifteen times the weight when
averaged with the Louth, a light mail.
This is confirmed by the evidence of Sir Edward Lees,
who states, that the weight of the letters that come from
London to Edinburgh does not exceed 251b5., while the
weight of other incumbrances, distinct from Newspapers,
amount to several hundred weight, including Parliamentary
documents.
Lord Lichfield's evidence shows clearly the extraordi-
nary cheapness of transit ; a fact, which, almost beyond all
other facts brought to view in Mr. Hill's valuable mine of
facts, astonished the public, and which it was very desirable
for Illr. Hill to have confirmed by a Nobleman, who, from
his position, is so important an authority on this subject. A
part of his evidence is worth quoting :
" Mr. Hill calculates the cost for one trip of the Edin-
burgh mail, Si. ; he is right in that calculation, it does cost
51. ; but he divides the whole expense of what is carried by
that mail, and then says that the charge of each letter is
is only about the 36th of ld. ; he reduces it to that after
having calculated it in the first instance, 22-100ths of ld. ;
he then says, by other means which are not exactly stated,
but which he imagines, certain reductions will take place ;
he says by certain arrangements, such as forced* payments,
and getting rid of accounts, the business of receiving, sort-
ing, and delivering letters can be so much facilitated, as to
enable the public to perform four times its present work,
with a slight increase of expenditure. In order to ascer-
tain as nearly as I possibly could what is the real amount of
each letter, I have had one evening's return of the number
of letters conveyed by the Edinburgh mail from London to
Edinburgh ; the weight of the Edinburgh mail upon that
occasion was 4cwt. 2qrs. 231bs. 13oz. In the first place,
Mr. Hill deducts the weight of the sacks ; he has no right
to deduct the weight of the sacks any more than to deduct
any one part of the correspondence which is carried for
nothing, because we pay for the weight they carry, whether
it is sacks or letters ; the sacks and bags weighed lcwt.
°lbs. Boz. ; 2,296 Newspapers, 2cw t. 2qrs. 31bs. Boz. ; two
stamped parcels, lqr. 121bs. ; 484 franks, lqr. 191bs. 150 z..;
1,555 chargeable letters, lqr. 61bs. 14oz. Now, Mr. Hill
defines the natural cost of postage to be that which would be
charged by the Post-office on ordinary commercial principles.
I conceive the meaning of conducting anybusiness on ordinary
commercial principles is this, that supposing, for instance, the
Post-office were not a monopoly of the Government, supposing
it were undertaken bya private individual upon ordinary com-
mercial principles, the person undertaking to convey letters
would expect a remunerating return for his trouble
and his risk ; and, therefore, if he was obliged to carry a
certain portion for nothing, he must make that portion
which he charges for carrying pay for that which goes free.
For instance, suppose he carries a hundred letters, or par-
cels, or Newspapers, and he was to undertake, at all events,
that the Newspapers should go free ; if that was the spe-
culatioe, that Newspapers and franks were to go free, he
must set that against the chargeable correspondence; we
will say it is three-fourths ; I do not say that that is the
amount, but I take that for example. Suppose lie carries
75 of those parcels for nothing, he must naturally expect
the remaining 25 to pay for the 75 and the 25, or he
would very soon become bankrupt ; therefore the charge-
able correspondence must pay for the remainder he carries.
I have in this weight of the Edinburgh mail, which I have
now been describing, to make the 1,555 chargeable letters
account for the Si., which is the cost of the one trip of the
Edinburgh mail. If that is the case, the cost of every
letter, taking them at 1,555, would be, instead of the
thirty-sixth of a penny, id., and one thirty-first part of id ,
hecaose one thirty-sixth of Id. is over the whole of the
correspondence which is carried free ; therefore, that which
fs chargeable must pay for the whole. The fact is, that
one trip of the Edinburgh mail costs Si., that must be
charged against the number of letters which are chargeable,
and that will be found to be id. and one thirty-first part of
nut I cannot consent to the Edinburgh mail being
fair average of the cost of the conveyance of each
taken
letter,
asitv
la tat Mr. Hill calls the transit, The Edinburgh
mail is a loaded mail, and is a mail that is contracmail ted oil
rthat on
exceedingly advantageous terms, because it is a
fills very well, $4. it is maintained at a cheaper rate. I have,
therefore, taken anotheF mail, chiwhi is generally a light
of the Louth mail on
rail, and as is the Louth mai).
ve taken the weight
o:turday, the 3d of March that was,
• His Lordskip, we apprehend, 100 s by this payment
ip
lumina, that is, writing on stamped pspOf PaYelorp.