The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1890-02-28
PENNY POSTAGE.
Wonderful Changes That Have Taken Placo
in the Past Fifty Years

"uAaieilu1 IHAElEe8 1haE ltAvc Taken IlAC0
in the Past Fifty Years.
On Friday, Jan. 10, 1910, there came into
operation in this country one of those great
measures Of social reform which may be said
to constitute the landmarks Of nations prog
ress-the uniform penny postage system.
This measure. originating with private iu-
diridual who, up to the age Of 81, had been
schoolnnster, and who was wholly uncon-
nected either with the postot1ice or the gov
ernment, has, in the last half century, revo-
lutloniZed the postal service of the world, and
made the name Of its author--the late Sir
Rowland Hll-n household word in every
civilized country.
10 tile present generation the old postal
system, which was swept away by Rowland
Hills reform, is now g, Inch u matter of
ancient history, and Of history but little
studied, that probably very few have any
conception Of the state Of affairs which cx-
listed in this country at date no further re-
moved than the early years of her majesty's
reign
Up to 1s40 the postoffice, SO far as the poor
and the lower middle class was concerned
may be said to have been almost non-exist-
ent. The rates charged on letters were iu
these days so exorbitant, especially when
compared with the scanty wages then obtain
able, that correspondence was d luxury far
too costly FOR all but the well to do. Even
in the upper middle classes the cost Of postage
was a heavy item Of household expenditure
only to be incurred after much careful con
sderaton; but the vast multitude of the
lower orders were practically excluded from
all use Of the postoflicc When once their
families parted off from bone it was a sepa-
ration almost like that Of death The hun
dreds of thousands of apprentices, Of shop
men, OF goyernesses, Of domestic servants
were cut Oft from family relations as if seas
or deserts lay between them and home
Except i'll the local town deliveries-tech-
nicully known as ''penny postsn-the lowest
charge on any letter was four pence, but that
only sutiiced for q distance Of fifteen miles:
beyond that radius the rates of postage rap
idly increased With the distance the letter had
to be conveyed, till letters from London to
Liverpool or Manchester were charged eleven
pence, those to Edinburgh Glasgow one
shilling four and oIc-balf pence, and to Cork
or Londonderry, one shilling five pence, and
even these cxorbitant rates were at once
doubled or trebled if the letter, however light,
contained one or more Enclosures, or consisted
Of Two Or three pieces Of paper. Thus letter
consisting OF sheet of paper and u check,
With an envelope to inciose them, which NOW
goes from London TO Cork for one penny,
would, prior to $40 have been treated as a
treble letter, and charged four shillings and
three pence, more than fifty fold the pres
ant rate
Letters i'll those days were almost always
sent Unpaid, and were in many cases refused
by the persons to whom they were addressed,
especially by those Of the poorer classes, SO
that the postofice constantly overshot its
mark in its endeayor to make great profit,
und had to carry the letter from the writer
tt,n a. al 1,ft6 :,