Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-09-03
WHOLE NUMBER 1866.
OLD POSTAL USAGES.
CURIOUS PHASES OF THE MAIL
SERVICE SIXTY YEARS AGO.

Rates ON Ordinary Letters in Eng
land Were Almost Prohibitlve-I
Adoption Of the Penny Post aud
the Queer Arguments Against 1t.
Fortnightly Review.
Wheen Queen Victoria ascended the |
throne, there were no telegraphs in
this country and few railways. The
mails were forwarded by coach, and |
the postage rates were to all but the
well-to-do prohibitive. 1t cost from
4d. to Is. Sd. to send " single" letter
under an ounce in weight from one
part of the kingdom to another. There
were some 40 charges, varying accord
ing to distance, the average rate being
3d., or half the days wage of a laborer.
A "single" letter meant a single piece
of paper adhesive envelopes had not
been invented) and the addition Of a
second scrap of paper made the letter
"double" one. The postage was
paid on delivery by the recipient, and
as no credit was given, the incursion
OF q postman into poor neighborhood
was watched on all sides with fear.
rather than hope.
Coleridge, the poet, saw poor wo-
man declining to accept letter on
the score of inability to pay. The
good-natured bard doubtless with
some difficulty found the required
ninepence, despite the woman's re-
monstrances. When the postman had
gone away, she showed Coleridge that
the letter was but a blank sheet of
paper. Her brother had arranged to
send her at intervals such sheet, ad-
dressed in certain fashion, as evidence
that all was we'll with him, and she
as regularly, after inspecting the ad-
dress, refused to accept it. Some
humorist on one occasion sent out
large numbers of letters, each on a
sheet as large as tablecloth, all of
which had to be delivered as single"
missives.
This system practically stifled
written intercourse among the work
ing class and pressed with severity
upon the middle class, but the rich
and highly placed entirely escaped
postal taxation. The privilege of
franking covered the correspondence
not only of ministers, peers and men,
bers of parliament, but of their rela-
tives, friends and acquaintances.
While in one year early in the queens
reign no less than 100000 letters
were franked, single London firm
paid annually s11,OO0 for postage and
a writer in The Quarterly referred
fippantly to $50 slight and rare an
incident in q laborer's life as the
receipt of q letter" Among the
"packets" franked was grand piano.
An army of clerks was employed to
fix the charges to be collected, and
the postal revenue remained stationary
between 1915 and 1885, although in the
same period the population increased
from Is, SOC, 900 to 25,6OO,O0O.
Moved by this state Of things, parlia-
ment in 1889 adopted Rowland Hills
proposal OF uniform inland penny
postage, which came into operation
on Jan. 10, 1S4O. The writer possesses
copy of The Quarterly Review of
1889, in which contributor (believed
to be Croker) fiercely denounces the
scheme, "Will clerks" he says,
"write only to their mothers? Will
not letters of romance or love, intrigue
or mischief, increase in at least equal
proportions9 We doubt whether
social and domestic correspondence
will be more than doubled. A gigantic
exemplifcation of the old proverb-
Penny wise and pound foolish" etc.
Macaulay says that the penny post,
when first established, was the object
of violent invective, as q manifest con-
trivance of the Pope to enslave the
souls of Englishmen. 1t was described
as " sedition made easy" The postal
authorities, who in 1854 had opposed
the institution of mail coaches, were
implacable enemies of penny postage.
The Postmaster General of 1889, Lord
Lich6eld, based his objections on the
curious ground that the building at
St. Martin's-le-G Grand would not be
large enough. The Secretary. Colonel
Maberly, constantly repeated, "This
plan we know will fail"
As we know, it succeeded, and the
penny rate has been generally adopted
in Europe as we'll as in the United
States. The number of letters rose
from $4,000 600 in 1887 to 299, 100000
in 1S47, and for the year ending on
March 81, 1897, about 1000, 600, 600.
The postal surplus was in 1889 f1,-
659,51O and in 1867 E3,632, ,133
The number of letters, which was in
1887 about per head and in 1854 10
per head, is now II per head.
| WHICH is worse, imprisonment fol
life or lifelong disease, like scrofula