Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1897-04-17
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HISTORY OF POSTAL STAMPS.

HISTORY Of POSTAL STAMPS.
In 1887, Mr.. Rowland Hill first pro.
posed cheap postage. After two years
hard struggle with the government
and with parliament, he succeeded in
getting the penny postal system car.
ried into the statute book in 1889. In
December, in that year, uniform
charge of eight cents for every half
ounce conveyed in the mails was in
stituted. On January 10, 1S40, a uni
form rate of two cents per half-ounce
permanently came into operation. In
1s47, this postal reform was adopted
by the United-States, and every civil
lied country has followed suit. There
are now thousands of postal stamps in
various parts of the world.
Mr.. Hill was rewarded by life pen.
sion of $4,000 year, parliamentary
grant of 100000, and about the same
amount by a general subscription
throughout the Britbish islands.
His purpose from the first was to re-
form the general postoffice system and
management, and also to institute q
uniform and low rate of postage, with
prepayment, and moderate charge by
weight. The prepayment was to be
either by stamped envelopes, or by
adhesive stamps.
This was by no means an original
creation, thus realizing the truth oi
the old adage that "There is nothing
new under the sum-" After Mr.. Hill
bad suggested the great postoffice re.
form, to be effected by low and
Uniform charge for the transmission OF
letters and newspapers through the
mails, but before the project had passed
into law, it was claimed, in a pam
phlet, written by one of the officers oi
the postal department in Paris, that
the proposed payment, by means ol
penny stamps affixed to postal matter,
was a mere reproduction, in essential
points, of plan which had been adopt
ed and acted upon, in France, in the
reign of Louis XIV.
At that time and place, NJ. De We.
layer, who had friends in the royal
household, was permitted to establish
a pennypost, through which envelopes
obtainable for one cent each, were de.
livered, according to their addresses
in town or country, if postpaid :
printed slips were tied or fastened
around them.
These slips were on sale at the kings
palace, and the turntables of the prin'
cipal converts, and by the porters o.
colleges.
The practice was to drop all letters
thus franked into locked boxes, placed
at the corners of the principal streets
in Paris.
The postal street-pillars, which were
not adopted until 1855, would appear
to have been, whether designedly OF
not, a reproduction of what was in use
in Paris two centuries earlier.
II. De Velayer also introduced a
species of letter paper, for the use OF
persons in business, partly printed,
with blanks for the insertion of figures,
to show the days prices, with blank
space below for ordinary correspon-
dence.
In the general postoffice, in Paris,
one of these billets, so filled up by Pc
lisson- -Fontanier, the historian, and ad'
dressed to Mademoiselle Scudery, the
romancist, has been carefully pre-
served, and is sometimes shown, by
special favor, to curious inquirers.
This is presumably the Oldest of all
existing penny-post letters and prepaid
envelopes.
With De Velayer's death his postal
service ended. Nearly century later
Tin 1852 M. De Chamouset, rich
Partisan, re-established It, selling two
cent stamps, much resembling those
the present day, for the free delivery,
in Paris, of letters under two ounces
in weight.
That was in the reign of Louis XIV,
whose minister of finance, regarding
such an establishment as a source OF
public revenue, bought it up by grant
ing considerable pension to its pro:
prietor.
In the hands of the government,
however, letter-stamps soon fell into
disuse.
The next country to issue postal
stamps was Spain. From 1716 to 1900
they were used-exclusively, however,
upon official letters. In the kingdom
of Sardinia, stamped postal paper and
envelopes were in use from 1878 to
1886.
For a few months, what were known
as "the Mulready envelopes" because
their somewhat pictorial design had
been drawn by Mr.. w. Mulready, an
eminent artist, had to be generally
used by the British public; but as
they were expensively gotten up, on
fine paper, for which a slight extra
charge had to be made, there was a
good deal of grumbling-the com.
plant being that, from this fractional
addition to the price, this was not "the
penny postage" that had been promised
to the public. So the pictorial en-
velope was soon superseded by the
small adhesive stamps, still in use.
1t was said, when this envelope was
icsnod that Oueen Victoria had her.