Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1897-07-31
OLD POSTAL USAGES.
CURIOUS PHASES OF THE MAIL sERV-
ICE SIXTY YEARS AGO.

tSates on Ordinary Letters tn England
Were Almost PrOhibitive- Adoption Of
the Penny Post and the Queer ArEu-
ments Against 1t
When Queen Victoria assembled the
throne, there were no telegraphs in this
country and few railways The mails
Were forwarded by coach, and the post
age rates We're to all but the we'll to do
probtbitive. II cost from I'D. to Is. Sd.
TO send a single" letter under an
ounce In weight from one part of the
kingdom TO another. There were some
40 charges. varying according TO dis
tance, the average rate being Cd. or
half the days wage Of laborer. A
single" letter meant single piece of
paper (adhesive envelopes had not been
invented), and the addition of a second
scrap OF paper made the letter "dou-
BILE" one. The postage was paid on de-
livery by the recipient. and as no cred
1t was given the incursioD of a postman
into poor neighborhoOd was watched
ON all sides with fear rather than hope.
Coleridge, the poet, saw poor wom-
an declining TO accept a letter ON the
score of inability to pay. The good
natured bard doubtless with some diff
culty) found the required ninepence.
despite the woman's Inconsistencies
When the postman had gone away, she
showed COleridge that the letter was
but blank sheet of paper. Her brother
had arranged to send her at intervals
such Sheet addressed in a certain
fashion, as evidence that all was well
with him, and she as regularly, after
inspecting the address, refused to accent
1t. Some humorist on one occasion sent
ont large numbers of letters, each ON a
she as large a. tablecloth, all Of
which had TO be delivered as "single"
missives
This system practically stified written
intercourse among the working class and
pressed with severity upon the middle
class, but the rich and highly placed
entirely escaped postal taxation. The
privilege of Thanking covered the CORE
spondence not only of ministers, peers
and members OF parliament, but of
their relatives, friends and acquaint-
ances- While in one year early in the
queens reign no less than 7,4OO, GOO
letters were franked, a single London
hrm paid annually ell 200 for postage
and a writer in The Quarterly referred
tiippantly to $50 slight and rare an in
cident In laborer's life as the receipt
OF a letter. F" Among the "packets''
franked was a 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 10, 500, 600 TO
90, 900, 600.
Moved by this state of things, parlia-
ment in 1889 adopted Rowland Hills
proposal Of uniform inland penny post
age, which came into operation on Jan.
10, 1910. The writer possesses a CODY of
The Quarterly Review Of 1889, in which
a contributor believed to be Croker)
hercely denonnces the scheme. "Will
clerks, he says, write only to their
fathers and girls to their mothers? Will
not letters Of romance or love, intrigue
or mischief, increase in at least equal
proportions? We doubt whether social
and domestic correspondence will be
more than doubled. A gigantic exem-
pliication Of the old proverb-Penny
wise and pound foolish" etc.
Macaulay says that the penny post,
when first established, was the object
Of violent inyeotive, as a manifest con-
trivance of the pope TO enslave the souls
Of Englishmen. 1t was described as
"sedition made easy" The postal au-
thorities, who is 1884 had opposed the
institution of mail coaches were i'm
placable enemies of penny postage. The
postmaster general of 1899, Lord Lich
field, based his objections on the curl
Gus ground that the building at st. Mar
tin 's-le-Grand would not be large
enough. The secretary, Colonel Maber-
". constantly repeated, "This plan we
know will fail. !"
AS we know. 1t succeeded, and tho
penny rate has been generally adopted
In Europe as well as in the United
States The number of letters rose from
so, 900, 600 IN 1897 to 29e, 0OO, 900 in
lS47, and for the year ending on March
81. 1897. about 1900, 600, 600. The
postal surplus was In 1889 eI, $50. $40
and in 1867 So, $50, 1873. The number
OF letters. which was in 1887 about 8 |
per head and in 1854 IS per head, is
now ~ per head.-Fortnightl Review.