gious, from clergymen of the Established Church, from all classes of Protestant dissenters, from the clergymen of Scotland, from the commercial and trading communities in all parts of the kingdom."p. 1361.

He supports that part of his plan which abolishes the parliamentary franking privilege, thus:

"Undoubtedly, we may lose the opportunity now and then, of obliging a friend; but on other grounds, I believe there is no member of the House who will not be ready to abandon the privilege. As to any notion that honorable gentlemen should retain their privilege under a penny postage, they must have a more intense appreciation of the value of money, and a greater disregard for the value of time, than I can conceive, if they insist on it. As to official franking, my idea is, that with some few exceptions, which may be considered hereafter, the business of the various departments ought to be conducted on the principle that euch shall pay its own postage. I am aware that it may be said, this will practically amount to taking money out of one pocket and putting it into another; but I think it will tend greatly to diminish the amount of postage paid in these offices, if each is called upon to include that postage in its own contingencies."-p. 1365.

Can there be any doubt that, when this same question shall be fairly up and understood, equal magnanimity will be found among American legislators?

Mr. Goulburn, [then a leader of the opposition,] dissented entirely from the financial views of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He thought it irregular to propose a measure involving a reduction of revenue, without at the same time proposing a method to make good that deficiency. He would tell the right honorable gentleman what would be the result. At the end of the session, he would put his machinery in motion; letters would pay the penny postage, and at the end of the year, there would be a deficiency of from £500,000 to £1,000,000, which Parliament would be called upon to supply. p. 1374.

But on the subject of the postage itself, and the system that ought to be adopted, he concurred very much

with what had been said. He ad. mitted, with the right honorable gentleman, that under the circumstances, the placing in hazard a revenue of £1,500,000 was no trifling consideration. Though it was connected with the prospect of ultimately increasing the wealth and prosperity of the country, yet this was a certain revenue, free from doubt and fluctuation, and yielded an annual sum of £1,500,000. If the right honorable gentleman had had the surplus revenue which he recommended, he should have concurred in the propriety of an immediate change in this department, and after reading the report which the committee had made to the House, he would be disposed to say, if the experiment be made at all, it would be wise to make it to the extent which the right honorable gentleman proposed, and not to adopt the sugges tion of the committee. After reading the evidence, he admitted that it was with no little surprise he found the committee proposing a postage of two pence instead of one penny; for the whole evidence went to show, that a postage of two pence would fail, but a penny might succeed. He would not say, after all that had been stated in the evidence, that the public would be disappointed in its expectations; but he felt assured that there was a better chance of success by the one penny postage, than by adopting the report of the committee."-p. 1373.

This was a voice from what was then the opposition side of the House. Other gentlemen expressed a more sanguine belief that the proposed reduction of postage would not be attended with a loss of revenue.

Mr. Hume said, there was no instance in which postage had been reduced, in which there had not been an increase of postage. When, too, he saw that from 15,000 to 20,000 letters were sent every day by members of both houses of parliament, he was sure that such let

ters being charged in future, must help much to make up the deficiency which was expected to take place. He calculated that there would be a deficiency the first year; he believed there would be a deficiency the second year; but when the system came fairly into operation, towards the end of the second year, he did not believe the deficiency would be greater than what Mr. Hill had estimated it at, [£300,000 to £500,000.]-p. 1376.

Mr. Wallace, who was chairman of the committee on postage, declared that his conviction was, that although there might be a defalcation to the amount of £500,000 or £600,000 in the first year, including the expense of setting the machinery going, still he believed, that from the increase in the number of letters, and the universal use of the Post Office instead of its abuse, the revenue in the course of another year would be equal to its present amount. It was his confident anticipation and hope, that in three years the defalcation of the first year would be made up.-p. 1384.

He submitted that as England had the honor of this invention, which had undoubtedly been first brought before the public by Mr. Hill, that it would be exceedingly blameworthy in this country, for the sake of a loss of £500,000, which would be paid back in two or three years, if they were to lose the honor of being the first to execute a plan which was essentially necessary to the comforts of the human race. p. 1384.

He calls it one of the greatest boons that could be conferred on the human race; and adverted to the progress of the question since it had been brought before the public. It was not till the commencement of the last year, [1838,] that Mr. Hill's plan became known to the country. From the first, he saw that it was a proposal that deserved the utmost consideration, and he was convinced that inquiry would prove its worth.

What was the effect produced? In 1838, there were 320 petitions presented in favor of the measure, many of them from large towns and from chambers of commerce. In the present session, not less than 1,800 petitions had been presented, showing an increase of more than five-fold. This was one proof of the interest taken by the public in this matter, but there was another proof. The first report of the select committee was published about Easter, and in less than two months that report was out of print, and no copies were now to be had to sup ply the wants of those foreign countries who were desirous of availing themselves of its contents. This showed the anxiety of the public on the subject.-p. 1387.

When a great commercial capital like London came forward, as it had done by constituting a postage committee, to endeavor to stir up the feelings of their countrymen in the remotest parts of the kingdom, it was no wonder that the sympathies of the whole nation were brought out to ask this boon.-p. 1383.

He begged permission to express his warm approbation of the plan of Mr. Hill, and to state that Mr. Hill was a man of a most honest and generous mind; that his sole object was to investigate the truth, and that for his indefatigable labors in bringing the intrinsic merits of his plan before the public, he was entitled to the lasting and grateful thanks of his country.—p. 1387.

Sir Robert Peel, then in the opposition, objected strongly to the financial plans, and especially to the proposed pledge, for its indefiniteness, &c. On the postage question, he was cautious in his expressions. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had said that the highest authorities of the country were in favor of this plan. But Sir Robert thought that a more decided condemnation of the plan he had never heard, than that which had been given by the Secre

tary of the Post-office. Whether that opinion was well or ill founded he would not say, but this was the evidence of Colonel Maberly, the Secretary of the Post-office :

"He considered the whole scheme of Mr. Hill as utterly fallacious; he thought so from the first moment he read the pamphlet of Mr. Hill; and his opinion of the plan was formed long before the evidence was given before the committee. The plan appeared to him a most preposterous one, utterly unsupported by facts, and resting entirely on assumption. Every experiment in the way of reduction of postage which had been made by the postoffice, had shown its fallacy; for every reduction whatever led to a loss of revenue in the first instance. If the reduction be small, the revenue recovers itself; but if the rates are to be reduced to Id., the revenue would not recover itself for forty or fifty years."

He begged it should be distinctly understood, that he did not wish to say one word in disparagement of the plan of Mr. Hill. [The Chancellor of the Exchequer, hear.] He understood what that cheer meant from the right honorable gentleman -to infer that he was deterred from expressing an opinion against the plan by a fear of forfeiting popularity. The reason was, that he did not feel himself called upon to enter upon details. If he wanted popularity, he would at once give way to the feeling in favor of the moral and social advantages which had already been alluded to, the great stimulus it would afford to the industry and commercial enterprise of the nation, and the boon it was described as presenting to the lower classes. p. 1394.

Mr. Warburton referred to the fact that for twenty years the postoffice revenue had continued stationary, and said the time was surely come for making a reform in the groundwork of this decayed branch of the public establishments. The tax on the transmission of each letter was as high as 1,000 or 1,400 per cent.; the actual cost was about d., and the charge on an average was 74d. on single letters.

He

would now read the opinion of a merchant-a gentleman extensively engaged in mercantile pursuitswho had given to the public works of great importance and utility, and which had received just attention and admiration. He alluded to the evidence given before the select committee by Mr. Cobden, of Manchester, on the question, what he thought of the manner in which the post-office was conducted:

"That it is a total failure as a great commercial establishment-if I might so term it is proved unquestionably to the whole community, by the fact of its being stationary in the amount of its profits and returns; we consider that the mode of conducting it has proved it to be a failure -commercially speaking-the greatest failure in the country."-p. 1398.

He explained the report of the select committee. It was true they had reported in favor of a uniform rate of two pence, but it was proper to state that they had done so only on the principle that a uniform rate of two pence was better than no uniform rate at all. He had at first proposed to the committee to recommend a uniform rate of one penny, and he had acquiesced in the report, upon the ground that the facts and arguments would be equally and indeed more applicable to a lower rate.-p. 1400.

He maintained that twelve months would not be a fair trial of the plan. Look at the advertisement duty. It was reduced from 3s. 6d. to ls. 6d., having been retrograding for three years previously; yet the revenue arising from the advertisement duty was now 75 per cent. of what it was before the reduction, and was advancing at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum; so that in three years from the time of making the reduction, the revenue would amount to as much as before. p. 1403.

Mr. O'Connell heartily supported the reduction, in both its branches. That part of it which altered the postage to a penny on each letter, he thought would be one of the most

valuable legislative reliefs that had ever been given to the people of this country since he had a seat in Parliament. It was impossible to exaggerate its importance. It would be of immense importance to his own countrymen. All parties in Ireland were agreed upon the propriety and necessity of it.-p. 1408. Could any man consider the ques. tion, and not agree with him, that all the government should have required was to be indemnified against the expense of the post-office? Nay, if the postage on letters was not sufficient for that, government ought to make a sacrifice for the purpose of facilitating communication.-p. 1409.

He wished honorable members would look at the effect of railroads. Upon the only railroad in Ireland, a reduction of 1d. in 9d. had increased the number of passengers going by the carriages 27 per cent. in four months, and in that way of looking at it, in all probability in a very short time any immediate decrease would be fully made up. Who could estimate the immense increased quantity of letters that would be written in consequence of this reduction? He thought the probability was, that instead of the revenue being diminished, it would be considerably increased.-p. 1410.

The preliminary resolution was agreed to.

The subject came up again, on receiving the report of the committee, on the 12th of July. Mr. Goulburn made a strenuous effort to put off the adoption of the new system. He had heard that a noble lord, the Postmaster General, had, in another place, called the measure wild and visionary; and in the committee every member of the government had voted against the plan. Therefore he had no expectations that the House would be called upon during the present session, to give effect to the recommendations of the committee.-Vol. xlix, p. 278.

His view was, and in that respect he believed he and the right honorable_gentleman, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, agreed, that the loss of revenue would be greater under a two-penny than under a uniform rate of one penny; and if such were the case, the House ought certainly to wait till the state of the public revenue would justify them in adopting the reduction to the greatest possible extent.-p. 283.

Whatever the result might be, he should have the proud satisfaction of knowing that he had given his counsel for the postponement of this measure, so as to give time for consideration.-p. 284.

How far the honorable gentleman now regards "with proud satisfaction" his effort to defeat by postponing that beneficent scheme, may well demand a doubt.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was astonished at the modified shape in which the opposition was now brought forward, in a mere motion for postponement. He regarded this plan as a convenient way which honorable gentlemen opposite had chosen of telling the country, "We do not choose to hazard our popularity by opposing this measure." If this were merely an abstract question of any common tax, no one would doubt that it would be a public benefit. Repeal the tax on letters, and there was hardly one person, he might almost say, in the whole country, who would not experience a direct and personal benefit. This was not a question of intricacy-it was not one requiring calculation or analysis to understand it. It was a question of simple demonstration, that persons now unable to write would feel an interest and excitement in writing, when the postage of letters is lower, and that the benefit by the poorer classes would at once be felt. p. 286.

He declared that he had brought the business honestly and fairly before the House-he had never dis

guised from the House that the real question at issue was not the remission of the duty on the postage of letters, but the imposition of a tax to the amount which they proposed to lose he had always maintained that it would be attended with an enormous sacrifice of the public money; and unless the House was prepared to make good the amount, he was not prepared, and he hoped no majority of the House ever would be prepared to sanction its adoption.-p. 287.

He declared it was the duty of the House to guarantee the public creditor against the loss of that portion of his security. And when those honorable gentlemen maintain ed, that the guarantee which he asked was valueless on the one hand, because it never would be necessary to enforce it, and refused on the other hand to give that guarantee, useless and inoperative according to their views, he asked the House if they did not put in peril the very proposition which they thus somewhat inconsistently maintained. p. 288.

He then showed that Mr. Goulburn had made the danger greater than it really was, in assuming that the whole of the revenue drawn from postage would be lost. From 1834 to 1838, there had been reductions in several branches of postage. In 1834, the gross income of the post-office was £2,209,439, and in 1838 it was £2,438,000, and it would be found that the increase had been in those departments in which the greatest reductions had been made in the rates of postage. This, he said, supported the argument of those who looked to the elasticity of the post-office revenue to enable them to make up any deficiency that might at first occur. He compared the ship and foreign letters for a limited period of 1833, and a like period of 1838, and found that the receipts for the first period were £88,000, and for the last,

£103,000, being the largest proportionate increase with the largest proportionate reduction of postage. He found that the number of ship letters sent respectively, in a short period of the years 1833 and 1837, were 47,000 and 167,000. This was an augmentation of about fourfold in the correspondence.-p. 258.

He

Sir Robert Peel said the great objection to the reduction was, that with a deficiency of revenue amounting to nearly a million, they were about to incur the hazard of a further loss to the amount of a million and a half. He wished to know if the government were about to adopt the principle of repealing every tax that became obnoxious, on a mere parliamentary pledge to make good the deficiency. This was just the course which was pursued by the National Assembly of France. inquired why the same rule was not applied to other taxes that were burdensome. Had they heard nothing about the window tax? Had nothing been said about the repeal of the duty on soap? Would not the cause of morality and cleanliness be advanced if the soap tax were repealed, and parliament were to pledge itself to supply the deficiency that might be thereby occasioned? Surely, if the principle was a just one, it ought to be applied in all cases. p. 294.

Mr. Poulett Thompson said that all the government wanted was, an opportunity of trying the effects of the measure, and afterwards when they saw their way more clearly than they did at present, of digesting a plan to be laid before parlia ment. The question in reference to a deficiency no man could ascertain, for it was beyond the power of calculation. On this subject, all the witnesses examined before the committee differed. One stated that there would be no deficiency; another said it would be small; while Lord Ashburton declared that it would amount to the sacrifice of the