POST OFFICE REFORM
of Robert Wallace entered Parliament in 1833 following the
distance. Reform Act of 1832 that created the new seat of Greenock,
a port town twenty-five miles northwest of Glasgow.
His first
William contribution in the House of Commons on March 11th was a
was speech against the suppression of disturbances in Ireland.
Excheque r, An interesting note is that although petitions against the
a government had been received from all parts of the country
produced only a small percentage had been accepted from the Post
Office.
Hill The greater number had been refused for want of
payment of postal charges.
Inquiry Less than five months later, on
from August 6th, Wallace brought forward a motion in the House
certain of Commons “For copies of the instruction under which
Postmasters claim a right to unfold or open letters in all or any
of the Post Offices of Great Britain and Ireland.”
The matter
Offic e
revolved around the insinuation that the Post Office freely and
regularly opened letters and packages to check for surplus
had
enclosures being sent unpaid through the mail- this being du
to the Post Office charging by the number of sheets rathe
payment
than weight
Wallace’s argument was that the Postmaster
General was condoning a felony in pursuit of a fraud.
After
letter
making his point, Wallace then launched into a tirade against
the Post Office.
He complained of the unchecked powers of
for
the Postmaster General, the speed of services, the inequities
of salaries, foreign mail charges, and corruption.
He pointed
of
out that the government had spent £90,000 on an 1829 report
on the Post Office by the Commissioners of Revenue and
had, so far, taken up none of its suggestions.
He went as far
without
as to suggest that he would call for a Select Committee in the
next session of Parliament if his motion were denied.
Wallace
between
received little support for his complaints even though the
motion was passed.
He was ridiculed and regarded as a crank
within
by his peers, but rather than letting the matter rest, he doubled
his efforts.
On The major obstacle he faced was that the Post
containing Office was a profitable business that transported information
throughout the country and the civilized world.
available It was
by perceived as successful and efficient and, although expensive,
Office the best that could be expected.
an inlan d postage rate of just one penny, regardless of
I n
January 1837 Hill’s private pamphlet “Post Office
Reform; it s Importance and Practicability” was published by
Cl owes and Sons, London.January
4th copy
forwa rded to Thomas Spring-Rice, Chancellor
who met with Hill shortly thereafter to discuss
number suggestions leading to a supplement that was
on January 28th.Two
weeks later on February 13th,
was ca lled to testify in front Duncannon Commission
into the Post Office.It
was here that Hill quoted
his le tter to Chancellor regard to prepayment by
sm all gummed label.
Hill’s plan was a diligent and respectful analysis of the entire
system then in place.He
pointed out that although
the amoun t of mail carried had increased steadily, the revenue
actual ly fallen.He
explained how management costs were
exorbitant; the lengths to which the public would go in evadin
and abuses free franking system enjoye
by Parliam ent.H
calculated the average cost of sending a
from London to Edinburgh at fraction penny and
argued th at a uniform rate based on weight could be adopted
sendin g a letter anywhere in country.key
to his
new syste m was prepayment: it virtually eliminated the evasion
paymen t and all revenue would be collected at Post
Office rath er than on the street.Most
importantly, the letter
carriers co uld deliver mail almost as fast as they could walk
ha ving to stop and collect payment.Hill
predicted that
with a unif orm rate of one penny the new system would cost
£ 300,000 and £400,000 in lost revenue in its first
year but t hat it would return to previous levels of profitability
thre e years.
Februa ry 22nd pamphlet and supplement
some 28,000 words published and made
t o general public.immediately
condemned
both th e Postmaster General the Secretary to the Post
who described it as “wild and visionary”, “preposterous”
and “utter ly unsupported by facts”.At
this point however,
through y ears of constant haranguing, the prestige of the Post
had diminished in eyes of public.Wallace,
as
the chief r eformer, was completely in support of the idea as
a gro wing number merchants traders who viewed
the existin g system as expensive and corrupt.By
the end of
the year p ublic opinion forced the government to create a
Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate
the merits of the proposal with Robert Wallace as Chairman.
worked throughout 1838 session
Parliamen t interviewing witnesses and compiling evidence.
two oc casions Committee deadlocked on votes that
would hav e abandoned the plan had it not been for Wallace as
issuing his casting vote carry the day.In
March
1839 the C ommittee issued its final report in favor of Rowland
prop osal.
The following year he railed against the ship mails known as
the steam packets and also made his first attack on the abuse
Office
of the free postage granted to all members of both Houses
of Parliament.
Further persistent criticisms backed by facts
were
and figures ensued, leading by 1834 to the first of several
Commissions of Inquiry into the management of the Post
Office being appointed.
Wallace not only criticized the Post
bi-partisan
Office but also made several noteworthy suggestions as to the
improvement of the organization including opening for public
comm ittee
this measure alone saving over £17,000 a year.
competition the contract for the construction of mail coaches, Sir
The following
On
year while working almost exclusively with the Committee,
Wallace arrived at three suggestions that he presented to
Chairman
Parliament in 1836: the reduction of the maximum postage
rate from 1s.
to 8d.;
6d. the introduction of Registered Mail;
Hill’s Moffatt
and that the postage rate should be regulated by the shortest
By route to the destination rather than the somewhat circuitous
commerci al routes often employed and charged for by the Post Office
and Later in the same year, the 63-year-old Wallace received a
request from the noted Scottish prison reformer Matthew resigned
Davenport Hill.
George His younger brother, a 41-year-old former
schoolteacher named Rowland, was seeking the loan of any
Moffatt books or papers relating to the Post Office.
far largest percentage of mail in British Isles was
assistant correspondence therefore it was trade
indust ry that stood to gain most by reduction
of the pos tal rates.Early
in 1838 a tea merchant named
M offatt bought and read Hill’s pamphlet and was
very impre ssed.The
newspapers, two met shortly after and Hill informed
and th at he thought his scheme would have wait for
Hill having failed to interest influential City people in
it.Moffatt
in immediately set about arranging a public meeting
at the Jeru salem Coffee House in the City of London.The
refused
his le d to formation of Mercantile Committee
Postal Ref orm with Joshua Bates of Baring Bros.as
Rowland Hill (1795-1879), Mary Martha Pearson, 1836 ©The British Postal Museum Archive, London
as Treasurer.position
Chairman
of Secretary was visit
filled by Henry Cole who would go on to be Rowland Hill’s encourage
at Treasury.Together
with Hill Wallace of
the Committee attracted powerful support and by March
were publishing a newsletter “the Post Office Circular”,
by Cole.The
14th
edited
Circular was distributed nationally to local
history,
churches, libraries, chambers of commerce,
municipal authorities.It
lauded Hill’s plan while mocking
government
the Post Office and its excesses and proved a powerful tool
swaying public opinion.Following
the Select Committee’s
be
of Hill’s scheme Moffatt continued, using
own money, to support cause.On
May 2nd 1839 he
Melbourne’s
a deputation of one hundred fifty members to
Chancellor of Exchequer, Thomas Spring-Rice,
him to introduce a resolution in Parliament in favour
penny postage.
On
May 7th 1839 Liberal government of Lord Melbourne
and, but for a bizarre incident in British political
the Postal Reform act may never have occurred.Sir
Robert
Peel offered chance to form a minority Tory
and, as was custom, wished that a certain
the Queen’s predominantly Whig ladies-in-waiting
replaced by their Tory counterparts.The
number
young Queen
in what has become known as the “bedchamber crisis”
Whigs were returned to power.
134
135
years,
As described by Hill, “A half hundredweight of material”
arrived on loan from Wallace with whom Hill would be in recommendation
almost daily communication for the next three years.
These
meeting
included Parliamentary and Post Office reports and returns organized
and provided “essential aid” to Hill in formulating his idea