Among the many beneficent measures for which the first fifty years of Her Majesty's reign will always be gratefully remembered, few, perhaps, have conferred greater blessings upon the public at large, especially upon the poorer classes, than the reforms effected during that period in our postal system—reforms which, commencing in the United Kingdom soon after Her Majesty's accession, have now been extended to every civilised country in the world.

It is just fifty years since Sir Rowland Hill, with whom the great reform originated, published (in February, 1837) his celebrated pamphlet, and in the belief that it will be interesting to many now rejoicing in Her Majesty's Jubilee to be enabled to glance for a moment at the condition in which the public found itself in postal matters at the commencement of her beneficent reign, we reprint the ​pamphlet, giving at the same time a brief description of the older state of things, so that our readers may the more readily judge of the magnitude of the change which has been effected.

In these days, when postal facilities have so enormously extended, and cheap and rapid communication by letter has become so completely a part of our everyday life, like the air we breathe or the water we drink, few persons ever trouble themselves to think how it would be possible to exist without them; and those who are not old enough to remember the former state of things, under a postal system which the authorities at St. Martin's-le-Grand of that day regarded as almost a marvel of perfection, can hardly picture to themselves the inconvenience to which the public had then to submit.

As Miss Martineau points out in her History of the Thirty Years' Peace (1815—1845), we look back now with a sort of amazed compassion to the old Crusading times, when warrior-husbands and their wives, grey-headed parents and their brave sons, parted with the knowledge that it must be months or years before they could hear even of one another's existence. We wonder how they bore the depth of silence, and we feel the same now about the families of polar voyagers, but, till the commencement of Her Majesty's reign, it did not occur to many of us how like this was the fate of the largest classes in our own country. The fact is, ​there was no full and free epistolary intercourse in the country, except for those who, like Members of Parliament, had the command of franks. There were few families in the wide middle class who did not feel the cost of postage a heavy item in their expenditure; and if the young people sent letters home only once a fortnight, the amount at the year's end was a rather serious matter. But it was the vast multitude of the lower orders who suffered like the Crusading families of old and the geographical discoverers of all time. When once their families parted off from home, it was a separation almost like that of death. The hundreds of thousands of apprentices, of shopmen, of governesses, of domestic servants, were cut off from family relations as if seas or deserts lay between them and home.^[1]

In those days, the visit of the postman, so far from being welcomed, was, as a rule, dreaded. Letters were almost always sent unpaid, and the heavy postage demanded for what might sometimes turn out to be merely trade circulars was a serious tax grudgingly paid, or, amongst the poorer classes, the letter had to be refused as too expensive a luxury.

The lowest postage on any letter, except those in the local town deliveries and their suburban posts, was 4d. This, however, would only suffice if the distance it was carried did not exceed 15 miles. The ​postage on Inland letters carried longer distances was regulated by the following scale:—

Beyond that distance the postage increased at the rate of one penny per "single" letter for every additional 100 miles. One halfpenny was also charged on every letter crossing the Scottish border.

Under this scale the postage on any "single" letter from London to Brighton was 8d.; to Liverpool or Manchester, 11d.; to Edinburgh or Glasgow, 16½d.; and to Cork or Londonderry, 17d.

Only "single" letters, however—i.e., letters written on a single sheet of paper—could pass at these rates. If an envelope or cover were used, or if the letter consisted of two pieces of paper, or contained any enclosure, the postage was at once doubled. Two enclosures involved treble postage. If, however, the letter, with or without enclosures, weighed an ounce, the postage was fourfold, and each additional quarter of an ounce in weight led to an additional rate of postage.

​Thus, a letter just under 2 ounces in weight, which now goes from Land's End to John o' Groat's for 1½d., would, fifty years ago, have been charged sevenfold the heavy rates given in the above table. Such a letter, even if sent only from London to Croydon, would have been charged a postage of 2s. 4d.; if sent from London to Manchester, it would have been charged 6s. 5d.; while from London to Cork the postage would have been 9s. 11d., or nearly 80 times the present rate.

In order to ascertain whether letters contained enclosures, they were held up against strong artificial lights, many post offices in those days being built without windows, the better to facilitate such examination; and many letters got stolen in the post office through its being thus discovered that they contained bank-notes or other valuables.^[2]

How seriously these high charges tended to suppress correspondence may be gathered from the fact that, except in the town and local "penny posts," where postage was comparatively low, the Post Office was but little used. Half the letters delivered in London fifty years ago were posted within 12 miles of St. Paul's, three-quarters within 100 miles, and only one-fourth in all the world besides.

As another illustration, which will perhaps bring this hindrance of correspondence more fully home to the present generation, it may be mentioned that ​when, in 1827, Sir Rowland Hill, then a young man, was engaged to the lady who afterwards became his wife, the high rates of postage compelled them to restrict their correspondence to a letter once a fortnight.

Newspapers, in consideration probably of the large contributions they then made to the public revenue—viz., a duty of 1s. 6d. on every advertisement, a paper duty at 1½d. a lb., and a newspaper stamp duty of 1d. or upwards on every copy printed—were allowed, as a rule, to circulate through the post without additional charge, though there were important exceptions to their enjoyment of this privilege. No newspaper could be posted in any provincial town for delivery within the same, nor anywhere within the London District (a circle of 12 miles radius from the General Post Office) for delivery within the same circle, unless a postage of one penny, in addition to the impressed newspaper stamp, were paid upon it—a regulation which, however, was constantly evaded by large numbers of newspapers, intended for delivery in London, being sent by newsagents down the river to be posted at Gravesend, the Post Office then having the trouble of bringing them back, and of delivering them without charge.

These restrictions have long been removed, the taxes levied on newspapers have all been abolished, a better daily paper is now to be had for a penny than that for which fivepence was charged fifty years ago, and newspapers can now be sent through the ​post anywhere within the United Kingdom for one halfpenny—i.e., for half the price then paid for the minimum stamp duty alone.