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CHAPTER I

THE GENESIS OF THE POST

The earliest letter carriers—The Roman posita—Princely Postmasters of Thurn and Taxis—Sir Brian Tuke—Hobson of "Hobson's Choice"—The General Letter Office of England—Dockwra's Penny Post of 1680—Povey's "Halfpenny Carriage"—The Edinburgh and other Penny Posts—Postal Rates before 1840—Uniform Penny Postage—The Postage Stamp regarded as the royal diplomata—The growth of the postal business.

Postage is so cheap and so easy to-day that we are apt to forget how, not very many years ago, it was a privilege of the rich. To-day the Post Office is no respecter of persons, and the "all swallowing orifice of the pillar-box" receives without favour or distinction the correspondence of the humble with the messages of the mighty. The Post Office treats everything confided to its charge with the same organised routine. In the palatial new edifice, King Edward the Seventh Building, a few days before Christmas, a letter was handed to me for inspection in the "Blind Division," where they deal with insufficiently addressed letters. The missive bore in the handwriting of a little child, "To Santa Claus, No. 1, Aerial Building, London." That letter, I was informed, had to be passed through the Blind Division, thence to the Returned Letter Office, where it would be opened to discover if the enclosure contained any indication of the identity and whereabouts of the writer. If not returnable, the letter would be preserved for a period lest it should be claimed. The Department is as careful of the precocious petitions of a child as it is of the papers of State which it carries throughout the length and breadth of the land.

By all who would know the true love of stamps it must needs be understood how postal matters were before the birth of the Penny Black. Else we shall not fitly appreciate all the benefices that the "label with the glutinous wash" has brought to our present civilisation. Without this comparison of the old order with the new, we should be in peril of passing over the true significance of the postage-stamp in the surfeit of blessings it confers upon the world to-day. Postage to-day is as fecund of bounties as a fruitful garden, yet do we accept all as our rightful heritage, without giving much consideration to the little postage-stamp which was the seed which, planted in every civilised country of the earth, has yielded blessings in abundance.

So in our first chat, we would open up the book in which is told the history of things that are written from one to another. The first letter of which we have any particular knowledge was that by which David achieved his evil purpose of sending Uriah the Hittite to the forefront of the battle, that he might be smitten and die. The unfortunate Uriah was himself the messenger, bearing the fatal letter to Joab with his own hand. The brazen-faced Jezebel forged her royal husband's name to letters, so our first meeting with letters in scriptural history shows that they could be used to evil as well as to good purpose.

As the Scythians made contracts one with another by mingling the warm blood of their bodies in a cup and drinking thereof, so the Persians used living letters in their early correspondence. Herodotus tells us how they shaved the heads of their messengers and impressed or branded the "writing" upon their scalps. Then they were shut up until the hair had grown again and concealed the message, when the runners were sent off upon their divers journeys. A messenger on reaching his destination was again shaved and the epistle was made plain to the eyes of the beholder.

This was a primitive method, one of many which had vogue amongst the ancients. Under Darius I. the Persians had a service of Government couriers, for whom were provided horses ready saddled at specified distances on their route, so that the Government could send and receive communications with the provinces. "Nothing in the world is borne so swiftly as messages by the Persian couriers," says Herodotus.

The word "post" descends to us from the Roman posita (positus = placed), and is a link between our posts of to-day and the cursus publicus of the time of Augustus. In those days of arms the roads were laid for armies to traverse, not for traffic, and the organisation of the posita was military. Stations were established at intervals on the chief routes, where couriers and magistrates could be furnished with changes of horses (mutationes.) For the benefit of the travellers mansiones or night quarters were erected. These State posts were only for the use of the Government, and they were ridden by couriers who had, besides their own mount, a spare horse for carrying the letters. Individuals were at times permitted to use the posts, for which privilege they had to have the permits or diplomata of the Emperor. The Romans also had what may be compared with sea-posts, from Ostia and other ports.

Foot-runners and messengers on horseback have been organised for Government communications in most lands where civilisation has dawned, even in remote times. In the West the Incas and the Aztecs had runners from earliest times, and in the Orient carrier-pigeons provided an additional means of communication.

It is not until the fifteenth century that we find posts in operation on a more public scale, the first being a horse-post plying between the Tyrol and Italy, set up by Roger of Thurn and Taxis in 1460. From that modest beginning sprang the vast monopoly of the Counts of Thurn and Taxis, which dominated the posts of the Continent during five centuries, remaining into the early period of the postage-stamp system. By 1500, Franz von Taxis was Postmaster-General of Austria, the Low Countries, Spain, Burgundy, and Italy. In 1516 he connected up Brussels and Vienna, and his successor Leonard provided a link between Vienna and Nuremberg. In 1595, Leonard von Taxis was the Grand Postmaster of the Holy Roman Empire, and he established a post from the Netherlands to Italy by way of Trèves, Spire, Wurtemburg, Augsburg, and Tyrol. In the next century, Eugenius Alexander subscribes himself in a postal document as "Count of Thurn, Valsassina, Tassis and the Holy Empire, Chamberlain of His Majesty the Roman Emperor, Hereditary Postmaster-General of the Realm." The postal dominion of this princely house flourished until the wars of the French Revolution, from which period the power of the Counts began to dwindle. Some of the German States withdrew from their arrangements with the house of Thurn and Taxis, and others purchased their freedom and set up postal establishments of their own. By the middle of the nineteenth century Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover, Baden, Brunswick, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Holstein, Oldenburg, Lauenburg, Luxemburg and Saxony had independent posts, but the Thurn and Taxis administration still controlled an area of 25,000 square miles (with 3,750,000 inhabitants), under the direction of a head office at Frankfort-on-the-Maine. In 1851, however, Wurtemburg, at a cost of over £100,000, bought its freedom from the monopolists; and sixteen years later (1867) Prussia paved the way for the completion of the consolidation of the German Empire by purchasing for three million thalers (approximately £450,000) the last remaining rights of the house of Thurn and Taxis in the postal affairs of Germany.

In England the royal Nuncii et Cursores were the forerunners of the King's Messengers of to-day, and were exclusively employed upon State affairs and for the correspondence of the Sovereign and of the Court. At what period the people were admitted to the privilege of the posts is obscure. The first Master of the Posts of whom we know was one Brian Tuke, Esq., afterwards Sir Brian Tuke, who is best remembered in Holbein's several portraits of him, and as the author of the preface to Thynne's "Chaucer." He was at one period secretary to Cardinal Wolsey, and it is in a letter (1533) to his successor in that office, Thomas Cromwell, that we find the one clue to the state of the posts at that time:

"By your letters of the twelfth of this moneth, I perceyve that there is grete defaulte in conveyance of letters, and of special men ordeyned to be sent in post; and that the Kinges pleasure is, that postes be better appointed, and laide in al places most expedient; with commaundement to al townshippes in al places, on payn of lyfe, to be in suche redynes, and to make suche provision of horses, at al tymes, as no tract or losse of tyme be had in that behalf."

In the sixteenth century, there were regular carriers licensed to take passengers, goods, and letters, and of these the most remarkable was Tobias Hobson, who was an innkeeper at Cambridge. His memory is perpetuated in the common expression of "Hobson's choice." The innkeeper kept a stable of forty good cattle, but made it a rule that any who came to hire a horse was obliged to take the one nearest the stable door, "so that every customer was alike well served, according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice." Milton, in one of his two punning epitaphs on Hobson, refers to his position as letter-carrier:—

"His letters are deliver'd all and gone;

Only remains this superscription."

From 1609, the Posts of Great Britain have been under the monopoly of the Crown, and at that time they were carried on at a loss. As the posts did not carry the correspondence of the public, there was no likelihood of their being made self-supporting until the facilities they offered were of utility to the people. The general admission of the public to these facilities dates from 1635, under the Postmastership of Thomas Witherings, and two years later was set up the "Letter Office of England." The cheapest rate under Withering's management was 2d. for a "single letter" (that is, one sheet of paper) conveyed a distance not exceeding 80 miles. If the letter weighed an ounce, the charge was 6d. A single letter to Scotland cost 8d. and to Ireland 9d.

For a number of years prior to 1667, the posts were farmed to various individuals, and during the Commonwealth, Parliament passed an Act settling the postage of the three kingdoms, which "pretended Act" was practically re-enacted at the Restoration. The profits on the Post Office were settled by Charles II. upon his son, the Duke of York, afterwards James II., and the latter took care upon his accession to the throne to secure the continuance of his enjoyment of its revenues.

Private enterprise was responsible for putting a good deal of pressure on the Post Office in the early days. In 1659, a penny post was first proposed by one John Hill and certain other "Undertakers," but the most notable instance was the success that attended the efforts of William Dockwra in establishing the London Penny Post in 1680. By this penny post, Londoners had for three years an excellent and frequent service of postal collections and deliveries of their letters and parcels within the City and suburbs. The Government post had one office in London—the General Letter Office—up to 1680. Consequently, persons who had letters to send by post had either to take them, or procure messengers to take them, to the office in Lombard Street. Dockwra established between four and five hundred receiving offices for letters, and a good part of the business he did was in transmitting letters to and from the General Letter Office in Lombard Street.

The penny post made many friends, but also a few enemies. Of the few there was one of powerful influence, the Duke of York, who envied the prospective income to be derived from a popular post; there were others who were unscrupulous in their attacks, led by the notorious Titus Oates, who pretended to expose the whole of Dockwra's plan as "a farther branch of the Popish plot," and the porters of London, who, fearing to lose many of their chances of employment, vented their spleen in the manner of vulgar rioters.

SCARCE PAMPHLET (FIRST PAGE) IN WHICH WILLIAM DOCKWRA ANNOUNCES THE PENNY POST OF 1680.

Proceedings were taken against Dockwra for infringement of the Crown's monopoly, and the case being carried, the London Penny Post was shortly afterwards re-established and carried on under authority for nearly a hundred and twenty years, until 1801, when the penny rate was doubled and the Penny Post became the Twopenny Post.

Charles Povey's "halfpenny carriage" (1708) was a poor copy of Dockwra's post, covering a smaller area at the lower fee of one halfpenny. Its originator was fined £100 in 1760, and the incident of this post is only remarkable in postal history for its having originated the use of the "bellman" for collecting letters in the streets.

The Edinburgh Penny Post, set up by the keeper of a coffee-shop in the hall of Parliament House, Peter Williamson, in 1768, was also stopped by the authorities as a private enterprise; but its promoter was given a pension of £25 a year and the post was carried on by the General Post Office. Just three years previously, local Penny Posts had been legalised by the Act of 5 George III., c. 25, provided they were set up where adjudged to be necessary by the Postmaster-General. Such penny posts increased rapidly towards the end of the eighteenth century, and just before Uniform Penny Postage was introduced there were more than two thousand of them in operation in different parts of the country. In spite of the increase in these local posts, however, the general postage was high, the tendency of the later changes in the rates being to increase rather than to lessen them.

In the early part of the nineteenth century, the rates were such that few but the rich could make frequent use of the luxury of postage, and these rates, coming close up to the period of the new régime of 1840, form an extraordinary series of contrasts. Here is an old post-office rate-book kept by the postmaster (or mistress) at Southampton in the 'thirties, which I like to show my friends when they sigh for the good old times. It is a printed list of the chief places to which letters could be sent, with columns to be filled in by the postal official after calculating distances and exercising simple arithmetic. In Great Britain the rates were for single letters:—

From any post office in England or Wales to any place not exceeding 15 miles from such office	4d.
Between	15	and	20	miles	5d.
"	20	"	30	"	6d.
"	30	"	50	"	7d.
"	50	"	80	"	8d.
"	80	"	120	"	9d.
"	120	"	170	"	10d.
"	170	"	230	"	11d.
"	230	"	300	"	12d.

and one penny in addition on each single letter for every 100 miles beyond 300. These rates did not include "1d. in addition to be taken for penny postage" and in certain cases toll-fees.

A Post-Office in 1790.

By permission of the Proprietors of the City Press.

Under these rates, a single letter to Kirkwall from Southampton cost 1s. 7d.; to London 9d., plus the penny postage; Cork 1s. 3d., &c. These rates were for a single-sheet letter, the charge being multiplied by two for a double letter, by four for an ounce, which is one-quarter of the weight at present allowed on a letter which costs us a modest penny.

Letters for overseas were correspondingly high as the following comparisons will show:—

	Single-sheet Letter.	1 oz. Letter.
	1830.	1911.
Austria	2s. 3d.	2½d.
Brazil	}
Buenos Aires	3s. 5d.	2½d.
Chili, Peru, &c.
Canary Islands	2s. 6d.	2½d.
Germany	1s. 9d.	2½d.
Hayti	2s. 11d.	2½d.
Honduras	2s. 11d.	2½d.
Portugal	2s. 2d.	2½d.
Russia	2s. 3d.	2½d.
Spain	2s. 2d.	2½d.
Sweden	1s. 8d.	2½d.
Turkey	2s. 2d.	2½d.
United States	2s. 1d.	1d.
British West Indies and	}
British North America	2s. 1d.	1d.
Malta, Gibraltar	2s. 2d.	1d.
St. Helena	1s. 8½d.	1d.

The registration fee on foreign letters was, in the early nineteenth century, one guinea per letter; to-day it is twopence.

THE COMMEMORATIVE LETTER BALANCE DESIGNED BY MR. S. KING, OF BATH (1840).

A monument "which may be possessed by every family in the United Kingdom."

These are but a few examples showing what a mighty change was wrought with the introduction of the Uniform Penny Postage plan of Rowland Hill. The circumstances under which the new plan was introduced included several factors to which may be attributed a share in the success of Hill's plan. First, the uniform and low minimum rate of one penny on inland letters, dispensing with tedious calculations of distance. By some it was feared that the necessity for calculating the weight would be more troublesome than examining the letter against a lighted candle to see if it were "single" or "double," and scores of "penny post letter balances" were placed upon the market at the outset. Next was the increased facility of transit provided by the then growing system of railways, and the subsequent development of steam-power at sea.

MR. KING'S LETTER BALANCE HAD A TRIPOD BASE, AS IN THE UPPERMOST FIGURE, THUS AFFORDING THREE TABLETS, ON WHICH THE ASSOCIATIONS OF J. PALMER, ROWLAND HILL, AND QUEEN VICTORIA WITH POSTAL REFORM ARE RECORDED.

But the one factor which to us is the most notable contribution to the success of the Penny Postage plan, was the square inch of paper with its backing of glutinous wash. This enabled the authorities to effect the introduction of prepayment, and save the long delays formerly occasioned by the postman having to await payment for each letter on delivery. It saved the complicated system by which the Post Office had to ensure that the postman did get paid, and in his turn accounted for the money to his office. It was to this simple contrivance of a small label, issued by authority, to indicate the prepayment of postage that the practical success of Hill's plan was greatly due. The little stamps are the royal diplomata which enable us all, at a modest fee, to use His Majesty's mails, a privilege enjoyed by great and small, by rich and poor. So stamp-collectors deem the objects of their interest to have achieved a vast reform in internal and universal communications, giving a powerful impetus to social progress, international commerce, and the world's peace.

The year before the introduction of Uniform Penny Postage there were 75,907,572 letters dealt with by the Post Office. The number was more than doubled in the first year of the new system, and the subsequent growth of correspondence is outlined in the figures (letters only) for the following years:—

1840	168,768,344
1850	347,069,071
1860	564,002,000
1870	862,722,000
1880	1,176,423,600
1890	1,705,800,000
1900	2,323,600,000
1910	2,947,100,000