Transcriber's Notes:
(1) Obvious spelling, punctuation, and typographical errorshave been corrected. On page 99, footnote marker [6] is duplicated - ithas been altered to [381] and the surrounding footnotes adjusted suitably.Footnote [616] has an uncorrectable duplication of "Ionian Isles".
(2) Table V in the Appendix has been divided into two parts (Scotlandand Ireland), in view of its page width.
(3) All footnotes have been moved to the end of the book, with html links.
(4) The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
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THE HISTORY OF
THE BRITISH POST OFFICE
BY
J. C. HEMMEON, Ph.D.
PUBLISHED FROM THE INCOME OF THE
WILLIAM H. BALDWIN, JR., 1885, FUND
CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published January 1912
PREFACE
In justice to those principles which influenced the policy of thePost Office before the introduction of penny postage, it is perhapsunnecessary to call attention to the fact that no opinion as to theirdesirability or otherwise is justifiable which does not take intoconsideration the conditions and prejudices which then prevailed.Some of the earlier writers on the Post Office have made the mistakeof condemning everything which has not satisfied the measureof their own particular rule. If there is anything that the historicaltreatment of a subject teaches the investigator it is an appreciationof the fact that different conditions call for different methods oftreatment. For example, the introduction of cheap postage waspossibly delayed too long. But during the era of high postal rates alarge net revenue was of primary importance, nor were those conditionspresent which would have made low rates a success.
The consideration of such debatable subjects as the telegraphsystem of the Postal Department and the department's attitudetoward the telephone companies, as well as the intention of the PostOffice to acquire the business of the latter, must necessarily giverise to controversy. Thanks to the magnificent net revenue obtainedfrom letters in the United Kingdom the department hasbeen able to lose a good deal of money by the extension of its activitiesinto the realm of affairs not purely postal. Possibly a democratictype of government should, from the financial point of view,interfere least in the direct management of economic institutions,on account of the pressure which can easily be brought to bear uponit for the extension of such institutions on other than economicgrounds. If non-economic principles are to be substituted in justifyingthe initiation or increase of government ownership, a popularform of government seems the least suitable for the presentation ofsuch as shall be fair to all concerned, not to mention the difficultproblem of dealing with those members of the civil service who donot hesitate to make use of their political power to enforce theirdemands upon the government.
In the treatment of a subject so complex as the history of theBritish Post Office it is not easy to decide how far its presentationshould be strictly chronological or how far it should be mounted in"longitudinal sections," exposing its most salient features. Bothmethods have their advantages and their disadvantages. In orderto obtain what is use