3-016-958 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B., late Secretary to the Post Office, 1864. Engraving from a photograph by J. and C. Watkins of '...the author of the Penny Postage...Sir Rowland Hill has lately retired from the public service; but the country will not forget how much it owes to him...It was in 1836 that he applied himself to study the question of Post-office reform...The defects of the system which then existed were manifest...In estimating the first of the items of cost - receiving the letter and preparing it for its journey - Mr. Rowland Hill observed that the postage not only varied in proportion to the distance the letter had to travel, but that the clerk had to ascertain whether the letter was composed of one, two, or three sheets of paper. The rate of increase was...exorbitant, and bore no proportion to the small additional cost imposed upon the Post Office...delivering the letter and receiving the postage...exposed the Post Office to frauds and defalcations, and rendered necessary a multifarious and complicated system of accounts. The less money the postmasters handled the better...An agitation in favour of penny postage spread like wildfire...In 1839 the Penny Postage Act was passed, amid the joy and congratulations of the entire kingdom'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.