THE POST OFFICE OF FIFTY YEARS AGO.
Much evidence was produced before the Parliamentary Committee appointed in 1837 to inquire into Rowland Hill's scheme of postal reform, of the hardships which the high rates of postage caused to the poor.
Frauds, to evade postage, were daily practised upon the Post Office, and, where contraband conveyance was not available, letters were constantly refused on account of the heavy postage demanded, or remained many weeks in the postmaster's hands, when the persons to whom they were addressed were poor—mothers sometimes even pawning their clothes to pay for letters from their children, or having to wait till, little by little, they could save up the money necessary for that purpose.
Mr. Emery, Deputy-Lieutenant for Somersetshire, and a Commissioner of Taxes, stated, as evidence of the desire but inability of the poor to correspond, that—
"A person in my parish of the name of Rosser had a letter from a grand-daughter in London, and she could not take up the letter for want of the means. She was a pauper, receiving two-and-sixpence a week. * * * She told the post-office keeper that she must wait until she had received the money from the relieving officer; she could never spare enough; and at last a lady gave her a shilling to get the letter, but the letter had been returned to London by the post-office mistress. She never had the letter since. It came from her grand-daughter, who is in service in London."
Struck by this fact, Mr. Emery made further
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