been regulated on a mileage basis. For short distances they were now based on the number of post stages. For one post stage the rate was made 1d. for a single letter, for a double letter 2d., for a treble letter 3d., and for every ounce 4d.; for two post stages, 2d., and in proportion for double, treble, and ounce letters.[54] The financial result of the change was unsatisfactory.[55]

Up to this period the mails were carried by postboys riding horse. Notwithstanding that on all the chief roads stage-coaches were running more expeditiously than the post-horses, the Post Office kept to the old way. The superiority of the stage-coaches as means for the conveyance of letters was noticed by Mr. John Palmer, proprietor of the theatre of Bath,[56] who was so greatly impressed with the fact that he devised a complete and definite plan for the establishment of a system of mail conveyance by coach. The cost of the riding post (boy and horse) was 3d. a mile, and Palmer estimated that the change could be carried out without involving any increase of cost, especially if, as he proposed, the coaches carrying the mails should be exempted from toll. The proposal was severely criticized by the district surveyors of the Post Office, who reported on it.[57] At the Treasury,

however, the proposal met with a more favourable reception. Pitt called a conference on the 21st June 1784, and after hearing the explanations of Palmer and the criticisms of the representatives of the Post Office, decided that the plan should be given a trial. Accordingly, on the 2nd August 1784 the first mail-coach ran. The experiment, which was conducted on the Bath Road, proved successful, and the plan was rapidly extended throughout the kingdom. The first coach cost 3d. a mile, the same rate as the riding post; but ultimately the coaches proved to be cheaper than the horse posts. In 1797 the rate was no more than a penny a mile.[58]

Almost simultaneously with the introduction of mail-coaches there was an increase in the rates of postage, made solely with a view to increased revenue.[59] The alteration was more or less fortuitous. In his Budget of 1784 Pitt had proposed a tax on coals which had not been well received, and the increased postage was substituted. Palmer is said to have claimed the credit of suggesting the substitution.[60] If so, his faith in his plan was abundantly justified. Notwithstanding the handicap of increased rates, it was an

unqualified success, and the effect on the revenue was immediate and considerable.

At about this time several horse and cross post mails had been molested, and it was desired, in response to a considerable public agitation, to establish mail-coaches on the minor posts. This would have involved heavy cost, and as an alternative Freeling (Secretary to the Post Office, afterwards Sir Francis) suggested that only responsible persons should be employed—at this time the post riders, in fact as well as name, were in many instances mere boys—and that the riders should be armed. In order to obtain funds to meet the cost of this scheme, the rates of postage were again increased in 1797.[61] A further increase was made in 1801 in order to-provide an additional contribution of £150,000 a year to the Exchequer.[62] The new rates were elaborate and complicated, comprising no less than thirteen rates for each class of letter, according to the distance of transmission. Another increase followed in 1805, when the Post Office was called upon to provide an additional £230,000 a year.[63] This time the increase was made in a very simple manner, viz. by increasing the rates of 1801 in every case by 1d. for a single letter, 2d. for a double letter, 3d. for a treble letter, and 4d. per ounce.

All these increases, made with the avowed intention of increasing revenue, were successful in their main object. The net revenue, which in 1796 was £466,457, had risen in 1804 to £956,212, and in 1806 reached the sum of £1,119,429. The fiscal results seemed, therefore, to justify the Government in turning again and again to the Post Office when they were hard pushed to find revenue. This must be the justification of the further increase of 1812.[64] The rates then established were the highest ever charged in England. The net revenue rose slightly after their establishment, but never increased materially. These rates continued in operation until 1839, when they were completely swept away, and new rates based on principles fundamentally different were established.

This was the system, due to Sir Rowland Hill, of uniform rates, irrespective of distance of transmission, first introduced in the United Kingdom in 1839, and since adopted throughout the civilized world, not only for inland services, but for the international service.[65] The story of the conception, advocacy, and adoption of uniform postage is fully told by Sir Rowland Hill in his History of Penny Postage,[66] and need be only briefly dealt with here. The plan itself is described in the famous pamphlet, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, which was issued by Sir Rowland Hill in 1837.

The reform was directly related to the great reform movement in England of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and is a brilliant example of the application of the deductive method in politics. Sir Rowland Hill was a member of a Radical family, remarkable even in those days for its zeal for