76 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
when as Queen Empress, she passed away. It rémains for King Ed- 
ward VII. to see completed, a service of transcendent importance to 
the vast inheritance bequeathed to him by his illustrious Mother. 
THE FIRST REFORM. 
The annals of the Post Office show, that, before the reign of 
Queen Victoria, postal services were generally defective; that the pcs- 
tal rates were most burdensome; that the charges on letters varied ac- 
cording to the distance transmitted and were in consequence exceed- 
ingly inconvenient; that in some instances the postage exceeded the 
rate now levied more than twenty fold, and that it averaged nine 
times the present charge. 
In 1837 a remarkable pamphlet appeared under the title “Post 
Office Reform, its importance and practicability.” The author, Mr. 
(afterwards Sir) Rowland Hill, had carefully studied all the existing 
conditions, and in the work mentioned, he made public his conclu- 
sions, and pointed out the benefits which would result if certain radi- 
cal changes which he recommended were carried out. The principal 
change proposed was to reduce the postage to a uniform rate of one 
penny per letter, without regard to distance within the limits of the 
United Kingdom, and the author did not hesitate to declare that with 
this change there would be at least a fivefold increase in correspond- 
ence. His proposal was ridiculed as wild and visionary, and encoun- 
tered the honest opposition of many high in official life. Those con- 
nected with the Post Office, from the Postmaster-General down, were 
especially pronounced in their hostility. To the last they persisted in 
predicting complete failure as the certain result of the proposed re- 
form. 
Sir Rowland Hill, however, in submitting such a bold proposal 
had made quite sure of his ground. His conception of a uniform 
penny postage was the outcome of a thorough knowledge of the sub- 
ject which he had been at pains to acquire. It was not a happy 
thought merely, but the result of laborious investigations, and he had 
satisfied himself as to the practicability of the proposal before an- 
nouncing it to the public. 
Its convenience was obvious, in view of the fact that there were, 
on inland letters alone, from twenty to thirty different rates of post- 
age. Moreover, he was able to show that the reduction to a uniform 
charge of one penny per letter would not permanently interfere with 
the revenue, although for a few years it would diminish receipts. He 
foresaw that the expansion of business and the enormous increase in 
correspondence would speedily cause the revenue to recover itself. 
