284 ON THE TRACK OF THE MAIL-COACH 



the West Strand telegraph-office m 1848, deshing to 

 transmit his sermon to a provincial address. I told 

 him the charge would be eighty pounds. He retired, 

 as might be expected, aghast. This was at the rate 

 of about eight shillings for twenty words, so that the 

 sermon must have contained about four thousand 

 words. Such a despatch would now cost, at the half- 

 penny per word rate, not eighty pounds, but eight, 

 and at press rate, not eighty pounds, but two pounds. 



Similarly, I remember the great John Bright 

 coming from the House of Commons to the same 

 office at a somewhat later day, to send a Ppirlia- 

 mentary despatch to a Manchester newspaper, and 

 remarking, with severity, on the enormous cost which 

 even a couple of hundred or so of words would in- 

 volve, leaving, as it then did, but little change out of 

 a five-pound note. 



If Sir Eowland had had time to spare, he would, I 

 think, have entered on telegraphic reform with much 

 zest. As it was, he did what he could to help on a 

 plan I had shaped to that end. 



When electric telegraphs were first erected, a very 

 general belief prevailed among uneducated persons 

 that the actual message-paper itself was transmitted 

 through the wire, as it is now through the pneumatic 

 tube. 



I recall an instance of the sort in the late forties. 

 A message had been handed to me by a countryman 

 for despatch. He paid the fee, and saw me hang the 

 message on the double-needle instrument. I quickly 



