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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
143
Born
in
1795,
and
for
many
years
a
tutor
in
his
father's
school
near
Birmingham,
Mr.
Rowland
Hill
was,
at
this
time,
the
secretary
of
the
Commissioners
for
conducting
the
Colonization
of
South
Australia,
upon
the
plan
of
Mr.
Edward
Gibbon
Wakefield.
At
this
post,
according
to
the
testimony
of
the
commissioners
themselves,
Mr.
Hill
laboured
unweariedly,
"evincing,"
as
they
said,
"considerable
powers
of
organization."
Mr.
Hill,
in
one
place,[81]
gives
a
clear
account
of
the
way
he
prepared
himself
for
the
work
he
took
in
hand,
when
once
his
attention
was
arrested
by
the
subject.
"The
first
thing
I
did
was
to
read
very
carefully
all
the
reports
on
post-office
subjects.
I
then
put
myself
in
communication
with
the
hon.
member
for
Greenock,
who
kindly
afforded
me
much
assistance.
I
then
applied
to
the
Post-Office
for
information,
with
which
Lord
Lichfield
was
so
good
as
to
supply
me.
These
were
the
means
I
took
to
make
myself
acquainted
with
the
subject."
In
January,
1837,
Mr.
Hill
published[82]
the
results
of
his
investigations,
and
embodied
his
scheme
in
a
pamphlet
entitled
Post
Office
Reform:
its
Importance
and
Practicability.
This,
the
first
edition,
was
circulated
privately
amongst
members
of
the
legislature
and
official
men;
the
second
edition,
published
two
months
afterwards,
being
the
first
given
to
the
world.
The
pamphlet,
of
which
we
will
here
attempt
a
résumé,
immediately
created
a
sensation;
especially
so
in
the
mercantile
world.
Mr.
Hill
may
be
said
to
have
started
with
the
facts
to
which
we
have
already
adverted[83],
namely,
that
the
Post-Office
was
not
progressing
like
other
great
interests;
that
its
revenue,
within
the
past
twenty
years,
instead
of
increasing,
had
actually
diminished,
though
the
increase
of
population
had
been
six
millions,
and
the
increase
in
trade
and
commerce
had
been
proportionate.
The
increase
in
the
ratio
of
stage-coach
travellers
was
still
more
clear;
but
this
fact
need
not
be
pressed,
especially
as
one
smart
quarterly
reviewer
answered,
that,
of
course,
the
more
men
travelled,
the
less
need
of
writing.
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