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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
157
The
Committee
next
had
their
attention
called
to
still
more
important
facts,
viz.
that
the
number
of
letters
conveyed
illegally
bore
no
proportion
to
the
number
which
were
not
written
at
all
on
account
of
the
high
rates
of
postage.
On
the
poor
the
Post-Office
charges
pressed
grievously,
and
there
seemed
no
other
course
open
to
them
than
that,
if
their
letters
could
not
be
received
without
the
payment
of
exorbitant
rates,
they
must
lie
in
the
hands
of
the
authorities.
It
is
only
necessary
to
compare
the
income
of
a
labouring
man
with
his
pressing
wants
to
see
that
it
was
idle
to
suppose
that
he
would
apply
his
little
surplus
to
the
enjoyment
of
post-letters
other
than
in
cases
of
life
and
death.
The
Committee
were
absolutely
flooded
with
instances
in
which
the
Post-Office
charges
seriously
interfered
with
the
wants
and
reasonable
enjoyments
of
the
poor.
On
the
general
question
involved,
nearly
all
the
witnesses,
of
whatever
rank
or
grade,
evidenced
that
the
public,
to
an
enormous
extent,
were
deterred
from
writing
letters
and
sending
communications,
which
otherwise,
under
a
cheaper
tariff,
they
would
write
and
send.
That
this
part
of
the
case
was
proved
may
be
concluded
from
the
language
of
the
Committee
themselves:--"The
multitude
of
transactions
which,
owing
to
the
high
rates
of
postage,
are
prevented
from
being
done,
or
which,
if
done,
are
not
announced,
is
quite
astonishing.
Bills
for
moderate
amounts
are
not
drawn;
small
orders
for
goods
are
not
given
or
received;
remittances
of
money
are
not
acknowledged;
the
expediting
of
goods
by
sea
and
land,
and
the
sailing
or
arrival
of
ships
not
advised;
printers
do
not
send
their
proofs;
the
country
attorney
delays
writing
to
his
London
agent,
the
commercial
traveller
to
his
principal,
the
town-banker
to
his
agent
in
the
country.
In
all
these,
and
many
other
cases,
regularity
and
punctuality
is
neglected
in
attempts
to
save
the
expenses
of
exorbitant
rates
of
postage."
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