Her Majesty's Mails

Mr. Hill's proposals were instantly hailed with intense satisfaction, especially by the mercantile and manufacturing classes of the community. Whatever might be said in Parliament, public opinion in the country was decided on the question, that if the success of the new scheme was sufficient to cover the charges of the Post-Office establishment, it ought by all means to be carried out. Scarcely ever was public sympathy so soon and so universally excited in any matter. The progress of the question of post-reform was in this, and some other respects, very remarkable, and shows in a strong light how long a kind of extortion may be borne quietly, and then what may be accomplished by prompt and conjoint action. Before Mr. Hill's pamphlet appeared no complaints reached the Legislature of the high rates of postage. During the year in which it did appear five petitions reached the House of Commons, praying that its author's scheme might at least be considered. In the next year 320, and in the first half of the year 1839 no fewer than 830, petitions were presented in favour of the measure. Within a few, the same number were sent up to the House of Lords. During the agitation, it is calculated that no less than 5,000 petitions reached St. Stephen's, including 400 from town-councils and other public bodies--the Common Council of London, and the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, among the number.