Her Majesty's Mails

This was certainly a large instalment of the improvements which the promoters of penny-post reform hoped to see realized; but, at the same time, it was only an instalment. The committee for which Mr. Hill had petitioned must now judge for themselves whether all had been done that might and ought to have been done to enhance the merits of the measure, and make it as profitable to the country as possible. In addition, it was requisite that they should consider several further suggestions which Mr. Hill had, since the introduction of his plan, proposed as likely to improve it, as well as hear him on some of the objections that had been raised to it. Thus, with regard to the latter, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Goulbourn) had stated; just before the committee was appointed, that "the Post-Office did not now pay its expenses." This statement was startling, inasmuch as Colonel Maberly himself had given 500,000l. or 600,000l. as the proceeds of the penny postage rates in the advent year of the measure. But Mr. Hill resolved the difficulty. The inconsistency was explained quite simply, that in a return furnished by the Post-Office, the whole of the cost of the packet-service--a little over 600,000l.--was charged against the Post-Office revenue. Though the cost of the packets had not been charged against the Post-Office for twenty years previously, this new item was here debited in the accounts to the prejudice of the scheme; and Mr. Goulbourn, who disclaimed any hostility to the new measure, thought himself justified, under the circumstances, in making the statement in question.