Her Majesty's Mails

Under the Earl of Elgin, the British Post-Office endeavoured to form conventions with foreign countries, the object in all cases being the increase of postal facilities. In the case of Spain and Portugal, the authorities seem to have been successful, and partially so with the German Postal Union. An attempt to renew negotiations with the United States calls for mention here. The advocates of ocean penny postage (of which so much was heard some years previously--not only a desirable, but a practicable scheme) may thus obtain some idea of the difficulty of coming to any reasonable arrangement between the two countries. We have already stated that a former Postmaster-General urged upon the Government of the United States the necessity of reduction in the rates of postage of letters circulating from one country to the other, but was unsuccessful at the time.[136] In 1859, the Postmaster-General of the United States (Mr. Holt) communicated to the English Department his concurrence in the principle of a reduction in the postage of British letters from twenty-four to twelve cents, providing that England would give America the lion's share of the proposed postage! The United States' Government would agree to the change provided the new rate be apportioned as follows, viz.:-- United States' Inland Postage 3 cents. Sea Rate of Postage 7 " British Inland Postage 2 " The Earl of Elgin objected to this proposal as not equitable. He argued, with perfect truth and fairness, that each country ought to be remunerated according to the value of the service it rendered, and that, whether the inland service was considered (where the three items of collection, conveyance,[137] and delivery must be taken into account), or the sea service (undoubtedly better worked and regulated with us than in America), this country had a fair claim to a larger share of postage than the United States. As, however, an unrestricted intercourse between the two countries was far more important than a nice adjustment in the revision of the postage, the English Postmaster-General would only press for equality, and proposed the following division:--