ving an undesirable complication of the uniform
rates.[462] The parcel post business is conducted as part of the general
Post Office business, and consequently it is not possible to eliminate
from the general expenses of the whole service the expenses incurred in
dealing with parcels. It cannot be said, therefore, whether either the
light parcels or the heavy parcels, the short-distance parcels or the
long-distance parcels, are or are not profitable to the administration,
or, indeed, whether the parcel post service as a whole is a remunerative
service or otherwise; but German writers on the subject hold the opinion
that the cost of the service exceeds the revenue derived from it.[463]

* * * * *

IV

MINOR RATES

(I) BOOK POST

UNITED KINGDOM

In 1847 Sir Rowland Hill proposed the provision of special facilities
for the transmission by post in the United Kingdom of books and other
printed matter. He thought such a concession expedient as a matter of
policy, especially in view of the "state of the public mind on the
important subject of education." A low rate of postage would facilitate
the transmission of scientific and literary reports and other documents
"tending to the extension and diffusion of knowledge," and would be
highly prized by the Literary and Scientific Societies, which were a
feature of those days. Private families, especially the rural clergy,
would also in that way be enabled to obtain valuable publications
otherwise, to them, unattainable. Sir Rowland Hill recognized that there
were objections to the granting of a special rate for a special class of
matter; but he argued that, in effect, the proposal was nothing more
than an extended application of an existing principle, applied to
newspapers and Parliamentary Proceedings, and (in regard to certain
places abroad) ordinary periodical publications.[464]

The rate proposed was 6d. per pound, which was virtually the rate
charged on newspapers, with this difference to its advantage, that,
whereas 6d. paid on newspapers would represent six packets to be dealt
with separately, 6d. paid under the proposed book post rates would be in
respect of one packet only. The high minimum charge of 6d. was proposed
as a security against fraud: with such a minimum there would be no
temptation to send a packet as a cover for a written communication. As a
measure of economy it was proposed to send the packets by the day mail