er increase
followed in 1805, when the Post Office was called upon to provide an
additional [L]230,000 a year.[63] This time the increase was made in a
very simple manner, viz. by increasing the rates of 1801 in every case
by 1d. for a single letter, 2d. for a double letter, 3d. for a treble
letter, and 4d. per ounce.

All these increases, made with the avowed intention of increasing
revenue, were successful in their main object. The net revenue, which in
1796 was [L]466,457, had risen in 1804 to [L]956,212, and in 1806 reached
the sum of [L]1,119,429. The fiscal results seemed, therefore, to justify
the Government in turning again and again to the Post Office when they
were hard pushed to find revenue. This must be the justification of the
further increase of 1812.[64] The rates then established were the
highest ever charged in England. The net revenue rose slightly after
their establishment, but never increased materially. These rates
continued in operation until 1839, when they were completely swept away,
and new rates based on principles fundamentally different were
established.

This was the system, due to Sir Rowland Hill, of uniform rates,
irrespective of distance of transmission, first introduced in the United
Kingdom in 1839, and since adopted throughout the civilized world, not
only for inland services, but for the international service.[65] The
story of the conception, advocacy, and adoption of uniform postage is
fully told by Sir Rowland Hill in his _History of Penny Postage_,[66]
and need be only briefly dealt with here. The plan itself is described
in the famous pamphlet, _Post Office Reform: Its Importance and
Practicability_, which was issued by Sir Rowland Hill in 1837.

The reform was directly related to the great reform movement in England
of the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and is a brilliant
example of the application of the deductive method in politics. Sir
Rowland Hill was a member of a Radical family, remarkable even in those
days for its zeal for reform. It was the ambition of all members of the
family to aid as far as possible the great movement; and all the
brothers interested themselves in the study of social and economic
questions, with a view to reform and improvement.[67] In the year 1835
there was a large surplus of revenue, and the brothers speculated on the
direction in which reduction of taxation might best be made.[68] Sir
Rowland Hill examined carefully the results of