post. But in order to maintain the net revenue, it was
essential to simplify effectively the methods of working. This
simplification was to be secured by the introduction of the system of
prepayment, and the principle of charging by weight.

Covers and sheets of paper bearing the revenue stamp already impressed
were to be sold at all post offices. The postage label, which has become
so characteristic a feature of post office business throughout the
civilized world, was proposed as an expedient to meet a certain
exceptional case. If any person bringing a letter to the post should not
be able to write the address on the stamped cover in which the letter
was to be enclosed, Sir Rowland Hill suggested that "this difficulty
might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough to bear the
stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash, which the bringer
might, by applying a little moisture, attach to the back of the letter,
so as to avoid the necessity for redirecting it."[76]

Letters prepaid in either of these ways were to pass through the post as
franks,[77] i.e. without change or record. By this method a great
reduction in the work of the Post Office would be effected. Under the
existing system it was necessary to record and charge forward on the
postmasters all letters the postage of which was to be collected on
delivery, and these letters formed the vast majority. All such labour
would be dispensed with. The increase of the number of letters was to be
further encouraged by the provision of additional facilities, such as
the establishment of day mails and increased frequency of deliveries in
towns.[78]

It has sometimes been thought that Sir Rowland Hill's theory included
the proposition that the increase of the number of letters varied in
inverse proportion to the reduction of rate effected, that is to say,
that if the rate were reduced by one-half, the number of letters posted
would be doubled; if the rate were reduced by two-thirds, the number of
letters posted would increase threefold.[79] This is not the case. His
estimate was that with the reduction of postage in the United Kingdom to
the uniform rate of one penny, i.e. an average reduction of
seven-eighths (from about eightpence), an immediate fourfold increase in
the number of letters might be anticipated. This estimate was framed
with regard to the circumstances existing in the United Kingdom at the
time, and there is no other rule applicable to t