was totally
impossible. He therefore supported the measure on entirely
different grounds from those on which Mr. Hill placed it. In
neither house had it been brought forward on the ground that the
revenue would be the gainer. He assented to it on the simple
ground that THE DEMAND FOR IT WAS UNIVERSAL. So obnoxious was the
tax upon letters, that he was entitled to say that "the people had
declared their _readiness to submit to any impost_ that might be
substituted in its stead."

The proof is thus complete, that the British system was actually adopted
with sole reference to its general benefits, and the will of the people,
and not at all in the expectation of realizing, in any moderate time, as
much revenue as was derived from the old postage. The revenue question was
discarded, from a paramount regard to the public good, which demanded the
cheap postage, even if it should be necessary to impose a new tax for its
support. The extravagant expectations of some of the over-sanguine friends
of the new system, were expressly disclaimed, and the government justified
themselves on these other considerations entirely--considerations which
have been most abundantly realized. It will be easy to show that the
benefits and blessings anticipated from the actual enjoyment of cheap
postage, have fully equalled the most sanguine expectations of the friends
of the measure, and have far exceeded in public utility, the pittance of
income to the treasury, which used to be wrung out by the tax upon
letters. The same examination will also show, that there is no substantial
reason, either in the system itself, or in any peculiarity of our
circumstances, why the same system is not equally practicable and equally
applicable here, nor why we should not realize at least as great benefits
as the people of Great Britain, from cheap postage.

Mr. Rowland Hill published his scheme in a pamphlet, in 1837. In 1838, it
had attracted so much notice, that between three and four hundred
petitions in its favor were presented to Parliament, and the government
consented to a select committee to collect and report information on the
subject. This committee sat sixty-three days, examined the
Postmaster-General and his secretaries and solicitors, elicited many
important tabular returns, and took the testimony of about ninety other
individuals, of a great variety of stations and occupations. They also
entered into many minute an