THE LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILLAND THEHISTORY OF PENNY POSTAGE.THE LIFEOFSIR ROWLAND HILLK.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., etc.AND THEHISTORY OF PENNY POSTAGE.BYSIR ROWLAND HILLANDHIS NEPHEWGEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.AUTHOR OF“DR. JOHNSON: HIS FRIENDS AND HIS CRITICS,” ETC.IN TWO VOLUMES.VOL. I.LONDON:THOS. DE LA RUE & CO.110, BUNHILL ROW.1880(The right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.)PRINTED BYTHOMAS DE LA RUE AND CO., BUNHILL ROW,LONDON.TO THERIGHT HON.WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M.P.FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY,CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, ETC., ETC.Sir,The following pages tell how much Sir Rowland Hill felt your kindness in a time of great trouble. In his Private Journal I find even stronger expressions of his gratitude. “I spoke,” he says in recording one of his interviews with you, “in strong terms, and with emotion which I in vain tried to suppress, of the feeling I entertained towards him for the uniform kindness, sympathy, and support I have received at his hands.” In asking you, therefore, to allow me to dedicate to you all in this work that is mine, I am sure that I have done what would have been pleasing to him.I am, Sir, with the highest respect,Your obedient servant,G. B. HILL.PREFACE.Sir Rowland Hill, after his retirement from the public service, as soon as prolonged rest had given him back some portion of his former strength, satisfied a mind which had always found its chief happiness in hard work, by taking upon himself the task of writing the history of his great postal reform. In a “Prefatory Memoir” he gave, moreover, a sketch of the earlier part of his life. It had been his hope that he might live to bring out his book himself; but, for reasons which the reader will find set forth in his Preface,[1]he at last, though with reluctance, came to the decision that the publication must be delayed till after his death. Though he had, as it seemed, really finished his work, and had even gone so far as to have a few copies printed, yet he spent many an hour on its revision. He went through it more than once with the utmost care, sparing no pains to obtain completeaccuracy. In the year 1872 he asked me to examine it carefully, and to point out whatever might strike me as being defective either in its method or its execution. I found, as I told him, that the “Prefatory Memoir” was too short, and “The History of Penny Postage” too long. Too little was told of the way in which his character had been trained for the hard task which awaited it, and too much was told of the improvements which had been effected. In the case of inventors it is not so much what a man does, as how he learns to do it, and how he does it, that we all care to know. We so soon come to think that what is has always been, that our curiosity is not much excited about the origin of the conveniences of modern life. Though the improvements themselves we accept as a matter of course, yet if in getting them adopted there was a hard struggle with ignorance, routine, indifference, and jealousy, then our interest is at once aroused. In his book there were very many passages which I had read with the strongest interest, containing as they did the history of a great and a very curious fight. In these there was scarcely any change that I could wish made. But mixed up with these there were accounts of improvements which, though important in themselves, were of little interest to an outsider. I suggested, therefore, that certain parts should be altogether struck out, andthat others should be gathered either into one Appendix at the end of the History, or into Appendices at the end of the chapters. Though he did not by any means adopt all my recommendations, yet he entrusted me with the duty of writing the history of his early life. In the course of the next few years he drew up many interesting papers containing the recollections of his childhood and youth. In this he was aided by his brother Arthur, in whose mind, though he has seen more than fourscore years, the past seems to live with all the freshness of yesterday. These papers he put into my hands some months before his death, and, together with them, a large number of old letters and a manuscript history of his life which he had begun to write when he was but seventeen years old. In fact, the abundance of the materials thus placed at my disposal was so great, that my chief difficulty has been to keep my part of the work at all within reasonable limits.If the “Prefatory Memoir” in which his early life was told had really been an Autobiography, I might well have hesitated, and hesitated long, before I ventured to rewrite it. So much of a man’s character is shown by his style, that even an imperfect life written by himself will, likely enough, be of far greater value than the most perfect life written byanother. But, as will be seen later on,[2]so far as the style goes, this Memoir was in no sense autobiographical. It was, indeed, told in the first person; but “I had,” he said, “to devolve upon another the task of immediate composition.” I may add that his brother, who thus assisted him, had not at his command many of the materials which were afterwards placed at my disposal. My uncle had not at that time wished that a full account should be given of his early days, and he had not, therefore, thought it needful to lay before him either the letters or the fragment of an early autobiography which I have mentioned above. He had a strange unwillingness to let this history of his youthful days be seen. In a memorandum which he made a few years ago he says, “These memoirs of the early part of my life having been written, for the most part, when I was very young and ill-informed, contain much which I have since known to be ridiculous; and for this reason I have never shown them to any one—except, I think, a small portion to my wife. After some hesitation I have decided to preserve the memoirs for any use to which my executors may think proper to put them.” A far greater value is added to them by the fact that the author intendedthem for no other eye but his own. None of his brothers, I believe, even knew that he was writing them. He used, in late years, often to speak to me about them; but it was only a short time before his death that he could bring himself to let me read them. When he gave them to me he bade me remember that he was very young and ignorant when he wrote them. “You must not,” he said, “judge me harshly.” Happily I was soon able to tell him that, though I had been a great reader of autobiographies, there were few which had interested me more than his. I found nothing to dispose me to ridicule, but much that moved my pity, and still more that roused my admiration.I need scarcely say that the “Prefatory Memoir” has been of great service to me in my task. It is not for me to say how well it is written, or to praise the work of one to whom I owe everything. I may, at all events, acknowledge my debt. I have, as the reader will see, largely drawn upon it. That it was, however, imperfect—necessarily so, as I have shown—will be at once recognised by any one who considers how much I have quoted from my uncle’s Memoirs and from the letters. It contained, for instance, no mention of the visit to Edgeworth-Town, and not a single extract from a letter.In giving so full an account of my grandparents and of their home-life, I have borne in mind the saying of Mr. Carlyle, that “the history of a man’s childhood is the description of his parents and environment.”[3]In a very large sense is this true of the childhood of Rowland Hill. I have not dwelt so much, as I should otherwise have done, on the character of his eldest brother, towards whom he felt himself indebted in so many ways. By “The Life of Matthew Davenport Hill, the Recorder of Birmingham,” by his daughters, I find myself forestalled in this part of my work.In my duty as Editor of “The History of Penny Postage,” I have ventured not only here and there on a verbal alteration, but also on considerable omissions, and in some places, on a change of arrangement. In fact, I have acted on the advice which I gave eight years ago. I have gathered into Appendices some of the less important matters, and I have thus enabled my readers, as their tastes may lead them, either to read the whole History, or, if they find that too long, to follow a somewhat briefer but still a connected narrative. In making changes such as these I was running, I was well aware, a great riskof falling into serious errors. A reference, for instance, might be left in to a passage which, by the new arrangement, was either not given at all, or else was found on a later page. I have, however, spared no pains to guard against such blunders, trying always to keep before me the high standard of strict accuracy which the subject of my biography ever set me.G. B. Hill.The Poplars, Burghfield, September 21st, 1880.CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.BOOK I.CHAPTER I.Birth of Rowland Hill. His Father’s Ancestors,1—His Mother’s Ancestors,5—His Father’s unusual Character,7—His Relish of Life,8—His legal reading,9—Study of Astronomy. Priestley,11—His Short-hand,13—A Schoolmaster,14—His Love of Theories,18—Admirable as a Father,19—A Reformer,20—A Free-trader,23—A bad Man of Business,24—His Death,26—Rowland Hill’s Mother,27—He himself a Combination of the strong Qualities of each Parent,31—Bailie Lea,32—Birmingham Riots,33—Birth-place,34—Life at Horsehills. Dearth of 1800,35—A Night-alarm,37—Peace of Amiens,38—Trafalgar,39—Currency,40—Forgers,41—Mr. Joseph Pearson,42—Early Courtship,43—Love of Counting. Water-wheel,44—Perpetual Motion,45.CHAPTER II.Hill Top,47—School opened,48—Young Traders,49—Miss Edgeworth,50—Workshop. Household Work,51—Feeling of Responsibility,52—Debts. Ruling Machine,53—Rowland Hill becomes a Teacher,54—His Father’s Lectures,55—Electrical Machine,56—A young Astronomer,57—Habit of Criticism,58—Mathematics,60—Learning by teaching,61—Mr. Beasley,62—Discovery of his own Deficiencies, 63-67—Horse-dealing,64—Literary and Scientific Societies,68—Representation of Minorities,69—William Matthews,73—Prize for Drawing,74.CHAPTER III.Early Perseverance,76—School Theatre,77—Map-making,79—His Father’s Lecture on Electricity,80—Family Help,82—Alarum Water-clock,83—Screw Steamboats,84—Land Surveying. Map of Scene of Thornton’s Murder,85—Ambition. A model College,87—No Jealousy of the Sons in the Father,88—Punctuality,89—Enforcement of Penalties,90—Family Debts paid off. “Exhibition.” Shakespeare corrected,91—Eighteen Hours’ Work a-Day. Zerah Colbourn,92—Mental Arithmetic,93—Trigonometrical Survey,94—A Rival School,97—Survey of a Coal-pit,98—Roman Road,99.CHAPTER IV.Dr. Arnold,100—Charter House,101—“Public Education,”103—The New System,104—Overwork,105—Court of Justice,107—A Constitution,108—Benevolent Society,109—Magistrates,110—Character on leaving,111—Band. Corporal Punishment. Marks,112—School “a little World,”113—Conference of Teachers,114—Code of Laws,115—Juries. “Voluntary Labour,”116—Fights,118—“School Fund,”119—Punctuality,120—Rank,121—“Edinburgh Review.” Captain Basil Hall,122—Mr. W. L. Sargant,123—Unalterable Determinations. Enforcement of Penalties,124—Restraint of Temper. Rowland Hill’s Courage,125—His Brother Matthew goes to the Bar. His Brother Arthur takes his Place,126—Becomes his Father’s Partner. Architect of the new School-house,128—Hazelwood opened,130.CHAPTER V.Long Walks. Shrewsbury,131—Criminal Trial,132—Margate,133—Peace of 1814. Public Lectures,134—Illuminations after Waterloo. First Sight of a Steam-boat,135—Benjamin West. Sub-Secretary to a Deaf and Dumb Institution,136—Derbyshire,137—Floods,138—Hampden Club,139—Chester. Liverpool,140—John Howard. Uriconium,141—Gratitude to his Parents,142—Early Rising. John Kemble,143—Lord Mayor’s English. Habeas Corpus Act,144—Netley Abbey,145—Freshwater. Stonehenge,146—Diet,147—Thomas Campbell. New Hall Hill Meeting,149—Major Cartwright. Election of first Member for Birmingham,150.CHAPTER VI.Fire at Hazelwood,151—Origin of the Fire,158—Fire Insurance,158—Trip to Ireland. Gas. Steamboats, 160. Ireland in 1821,161—Edgeworth Town Assisting School,162—Miss Edgeworth,163—“Public Education,”164—Miss Edgeworth’s Father,165—A Sunday Evening at Edgeworth Town,166—The “Monsoons.” Steamboats,168—Hermit’s Cave,169.CHAPTER VII.“Public Education” published,170—Jeremy Bentham. An active Schoolmaster,171—The Greek Committee. Wilberforce. Grote,172—Hillska Skola. Hazelwood famous,173—Joseph Hume. “Edinburgh Review.” De Quincey,174—Overwork. Tour in Scotland,175—Paris,176—Break-down in Health,177—Hazelwood full,178—Plan of a model School,179—“A Sucker from the Hazelwood Tree,”180—Bruce Castle,181—Marriage,182.CHAPTER VIII.Family Group broken up,184—Brotherly Love,185—All Things in common,186—Articles of Partnership,187—Family Fund,188—Family Council,191—League of Brothers,192—ReasonversusAuthority,194—Rowland Hill’s Sisters,195—Howard Hill,196—“A little ideal World,”198—Early Prejudices,199—Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Vernier Pendulum,201—Home Colonies,202—Rowland Hill retires from School-keeping. Confidence in himself,203—Schemes,204—Robert Owen,206—Social Community,207—Sir J. Shaw-Lefevre,209—Professor Wheatstone,210—Pantisocracy,213—Mr. Roebuck,214—A new Career,215.CHAPTER IX.Mr. E. G. Wakefield. South Australian Association. Past Training,216—Stamp Duty on Newspapers,217—Mr. Charles Knight and Stamped Covers. Pauper Education,218—Lord Brougham. South Australian Colonisation,219—Secretary to the Commission,220—Survey of the Colony. Emigrant Ships,221—Progress of the Colony,222—Representation of Minorities. Resignation of Secretaryship,223—Printing Machine,224—First Hopes of Postal Reform,229.BOOK II.Preface to the History of Penny Postage,233.CHAPTER I.CONCEPTION OF MY PLAN. CHIEFLY 1836.The Post Office as it used to be,237—Coleridge and Miss Martineau,239—Franks,240—A Travelling Post Office,241—Effects of Reduction in Taxation,243—Post Office Revenue,244—Systematic Study of Postal Accounts,246—Cost of Primary Distribution,248—Cost of Conveying a Letter from London to Edinburgh, 249;—Uniform Rate,250—Secondary Distribution,251—Contraband Conveyance,253—Effects of Cheapness on Consumption,255—Mr. Wallace,257—Commission of Inquiry of 1835-8,259.CHAPTER II.PROMULGATION OF MY PLAN.“Post Office Reform,”262—Plan laid before Government. Mr. Villiers,263—Stamped Covers,265—Publication of “Post Office Reform,”267—Examined before the Commission of Inquiry,268—Stamps,270—Recommendation of Commissioners,273—Government does Nothing,274—Appeal to Public,275—Instances of heavy Postage,276—Support of the Press,278—Court of Common Council,280—Post Office Consolidation Act,281—“The old state of things,”282—Difficulties raised,285—Appointment of Parliamentary Committee,287—City of London Petition,289—Ignorance of the Postmaster-General,290.CHAPTER III.PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE.Letters to Lord Lichfield,292—Mercantile Committee,294—Parliamentary Committee,295—Postage Rates,296—Number of Letters,298—Contraband Conveyance, 300-4—High Postage and the Poor, 305-9—Mr. Jones-Loyd,310—Low Postage no Tax,311—Uniform Rate,312—Mode of Prepayment,315—Charge by Weight,317—Conveyance of Mails,319—Lettersnotsent by Post,320—Franks,321—Colonel Maberly’s Plan,323—Examined before the Committee,325—Votes of Committee,327—Lord Seymour’s Report,329—Committee’s Report,331—Mr. Warburton,333.CHAPTER IV.PENNY POSTAGE BILL.United States,336—Issue of Report,337—Reductionbya Penny. Petitions,339—“Post Circular,”340—Deputation to Lord Melbourne,341—Adoption of Plan,343—Stamps,345—Envelopes,346—“Facts and Estimates,”347—Stationers. The Budget,348—The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Resolution,350—The Division,352—Duke of Wellington,353—Penny Postage Bill,355—“Kitchen” of the House of Commons,356—Interview with Lord Melbourne,357—The Bill before the Lords,359—The Bill becomes Law. Miss Martineau,361—Lord Ashburton,362—Wolverhampton Testimonial,363.CHAPTER V.APPOINTMENT IN TREASURY (1839).Interview with Mr. Baring,365—Mr. M. D. Hill’s letter,366—Appointment Accepted,369—First Visit to the Post Office,371—Proposed Establishment of London District Offices,373—Private Journal Resumed,374—Sorting of Letters,375—Visit to the French Post Office,376—“Quarterly Review.” Post-paid Envelopes in 1653,377—“Edinburgh Review,”378.CHAPTER VI.PENNY POSTAGE (1839-40).Competing Plans of Collecting the Postage,381—Mr. Cobden’s Expectations,382—Stamps,383—Fourpenny Rate,384—The Chancellor of the Exchequer at Home,385—“My Lords,”386—Franking Abolished,388—Treasury Warrant,389—Penny Postage begins, January 10th, 1840,390.CHAPTER VII.STAMPS (1840).Mr. Edwin Hill’s Appointment,392—The Mulready Envelope,393—Number of Letters in the First Quarter,395—Official Dignity,396—First Issue ofStamps,397—Attempts at Forgery. Obliteration of Stamps,399—The Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes and Mr. Edwin Hill,405—Manufacture of Stamps,406—Number Issued,407.CHAPTER VIII.SUBSIDIARY PROCEEDINGS.Registration. Negotiations with France,410—Money Orders. Increase in Expenditure partly caused by Railways,411—Applications for Increase of Salaries,413—Pillar Letter-Boxes,417—Captain Basil Hall. Gummed Envelopes,418—Envelope Folding Machine,419—“A Princess Royal,”420—Miss Edgeworth,421.CHAPTER IX.PROGRESS UNDER DIFFICULTIES.Mr. Baring’s increasing Confidence,422—Post-Office Correspondence. Messengers,425—Lecture at the Polytechnic,426—Threatened Break-down in the Post Office,427—Errors in Accounts. Distribution of Stamps,429—Slow Progress,431—Want of Statistics,433—Question of a Twopenny Rate,435—Liberal Administration falling,437—Change of Ministry,439—Mr. Baring’s Letter,440—Testimonials,442.CHAPTER X.NEW MASTERS (1841-2).Mr. Goulburn,443—Lord Lowther,444—Lack of Employment,445—Mr. Cole,447—Errors in Returns,448—“Penny Postage is safe,”449—Country Post Offices,451—Mr. Baring’s Minute on Rural Distribution,452—Modes of Waste,453—Frauds,454—Lord Lowther’s Plan of Registration,455—Cost of the Packet Service,460—Official Reticence,462—Letters to Mr. Goulburn,463—Announcement of Dismissal,467—Sir Robert Peel,469.CHAPTER XI.OUT OF OFFICE (1842-3).Proposed Publication of Correspondence with the Treasury,473—Earl Spencer,474—Mr. Baring,475—Mr. Cobden,477—Thomas Hood,479—Personal Expenditure,480—Mr. Stephen,481—Official Publication of Correspondence,482—Petition to House of Commons,483—Publication of the whole Correspondence,484—Australian Letters and India,485—Sir T. Wilde’s Motion,487—Mr. Goulburn’s Amendment,489—Sir Robert Peel’s Defence,491—Committee of Enquiry,492—Sir George Clerk,493.APPENDICES.A.—Royal Astronomical Society,p. 497.B.—Preface to the Laws of the Society for Literary and Scientific Improvement,p. 511.C.—Cube Roots,p. 513.D.—Vernier Pendulum,p. 517.E.—Coach Company,p. 520.F.—Sir Rowland Hill’s Printing Press,p. 525.G.—Speech at Greenock,p. 529.H.—“Facts and Estimates as to the Increase of Letters,”p. 534.I.—Extracts from Reports of Commissioners of Inland Revenue (Mr. Edwin Hill),p. 539.J.—Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (June 23rd, 1841),p. 542.LIST OF PLATES.Portrait of Sir Rowland Hill(Frontispiece)Thomas Wright Hill(Father of Sir Rowland Hill)Facing page8Sarah Hill(Mother of Sir Rowland Hill)”28The Birth-place of Sir Rowland Hill, Kidderminster”34Bruce Castle, Tottenham”181Fac-simile of the Mulready Envelope”393BOOK I.THE LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILL.
THE LIFE OF SIR ROWLAND HILLAND THEHISTORY OF PENNY POSTAGE.
THE LIFEOFSIR ROWLAND HILLK.C.B., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., etc.AND THEHISTORY OF PENNY POSTAGE.
BYSIR ROWLAND HILLANDHIS NEPHEWGEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L.
AUTHOR OF“DR. JOHNSON: HIS FRIENDS AND HIS CRITICS,” ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:THOS. DE LA RUE & CO.110, BUNHILL ROW.1880(The right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.)
PRINTED BYTHOMAS DE LA RUE AND CO., BUNHILL ROW,LONDON.
TO THERIGHT HON.WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M.P.FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY,CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, ETC., ETC.
Sir,
The following pages tell how much Sir Rowland Hill felt your kindness in a time of great trouble. In his Private Journal I find even stronger expressions of his gratitude. “I spoke,” he says in recording one of his interviews with you, “in strong terms, and with emotion which I in vain tried to suppress, of the feeling I entertained towards him for the uniform kindness, sympathy, and support I have received at his hands.” In asking you, therefore, to allow me to dedicate to you all in this work that is mine, I am sure that I have done what would have been pleasing to him.
I am, Sir, with the highest respect,
Your obedient servant,
G. B. HILL.
Sir Rowland Hill, after his retirement from the public service, as soon as prolonged rest had given him back some portion of his former strength, satisfied a mind which had always found its chief happiness in hard work, by taking upon himself the task of writing the history of his great postal reform. In a “Prefatory Memoir” he gave, moreover, a sketch of the earlier part of his life. It had been his hope that he might live to bring out his book himself; but, for reasons which the reader will find set forth in his Preface,[1]he at last, though with reluctance, came to the decision that the publication must be delayed till after his death. Though he had, as it seemed, really finished his work, and had even gone so far as to have a few copies printed, yet he spent many an hour on its revision. He went through it more than once with the utmost care, sparing no pains to obtain completeaccuracy. In the year 1872 he asked me to examine it carefully, and to point out whatever might strike me as being defective either in its method or its execution. I found, as I told him, that the “Prefatory Memoir” was too short, and “The History of Penny Postage” too long. Too little was told of the way in which his character had been trained for the hard task which awaited it, and too much was told of the improvements which had been effected. In the case of inventors it is not so much what a man does, as how he learns to do it, and how he does it, that we all care to know. We so soon come to think that what is has always been, that our curiosity is not much excited about the origin of the conveniences of modern life. Though the improvements themselves we accept as a matter of course, yet if in getting them adopted there was a hard struggle with ignorance, routine, indifference, and jealousy, then our interest is at once aroused. In his book there were very many passages which I had read with the strongest interest, containing as they did the history of a great and a very curious fight. In these there was scarcely any change that I could wish made. But mixed up with these there were accounts of improvements which, though important in themselves, were of little interest to an outsider. I suggested, therefore, that certain parts should be altogether struck out, andthat others should be gathered either into one Appendix at the end of the History, or into Appendices at the end of the chapters. Though he did not by any means adopt all my recommendations, yet he entrusted me with the duty of writing the history of his early life. In the course of the next few years he drew up many interesting papers containing the recollections of his childhood and youth. In this he was aided by his brother Arthur, in whose mind, though he has seen more than fourscore years, the past seems to live with all the freshness of yesterday. These papers he put into my hands some months before his death, and, together with them, a large number of old letters and a manuscript history of his life which he had begun to write when he was but seventeen years old. In fact, the abundance of the materials thus placed at my disposal was so great, that my chief difficulty has been to keep my part of the work at all within reasonable limits.
If the “Prefatory Memoir” in which his early life was told had really been an Autobiography, I might well have hesitated, and hesitated long, before I ventured to rewrite it. So much of a man’s character is shown by his style, that even an imperfect life written by himself will, likely enough, be of far greater value than the most perfect life written byanother. But, as will be seen later on,[2]so far as the style goes, this Memoir was in no sense autobiographical. It was, indeed, told in the first person; but “I had,” he said, “to devolve upon another the task of immediate composition.” I may add that his brother, who thus assisted him, had not at his command many of the materials which were afterwards placed at my disposal. My uncle had not at that time wished that a full account should be given of his early days, and he had not, therefore, thought it needful to lay before him either the letters or the fragment of an early autobiography which I have mentioned above. He had a strange unwillingness to let this history of his youthful days be seen. In a memorandum which he made a few years ago he says, “These memoirs of the early part of my life having been written, for the most part, when I was very young and ill-informed, contain much which I have since known to be ridiculous; and for this reason I have never shown them to any one—except, I think, a small portion to my wife. After some hesitation I have decided to preserve the memoirs for any use to which my executors may think proper to put them.” A far greater value is added to them by the fact that the author intendedthem for no other eye but his own. None of his brothers, I believe, even knew that he was writing them. He used, in late years, often to speak to me about them; but it was only a short time before his death that he could bring himself to let me read them. When he gave them to me he bade me remember that he was very young and ignorant when he wrote them. “You must not,” he said, “judge me harshly.” Happily I was soon able to tell him that, though I had been a great reader of autobiographies, there were few which had interested me more than his. I found nothing to dispose me to ridicule, but much that moved my pity, and still more that roused my admiration.
I need scarcely say that the “Prefatory Memoir” has been of great service to me in my task. It is not for me to say how well it is written, or to praise the work of one to whom I owe everything. I may, at all events, acknowledge my debt. I have, as the reader will see, largely drawn upon it. That it was, however, imperfect—necessarily so, as I have shown—will be at once recognised by any one who considers how much I have quoted from my uncle’s Memoirs and from the letters. It contained, for instance, no mention of the visit to Edgeworth-Town, and not a single extract from a letter.
In giving so full an account of my grandparents and of their home-life, I have borne in mind the saying of Mr. Carlyle, that “the history of a man’s childhood is the description of his parents and environment.”[3]In a very large sense is this true of the childhood of Rowland Hill. I have not dwelt so much, as I should otherwise have done, on the character of his eldest brother, towards whom he felt himself indebted in so many ways. By “The Life of Matthew Davenport Hill, the Recorder of Birmingham,” by his daughters, I find myself forestalled in this part of my work.
In my duty as Editor of “The History of Penny Postage,” I have ventured not only here and there on a verbal alteration, but also on considerable omissions, and in some places, on a change of arrangement. In fact, I have acted on the advice which I gave eight years ago. I have gathered into Appendices some of the less important matters, and I have thus enabled my readers, as their tastes may lead them, either to read the whole History, or, if they find that too long, to follow a somewhat briefer but still a connected narrative. In making changes such as these I was running, I was well aware, a great riskof falling into serious errors. A reference, for instance, might be left in to a passage which, by the new arrangement, was either not given at all, or else was found on a later page. I have, however, spared no pains to guard against such blunders, trying always to keep before me the high standard of strict accuracy which the subject of my biography ever set me.
G. B. Hill.
The Poplars, Burghfield, September 21st, 1880.