ion contained in these
reports, and as the result of this study evolved a complete plan for the
reform and reorganization of the whole Post Office system, a plan
involving the transformation both of the theory of Post Office finance,
and of the methods of practical working.[72]

His inquiries led him to examine the cost of the Post Office service as
a whole, and its relation to the work performed by the Post Office in
respect of individual letters, or, as he termed it, "the natural cost of
conveying a letter."[73] The investigations and calculations made in
this connection elucidated a fact of first importance, viz. that the
cost of the conveyance of a letter from one town to another was
exceedingly small, being on the average no more than nine-hundredths of
a penny--in the case of a mail from London to Edinburgh the cost of
conveyance was no more than one-thirty-sixth of a penny. This fact was
developed. It was shown that not only was the cost for conveyance for
the average of distance exceedingly small, but that it did not vary with
the distance. The variation was rather in the inverse proportion to the
number of letters enclosed in a mail.[74] Thus, while the average cost
of the conveyance of a letter from London to Edinburgh was
one-thirty-sixth of a penny, the cost of the conveyance of a letter for
a shorter distance was often greater, owing to the small number of
letters included in the mail. On these facts rests the whole case for
uniformity of rate irrespective of distance:[75] and they are
sufficient to demonstrate that the principle is fundamentally sound.

The proposal for a uniform rate was the outstanding feature of the plan,
but there were others of importance. It was a chief merit that the plan
might be introduced without causing any serious diminution of net
revenue, and the object of the further proposals was so to modify and
simplify the working methods of the service as to enable the increased
traffic which a low uniform rate would inevitably bring into the post to
be dealt with without a proportionate increase in working expenses.

A vast increase in the number of letters must occur if the revenue was
to be maintained, and this increase was confidently anticipated. With
the existing rates there was a very large clandestine traffic in letters
outside the Post Office, and it was calculated that a low uniform rate
would effect the complete suppression of that traffic, and attract all
letters into the