recommendations. The condition of the national finances was not so
healthy as in 1837, when the proposals were first broached, and they did
not improve in the following years.[85] The doubt as to the financial
result of the scheme therefore made its early adoption in the normal
course unlikely. The reform was, however, warmly taken up by the
Radicals,[86] and in 1839 party exigencies enabled them to insist on the
introduction of uniform penny postage as the price of their support in
Parliament.[87]

On the 10th January 1840, therefore, the reform was introduced.[88] The
new rate was one penny for each of the first two half ounces, and
twopence for each additional ounce. The results were disappointing
financially. The reduction in net revenue in the first year was one
million pounds sterling (from [L]1,500,000 to [L]500,000), instead of
[L]300,000 as forecasted. The number of letters, also, was doubled only,
instead of quadrupled (in 1839, 82 millions, in 1840, 169 millions). But
the numbers continued to increase rapidly, in agreeable contrast to the
stagnation under the old system. By 1847 they had quadrupled; by 1860
they had reached 564 millions; and the expansion has since been
continuous.[89] The gross revenue of 1839 was equalled in 1850, and the
net revenue of 1839 was reached in 1863. It has since gone on
increasing. The plan was not an immediate financial success: neither was
it a complete financial failure, as sometimes alleged.[90] The recovery
of revenue was slow, but it was constant; and ultimately the plan has
abundantly justified itself as a financial arrangement.

The changes in the British letter rates since 1840 have not been
numerous or fundamental. The limit of weight for letters, viz. 16
ounces, fixed in 1840, was abolished in 1847. In 1865 the progression of
weight and charge above one ounce was made a penny the half-ounce. In
1871 the rates were reduced. Letters up to 1 ounce in weight became
transmissible at the penny rate; for the second ounce, and for every
succeeding 2 ounces up to 12 ounces, the rate was made 1/2d.; and for
letters weighing more than 12 ounces, 1d. the ounce, including the first
ounce. In 1885 the rate of 1/2d. for every 2 ounces after the second
ounce was continued without limit; and in 1897, on the occasion of the
Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, a further reduction of the rate for
heavier letters was made. The scale of 1d. for the first 4 ounces, and
1/2d. for each succ