: "With respect to the
conveyance of Pamphlets and Periodical Publications by the Post,
Treasury has expressed itself to me as decidedly hostile to any such
infraction of the carrying Trade of the Country. It is moreover
physically impossible. We have the greatest difficulty in conveying
Letters, Newspapers, and official packets; many of the official forms,
etc., remain some days until we can take them by the Mail Coaches." And
in 1847, when Sir Rowland Hill put forward his proposal for a Book Post,
Colonel Maberley, then Secretary, said: "The Post ought to be confined
to small packets as much as possible and to convey large packets only
when the necessity is urgent." He was especially afraid of the
inconvenience which would be caused to foot-messengers.--_British
Official Records._ Cf. 10 & 11 Vict., cap. 85, [S] 2.

[406] See _supra_, p. 32.

[407] As they had always done. "The Post Office has recently absolutely
entered into competition with the Railway Companies. As carriers, the
Companies derived considerable profit from parcels. The Post Office,
finding that railways afford the means of carrying any quantity of bulk,
has seen fit to undertake the conveyance of books and other parcels at
very reduced postal rates. If the Post Office should extend its
operations a little further, it must be brought into absolute antagonism
with the Companies. Books are heavier articles than laces or muslins, or
many other fabrics, the conveyance of which enters largely into railway
receipts. The Post Office having made book parcels profitable, may try
to turn to account the conveyance of other, whether lighter or heavier,
articles of trade. It might be thought advisable to carry a small
valuable parcel to Aberdeen for 2d., a rate at which Railway Companies,
having to pay interest on capital, certainly cannot hope to compete with
a department which insists on the right of travelling on their roads at
the mere actual cost. You will not, therefore, fail to see that the Post
Office arrangements may be carried to a point at which great injustice
would be done to Railway Companies."--Robert Stephenson before the
Institution of Civil Engineers, January 1856 (S. Smiles, _Life of George
Stephenson_, London, 1857, p. 525).

[408] See Leslie Stephen, _Life of Henry Fawcett_, London, 1885, pp.
417-18.

[409] 45 & 46 Vict., cap. 74.

[410] Jevons had foreseen that the rich would benefit; but he
anticipated a large general traffic in househ