t, whereas in the year immediately preceding the
establishment of the Penny Postage the number of letters delivered in
the United Kingdom amounted to[5] 76,000,000, the number of letters
delivered in this country last year was nearly 1,600,000,000--twenty
times the number of letters which passed through the post fifty years
ago. To these letters must be added the 652,000,000 of post-cards and
other communications by the halfpenny post, and the enormous number of
newspapers, which bring the total number of communications passing
through the post to considerably above two billions. I venture to say
that this is the most stupendous result of any administrative change
which the world has witnessed. If you estimate the effect of that upon
our daily life; if you pause for a moment to consider how trade and
business have been facilitated and developed; how family relations have
been maintained and kept together; if you for a moment allow your mind
to dwell upon the change which is implied in that great fact to which I
have called attention, I think you will see that the establishment of
the penny post has done more to change--and change for the better--the
face of Old England than almost any other political or social project
which has received the sanction of Legislature within our history."

Among the Penny Postage literature issued in the year 1840 there are
several songs. One of these was published at Leith, and is given below.
It is entitled "Hurrah for the Postman, the great Roland Hill." The
leaflet is remarkable for this, that it is headed by a picture of
postmen rushing through the streets delivering letters on roller skates.
It is generally believed that roller skates are quite a modern
invention, and in the absence of proof to the contrary it may be fair to
assume that the author of the song anticipated the inventor in this mode
of progression. So there really seems to be nothing new under the sun!

HURRAH FOR THE POSTMAN, THE GREAT ROLAND HILL.[6]

"Come, send round the liquor, and fill to the brim
A bumper to Railroads, the Press, Gas, and Steam;
To rags, bags, and nutgalls, ink, paper, and quill,
The Post, and the Postman, the gude Roland Hill!
By steam we noo travel mair quick than the eagle,
A sixty mile trip for the price o' a sang!
A prin it has powntit--th' Atlantic surmountit,
We'll compass the globe in a fortnight or lang.
The gas bleezes brightly, you wit