Note 753 — APPENDIXES
Reading edition
"The Post Office in reality is neither a commercial nor a philanthropic establishment, but simply one of the revenue departments of the Government. It very rightly insists that no country post office shall be established unless the correspondence passing through it shall warrant the increased expense, and it maintains a tariff which has no accordance whatever with the cost of conveyance. Books, newspapers, and even unsealed manuscripts, can be sent up to the weight of 4 ounces for a penny; whereas if a sealed letter in the least exceeds ½ ounce it is charged 2d. It is obvious that the charges of the Post Office are for the most part a purely arbitrary system of taxes, designed to maintain the large net revenue of the Post Office, now (1867) amounting to a million and a half sterling.
"It will thus be apparent that Sir Rowland Hill's scheme of postal tariff consisted in substituting one arbitrary system of charges for a system more arbitrary and onerous."—W. S. Jevons, Methods of Social Reform, London, 1883, p. 280.