Note 74 — I THE RATE FOR LETTERS
Reading edition
"I found, first, that the cost of conveying a letter between post town and post town was exceedingly small; secondly, that it had but little relation to distance; and thirdly, that it depended much upon the number of letters conveyed by the particular mail; and as the cost per letter would diminish with every increase in such number, and as such increase would certainly follow reduction of postage, it followed that, if a great reduction could be effected, the cost of conveyance per letter, already so small, might be deemed absolutely insignificant.
"Hence, then, I came to the important conclusion that the existing practice of regulating the amount of postage by the distance over which an inland letter was conveyed, however plausible in appearance, had no foundation in principle, and that consequently the rates of postage should be irrespective of distance."—Sir Rowland Hill, Life of Sir Rowland Hill and History of Penny Postage, London, 1880, vol. i. p. 250.