Note 75 — I THE RATE FOR LETTERS

"It appears, then, that the cost of mere transit incurred upon a letter sent from London to Edinburgh, a distance of 400 miles, is not more than one thirty-sixth part of a penny. If therefore the proper charge (exclusive of tax) upon a letter received and delivered in London itself were twopence, then the proper charge (exclusive of tax) upon a letter received in London, but delivered in Edinburgh, would be twopence plus one-thirty-sixth part of a penny. Now, as the letters taken from London to Edinburgh are undoubtedly carried much more than an average distance, it follows, that when the charge for the receipt and delivery of the letter is determined, an additional charge of one-thirty-sixth part of a penny would amply repay the expense of transit. If, therefore, the charge for postage be made proportionate to the whole expense incurred in the receipt, transit, and delivery of the letter, and in the collection of its postage, it must be made uniformly the same from every post town to every other post town in the United Kingdom, unless it can be shown how we are to collect so small a sum as the thirty-sixth part of a penny."—Rowland Hill, Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability, London, 1837, pp. 18-19.