Note 407 — III THE RATE FOR PARCELS

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).