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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39569-8.txt b/39569-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8585167 --- /dev/null +++ b/39569-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1964 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Adhesive Postage Stamp, by Patrick Chalmers + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Adhesive Postage Stamp + +Author: Patrick Chalmers + +Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39569] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi, The +Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP. + + DECISION OF THE + "ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA": + + _James Chalmers was the Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp--"Mr. Pearson + Hill has not weakened the Evidence" to that effect._ + + ALSO + + Papers on the Penny Postage Reform, + + BEQUEATHED BY THE LATE + + SIR HENRY COLE. + + JAMES CHALMERS FIRST PROPOSED THE ADOPTION OF THE + ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP, + OF WHICH HE WAS THE INVENTOR. + + BY + + PATRICK CHALMERS, + _Fellow of the Royal Historical Society_. + + [Illustration] + + LONDON: + EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. + + 1886. + _Price Sixpence._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +When a man of note dies, the journalist of the day can only reproduce in +an obituary notice the accepted position of his life and works--it is no +part of that writer's duty to examine, so as fully to certify, all the +statements at hand, or to ransack old volumes dealing with the times +when such reputation was established. That is the duty and the task of +the later historian, or of some one specially interested. Such has been +my duty, my task, as respects that public benefactor, the late Sir +Rowland Hill, with the result arrived at in this and former +publications. + +Upon the death of Sir Rowland Hill in August, 1879, a series of letters +with comments thereon appeared in the Dundee press, recalling the name +and services of a townsman who, in his day, had taken an active interest +in post-office improvement, and had worked in that field to some +purpose. Mr. James Chalmers, bookseller, Dundee, who died in 1853, had +been an earnest postal reformer. Through his efforts, and after a long +correspondence with the Post Office in London, he brought about such an +acceleration of the mail as to lessen the time necessary for the reply +to a letter from Dundee to London, or betwixt the chief commercial towns +of the north and south, by two days--a day each way. Subsequently he +conceived the idea of an adhesive stamp for postage purposes; and it was +this invention, made known to such post-office reformers as Mr. Hume and +Mr. Wallace--with both of whom, as with others, he was in +communication--that formed the origin of the adoption of the adhesive +stamp in the reformed Penny Postage system of 1840, the plan proposed by +Mr. Rowland Hill in 1837 having been that of the impressed stamp. + +These letters in the Dundee press from old townsmen and friends of Mr. +Chalmers, personally unknown to me as I was to them (I having left +Dundee while a youth, over fifty years ago, and passed much of the +interval abroad), with the consequent attention drawn to the subject, +naturally called upon me to make an endeavour to vindicate my father's +claim to the merit of such an important feature in the success of the +Penny Postage scheme as was, and is, the adhesive stamp. These letters, +moreover, acquainted me with what I was previously unaware of--that on +the 1st January, 1846, a public testimonial had been presented in the +Town Hall of Dundee to Mr. Chalmers, in recognition of his postal +services, and of his having been the originator of the adhesive postage +stamp; thus all the more calling upon me to investigate a subject of +which hitherto I had only a dim and partial idea. This investigation was +further facilitated by my withdrawal just before the same period of 1879 +from active business, thus enabling me to examine at the library of the +British Museum the papers, documents, speeches, and motions in +Parliament, Reports of Parliamentary Committees, and all such evidence +and information tending to throw light upon, from the year 1832 onwards, +the history and events preceding the reformed system of postage +introduced to the public in the year 1837 by the then Mr. Rowland Hill. + +My father long since dead (while I was abroad), and his establishment +long ago broken up, difficulty was at first experienced in obtaining the +specific evidence necessary to enable me to establish my claim on his +behalf, but the attention publicly drawn to the matter by former +publications of my own, and of Mr. Pearson Hill to which I was called +upon to reply, brought forward ever-increasing evidence of the most +conclusive nature, and to which I am now enabled to add material and +interesting confirmation from papers left by the late Sir Henry Cole, +whose connection with the Penny Postage Reform of 1837-40 is well +known. + + + + +THE PENNY POSTAGE SCHEME OF SIR ROWLAND HILL NOT ORIGINAL. + + +My business, of course, in the investigation just named, was to +ascertain what plan Sir Rowland Hill had proposed in his pamphlet of +1837 for the purpose of carrying out his Penny Postage Scheme, and to +trace therefrom the adoption on his part of my father's plan of the +adhesive stamp. But a discovery of much more historical importance +before long presented itself, namely, that neither the conception of +uniform penny postage itself, nor of any one of the valuable principles +and figures of the penny postage scheme, were original conceptions on +the part of Sir Rowland Hill. + +The reformed system of postage was not the work of one year nor of one +man. For some years prior to 1837 the abuses and mismanagement of the +post office were a constant theme of complaint, both in and out of +Parliament--many able and earnest men combined to bring about some +reform demanded by men of business and public opinion. Commissions of +inquiry were held, evidence and suggestions taken, reports issued. +Early in 1835 Mr. Wallace, M.P. for Greenock, a prominent post-office +reformer, obtained a Commission of Inquiry on the subject, which +Commission issued in all ten Reports; while, in addition to +Parliamentary returns, a commission, termed the Commission of Revenue +Inquiry, had sat for many years prior to the Commission of merely Post +Office Inquiry, and had issued twenty-three Reports, in more than one of +which post-office affairs were dealt with. + +In that large field of complaint, suggestion, information, and proposal +may be found the substance, origin, and foundation of the subsequent +writings and proposals of Sir Rowland Hill. + +It will be remembered that the old system of postage, prior to 1840, was +that of a high and variable charge according to distance, of, say, +twopence to one shilling and sixpence a letter, charged by sheet; and +two sheets, however light in weight, were charged double. The same with +circulars. But in these Reports, including the evidence of the numerous +witnesses, are to be found embodied all the valuable principles and +figures of the reformed system. And that all these Reports had come +under Mr. Hill's review is left in no doubt, having been sent to him by +Mr. Wallace, after Mr. Hill, freed from other occupations, had, in 1835, +joined the circle of post-office reformers, when he "commenced that +systematic study, analysis, and comparison which the difficulty of my +self-imposed task rendered necessary."--("Life," page 246.) + +But to be looked upon as the _inventor_ of that scheme which he had +introduced and (saved and rendered practicable by the adhesive stamp) +had successfully carried out--to have this scheme understood as having +been the unaided conception of his own mind--was with Sir Rowland Hill +simply a mania, and to that mania James Chalmers, the originator in +every sense of that adhesive stamp, was sacrificed. + +The bearing of all this non-originality of conception on the part of Sir +Rowland Hill is obvious when the question of the stamp is under +consideration. In propounding the scheme itself, what were only acquired +ideas were assumed, or allowed to be assumed, as inventions or +conceptions. As with the scheme, so with the stamp--the stamp also was +an acquired idea, not Rowland Hill's invention. + +Having now, however, obtained from a quarter of the highest standing, +after an impartial investigation, a full acknowledgment of my father's +services, and this in addition to an already large amount of recognition +from the press in general, further observations as to the +non-originality of the scheme may be here dispensed with, for the +present at least, and left to history. And if I have been compelled to +show that, so far from the adhesive stamp having been the invention of +Sir Rowland Hill, originality of conception formed no element whatever +in any one of the proposals of even the Penny Postage Scheme itself, +such course has been forced upon me by the unfortunate proceedings of +Mr. Pearson Hill in denying, against the clearest evidence, my just +claim in the matter of the stamp, without a pretence of proof that such +was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill. + + + + +THE IMPRESSED STAMP. + + +The plan by which Mr. Rowland Hill, in his pamphlet of 1837, proposed to +carry out in practice his uniform penny postage scheme was, shortly +stated, first, simply to pay the penny or money with the letters; but +secondly, and more especially, by stamped sheets of letter paper, and +stamped wrappers or covers. "Let stamped covers and sheets of paper be +supplied to the public, from the Stamp Office or Post Office, or both, +and at such a price as to include the postage." ... "Economy and the +public convenience would require that sheets of letter paper of every +description should be stamped on the part used for the address; that +wrappers, such as are used for newspapers, as well as covers made of +cheap paper, should also be stamped," and kept on sale at the post +offices. "Stationers would also be induced to keep them." + +What Mr. Hill overlooked in this proposal, was the broad fact that he +sets up the Stamp Office or Post Office to do the business in letter +paper of the stationers throughout the kingdom--some huge Government +establishment against which competition would be hopeless, as the Stamp +Office was to sell the writing paper at cost price, while the stationer +requires a profit to pay his rent and expenses, and to live upon. The +effect upon the stationers, consequently would have been +confiscation--and against this plan the united body of paper makers and +stationers subsequently protested. + +The Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, again, took +exception to Mr. Hill's plan mainly on account of its liability to +forgery--a stamp of the nature proposed would be extensively forged. +After evidence on the part of the Stamp-Office authorities and paper +makers had been taken, it was decided to recommend--that the paper for +all stamped covers should be manufactured at the paper mills of a Mr. +Dickenson, or of another, solely, under strict excise supervision. This +paper of Mr. Dickenson's was of a peculiar make, having threads of +cotton or silk so interwoven in the paper that a post-office clerk could +readily know by the look or feel that a stamped cover was genuine. The +paper makers protested and petitioned against this, objecting to one of +the body having all the work. Besides, the proposal involved permanent +excise supervision over the manufacture of paper. This proposal, +however, extended only to covers or envelopes; how forgery was to be +prevented in respect to the stamps upon the sheets of letter paper the +Committee do not say. The whole position, in fact, remained in a state +of chaos, only relieved by the ultimate adoption of the adhesive stamp, +which plan Mr. Chalmers had laid before this Committee through Mr. +Wallace, the Chairman, and likewise through Mr. Chalmers, M.P., a member +of the Committee, and which plan had been publicly discussed, not +without finding adherents, including Mr. Cobden, one of the witnesses in +favour of the scheme. + +To the solution proposed by the Committee that all stamped covers should +be made of Dickenson's peculiar paper the Government again highly +objected, further adding to the dilemma; and when the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, on the 5th of July, 1839, introduced and carried a resolution +sanctioning a Penny Postage Bill being brought forward, he distinctly +only "asked hon. members to commit themselves to the question of a +uniform rate of postage of one penny at and under a weight hereafter to +be fixed." Everything else was to be left open. "If it were to go forth +to the public to-morrow morning that the Government had proposed, and +the House had adopted, the plan of Mr. Rowland Hill, the necessary +result would be to spread a conviction abroad that, as a stamped cover +was absolutely to be used in all cases, which stamped covers were to be +made by one single manufacturer, alarm would be felt lest a monopoly +would thereby be created, to the serious detriment of other members of +a most useful and important trade. The sense of injustice excited by +this would necessarily be extreme. I therefore do not call upon the +House either to affirm or to negative any such proposition at the +present. I ask you simply to affirm the adoption of a uniform penny +postage, and the taxation of that postage by weight. Neither do I ask +you to pledge yourselves to the prepayment of letters, for I am of +opinion that, at all events, there should be an option of putting +letters into the post without a stamp." + +"If the resolution be affirmed, and the Bill has to be proposed, it will +hereafter require very great care and complicated arrangements to carry +the plan into practical effect. It may involve considerable expense and +considerable responsibility on the part of the Government; it may +disturb existing trades, such as the paper trade." ... "The new postage +will be distinctly and simply a penny postage by weight." ... "I also +require for the Treasury a power of taking the postage by anticipation, +and a power of allowing such postage to be taken by means of stamped +covers, and I also require the authority of rating the postage according +to weight."[1] + +In this dilemma, as to _how_ to carry out the scheme in practice, Mr. +Wallace favourably suggested the adhesive stamp, the adoption of which +plan, he had no hesitation in saying from the evidence adduced, would +secure the revenue from loss by forgery. Mr. Warburton, also a member of +the 1837-38 Committee, "viewing with considerable alarm the doubt which +had been expressed of adopting Mr. Hill's plan of prepayment and +collection by stamped covers," recommended that plans should be applied +for from the public. + +Again, in the House of Lords on the 5th of August, Lord Melbourne, in +introducing the Bill, is as much embarrassed as was the Chancellor of +the Exchequer in the Commons. The opponents of the Bill use, as one of +their strongest arguments, the impossibility of carrying out the scheme +in practice. The Earl of Ripon says:--"Why were their lordships thus +called upon at this period of the session to pass a Bill, when no mortal +being at that moment had the remotest conception of how it was to be +carried into execution?" Here Lord Ashburton, like Mr. Wallace in the +Commons, favourably suggested the adhesive stamp, "which would answer +every purpose, and remove the objection of the stationers and paper +makers to the measure." + +Let it, then, be clearly noted that, up to the period of the Bill in +July and August, 1839, not a word is said in any way connecting Mr. +Hill's name with other than the impressed stamp on the sheet of letter +paper, or, more especially, on the stamped covers. That, _and that +alone_, is taken on the one part as _his_ plan by all the speakers, +official or otherwise--for that alone does the Chancellor of the +Exchequer ask for "powers." The adhesive stamp is brought in, on the +other part, as a distinct proposal, in no way entering into the +proposals of Mr. Hill. + +(The above is given in more detail in my former pamphlet, entitled "Sir +Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, the Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp," +1883). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See "Hansard," Vol. 48. + + + + +THE ADHESIVE STAMP. + + +In my pamphlet entitled "Sir Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, the +Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp," I have already proved from overwhelming +evidence, both general and specific, the invention of the adhesive stamp +for postage purposes by the late James Chalmers, bookseller, Dundee, in +the month of August, 1834. In addition to friends and fellow-townsmen, +several of those in his employment at that period have, unknown to me, +come forward from various quarters to describe the process and to fix +the date. The setting up of the form with a number of stamps having a +printed device--the printing of the sheets--the melting of the gum--the +gumming the backs of the sheets--the drying and the pressing--are all +described, and the date already named is conclusively fixed.[2] That +this was the first instance of such invention is clear; earlier +instances of an _impressed_ stamp proposed for postage purposes are on +record, but not one of a proposed adhesive stamp--while Sir Rowland Hill +himself has left it on record, in his "Life," referring to the same +period and occasion when an impressed stamp was proposed in 1834 for +newspaper covers by Mr. Knight, "of course, adhesive stamps were yet +undreamt of." (See page 69 of my pamphlet above named). + +I have further shown that Mr. Chalmers was one of the early postal +reformers prior to the period of Mr. Rowland Hill, that he had done +great service in the way of accelerating the mails betwixt London and +the north, and that he was in communication with several of those early +reformers, such as Mr. Hume, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Knight--the publisher +subsequently of Mr. Rowland Hill's pamphlet of 1837--so that his +proposal of an adhesive stamp for postage purposes, a matter of +notoriety in his own locality, would further have become well known in +the general circle of postal reformers, amongst whom, and from whom, on +joining same in the year 1835, Mr. Rowland Hill obtained the information +which enabled him to draw up and publish his Penny Postage Scheme of +1837. (See page 5 of my pamphlet named.) + +One of those pioneers of postal reform, the Rev. Samuel Roberts, M.A., +of Conway, gives his personal testimony of the adhesive stamp having +been originated by James Chalmers. (Page 42.)[3] + +My pamphlet goes on to show (page 44) that on the appointment of the +House of Commons Committee of 1837-38 on the proposed uniform Penny +Postage Scheme, Mr. Chalmers sent in his plan of an adhesive stamp to +Mr. Wallace, the Chairman, and to another Member of that Committee. Mr. +Wallace's reply, stating that he will lay the plan before the Committee, +is of date 9th December, 1837. In the dilemma in which the Government +found itself (upon introducing on the 5th July, 1839, the Resolution +preliminary to the Bill) as to _how_ to carry out the Penny Postage +Scheme in practice (page 21) Mr. Wallace favourably suggested the plan +of the adhesive stamp. The statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer +upon this occasion, with the interposition of Mr. Wallace in the +Commons, and of Lord Ashburton in the Lords, in favour of the adhesive +stamp have already been given, conclusively showing that, up to this +period, Mr. Hill had not included the adhesive stamp in his proposals. + +On the passing of the Bill in August, Mr. Hill was relegated to the +Treasury for the purpose of carrying out the scheme. The first step +taken was to invite plans, by Treasury Circular of 23rd August, from the +public; some time was taken up in receiving and considering these plans, +until, by Treasury Minute of December 26th, 1839, the adhesive stamp was +at length officially adopted, in conjunction with Mr. Hill's stamped +covers, or stamp impressed upon the sheet of letter paper itself. (See +page 46.) But the adhesive stamp, indeed, had been practically adopted +by Mr. Hill before the plans were received, considered, and nothing +better found, a concurrence of opinion having set in in favour of same. +It will be seen that Mr. Chalmers, in his published statement of date +February, 1838, now produced from Sir Henry Cole's papers, called for +petitions towards the adoption of the adhesive stamp. In August, 1839, +both the Associated Body of Paper-Makers and certain Merchants and +Bankers of the City of London pressed for the adoption of this stamp; +Mr. Rowland Hill himself, in a paper entitled "On the Collection of +Postage by means of Stamps," circulated by him about the period of the +Bill being before Parliament, included the adoption of the adhesive +stamp, in conjunction with his own impressed stamp. Mr. Cole also drew +up an able paper on the stamp question, including the advocacy of the +adhesive stamp. So general, indeed, had then become opinion in its +favour, that of the plans sent in no less than forty-nine others besides +Mr. Chalmers, who again sent in his plan, recommended the adoption of +the adhesive stamp, invented by Mr. Chalmers in 1834, laid by him before +the Committee of the House of Commons in December, 1837, and further, as +we shall now see, sent in to Mr. Cole as Secretary to the Mercantile +Committee of the City of London, in February, 1838, and acknowledged by +Mr. Rowland Hill in a letter to Mr. Chalmers of date 3rd March, 1838. In +this letter Mr. Hill makes no pretension to the merit or proposed +adoption of the adhesive stamp on his part, for, as will be seen, Mr. +Chalmers subsequently returned to Mr. Hill a copy of this very letter +for the purpose of pointing out this fact to Mr. Hill. It was not until +the propriety, and indeed necessity, of adopting Mr. Chalmers' plan--not +until its final official acceptance--that, in a letter dated 18th +January, 1840, Mr. Hill, then in despotic power, putting Mr. Chalmers +aside upon the pretext afterwards mentioned, assumed the whole merit to +himself. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Since publishing my evidence specifically proving what is here +stated, I have been favoured with the following letter:-- + + + "BRECHIN, + _9th October, 1883_ + + "DEAR SIR, + + "When I penned my anonymous note to the _Dundee Advertiser_ in + August, 1879, expressing the hope that there might be still + living some who could corroborate my statement that the late + Mr. Chalmers was the inventor of the 'Adhesive Stamp,' I hardly + expected it would be followed by such an amount of + corroboration. + + "With regard to the _date_ of the invention, you appear to have + received ample proof, and I am able to add thereto. It was in + the autumn of 1834 that I left Dundee to reside here, and the + Stamp was in existence in Mr. Chalmers' premises before I left. + + "I may add that when I wrote in 1879, I was not aware of the + existence of a son of Mr. C. My sole object in writing was that + _Dundee_ might claim and receive the honour of being the place + of birth of the 'Adhesive Stamp.' + + "I am, &c., + "(_Signed_) DAVID PRAIN. + + "P. CHALMERS, Esq., + "Wimbledon." + + +A Portrait of Mr. Prain, by the talented Scottish artist, Mr. Irvine, +subscribed for by Mr. Prain's fellow-townsmen and former pupils, has +just been presented in his honour to the Mechanic's Institute of +Brechin. The proceedings upon this occasion, including the able speeches +of Provost Lamb and of Mr. Prain, will be found in the _Brechin +Advertiser_ of 16th June, 1885. On a former occasion Mr. Prain was +presented with a Service of Plate and Testimonial to the value of +several hundred pounds, subscribed for by former pupils at home and +abroad. It is at the testimony of such men as this, including the late +Mr. William Thorns, of Dundee, that my opponents sneer as being "the +mere wandering fancies of a few old men!" The general testimony is that +of an entire locality. + +[3] An interesting obituary of Mr. Roberts, lately deceased, will be +found in the "_Times_" of 30th September, 1885. Mr. Roberts is there +recognised as the pioneer of postal reform and originator of the +proposal of a low and uniform postage. + + + + +SIR HENRY COLE'S PAPERS + +AND THE + +ADHESIVE STAMP OF MR. CHALMERS. + + +In his "Fifty Years of Public Life," lately published, Sir Henry Cole +gives much information with respect to the Penny Postage reform, a boon +with the obtaining and carrying out of which he was intimately +associated--first as secretary to the Mercantile Committee of the City +of London, and afterwards as coadjutor to Mr. Rowland Hill at the +Treasury. "A General Collection of Postage Papers," having reference to +this reform, elucidating the efforts made by this Committee of London +Merchants and Bankers during the year 1838-39, to obtain for the scheme +the sanction of the Legislature, has been bequeathed by Sir Henry Cole, +"to be given to the British Museum after my death."[4] "The Mercantile +Committee," he states, "was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. +George Moffat in the spring of 1838. Mr. Ashurst conducted the +Parliamentary Inquiry, and upon myself, as Secretary, devolved the +business of communicating with the public." This Committee formed the +source and focus of the agitation which brought about the ultimate +enactment of uniform Penny Postage. Money was freely subscribed, +meetings were held, public bodies in the provinces were urged to +petition, Members of Parliament and Ministers were waited upon, and a +special paper advocating the scheme, termed the "Post Circular," was +issued and circulated gratis. Of these proceedings Mr. Cole was the +guiding genius; and, amongst other successes, over two thousand +petitions to Parliament were obtained--labours which were ultimately +crowned with success. + +To Mr. Cole, then, it now turns out that Mr. Chalmers, in February, +1838, sent a copy of his plan of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Wallace and the +House of Commons Committee had already got it, but it is only now that +the particulars of the plan have been brought to light--and in this +"Collection of Postage Papers," Sir Henry Cole has indeed left a +valuable legacy to me, and to all prepared to recognise the true +originator of the adhesive postage stamp. These papers include a printed +statement of Mr. Chalmers' plan, dated "4 Castle Street, Dundee, 8th +February, 1838." and which runs as follows:-- + + "_Remarks on various modes proposed for franking letters, under + Mr. Rowland Hill's Plan of Post Office Reform._ + + "In suggesting any method of improvement, it is only reasonable + to expect that what are supposed to be its advantages over any + existing system, or in opposition to others that have been or + may be proposed, will be explicitly stated. + + "Therefore, if Mr. Hill's plan of a uniform rate of postage, + and that all postages are to be paid by those sending letters + _before_ they are deposited in the respective post offices, + become the law of the land, I conceive that the most simple and + economical mode of carrying out such an arrangement would be by + _slips_ (postage stamps) prepared somewhat similar to the + specimens herewith shown. + + "With this view, and in the hope that Mr. Hill's plan may soon + be carried into operation, I would suggest that sheets of + stamped slips should be prepared at the Stamp Office (on a + paper made expressly for the purpose) with a device on each for + a die or cut resembling that on newspapers; that the _sheets_ + so printed or stamped should then be rubbed over with a strong + solution of gum or other adhesive substance, and (when + thoroughly dry) issued by the Stamp Office to town and country + distributors, to stationers and others, for sale in sheets or + singly, under the same laws and restrictions now applicable to + those selling bill or receipt stamps, so as to prevent, as far + as practicable, any fraud on the revenue. + + "Merchants and others whose correspondence is extensive, could + purchase these slips in quantities, cut them singly, and affix + one to a letter by means of wetting the back of the slip with a + sponge or brush, just with as much facility as applying a + wafer."--Adding that in some cases, such as for circulars, the + stamp might answer both for stamp and wafer; a suggestion which + those who may recollect the mode of folding universally + practised before the days of envelopes, will appreciate. Mr. + Chalmers goes on--"Others, requiring only one or two slips at a + time, could purchase them along with sheets of paper at + stationers' shops, the _weight_ only regulating the rate of + postage in all cases, so as a stamp may be affixed according so + the scale determined on. + + "Again, to prevent the possibility of these being used a + _second time_, it should be made imperative on postmasters to + put the post office town stamp (as represented in one of the + specimens), across the slip or postage stamp." + +Mr. Chalmers then goes on to point out the advantages to be derived from +this plan, and to state objections to Mr. Hill's plan of impressed +stamped covers or envelopes, or stamp impressed upon the sheet of letter +paper itself. At that period envelopes--being scarcely known, and never +used, as involving double postage--were a hand-made article, heavy and +expensive; objections which have disappeared with the abolition of the +Excise duty on paper, and the use of machinery. But how true were Mr. +Chalmers' objections _then_, may be gathered from the fact, as recorded +by Sir Rowland Hill in his "Life," that the large supply provided of the +first postage envelope, the Mulready, had actually _to be destroyed_ as +wholly unsuitable and unsaleable, while the supply of adhesive stamps +was with difficulty brought up to the demand. The force and value of Mr. +Chalmers' objections to the stamp impressed upon the sheet itself, are +best exemplified by the fact that, though ultimately sanctioned by the +Treasury at the instance of Mr. Hill, such plan never came into use. +People bought their own paper from the stationers, and not from the +Stamp Office, and applied the adhesive stamp as the weight required. Mr. +Chalmers concludes, "taking all these disadvantages into consideration, +the use of stamped slips is certainly the most preferable system; and, +should others who take an interest in the proposed reform view the +matter in the same light as I do, it remains for them to petition +Parliament to have such carried into operation." + +This statement of Mr. Chalmers is printed on part of an elongated sheet +of paper. On the half not occupied by the type are several specimens of +a suggested stamp, about an inch square, and with the words printed, +"General Postage--not exceeding half-an-ounce--One Penny." And the +same--"Not exceeding one ounce--Twopence." (It is only of late years +that a penny has franked one ounce in weight.) A space divides each +stamp for cutting off singly,[5] and the back of the sheet is gummed +over. One of the specimens is stamped across with the post-mark, +"Dundee, 10th February, 1838," to exemplify what Mr. Chalmers states +should be done to prevent the stamp being used a second time. + +Here is a complete description of the principle of the adhesive stamp as +ultimately adopted by Mr. Hill at the Treasury by Minute of 26th +December, 1839, when he sent Mr. Cole to Messrs. Bacon & Petch, the +eminent engravers, to provide a die and contract for the supply of +stamps (see Mr. Bacon's evidence, page 52 of my former Pamphlet), a plan +in use to the present day. + +This description, as now brought to light under the signature of Mr. +Chalmers himself, fully confirms the evidence with respect to the +invention in August, 1834, as given by his then _employés_ yet living, +W. Whitelaw and others. (See pages 34-39 of my former pamphlet.) + +Here, then, was the plan of the future adhesive stamp, already laid +before Mr. Wallace and the House of Commons Committee, also sent to the +Secretary of the City of London Mercantile Committee, in printed form, +as to one of many, long before leave was asked, on 5th July, 1839, even +to introduce the Bill into Parliament. That Mr. Hill saw Mr. Cole's +copy, or had a special copy sent also to himself, is clear, because Mr. +Hill at once writes to Mr. Chalmers, under date 3rd March, 1838. What +Mr. Hill states in that letter we know not altogether, as Mr. Pearson +Hill has not thought proper to publish that letter, and my request to +him for a copy has not been complied with. (See page 64 of my former +pamphlet.) We know thus much, however, that Mr. Rowland Hill makes no +pretension _then_ to ever having suggested or approved of an adhesive +stamp, as already pointed out. Not until writing to Mr. Chalmers on the +18th January, 1840 (see page 62 of former pamphlet), before which +period, in obedience to the general demand, the adhesive stamp had at +length been adopted, did Mr. Hill, in reply to Mr. Chalmers' claim as +the originator, set up any counter-claim on his own part to any share in +the merit of the adhesive stamp. But, as with the scheme itself, so now +with the stamp which saved it, no second party was to be allowed to +divide with Mr. Hill the sole merit of this great reform. So the +far-fetched excuse, the mere afterthought, bred of the success which +had attended Mr. Chalmers' proposal to the Committee and to Mr. Cole, is +hit upon (page 54) to put Mr. Chalmers aside and to attach to himself +the whole merit of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Hill had said something about +a bit of gummed paper before the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry in +February, 1837 (subsequent to publishing the first edition of his +pamphlet, in which nothing was said of an adhesive stamp), an idea Mr. +Hill had acquired in the interval, just as he had acquired all the +principles of the scheme itself, at second hand (page 60). On this +occasion Mr. Hill had supposed a difficulty which might occur to a +person who had to re-address a letter at a Post Office, but was unable +to write, and at the same time precluded from paying the penny in cash, +while the stamped wrapper would obliterate the address. In such an +exceptional case, and in order to secure "the universal adoption" of the +impressed stamp, a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and +covered at the back with a glutinous wash, might be wetted and applied. +Better, however, he goes on to say, allow the penny to be received in +cash, so that you have only the impressed stamp or the penny in payment, +and which penny was accepted up to the year 1855.[6] Up to the year +1855, consequently, no such exceptional case could have arisen, the +penny in cash being sufficient acceptance. This allusion to an adhesive +stamp is repeated by Mr. Hill in the second edition of his pamphlet. +Here then, in February, 1837, was a passing allusion made by Mr. Hill to +an adhesive stamp, showing that, subsequent to the issue of the first +edition of his pamphlet, he had acquired from some quarter the idea of +Mr. Chalmers' invention. February, 1837, was two years and a half after +the proved invention of the adhesive stamp by Mr. Chalmers, one of the +early postal reformers, one who "held correspondence with the postal +reformers of his day, both in and out of Parliament" ("Encyclopædia +Britannica," see page 39 following), the correspondent, amongst others, +of Messrs. Knight & Co., who published for Mr. Hill. In a letter, then, +of 18th January, 1840, as we learn from Mr. Pearson Hill's account of +the matter, and from Mr. Chalmers' reply, Mr. Hill pointed out to Mr. +Chalmers that his claim could not be admitted, because he, Mr. Hill, +first proposed an adhesive stamp in February, 1837, the first official +proposal of his plan by Mr. Chalmers, his letter to Mr. Wallace and the +House of Commons Committee, having been only in December of the same +year. In answer to this extraordinary pretension on the part of Mr. +Hill, it is enough to point to Mr. Hill's letters to the +Postmaster-General, Lord Litchfield, in January, 1838, explaining and +enforcing his penny postage scheme then before the public--letters +published in the papers of the period, and in which not a word is said +of an adhesive stamp.[7] Or more than enough, to point to the speech of +the Chancellor of the Exchequer, already quoted (page 13), to prove +that, up to so late a date as the 5th July, 1839, Mr. Hill had _not_ +proposed to adopt an adhesive stamp. The press, up to 30th August, 1839, +had heard of no such proposal on his part.[8] + +This allusion to an adhesive stamp in February, 1837, was a mere passing +allusion as to what might be done in a supposed exceptional case which +could never have arisen so long as the penny in cash was accepted, and +was nothing more. For Mr. Hill to represent to Mr. Chalmers that he, Mr. +Hill, had proposed to adopt the adhesive stamp as a means of carrying +out his scheme in February, 1837, was to state what was _not the case_; +consequently any admission so gained from Mr. Chalmers was wholly +invalid. An extract from the reply of Mr. Chalmers, dated 18th May, 1840 +(reproduced at page 62 of my former pamphlet), has been circulated by +Mr. Pearson Hill, in whose hands alone is the entire correspondence, +with the object of showing that Mr. Chalmers "honestly abandoned" his +claim. But Mr. Chalmers honestly abandoned nothing; while no impartial +person will, upon consideration, for a moment attach any importance to +just what "extract" from his correspondence Mr. Pearson Hill has thought +proper to produce. I again contend, as I have already maintained, that +this correspondence was public, not private, property--that such should +have remained at the Treasury, subject to the inspection of all +concerned, in place of having been appropriated by Sir Rowland Hill as +private, and thus so as to admit of only such portion being ultimately +made known as may have suited himself. In this extract of 18th May, +1840, Mr. Chalmers, after stating he had delayed to reply until seeing +the stamps in operation, writes with surprise at what Mr. Hill now +states. Had he known or supposed that any one else, especially Mr. Hill +himself, had proposed the adhesive stamp for the purpose of carrying out +the scheme, he would not have troubled him at all. But having sent his +plan to Mr. Wallace, M.P., and got his acknowledgment of 9th December, +1837, saying same would be laid before the Committee; also to Mr. +Chalmers, M.P., and got his reply of 7th October, 1839, saying such had +been laid before the Committee; also Mr. Hill's own letter of 3rd March, +1838, a copy of which he encloses--from _all_ these he was led to +believe he had been first in the field. _Now_, not doubting Mr. Hill's +assurance of 18th January, 1840, to the contrary (and in any case +indisposed to contest a decision against which there was practically no +appeal), he only regrets having through his ignorance put others as well +as himself to any trouble in the matter; "while the only satisfaction I +have had in this as well as in former suggestions--all original with +me--is that these have been adopted, and have been and are likely to +prove beneficial to the public." + +Such is the letter or extract which, placed in the hands of every editor +in London, has led to my statements being here treated with comparative +neglect.[9] But let my statements equally with those of Mr. Pearson +Hill be read by any impartial writer, as in the case of the +"Encyclopædia Britannica," afterwards noticed, and the result, it will +be seen, is to lead to an entirely different conclusion. "James Chalmers +was the inventor of the adhesive postage stamp--Mr. Pearson Hill has not +weakened the evidence to that effect." Here was honesty +certainly--simplicity indeed--on the side of Mr. Chalmers; but what +about the representation on the part of Mr. Hill? Was it the case that +he had proposed the adoption of the adhesive stamp in February, 1837, as +represented to Mr. Chalmers? The proofs to the contrary are conclusive. +Mr. Hill had made a passing allusion to an adhesive stamp in February, +1837, but _only_ a passing allusion. Nothing can be more clear than that +the adoption of the adhesive stamp for the purpose of carrying out his +scheme formed no part of the original proposals and intentions of Mr. +Hill. His representation to Mr. Chalmers was therefore exaggerated, +delusive, and misleading.[10] "Why did not you tell me anything of this +before?" replies Mr. Chalmers in effect;--"_there_ is a copy of your +letter of 3rd March, 1838, when I sent you my plan, in which letter of +yours no such pretensions were put forward. It is only now that I learn +for the first time that you had ever proposed or been in favour of an +adhesive stamp. Further, how is it that neither of these members of the +Committee before whom I laid my plan had ever heard of any such prior +proposal on your part? However, I am now only sorry at having troubled +you--I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the public have +got my plan somehow." + +"Why did you not tell me anything of this before?" Why indeed! Because +Mr. Hill _then_ had not contemplated an adhesive stamp, as has been +abundantly proved. An impressed stamped cover "was absolutely to be used +in all cases," says the Chancellor of the Exchequer as late as in July, +1839--a "power" was asked for this, and for this alone. (See _ante_, +page 14.) But much had happened in the interval betwixt Mr. Hill's two +letters to Mr. Chalmers. The stamp not accepted by Mr. Hill in 1838 had +become in 1840 the favourite of all opinions concerned, the adopted of +the Treasury. It had saved his scheme. Mr. Chalmers must now be put +aside, a matter which the entire contrast betwixt the dispositions of +the two men rendered only too easy, and so this afterthought, this +far-fetched pretext already noticed, was hit upon for the purpose. + +At the same time Mr. Chalmers appears to have been too apathetic in the +matter, indifferent to personal considerations so long as the public +got his stamp from some quarter; but the absence of any desire for +personal advantage is a not unfrequent characteristic in those who have +done some public service. + +But it is this neglect, or mere indifference, on the part of my father, +in not having made a better stand in 1840 with respect to a matter the +national and universal value of which no one could then appreciate or +foresee, that all the more calls upon me now, under a better +acquaintance with the facts and circumstances, to claim for his memory +that recognition to which he is clearly entitled, as having been "The +Originator and Inventor of the Adhesive Postage Stamp." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] These papers are in the Art Library of the South Kensington Museum. + +[5] The perforated sheets were not introduced until the year 1852. This +improvement was the invention of a Mr. Archer, for which he got the sum +of £4,000. + +[6] In his "Life" lately published, written by himself, Sir Rowland Hill +_omits the clause_ in his original evidence which restores the payment +of the penny in cash and does away with any necessity for an adhesive +stamp, even in the exceptional case he had supposed. Not only does Sir +Rowland Hill omit this clause, but he even gives the reader to +understand that to the year 1837, the year of his pamphlet, is to be +ascribed his adoption of the adhesive stamp. How then, it will be asked, +does Sir Rowland Hill account for the speech of the Chancellor of the +Exchequer on the 5th July, 1839, and the interposition of Mr. Wallace in +favour of an adhesive stamp? This difficulty Sir Rowland Hill surmounts +by simply taking no notice of either. + +[7] In his letter to Lord Litchfield of 9th January, 1838, Mr. Hill +states his plan to be:--"That the payment should always be in advance. +And to rid this mode of payment of the trouble and risk which it would +otherwise entail on the sending of letters, as well as for other +important considerations, I propose that the postage be collected by the +sale of stamped covers." + +[8] The "Times" of this date has the following paragraph:--"The Penny +Postage will commence, we learn, on the 1st January next. It is intended +that stamped envelopes shall be sold at every Post Office, so that +stationers and other shopkeepers may, as well as the public, supply +themselves at a minute's notice." Not a word as to an Adhesive Stamp +being known as in contemplation. It will be evident from these two +instances alone, independent of the proceedings in Parliament and of Mr. +Hill's letter to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March, 1838, that the Adhesive +Stamp formed no part of the original proposals or intentions of Sir +Rowland Hill. + +[9] See "The World," "Daily Chronicle," &c., also "Proceedings of the +Commissioners of Sewers" for July, 1881, as reported in the "City +Press." + +[10] The "Christian Leader" of Glasgow ably puts the matter thus:--"Sir +Rowland Hill seems to have been at pains to obscure the facts of the +case for the purpose of claiming to himself the credit of an invention +which really belonged to the Dundee bookseller." + + + + +THE "ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA." + + +The nineteenth volume of the above-named standard work, lately +published, contains an article headed "Postage Stamps," in which my late +father is fully recognised as having been the inventor of the adhesive +postage stamp. It is well known that the articles in this work are drawn +up by learned experts upon the respective subjects dealt with, having +access to and being in the habit of consulting official and historical +documents, and edited under a strong sense of responsibility to the high +standing of the work itself and to history; so that it is with +unspeakable satisfaction that I now find myself enabled to produce from +such a quarter an emphatic recognition of my father's services in +connection with the great boon of Penny Postage reform. + +This article, so far as it deals with the origin of the adhesive stamp, +is as follows; but in considering same it should be borne in mind that +the article was drawn up _before_ the discovery of Mr. Chalmers' plan +amongst the papers of the late Sir Henry Cole, with the consequent +proofs given in the last chapter as to Mr. Chalmers having taken the +initiative in urging the adoption of this stamp, not only to Members of +the Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, but to Mr. +Rowland Hill himself, long before Mr. Hill, in his paper of 1839 (see +_ante_, page 21), gave in his adhesion to that plan in conjunction with +his own:-- + +"POSTAGE STAMPS.--For all practical purposes the history of postage +stamps begins in the United Kingdom, and with the great reform of its +postal system in 1839-40." After giving instances in which the +_impressed_ stamp had been in use, or had been suggested for postal +purposes in this country and elsewhere, the article proceeds:--"Finally, +and in its results most important of all, the 'adhesive stamp' was made, +experimentally, in his printing-office at Dundee, by Mr. James Chalmers, +in August, 1834.[11] These experimental stamps were printed from +ordinary type, and were made adhesive by a wash of gum. Their inventor +had already won local distinction in matters of postal reform by his +strenuous and successful efforts, made as early as in the year 1822, for +the acceleration of the Scottish mails from London. Those efforts +resulted in a saving of forty-eight hours on the double journey, and +were highly appreciated in Scotland. There is evidence that from 1822 +onwards his attention was much directed towards postal questions, and +that he held correspondence with the postal reformers of his day both in +and out of Parliament. It is also plain that he was more intent upon +aiding public improvements than upon winning credit for them. He made +adhesive stamps in 1834, and showed them to his neighbours, but took no +step for publicly recommending their adoption by the Post Office until +long after such a recommendation had been published--although very +hesitatingly--by the author of the now famous pamphlet entitled 'Post +Office Reform.'[12] Mr. Hill brought the adhesive stamp under the notice +of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry on the 13th February, 1837. +Mr. Chalmers made no _public_ mention of his stamp of 1834 until +December, 1837."[13] + +"Only a fortnight before his examination by the above-named +Commissioners Mr. Hill, in his letter to the late Lord Monteagle (then +Mr. Spring Rice, and Chancellor of the Exchequer), seems to have had no +thought of the _adhesive_ stamp. He recommends to the Treasury 'that +stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the public from the +Stamp Office or Post Office ... and sold at such a price as to include +the postage.... Covers at various prices would be required for packets +of various weights. Each should have the weight it is entitled to carry +legibly printed with the stamp.... Should experience warrant the +Government in making the use of stamped covers universal,[14] most +important advantages would be secured. The Post Office would be relieved +altogether from the collection of the revenue.'[15] + +"Then, upon suggestion, it would seem, of some possible difficulty that +might arise from the occasional bringing to a post-office by persons +unable to write, of unstamped letters, he added: 'Perhaps this +difficulty might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough +to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash.' It is +a quite fair inference that this alternative had been suggested from +without.[16] In reviewing the subject, long afterwards, in his 'History +of Penny Postage,' Sir R. Hill says: 'The Post-Office opinions as to the +use of stamps for ... prepayment were on the whole favourable.'[17] In a +paper of 1839, entitled 'On the Collection of Postage by means of +Stamps,' the author continued to look upon 'stamped covers or envelopes +as the means which the public would most commonly employ; still +believing that the adhesive stamp would be reserved for exceptional +cases.'[18] + +"Mulready's well-remembered allegorical cover came into use on 1st May, +1840, together with the first form of the stamped letter-paper, and the +adhesive labels. They all met at first, but only for a few days, with a +large sale. That of the first day yielded £2,500. Soon afterwards the +public rejection of the 'Mulready envelope,' writes Rowland Hill, 'was +so complete as to necessitate the destruction of nearly all the vast +number prepared for issue.' Whilst, on the other hand, the presses of +the Stamp Office were producing more than half a million of [adhesive] +labels, by working both night and day, they yet failed to meet the +demand.[19] It was only after many weeks, and after the introduction of +a series of mechanical improvements and new processes, due to the skill +and ingenuity in part of Mr. Edwin Hill of the Stamp Office, in part of +Mr. Perkins, an engraver, that the demand could be effectually +answered." + +The above emphatic decision on the part of eminent men whom I have never +seen in favour of James Chalmers as having been the inventor of the +adhesive postage stamp, will give much satisfaction in those numerous +quarters from which I have already met with countenance and support. +After a full consideration of the respective statements put forward by +myself and by Mr. Pearson Hill on the subject, James Chalmers at length +obtains a recognition of which he has, as a rule, been only too long +deprived. And that the same man who invented this stamp also first +proposed its adoption has been already too clearly shown to require +repetition here. Surely Sir Rowland Hill's "paper of 1839," mentioned in +this article, was a trifle behindhand, when I have just proved from Sir +Henry Cole's papers that Mr. Chalmers had already laid his plan before +Mr. Hill himself in February, 1838. Did Mr. Hill tell us _that_ in his +paper of 1839? No. Did he tell us that he drew up this paper of 1839 +under a pressing demand for the adhesive stamp from all quarters? No. +_Was it fair of Sir Rowland Hill to allow the readers of his "History of +Penny Postage," or of his paper of 1839, to conclude that this proposal +on his part of 1839 was put forward of his own initiation, and this with +Mr. Chalmers' plan and statement of February, 1838, already in his +possession?_ A plan which, in his reply to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March +following, Mr. Hill had pooh-poohed! Moreover, in referring to this +"paper of 1839" in his "History of Penny Postage," vol. 1, page 346, Sir +Rowland Hill takes special credit to himself for having therein +recommended that the adhesive stamps "should be printed on sheets," +putting same forward as a further idea of his own, and wholly ignoring +the fact of such having been a special feature, "for sale in sheets or +singly," in that plan of Mr. Chalmers _which lay before him_. (See +_ante_, page 24.) It is unfortunate that the writer of this article was +not at the time of writing in possession of the whole facts of the case, +when doubtless Mr. Hill's "paper of 1839" would have been characterised +as it deserved. Sir Rowland Hill's mode of obtaining credit for +"inventions" or proposals of other men will now be better understood. + +If Mr. Hill alluded to this adhesive stamp (the admitted invention of +Mr. Chalmers in 1834) in February, 1837, while Mr. Chalmers urged its +adoption officially only in December, this, it will be seen, arose from +Mr. Hill having been privileged to give evidence on postal affairs +before the Commissioners of Inquiry. The proposal of 1834 with respect +to newspapers came to nothing; consequently there was no opening _then_ +for Mr. Chalmers to send in his invention _officially_. In sending in +his plan to the Select Committee of the House of Commons in December, +1837, Mr. Chalmers was still a year and a half before the Penny Postage +Bill was even introduced into Parliament. Mr. Hill did not adopt same +until he issued his "paper of 1839." Mr. Hill's allusion to this stamp +in February, 1837, this "publishing" of the idea "very hesitatingly," +had no practical effect whatever on the cause in hand; such only shows +that Mr. Hill had heard of the invention of 1834, without seeing its +value or proposing to adopt it. Moreover, Mr. Chalmers was publishing +his own invention, while Mr. Hill was only publishing an acquired idea, +"suggested from without." It is to the man who not only invented the +adhesive postage stamp, but who further first urged the adoption of same +in its entirety for the purpose of carrying out the Penny Postage +scheme, that the merit of this plan and of its results are due and will +be ascribed. + +But if I was to stop here I should be told now, as I have been told +before on obtaining important recognitions, that the present decision +in my favour was again got upon mere _ex-parte_ statements--that had Mr. +Pearson Hill only been given the opportunity, a very different aspect +would have been put upon the matter. No choice, consequently, is left me +but to show that it is to Mr. Pearson Hill himself I am indebted for the +introduction which has led to my success, and without which +introduction, now reproduced, I should have remained in entire ignorance +as to any forthcoming article upon postal affairs, or have been most +courteously afforded an opportunity of stating my case:-- + + + [_Copy._] + + "ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA." + "50, BELSIZE PARK, + LONDON, N.W., + _15th March, 1883_. + + "GENTLEMEN, + + "As you are now issuing a new edition of your 'Encyclopædia + Britannica,' and as for years past a Mr. Patrick Chalmers has + persistently been making false and groundless charges against + my father, the late Sir Rowland Hill, I think it well to send + you the enclosed printed documents for your information, as it + is by no means improbable that he may strive to get you to + insert some untrue statement when you deal with the question of + the Post Office and Postal Reform. + + "I need hardly say that I shall be happy at any time to submit + to you the original documents which are in my possession, which + disprove the claims put forward in behalf of Mr. James Chalmers + of Dundee, if you would desire to see them. + + "Your statistical information about the Post Office, as given + in my copy of the Encyclopædia (the eighth edition) is of + course now much behindhand. I dare say you have already on your + staff of contributors some gentleman well able to supply you + with fresh information; but should you be in want of any such + help, I feel sure that my cousin, Mr. Lewin Hill, head of the + statistical branch of the Secretary's office, General Post + Office, London, would gladly undertake the work if you desired + it. + + "I am, Gentlemen, + + "Your obedient servant, + "(Signed) PEARSON HILL. + + "MESSRS. A. & C. BLACK, + Edinburgh." + + +It is thus manifest that, in having obtained this conclusive +recognition, I have taken no undue advantage of Mr. Pearson Hill, while +it will also be manifest that Mr. Pearson Hill's statements have found +acceptance in other quarters only because I have not been afforded an +equally impartial hearing as in the present case. His printed +documents, his statements, with all the advantage of being sole +possessor of the correspondence betwixt his late father and mine, have +been put forward, and yet the decision is against him. + +Again, as respects the penny postage scheme itself, the proofs are +conclusive that _originality of conception_ formed no element whatever +in any one of the proposals of Sir Rowland Hill, preceded and heralded +as the penny postage reform had been by the labours of a whole band of +pioneers. Special reference may be made to the statements of the Rev. +Samuel Roberts, whose biography as the pioneer of uniform penny postal +reform is given in the _Times_ of 30th September last. The "Rowland Hill +Memorial Fund" Committee have themselves admitted, after what has been +laid before them, their sense of this non-originality by the change made +in the inscription upon the City statue of Sir Rowland Hill, thereby +confirming the accuracy of my statements. Moreover, a Treasury Minute of +11th March, 1864, distinctly states that uniform penny postage had been +urged upon the Government prior to the proposals of Sir Rowland Hill. +Thus, independent and conclusive testimony, as distinguished from the +mere family tradition with which many writers have hitherto been +content, leaves the question of plagiarism beyond dispute. As with the +stamp, so with the scheme, the ideas were _acquired, not original_. +Here, then, is the justification of my statements. So far from having +been "persistently making false and groundless charges," I have been +stating facts and elucidating the truth, and the aspersions of Mr. +Pearson Hill are thus scattered to the winds. + +For Mr. Pearson Hill, however, every allowance will be made, though his +style of controversy will not be admired. That gentleman forgets that my +motives and objects are just as legitimate as his own, and should be met +in a legitimate way. This leads me to mention that some time ago Mr. +Samuel Morley, M.P. (at one period chairman of the "Sir Rowland Hill +Memorial Fund" Committee) was good enough to suggest that this +controversy should be decided by arbitration, and to which I agreed in +principle, subject to due preliminaries, but met with no response. At a +later period, in a letter already published, after pointing to my own +evidence, I invited Mr. Morley's good offices, seeing that Mr. Pearson +Hill declined to reply to or even to open any letter from me, to +ascertain from Mr. Hill if he could produce any evidence, or anything +beyond mere assumption, to the effect that the adhesive postage stamp +was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill, but I +was equally unsuccessful in obtaining any reply, there being, in fact, +nothing beyond assumption in the matter. Nowhere does Sir Rowland Hill +directly profess that this stamp was his invention. + +My friends, both in and out of the press, who have been puzzled at the +silence of many of the London papers on this subject, will now be in a +position to form some conclusion as to the cause of this silence. What +has been sent to the Messrs. Black and to the Commissioners of City +Sewers, may have been sent to the London papers; indeed, I have been +given to understand has been generally circulated in these quarters, +already compromised in their expressed opinions, and so in no way +disposed to entertain fresh views.[20] My opponents, some of them in +high position, others themselves connected with the press, are desirous, +and naturally so, that public attention should not be drawn to my +statements.[21] In this way, crushed beneath the weight of a hitherto +great name, statements have been disregarded which, when read and +investigated as in the case of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," have been +found substantiated. + +I ask my supporters and others, therefore, to read and judge for +themselves. Whether the London papers, hitherto silent, seeing the +important recognition my claim has now met with, and the fresh and +conclusive evidence now disclosed from the papers of Sir Henry Cole, +will also now read and admit some discussion of this matter of public +interest in their columns, remains to be seen. In any case, an enduring +record of my father's share in the great postal reform of 1837-40 is +secured. A work of the highest standing, and a reference to which is the +first act of historical writers, has recorded James Chalmers as having +been the originator of that adhesive postage stamp which saved the +reformed scheme. Moreover, in lands beyond the sea, an interest is taken +in this subject wholly unknown here; individuals and learned societies +collect for their own information, and hand down for future perusal, +everything published on the great Penny Postage reform, and in some of +these quarters amazement is expressed at the single-hero-worship which +prevails in this country with respect to a subject which investigation +shows to have been the offspring of many minds, the result of the +labours of not a few zealous but unassuming men. + +The services of Sir Rowland Hill, already cordially recognised in my +pamphlets, it would be superfluous again to dwell upon here. And if, +while cordially pointing out these great services, it has also fallen +to my lot to put a fresh and less favourable aspect upon their nature +and extent than hitherto understood, to bring to light his great failing +of assuming or allowing to be assumed as conceptions of his own what +were only acquired ideas, of omitting to notice what it was not +convenient to notice, let it be remembered that such has been forced +upon me as a necessity solely in the pursuit of what is now declared to +have been a just claim. At one period, indeed, I had withdrawn from the +whole matter, until recalled to it by Mr. Pearson Hill himself in a +published statement to which I was challenged to reply. My replies, +under ever-increasing and conclusive evidence, have now been put +forward. Should the result not have proved such as the best friends of +Sir Rowland Hill could have desired, upon his own son, and not upon me, +rests the responsibility. It is enough for me that my father's memory as +the originator and inventor of the adhesive postage stamp has been +successfully vindicated. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] "Patrick Chalmers, Sir Rowland Hill, and James Chalmers, Inventor +of the Adhesive Stamp (London, 1882), _passim_." See also the same +writer's pamphlet, entitled "The Position of Sir Rowland Hill made plain +(1882)," and his "The Adhesive Stamp; a Fresh Chapter in the History of +Post-Office Reform (1881)." Compare Mr. Pearson Hill's tract, "A Paper +on Postage Stamps," in reply to Mr. Chalmers, reprinted from the +"Philatelic Record," of November, 1881. Mr. Hill has therein shown +conclusively the priority of _publication_ by Sir Rowland Hill. He has +also given proof of Mr. James Chalmers' express acknowledgment of that +priority. But he has not weakened the evidence of the priority of +_invention_ by Mr. Chalmers. + +[This admission on the part of Mr. Chalmers, obtained through an +obscuring and consequent misapprehension of the facts, was, of course, +wholly invalid. Even if valid, it will be seen at page 44 that such +priority of publication of an idea "suggested from without" was of no +practical consequence.--P.C.] + +[12] "Ninth Report of Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry, 1837," pp. +32, 33, reprinted in Sir R. Hill's "History of Penny Postage" ("Life," +&c., ii. 270). + +[13] [That Mr. Chalmers had not made an earlier offer of his stamp +_officially_ is accounted for by the proposals of 1834 with respect to a +penny postage on newspapers, in place of an impressed stamp of fourpence +on the sheet, having come to nothing.--P.C.] + +[14] _I.e._, by prohibiting the prepayment of letters in money. + +[15] "Ninth Report," as above. + +[16] Moreover, what Sir Rowland Hill does _not_ tell in his "History," +is that the compulsion to use a stamp in all cases was, in his _original +evidence_ in this Ninth Report, at once _withdrawn_, the permission to +pay the penny in cash being restored, so that the person "unable to +write" was at once relieved of all "difficulty," and no bit of gummed +paper required even in the exceptional case supposed. (See my former +pamphlet, page 56.) Keeping this fact in view, there is thus only a +passing "allusion" here in February, 1837, to the adhesive stamp, and +nothing more, not even a partial proposal to use it. This clause +restoring the permission to pay the penny in place of using any stamp, +is taken no notice of by Sir Rowland Hill "in reviewing the subject long +afterwards."--P.C. + +[17] "History of Penny Postage," as above. + +[18] _Ibid._ + +[19] Hill, _et supra_, p. 398. + +[20] In lately replying to Mr. Pearson Hill in the columns of the +_Whitehall Review_, I have put this query, which has not been denied, +"Will Mr. Pearson Hill undertake to say that he has not made a +communication, written or verbal, similar to the above letter to Messrs. +A. & C. Black to every editor in London, if not throughout a wider +sphere?" + +[21] One mode of stifling the subject has been to circulate the +impression that I am a person under the hallucination that "his father +invented the _Penny Postage scheme_," thus rendering my claim too +ludicrous to obtain attention. See, amongst others, the _Times_ and +_Daily News_ of 13th July, 1881. + + + + +VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE ADHESIVE STAMP. + + +"Why should we be called upon to pass this Penny Postage Bill," said the +opponents of that measure in August, 1839, "when no mortal being had at +that moment the remotest conception of how it was to be carried into +execution?" Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of the impressed stamp had not +satisfied the Committee. This plan, as amended by the Committee, had not +satisfied the Government. (See _ante_, page 13.) The paper makers and +stationers were in a state of protest and alarm. "This part of the +business must stand over," said the Government of the day, "How to carry +out the scheme will require much consideration." It was here that James +Chalmers, through Mr. Wallace, Chairman of the Committee, stepped +in--the adhesive stamp saved the scheme. _That_ was the value and +importance of his invention and proposal. It satisfied the paper trade; +"Let the stationer, not the Stamp Office," said Mr. Chalmers, "sell the +paper, the Post Office the stamp." He saved the scheme of Mr. Hill to +the country by relieving and setting agoing the clogged wheels of penny +postage--he supplied the engines to the much admired but immovable craft +and sent her speeding smoothly and swiftly upon her beneficent mission. + +No wonder Sir Rowland Hill determined that no name but his own should be +heard of in connection with the adhesive stamp, for of what use is a +scheme, however desirable, if you cannot carry it out in practice? This +is what he admits on the subject soon after the simultaneous +introduction of the Mulready envelope and the adhesive stamp--"The +public rejection of the former was so complete as to necessitate the +destruction of nearly all the vast number prepared for issue." On the +other hand--"Though the presses of the Stamp Office were producing more +than half a million of adhesive stamps by working both night and day, +they yet failed to meet the demand." Up to this day, after over forty +years of public service, and notwithstanding the improvements in the +production of impressed and embossed stamps, the adhesive stamp remains +indispensable to our postal, inland revenue, telegraphic, and +parcel-post systems--"Eighteen hundred millions are issued _yearly_ from +the office of the Controller of stamps. These range in value from a +halfpenny to twenty pounds, covering postage and inland revenue from a +halfpenny to two shillings and sixpence; postage proper from five +shillings to five pounds; inland revenue proper (such as foreign bills, +sea policy stamps, &c.) from one penny to ten pounds; and fees (such as +judicature, &c.), from one penny to twenty pounds. The penny stamp takes +the first place amongst the numbers issued. Of these, as many as +thirteen hundred millions and a half were despatched from Somerset House +in the course of a recent twelvemonth."[22] Twenty-five millions of +parcels are now annually conveyed by Parcel Post, a business only +practicable through prepayment by adhesive stamp. + +Thus, ever increasing in utility, thus indispensable to the carrying out +of all or any of these great public services, the value of James +Chalmers' invention and proposal--the importance of this "powerful +mechanism of the stamp"--may be best felt by the consideration that its +suspension, even for a day, would paralyse the entire commercial and +social system of the nation, it may be said "of the world" for in all +other lands, one after another, has the adhesive stamp become an +institution for similar purposes as in our own, and in corresponding +numbers. + +In this sense an eminent writer has lately stated, "Whoever discovered +the adhesive stamp, the discovery has socially revolutionised the +world." "Should my plan be adopted," was the prophetic saying of Mr. +Chalmers when he sent his plan to London and to Mr. Hill himself, long +before the Penny Postage Bill was even introduced into Parliament, +"should my adhesive stamp be adopted, the demand for these will in time +become so vast, that I am only puzzled to think where premises can be +found to get them up." Surely the man who rescued the Legislature from +such a complication as has been described, surely the originator of this +indispensable and ubiquitous adhesive stamp has done the State some +service. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] "Chambers' Journal," March, 1885. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +Objections have been raised, both in and out of the press, to the effect +that my claim comes "too late in the day." Such objection will, I +believe, be found effectually met in my preface and former pamphlets, to +the satisfaction of any impartial mind favouring me with a perusal. + +With those who decline to read my statements, amongst whom may be named +several writers of biography wrapt up in a blind worship of +pre-conceived ideas, nothing, of course, can be done. + +Others say, "Get an official recognition of your claim from the Post +Office, then we will recognise you." This, again, is taking matters in +the reverse order; if the Post Office is ever to recognise me, the +pressure must come from outside, as the Post Office, under its late +chief, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, simply declines to read or cause to be read for +its information anything I may lay before it, as "not being deemed +necessary." As I have nothing to ask from that quarter, having now +gained a recognition promising to be sufficient for my purpose, I have +no present intention of again troubling the Post Office on the subject. +The feeling of _esprit de corps_, if nothing else, will probably render +the Post Office the very last body to admit that any mistake by the late +Sir Rowland Hill has been made. + +But it may be said, "Did not the Post Office give Palmer, the organiser +of the mail-coach system, in addition to his pay of £3,000 a year, +£50,000?" And was not James Chalmers the successor in that line, sixty +years ago, of Palmer? Yes--but then Mr. Palmer was a man of business, +and had made his bargain with the Post Office _before_ he took the +mail-coach organisation in hand to be paid according to results; while, +after all, the £50,000 was only a compromise, obtained, moreover, only +after the repeated interference of Parliament. James Chalmers, +recognised by the leading Scottish press of the period, and by his +townsmen, never dreamt of asking a pecuniary reward. Again, was not the +Post Office in 1852 most liberal with Archer, the inventor of the +perforating machine--did they not give him £4,000 for the use of it? +Yes--but then Mr. Archer had taken out a patent for his invention, and +refused to sell the use of it for less, and it was not until after a +fruitless negotiation of five years, ending in a Parliamentary Committee +taking up the subject and insisting upon Mr. Archer being paid his +moderate demand, that the Post Office and the Treasury gave in, and but +for this Parliamentary pressure we might yet be cutting off our stamps +with a pair of scissors to this day. In the same way, then, it has been +asked, would not an infinitesimal royalty on the increasing millions of +adhesive stamps have long ago placed that originator, him and his, +amongst the wealthy of the land? Yes--but such was not the spirit in +which James Chalmers trafficked and trifled with the public interests. +What are his last words to Sir Rowland Hill on the subject? "The only +satisfaction I have had in this, as well as in former suggestions, all +original to me, is that these have been adopted, and have and are likely +to prove beneficial to the public." This was the spirit in which the +originator of the adhesive stamp ever tendered his services, public or +private--the satisfaction of finding them useful and accepted. In the +continued and ever-increasing utility of his stamp may be seen that +silent yet irresistible tribute of the nation to its originator which +James Chalmers would most have prized--only, let the hand which gave it +be rightly known and recognised. For a time powerful influences to +silence may prevail and popular delusion continue to hold its sway. But +at some future day, if not now--in other lands if not in this--will the +name of James Chalmers be yet recognised in connection with our constant +friend and companion, the adhesive stamp, and the great boon of Penny +Postage reform. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +DUNDEE. + +So satisfied were the Dundee merchants of a past age as to the +originality and value of Mr. Chalmers' invention and happy suggestion +that, on the 1st January, 1846, a public Testimonial was presented to +him in the Town Hall of Dundee in recognition of same and of other +postal services. This Testimonial consisted of a silver jug and salver +and a purse of 50 sovereigns. Just before this period, Mr. Rowland Hill +had been presented by the merchants of the City of London with a cheque +for over £13,000, in recognition of what now turns out to have been +merely a borrowed scheme, and which scheme was only saved from untimely +collapse by the adoption of Mr. Chalmers' plan of the adhesive stamp. + +In the present generation, again, the Town Council of Dundee have +performed a graceful act to the memory of a deserving townsman, by +having passed at a meeting held on the 3rd March, 1883, the following +resolution:-- + +"That, having had under consideration the Pamphlet lately published on +the subject of the Adhesive Stamp, the Council are of opinion that it +has been conclusively shown that the late James Chalmers, bookseller, +Dundee, was the originator of this indispensable feature in the success +of the reformed Penny Postage Scheme, and that such be entered upon the +minutes." + +The above resolution of the Town Council is now, it will be seen, fully +confirmed by the able and learned writers of the "Encyclopædia +Britannica," after an impartial investigation of the subject--a +confirmation having all the greater weight as reversing, upon evidence +which could not be resisted, previously recorded impressions. + +Dundee is now a large and wealthy community, returning two members to +Parliament; few centres of business have benefited more conspicuously +from the legislation of the past forty years, including as the +foundation of all mercantile intercourse that great postal reform which +James Chalmers saved from failure and made practicable. Two generations +have already recognised and given every credit to the services of their +townsman--what further notice Dundee may yet take of this matter of +national and historical interest originated in the locality, the "value +and importance" of which has elsewhere been inadequately described, +remains to be seen. + + +OPINIONS FROM THE PRESS. + +Having already published most of these in detail, to save space and +repetition it will be sufficient here to give a list or little more, of +the numerous Journals which have given me more or less support. + +Those to which I am more particularly indebted are:--In Scotland-- + +The "Dundee Advertiser," a consistent support during a past lengthened +period, including powerful leading articles and notices. + +The "Montrose Standard," several cordial and able articles of the +highest value, while the same is to be gratefully noticed of the other +Forfarshire papers. + +The "Brechin Advertiser," the "Forfar Herald," the "Arbroath Guide," the +"Montrose Review." + +The "North British Daily Mail," of Glasgow, in a leading article headed +"A Neglected Inventor," after stating the case, goes on to say: "It is +not creditable to the generosity of the Government of this country that +an important invention of this kind, which has conferred such a great +boon upon the public, should have remained so long unacknowledged and +unrewarded." This article has been extensively reproduced. + +The "Glasgow News" and the "Christian Leader," of Glasgow, cordial +articles. + +The "Paisley Herald," the same on several occasions. + +The "Aberdeen Free Press," a warm and able support. + +The "Blairgowrie Advertiser" has taken much interest and pains to +support me; also the "Perthshire Constitutional," the "Fifeshire +Journal," the "North British Advertiser," to all of which my best thanks +are due. + +In the Metropolis and neighbourhood, considering how short a period has +elapsed since the opinion has been almost unanimously expressed that the +reformed Penny Postage scheme was the "sole and undisputed invention of +Sir Rowland Hill," to whom has also been erroneously attributed the +invention and proposal as well as the ultimate adoption of the adhesive +stamp, fair progress has already been made in obtaining a recognition of +Mr. Chalmers' services. That greater progress has not been made may be +attributed to the powerful influences which have been at work to stifle +the whole subject, including an attempt on the part of Mr. Pearson Hill +to stop the publication of pamphlets. + +In the "Illustrated London News" Mr. G. A. Sala writes: "It seems +tolerably clear that Sir Rowland Hill was not the inventor, in the +strict sense of the term, either of the Penny Postage or of the Adhesive +Postage Stamp ... Anent the invention of the Adhesive Stamp, a pamphlet +has recently been published, but I have not yet had time to read it.... +Whoever discovered the Adhesive Stamp, the discovery has socially +revolutionised the world." According to this high authority, the +Adhesive Stamp was thus at least _not_ the invention of Sir Rowland +Hill. + +The "Whitehall Review" has given me consistent and most valuable +support; also the "Metropolitan," the "People," the "Home and Colonial +Mail." The "Machinery Market," of London and Darlington, a practical +monthly journal of high position, while retaining all its former +admiration for Sir Rowland Hill's services, decides, in a long and able +article, in favour of James Chalmers as respects the stamp. The +"Inventors' Record," in an article on "Disputed Inventions," supports +the same view. The pretensions brought forward on the part of Sir +Rowland Hill are declared to be wholly groundless, and the invention +accorded to James Chalmers. + +The "Croydon Review," a monthly, in a series of able articles, has +informed its readers candidly with respect to the untenable pretensions +of Sir Rowland Hill, both as respects the scheme and the stamp, +cordially ascribing the latter to James Chalmers. + +The "Surrey Independent" has ably supported me in several leading +articles. As far as conception went, "Sir Rowland Hill displayed a +remarkable facility for picking other people's brains." + +To the "Surrey Comet" and "Wimbledon Courier" my best thanks are due for +cordial notices and recognition; as also to the "West Middlesex +Advertiser," the "South Hampstead Advertiser," the "North Middlesex +Advertiser," the "Christian Union," the "Hornsey and Finsbury Park +Journal," the "American Bookseller," the "Acton and Chiswick Gazette," +"Figaro," "Vanity Fair," the "Kensington News," "Life," and others. + +From the Provincial Press, much valuable support has been given me:-- + +The "Oldham Chronicle" and "Rastrick Gazette" have written often and +ably on the subject, supported by such papers as the "Bradford +Observer," the "Western Daily Press," of Bristol, the "Bristol Gazette," +the "Norwich Argus," the "Brighton Herald," the "Brighton Argus," the +"Dover and County Chronicle," the "Colchester Chronicle," the "Stratford +and South Essex Advertiser," the "Essex Standard," the "Bradford Times," +the "Burnley Express," the "Barnsley Times," the "Wigan Observer," the +"Stockport Advertiser," the "Yorkshire Gazette," the "Westmoreland +Gazette," the "Wakefield and West Riding Herald," the "Frome Times," the +"Man of Ross," the "Totnes Times," the "Banner of Wales," the "West +Bromwich Free Press," the "Swinton and Pendlebury Times," the +"Accrington Gazette," the "Birkenhead News," the "Brighton Standard," +the "Hastings Observer," the "Newcastle Courant," the "Preston +Chronicle," the "Monmouthshire Beacon," the "Lydney Observer," the "West +of England Observer," the "Cardiff Free Press," the "Monmouthshire +Chronicle," the "Eskdale and Liddlesdale Advertiser," the "Irvine +Express," the "Surrey Advertiser," the "Printers' Register," the +"Newcastle Examiner," the "Malvern News," and others, with articles +sympathetically copied into the "Brighton Guardian," the "Aberdeen +Journal," the "Dundee Courier," the "Edinburgh Courant," the "Liverpool +Albion," the "Building and Engineering Times" of London," &c. + +The late Sir Thomas Nelson, Solicitor to the Corporation of the City of +London, writes:-- + + + "HAMPTON WICK, + _6th February, 1883_. + + "SIR, + + "I have read the pamphlet you sent me. Your statements are very + interesting. It is nothing uncommon for the man to whom the + idea first occurs to have it developed by others, who get the + credit of it. + + "Yours truly, + "(Signed) T. J. NELSON. + + "PATRICK CHALMERS, Esq. + Wimbledon." + + +If plagiarism is not uncommon it is none the less unfair to the original +inventor, nor the less to be deprecated, more especially where the +result has been to obtain unmerited "credit" heaped upon the wrong man +at the expense of the man to whom "the idea first occurred," and who +further, as is now more fully proved since Sir Thomas Nelson wrote, also +first urged its "development" to the very man who ultimately took all +the "credit" to himself. To plagiarism such as this a stronger term is +applicable. + +Sir Bartle Frere writes:-- + + + "WRESSIL LODGE, WIMBLEDON, + _21st April, 1883_. + + "SIR, + + "I have received your letter of the 20th, and thank you for its + enclosures on the subject of the invention of the adhesive + postage stamp. + + "I have long believed that Mr. James Chalmers was the inventor + of that important part of our present postal system, but I + regret that I cannot suggest to you any means of giving further + publicity to your father's claims to the merit of that most + useful invention. + + "I remain, SIR, + + "Yours truly, + (Signed) H. B. E. FRERE. + + "P. CHALMERS, Esq." + + +Sir Bartle Frere introduced the adhesive postage stamp into Scinde +during his administration of that province, having obtained his +knowledge and belief as to James Chalmers having been the originator of +same from independent sources thirty years before my own investigation +of the subject. + + * * * * * + +In some quarters this matter is ignored on the ground that the subject +of this pamphlet is not of sufficient importance or too late to call for +notice. To such I reply--"Then let the issue of the adhesive stamp (see +page 52) be discontinued." Should it be found that such cannot be done +without serious detriment to the public service, then surely to continue +to use a man's indispensable invention and proposal without so much as a +word of recognition, will, if adhered to, prove a course of proceeding +hard indeed to justify, as well as something wholly foreign to the +antecedents of British journalism. + + +EFFINGHAM WILSON, Printer, Royal Exchange, E.C. + + + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the | + | original document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 56 imformation changed to information | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Adhesive Postage Stamp, by Patrick Chalmers + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP *** + +***** This file should be named 39569-8.txt or 39569-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/6/39569/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi, The +Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Adhesive Postage Stamp + +Author: Patrick Chalmers + +Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39569] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi, The +Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<h1>THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP.</h1> + +<hr /> + +<h4>DECISION OF THE</h4> +<h2>"ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA":</h2> + +<h4><i>James Chalmers was the Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp—"Mr. Pearson Hill +has not weakened the Evidence" to that effect.</i></h4> + +<h4>ALSO</h4> + +<h2>Papers on the Penny Postage Reform,</h2> + +<h4>BEQUEATHED BY THE LATE</h4> + +<h2>SIR HENRY COLE.</h2> + +<h4><span class="smcap">James Chalmers first proposed the adoption of the Adhesive<br /> +Postage Stamp,<br /> of which he was the Inventor.</span></h4> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>PATRICK CHALMERS,</h2> +<h4><i>Fellow of the Royal Historical Society</i>.</h4> + +<div class="img"> +<img border="0" src="images/deco.jpg" width="10%" alt="Publisher's Mark" /> +</div> + +<h3>LONDON:<br /> +EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE.<br /> + +1886.<br /> +<i>Price Sixpence.</i></h3> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>When a man of note dies, the journalist of the day can only reproduce in +an obituary notice the accepted position of his life and works—it is no +part of that writer's duty to examine, so as fully to certify, all the +statements at hand, or to ransack old volumes dealing with the times +when such reputation was established. That is the duty and the task of +the later historian, or of some one specially interested. Such has been +my duty, my task, as respects that public benefactor, the late Sir +Rowland Hill, with the result arrived at in this and former +publications.</p> + +<p>Upon the death of Sir Rowland Hill in August, 1879, a series of letters +with comments thereon appeared in the Dundee press, recalling the name +and services of a townsman who, in his day, had taken an active interest +in post-office improvement, and had worked in that field to some +purpose. Mr. James Chalmers, bookseller, Dundee, who died in 1853, had +been an earnest postal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>reformer. Through his efforts, and after a long +correspondence with the Post Office in London, he brought about such an +acceleration of the mail as to lessen the time necessary for the reply +to a letter from Dundee to London, or betwixt the chief commercial towns +of the north and south, by two days—a day each way. Subsequently he +conceived the idea of an adhesive stamp for postage purposes; and it was +this invention, made known to such post-office reformers as Mr. Hume and +Mr. Wallace—with both of whom, as with others, he was in +communication—that formed the origin of the adoption of the adhesive +stamp in the reformed Penny Postage system of 1840, the plan proposed by +Mr. Rowland Hill in 1837 having been that of the impressed stamp.</p> + +<p>These letters in the Dundee press from old townsmen and friends of Mr. +Chalmers, personally unknown to me as I was to them (I having left +Dundee while a youth, over fifty years ago, and passed much of the +interval abroad), with the consequent attention drawn to the subject, +naturally called upon me to make an endeavour to vindicate my father's +claim to the merit of such an important feature in the success of the +Penny Postage scheme as was, and is, the adhesive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>stamp. These letters, +moreover, acquainted me with what I was previously unaware of—that on +the 1st January, 1846, a public testimonial had been presented in the +Town Hall of Dundee to Mr. Chalmers, in recognition of his postal +services, and of his having been the originator of the adhesive postage +stamp; thus all the more calling upon me to investigate a subject of +which hitherto I had only a dim and partial idea. This investigation was +further facilitated by my withdrawal just before the same period of 1879 +from active business, thus enabling me to examine at the library of the +British Museum the papers, documents, speeches, and motions in +Parliament, Reports of Parliamentary Committees, and all such evidence +and information tending to throw light upon, from the year 1832 onwards, +the history and events preceding the reformed system of postage +introduced to the public in the year 1837 by the then Mr. Rowland Hill.</p> + +<p>My father long since dead (while I was abroad), and his establishment +long ago broken up, difficulty was at first experienced in obtaining the +specific evidence necessary to enable me to establish my claim on his +behalf, but the attention publicly drawn to the matter by former +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>publications of my own, and of Mr. Pearson Hill to which I was called +upon to reply, brought forward ever-increasing evidence of the most +conclusive nature, and to which I am now enabled to add material and +interesting confirmation from papers left by the late Sir Henry Cole, +whose connection with the Penny Postage Reform of 1837-40 is well +known.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>THE PENNY POSTAGE SCHEME OF<br /> SIR ROWLAND HILL NOT ORIGINAL.</h2> + +<p>My business, of course, in the investigation just named, was to +ascertain what plan Sir Rowland Hill had proposed in his pamphlet of +1837 for the purpose of carrying out his Penny Postage Scheme, and to +trace therefrom the adoption on his part of my father's plan of the +adhesive stamp. But a discovery of much more historical importance +before long presented itself, namely, that neither the conception of +uniform penny postage itself, nor of any one of the valuable principles +and figures of the penny postage scheme, were original conceptions on +the part of Sir Rowland Hill.</p> + +<p>The reformed system of postage was not the work of one year nor of one +man. For some years prior to 1837 the abuses and mismanagement of the +post office were a constant theme of complaint, both in and out of +Parliament—many able and earnest men combined to bring about some +reform demanded by men of business and public opinion. Commissions of +inquiry were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>held, evidence and suggestions taken, reports issued. +Early in 1835 Mr. Wallace, M.P. for Greenock, a prominent post-office +reformer, obtained a Commission of Inquiry on the subject, which +Commission issued in all ten Reports; while, in addition to +Parliamentary returns, a commission, termed the Commission of Revenue +Inquiry, had sat for many years prior to the Commission of merely Post +Office Inquiry, and had issued twenty-three Reports, in more than one of +which post-office affairs were dealt with.</p> + +<p>In that large field of complaint, suggestion, information, and proposal +may be found the substance, origin, and foundation of the subsequent +writings and proposals of Sir Rowland Hill.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that the old system of postage, prior to 1840, was +that of a high and variable charge according to distance, of, say, +twopence to one shilling and sixpence a letter, charged by sheet; and +two sheets, however light in weight, were charged double. The same with +circulars. But in these Reports, including the evidence of the numerous +witnesses, are to be found embodied all the valuable principles and +figures of the reformed system. And that all these Reports had come +under Mr. Hill's review is left in no doubt, having been sent to him by +Mr. Wallace, after Mr. Hill, freed from other occupations, had, in 1835, +joined the circle of post-office reformers, when he "commenced that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>systematic study, analysis, and comparison which the difficulty of my +self-imposed task rendered necessary."—("Life," page 246.)</p> + +<p>But to be looked upon as the <i>inventor</i> of that scheme which he had +introduced and (saved and rendered practicable by the adhesive stamp) +had successfully carried out—to have this scheme understood as having +been the unaided conception of his own mind—was with Sir Rowland Hill +simply a mania, and to that mania James Chalmers, the originator in +every sense of that adhesive stamp, was sacrificed.</p> + +<p>The bearing of all this non-originality of conception on the part of Sir +Rowland Hill is obvious when the question of the stamp is under +consideration. In propounding the scheme itself, what were only acquired +ideas were assumed, or allowed to be assumed, as inventions or +conceptions. As with the scheme, so with the stamp—the stamp also was +an acquired idea, not Rowland Hill's invention.</p> + +<p>Having now, however, obtained from a quarter of the highest standing, +after an impartial investigation, a full acknowledgment of my father's +services, and this in addition to an already large amount of recognition +from the press in general, further observations as to the +non-originality of the scheme may be here dispensed with, for the +present at least, and left to history. And if I have been compelled to +show that, so far from the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>adhesive stamp having been the invention of +Sir Rowland Hill, originality of conception formed no element whatever +in any one of the proposals of even the Penny Postage Scheme itself, +such course has been forced upon me by the unfortunate proceedings of +Mr. Pearson Hill in denying, against the clearest evidence, my just +claim in the matter of the stamp, without a pretence of proof that such +was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>THE IMPRESSED STAMP.</h2> + +<p>The plan by which Mr. Rowland Hill, in his pamphlet of 1837, proposed to +carry out in practice his uniform penny postage scheme was, shortly +stated, first, simply to pay the penny or money with the letters; but +secondly, and more especially, by stamped sheets of letter paper, and +stamped wrappers or covers. "Let stamped covers and sheets of paper be +supplied to the public, from the Stamp Office or Post Office, or both, +and at such a price as to include the postage." ... "Economy and the +public convenience would require that sheets of letter paper of every +description should be stamped on the part used for the address; that +wrappers, such as are used for newspapers, as well as covers made of +cheap paper, should also be stamped," and kept on sale at the post +offices. "Stationers would also be induced to keep them."</p> + +<p>What Mr. Hill overlooked in this proposal, was the broad fact that he +sets up the Stamp Office or Post Office to do the business in letter +paper of the stationers throughout the kingdom—some huge Government +establishment against which competition would be hopeless, as the Stamp +Office was to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>sell the writing paper at cost price, while the stationer +requires a profit to pay his rent and expenses, and to live upon. The +effect upon the stationers, consequently would have been +confiscation—and against this plan the united body of paper makers and +stationers subsequently protested.</p> + +<p>The Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, again, took +exception to Mr. Hill's plan mainly on account of its liability to +forgery—a stamp of the nature proposed would be extensively forged. +After evidence on the part of the Stamp-Office authorities and paper +makers had been taken, it was decided to recommend—that the paper for +all stamped covers should be manufactured at the paper mills of a Mr. +Dickenson, or of another, solely, under strict excise supervision. This +paper of Mr. Dickenson's was of a peculiar make, having threads of +cotton or silk so interwoven in the paper that a post-office clerk could +readily know by the look or feel that a stamped cover was genuine. The +paper makers protested and petitioned against this, objecting to one of +the body having all the work. Besides, the proposal involved permanent +excise supervision over the manufacture of paper. This proposal, +however, extended only to covers or envelopes; how forgery was to be +prevented in respect to the stamps upon the sheets of letter paper the +Committee do not say. The whole position, in fact, remained in a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>state +of chaos, only relieved by the ultimate adoption of the adhesive stamp, +which plan Mr. Chalmers had laid before this Committee through Mr. +Wallace, the Chairman, and likewise through Mr. Chalmers, M.P., a member +of the Committee, and which plan had been publicly discussed, not +without finding adherents, including Mr. Cobden, one of the witnesses in +favour of the scheme.</p> + +<p>To the solution proposed by the Committee that all stamped covers should +be made of Dickenson's peculiar paper the Government again highly +objected, further adding to the dilemma; and when the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, on the 5th of July, 1839, introduced and carried a resolution +sanctioning a Penny Postage Bill being brought forward, he distinctly +only "asked hon. members to commit themselves to the question of a +uniform rate of postage of one penny at and under a weight hereafter to +be fixed." Everything else was to be left open. "If it were to go forth +to the public to-morrow morning that the Government had proposed, and +the House had adopted, the plan of Mr. Rowland Hill, the necessary +result would be to spread a conviction abroad that, as a stamped cover +was absolutely to be used in all cases, which stamped covers were to be +made by one single manufacturer, alarm would be felt lest a monopoly +would thereby be created, to the serious detriment of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>other members of +a most useful and important trade. The sense of injustice excited by +this would necessarily be extreme. I therefore do not call upon the +House either to affirm or to negative any such proposition at the +present. I ask you simply to affirm the adoption of a uniform penny +postage, and the taxation of that postage by weight. Neither do I ask +you to pledge yourselves to the prepayment of letters, for I am of +opinion that, at all events, there should be an option of putting +letters into the post without a stamp."</p> + +<p>"If the resolution be affirmed, and the Bill has to be proposed, it will +hereafter require very great care and complicated arrangements to carry +the plan into practical effect. It may involve considerable expense and +considerable responsibility on the part of the Government; it may +disturb existing trades, such as the paper trade." ... "The new postage +will be distinctly and simply a penny postage by weight." ... "I also +require for the Treasury a power of taking the postage by anticipation, +and a power of allowing such postage to be taken by means of stamped +covers, and I also require the authority of rating the postage according +to weight."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>In this dilemma, as to <i>how</i> to carry out the scheme in practice, Mr. +Wallace favourably suggested <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>the adhesive stamp, the adoption of which +plan, he had no hesitation in saying from the evidence adduced, would +secure the revenue from loss by forgery. Mr. Warburton, also a member of +the 1837-38 Committee, "viewing with considerable alarm the doubt which +had been expressed of adopting Mr. Hill's plan of prepayment and +collection by stamped covers," recommended that plans should be applied +for from the public.</p> + +<p>Again, in the House of Lords on the 5th of August, Lord Melbourne, in +introducing the Bill, is as much embarrassed as was the Chancellor of +the Exchequer in the Commons. The opponents of the Bill use, as one of +their strongest arguments, the impossibility of carrying out the scheme +in practice. The Earl of Ripon says:—"Why were their lordships thus +called upon at this period of the session to pass a Bill, when no mortal +being at that moment had the remotest conception of how it was to be +carried into execution?" Here Lord Ashburton, like Mr. Wallace in the +Commons, favourably suggested the adhesive stamp, "which would answer +every purpose, and remove the objection of the stationers and paper +makers to the measure."</p> + +<p>Let it, then, be clearly noted that, up to the period of the Bill in +July and August, 1839, not a word is said in any way connecting Mr. +Hill's name with other than the impressed stamp on the sheet of letter +paper, or, more especially, on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>stamped covers. That, <i>and that +alone</i>, is taken on the one part as <i>his</i> plan by all the speakers, +official or otherwise—for that alone does the Chancellor of the +Exchequer ask for "powers." The adhesive stamp is brought in, on the +other part, as a distinct proposal, in no way entering into the +proposals of Mr. Hill.</p> + +<p>(The above is given in more detail in my former pamphlet, entitled "Sir +Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, the Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp," +1883).</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See "Hansard," Vol. 48.</p> +</div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>THE ADHESIVE STAMP.</h2> + +<p>In my pamphlet entitled "Sir Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, the +Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp," I have already proved from overwhelming +evidence, both general and specific, the invention of the adhesive stamp +for postage purposes by the late James Chalmers, bookseller, Dundee, in +the month of August, 1834. In addition to friends and fellow-townsmen, +several of those in his employment at that period have, unknown to me, +come forward from various quarters to describe the process and to fix +the date. The setting up of the form with a number of stamps having a +printed device—the printing of the sheets—the melting of the gum—the +gumming the backs of the sheets—the drying and the pressing—are all +described, and the date already named is conclusively fixed.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> That +this was the first instance of such invention is clear; earlier +instances of an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span><i>impressed</i> stamp proposed for postage purposes are on +record, but not one of a proposed adhesive stamp—while Sir Rowland Hill +himself has left it on record, in his "Life," referring to the same +period and occasion when an impressed stamp was proposed in 1834 for +newspaper covers by Mr. Knight, "of course, adhesive stamps were yet +undreamt of." (See page 69 of my pamphlet above named).</p> + +<p>I have further shown that Mr. Chalmers was one of the early postal +reformers prior to the period of Mr. Rowland Hill, that he had done +great service in the way of accelerating the mails betwixt London and +the north, and that he was in communication with several of those early +reformers, such as Mr. Hume, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Knight—the publisher +subsequently of Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>Rowland Hill's pamphlet of 1837—so that his +proposal of an adhesive stamp for postage purposes, a matter of +notoriety in his own locality, would further have become well known in +the general circle of postal reformers, amongst whom, and from whom, on +joining same in the year 1835, Mr. Rowland Hill obtained the information +which enabled him to draw up and publish his Penny Postage Scheme of +1837. (See page 5 of my pamphlet named.)</p> + +<p>One of those pioneers of postal reform, the Rev. Samuel Roberts, M.A., +of Conway, gives his personal testimony of the adhesive stamp having +been originated by James Chalmers. (Page 42.)<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>My pamphlet goes on to show (page 44) that on the appointment of the +House of Commons Committee of 1837-38 on the proposed uniform Penny +Postage Scheme, Mr. Chalmers sent in his plan of an adhesive stamp to +Mr. Wallace, the Chairman, and to another Member of that Committee. Mr. +Wallace's reply, stating that he will lay the plan before the Committee, +is of date 9th December, 1837. In the dilemma in which the Government +found itself (upon introducing on the 5th July, 1839, the Resolution +preliminary to the Bill) as to <i>how</i> to carry out the Penny Postage +Scheme in practice (page 21) Mr. Wallace <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>favourably suggested the plan +of the adhesive stamp. The statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer +upon this occasion, with the interposition of Mr. Wallace in the +Commons, and of Lord Ashburton in the Lords, in favour of the adhesive +stamp have already been given, conclusively showing that, up to this +period, Mr. Hill had not included the adhesive stamp in his proposals.</p> + +<p>On the passing of the Bill in August, Mr. Hill was relegated to the +Treasury for the purpose of carrying out the scheme. The first step +taken was to invite plans, by Treasury Circular of 23rd August, from the +public; some time was taken up in receiving and considering these plans, +until, by Treasury Minute of December 26th, 1839, the adhesive stamp was +at length officially adopted, in conjunction with Mr. Hill's stamped +covers, or stamp impressed upon the sheet of letter paper itself. (See +page 46.) But the adhesive stamp, indeed, had been practically adopted +by Mr. Hill before the plans were received, considered, and nothing +better found, a concurrence of opinion having set in in favour of same. +It will be seen that Mr. Chalmers, in his published statement of date +February, 1838, now produced from Sir Henry Cole's papers, called for +petitions towards the adoption of the adhesive stamp. In August, 1839, +both the Associated Body of Paper-Makers and certain Merchants and +Bankers of the City of London pressed for the adoption of this stamp; +Mr. Rowland Hill himself, in a paper <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>entitled "On the Collection of +Postage by means of Stamps," circulated by him about the period of the +Bill being before Parliament, included the adoption of the adhesive +stamp, in conjunction with his own impressed stamp. Mr. Cole also drew +up an able paper on the stamp question, including the advocacy of the +adhesive stamp. So general, indeed, had then become opinion in its +favour, that of the plans sent in no less than forty-nine others besides +Mr. Chalmers, who again sent in his plan, recommended the adoption of +the adhesive stamp, invented by Mr. Chalmers in 1834, laid by him before +the Committee of the House of Commons in December, 1837, and further, as +we shall now see, sent in to Mr. Cole as Secretary to the Mercantile +Committee of the City of London, in February, 1838, and acknowledged by +Mr. Rowland Hill in a letter to Mr. Chalmers of date 3rd March, 1838. In +this letter Mr. Hill makes no pretension to the merit or proposed +adoption of the adhesive stamp on his part, for, as will be seen, Mr. +Chalmers subsequently returned to Mr. Hill a copy of this very letter +for the purpose of pointing out this fact to Mr. Hill. It was not until +the propriety, and indeed necessity, of adopting Mr. Chalmers' plan—not +until its final official acceptance—that, in a letter dated 18th +January, 1840, Mr. Hill, then in despotic power, putting Mr. Chalmers +aside upon the pretext afterwards mentioned, assumed the whole merit to +himself.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Since publishing my evidence specifically proving what is +here stated, I have been favoured with the following letter:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 8%;">"Brechin,</span><br /> +<i>9th October, 1883</i></p> + +<br /> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>"When I penned my anonymous note to the <i>Dundee Advertiser</i> in +August, 1879, expressing the hope that there might be still +living some who could corroborate my statement that the late +Mr. Chalmers was the inventor of the 'Adhesive Stamp,' I hardly +expected it would be followed by such an amount of +corroboration.</p> + +<p>"With regard to the <i>date</i> of the invention, you appear to have +received ample proof, and I am able to add thereto. It was in +the autumn of 1834 that I left Dundee to reside here, and the +Stamp was in existence in Mr. Chalmers' premises before I left.</p> + +<p>"I may add that when I wrote in 1879, I was not aware of the +existence of a son of Mr. C. My sole object in writing was that +<i>Dundee</i> might claim and receive the honour of being the place +of birth of the 'Adhesive Stamp.'</p> + +<br /> + +<p class="right">"I am, &c.,<br /> +"(<i>Signed</i>) DAVID PRAIN.</p> + +<p class="noin">"<span class="smcap">P. Chalmers</span>, Esq.,<br /> +<span style="padding-left: 8%;">"Wimbledon."</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="noin">A Portrait of Mr. Prain, by the talented Scottish artist, Mr. Irvine, +subscribed for by Mr. Prain's fellow-townsmen and former pupils, has +just been presented in his honour to the Mechanic's Institute of +Brechin. The proceedings upon this occasion, including the able speeches +of Provost Lamb and of Mr. Prain, will be found in the <i>Brechin +Advertiser</i> of 16th June, 1885. On a former occasion Mr. Prain was +presented with a Service of Plate and Testimonial to the value of +several hundred pounds, subscribed for by former pupils at home and +abroad. It is at the testimony of such men as this, including the late +Mr. William Thorns, of Dundee, that my opponents sneer as being "the +mere wandering fancies of a few old men!" The general testimony is that +of an entire locality.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> An interesting obituary of Mr. Roberts, lately deceased, +will be found in the "<i>Times</i>" of 30th September, 1885. Mr. Roberts is +there recognised as the pioneer of postal reform and originator of the +proposal of a low and uniform postage.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>SIR HENRY COLE'S PAPERS</h2> + +<h4>AND THE</h4> + +<h2>ADHESIVE STAMP OF MR. CHALMERS.</h2> + +<p>In his "Fifty Years of Public Life," lately published, Sir Henry Cole +gives much information with respect to the Penny Postage reform, a boon +with the obtaining and carrying out of which he was intimately +associated—first as secretary to the Mercantile Committee of the City +of London, and afterwards as coadjutor to Mr. Rowland Hill at the +Treasury. "A General Collection of Postage Papers," having reference to +this reform, elucidating the efforts made by this Committee of London +Merchants and Bankers during the year 1838-39, to obtain for the scheme +the sanction of the Legislature, has been bequeathed by Sir Henry Cole, +"to be given to the British Museum after my death."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> "The Mercantile +Committee," he states, "was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. +George Moffat in the spring of 1838. Mr. Ashurst conducted the +Parliamentary <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>Inquiry, and upon myself, as Secretary, devolved the +business of communicating with the public." This Committee formed the +source and focus of the agitation which brought about the ultimate +enactment of uniform Penny Postage. Money was freely subscribed, +meetings were held, public bodies in the provinces were urged to +petition, Members of Parliament and Ministers were waited upon, and a +special paper advocating the scheme, termed the "Post Circular," was +issued and circulated gratis. Of these proceedings Mr. Cole was the +guiding genius; and, amongst other successes, over two thousand +petitions to Parliament were obtained—labours which were ultimately +crowned with success.</p> + +<p>To Mr. Cole, then, it now turns out that Mr. Chalmers, in February, +1838, sent a copy of his plan of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Wallace and the +House of Commons Committee had already got it, but it is only now that +the particulars of the plan have been brought to light—and in this +"Collection of Postage Papers," Sir Henry Cole has indeed left a +valuable legacy to me, and to all prepared to recognise the true +originator of the adhesive postage stamp. These papers include a printed +statement of Mr. Chalmers' plan, dated "4 Castle Street, Dundee, 8th +February, 1838." and which runs as follows:—</p> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>"<i>Remarks on various modes proposed for franking letters, under +Mr. Rowland Hill's Plan of Post Office Reform.</i></p> + +<p>"In suggesting any method of improvement, it is only reasonable to +expect that what are supposed to be its advantages over any existing +system, or in opposition to others that have been or may be proposed, +will be explicitly stated.</p> + +<p>"Therefore, if Mr. Hill's plan of a uniform rate of postage, and that +all postages are to be paid by those sending letters <i>before</i> they are +deposited in the respective post offices, become the law of the land, I +conceive that the most simple and economical mode of carrying out such +an arrangement would be by <i>slips</i> (postage stamps) prepared somewhat +similar to the specimens herewith shown.</p> + +<p>"With this view, and in the hope that Mr. Hill's plan may soon be +carried into operation, I would suggest that sheets of stamped slips +should be prepared at the Stamp Office (on a paper made expressly for +the purpose) with a device on each for a die or cut resembling that on +newspapers; that the <i>sheets</i> so printed or stamped should then be +rubbed over with a strong solution of gum or other adhesive substance, +and (when thoroughly dry) issued by the Stamp Office to town and country +distributors, to stationers and others, for sale in sheets or singly, +under the same laws and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>restrictions now applicable to those selling +bill or receipt stamps, so as to prevent, as far as practicable, any +fraud on the revenue.</p> + +<p>"Merchants and others whose correspondence is extensive, could purchase +these slips in quantities, cut them singly, and affix one to a letter by +means of wetting the back of the slip with a sponge or brush, just with +as much facility as applying a wafer."—Adding that in some cases, such +as for circulars, the stamp might answer both for stamp and wafer; a +suggestion which those who may recollect the mode of folding universally +practised before the days of envelopes, will appreciate. Mr. Chalmers +goes on—"Others, requiring only one or two slips at a time, could +purchase them along with sheets of paper at stationers' shops, the +<i>weight</i> only regulating the rate of postage in all cases, so as a stamp +may be affixed according so the scale determined on.</p> + +<p>"Again, to prevent the possibility of these being used a <i>second time</i>, +it should be made imperative on postmasters to put the post office town +stamp (as represented in one of the specimens), across the slip or +postage stamp."</p></div> + +<p>Mr. Chalmers then goes on to point out the advantages to be derived from +this plan, and to state objections to Mr. Hill's plan of impressed +stamped covers or envelopes, or stamp impressed upon the sheet of letter +paper itself. At that period envelopes—being scarcely known, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>never +used, as involving double postage—were a hand-made article, heavy and +expensive; objections which have disappeared with the abolition of the +Excise duty on paper, and the use of machinery. But how true were Mr. +Chalmers' objections <i>then</i>, may be gathered from the fact, as recorded +by Sir Rowland Hill in his "Life," that the large supply provided of the +first postage envelope, the Mulready, had actually <i>to be destroyed</i> as +wholly unsuitable and unsaleable, while the supply of adhesive stamps +was with difficulty brought up to the demand. The force and value of Mr. +Chalmers' objections to the stamp impressed upon the sheet itself, are +best exemplified by the fact that, though ultimately sanctioned by the +Treasury at the instance of Mr. Hill, such plan never came into use. +People bought their own paper from the stationers, and not from the +Stamp Office, and applied the adhesive stamp as the weight required. Mr. +Chalmers concludes, "taking all these disadvantages into consideration, +the use of stamped slips is certainly the most preferable system; and, +should others who take an interest in the proposed reform view the +matter in the same light as I do, it remains for them to petition +Parliament to have such carried into operation."</p> + +<p>This statement of Mr. Chalmers is printed on part of an elongated sheet +of paper. On the half not occupied by the type are several specimens of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>a suggested stamp, about an inch square, and with the words printed, +"General Postage—not exceeding half-an-ounce—One Penny." And the +same—"Not exceeding one ounce—Twopence." (It is only of late years +that a penny has franked one ounce in weight.) A space divides each +stamp for cutting off singly,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and the back of the sheet is gummed +over. One of the specimens is stamped across with the post-mark, +"Dundee, 10th February, 1838," to exemplify what Mr. Chalmers states +should be done to prevent the stamp being used a second time.</p> + +<p>Here is a complete description of the principle of the adhesive stamp as +ultimately adopted by Mr. Hill at the Treasury by Minute of 26th +December, 1839, when he sent Mr. Cole to Messrs. Bacon & Petch, the +eminent engravers, to provide a die and contract for the supply of +stamps (see Mr. Bacon's evidence, page 52 of my former Pamphlet), a plan +in use to the present day.</p> + +<p>This description, as now brought to light under the signature of Mr. +Chalmers himself, fully confirms the evidence with respect to the +invention in August, 1834, as given by his then <i>employés</i> yet living, +W. Whitelaw and others. (See pages 34-39 of my former pamphlet.)</p> + +<p>Here, then, was the plan of the future adhesive <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>stamp, already laid +before Mr. Wallace and the House of Commons Committee, also sent to the +Secretary of the City of London Mercantile Committee, in printed form, +as to one of many, long before leave was asked, on 5th July, 1839, even +to introduce the Bill into Parliament. That Mr. Hill saw Mr. Cole's +copy, or had a special copy sent also to himself, is clear, because Mr. +Hill at once writes to Mr. Chalmers, under date 3rd March, 1838. What +Mr. Hill states in that letter we know not altogether, as Mr. Pearson +Hill has not thought proper to publish that letter, and my request to +him for a copy has not been complied with. (See page 64 of my former +pamphlet.) We know thus much, however, that Mr. Rowland Hill makes no +pretension <i>then</i> to ever having suggested or approved of an adhesive +stamp, as already pointed out. Not until writing to Mr. Chalmers on the +18th January, 1840 (see page 62 of former pamphlet), before which +period, in obedience to the general demand, the adhesive stamp had at +length been adopted, did Mr. Hill, in reply to Mr. Chalmers' claim as +the originator, set up any counter-claim on his own part to any share in +the merit of the adhesive stamp. But, as with the scheme itself, so now +with the stamp which saved it, no second party was to be allowed to +divide with Mr. Hill the sole merit of this great reform. So the +far-fetched excuse, the mere afterthought, bred of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>success which +had attended Mr. Chalmers' proposal to the Committee and to Mr. Cole, is +hit upon (page 54) to put Mr. Chalmers aside and to attach to himself +the whole merit of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Hill had said something about +a bit of gummed paper before the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry in +February, 1837 (subsequent to publishing the first edition of his +pamphlet, in which nothing was said of an adhesive stamp), an idea Mr. +Hill had acquired in the interval, just as he had acquired all the +principles of the scheme itself, at second hand (page 60). On this +occasion Mr. Hill had supposed a difficulty which might occur to a +person who had to re-address a letter at a Post Office, but was unable +to write, and at the same time precluded from paying the penny in cash, +while the stamped wrapper would obliterate the address. In such an +exceptional case, and in order to secure "the universal adoption" of the +impressed stamp, a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and +covered at the back with a glutinous wash, might be wetted and applied. +Better, however, he goes on to say, allow the penny to be received in +cash, so that you have only the impressed stamp or the penny in payment, +and which penny was accepted up to the year 1855.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Up to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>year +1855, consequently, no such exceptional case could have arisen, the +penny in cash being sufficient acceptance. This allusion to an adhesive +stamp is repeated by Mr. Hill in the second edition of his pamphlet. +Here then, in February, 1837, was a passing allusion made by Mr. Hill to +an adhesive stamp, showing that, subsequent to the issue of the first +edition of his pamphlet, he had acquired from some quarter the idea of +Mr. Chalmers' invention. February, 1837, was two years and a half after +the proved invention of the adhesive stamp by Mr. Chalmers, one of the +early postal reformers, one who "held correspondence with the postal +reformers of his day, both in and out of Parliament" ("Encyclopædia +Britannica," see page 39 following), the correspondent, amongst others, +of Messrs. Knight & Co., who published for Mr. Hill. In a letter, then, +of 18th January, 1840, as we learn from Mr. Pearson Hill's account of +the matter, and from Mr. Chalmers' reply, Mr. Hill pointed out to Mr. +Chalmers that his claim could not be admitted, because he, Mr. Hill, +first proposed an adhesive stamp in February, 1837, the first official +proposal of his plan by Mr. Chalmers, his letter to Mr. Wallace <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>and the +House of Commons Committee, having been only in December of the same +year. In answer to this extraordinary pretension on the part of Mr. +Hill, it is enough to point to Mr. Hill's letters to the +Postmaster-General, Lord Litchfield, in January, 1838, explaining and +enforcing his penny postage scheme then before the public—letters +published in the papers of the period, and in which not a word is said +of an adhesive stamp.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Or more than enough, to point to the speech of +the Chancellor of the Exchequer, already quoted (page 13), to prove +that, up to so late a date as the 5th July, 1839, Mr. Hill had <i>not</i> +proposed to adopt an adhesive stamp. The press, up to 30th August, 1839, +had heard of no such proposal on his part.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>This allusion to an adhesive stamp in February, 1837, was a mere passing +allusion as to what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>might be done in a supposed exceptional case which +could never have arisen so long as the penny in cash was accepted, and +was nothing more. For Mr. Hill to represent to Mr. Chalmers that he, Mr. +Hill, had proposed to adopt the adhesive stamp as a means of carrying +out his scheme in February, 1837, was to state what was <i>not the case</i>; +consequently any admission so gained from Mr. Chalmers was wholly +invalid. An extract from the reply of Mr. Chalmers, dated 18th May, 1840 +(reproduced at page 62 of my former pamphlet), has been circulated by +Mr. Pearson Hill, in whose hands alone is the entire correspondence, +with the object of showing that Mr. Chalmers "honestly abandoned" his +claim. But Mr. Chalmers honestly abandoned nothing; while no impartial +person will, upon consideration, for a moment attach any importance to +just what "extract" from his correspondence Mr. Pearson Hill has thought +proper to produce. I again contend, as I have already maintained, that +this correspondence was public, not private, property—that such should +have remained at the Treasury, subject to the inspection of all +concerned, in place of having been appropriated by Sir Rowland Hill as +private, and thus so as to admit of only such portion being ultimately +made known as may have suited himself. In this extract of 18th May, +1840, Mr. Chalmers, after stating he had delayed to reply until seeing +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>stamps in operation, writes with surprise at what Mr. Hill now +states. Had he known or supposed that any one else, especially Mr. Hill +himself, had proposed the adhesive stamp for the purpose of carrying out +the scheme, he would not have troubled him at all. But having sent his +plan to Mr. Wallace, M.P., and got his acknowledgment of 9th December, +1837, saying same would be laid before the Committee; also to Mr. +Chalmers, M.P., and got his reply of 7th October, 1839, saying such had +been laid before the Committee; also Mr. Hill's own letter of 3rd March, +1838, a copy of which he encloses—from <i>all</i> these he was led to +believe he had been first in the field. <i>Now</i>, not doubting Mr. Hill's +assurance of 18th January, 1840, to the contrary (and in any case +indisposed to contest a decision against which there was practically no +appeal), he only regrets having through his ignorance put others as well +as himself to any trouble in the matter; "while the only satisfaction I +have had in this as well as in former suggestions—all original with +me—is that these have been adopted, and have been and are likely to +prove beneficial to the public."</p> + +<p>Such is the letter or extract which, placed in the hands of every editor +in London, has led to my statements being here treated with comparative +neglect.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> But let my statements equally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>with those of Mr. Pearson +Hill be read by any impartial writer, as in the case of the +"Encyclopædia Britannica," afterwards noticed, and the result, it will +be seen, is to lead to an entirely different conclusion. "James Chalmers +was the inventor of the adhesive postage stamp—Mr. Pearson Hill has not +weakened the evidence to that effect." Here was honesty +certainly—simplicity indeed—on the side of Mr. Chalmers; but what +about the representation on the part of Mr. Hill? Was it the case that +he had proposed the adoption of the adhesive stamp in February, 1837, as +represented to Mr. Chalmers? The proofs to the contrary are conclusive. +Mr. Hill had made a passing allusion to an adhesive stamp in February, +1837, but <i>only</i> a passing allusion. Nothing can be more clear than that +the adoption of the adhesive stamp for the purpose of carrying out his +scheme formed no part of the original proposals and intentions of Mr. +Hill. His representation to Mr. Chalmers was therefore exaggerated, +delusive, and misleading.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> "Why did not you tell me anything of this +before?" replies Mr. Chalmers in effect;—"<i>there</i> is a copy of your +letter of 3rd March, 1838, when I sent you my plan, in which letter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>of +yours no such pretensions were put forward. It is only now that I learn +for the first time that you had ever proposed or been in favour of an +adhesive stamp. Further, how is it that neither of these members of the +Committee before whom I laid my plan had ever heard of any such prior +proposal on your part? However, I am now only sorry at having troubled +you—I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the public have +got my plan somehow."</p> + +<p>"Why did you not tell me anything of this before?" Why indeed! Because +Mr. Hill <i>then</i> had not contemplated an adhesive stamp, as has been +abundantly proved. An impressed stamped cover "was absolutely to be used +in all cases," says the Chancellor of the Exchequer as late as in July, +1839—a "power" was asked for this, and for this alone. (See <i>ante</i>, +page 14.) But much had happened in the interval betwixt Mr. Hill's two +letters to Mr. Chalmers. The stamp not accepted by Mr. Hill in 1838 had +become in 1840 the favourite of all opinions concerned, the adopted of +the Treasury. It had saved his scheme. Mr. Chalmers must now be put +aside, a matter which the entire contrast betwixt the dispositions of +the two men rendered only too easy, and so this afterthought, this +far-fetched pretext already noticed, was hit upon for the purpose.</p> + +<p>At the same time Mr. Chalmers appears to have been too apathetic in the +matter, indifferent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>to personal considerations so long as the public +got his stamp from some quarter; but the absence of any desire for +personal advantage is a not unfrequent characteristic in those who have +done some public service.</p> + +<p>But it is this neglect, or mere indifference, on the part of my father, +in not having made a better stand in 1840 with respect to a matter the +national and universal value of which no one could then appreciate or +foresee, that all the more calls upon me now, under a better +acquaintance with the facts and circumstances, to claim for his memory +that recognition to which he is clearly entitled, as having been "The +Originator and Inventor of the Adhesive Postage Stamp."</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> These papers are in the Art Library of the South Kensington +Museum.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The perforated sheets were not introduced until the year +1852. This improvement was the invention of a Mr. Archer, for which he +got the sum of £4,000.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> In his "Life" lately published, written by himself, Sir +Rowland Hill <i>omits the clause</i> in his original evidence which restores +the payment of the penny in cash and does away with any necessity for an +adhesive stamp, even in the exceptional case he had supposed. Not only +does Sir Rowland Hill omit this clause, but he even gives the reader to +understand that to the year 1837, the year of his pamphlet, is to be +ascribed his adoption of the adhesive stamp. How then, it will be asked, +does Sir Rowland Hill account for the speech of the Chancellor of the +Exchequer on the 5th July, 1839, and the interposition of Mr. Wallace in +favour of an adhesive stamp? This difficulty Sir Rowland Hill surmounts +by simply taking no notice of either.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> In his letter to Lord Litchfield of 9th January, 1838, Mr. +Hill states his plan to be:—"That the payment should always be in +advance. And to rid this mode of payment of the trouble and risk which +it would otherwise entail on the sending of letters, as well as for +other important considerations, I propose that the postage be collected +by the sale of stamped covers."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The "Times" of this date has the following paragraph:—"The +Penny Postage will commence, we learn, on the 1st January next. It is +intended that stamped envelopes shall be sold at every Post Office, so +that stationers and other shopkeepers may, as well as the public, supply +themselves at a minute's notice." Not a word as to an Adhesive Stamp +being known as in contemplation. It will be evident from these two +instances alone, independent of the proceedings in Parliament and of Mr. +Hill's letter to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March, 1838, that the Adhesive +Stamp formed no part of the original proposals or intentions of Sir +Rowland Hill.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See "The World," "Daily Chronicle," &c., also "Proceedings +of the Commissioners of Sewers" for July, 1881, as reported in the "City +Press."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> The "Christian Leader" of Glasgow ably puts the matter +thus:—"Sir Rowland Hill seems to have been at pains to obscure the +facts of the case for the purpose of claiming to himself the credit of +an invention which really belonged to the Dundee bookseller."</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>THE "ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA."</h2> + +<p>The nineteenth volume of the above-named standard work, lately +published, contains an article headed "Postage Stamps," in which my late +father is fully recognised as having been the inventor of the adhesive +postage stamp. It is well known that the articles in this work are drawn +up by learned experts upon the respective subjects dealt with, having +access to and being in the habit of consulting official and historical +documents, and edited under a strong sense of responsibility to the high +standing of the work itself and to history; so that it is with +unspeakable satisfaction that I now find myself enabled to produce from +such a quarter an emphatic recognition of my father's services in +connection with the great boon of Penny Postage reform.</p> + +<p>This article, so far as it deals with the origin of the adhesive stamp, +is as follows; but in considering same it should be borne in mind that +the article was drawn up <i>before</i> the discovery of Mr. Chalmers' plan +amongst the papers of the late Sir Henry Cole, with the consequent +proofs given in the last chapter as to Mr. Chalmers having taken the +initiative in urging the adoption of this stamp, not only to Members of +the Select <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, but to Mr. +Rowland Hill himself, long before Mr. Hill, in his paper of 1839 (see +<i>ante</i>, page 21), gave in his adhesion to that plan in conjunction with +his own:—</p> + +<p>"POSTAGE STAMPS.—For all practical purposes the history of postage +stamps begins in the United Kingdom, and with the great reform of its +postal system in 1839-40." After giving instances in which the +<i>impressed</i> stamp had been in use, or had been suggested for postal +purposes in this country and elsewhere, the article proceeds:—"Finally, +and in its results most important of all, the 'adhesive stamp' was made, +experimentally, in his printing-office at Dundee, by Mr. James Chalmers, +in August, 1834.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> These experimental stamps were printed from +ordinary type, and were made adhesive by a wash of gum. Their inventor +had already <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>won local distinction in matters of postal reform by his +strenuous and successful efforts, made as early as in the year 1822, for +the acceleration of the Scottish mails from London. Those efforts +resulted in a saving of forty-eight hours on the double journey, and +were highly appreciated in Scotland. There is evidence that from 1822 +onwards his attention was much directed towards postal questions, and +that he held correspondence with the postal reformers of his day both in +and out of Parliament. It is also plain that he was more intent upon +aiding public improvements than upon winning credit for them. He made +adhesive stamps in 1834, and showed them to his neighbours, but took no +step for publicly recommending their adoption by the Post Office until +long after such a recommendation had been published—although very +hesitatingly—by the author of the now famous pamphlet entitled 'Post +Office Reform.'<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Mr. Hill brought the adhesive stamp under the notice +of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry on the 13th February, 1837. +Mr. Chalmers made no <i>public</i> mention of his stamp of 1834 until +December, 1837."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>"Only a fortnight before his examination by the above-named +Commissioners Mr. Hill, in his letter to the late Lord Monteagle (then +Mr. Spring Rice, and Chancellor of the Exchequer), seems to have had no +thought of the <i>adhesive</i> stamp. He recommends to the Treasury 'that +stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the public from the +Stamp Office or Post Office ... and sold at such a price as to include +the postage.... Covers at various prices would be required for packets +of various weights. Each should have the weight it is entitled to carry +legibly printed with the stamp.... Should experience warrant the +Government in making the use of stamped covers universal,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> most +important advantages would be secured. The Post Office would be relieved +altogether from the collection of the revenue.'<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>"Then, upon suggestion, it would seem, of some possible difficulty that +might arise from the occasional bringing to a post-office by persons +unable to write, of unstamped letters, he added: 'Perhaps this +difficulty might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough +to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash.' It is +a quite fair inference that this alternative had been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>suggested from +without.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> In reviewing the subject, long afterwards, in his 'History +of Penny Postage,' Sir R. Hill says: 'The Post-Office opinions as to the +use of stamps for ... prepayment were on the whole favourable.'<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> In a +paper of 1839, entitled 'On the Collection of Postage by means of +Stamps,' the author continued to look upon 'stamped covers or envelopes +as the means which the public would most commonly employ; still +believing that the adhesive stamp would be reserved for exceptional +cases.'<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>"Mulready's well-remembered allegorical cover came into use on 1st May, +1840, together with the first form of the stamped letter-paper, and the +adhesive labels. They all met at first, but only for a few days, with a +large sale. That of the first day yielded £2,500. Soon afterwards the +public rejection of the 'Mulready envelope,' writes Rowland Hill, 'was +so complete as to necessitate the destruction of nearly all the vast +number prepared for issue.' Whilst, on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>the other hand, the presses of +the Stamp Office were producing more than half a million of [adhesive] +labels, by working both night and day, they yet failed to meet the +demand.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> It was only after many weeks, and after the introduction of +a series of mechanical improvements and new processes, due to the skill +and ingenuity in part of Mr. Edwin Hill of the Stamp Office, in part of +Mr. Perkins, an engraver, that the demand could be effectually +answered."</p> + +<p>The above emphatic decision on the part of eminent men whom I have never +seen in favour of James Chalmers as having been the inventor of the +adhesive postage stamp, will give much satisfaction in those numerous +quarters from which I have already met with countenance and support. +After a full consideration of the respective statements put forward by +myself and by Mr. Pearson Hill on the subject, James Chalmers at length +obtains a recognition of which he has, as a rule, been only too long +deprived. And that the same man who invented this stamp also first +proposed its adoption has been already too clearly shown to require +repetition here. Surely Sir Rowland Hill's "paper of 1839," mentioned in +this article, was a trifle behindhand, when I have just proved from Sir +Henry Cole's papers that Mr. Chalmers had already laid his plan before +Mr. Hill himself in February, 1838. Did Mr. Hill tell us <i>that</i> in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>his +paper of 1839? No. Did he tell us that he drew up this paper of 1839 +under a pressing demand for the adhesive stamp from all quarters? No. +<i>Was it fair of Sir Rowland Hill to allow the readers of his "History of +Penny Postage," or of his paper of 1839, to conclude that this proposal +on his part of 1839 was put forward of his own initiation, and this with +Mr. Chalmers' plan and statement of February, 1838, already in his +possession?</i> A plan which, in his reply to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March +following, Mr. Hill had pooh-poohed! Moreover, in referring to this +"paper of 1839" in his "History of Penny Postage," vol. 1, page 346, Sir +Rowland Hill takes special credit to himself for having therein +recommended that the adhesive stamps "should be printed on sheets," +putting same forward as a further idea of his own, and wholly ignoring +the fact of such having been a special feature, "for sale in sheets or +singly," in that plan of Mr. Chalmers <i>which lay before him</i>. (See +<i>ante</i>, page 24.) It is unfortunate that the writer of this article was +not at the time of writing in possession of the whole facts of the case, +when doubtless Mr. Hill's "paper of 1839" would have been characterised +as it deserved. Sir Rowland Hill's mode of obtaining credit for +"inventions" or proposals of other men will now be better understood.</p> + +<p>If Mr. Hill alluded to this adhesive stamp (the admitted invention of +Mr. Chalmers in 1834) in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>February, 1837, while Mr. Chalmers urged its +adoption officially only in December, this, it will be seen, arose from +Mr. Hill having been privileged to give evidence on postal affairs +before the Commissioners of Inquiry. The proposal of 1834 with respect +to newspapers came to nothing; consequently there was no opening <i>then</i> +for Mr. Chalmers to send in his invention <i>officially</i>. In sending in +his plan to the Select Committee of the House of Commons in December, +1837, Mr. Chalmers was still a year and a half before the Penny Postage +Bill was even introduced into Parliament. Mr. Hill did not adopt same +until he issued his "paper of 1839." Mr. Hill's allusion to this stamp +in February, 1837, this "publishing" of the idea "very hesitatingly," +had no practical effect whatever on the cause in hand; such only shows +that Mr. Hill had heard of the invention of 1834, without seeing its +value or proposing to adopt it. Moreover, Mr. Chalmers was publishing +his own invention, while Mr. Hill was only publishing an acquired idea, +"suggested from without." It is to the man who not only invented the +adhesive postage stamp, but who further first urged the adoption of same +in its entirety for the purpose of carrying out the Penny Postage +scheme, that the merit of this plan and of its results are due and will +be ascribed.</p> + +<p>But if I was to stop here I should be told now, as I have been told +before on obtaining important <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>recognitions, that the present decision +in my favour was again got upon mere <i>ex-parte</i> statements—that had Mr. +Pearson Hill only been given the opportunity, a very different aspect +would have been put upon the matter. No choice, consequently, is left me +but to show that it is to Mr. Pearson Hill himself I am indebted for the +introduction which has led to my success, and without which +introduction, now reproduced, I should have remained in entire ignorance +as to any forthcoming article upon postal affairs, or have been most +courteously afforded an opportunity of stating my case:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="cen">[<i>Copy.</i>]<br /> +"ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA."</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 15%;">"50, Belsize Park,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 10%;">London, N.W.,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 5%;"><i>15th March, 1883</i>.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Gentlemen</span>,</p> + +<p>"As you are now issuing a new edition of your 'Encyclopædia +Britannica,' and as for years past a Mr. Patrick Chalmers has +persistently been making false and groundless charges against +my father, the late Sir Rowland Hill, I think it well to send +you the enclosed printed documents for your information, as it +is by no means improbable that he may strive to get you to +insert some untrue statement when you deal with the question of +the Post Office and Postal Reform.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>"I need hardly say that I shall be happy at any time to submit +to you the original documents which are in my possession, which +disprove the claims put forward in behalf of Mr. James Chalmers +of Dundee, if you would desire to see them.</p> + +<p>"Your statistical information about the Post Office, as given +in my copy of the Encyclopædia (the eighth edition) is of +course now much behindhand. I dare say you have already on your +staff of contributors some gentleman well able to supply you +with fresh information; but should you be in want of any such +help, I feel sure that my cousin, Mr. Lewin Hill, head of the +statistical branch of the Secretary's office, General Post +Office, London, would gladly undertake the work if you desired +it.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="padding-right: 15%;">"I am, Gentlemen,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 10%;">"Your obedient servant,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 5%;">"(Signed) PEARSON HILL.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Messrs. A. & C. Black</span>,<br /> +<span style="padding-left: 10%;">Edinburgh."</span></p> +</div> + +<p>It is thus manifest that, in having obtained this conclusive +recognition, I have taken no undue advantage of Mr. Pearson Hill, while +it will also be manifest that Mr. Pearson Hill's statements have found +acceptance in other quarters only because I have not been afforded an +equally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>impartial hearing as in the present case. His printed +documents, his statements, with all the advantage of being sole +possessor of the correspondence betwixt his late father and mine, have +been put forward, and yet the decision is against him.</p> + +<p>Again, as respects the penny postage scheme itself, the proofs are +conclusive that <i>originality of conception</i> formed no element whatever +in any one of the proposals of Sir Rowland Hill, preceded and heralded +as the penny postage reform had been by the labours of a whole band of +pioneers. Special reference may be made to the statements of the Rev. +Samuel Roberts, whose biography as the pioneer of uniform penny postal +reform is given in the <i>Times</i> of 30th September last. The "Rowland Hill +Memorial Fund" Committee have themselves admitted, after what has been +laid before them, their sense of this non-originality by the change made +in the inscription upon the City statue of Sir Rowland Hill, thereby +confirming the accuracy of my statements. Moreover, a Treasury Minute of +11th March, 1864, distinctly states that uniform penny postage had been +urged upon the Government prior to the proposals of Sir Rowland Hill. +Thus, independent and conclusive testimony, as distinguished from the +mere family tradition with which many writers have hitherto been +content, leaves the question of plagiarism beyond dispute. As with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>the +stamp, so with the scheme, the ideas were <i>acquired, not original</i>. +Here, then, is the justification of my statements. So far from having +been "persistently making false and groundless charges," I have been +stating facts and elucidating the truth, and the aspersions of Mr. +Pearson Hill are thus scattered to the winds.</p> + +<p>For Mr. Pearson Hill, however, every allowance will be made, though his +style of controversy will not be admired. That gentleman forgets that my +motives and objects are just as legitimate as his own, and should be met +in a legitimate way. This leads me to mention that some time ago Mr. +Samuel Morley, M.P. (at one period chairman of the "Sir Rowland Hill +Memorial Fund" Committee) was good enough to suggest that this +controversy should be decided by arbitration, and to which I agreed in +principle, subject to due preliminaries, but met with no response. At a +later period, in a letter already published, after pointing to my own +evidence, I invited Mr. Morley's good offices, seeing that Mr. Pearson +Hill declined to reply to or even to open any letter from me, to +ascertain from Mr. Hill if he could produce any evidence, or anything +beyond mere assumption, to the effect that the adhesive postage stamp +was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill, but I +was equally unsuccessful in obtaining any reply, there being, in fact, +nothing beyond assumption in the matter. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>Nowhere does Sir Rowland Hill +directly profess that this stamp was his invention.</p> + +<p>My friends, both in and out of the press, who have been puzzled at the +silence of many of the London papers on this subject, will now be in a +position to form some conclusion as to the cause of this silence. What +has been sent to the Messrs. Black and to the Commissioners of City +Sewers, may have been sent to the London papers; indeed, I have been +given to understand has been generally circulated in these quarters, +already compromised in their expressed opinions, and so in no way +disposed to entertain fresh views.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> My opponents, some of them in +high position, others themselves connected with the press, are desirous, +and naturally so, that public attention should not be drawn to my +statements.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> In this way, crushed beneath the weight of a hitherto +great name, statements have been disregarded which, when read and +investigated as in the case of the "Encyclopædia Britannica," have been +found substantiated.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>I ask my supporters and others, therefore, to read and judge for +themselves. Whether the London papers, hitherto silent, seeing the +important recognition my claim has now met with, and the fresh and +conclusive evidence now disclosed from the papers of Sir Henry Cole, +will also now read and admit some discussion of this matter of public +interest in their columns, remains to be seen. In any case, an enduring +record of my father's share in the great postal reform of 1837-40 is +secured. A work of the highest standing, and a reference to which is the +first act of historical writers, has recorded James Chalmers as having +been the originator of that adhesive postage stamp which saved the +reformed scheme. Moreover, in lands beyond the sea, an interest is taken +in this subject wholly unknown here; individuals and learned societies +collect for their own information, and hand down for future perusal, +everything published on the great Penny Postage reform, and in some of +these quarters amazement is expressed at the single-hero-worship which +prevails in this country with respect to a subject which investigation +shows to have been the offspring of many minds, the result of the +labours of not a few zealous but unassuming men.</p> + +<p>The services of Sir Rowland Hill, already cordially recognised in my +pamphlets, it would be superfluous again to dwell upon here. And if, +while cordially pointing out these great services, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>it has also fallen +to my lot to put a fresh and less favourable aspect upon their nature +and extent than hitherto understood, to bring to light his great failing +of assuming or allowing to be assumed as conceptions of his own what +were only acquired ideas, of omitting to notice what it was not +convenient to notice, let it be remembered that such has been forced +upon me as a necessity solely in the pursuit of what is now declared to +have been a just claim. At one period, indeed, I had withdrawn from the +whole matter, until recalled to it by Mr. Pearson Hill himself in a +published statement to which I was challenged to reply. My replies, +under ever-increasing and conclusive evidence, have now been put +forward. Should the result not have proved such as the best friends of +Sir Rowland Hill could have desired, upon his own son, and not upon me, +rests the responsibility. It is enough for me that my father's memory as +the originator and inventor of the adhesive postage stamp has been +successfully vindicated.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "Patrick Chalmers, Sir Rowland Hill, and James Chalmers, +Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp (London, 1882), <i>passim</i>." See also the +same writer's pamphlet, entitled "The Position of Sir Rowland Hill made +plain (1882)," and his "The Adhesive Stamp; a Fresh Chapter in the +History of Post-Office Reform (1881)." Compare Mr. Pearson Hill's tract, +"A Paper on Postage Stamps," in reply to Mr. Chalmers, reprinted from +the "Philatelic Record," of November, 1881. Mr. Hill has therein shown +conclusively the priority of <i>publication</i> by Sir Rowland Hill. He has +also given proof of Mr. James Chalmers' express acknowledgment of that +priority. But he has not weakened the evidence of the priority of +<i>invention</i> by Mr. Chalmers. +</p><p class="noin"> +[This admission on the part of Mr. Chalmers, obtained through an +obscuring and consequent misapprehension of the facts, was, of course, +wholly invalid. Even if valid, it will be seen at page 44 that such +priority of publication of an idea "suggested from without" was of no +practical consequence.—P.C.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> "Ninth Report of Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry, +1837," pp. 32, 33, reprinted in Sir R. Hill's "History of Penny Postage" +("Life," &c., ii. 270).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> [That Mr. Chalmers had not made an earlier offer of his +stamp <i>officially</i> is accounted for by the proposals of 1834 with +respect to a penny postage on newspapers, in place of an impressed stamp +of fourpence on the sheet, having come to nothing.—P.C.]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i>, by prohibiting the prepayment of letters in +money.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> "Ninth Report," as above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Moreover, what Sir Rowland Hill does <i>not</i> tell in his +"History," is that the compulsion to use a stamp in all cases was, in +his <i>original evidence</i> in this Ninth Report, at once <i>withdrawn</i>, the +permission to pay the penny in cash being restored, so that the person +"unable to write" was at once relieved of all "difficulty," and no bit +of gummed paper required even in the exceptional case supposed. (See my +former pamphlet, page 56.) Keeping this fact in view, there is thus only +a passing "allusion" here in February, 1837, to the adhesive stamp, and +nothing more, not even a partial proposal to use it. This clause +restoring the permission to pay the penny in place of using any stamp, +is taken no notice of by Sir Rowland Hill "in reviewing the subject long +afterwards."—P.C.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "History of Penny Postage," as above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Hill, <i>et supra</i>, p. 398.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> In lately replying to Mr. Pearson Hill in the columns of +the <i>Whitehall Review</i>, I have put this query, which has not been +denied, "Will Mr. Pearson Hill undertake to say that he has not made a +communication, written or verbal, similar to the above letter to Messrs. +A. & C. Black to every editor in London, if not throughout a wider +sphere?"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> One mode of stifling the subject has been to circulate the +impression that I am a person under the hallucination that "his father +invented the <i>Penny Postage scheme</i>," thus rendering my claim too +ludicrous to obtain attention. See, amongst others, the <i>Times</i> and +<i>Daily News</i> of 13th July, 1881.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF<br /> THE ADHESIVE STAMP.</h2> + +<p>"Why should we be called upon to pass this Penny Postage Bill," said the +opponents of that measure in August, 1839, "when no mortal being had at +that moment the remotest conception of how it was to be carried into +execution?" Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of the impressed stamp had not +satisfied the Committee. This plan, as amended by the Committee, had not +satisfied the Government. (See <i>ante</i>, page 13.) The paper makers and +stationers were in a state of protest and alarm. "This part of the +business must stand over," said the Government of the day, "How to carry +out the scheme will require much consideration." It was here that James +Chalmers, through Mr. Wallace, Chairman of the Committee, stepped +in—the adhesive stamp saved the scheme. <i>That</i> was the value and +importance of his invention and proposal. It satisfied the paper trade; +"Let the stationer, not the Stamp Office," said Mr. Chalmers, "sell the +paper, the Post Office the stamp." He saved the scheme of Mr. Hill to +the country by relieving and setting agoing the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>clogged wheels of penny +postage—he supplied the engines to the much admired but immovable craft +and sent her speeding smoothly and swiftly upon her beneficent mission.</p> + +<p>No wonder Sir Rowland Hill determined that no name but his own should be +heard of in connection with the adhesive stamp, for of what use is a +scheme, however desirable, if you cannot carry it out in practice? This +is what he admits on the subject soon after the simultaneous +introduction of the Mulready envelope and the adhesive stamp—"The +public rejection of the former was so complete as to necessitate the +destruction of nearly all the vast number prepared for issue." On the +other hand—"Though the presses of the Stamp Office were producing more +than half a million of adhesive stamps by working both night and day, +they yet failed to meet the demand." Up to this day, after over forty +years of public service, and notwithstanding the improvements in the +production of impressed and embossed stamps, the adhesive stamp remains +indispensable to our postal, inland revenue, telegraphic, and +parcel-post systems—"Eighteen hundred millions are issued <i>yearly</i> from +the office of the Controller of stamps. These range in value from a +halfpenny to twenty pounds, covering postage and inland revenue from a +halfpenny to two shillings and sixpence; postage proper from five +shillings to five pounds; inland revenue <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>proper (such as foreign bills, +sea policy stamps, &c.) from one penny to ten pounds; and fees (such as +judicature, &c.), from one penny to twenty pounds. The penny stamp takes +the first place amongst the numbers issued. Of these, as many as +thirteen hundred millions and a half were despatched from Somerset House +in the course of a recent twelvemonth."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> Twenty-five millions of +parcels are now annually conveyed by Parcel Post, a business only +practicable through prepayment by adhesive stamp.</p> + +<p>Thus, ever increasing in utility, thus indispensable to the carrying out +of all or any of these great public services, the value of James +Chalmers' invention and proposal—the importance of this "powerful +mechanism of the stamp"—may be best felt by the consideration that its +suspension, even for a day, would paralyse the entire commercial and +social system of the nation, it may be said "of the world" for in all +other lands, one after another, has the adhesive stamp become an +institution for similar purposes as in our own, and in corresponding +numbers.</p> + +<p>In this sense an eminent writer has lately stated, "Whoever discovered +the adhesive stamp, the discovery has socially revolutionised the +world." "Should my plan be adopted," was the prophetic saying of Mr. +Chalmers when he sent his plan to London and to Mr. Hill himself, long +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>before the Penny Postage Bill was even introduced into Parliament, +"should my adhesive stamp be adopted, the demand for these will in time +become so vast, that I am only puzzled to think where premises can be +found to get them up." Surely the man who rescued the Legislature from +such a complication as has been described, surely the originator of this +indispensable and ubiquitous adhesive stamp has done the State some +service.</p> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE:</h4> + +<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> "Chambers' Journal," March, 1885.</p></div> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>CONCLUSION.</h2> + +<p>Objections have been raised, both in and out of the press, to the effect +that my claim comes "too late in the day." Such objection will, I +believe, be found effectually met in my preface and former pamphlets, to +the satisfaction of any impartial mind favouring me with a perusal.</p> + +<p>With those who decline to read my statements, amongst whom may be named +several writers of biography wrapt up in a blind worship of +pre-conceived ideas, nothing, of course, can be done.</p> + +<p>Others say, "Get an official recognition of your claim from the Post +Office, then we will recognise you." This, again, is taking matters in +the reverse order; if the Post Office is ever to recognise me, the +pressure must come from outside, as the Post Office, under its late +chief, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, simply declines to read or cause to be read for +its information anything I may lay before it, as "not being deemed +necessary." As I have nothing to ask from that quarter, having now +gained a recognition promising to be sufficient for my purpose, I have +no present intention of again troubling the Post Office on the subject. +The feeling of <i>esprit de corps</i>, if nothing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>else, will probably render +the Post Office the very last body to admit that any mistake by the late +Sir Rowland Hill has been made.</p> + +<p>But it may be said, "Did not the Post Office give Palmer, the organiser +of the mail-coach system, in addition to his pay of £3,000 a year, +£50,000?" And was not James Chalmers the successor in that line, sixty +years ago, of Palmer? Yes—but then Mr. Palmer was a man of business, +and had made his bargain with the Post Office <i>before</i> he took the +mail-coach organisation in hand to be paid according to results; while, +after all, the £50,000 was only a compromise, obtained, moreover, only +after the repeated interference of Parliament. James Chalmers, +recognised by the leading Scottish press of the period, and by his +townsmen, never dreamt of asking a pecuniary reward. Again, was not the +Post Office in 1852 most liberal with Archer, the inventor of the +perforating machine—did they not give him £4,000 for the use of it? +Yes—but then Mr. Archer had taken out a patent for his invention, and +refused to sell the use of it for less, and it was not until after a +fruitless negotiation of five years, ending in a Parliamentary Committee +taking up the subject and insisting upon Mr. Archer being paid his +moderate demand, that the Post Office and the Treasury gave in, and but +for this Parliamentary pressure we might yet be cutting off our stamps +with a pair of scissors to this day. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>In the same way, then, it has been +asked, would not an infinitesimal royalty on the increasing millions of +adhesive stamps have long ago placed that originator, him and his, +amongst the wealthy of the land? Yes—but such was not the spirit in +which James Chalmers trafficked and trifled with the public interests. +What are his last words to Sir Rowland Hill on the subject? "The only +satisfaction I have had in this, as well as in former suggestions, all +original to me, is that these have been adopted, and have and are likely +to prove beneficial to the public." This was the spirit in which the +originator of the adhesive stamp ever tendered his services, public or +private—the satisfaction of finding them useful and accepted. In the +continued and ever-increasing utility of his stamp may be seen that +silent yet irresistible tribute of the nation to its originator which +James Chalmers would most have prized—only, let the hand which gave it +be rightly known and recognised. For a time powerful influences to +silence may prevail and popular delusion continue to hold its sway. But +at some future day, if not now—in other lands if not in this—will the +name of James Chalmers be yet recognised in connection with our constant +friend and companion, the adhesive stamp, and the great boon of Penny +Postage reform.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>APPENDIX.</h2> +<br /> + +<p class="cen">DUNDEE.</p> + +<p>So satisfied were the Dundee merchants of a past age as to the +originality and value of Mr. Chalmers' invention and happy suggestion +that, on the 1st January, 1846, a public Testimonial was presented to +him in the Town Hall of Dundee in recognition of same and of other +postal services. This Testimonial consisted of a silver jug and salver +and a purse of 50 sovereigns. Just before this period, Mr. Rowland Hill +had been presented by the merchants of the City of London with a cheque +for over £13,000, in recognition of what now turns out to have been +merely a borrowed scheme, and which scheme was only saved from untimely +collapse by the adoption of Mr. Chalmers' plan of the adhesive stamp.</p> + +<p>In the present generation, again, the Town Council of Dundee have +performed a graceful act to the memory of a deserving townsman, by +having passed at a meeting held on the 3rd March, 1883, the following +resolution:—</p> + +<p>"That, having had under consideration the Pamphlet lately published on +the subject of the Adhesive Stamp, the Council are of opinion that it +has been conclusively shown that the late James Chalmers, bookseller, +Dundee, was the originator of this indispensable feature in the success +of the reformed Penny Postage Scheme, and that such be entered upon the +minutes."</p> + +<p>The above resolution of the Town Council is now, it will be seen, fully +confirmed by the able and learned writers of the "Encyclopædia +Britannica," after an impartial investigation of the subject—a +confirmation having all the greater weight as reversing, upon evidence +which could not be resisted, previously recorded impressions.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>Dundee is now a large and wealthy community, returning two members to +Parliament; few centres of business have benefited more conspicuously +from the legislation of the past forty years, including as the +foundation of all mercantile intercourse that great postal reform which +James Chalmers saved from failure and made practicable. Two generations +have already recognised and given every credit to the services of their +townsman—what further notice Dundee may yet take of this matter of +national and historical interest originated in the locality, the "value +and importance" of which has elsewhere been inadequately described, +remains to be seen.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<hr /> +<br /> +<h2>OPINIONS FROM THE PRESS.</h2> + +<p>Having already published most of these in detail, to save space and +repetition it will be sufficient here to give a list or little more, of +the numerous Journals which have given me more or less support.</p> + +<p>Those to which I am more particularly indebted are:—In Scotland—</p> + +<p>The "Dundee Advertiser," a consistent support during a past lengthened +period, including powerful leading articles and notices.</p> + +<p>The "Montrose Standard," several cordial and able articles of the +highest value, while the same is to be gratefully noticed of the other +Forfarshire papers.</p> + +<p>The "Brechin Advertiser," the "Forfar Herald," the "Arbroath Guide," the +"Montrose Review."</p> + +<p>The "North British Daily Mail," of Glasgow, in a leading article headed +"A Neglected Inventor," after stating the case, goes on to say: "It is +not creditable to the generosity of the Government of this country that +an important invention <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>of this kind, which has conferred such a great +boon upon the public, should have remained so long unacknowledged and +unrewarded." This article has been extensively reproduced.</p> + +<p>The "Glasgow News" and the "Christian Leader," of Glasgow, cordial +articles.</p> + +<p>The "Paisley Herald," the same on several occasions.</p> + +<p>The "Aberdeen Free Press," a warm and able support.</p> + +<p>The "Blairgowrie Advertiser" has taken much interest and pains to +support me; also the "Perthshire Constitutional," the "Fifeshire +Journal," the "North British Advertiser," to all of which my best thanks +are due.</p> + +<p>In the Metropolis and neighbourhood, considering how short a period has +elapsed since the opinion has been almost unanimously expressed that the +reformed Penny Postage scheme was the "sole and undisputed invention of +Sir Rowland Hill," to whom has also been erroneously attributed the +invention and proposal as well as the ultimate adoption of the adhesive +stamp, fair progress has already been made in obtaining a recognition of +Mr. Chalmers' services. That greater progress has not been made may be +attributed to the powerful influences which have been at work to stifle +the whole subject, including an attempt on the part of Mr. Pearson Hill +to stop the publication of pamphlets.</p> + +<p>In the "Illustrated London News" Mr. G. A. Sala writes: "It seems +tolerably clear that Sir Rowland Hill was not the inventor, in the +strict sense of the term, either of the Penny Postage or of the Adhesive +Postage Stamp ... Anent the invention of the Adhesive Stamp, a pamphlet +has recently been published, but I have not yet had time to read it.... +Whoever discovered the Adhesive Stamp, the discovery has socially +revolutionised the world." According to this high authority, the +Adhesive Stamp was thus at least <i>not</i> the invention of Sir Rowland +Hill.</p> + +<p>The "Whitehall Review" has given me consistent and most valuable +support; also the "Metropolitan," the "People," the "Home and Colonial +Mail." The "Machinery Market," of London and Darlington, a practical +monthly journal of high position, while retaining all its former +admiration for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>Sir Rowland Hill's services, decides, in a long and able +article, in favour of James Chalmers as respects the stamp. The +"Inventors' Record," in an article on "Disputed Inventions," supports +the same view. The pretensions brought forward on the part of Sir +Rowland Hill are declared to be wholly groundless, and the invention +accorded to James Chalmers.</p> + +<p>The "Croydon Review," a monthly, in a series of able articles, has +informed its readers candidly with respect to the untenable pretensions +of Sir Rowland Hill, both as respects the scheme and the stamp, +cordially ascribing the latter to James Chalmers.</p> + +<p>The "Surrey Independent" has ably supported me in several leading +articles. As far as conception went, "Sir Rowland Hill displayed a +remarkable facility for picking other people's brains."</p> + +<p>To the "Surrey Comet" and "Wimbledon Courier" my best thanks are due for +cordial notices and recognition; as also to the "West Middlesex +Advertiser," the "South Hampstead Advertiser," the "North Middlesex +Advertiser," the "Christian Union," the "Hornsey and Finsbury Park +Journal," the "American Bookseller," the "Acton and Chiswick Gazette," +"Figaro," "Vanity Fair," the "Kensington News," "Life," and others.</p> + +<p>From the Provincial Press, much valuable support has been given me:—</p> + +<p>The "Oldham Chronicle" and "Rastrick Gazette" have written often and +ably on the subject, supported by such papers as the "Bradford +Observer," the "Western Daily Press," of Bristol, the "Bristol Gazette," +the "Norwich Argus," the "Brighton Herald," the "Brighton Argus," the +"Dover and County Chronicle," the "Colchester Chronicle," the "Stratford +and South Essex Advertiser," the "Essex Standard," the "Bradford Times," +the "Burnley Express," the "Barnsley Times," the "Wigan Observer," the +"Stockport Advertiser," the "Yorkshire Gazette," the "Westmoreland +Gazette," the "Wakefield and West Riding Herald," the "Frome Times," the +"Man of Ross," the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>"Totnes Times," the "Banner of Wales," the "West +Bromwich Free Press," the "Swinton and Pendlebury Times," the +"Accrington Gazette," the "Birkenhead News," the "Brighton Standard," +the "Hastings Observer," the "Newcastle Courant," the "Preston +Chronicle," the "Monmouthshire Beacon," the "Lydney Observer," the "West +of England Observer," the "Cardiff Free Press," the "Monmouthshire +Chronicle," the "Eskdale and Liddlesdale Advertiser," the "Irvine +Express," the "Surrey Advertiser," the "Printers' Register," the +"Newcastle Examiner," the "Malvern News," and others, with articles +sympathetically copied into the "Brighton Guardian," the "Aberdeen +Journal," the "Dundee Courier," the "Edinburgh Courant," the "Liverpool +Albion," the "Building and Engineering Times" of London," &c.</p> + +<p>The late Sir Thomas Nelson, Solicitor to the Corporation of the City of +London, writes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 15%;">"Hampton Wick,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 10%;"><i>6th February, 1883</i>.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>"I have read the pamphlet you sent me. Your statements are very +interesting. It is nothing uncommon for the man to whom the +idea first occurs to have it developed by others, who get the +credit of it.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="padding-right: 15%;">"Yours truly,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 10%;">"(Signed) T. J. NELSON.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Patrick Chalmers</span>, Esq.<br /> +<span style="padding-left: 10%;">Wimbledon."</span></p> +</div> + +<p>If plagiarism is not uncommon it is none the less unfair to the original +inventor, nor the less to be deprecated, more especially where the +result has been to obtain unmerited "credit" heaped upon the wrong man +at the expense of the man to whom "the idea first occurred," and who +further, as is now more fully proved since Sir Thomas Nelson wrote, also +first urged its "development" to the very man who ultimately took all +the "credit" to himself. To plagiarism such as this a stronger term is +applicable.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>Sir Bartle Frere writes:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap" style="padding-right: 15%;">"Wressil Lodge, Wimbledon,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 10%;"><i>21st April, 1883</i>.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>"I have received your letter of the 20th, and thank you for its +enclosures on the subject of the invention of the adhesive +postage stamp.</p> + +<p>"I have long believed that Mr. James Chalmers was the inventor +of that important part of our present postal system, but I +regret that I cannot suggest to you any means of giving further +publicity to your father's claims to the merit of that most +useful invention.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="padding-right: 15%;">"I remain, <span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 10%;">"Yours truly,</span><br /> +<span style="padding-right: 5%;">(Signed) H. B. E. FRERE.</span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">P. Chalmers</span>, Esq."</p> +</div> + +<p>Sir Bartle Frere introduced the adhesive postage stamp into Scinde +during his administration of that province, having obtained his +knowledge and belief as to James Chalmers having been the originator of +same from independent sources thirty years before my own investigation +of the subject.</p> + +<br /> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<br /> + +<p>In some quarters this matter is ignored on the ground that the subject +of this pamphlet is not of sufficient importance or too late to call for +notice. To such I reply—"Then let the issue of the adhesive stamp (see +page 52) be discontinued." Should it be found that such cannot be done +without serious detriment to the public service, then surely to continue +to use a man's indispensable invention and proposal without so much as a +word of recognition, will, if adhered to, prove a course of proceeding +hard indeed to justify, as well as something wholly foreign to the +antecedents of British journalism.</p> + +<br /> +<br /> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<p class="cen"><span class="smcap">Effingham Wilson</span>, Printer, Royal Exchange, E.C.</p> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<br /> + +<div class="tr"> +<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note</p> +<br /> +Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br /> +<br /> +Page 56 imformation changed to information +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Adhesive Postage Stamp, by Patrick Chalmers + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP *** + +***** This file should be named 39569-h.htm or 39569-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/6/39569/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi, The +Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Adhesive Postage Stamp + +Author: Patrick Chalmers + +Release Date: April 29, 2012 [EBook #39569] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP *** + + + + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi, The +Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP. + + DECISION OF THE + "ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA": + + _James Chalmers was the Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp--"Mr. Pearson + Hill has not weakened the Evidence" to that effect._ + + ALSO + + Papers on the Penny Postage Reform, + + BEQUEATHED BY THE LATE + + SIR HENRY COLE. + + JAMES CHALMERS FIRST PROPOSED THE ADOPTION OF THE + ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP, + OF WHICH HE WAS THE INVENTOR. + + BY + + PATRICK CHALMERS, + _Fellow of the Royal Historical Society_. + + [Illustration] + + LONDON: + EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. + + 1886. + _Price Sixpence._ + + + + +PREFACE. + + +When a man of note dies, the journalist of the day can only reproduce in +an obituary notice the accepted position of his life and works--it is no +part of that writer's duty to examine, so as fully to certify, all the +statements at hand, or to ransack old volumes dealing with the times +when such reputation was established. That is the duty and the task of +the later historian, or of some one specially interested. Such has been +my duty, my task, as respects that public benefactor, the late Sir +Rowland Hill, with the result arrived at in this and former +publications. + +Upon the death of Sir Rowland Hill in August, 1879, a series of letters +with comments thereon appeared in the Dundee press, recalling the name +and services of a townsman who, in his day, had taken an active interest +in post-office improvement, and had worked in that field to some +purpose. Mr. James Chalmers, bookseller, Dundee, who died in 1853, had +been an earnest postal reformer. Through his efforts, and after a long +correspondence with the Post Office in London, he brought about such an +acceleration of the mail as to lessen the time necessary for the reply +to a letter from Dundee to London, or betwixt the chief commercial towns +of the north and south, by two days--a day each way. Subsequently he +conceived the idea of an adhesive stamp for postage purposes; and it was +this invention, made known to such post-office reformers as Mr. Hume and +Mr. Wallace--with both of whom, as with others, he was in +communication--that formed the origin of the adoption of the adhesive +stamp in the reformed Penny Postage system of 1840, the plan proposed by +Mr. Rowland Hill in 1837 having been that of the impressed stamp. + +These letters in the Dundee press from old townsmen and friends of Mr. +Chalmers, personally unknown to me as I was to them (I having left +Dundee while a youth, over fifty years ago, and passed much of the +interval abroad), with the consequent attention drawn to the subject, +naturally called upon me to make an endeavour to vindicate my father's +claim to the merit of such an important feature in the success of the +Penny Postage scheme as was, and is, the adhesive stamp. These letters, +moreover, acquainted me with what I was previously unaware of--that on +the 1st January, 1846, a public testimonial had been presented in the +Town Hall of Dundee to Mr. Chalmers, in recognition of his postal +services, and of his having been the originator of the adhesive postage +stamp; thus all the more calling upon me to investigate a subject of +which hitherto I had only a dim and partial idea. This investigation was +further facilitated by my withdrawal just before the same period of 1879 +from active business, thus enabling me to examine at the library of the +British Museum the papers, documents, speeches, and motions in +Parliament, Reports of Parliamentary Committees, and all such evidence +and information tending to throw light upon, from the year 1832 onwards, +the history and events preceding the reformed system of postage +introduced to the public in the year 1837 by the then Mr. Rowland Hill. + +My father long since dead (while I was abroad), and his establishment +long ago broken up, difficulty was at first experienced in obtaining the +specific evidence necessary to enable me to establish my claim on his +behalf, but the attention publicly drawn to the matter by former +publications of my own, and of Mr. Pearson Hill to which I was called +upon to reply, brought forward ever-increasing evidence of the most +conclusive nature, and to which I am now enabled to add material and +interesting confirmation from papers left by the late Sir Henry Cole, +whose connection with the Penny Postage Reform of 1837-40 is well +known. + + + + +THE PENNY POSTAGE SCHEME OF SIR ROWLAND HILL NOT ORIGINAL. + + +My business, of course, in the investigation just named, was to +ascertain what plan Sir Rowland Hill had proposed in his pamphlet of +1837 for the purpose of carrying out his Penny Postage Scheme, and to +trace therefrom the adoption on his part of my father's plan of the +adhesive stamp. But a discovery of much more historical importance +before long presented itself, namely, that neither the conception of +uniform penny postage itself, nor of any one of the valuable principles +and figures of the penny postage scheme, were original conceptions on +the part of Sir Rowland Hill. + +The reformed system of postage was not the work of one year nor of one +man. For some years prior to 1837 the abuses and mismanagement of the +post office were a constant theme of complaint, both in and out of +Parliament--many able and earnest men combined to bring about some +reform demanded by men of business and public opinion. Commissions of +inquiry were held, evidence and suggestions taken, reports issued. +Early in 1835 Mr. Wallace, M.P. for Greenock, a prominent post-office +reformer, obtained a Commission of Inquiry on the subject, which +Commission issued in all ten Reports; while, in addition to +Parliamentary returns, a commission, termed the Commission of Revenue +Inquiry, had sat for many years prior to the Commission of merely Post +Office Inquiry, and had issued twenty-three Reports, in more than one of +which post-office affairs were dealt with. + +In that large field of complaint, suggestion, information, and proposal +may be found the substance, origin, and foundation of the subsequent +writings and proposals of Sir Rowland Hill. + +It will be remembered that the old system of postage, prior to 1840, was +that of a high and variable charge according to distance, of, say, +twopence to one shilling and sixpence a letter, charged by sheet; and +two sheets, however light in weight, were charged double. The same with +circulars. But in these Reports, including the evidence of the numerous +witnesses, are to be found embodied all the valuable principles and +figures of the reformed system. And that all these Reports had come +under Mr. Hill's review is left in no doubt, having been sent to him by +Mr. Wallace, after Mr. Hill, freed from other occupations, had, in 1835, +joined the circle of post-office reformers, when he "commenced that +systematic study, analysis, and comparison which the difficulty of my +self-imposed task rendered necessary."--("Life," page 246.) + +But to be looked upon as the _inventor_ of that scheme which he had +introduced and (saved and rendered practicable by the adhesive stamp) +had successfully carried out--to have this scheme understood as having +been the unaided conception of his own mind--was with Sir Rowland Hill +simply a mania, and to that mania James Chalmers, the originator in +every sense of that adhesive stamp, was sacrificed. + +The bearing of all this non-originality of conception on the part of Sir +Rowland Hill is obvious when the question of the stamp is under +consideration. In propounding the scheme itself, what were only acquired +ideas were assumed, or allowed to be assumed, as inventions or +conceptions. As with the scheme, so with the stamp--the stamp also was +an acquired idea, not Rowland Hill's invention. + +Having now, however, obtained from a quarter of the highest standing, +after an impartial investigation, a full acknowledgment of my father's +services, and this in addition to an already large amount of recognition +from the press in general, further observations as to the +non-originality of the scheme may be here dispensed with, for the +present at least, and left to history. And if I have been compelled to +show that, so far from the adhesive stamp having been the invention of +Sir Rowland Hill, originality of conception formed no element whatever +in any one of the proposals of even the Penny Postage Scheme itself, +such course has been forced upon me by the unfortunate proceedings of +Mr. Pearson Hill in denying, against the clearest evidence, my just +claim in the matter of the stamp, without a pretence of proof that such +was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill. + + + + +THE IMPRESSED STAMP. + + +The plan by which Mr. Rowland Hill, in his pamphlet of 1837, proposed to +carry out in practice his uniform penny postage scheme was, shortly +stated, first, simply to pay the penny or money with the letters; but +secondly, and more especially, by stamped sheets of letter paper, and +stamped wrappers or covers. "Let stamped covers and sheets of paper be +supplied to the public, from the Stamp Office or Post Office, or both, +and at such a price as to include the postage." ... "Economy and the +public convenience would require that sheets of letter paper of every +description should be stamped on the part used for the address; that +wrappers, such as are used for newspapers, as well as covers made of +cheap paper, should also be stamped," and kept on sale at the post +offices. "Stationers would also be induced to keep them." + +What Mr. Hill overlooked in this proposal, was the broad fact that he +sets up the Stamp Office or Post Office to do the business in letter +paper of the stationers throughout the kingdom--some huge Government +establishment against which competition would be hopeless, as the Stamp +Office was to sell the writing paper at cost price, while the stationer +requires a profit to pay his rent and expenses, and to live upon. The +effect upon the stationers, consequently would have been +confiscation--and against this plan the united body of paper makers and +stationers subsequently protested. + +The Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, again, took +exception to Mr. Hill's plan mainly on account of its liability to +forgery--a stamp of the nature proposed would be extensively forged. +After evidence on the part of the Stamp-Office authorities and paper +makers had been taken, it was decided to recommend--that the paper for +all stamped covers should be manufactured at the paper mills of a Mr. +Dickenson, or of another, solely, under strict excise supervision. This +paper of Mr. Dickenson's was of a peculiar make, having threads of +cotton or silk so interwoven in the paper that a post-office clerk could +readily know by the look or feel that a stamped cover was genuine. The +paper makers protested and petitioned against this, objecting to one of +the body having all the work. Besides, the proposal involved permanent +excise supervision over the manufacture of paper. This proposal, +however, extended only to covers or envelopes; how forgery was to be +prevented in respect to the stamps upon the sheets of letter paper the +Committee do not say. The whole position, in fact, remained in a state +of chaos, only relieved by the ultimate adoption of the adhesive stamp, +which plan Mr. Chalmers had laid before this Committee through Mr. +Wallace, the Chairman, and likewise through Mr. Chalmers, M.P., a member +of the Committee, and which plan had been publicly discussed, not +without finding adherents, including Mr. Cobden, one of the witnesses in +favour of the scheme. + +To the solution proposed by the Committee that all stamped covers should +be made of Dickenson's peculiar paper the Government again highly +objected, further adding to the dilemma; and when the Chancellor of the +Exchequer, on the 5th of July, 1839, introduced and carried a resolution +sanctioning a Penny Postage Bill being brought forward, he distinctly +only "asked hon. members to commit themselves to the question of a +uniform rate of postage of one penny at and under a weight hereafter to +be fixed." Everything else was to be left open. "If it were to go forth +to the public to-morrow morning that the Government had proposed, and +the House had adopted, the plan of Mr. Rowland Hill, the necessary +result would be to spread a conviction abroad that, as a stamped cover +was absolutely to be used in all cases, which stamped covers were to be +made by one single manufacturer, alarm would be felt lest a monopoly +would thereby be created, to the serious detriment of other members of +a most useful and important trade. The sense of injustice excited by +this would necessarily be extreme. I therefore do not call upon the +House either to affirm or to negative any such proposition at the +present. I ask you simply to affirm the adoption of a uniform penny +postage, and the taxation of that postage by weight. Neither do I ask +you to pledge yourselves to the prepayment of letters, for I am of +opinion that, at all events, there should be an option of putting +letters into the post without a stamp." + +"If the resolution be affirmed, and the Bill has to be proposed, it will +hereafter require very great care and complicated arrangements to carry +the plan into practical effect. It may involve considerable expense and +considerable responsibility on the part of the Government; it may +disturb existing trades, such as the paper trade." ... "The new postage +will be distinctly and simply a penny postage by weight." ... "I also +require for the Treasury a power of taking the postage by anticipation, +and a power of allowing such postage to be taken by means of stamped +covers, and I also require the authority of rating the postage according +to weight."[1] + +In this dilemma, as to _how_ to carry out the scheme in practice, Mr. +Wallace favourably suggested the adhesive stamp, the adoption of which +plan, he had no hesitation in saying from the evidence adduced, would +secure the revenue from loss by forgery. Mr. Warburton, also a member of +the 1837-38 Committee, "viewing with considerable alarm the doubt which +had been expressed of adopting Mr. Hill's plan of prepayment and +collection by stamped covers," recommended that plans should be applied +for from the public. + +Again, in the House of Lords on the 5th of August, Lord Melbourne, in +introducing the Bill, is as much embarrassed as was the Chancellor of +the Exchequer in the Commons. The opponents of the Bill use, as one of +their strongest arguments, the impossibility of carrying out the scheme +in practice. The Earl of Ripon says:--"Why were their lordships thus +called upon at this period of the session to pass a Bill, when no mortal +being at that moment had the remotest conception of how it was to be +carried into execution?" Here Lord Ashburton, like Mr. Wallace in the +Commons, favourably suggested the adhesive stamp, "which would answer +every purpose, and remove the objection of the stationers and paper +makers to the measure." + +Let it, then, be clearly noted that, up to the period of the Bill in +July and August, 1839, not a word is said in any way connecting Mr. +Hill's name with other than the impressed stamp on the sheet of letter +paper, or, more especially, on the stamped covers. That, _and that +alone_, is taken on the one part as _his_ plan by all the speakers, +official or otherwise--for that alone does the Chancellor of the +Exchequer ask for "powers." The adhesive stamp is brought in, on the +other part, as a distinct proposal, in no way entering into the +proposals of Mr. Hill. + +(The above is given in more detail in my former pamphlet, entitled "Sir +Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, the Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp," +1883). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] See "Hansard," Vol. 48. + + + + +THE ADHESIVE STAMP. + + +In my pamphlet entitled "Sir Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, the +Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp," I have already proved from overwhelming +evidence, both general and specific, the invention of the adhesive stamp +for postage purposes by the late James Chalmers, bookseller, Dundee, in +the month of August, 1834. In addition to friends and fellow-townsmen, +several of those in his employment at that period have, unknown to me, +come forward from various quarters to describe the process and to fix +the date. The setting up of the form with a number of stamps having a +printed device--the printing of the sheets--the melting of the gum--the +gumming the backs of the sheets--the drying and the pressing--are all +described, and the date already named is conclusively fixed.[2] That +this was the first instance of such invention is clear; earlier +instances of an _impressed_ stamp proposed for postage purposes are on +record, but not one of a proposed adhesive stamp--while Sir Rowland Hill +himself has left it on record, in his "Life," referring to the same +period and occasion when an impressed stamp was proposed in 1834 for +newspaper covers by Mr. Knight, "of course, adhesive stamps were yet +undreamt of." (See page 69 of my pamphlet above named). + +I have further shown that Mr. Chalmers was one of the early postal +reformers prior to the period of Mr. Rowland Hill, that he had done +great service in the way of accelerating the mails betwixt London and +the north, and that he was in communication with several of those early +reformers, such as Mr. Hume, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. Knight--the publisher +subsequently of Mr. Rowland Hill's pamphlet of 1837--so that his +proposal of an adhesive stamp for postage purposes, a matter of +notoriety in his own locality, would further have become well known in +the general circle of postal reformers, amongst whom, and from whom, on +joining same in the year 1835, Mr. Rowland Hill obtained the information +which enabled him to draw up and publish his Penny Postage Scheme of +1837. (See page 5 of my pamphlet named.) + +One of those pioneers of postal reform, the Rev. Samuel Roberts, M.A., +of Conway, gives his personal testimony of the adhesive stamp having +been originated by James Chalmers. (Page 42.)[3] + +My pamphlet goes on to show (page 44) that on the appointment of the +House of Commons Committee of 1837-38 on the proposed uniform Penny +Postage Scheme, Mr. Chalmers sent in his plan of an adhesive stamp to +Mr. Wallace, the Chairman, and to another Member of that Committee. Mr. +Wallace's reply, stating that he will lay the plan before the Committee, +is of date 9th December, 1837. In the dilemma in which the Government +found itself (upon introducing on the 5th July, 1839, the Resolution +preliminary to the Bill) as to _how_ to carry out the Penny Postage +Scheme in practice (page 21) Mr. Wallace favourably suggested the plan +of the adhesive stamp. The statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer +upon this occasion, with the interposition of Mr. Wallace in the +Commons, and of Lord Ashburton in the Lords, in favour of the adhesive +stamp have already been given, conclusively showing that, up to this +period, Mr. Hill had not included the adhesive stamp in his proposals. + +On the passing of the Bill in August, Mr. Hill was relegated to the +Treasury for the purpose of carrying out the scheme. The first step +taken was to invite plans, by Treasury Circular of 23rd August, from the +public; some time was taken up in receiving and considering these plans, +until, by Treasury Minute of December 26th, 1839, the adhesive stamp was +at length officially adopted, in conjunction with Mr. Hill's stamped +covers, or stamp impressed upon the sheet of letter paper itself. (See +page 46.) But the adhesive stamp, indeed, had been practically adopted +by Mr. Hill before the plans were received, considered, and nothing +better found, a concurrence of opinion having set in in favour of same. +It will be seen that Mr. Chalmers, in his published statement of date +February, 1838, now produced from Sir Henry Cole's papers, called for +petitions towards the adoption of the adhesive stamp. In August, 1839, +both the Associated Body of Paper-Makers and certain Merchants and +Bankers of the City of London pressed for the adoption of this stamp; +Mr. Rowland Hill himself, in a paper entitled "On the Collection of +Postage by means of Stamps," circulated by him about the period of the +Bill being before Parliament, included the adoption of the adhesive +stamp, in conjunction with his own impressed stamp. Mr. Cole also drew +up an able paper on the stamp question, including the advocacy of the +adhesive stamp. So general, indeed, had then become opinion in its +favour, that of the plans sent in no less than forty-nine others besides +Mr. Chalmers, who again sent in his plan, recommended the adoption of +the adhesive stamp, invented by Mr. Chalmers in 1834, laid by him before +the Committee of the House of Commons in December, 1837, and further, as +we shall now see, sent in to Mr. Cole as Secretary to the Mercantile +Committee of the City of London, in February, 1838, and acknowledged by +Mr. Rowland Hill in a letter to Mr. Chalmers of date 3rd March, 1838. In +this letter Mr. Hill makes no pretension to the merit or proposed +adoption of the adhesive stamp on his part, for, as will be seen, Mr. +Chalmers subsequently returned to Mr. Hill a copy of this very letter +for the purpose of pointing out this fact to Mr. Hill. It was not until +the propriety, and indeed necessity, of adopting Mr. Chalmers' plan--not +until its final official acceptance--that, in a letter dated 18th +January, 1840, Mr. Hill, then in despotic power, putting Mr. Chalmers +aside upon the pretext afterwards mentioned, assumed the whole merit to +himself. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Since publishing my evidence specifically proving what is here +stated, I have been favoured with the following letter:-- + + + "BRECHIN, + _9th October, 1883_ + + "DEAR SIR, + + "When I penned my anonymous note to the _Dundee Advertiser_ in + August, 1879, expressing the hope that there might be still + living some who could corroborate my statement that the late + Mr. Chalmers was the inventor of the 'Adhesive Stamp,' I hardly + expected it would be followed by such an amount of + corroboration. + + "With regard to the _date_ of the invention, you appear to have + received ample proof, and I am able to add thereto. It was in + the autumn of 1834 that I left Dundee to reside here, and the + Stamp was in existence in Mr. Chalmers' premises before I left. + + "I may add that when I wrote in 1879, I was not aware of the + existence of a son of Mr. C. My sole object in writing was that + _Dundee_ might claim and receive the honour of being the place + of birth of the 'Adhesive Stamp.' + + "I am, &c., + "(_Signed_) DAVID PRAIN. + + "P. CHALMERS, Esq., + "Wimbledon." + + +A Portrait of Mr. Prain, by the talented Scottish artist, Mr. Irvine, +subscribed for by Mr. Prain's fellow-townsmen and former pupils, has +just been presented in his honour to the Mechanic's Institute of +Brechin. The proceedings upon this occasion, including the able speeches +of Provost Lamb and of Mr. Prain, will be found in the _Brechin +Advertiser_ of 16th June, 1885. On a former occasion Mr. Prain was +presented with a Service of Plate and Testimonial to the value of +several hundred pounds, subscribed for by former pupils at home and +abroad. It is at the testimony of such men as this, including the late +Mr. William Thorns, of Dundee, that my opponents sneer as being "the +mere wandering fancies of a few old men!" The general testimony is that +of an entire locality. + +[3] An interesting obituary of Mr. Roberts, lately deceased, will be +found in the "_Times_" of 30th September, 1885. Mr. Roberts is there +recognised as the pioneer of postal reform and originator of the +proposal of a low and uniform postage. + + + + +SIR HENRY COLE'S PAPERS + +AND THE + +ADHESIVE STAMP OF MR. CHALMERS. + + +In his "Fifty Years of Public Life," lately published, Sir Henry Cole +gives much information with respect to the Penny Postage reform, a boon +with the obtaining and carrying out of which he was intimately +associated--first as secretary to the Mercantile Committee of the City +of London, and afterwards as coadjutor to Mr. Rowland Hill at the +Treasury. "A General Collection of Postage Papers," having reference to +this reform, elucidating the efforts made by this Committee of London +Merchants and Bankers during the year 1838-39, to obtain for the scheme +the sanction of the Legislature, has been bequeathed by Sir Henry Cole, +"to be given to the British Museum after my death."[4] "The Mercantile +Committee," he states, "was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. +George Moffat in the spring of 1838. Mr. Ashurst conducted the +Parliamentary Inquiry, and upon myself, as Secretary, devolved the +business of communicating with the public." This Committee formed the +source and focus of the agitation which brought about the ultimate +enactment of uniform Penny Postage. Money was freely subscribed, +meetings were held, public bodies in the provinces were urged to +petition, Members of Parliament and Ministers were waited upon, and a +special paper advocating the scheme, termed the "Post Circular," was +issued and circulated gratis. Of these proceedings Mr. Cole was the +guiding genius; and, amongst other successes, over two thousand +petitions to Parliament were obtained--labours which were ultimately +crowned with success. + +To Mr. Cole, then, it now turns out that Mr. Chalmers, in February, +1838, sent a copy of his plan of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Wallace and the +House of Commons Committee had already got it, but it is only now that +the particulars of the plan have been brought to light--and in this +"Collection of Postage Papers," Sir Henry Cole has indeed left a +valuable legacy to me, and to all prepared to recognise the true +originator of the adhesive postage stamp. These papers include a printed +statement of Mr. Chalmers' plan, dated "4 Castle Street, Dundee, 8th +February, 1838." and which runs as follows:-- + + "_Remarks on various modes proposed for franking letters, under + Mr. Rowland Hill's Plan of Post Office Reform._ + + "In suggesting any method of improvement, it is only reasonable + to expect that what are supposed to be its advantages over any + existing system, or in opposition to others that have been or + may be proposed, will be explicitly stated. + + "Therefore, if Mr. Hill's plan of a uniform rate of postage, + and that all postages are to be paid by those sending letters + _before_ they are deposited in the respective post offices, + become the law of the land, I conceive that the most simple and + economical mode of carrying out such an arrangement would be by + _slips_ (postage stamps) prepared somewhat similar to the + specimens herewith shown. + + "With this view, and in the hope that Mr. Hill's plan may soon + be carried into operation, I would suggest that sheets of + stamped slips should be prepared at the Stamp Office (on a + paper made expressly for the purpose) with a device on each for + a die or cut resembling that on newspapers; that the _sheets_ + so printed or stamped should then be rubbed over with a strong + solution of gum or other adhesive substance, and (when + thoroughly dry) issued by the Stamp Office to town and country + distributors, to stationers and others, for sale in sheets or + singly, under the same laws and restrictions now applicable to + those selling bill or receipt stamps, so as to prevent, as far + as practicable, any fraud on the revenue. + + "Merchants and others whose correspondence is extensive, could + purchase these slips in quantities, cut them singly, and affix + one to a letter by means of wetting the back of the slip with a + sponge or brush, just with as much facility as applying a + wafer."--Adding that in some cases, such as for circulars, the + stamp might answer both for stamp and wafer; a suggestion which + those who may recollect the mode of folding universally + practised before the days of envelopes, will appreciate. Mr. + Chalmers goes on--"Others, requiring only one or two slips at a + time, could purchase them along with sheets of paper at + stationers' shops, the _weight_ only regulating the rate of + postage in all cases, so as a stamp may be affixed according so + the scale determined on. + + "Again, to prevent the possibility of these being used a + _second time_, it should be made imperative on postmasters to + put the post office town stamp (as represented in one of the + specimens), across the slip or postage stamp." + +Mr. Chalmers then goes on to point out the advantages to be derived from +this plan, and to state objections to Mr. Hill's plan of impressed +stamped covers or envelopes, or stamp impressed upon the sheet of letter +paper itself. At that period envelopes--being scarcely known, and never +used, as involving double postage--were a hand-made article, heavy and +expensive; objections which have disappeared with the abolition of the +Excise duty on paper, and the use of machinery. But how true were Mr. +Chalmers' objections _then_, may be gathered from the fact, as recorded +by Sir Rowland Hill in his "Life," that the large supply provided of the +first postage envelope, the Mulready, had actually _to be destroyed_ as +wholly unsuitable and unsaleable, while the supply of adhesive stamps +was with difficulty brought up to the demand. The force and value of Mr. +Chalmers' objections to the stamp impressed upon the sheet itself, are +best exemplified by the fact that, though ultimately sanctioned by the +Treasury at the instance of Mr. Hill, such plan never came into use. +People bought their own paper from the stationers, and not from the +Stamp Office, and applied the adhesive stamp as the weight required. Mr. +Chalmers concludes, "taking all these disadvantages into consideration, +the use of stamped slips is certainly the most preferable system; and, +should others who take an interest in the proposed reform view the +matter in the same light as I do, it remains for them to petition +Parliament to have such carried into operation." + +This statement of Mr. Chalmers is printed on part of an elongated sheet +of paper. On the half not occupied by the type are several specimens of +a suggested stamp, about an inch square, and with the words printed, +"General Postage--not exceeding half-an-ounce--One Penny." And the +same--"Not exceeding one ounce--Twopence." (It is only of late years +that a penny has franked one ounce in weight.) A space divides each +stamp for cutting off singly,[5] and the back of the sheet is gummed +over. One of the specimens is stamped across with the post-mark, +"Dundee, 10th February, 1838," to exemplify what Mr. Chalmers states +should be done to prevent the stamp being used a second time. + +Here is a complete description of the principle of the adhesive stamp as +ultimately adopted by Mr. Hill at the Treasury by Minute of 26th +December, 1839, when he sent Mr. Cole to Messrs. Bacon & Petch, the +eminent engravers, to provide a die and contract for the supply of +stamps (see Mr. Bacon's evidence, page 52 of my former Pamphlet), a plan +in use to the present day. + +This description, as now brought to light under the signature of Mr. +Chalmers himself, fully confirms the evidence with respect to the +invention in August, 1834, as given by his then _employes_ yet living, +W. Whitelaw and others. (See pages 34-39 of my former pamphlet.) + +Here, then, was the plan of the future adhesive stamp, already laid +before Mr. Wallace and the House of Commons Committee, also sent to the +Secretary of the City of London Mercantile Committee, in printed form, +as to one of many, long before leave was asked, on 5th July, 1839, even +to introduce the Bill into Parliament. That Mr. Hill saw Mr. Cole's +copy, or had a special copy sent also to himself, is clear, because Mr. +Hill at once writes to Mr. Chalmers, under date 3rd March, 1838. What +Mr. Hill states in that letter we know not altogether, as Mr. Pearson +Hill has not thought proper to publish that letter, and my request to +him for a copy has not been complied with. (See page 64 of my former +pamphlet.) We know thus much, however, that Mr. Rowland Hill makes no +pretension _then_ to ever having suggested or approved of an adhesive +stamp, as already pointed out. Not until writing to Mr. Chalmers on the +18th January, 1840 (see page 62 of former pamphlet), before which +period, in obedience to the general demand, the adhesive stamp had at +length been adopted, did Mr. Hill, in reply to Mr. Chalmers' claim as +the originator, set up any counter-claim on his own part to any share in +the merit of the adhesive stamp. But, as with the scheme itself, so now +with the stamp which saved it, no second party was to be allowed to +divide with Mr. Hill the sole merit of this great reform. So the +far-fetched excuse, the mere afterthought, bred of the success which +had attended Mr. Chalmers' proposal to the Committee and to Mr. Cole, is +hit upon (page 54) to put Mr. Chalmers aside and to attach to himself +the whole merit of the adhesive stamp. Mr. Hill had said something about +a bit of gummed paper before the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry in +February, 1837 (subsequent to publishing the first edition of his +pamphlet, in which nothing was said of an adhesive stamp), an idea Mr. +Hill had acquired in the interval, just as he had acquired all the +principles of the scheme itself, at second hand (page 60). On this +occasion Mr. Hill had supposed a difficulty which might occur to a +person who had to re-address a letter at a Post Office, but was unable +to write, and at the same time precluded from paying the penny in cash, +while the stamped wrapper would obliterate the address. In such an +exceptional case, and in order to secure "the universal adoption" of the +impressed stamp, a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and +covered at the back with a glutinous wash, might be wetted and applied. +Better, however, he goes on to say, allow the penny to be received in +cash, so that you have only the impressed stamp or the penny in payment, +and which penny was accepted up to the year 1855.[6] Up to the year +1855, consequently, no such exceptional case could have arisen, the +penny in cash being sufficient acceptance. This allusion to an adhesive +stamp is repeated by Mr. Hill in the second edition of his pamphlet. +Here then, in February, 1837, was a passing allusion made by Mr. Hill to +an adhesive stamp, showing that, subsequent to the issue of the first +edition of his pamphlet, he had acquired from some quarter the idea of +Mr. Chalmers' invention. February, 1837, was two years and a half after +the proved invention of the adhesive stamp by Mr. Chalmers, one of the +early postal reformers, one who "held correspondence with the postal +reformers of his day, both in and out of Parliament" ("Encyclopaedia +Britannica," see page 39 following), the correspondent, amongst others, +of Messrs. Knight & Co., who published for Mr. Hill. In a letter, then, +of 18th January, 1840, as we learn from Mr. Pearson Hill's account of +the matter, and from Mr. Chalmers' reply, Mr. Hill pointed out to Mr. +Chalmers that his claim could not be admitted, because he, Mr. Hill, +first proposed an adhesive stamp in February, 1837, the first official +proposal of his plan by Mr. Chalmers, his letter to Mr. Wallace and the +House of Commons Committee, having been only in December of the same +year. In answer to this extraordinary pretension on the part of Mr. +Hill, it is enough to point to Mr. Hill's letters to the +Postmaster-General, Lord Litchfield, in January, 1838, explaining and +enforcing his penny postage scheme then before the public--letters +published in the papers of the period, and in which not a word is said +of an adhesive stamp.[7] Or more than enough, to point to the speech of +the Chancellor of the Exchequer, already quoted (page 13), to prove +that, up to so late a date as the 5th July, 1839, Mr. Hill had _not_ +proposed to adopt an adhesive stamp. The press, up to 30th August, 1839, +had heard of no such proposal on his part.[8] + +This allusion to an adhesive stamp in February, 1837, was a mere passing +allusion as to what might be done in a supposed exceptional case which +could never have arisen so long as the penny in cash was accepted, and +was nothing more. For Mr. Hill to represent to Mr. Chalmers that he, Mr. +Hill, had proposed to adopt the adhesive stamp as a means of carrying +out his scheme in February, 1837, was to state what was _not the case_; +consequently any admission so gained from Mr. Chalmers was wholly +invalid. An extract from the reply of Mr. Chalmers, dated 18th May, 1840 +(reproduced at page 62 of my former pamphlet), has been circulated by +Mr. Pearson Hill, in whose hands alone is the entire correspondence, +with the object of showing that Mr. Chalmers "honestly abandoned" his +claim. But Mr. Chalmers honestly abandoned nothing; while no impartial +person will, upon consideration, for a moment attach any importance to +just what "extract" from his correspondence Mr. Pearson Hill has thought +proper to produce. I again contend, as I have already maintained, that +this correspondence was public, not private, property--that such should +have remained at the Treasury, subject to the inspection of all +concerned, in place of having been appropriated by Sir Rowland Hill as +private, and thus so as to admit of only such portion being ultimately +made known as may have suited himself. In this extract of 18th May, +1840, Mr. Chalmers, after stating he had delayed to reply until seeing +the stamps in operation, writes with surprise at what Mr. Hill now +states. Had he known or supposed that any one else, especially Mr. Hill +himself, had proposed the adhesive stamp for the purpose of carrying out +the scheme, he would not have troubled him at all. But having sent his +plan to Mr. Wallace, M.P., and got his acknowledgment of 9th December, +1837, saying same would be laid before the Committee; also to Mr. +Chalmers, M.P., and got his reply of 7th October, 1839, saying such had +been laid before the Committee; also Mr. Hill's own letter of 3rd March, +1838, a copy of which he encloses--from _all_ these he was led to +believe he had been first in the field. _Now_, not doubting Mr. Hill's +assurance of 18th January, 1840, to the contrary (and in any case +indisposed to contest a decision against which there was practically no +appeal), he only regrets having through his ignorance put others as well +as himself to any trouble in the matter; "while the only satisfaction I +have had in this as well as in former suggestions--all original with +me--is that these have been adopted, and have been and are likely to +prove beneficial to the public." + +Such is the letter or extract which, placed in the hands of every editor +in London, has led to my statements being here treated with comparative +neglect.[9] But let my statements equally with those of Mr. Pearson +Hill be read by any impartial writer, as in the case of the +"Encyclopaedia Britannica," afterwards noticed, and the result, it will +be seen, is to lead to an entirely different conclusion. "James Chalmers +was the inventor of the adhesive postage stamp--Mr. Pearson Hill has not +weakened the evidence to that effect." Here was honesty +certainly--simplicity indeed--on the side of Mr. Chalmers; but what +about the representation on the part of Mr. Hill? Was it the case that +he had proposed the adoption of the adhesive stamp in February, 1837, as +represented to Mr. Chalmers? The proofs to the contrary are conclusive. +Mr. Hill had made a passing allusion to an adhesive stamp in February, +1837, but _only_ a passing allusion. Nothing can be more clear than that +the adoption of the adhesive stamp for the purpose of carrying out his +scheme formed no part of the original proposals and intentions of Mr. +Hill. His representation to Mr. Chalmers was therefore exaggerated, +delusive, and misleading.[10] "Why did not you tell me anything of this +before?" replies Mr. Chalmers in effect;--"_there_ is a copy of your +letter of 3rd March, 1838, when I sent you my plan, in which letter of +yours no such pretensions were put forward. It is only now that I learn +for the first time that you had ever proposed or been in favour of an +adhesive stamp. Further, how is it that neither of these members of the +Committee before whom I laid my plan had ever heard of any such prior +proposal on your part? However, I am now only sorry at having troubled +you--I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the public have +got my plan somehow." + +"Why did you not tell me anything of this before?" Why indeed! Because +Mr. Hill _then_ had not contemplated an adhesive stamp, as has been +abundantly proved. An impressed stamped cover "was absolutely to be used +in all cases," says the Chancellor of the Exchequer as late as in July, +1839--a "power" was asked for this, and for this alone. (See _ante_, +page 14.) But much had happened in the interval betwixt Mr. Hill's two +letters to Mr. Chalmers. The stamp not accepted by Mr. Hill in 1838 had +become in 1840 the favourite of all opinions concerned, the adopted of +the Treasury. It had saved his scheme. Mr. Chalmers must now be put +aside, a matter which the entire contrast betwixt the dispositions of +the two men rendered only too easy, and so this afterthought, this +far-fetched pretext already noticed, was hit upon for the purpose. + +At the same time Mr. Chalmers appears to have been too apathetic in the +matter, indifferent to personal considerations so long as the public +got his stamp from some quarter; but the absence of any desire for +personal advantage is a not unfrequent characteristic in those who have +done some public service. + +But it is this neglect, or mere indifference, on the part of my father, +in not having made a better stand in 1840 with respect to a matter the +national and universal value of which no one could then appreciate or +foresee, that all the more calls upon me now, under a better +acquaintance with the facts and circumstances, to claim for his memory +that recognition to which he is clearly entitled, as having been "The +Originator and Inventor of the Adhesive Postage Stamp." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] These papers are in the Art Library of the South Kensington Museum. + +[5] The perforated sheets were not introduced until the year 1852. This +improvement was the invention of a Mr. Archer, for which he got the sum +of L4,000. + +[6] In his "Life" lately published, written by himself, Sir Rowland Hill +_omits the clause_ in his original evidence which restores the payment +of the penny in cash and does away with any necessity for an adhesive +stamp, even in the exceptional case he had supposed. Not only does Sir +Rowland Hill omit this clause, but he even gives the reader to +understand that to the year 1837, the year of his pamphlet, is to be +ascribed his adoption of the adhesive stamp. How then, it will be asked, +does Sir Rowland Hill account for the speech of the Chancellor of the +Exchequer on the 5th July, 1839, and the interposition of Mr. Wallace in +favour of an adhesive stamp? This difficulty Sir Rowland Hill surmounts +by simply taking no notice of either. + +[7] In his letter to Lord Litchfield of 9th January, 1838, Mr. Hill +states his plan to be:--"That the payment should always be in advance. +And to rid this mode of payment of the trouble and risk which it would +otherwise entail on the sending of letters, as well as for other +important considerations, I propose that the postage be collected by the +sale of stamped covers." + +[8] The "Times" of this date has the following paragraph:--"The Penny +Postage will commence, we learn, on the 1st January next. It is intended +that stamped envelopes shall be sold at every Post Office, so that +stationers and other shopkeepers may, as well as the public, supply +themselves at a minute's notice." Not a word as to an Adhesive Stamp +being known as in contemplation. It will be evident from these two +instances alone, independent of the proceedings in Parliament and of Mr. +Hill's letter to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March, 1838, that the Adhesive +Stamp formed no part of the original proposals or intentions of Sir +Rowland Hill. + +[9] See "The World," "Daily Chronicle," &c., also "Proceedings of the +Commissioners of Sewers" for July, 1881, as reported in the "City +Press." + +[10] The "Christian Leader" of Glasgow ably puts the matter thus:--"Sir +Rowland Hill seems to have been at pains to obscure the facts of the +case for the purpose of claiming to himself the credit of an invention +which really belonged to the Dundee bookseller." + + + + +THE "ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA." + + +The nineteenth volume of the above-named standard work, lately +published, contains an article headed "Postage Stamps," in which my late +father is fully recognised as having been the inventor of the adhesive +postage stamp. It is well known that the articles in this work are drawn +up by learned experts upon the respective subjects dealt with, having +access to and being in the habit of consulting official and historical +documents, and edited under a strong sense of responsibility to the high +standing of the work itself and to history; so that it is with +unspeakable satisfaction that I now find myself enabled to produce from +such a quarter an emphatic recognition of my father's services in +connection with the great boon of Penny Postage reform. + +This article, so far as it deals with the origin of the adhesive stamp, +is as follows; but in considering same it should be borne in mind that +the article was drawn up _before_ the discovery of Mr. Chalmers' plan +amongst the papers of the late Sir Henry Cole, with the consequent +proofs given in the last chapter as to Mr. Chalmers having taken the +initiative in urging the adoption of this stamp, not only to Members of +the Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1837-38, but to Mr. +Rowland Hill himself, long before Mr. Hill, in his paper of 1839 (see +_ante_, page 21), gave in his adhesion to that plan in conjunction with +his own:-- + +"POSTAGE STAMPS.--For all practical purposes the history of postage +stamps begins in the United Kingdom, and with the great reform of its +postal system in 1839-40." After giving instances in which the +_impressed_ stamp had been in use, or had been suggested for postal +purposes in this country and elsewhere, the article proceeds:--"Finally, +and in its results most important of all, the 'adhesive stamp' was made, +experimentally, in his printing-office at Dundee, by Mr. James Chalmers, +in August, 1834.[11] These experimental stamps were printed from +ordinary type, and were made adhesive by a wash of gum. Their inventor +had already won local distinction in matters of postal reform by his +strenuous and successful efforts, made as early as in the year 1822, for +the acceleration of the Scottish mails from London. Those efforts +resulted in a saving of forty-eight hours on the double journey, and +were highly appreciated in Scotland. There is evidence that from 1822 +onwards his attention was much directed towards postal questions, and +that he held correspondence with the postal reformers of his day both in +and out of Parliament. It is also plain that he was more intent upon +aiding public improvements than upon winning credit for them. He made +adhesive stamps in 1834, and showed them to his neighbours, but took no +step for publicly recommending their adoption by the Post Office until +long after such a recommendation had been published--although very +hesitatingly--by the author of the now famous pamphlet entitled 'Post +Office Reform.'[12] Mr. Hill brought the adhesive stamp under the notice +of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry on the 13th February, 1837. +Mr. Chalmers made no _public_ mention of his stamp of 1834 until +December, 1837."[13] + +"Only a fortnight before his examination by the above-named +Commissioners Mr. Hill, in his letter to the late Lord Monteagle (then +Mr. Spring Rice, and Chancellor of the Exchequer), seems to have had no +thought of the _adhesive_ stamp. He recommends to the Treasury 'that +stamped covers and sheets of paper be supplied to the public from the +Stamp Office or Post Office ... and sold at such a price as to include +the postage.... Covers at various prices would be required for packets +of various weights. Each should have the weight it is entitled to carry +legibly printed with the stamp.... Should experience warrant the +Government in making the use of stamped covers universal,[14] most +important advantages would be secured. The Post Office would be relieved +altogether from the collection of the revenue.'[15] + +"Then, upon suggestion, it would seem, of some possible difficulty that +might arise from the occasional bringing to a post-office by persons +unable to write, of unstamped letters, he added: 'Perhaps this +difficulty might be obviated by using a bit of paper just large enough +to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash.' It is +a quite fair inference that this alternative had been suggested from +without.[16] In reviewing the subject, long afterwards, in his 'History +of Penny Postage,' Sir R. Hill says: 'The Post-Office opinions as to the +use of stamps for ... prepayment were on the whole favourable.'[17] In a +paper of 1839, entitled 'On the Collection of Postage by means of +Stamps,' the author continued to look upon 'stamped covers or envelopes +as the means which the public would most commonly employ; still +believing that the adhesive stamp would be reserved for exceptional +cases.'[18] + +"Mulready's well-remembered allegorical cover came into use on 1st May, +1840, together with the first form of the stamped letter-paper, and the +adhesive labels. They all met at first, but only for a few days, with a +large sale. That of the first day yielded L2,500. Soon afterwards the +public rejection of the 'Mulready envelope,' writes Rowland Hill, 'was +so complete as to necessitate the destruction of nearly all the vast +number prepared for issue.' Whilst, on the other hand, the presses of +the Stamp Office were producing more than half a million of [adhesive] +labels, by working both night and day, they yet failed to meet the +demand.[19] It was only after many weeks, and after the introduction of +a series of mechanical improvements and new processes, due to the skill +and ingenuity in part of Mr. Edwin Hill of the Stamp Office, in part of +Mr. Perkins, an engraver, that the demand could be effectually +answered." + +The above emphatic decision on the part of eminent men whom I have never +seen in favour of James Chalmers as having been the inventor of the +adhesive postage stamp, will give much satisfaction in those numerous +quarters from which I have already met with countenance and support. +After a full consideration of the respective statements put forward by +myself and by Mr. Pearson Hill on the subject, James Chalmers at length +obtains a recognition of which he has, as a rule, been only too long +deprived. And that the same man who invented this stamp also first +proposed its adoption has been already too clearly shown to require +repetition here. Surely Sir Rowland Hill's "paper of 1839," mentioned in +this article, was a trifle behindhand, when I have just proved from Sir +Henry Cole's papers that Mr. Chalmers had already laid his plan before +Mr. Hill himself in February, 1838. Did Mr. Hill tell us _that_ in his +paper of 1839? No. Did he tell us that he drew up this paper of 1839 +under a pressing demand for the adhesive stamp from all quarters? No. +_Was it fair of Sir Rowland Hill to allow the readers of his "History of +Penny Postage," or of his paper of 1839, to conclude that this proposal +on his part of 1839 was put forward of his own initiation, and this with +Mr. Chalmers' plan and statement of February, 1838, already in his +possession?_ A plan which, in his reply to Mr. Chalmers of 3rd March +following, Mr. Hill had pooh-poohed! Moreover, in referring to this +"paper of 1839" in his "History of Penny Postage," vol. 1, page 346, Sir +Rowland Hill takes special credit to himself for having therein +recommended that the adhesive stamps "should be printed on sheets," +putting same forward as a further idea of his own, and wholly ignoring +the fact of such having been a special feature, "for sale in sheets or +singly," in that plan of Mr. Chalmers _which lay before him_. (See +_ante_, page 24.) It is unfortunate that the writer of this article was +not at the time of writing in possession of the whole facts of the case, +when doubtless Mr. Hill's "paper of 1839" would have been characterised +as it deserved. Sir Rowland Hill's mode of obtaining credit for +"inventions" or proposals of other men will now be better understood. + +If Mr. Hill alluded to this adhesive stamp (the admitted invention of +Mr. Chalmers in 1834) in February, 1837, while Mr. Chalmers urged its +adoption officially only in December, this, it will be seen, arose from +Mr. Hill having been privileged to give evidence on postal affairs +before the Commissioners of Inquiry. The proposal of 1834 with respect +to newspapers came to nothing; consequently there was no opening _then_ +for Mr. Chalmers to send in his invention _officially_. In sending in +his plan to the Select Committee of the House of Commons in December, +1837, Mr. Chalmers was still a year and a half before the Penny Postage +Bill was even introduced into Parliament. Mr. Hill did not adopt same +until he issued his "paper of 1839." Mr. Hill's allusion to this stamp +in February, 1837, this "publishing" of the idea "very hesitatingly," +had no practical effect whatever on the cause in hand; such only shows +that Mr. Hill had heard of the invention of 1834, without seeing its +value or proposing to adopt it. Moreover, Mr. Chalmers was publishing +his own invention, while Mr. Hill was only publishing an acquired idea, +"suggested from without." It is to the man who not only invented the +adhesive postage stamp, but who further first urged the adoption of same +in its entirety for the purpose of carrying out the Penny Postage +scheme, that the merit of this plan and of its results are due and will +be ascribed. + +But if I was to stop here I should be told now, as I have been told +before on obtaining important recognitions, that the present decision +in my favour was again got upon mere _ex-parte_ statements--that had Mr. +Pearson Hill only been given the opportunity, a very different aspect +would have been put upon the matter. No choice, consequently, is left me +but to show that it is to Mr. Pearson Hill himself I am indebted for the +introduction which has led to my success, and without which +introduction, now reproduced, I should have remained in entire ignorance +as to any forthcoming article upon postal affairs, or have been most +courteously afforded an opportunity of stating my case:-- + + + [_Copy._] + + "ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA." + "50, BELSIZE PARK, + LONDON, N.W., + _15th March, 1883_. + + "GENTLEMEN, + + "As you are now issuing a new edition of your 'Encyclopaedia + Britannica,' and as for years past a Mr. Patrick Chalmers has + persistently been making false and groundless charges against + my father, the late Sir Rowland Hill, I think it well to send + you the enclosed printed documents for your information, as it + is by no means improbable that he may strive to get you to + insert some untrue statement when you deal with the question of + the Post Office and Postal Reform. + + "I need hardly say that I shall be happy at any time to submit + to you the original documents which are in my possession, which + disprove the claims put forward in behalf of Mr. James Chalmers + of Dundee, if you would desire to see them. + + "Your statistical information about the Post Office, as given + in my copy of the Encyclopaedia (the eighth edition) is of + course now much behindhand. I dare say you have already on your + staff of contributors some gentleman well able to supply you + with fresh information; but should you be in want of any such + help, I feel sure that my cousin, Mr. Lewin Hill, head of the + statistical branch of the Secretary's office, General Post + Office, London, would gladly undertake the work if you desired + it. + + "I am, Gentlemen, + + "Your obedient servant, + "(Signed) PEARSON HILL. + + "MESSRS. A. & C. BLACK, + Edinburgh." + + +It is thus manifest that, in having obtained this conclusive +recognition, I have taken no undue advantage of Mr. Pearson Hill, while +it will also be manifest that Mr. Pearson Hill's statements have found +acceptance in other quarters only because I have not been afforded an +equally impartial hearing as in the present case. His printed +documents, his statements, with all the advantage of being sole +possessor of the correspondence betwixt his late father and mine, have +been put forward, and yet the decision is against him. + +Again, as respects the penny postage scheme itself, the proofs are +conclusive that _originality of conception_ formed no element whatever +in any one of the proposals of Sir Rowland Hill, preceded and heralded +as the penny postage reform had been by the labours of a whole band of +pioneers. Special reference may be made to the statements of the Rev. +Samuel Roberts, whose biography as the pioneer of uniform penny postal +reform is given in the _Times_ of 30th September last. The "Rowland Hill +Memorial Fund" Committee have themselves admitted, after what has been +laid before them, their sense of this non-originality by the change made +in the inscription upon the City statue of Sir Rowland Hill, thereby +confirming the accuracy of my statements. Moreover, a Treasury Minute of +11th March, 1864, distinctly states that uniform penny postage had been +urged upon the Government prior to the proposals of Sir Rowland Hill. +Thus, independent and conclusive testimony, as distinguished from the +mere family tradition with which many writers have hitherto been +content, leaves the question of plagiarism beyond dispute. As with the +stamp, so with the scheme, the ideas were _acquired, not original_. +Here, then, is the justification of my statements. So far from having +been "persistently making false and groundless charges," I have been +stating facts and elucidating the truth, and the aspersions of Mr. +Pearson Hill are thus scattered to the winds. + +For Mr. Pearson Hill, however, every allowance will be made, though his +style of controversy will not be admired. That gentleman forgets that my +motives and objects are just as legitimate as his own, and should be met +in a legitimate way. This leads me to mention that some time ago Mr. +Samuel Morley, M.P. (at one period chairman of the "Sir Rowland Hill +Memorial Fund" Committee) was good enough to suggest that this +controversy should be decided by arbitration, and to which I agreed in +principle, subject to due preliminaries, but met with no response. At a +later period, in a letter already published, after pointing to my own +evidence, I invited Mr. Morley's good offices, seeing that Mr. Pearson +Hill declined to reply to or even to open any letter from me, to +ascertain from Mr. Hill if he could produce any evidence, or anything +beyond mere assumption, to the effect that the adhesive postage stamp +was at any period an invention on the part of Sir Rowland Hill, but I +was equally unsuccessful in obtaining any reply, there being, in fact, +nothing beyond assumption in the matter. Nowhere does Sir Rowland Hill +directly profess that this stamp was his invention. + +My friends, both in and out of the press, who have been puzzled at the +silence of many of the London papers on this subject, will now be in a +position to form some conclusion as to the cause of this silence. What +has been sent to the Messrs. Black and to the Commissioners of City +Sewers, may have been sent to the London papers; indeed, I have been +given to understand has been generally circulated in these quarters, +already compromised in their expressed opinions, and so in no way +disposed to entertain fresh views.[20] My opponents, some of them in +high position, others themselves connected with the press, are desirous, +and naturally so, that public attention should not be drawn to my +statements.[21] In this way, crushed beneath the weight of a hitherto +great name, statements have been disregarded which, when read and +investigated as in the case of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," have been +found substantiated. + +I ask my supporters and others, therefore, to read and judge for +themselves. Whether the London papers, hitherto silent, seeing the +important recognition my claim has now met with, and the fresh and +conclusive evidence now disclosed from the papers of Sir Henry Cole, +will also now read and admit some discussion of this matter of public +interest in their columns, remains to be seen. In any case, an enduring +record of my father's share in the great postal reform of 1837-40 is +secured. A work of the highest standing, and a reference to which is the +first act of historical writers, has recorded James Chalmers as having +been the originator of that adhesive postage stamp which saved the +reformed scheme. Moreover, in lands beyond the sea, an interest is taken +in this subject wholly unknown here; individuals and learned societies +collect for their own information, and hand down for future perusal, +everything published on the great Penny Postage reform, and in some of +these quarters amazement is expressed at the single-hero-worship which +prevails in this country with respect to a subject which investigation +shows to have been the offspring of many minds, the result of the +labours of not a few zealous but unassuming men. + +The services of Sir Rowland Hill, already cordially recognised in my +pamphlets, it would be superfluous again to dwell upon here. And if, +while cordially pointing out these great services, it has also fallen +to my lot to put a fresh and less favourable aspect upon their nature +and extent than hitherto understood, to bring to light his great failing +of assuming or allowing to be assumed as conceptions of his own what +were only acquired ideas, of omitting to notice what it was not +convenient to notice, let it be remembered that such has been forced +upon me as a necessity solely in the pursuit of what is now declared to +have been a just claim. At one period, indeed, I had withdrawn from the +whole matter, until recalled to it by Mr. Pearson Hill himself in a +published statement to which I was challenged to reply. My replies, +under ever-increasing and conclusive evidence, have now been put +forward. Should the result not have proved such as the best friends of +Sir Rowland Hill could have desired, upon his own son, and not upon me, +rests the responsibility. It is enough for me that my father's memory as +the originator and inventor of the adhesive postage stamp has been +successfully vindicated. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[11] "Patrick Chalmers, Sir Rowland Hill, and James Chalmers, Inventor +of the Adhesive Stamp (London, 1882), _passim_." See also the same +writer's pamphlet, entitled "The Position of Sir Rowland Hill made plain +(1882)," and his "The Adhesive Stamp; a Fresh Chapter in the History of +Post-Office Reform (1881)." Compare Mr. Pearson Hill's tract, "A Paper +on Postage Stamps," in reply to Mr. Chalmers, reprinted from the +"Philatelic Record," of November, 1881. Mr. Hill has therein shown +conclusively the priority of _publication_ by Sir Rowland Hill. He has +also given proof of Mr. James Chalmers' express acknowledgment of that +priority. But he has not weakened the evidence of the priority of +_invention_ by Mr. Chalmers. + +[This admission on the part of Mr. Chalmers, obtained through an +obscuring and consequent misapprehension of the facts, was, of course, +wholly invalid. Even if valid, it will be seen at page 44 that such +priority of publication of an idea "suggested from without" was of no +practical consequence.--P.C.] + +[12] "Ninth Report of Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry, 1837," pp. +32, 33, reprinted in Sir R. Hill's "History of Penny Postage" ("Life," +&c., ii. 270). + +[13] [That Mr. Chalmers had not made an earlier offer of his stamp +_officially_ is accounted for by the proposals of 1834 with respect to a +penny postage on newspapers, in place of an impressed stamp of fourpence +on the sheet, having come to nothing.--P.C.] + +[14] _I.e._, by prohibiting the prepayment of letters in money. + +[15] "Ninth Report," as above. + +[16] Moreover, what Sir Rowland Hill does _not_ tell in his "History," +is that the compulsion to use a stamp in all cases was, in his _original +evidence_ in this Ninth Report, at once _withdrawn_, the permission to +pay the penny in cash being restored, so that the person "unable to +write" was at once relieved of all "difficulty," and no bit of gummed +paper required even in the exceptional case supposed. (See my former +pamphlet, page 56.) Keeping this fact in view, there is thus only a +passing "allusion" here in February, 1837, to the adhesive stamp, and +nothing more, not even a partial proposal to use it. This clause +restoring the permission to pay the penny in place of using any stamp, +is taken no notice of by Sir Rowland Hill "in reviewing the subject long +afterwards."--P.C. + +[17] "History of Penny Postage," as above. + +[18] _Ibid._ + +[19] Hill, _et supra_, p. 398. + +[20] In lately replying to Mr. Pearson Hill in the columns of the +_Whitehall Review_, I have put this query, which has not been denied, +"Will Mr. Pearson Hill undertake to say that he has not made a +communication, written or verbal, similar to the above letter to Messrs. +A. & C. Black to every editor in London, if not throughout a wider +sphere?" + +[21] One mode of stifling the subject has been to circulate the +impression that I am a person under the hallucination that "his father +invented the _Penny Postage scheme_," thus rendering my claim too +ludicrous to obtain attention. See, amongst others, the _Times_ and +_Daily News_ of 13th July, 1881. + + + + +VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE ADHESIVE STAMP. + + +"Why should we be called upon to pass this Penny Postage Bill," said the +opponents of that measure in August, 1839, "when no mortal being had at +that moment the remotest conception of how it was to be carried into +execution?" Mr. Rowland Hill's plan of the impressed stamp had not +satisfied the Committee. This plan, as amended by the Committee, had not +satisfied the Government. (See _ante_, page 13.) The paper makers and +stationers were in a state of protest and alarm. "This part of the +business must stand over," said the Government of the day, "How to carry +out the scheme will require much consideration." It was here that James +Chalmers, through Mr. Wallace, Chairman of the Committee, stepped +in--the adhesive stamp saved the scheme. _That_ was the value and +importance of his invention and proposal. It satisfied the paper trade; +"Let the stationer, not the Stamp Office," said Mr. Chalmers, "sell the +paper, the Post Office the stamp." He saved the scheme of Mr. Hill to +the country by relieving and setting agoing the clogged wheels of penny +postage--he supplied the engines to the much admired but immovable craft +and sent her speeding smoothly and swiftly upon her beneficent mission. + +No wonder Sir Rowland Hill determined that no name but his own should be +heard of in connection with the adhesive stamp, for of what use is a +scheme, however desirable, if you cannot carry it out in practice? This +is what he admits on the subject soon after the simultaneous +introduction of the Mulready envelope and the adhesive stamp--"The +public rejection of the former was so complete as to necessitate the +destruction of nearly all the vast number prepared for issue." On the +other hand--"Though the presses of the Stamp Office were producing more +than half a million of adhesive stamps by working both night and day, +they yet failed to meet the demand." Up to this day, after over forty +years of public service, and notwithstanding the improvements in the +production of impressed and embossed stamps, the adhesive stamp remains +indispensable to our postal, inland revenue, telegraphic, and +parcel-post systems--"Eighteen hundred millions are issued _yearly_ from +the office of the Controller of stamps. These range in value from a +halfpenny to twenty pounds, covering postage and inland revenue from a +halfpenny to two shillings and sixpence; postage proper from five +shillings to five pounds; inland revenue proper (such as foreign bills, +sea policy stamps, &c.) from one penny to ten pounds; and fees (such as +judicature, &c.), from one penny to twenty pounds. The penny stamp takes +the first place amongst the numbers issued. Of these, as many as +thirteen hundred millions and a half were despatched from Somerset House +in the course of a recent twelvemonth."[22] Twenty-five millions of +parcels are now annually conveyed by Parcel Post, a business only +practicable through prepayment by adhesive stamp. + +Thus, ever increasing in utility, thus indispensable to the carrying out +of all or any of these great public services, the value of James +Chalmers' invention and proposal--the importance of this "powerful +mechanism of the stamp"--may be best felt by the consideration that its +suspension, even for a day, would paralyse the entire commercial and +social system of the nation, it may be said "of the world" for in all +other lands, one after another, has the adhesive stamp become an +institution for similar purposes as in our own, and in corresponding +numbers. + +In this sense an eminent writer has lately stated, "Whoever discovered +the adhesive stamp, the discovery has socially revolutionised the +world." "Should my plan be adopted," was the prophetic saying of Mr. +Chalmers when he sent his plan to London and to Mr. Hill himself, long +before the Penny Postage Bill was even introduced into Parliament, +"should my adhesive stamp be adopted, the demand for these will in time +become so vast, that I am only puzzled to think where premises can be +found to get them up." Surely the man who rescued the Legislature from +such a complication as has been described, surely the originator of this +indispensable and ubiquitous adhesive stamp has done the State some +service. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] "Chambers' Journal," March, 1885. + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + +Objections have been raised, both in and out of the press, to the effect +that my claim comes "too late in the day." Such objection will, I +believe, be found effectually met in my preface and former pamphlets, to +the satisfaction of any impartial mind favouring me with a perusal. + +With those who decline to read my statements, amongst whom may be named +several writers of biography wrapt up in a blind worship of +pre-conceived ideas, nothing, of course, can be done. + +Others say, "Get an official recognition of your claim from the Post +Office, then we will recognise you." This, again, is taking matters in +the reverse order; if the Post Office is ever to recognise me, the +pressure must come from outside, as the Post Office, under its late +chief, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, simply declines to read or cause to be read for +its information anything I may lay before it, as "not being deemed +necessary." As I have nothing to ask from that quarter, having now +gained a recognition promising to be sufficient for my purpose, I have +no present intention of again troubling the Post Office on the subject. +The feeling of _esprit de corps_, if nothing else, will probably render +the Post Office the very last body to admit that any mistake by the late +Sir Rowland Hill has been made. + +But it may be said, "Did not the Post Office give Palmer, the organiser +of the mail-coach system, in addition to his pay of L3,000 a year, +L50,000?" And was not James Chalmers the successor in that line, sixty +years ago, of Palmer? Yes--but then Mr. Palmer was a man of business, +and had made his bargain with the Post Office _before_ he took the +mail-coach organisation in hand to be paid according to results; while, +after all, the L50,000 was only a compromise, obtained, moreover, only +after the repeated interference of Parliament. James Chalmers, +recognised by the leading Scottish press of the period, and by his +townsmen, never dreamt of asking a pecuniary reward. Again, was not the +Post Office in 1852 most liberal with Archer, the inventor of the +perforating machine--did they not give him L4,000 for the use of it? +Yes--but then Mr. Archer had taken out a patent for his invention, and +refused to sell the use of it for less, and it was not until after a +fruitless negotiation of five years, ending in a Parliamentary Committee +taking up the subject and insisting upon Mr. Archer being paid his +moderate demand, that the Post Office and the Treasury gave in, and but +for this Parliamentary pressure we might yet be cutting off our stamps +with a pair of scissors to this day. In the same way, then, it has been +asked, would not an infinitesimal royalty on the increasing millions of +adhesive stamps have long ago placed that originator, him and his, +amongst the wealthy of the land? Yes--but such was not the spirit in +which James Chalmers trafficked and trifled with the public interests. +What are his last words to Sir Rowland Hill on the subject? "The only +satisfaction I have had in this, as well as in former suggestions, all +original to me, is that these have been adopted, and have and are likely +to prove beneficial to the public." This was the spirit in which the +originator of the adhesive stamp ever tendered his services, public or +private--the satisfaction of finding them useful and accepted. In the +continued and ever-increasing utility of his stamp may be seen that +silent yet irresistible tribute of the nation to its originator which +James Chalmers would most have prized--only, let the hand which gave it +be rightly known and recognised. For a time powerful influences to +silence may prevail and popular delusion continue to hold its sway. But +at some future day, if not now--in other lands if not in this--will the +name of James Chalmers be yet recognised in connection with our constant +friend and companion, the adhesive stamp, and the great boon of Penny +Postage reform. + + + + +APPENDIX. + + +DUNDEE. + +So satisfied were the Dundee merchants of a past age as to the +originality and value of Mr. Chalmers' invention and happy suggestion +that, on the 1st January, 1846, a public Testimonial was presented to +him in the Town Hall of Dundee in recognition of same and of other +postal services. This Testimonial consisted of a silver jug and salver +and a purse of 50 sovereigns. Just before this period, Mr. Rowland Hill +had been presented by the merchants of the City of London with a cheque +for over L13,000, in recognition of what now turns out to have been +merely a borrowed scheme, and which scheme was only saved from untimely +collapse by the adoption of Mr. Chalmers' plan of the adhesive stamp. + +In the present generation, again, the Town Council of Dundee have +performed a graceful act to the memory of a deserving townsman, by +having passed at a meeting held on the 3rd March, 1883, the following +resolution:-- + +"That, having had under consideration the Pamphlet lately published on +the subject of the Adhesive Stamp, the Council are of opinion that it +has been conclusively shown that the late James Chalmers, bookseller, +Dundee, was the originator of this indispensable feature in the success +of the reformed Penny Postage Scheme, and that such be entered upon the +minutes." + +The above resolution of the Town Council is now, it will be seen, fully +confirmed by the able and learned writers of the "Encyclopaedia +Britannica," after an impartial investigation of the subject--a +confirmation having all the greater weight as reversing, upon evidence +which could not be resisted, previously recorded impressions. + +Dundee is now a large and wealthy community, returning two members to +Parliament; few centres of business have benefited more conspicuously +from the legislation of the past forty years, including as the +foundation of all mercantile intercourse that great postal reform which +James Chalmers saved from failure and made practicable. Two generations +have already recognised and given every credit to the services of their +townsman--what further notice Dundee may yet take of this matter of +national and historical interest originated in the locality, the "value +and importance" of which has elsewhere been inadequately described, +remains to be seen. + + +OPINIONS FROM THE PRESS. + +Having already published most of these in detail, to save space and +repetition it will be sufficient here to give a list or little more, of +the numerous Journals which have given me more or less support. + +Those to which I am more particularly indebted are:--In Scotland-- + +The "Dundee Advertiser," a consistent support during a past lengthened +period, including powerful leading articles and notices. + +The "Montrose Standard," several cordial and able articles of the +highest value, while the same is to be gratefully noticed of the other +Forfarshire papers. + +The "Brechin Advertiser," the "Forfar Herald," the "Arbroath Guide," the +"Montrose Review." + +The "North British Daily Mail," of Glasgow, in a leading article headed +"A Neglected Inventor," after stating the case, goes on to say: "It is +not creditable to the generosity of the Government of this country that +an important invention of this kind, which has conferred such a great +boon upon the public, should have remained so long unacknowledged and +unrewarded." This article has been extensively reproduced. + +The "Glasgow News" and the "Christian Leader," of Glasgow, cordial +articles. + +The "Paisley Herald," the same on several occasions. + +The "Aberdeen Free Press," a warm and able support. + +The "Blairgowrie Advertiser" has taken much interest and pains to +support me; also the "Perthshire Constitutional," the "Fifeshire +Journal," the "North British Advertiser," to all of which my best thanks +are due. + +In the Metropolis and neighbourhood, considering how short a period has +elapsed since the opinion has been almost unanimously expressed that the +reformed Penny Postage scheme was the "sole and undisputed invention of +Sir Rowland Hill," to whom has also been erroneously attributed the +invention and proposal as well as the ultimate adoption of the adhesive +stamp, fair progress has already been made in obtaining a recognition of +Mr. Chalmers' services. That greater progress has not been made may be +attributed to the powerful influences which have been at work to stifle +the whole subject, including an attempt on the part of Mr. Pearson Hill +to stop the publication of pamphlets. + +In the "Illustrated London News" Mr. G. A. Sala writes: "It seems +tolerably clear that Sir Rowland Hill was not the inventor, in the +strict sense of the term, either of the Penny Postage or of the Adhesive +Postage Stamp ... Anent the invention of the Adhesive Stamp, a pamphlet +has recently been published, but I have not yet had time to read it.... +Whoever discovered the Adhesive Stamp, the discovery has socially +revolutionised the world." According to this high authority, the +Adhesive Stamp was thus at least _not_ the invention of Sir Rowland +Hill. + +The "Whitehall Review" has given me consistent and most valuable +support; also the "Metropolitan," the "People," the "Home and Colonial +Mail." The "Machinery Market," of London and Darlington, a practical +monthly journal of high position, while retaining all its former +admiration for Sir Rowland Hill's services, decides, in a long and able +article, in favour of James Chalmers as respects the stamp. The +"Inventors' Record," in an article on "Disputed Inventions," supports +the same view. The pretensions brought forward on the part of Sir +Rowland Hill are declared to be wholly groundless, and the invention +accorded to James Chalmers. + +The "Croydon Review," a monthly, in a series of able articles, has +informed its readers candidly with respect to the untenable pretensions +of Sir Rowland Hill, both as respects the scheme and the stamp, +cordially ascribing the latter to James Chalmers. + +The "Surrey Independent" has ably supported me in several leading +articles. As far as conception went, "Sir Rowland Hill displayed a +remarkable facility for picking other people's brains." + +To the "Surrey Comet" and "Wimbledon Courier" my best thanks are due for +cordial notices and recognition; as also to the "West Middlesex +Advertiser," the "South Hampstead Advertiser," the "North Middlesex +Advertiser," the "Christian Union," the "Hornsey and Finsbury Park +Journal," the "American Bookseller," the "Acton and Chiswick Gazette," +"Figaro," "Vanity Fair," the "Kensington News," "Life," and others. + +From the Provincial Press, much valuable support has been given me:-- + +The "Oldham Chronicle" and "Rastrick Gazette" have written often and +ably on the subject, supported by such papers as the "Bradford +Observer," the "Western Daily Press," of Bristol, the "Bristol Gazette," +the "Norwich Argus," the "Brighton Herald," the "Brighton Argus," the +"Dover and County Chronicle," the "Colchester Chronicle," the "Stratford +and South Essex Advertiser," the "Essex Standard," the "Bradford Times," +the "Burnley Express," the "Barnsley Times," the "Wigan Observer," the +"Stockport Advertiser," the "Yorkshire Gazette," the "Westmoreland +Gazette," the "Wakefield and West Riding Herald," the "Frome Times," the +"Man of Ross," the "Totnes Times," the "Banner of Wales," the "West +Bromwich Free Press," the "Swinton and Pendlebury Times," the +"Accrington Gazette," the "Birkenhead News," the "Brighton Standard," +the "Hastings Observer," the "Newcastle Courant," the "Preston +Chronicle," the "Monmouthshire Beacon," the "Lydney Observer," the "West +of England Observer," the "Cardiff Free Press," the "Monmouthshire +Chronicle," the "Eskdale and Liddlesdale Advertiser," the "Irvine +Express," the "Surrey Advertiser," the "Printers' Register," the +"Newcastle Examiner," the "Malvern News," and others, with articles +sympathetically copied into the "Brighton Guardian," the "Aberdeen +Journal," the "Dundee Courier," the "Edinburgh Courant," the "Liverpool +Albion," the "Building and Engineering Times" of London," &c. + +The late Sir Thomas Nelson, Solicitor to the Corporation of the City of +London, writes:-- + + + "HAMPTON WICK, + _6th February, 1883_. + + "SIR, + + "I have read the pamphlet you sent me. Your statements are very + interesting. It is nothing uncommon for the man to whom the + idea first occurs to have it developed by others, who get the + credit of it. + + "Yours truly, + "(Signed) T. J. NELSON. + + "PATRICK CHALMERS, Esq. + Wimbledon." + + +If plagiarism is not uncommon it is none the less unfair to the original +inventor, nor the less to be deprecated, more especially where the +result has been to obtain unmerited "credit" heaped upon the wrong man +at the expense of the man to whom "the idea first occurred," and who +further, as is now more fully proved since Sir Thomas Nelson wrote, also +first urged its "development" to the very man who ultimately took all +the "credit" to himself. To plagiarism such as this a stronger term is +applicable. + +Sir Bartle Frere writes:-- + + + "WRESSIL LODGE, WIMBLEDON, + _21st April, 1883_. + + "SIR, + + "I have received your letter of the 20th, and thank you for its + enclosures on the subject of the invention of the adhesive + postage stamp. + + "I have long believed that Mr. James Chalmers was the inventor + of that important part of our present postal system, but I + regret that I cannot suggest to you any means of giving further + publicity to your father's claims to the merit of that most + useful invention. + + "I remain, SIR, + + "Yours truly, + (Signed) H. B. E. FRERE. + + "P. CHALMERS, Esq." + + +Sir Bartle Frere introduced the adhesive postage stamp into Scinde +during his administration of that province, having obtained his +knowledge and belief as to James Chalmers having been the originator of +same from independent sources thirty years before my own investigation +of the subject. + + * * * * * + +In some quarters this matter is ignored on the ground that the subject +of this pamphlet is not of sufficient importance or too late to call for +notice. To such I reply--"Then let the issue of the adhesive stamp (see +page 52) be discontinued." Should it be found that such cannot be done +without serious detriment to the public service, then surely to continue +to use a man's indispensable invention and proposal without so much as a +word of recognition, will, if adhered to, prove a course of proceeding +hard indeed to justify, as well as something wholly foreign to the +antecedents of British journalism. + + +EFFINGHAM WILSON, Printer, Royal Exchange, E.C. + + + + +-----------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the | + | original document have been preserved. | + | | + | Typographical errors corrected in the text: | + | | + | Page 56 imformation changed to information | + +-----------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Adhesive Postage Stamp, by Patrick Chalmers + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADHESIVE POSTAGE STAMP *** + +***** This file should be named 39569.txt or 39569.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/5/6/39569/ + +Produced by Barbara Kosker, Adrian Mastronardi, The +Philatelic Digital Library Project at http://www.tpdlp.net +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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