Meanwhile in the mother country the Post-Office continued to be a source of revenue; but its natural capacities were impaired by a defective system, without an animating soul. It was merely a machine for carrying a few letters and putting money into the public treasury. Though still on a small scale, its processes were multifarious. The rates were constantly altered, and generally increased in amount, as also in number, in each of the three kingdoms, and without uniformity in either two. From two or three, in 1710, they rose in number until they reached the climax of absurdity and inconvenience in twelve different rates for England and Scotland in 1812, and thirteen for Ireland in 1814.[45] The impracticable system, with rates at once numerous and high, led to perpetual evasions, while the franking privilege was a charge without an equivalent. At last the day of revolution came. After careful inquiry the old system was swept away, and with it no less than one hundred and fifty Acts of Parliament by which it was incumbered.[46] The old was succeeded by the new, and the change was complete. No institution in history ever underwent at once a transformation so beneficent as that of the British Post-Office. Next after Benjamin Franklin, Rowland Hill will be enrolled as the most remarkable character in the history of the Post-Office. The son of a schoolmaster, of simple life, and without any connection with the postal service, he conceived the idea of radical reform. It is not too much to say that he became the inventor or author of cheap postage. More than all Franklin did for the Colonies Hill did for Great Britain. Call him inventor or author, there are few on either list more worthy of honor; and since what is done for one country becomes the common property of the world, he belongs to the world’s benefactors.