Mr. Wallace, the member for Greenock, was perhaps the first to turn Rowland Hill's attention in the direction of a serious campaign for postal reform, and Wallace succeeded in 1837 in getting a Committee "to inquire into the present rates and modes of charging postage, with a view to such a reduction thereof as may be made without injury to the revenue; and for this purpose, to examine especially into the mode recommended for charging and collecting postage in a pamphlet published by Mr. Rowland Hill." The Committee started its sessions in February, 1838, and it had the advantage of the reports of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, and the collection of much valuable material by a Mercantile Committee, of which Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Cole was secretary. [Illustration: ROUGH SKETCHES IN WATER-COLOURS SUBMITTED BY ROWLAND HILL TO THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER FOR THE FIRST POSTAGE STAMPS.] The proposals from this time on, till the issue of the stamps, were numerous. The Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry had printed samples of several suggested letter-sheets for use by the London District post, in their "Ninth Report, 1837." Mr. J. W. Parker, of the Cambridge Bible Warehouse, West Strand, London, printed a somewhat similar letter-sheet, with advertisement on the reverse, which was circulated with W. H. Ashurst's "Facts and Reasons in support of Mr. Rowland Hill's plan for a Universal Penny Postage,"[6] and Mr. James Chalmers of Dundee first communicated to the Mercantile Committee a proposal that stamped slips should be printed at the Stamp Office on prepared paper, furnished with adhesive matter on the back. These slips were to be sold to the public, and affixed by senders to their letters; and postmasters were to deface the stamps in the course of the post. He included two specimens; similar specimens were submitted by Chalmers to the Treasury in the same year. In 1839, the first uniform postage Act (2 and 3 Vict. c. 52) was passed, and the Lords of the Treasury, in preparing to give effect to the plan of Rowland Hill, extended an invitation to "artists, men of science and the public in general" to submit proposals in competition for prizes of £200 and £100, for the best and next best proposals. My Lords stated that in the course of the inquiries and discussions on the subject, several plans were suggested, _viz._, stamped covers, stamped paper, and stamps to be used separately, and "the points which the Board consider of the greatest importance are:-- "1. The convenience as regards the public use. "2. The security against forgery. "3. The facility of being checked and distinguished at the Post Office, which must of necessity be rapid. "4. The expense of the production and circulation of the stamps."