Wilberforce still continued to agitate the slave question, although not on the same lines as formerly. He changed his tactics, and, as the sense of the House, on a previous occasion, was in favour of gradually doing away with it, he introduced a Bill for abolishing that part of the slave trade which related to the supply of foreign plantations. Of course it met with opposition, Sir William Young moving that it be read a second time this day (26th February) six months, but it was carried in the Lower House, the numbers for the second reading being 56 against 38--majority, 18. The Bill, however, was thrown out in the Lords, owing to the opposition of Lord Grenville, who argued that such a Bill should not be introduced whilst the House was instituting inquiry into the whole question. And so, for a time, it dropped, perforce. Many amongst us seem to think that Sir Rowland Hill originated the penny post, but such is not the fact. That it was mainly through his instrumentality that letters could be sent to all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, at the uniform price of one penny, and that he did much to re-organise the vast establishment of the post-office, is beyond doubt; but the penny post existed long before that. There is a squabble between Dockwra and Murray as to which of them commenced it in 1683; at all events, the Government took it from Dockwra in 1690, and afterwards gave him a pension of £500 a year, and he was made Controller of the District Post; but he was finally discharged, on account of some charges of malversation, &c., brought against him. In 1711 an Act was passed abolishing the penny post, and on June 23rd of that year a proclamation was issued, putting it in force. But it was resuscitated, for we find, in the Parliamentary intelligence of the _Times_, 26th February, 1794: "House of Commons, 25th February. The House having gone into Committee, Mr. Long proposed some resolutions to be adopted as an improvement on the mode of carrying letters by the penny post. It was proposed that letters sent by the penny post should be carried six times every day, and that an additional duty of one penny should be paid to the King,--that is, as we understand it, that the person who receives the letter shall pay a penny in all cases, as well as he who sends it. Another resolution was, that the postage of letters in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey should be the same as in England." Pitt explained that the extra penny would, probably, only cover the extra cost involved in having six deliveries, and, after a short debate, the resolutions passed the Committee.