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."