The Marquess of Hartington, the Postmaster-General, was unable to accept the motion because he thought such proposals, before being assented to by the House, should be thoroughly looked into to discover whether there was a reasonable probability that the loss of revenue would or would not be a permanent loss, and the Post Office should be given ample time to consider whether the additional duties which would be thrown upon it could be undertaken with due regard to other services, which were of greater importance than the transmission of circulars or newspapers. The influx of a largely increased number of circulars and newspapers would cause serious embarrassment in the practical working of the Post Office, and might impair the efficiency of the service in respect of letters. The primary business of the Post Office being the "rapid and punctual transmission of letters," such a result would give just cause for dissatisfaction. The Marquess of Hartington asked that the motion should not be pressed. The Chancellor of the Exchequer told the House that he had not got £300,000 to give away. Mr. Gladstone also emphasized the seriousness of the financial aspect of the proposals, and assured the House that the Government honestly intended to investigate the question, however much their suggestion for deferring a vote upon it might look like a pretext for evading it altogether. But when the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the previous question, the motion was lost by a large majority. A main contention of the advocates of the reduction of rate was that in many foreign countries--in France, in Belgium, in Switzerland, in the United States--extremely low rates of postage for newspapers were in operation, and what was possible in those countries ought to be possible in England. Following this vote in the House of Commons the matter was further considered at the Post Office, and in the next session an Act was passed providing that any newspaper conforming to certain conditions, the chief of which were that it should be issued at intervals of not more than seven days and should consist wholly or in great part of political or other news or of articles relating thereto or to other current topics, should be entitled to transmission by post at the rate of 1/2d. per copy irrespective of weight. The privilege of retransmission was withdrawn.[302]