The first was that the deliveries were too few and too slow; and the second, that all letters, whencesoever collected or whithersoever going, had, with some trifling exceptions, to be sent primarily to the central office in St. Martin’s-le-Grand. It will hardly be believed now that, by the combined effect of these two mal-arrangements, the time required for an interchange of letters within London itself was, on the average, little less than fifteen hours; while between London and Tottenham, the distance from the central office being under seven miles, and the road supplied with coaches passing to and fro at all hours of the day, the average was as high as nearly twenty-five hours. In the way of remedies, I proposed, first, that the rate, supposing the postage to be prepaid, should be reduced from twopence or threepence to one penny; secondly, that the deliveries should be made hourly; the necessary facilities to be afforded by the establishment of district offices, and the combining in one body the two sets of letter carriers then employed,—the one in delivering the local, or, as they were called, the twopenny post letters, the others those arriving from without the district, which were called general post letters. These several improvements, I scarcely need say, have now been effected, though after long delay, to be hereafter explained. Considering the comparatively small amount of reduction to be made on the district letters, leaving the postage, on the average, at nearly one-half of its existing rate, I did not estimate the consequent increase in number, even supposing all facilities to be afforded, at more than three-fold. I may observe, in passing, that it is now (1867) more than seven-fold. For further facility I suggested that improvement in the nomenclature of streets which is now in progress; and I may here mention that as the suggestion was fruitless at the time, I took occasion at a later period, when the bill to establish the Board of Works was in hand, to obtain the insertion of the clause giving the requisite powers. Having, previously to my examination, in a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, made the first mention of stamps, I repeated the suggestion here. I have already said whence the first notion was derived, and how far it extended; but as there has been some little public discussion on the matter, I extract from my evidence the passage relating to it:— “A few years ago, when the expediency of entirely abolishing the newspaper stamp, and allowing newspapers to pass through the Post Office for one penny each, was under consideration, it was suggested by Mr. Charles Knight, the publisher, that the postage on newspapers might be collected by selling stamped wrappers at one penny each.[129] Availing myself of this excellent suggestion, I propose the following arrangement: