Though the amount to be recommended as the uniform rate was of course a question for the consideration of the committee, yet, as my plan fixed it at one penny, most of the witnesses assumed this as the contemplated change, making it the basis of their estimates, and counting upon this low rate for turning into the regular channel of the post various communications then habitually made by other means—such, for instance, as small orders, letters of advice, remittances, policies of insurance, and letters enclosing patterns and samples, all of which were, for the most part, diverted into irregular channels by the excessive postage. Similar expectations were held out with respect to letters between country attorneys and their London agents, documents connected with magisterial and county jurisdiction, and with various local trusts and commissions for the management of sewers, harbours, and roads, and of schools and charities, together with notices of meetings and elections to be held by joint-stock and proprietary bodies.[231] The mere enumeration will surprise the reader of the present day, accustomed as he must be to send and receive all such communications by the post alone. Nor will it seem less strange to learn that at that time the post had little to do with the circulation of prices current, catalogues of sales, prospectuses, circulars, and other documents issued by public institutions for the promotion of religion, literature, science, public instruction, or philanthropic or charitable ends; all of which, so far as they could then be circulated at all, were obliged to find their way through channels more or less irregular.[232] The committee, however, “also took evidence as to the increase that was to be expected in the posted correspondence of the country from the adoption of a uniform rate of twopence;” but on this basis they found that much greater diversity of opinion prevailed. Some important witnesses, however, with Lord Ashburton at their head, “were, for the sake of protecting the revenue, favourable to a plan founded on a twopenny rate.”[233] While, however, Lord Ashburton thought the reduction to twopence, rather than to a penny, safer as regards the direct revenue of the Post Office, he was strong in his opinion that reduction of postage would act beneficially on the general revenue of the country, saying that there was “no item of revenue from the reduction of which he should anticipate more benefit than he would from the reduction of postage;” and adding that “if, under any plan of reduction, you did not find an improvement in the Post Office revenue, you would find considerable benefit in every other way.”[234]