Legislation
The Postage Act was passed on 17 August 1839 in which the Penny Postage system was passed. It gave the Treasury until October 1840 to introduce the system. Public reaction to the interim rate of 4d was unfavourable and they felt cheated that the agreed reduction to the uniform rate of 1d had not taken place. This resulted in the abolition of the Fourpenny Post and the debut of the Uniform Penny Post on 10 January 1840 when 1d was charged for pre-paid one ounce letters. This was followed by the issuance of labels to prepay postage in May 1840: the Penny Black and Two Penny Blue stamps.
Read more about this topic: Uniform Fourpenny Post
Famous quotes containing the word legislation:
“No legislation can suppress nature; all life rushes to reproduction; our procreative faculties are matured early, while passion is strong, and judgment and self-restraint weak. We cannot alter this, but we can alter what is conventional. We can refuse to brand an act of nature as a crime, and to impute to vice what is due to ignorance.”
—Tennessee Claflin (1846–1923)
“There were two unpleasant surprises [about Washington]. One was the inertia of Congress, the length of time it takes to get a complicated piece of legislation through ... and the other was the irresponsibility of the press.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“But the wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting; that the State must follow, and not lead the character and progress of the citizen; the strongest usurper is quickly got rid of; and they only who build on Ideas, build for eternity; and that the form of government which prevails, is the expression of what cultivation exists in the population which permits it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)