HILL, SIR ROWLAND English administrator and educationist, author of the penny postal system, a younger brother of Matthew Davenport Hill, and third son of T. W. Hill, who named him after Rowland Hill the preacher, was born on Dec. 3, at Kidderminster. At the age of 12 he began to teach mathematics at his father's school at Hilltop, Birmingham. At Rowland's suggestion the school was removed in 1819 to larger premises at Hazelwood, of which he was the architect, in order to carry out his improved system of education, expounded by him in Plans for the Government and Education of Boys in Large Num bers (18 2 2 ; end enl. ed., 1827). The system, whose principal fea ture was "to leave as much as possible all power in the hands of the boys themselves," was so successful that after six years it was announced that "the head master had never once exercised his right to veto on their proceedings." The experiment is described in Public Education (.82 2 ), by Matthew Davenport Hill. Row land Hill ranks with Arnold of Rugby, who was probably in fluenced by him, as an educationist, and was equally successful in making moral influence the predominant power in school discipline. After his marriage in 1827 Hill removed to a new school at Bruce Castle, Tottenham, which he conducted until compelled by failing health to retire in 18J3.
Hill then became interested in various inventions, and for the purpose of exploiting them was joined by Sir John Shaw-Lefevre, and Prof. Wheatstone, the inventor of the electric telegraph. Hill invented a successful rotary printing-press but the objections raised by the Treasury delayed the introduction of the method for another 35 years.
About this time (1835) he became secretary of Gibbon Wake field's scheme for colonizing South Australia, the objects of which he had explained in 1832 in a pamphlet on Home Colonies, after wards partly reprinted during the Irish famine under the title Home Colonies for Ireland.
In 1835 the large surplus in the revenue turned his attention to the possibility of using it to improve the existing postal system, which he had seen was a great burden to the poor. He had already in 1826 considered the possibility of a travelling post office, but had never published his scheme. He failed to obtain admission to the Post Office, but with the aid of a great mass of statistical in formation succeeded in demonstrating that the chief expense of letter carriage was in receiving and distribution, and that the cost varied so little with the distance that a uniform rate of postage was the fairest and most practical course. The principle is now so much a commonplace that it is not easy to realize how startling it was to Hill's contemporaries. He had observed that during the previous 20 years the postal revenue in England had diminished, instead of increasing, whereas in France where lower rates were in operation, it had increased considerably. He prophesied that the decrease in the postal rate would be made good by the increase of correspondence, and by the saving obtained from prepayment (at that time unusual), simplified accountancy, and smaller costs of distribution. He recommended within the United Kingdom a penny rate for letters not exceeding half an ounce in weight. He submitted his proposals privately to Lord Melbourne's govern ment in Jan. 1837, but as no result followed, soon afterwards published them in pamphlet form, under the title Post Re form: Its Importance and Practice. The employment of postage stamps is suggested in the following words, which have interest as the earliest definition of a postage stamp: "Perhaps the diffi culties 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 which by applying a little moisture might be attached to the back of the letter." On Nov. 23, 1837 the House of Commons ap pointed a committee to examine the subject, and on July 17, 1838 recommended, by the casting vote of the chairman, a uniform rate of twopence the half ounce. The government was opposed to the measure, but was eventually compelled to yield to public opinion, and penny postage was included in the budget and carried by the House of Commons on July 12, 1839. After an intermediate rate of f ourpence had been in operation from Dec. 5 that year, the penny rate commenced on Jan. Io, 1840.
Hill received an appointment in the Treasury to introduce his reforms, but was dismissed (1842) soon after the Liberal govern ment resigned office. By way of compensation for his losses, and in public appreciation of his services, he was in 1846 presented by public subscription, with the sum of £13,360. On the Liberals returning to office in the same year he was appointed secretary to the Postmaster General, and in 1854 he was made chief secretary. His ability as a practical administrator enabled him to improve his original scheme, taking advantage of increasing facilities of com munication. During the period 1838-64 the number of chargeable letters rose from seventy-six millions to six hundred and forty-two millions. On his retirement in 1864 he received from parliament a grant of L20,000 and was allowed to retain his salary of £2,000 a year as a retiring pension. He died at Hampstead on Aug. 27, 1879, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
See G. Birkbeck Hill, Life of Sir Rowland Hill (188o) .