HILL, Sir RowssaNn, It.C.B., post-office reformer, was b. at Kidderminster, Dee. 3, 1795. his father conducted a school near Birmingham, which was celebrated in con. nection with the "Hazelwood system of education" (afterwards removed to Bruce castle, Tottenham), and in which Hill was engaged as a teacher until the year 1883. He there joined an association which obtained an net for establishing the colony of South Australia, with the design of reducing to practice Mr. Gibbon Niraketield's scheme of colonization. Hill became secretary to the royal commissioners, who at first mai9,,red the affairs of South Australia. Ile was also a member of the committee of the society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. The high rate of postage had for many years engaged his attention, and in 1837 he published a pamphlet recommending a low and uniform rate of postage throughout the British isles. Petitions were-poured into the house of commons in favor of Hill's plan, and in 1837 the house appointed a conunitiee to investigate the merits of penny postage. In 1840 the principle of a uniform rate of postage was adopted, and an experimental charge of 4d. per letter was levied. This was shortly afterwards followed by, the present uniform penny-rate. Hill was placed in the treasury, an•was working out his measure when the Tory government succeeded to power, and dismissed him. A subscription was got up at once to reward a public benefactor, and mark the public sense of his dismissal, and the sum of £.15.000 was
presented to Hill. In 1846, when the whigs returned to office, Hill was appointed secretary to the postmaster-general. III 1854 lie succeeded col. Maberley as secretary to tile post-office, an appointment which he held till failing health compelled him to resign in 1864. His full salary of £2,000 a year was awarded him for life, end he also received a parliamentary grant of £20,000. Ile was made k.c.n. in 1860, and D.o.T.. (Oxon•in 1864 (see POST-OFFICE). The money-order office is one of the offshoots of penny postage; and parliament, in 1861, engrafted a system of post-office savings-banks upon the postal-service, which was carried out by Hill with his usual administrative ability and success.—His eldest brother, 31ArruEw HAvExem•r Hos, (died 1872), Ions, the recorder of Birmingham, distinguished himself by his labors for the education of the people, and the reformation of criminals. One of his brothers, 3Ir. Enwre Iltsis was the inspector of stamps at Somerset house; and another, Mr. FREDERIC HILL, was the first to propound and enforce those humane principles upon which modern prison discipline is founded; and his work, On Critic, is ik standard authority for legislators. He was assistant secretary to the post-offices,.
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