Life and Letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton
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CSfarncU Unttieraitg Hibrarg 3ltl)ata, S3em ^ark BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF HENRY W. SAGE 1891 Cornell University Library DA 565.H44P87 Life and letters of Sir John Hennil<er He 3 1924 028 316 358 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028316358 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON Bt BY HIS DAUGHTER MRS ADRIANJIDRTER WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS CB In my opinion the ivork of Sir John Henniker Heaton has done more to draw the Empire together than all the speeches of all the statesmen on both sides of the ocean. Earl CurzoD of Kedleston. 1912. LONDON JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVI w 1\A<\^3AG Printed in Great Britain iy TurnhuU&' Spears^ Edinburgh TO OUR DEAR MOTHER THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH THE \ ADMIRATION AND LOVE OF HER CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN FOREWORD BY THE RIGHT HONBLE. SIR GEORGE REID, P.C, G.C.M.G., HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR AUSTRALIA KNEW Sir John Henniker Heaton well in Australia, and since 1909 well in England. Per- haps the two leading attributes of his personality I —on the emotional side—were his intense public spirit and his unfailing geniality. Loving hands have written his life. As one of the inner circle of his friends, I can add a hearty endorsement of the filial tribute to his memory. I came to know him many years ago. Mr Samuel Bennett brought us together in Sydney. Mr Bennett was one of the best Englishmen I knew in Australia. By sheer force of character, backed up by a robust intellect, with little capital and no patronage, he established the fortune of two most successful news- papers in Sydney, one a daily and the other a weekly. What is more, Samuel Bennett was in the forefront of those public benefactors whose success, great as it was, was not greater than the fine impression it enabled him to make upon public opinion and Australian journalism. The fact that such a man " took to " the subject of this biography and gave him his important start in life, as well as his only daughter, who was the croiwning happiness of Sir John Henniker Heaton's life, in itself " speaks volumes " in favour of the man who afterwards became " the Member for Australia." vii viii SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON circles exer- I suppose no man outside ministerial " red cised a stronger or more useful influence upon tape" administration during the past thirty years than did this great Postal Reformer. In many ways the tremendous obstacles to human intercourse, which distance involves, have been lessened by modern invention and commercial enterprise. But for the labours of Sir John the splendid successes that have been slowly but surely won by that David of Reform over the GoUath of Post Office routine might have been indefinitely postponed. Sometimes such humanizing victories are dearly bought. Not so with a system of penny postages covering world- wide distances. Not so with the marvellous expansion of electrified messages between mind and mind and market and market, which means the creation of new worlds of intellectual as well as industrial progress. Those great achievements have been a source of wealth beyond " the dreams of avarice " in the case of private enterprise, and the fears of ruin which daunted the custodians of postal revenues have been converted into magnificent profits. The bodily presence of our friend has returned to dust, but his spirit may often look down gladly upon world-wide spheres which have been brightened by his devoted dauntless labours—labours that contain germs of even greater blessings in the years to come. grateful thanks are due to Earl Curzon, Lord Blyth, Lord Beresford, Sir George MYReid, Sir Charles Bruce, Mr Herbert Samuel, Mr Austen Chamberlain, Com- mendatore Marconi, Mr Wilfrid Meynell, Mr T. P. O'Connor, Colonel R. W. Renshaw, Mr William Heaton, Mr Harry Brittain, and Mrs Algernon Paget, for the help they have given me ; and to all those who have kindly allowed their letters to be published. My acknowledgments are also due to the Editors of The Times, The Nineteenth Century, The Daily Graphic, The Graphic, and to the Editor of The Leisure Hour, for permission to quote at length from an article in that Magazine, entitled "The Mother of Parliaments" (Chapter IL). The postal statistics and facts are taken in all cases from my father's publications and private notes. CONTENTS CRAP. I. A Brief Biography 3 II. As Member for Canterbury in the House 13 III. As Member for Canterbury in the Constituency 39 IV. As A Chess-Player . 51 V. As A Traveller, i. By Land 57 VI, As A Traveller. 2. By Water 70 VII. As A Host . , , . 103 VIII. At Home 117 IX, A Pen Portrait 126 X. A Chapter by T. P, O'Connor 131 XI. Among Friends 137 XII. Some Australian Memories 158 XIII. As A Postal Reformer 171 XIV, As A Postal Reformer {continued) 198 XV. The Fight for Penny Postage with Australia 215 XVI. PENNY-a-WoRD Telegrams . , , 222 xii SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON CHAP, PAGE XVII. An Ideal Post Office 232 XVIII. Recognition 240 XIX. Requiescat in Pace 248 Appendix 255 Index 283 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Sir John Henniker Heaton. Photogravure . Frontispiece TO FACE PAGE " Rose Lorraine." Lady Henniker Heaton . 8 H. H. (aged 36) when he first entered Parliament . 14 " " Cartoon by F. C. G., Different Points of View . 38 A Luncheon Party given by Sir Benjamin Stone in the House of Commons ...... 56 The Mulready Envelope ... ... 62 Envelope issued by Elihu Burritt advocating Ocean Penny Postage ....... 62 Facsimile Letter from Elihu Burritt ... 70 Commendatore Guglielmo. Marconi . .98 H. H. AND Marconi on Coronation Day, 1902, at the House of Commons 106 Lady Henniker Heaton . .116 In the Chair: H. H. at the Savage Club . -144 Letter from Mark Twain to H. H. acknowledging his Indebtedness for Money saved in Postage . 192 First Letter from America to England bearing a Penny Stamp 192 xiii xiv SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON TO FACE PAGE Old Letter fkom Australia bearing Sixpenny Stamp, 1886 216 First Aerial Letter posted in England, 1911 . 216 First Letter posted to Australia by H. H., bearing THE Penny Stamp, 1905 ...... 218 First Letter posted by the P.M.G. of Australia, The Hon. Josiah Thomas, bearing a Penny Stamp, 1911 218 The Martin Luther of the Post Office . 232 Facsimile Letter of the American Vice- and Deputy Consul at Karlsbad, dated 31ST August 1914 . 248 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF SIR JOHN HENNIKER HEATON CHAPTER I A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY MAN of Kent, John Henniker Heaton was born at Rochester, on the i8th of May, 1848. He was the only son of Lt. -Colonel A John Heaton, of Heaton, Lancashire, born 1810, who married. May 8th, 1841, Elizabeth Anne, daughter of John Henniker,^ of Rochester, and died 1856. The early years of John Henniker Heaton's life were spent in the old Cathedral city of Rochester, where his father was quartered. His happiest memories of boyhood were those of the long summer hours he spent bathing in the Medway and, after a swim, lying on the banks reading and re-reading his favourite books, " The Pathfinder " and " The Last of the Mohicans," and dreaming the long, long dreams of boyhood. He had an almost passionate love for books of adventure and sea voyage, a love intensified, perhaps, by the rigid discipline of his home, where day-dreams were forbidden, and unquestioning obedience enjoined as the chief virtue of childhood. 1 See " Hennikers of Senham," in Hasted's "History of Kent.' HEATON 4 SIR JOHN HENNIKER He was educated at Kent House School, an old double-fronted Georgian building of rather curious schoolboy, aspect, which is now a private house. As a the future Postal Reformer was remarkable chiefly for his gift of memorizing poetry and prose. At the age of ten he knew by heart the whole of Pope's " Essay on Man," and could recite page after page of Motley's "Rise of the Dutch RepubHc." The historic associations of old Rochester, the Cathedral, the Castle overlooking the great stretch of river, could hardly fail to arouse in a boy feeUngs of romance and adventure. At the age of sixteen, after pursuing his studies at King's College, " Adventure lit her stars " for him, and he was free to roam the world at his will. In those days Australia was looked upon as a kind of Promised Land for younger sons, and their impoverished elder brothers, and it was to Australia that John Heaton's eyes were eagerly turned. With a light heart and a still lighter pocket, he left England for the country of sunshine that was to be his adopted home for many years, and where after some vicissitudes he was to gain his first experience of the good fortune that followed him ever after. Those who knew him at that period speak of him as a tall, thin youth, with deep hollows showing beneath his high cheek bones, eyes large and kindling and an indescribable " some- thing " that marked him out. The first part of his life in Australia was spent in the bush, where he found employment on the great sheep stations. With no previous experience of agricultural life, he made all the blunders and mis- takes peculiar to young Englishmen fresh out from A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY 5 home.