One of these sources of fraud was the removal from old and useless parchment deeds of stamps, which were again stuck on to new skins of parchment. Thinking over this subject, it struck me that a stamp might be made which it would be impossible to transfer from one deed to another, and at the same time would be much more difficult to produce by the stamping press; while it would be impracticable to obtain from it a die that would be capable of reproducing the stamp.
This appeared to me to be a most important invention, and one that I conceived it would be impolitic for the Government to reject; I supposed that I should be handsomely rewarded if I brought it under the notice of the authorities. I felt the more certain of success because I was able to show that their ordinary receipt and bill stamps, as well as the blue paper adhesive stamps on parchment deeds, could be forged by any office-boy, who could make a die from a paper stamp for a few pence, wholly without talent or technical knowledge.
Thus confident of success, I set to work to make a die for parchment deeds on my new plan, for the time putting aside and neglecting everything else, for this grand project was to make my fortune at once. After providing myself with a suitable press and experimenting with different forms of cutting punches, I decided on a plan. Having worked for some months, making long days which not unfrequently extended to the early hours of the morning, the task was finished, and I prepared some specimens to take with me to Somerset House.
With the idea of showing that there was no escape from the adoption of my new plan, I thought it advisable to make a die from a genuine Government stamp. For this purpose, I obtained a dozen ordinary embossed bill stamps, and from one of them made a die, and stamped about as many impressions with it as I had real stamps. In order that I might be able to prove that these were forged ones, I stamped the impressions on a large sheet of paper, and then cut out a slip from it with a slightly indented edge, but otherwise of the same form and size as those I had purchased. I may mention that the Stamp Office presses were so constructed that they could not put a stamp in the middle of a large sheet of paper, and hence I was enabled to prove that these particular stamps, with their slightly-indented edges, did not emanate from the Stamp Office. I made up a small parcel containing six genuine stamps and six of those I had myself made, and also the sheets of paper from the centre of which they had been cut. With these I also enclosed a few impressions of my new parchment stamp. The old form of Government stamps is illustrated in Fig. 4, Plate III.,
while Fig.5 illustrates my perforated stamp.
Below is shown a system introduced a few years ago for cancelling cheques
and other documents.
Full of hope and high expectation, I started off one morning to call on
Sir Charles Presley, the then President of the Stamp Office. I had, up
to this moment, kept all my plans and what I was doing a profound
secret. The whole affair seemed to my overwrought imagination almost
like a skilful plot, such as we see depicted on the stage or read of in
a sensational novel; and I had, like the hero of the piece, only to
walk into Somerset House and accept unconditional surrender.
On my way to the scene of my intended conquest I passed up Farringdon
Street, and went into a fruiterer's shop at the corner of the New
Market to buy an orange. How vividly I still remember this trifling
incident in all its details. I ate my orange as I went jauntily up
Fleet Street, thinking of nothing but how I should introduce the
subject, what they would say, and how I should go through the ordeal I
had to face, on the results of which depended all my dearest earthly
hopes. Had I not in the silent hours of night, when I was pursuing my
experiments, and wearily working at these new dies, told myself
triumphantly: "A few more weeks will seal the fate of my whole life. If
I succeed in saving the Government so much revenue, they must
liberally reward me. I shall then establish myself in a new home, and
marry the young lady to whom I have for two years been engaged." I had
needed no stronger incentive to urge me onward as the lonely hours of
night found me engaged in the laborious work of making these dies. I
now felt that the task was over, and that I was well on the road to my
reward; but suddenly my day-dream came to an end, for just as I
approached Temple Bar I discovered that I was not in possession of my
parcel of stamps. I was staggered for a moment, and a cold perspiration
seemed to break out all over me. I felt faint and alarmed, for in a
second I began to fully realise the fact that I had actually been
possessed of forged stamps, and had left them on the counter of the
shop where I had bought the orange. The little paper parcel was not
sealed. What if curiosity had caused it to be looked into and handed
over to the police? It was but a momentary hesitation, for I knew well
that I was innocent of all intentional wrong, though perhaps not
technically so, and I hastened back with all speed to the fruiterer's
shop.
"Did you," I asked, "see a small parcel left here by me half an hour
ago?"
"Oh, yes, sir," was the reply. "I put it on the shelf, thinking you
would come back for it."
How gladly I once more grasped it, and felt that I was now safe, even
from a momentary suspicion. I own that I was a little crestfallen and
unnerved; but a sharp walk soon restored my confidence, and I entered
Somerset House with a firm step and full faith that I should succeed
in my mission. I was admitted into the private office of Sir Charles
Presley, and said that I desired him to tell me if a dozen receipt
stamps, which I handed him, were genuine. He looked at them attentively
with
a large magnifying glass, and laid two aside which he thought were not
genuine. As far as I can remember exactly what passed, I said there
were more forgeries among them, when he enquired, "How do you know
that?"
I answered: "Simply because I forged them myself."
I could not quite suppress a smile as I said this somewhat
triumphantly, and I distinctly remember his severe frown, as he said:
"Young man, you treat this subject with a great deal of levity."
I at once apologised, and assured him that my object was solely to
prevent all future forgery of stamps, and that I had ventured to test
his experienced eye in order that he might himself appreciate the full
danger to the State if my system were publicly known; unless, indeed,
some remedy could be suggested for the prevention of further forgery.
As my scheme was unfolded he gradually relaxed that severe expression
of countenance which plainly evinced that he felt annoyed at being
tricked by a youth in so bold a manner, and the importance he evidently
attached to my communication was manifested by his request that I
would call again in a few days.
I may here briefly state that one of the plans I brought before the
Stamp Office authorities was adopted by them, and has been to this day
employed as a security against forgery on every stamp issued by the
Stamp Office during the last half century; but I was nevertheless
pushed from pillar to post, and denied all remuneration for the
important services I had rendered. I was too busy making my way in life
at this period to press any legal claims on the Government. I had no
friend at Court, and had to bear this shameful treatment as best I
could; and so, this matter of the stamps sunk gradually into oblivion
until the year 1878, when my angry feelings against the Government were
again excited by their refusal to allow me to accept the Grand Cross of
the Legion of Honour, which the French Government desired to present me
with, provided that the British Government would permit me to wear it.
The failure of all attempts to get this permission aroused my just
indignation, and I, as so many aggrieved persons have done before me,
and doubtless will do again, wrote a letter to The Times. As this
letter has played a not-unimportant part in my life's history, I think
it desirable to insert it in this place, although it is not in the
chronological order of events.
I may, however, say that I no sooner saw this letter in print than it
occurred to me that an ex parte statement of so grave a character
against the Government in general, and some of its officials in
particular, demanded at my hands some documentary or other proof of
the truth of the statements thus publicly made, and that I ought to lay
the whole matter before the Government of the day in justice to myself!
With this object I determined to address myself to our then Prime
Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, and also to furnish printed copies of
this communication to each of the other Ministers of State. The
following is a verbatim copy of a portion of these communications, as
well as of my letter to The Times:--
MY LORD,
Under a feeling of some imitation, excited by recent events in
connection with the Paris Exhibition, I felt impelled to relieve my
mind of a long-suppressed grievance which my excessive dislike to
controversy has hitherto prevented me from making public.
Under these circumstances I addressed a letter to The Times on the
"Reward of Invention," which was published in that journal on the 1st
November, 1878, a verbatim copy of which is embodied in this
communication, and, as you will see, brings a very grave charge against
some of the executive of a former Government; and, after perusing it in
print, I saw at once that it was due to my own honour, and but fair to
the Government, that I should bring forward some evidence in
corroboration of the serious allegations therein contained, the more
so as the public press have warmly espoused my cause, and commented in
not very measured terms on the treatment I had received at the hands of
the Government of that day.
No sooner, however, did the desirability of such corroborative evidence
present itself to my mind than I took the necessary measures to acquire
it; and notwithstanding the length of time that has elapsed since these
events took place, I have succeeded in obtaining the most unimpeachable
testimony in support of the charge brought by me against the British
Stamp Office; but prior to bringing these proofs before the public, I
have deemed it a duty which I owe, alike to myself and to the State, to
bring the whole subject under the individual attention of each one of
Her Majesty's present Cabinet Ministers; hence I have forwarded a copy
of this letter separately addressed to each of them.
As far as my experience of the great commercial transactions of this
country extends, I have found that in every instance where a firm takes
in a new partner, and in every change of the directors of a railway,
who have been elected to administer these great establishments have
ever held inviolate the engagements
of those whose position they have been called upon to occupy; nor can I
for one moment doubt but that Her Majesty's Ministers will feel
themselves equally bound in honour, if not to carry out the letter of
the engagements entered into with me by their predecessors, at least
to make such reparation and acknowledgment of my services to the State
as will be both satisfactory to me and honourable to themselves, for I
cannot believe it possible that my just claims will be repudiated by
the British Government, and that its present Ministers will plead the
Statute of Limitations as a sufficient bar to them; for this, after
all, would be but to reduce it to a simple debt of honour, a form of
obligation which it has ever been the pride of Englishmen to regard as
their most sacred bond; and you will, I hope, pardon me when I confess
that I cannot but coincide in the opinion so pithily expressed at the
close of a leader in an influential journal,*[1]
viz., that "The Rulers of
the State at the present day must be held to have inherited the
responsibility of rendering to Mr. Bessemer the reward of the services
by which they and the country have so largely profited."
In order that you may fully understand and appreciate the value of the
evidence which I have the honour to lay before you, I must beg the
favour of your perusal of my letter on the "Reward of Invention," in
which you will find a detailed account of my transactions with the
Stamp Office, and on which my present claims are based. The following
is a verbatim copy of that letter:--
SIR,
The letter which you favoured me by publishing last week in relation to
the refusal of our Government to allow the Grand Cross to be accepted
by our countrymen, has elicited many kindly and sympathising
expressions from private correspondents; but to the mind of one
gentleman I appear to have written "with some bitterness." Now, I may
plead guilty to such feeling whenever my memory is driven back by force
of circumstances to a period when the Government of this country
inflicted on me a great and grievous injustice in exchange for a great
and permanent benefit conferred by me on the State.
Perhaps nothing would tend so much to dispel this morbid feeling as a
brief recital of the circumstances to which I refer.
The facts are briefly these:-- At the age of seventeen, I came to
London from a small country village, knowing no one, and myself
unknown, a mere cypher in this vast sea of human enterprise. My
studious habits and love of invention soon gained for me a footing, and
at twenty I found myself pursuing a mode I had invented of taking
copies from antique and modem basso-relievos in a manner that enabled
me to stamp them on cardboard, thus producing thousands of embossed
copies of the highest works of art at a small cost. The facility with
which I could make a permanent die, even from a thin paper original,
capable of producing a thousand copies, would have opened a wide door
to successful fraud if my process had been known to unscrupulous
persons; for there is not a Government stamp or the paper seal of any
corporate body that every common office-clerk could not forge in a few
minutes at the office of his employer or at his own home. The
production of a die from a common paper stamp is the work of only ten
minutes; the materials cost less than a penny. No sort of technical
skill is necessary, and a common copying-press or letter-stamp yields
most successful copies. There is no need for the would-be forger to
associate himself
with a skilful die-sinker capable of making a good imitation in steel
of the original, for the merest tyro could make an absolute copy on the
first attempt. The public knowledge of such a means of forging would,
at that time, have shattered the whole system of the British Stamp
Office, had I been so incautious as to allow a knowledge of my method
to escape. The secret has, however, been carefully guarded to this day.
No sooner, however, had this fact dawned on me than I began to consider
if some new sort of stamp could be devised to prevent so serious a
mischief. During the time I was engaged in studying this question, I
was informed that the Government were themselves cognisant of the fact
that they were losers to a great amount annually by the transfer of
stamps from old and useless deeds to new skins of parchment, thus
making the stamps do duty a second or third time, to the serious loss
of the Revenue. At a later date, this fact was confirmed by Sir
Charles Presley, of the Stamp Office, who told me that he believed they
were defrauded in this way to the extent of probably £100,000 per
annum. To fully appreciate the importance of this fact, and realise the
facility afforded for this species of fraud by the system then in use,
it must be understood that the ordinary impressed or embossed stamp,
such as is employed on all bills of exchange, if impressed directly on
a skin of parchment, would be entirely obliterated if the deed be
exposed for a few months to a damp atmosphere. The deed would thus
appear as if unstamped, and therefore invalid. To prevent this, it has
been the practice as far back as the reign of Queen Anne, to gum a
small piece of blue paper on to the parchment; and to render it still
more secure a strip of metal foil is passed through it, and another
piece of paper with the printed initials of the Sovereign is gummed
over the loose ends of the foil at the back. The stamp is then
impressed on the blue paper, which, unlike parchment, is incapable of
losing the impression by exposure to a damp atmosphere. But,
practically, it has been found that a little piece of moistened
blotting-paper applied for a whole night so softens the gum that the
two pieces of paper and the slip of foil can be removed from the old
deed most easily and applied to a new skin of parchment, and thus be
made to do duty a second or third time. Thus the expensive stamps on
thousands of old deeds of partnership, leases and other documents,
when no longer of value, offered a rich harvest to those who were
dishonest enough to use them.
With a knowledge of these facts I was enabled to fully appreciate the
importance of any system of stamps that would effectually prevent so
great a loss to the Government; nor did I for one moment doubt but that
Government would amply reward me if I were successful in so doing.
After some months of study and experiment -- which I cheerfully
undertook, although it interfered considerably with the pursuit of my
regular business, inasmuch as it was necessary to carry on the
experiments with the strictest secrecy, and to do all the work myself
during the night after my people had left work -- at last I succeeded
in making a stamp that satisfied all the necessary conditions. It was
impossible to remove it from one deed and transfer it to another. No
amount of damp, or even saturation with water, could obliterate it, and
it was impossible to take any impression from it capable of producing a
duplicate.
I knew nothing of patents or patent law in those days, and if I had for
a moment thought it necessary to make any preliminary conditions with
Government, I should have at once scouted the idea as one utterly
unworthy. Dealing direct with Government, I argued, must render my
interest absolutely secure; and in this full confidence, I wended my
way one fine morning to Somerset House, and was ushered into the
presence of the chief, Sir Charles Presley. I explained the object of
my call, and showed him numerous proofs in my possession: how easily
all his stamps could be forged, and also my mode of prevention. He was
greatly astonished at what I had communicated and shown to him, and
asked me to call again in
a few days, which I did, and after further conversation on the subject
he suggested that I should work out the principle of my invention more
fully. This I was only too anxious to do; and some five or six weeks
later, I called on him again with a newly-designed stamp, which
greatly pleased him. The design was circular, about 2 1/2 inches in
diameter, and consisted of the garter, with the motto in capital
letters surrounded by a crown. Within the Garter was a shield, with the
words "Five Pounds." The space between the shield and the Garter was
filled with network in imitation of lace.*[2]
The die had been executed in
steel, which had pierced the parchment with more than four hundred
holes, each one of the necessary form to produce its special portion of
the design. Since that period, perforated paper has been largely
employed for valentines and other ornamental purposes, but was
previously unknown. It was at once obvious that the transfer of such a
stamp was impossible. It was equally clear that mere dampness could
not obliterate it; nor was it possible to take any impression from it
capable of perforating another skin of parchment.
The design gave great satisfaction, and everything went on smoothly;
Sir Charles again consulted Lord Althorp, and the Stamp Office
authorities determined to adopt it. I was then asked if, instead of
receiving a sum of money from the Treasury, I should be satisfied with
the position of Superintendent of Stamps, at some £600 or £800 per
annum. This was all I could desire, and great was my rejoicing at the
prospect before me, for I was at that time engaged to be married, and
my future position in life seemed now assured. A few days after
affairs had assumed this satisfactory position, I called on the young
lady to whom I was engaged (now Mrs. Bessemer), and showed her the
pretty piece of network which constituted my new parchment stamp. I
explained to her how it could never be removed from the parchment and
used again, mentioning the fact that old deeds with stamps on them
dated as far back as the reign of Queen Anne could be fraudulently
used, when she at once said, "Yes, I understand this; but surely, if
all the stamps had a date put on them they could not at a future time
be used again without detection?" This was, indeed, a new light, and I
confess greatly startled me, but I at once said the steel dies used for
this purpose can have but one date engraved upon them. But after a
little consideration I saw that moveable dates were by no means
impossible; and shortly afterwards it came into my mind that this could
easily be effected by drilling three holes of about a quarter of an
inch in diameter in the steel die, and fitting into each of these
openings a steel plug or type with sunk figures engraved on their ends,
giving on one the day of the month, on the next the month of the year,
and on the third circular steel type the last two figures of the year.
I saw clearly that this plan would be most simple and efficient, would
take less time and money to inaugurate than the elaborate plan I had
devised; but I must confess that while I felt pleased and proud at the
clever and simple suggestion of the young lady, I saw also that all my
more elaborate system of piercing dies, the result of months of study,
and the toil of many a weary and lonely night, was shattered to pieces
by it, and I more than half feared to disturb the decision that Sir
Charles Presley had come to as to the adoption of my perforated stamp;
but with my strong conviction of the advantages of my new plan I felt
in honour bound not to suppress it, whatever might be the result. Thus
it was that I soon found myself again closeted with Sir Charles at
Somerset House, discussing the new scheme, which he much preferred,
because he said all the old dies, old presses, and old workmen could be
employed, and there would be but little change in the Office; so
little, in fact, that no new Superintendent of Stamps was required,
which the then unknown art of making and using piercing dies would have
rendered absolutely necessary. After due consideration my first
plan was definitely abandoned by the Office in favour of the dated
stamps, with which everyone is now familiar. In six or eight weeks from
this time, an Act of Parliament was passed calling in the private stock
of stamps dispersed throughout the country, and authorising the issue of
the new dated ones.
Thus was inaugurated a system that has been in operation some
forty-five years,*[3]
successfully preventing that source of fraud from
which the Revenue had so severely suffered. If anything like Sir
Charles Presley's estimate of £100,000 per annum was correct, this
saving must now amount to some millions sterling; but whatever the
varying amount might have been, it is certain that so important and
long-established a system as that in use at the Stamp Office would
never have been voluntarily broken up by its own officials except
under the strongest conviction that their losses were very great, and
that the new order of things would prove an effectual barrier to future
fraud.
During all the bustle of this great change, no steps had been taken to
instal me in the office. Lord Althorp had resigned., and no one seemed
to have any authority to do anything for me; all sorts of half promises
and excuses followed each other with long delays between, and I
gradually saw the whole thing sliding out of my grasp. Instead of
holding fast to my first plan, which they could not have executed
without my aid and the special knowledge I had acquired, I had in all
the trustfulness of youthful inexperience shown them another so simple
that they could put it in operation without any assistance from me. I
had no patent to fall back upon. I could not go to law, even if I
wished to do so, for I was reminded when pressing for mere money out of
pocket, that I had done all the work voluntarily and of my own accord.
Wearied and disgusted, I at last ceased to waste time in calling at the
Stamp Office, for time was precious to me in those days, and I felt
that nothing but increased exertions could make up for the loss of
some nine months of toil and expenditure. Thus, sad and dispirited, and
with a burning sense of injustice overpowering all other feelings, I
went my way from the Stamp Office, too proud to ask as a favour that
which was indubitably my just right; and up to this hour I have never
received one shilling or any kind of acknowledgement from the British
Government. Such has been my reward.
I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, (Signed) HENRY BESSEMER.
Denmark Hill, 29th October, 1878.
In all the early stages of the development of my invention for piercing
designs on parchment, I had depended entirely on my own hands; but when
I was desired by the Stamp Office authorities to show how I proposed
practically to carry out the invention, I designed the form of stamp
described in my letter to The Times, and which is faithfully
represented by an impression on the fly-leaf at the commencement of
this letter; the execution of the somewhat elaborate design in steel,
represented by this impression, was entrusted by me to Messrs. Porter
and Son, die-sinkers of some eminence, at that time carrying on
business in Percival Street, Clerkenwell, and whom I had frequently
before employed to re-touch the cast-metal dies used by me for stamping
works of art in relief on cardboard.
Now, in order to obtain positive evidence in corroboration of my letter
to The Times of November 1st, it was of paramount importance that I
should find Mr. Porter, if still
alive; I had strong hopes of doing so, as I had both seen and conversed
with him twice within the last eight or ten years, but had no knowledge
of his present residence; failing to obtain this information, I
resorted to an advertisement in the second column of The Times, on
November 6th and six following days, which happily resulted in Mr.
Porter communicating with me. He knew me well as an old customer of his
firm, and reminded me of some of the more important dies re-touched by
him; in consequence of the extremely novel character of the piercing
die referred to, and the unusually difficult and laborious nature of
the work, consequent on the extreme depth of the engraving, it had been
fully impressed on his memory, and he was enabled at once to recognise
the impression given on the fly-leaf of this letter as a faithful
(though somewhat less artistically finished) copy of the piercing die
executed by his firm for me in 1833.*[4]
In order to secure permanently this important evidence, Mr. Porter
made, at my request, a statutory declaration to that effect, his
identity being witnessed by a gentleman of position who had known him
intimately for the last thirty-five years. A verbatim copy of this
declaration is appended hereto.
The advertisement referred to induced many persons to whom I was known
to tender such information as they might happen to possess in reference
to Mr. Porter; one of these letters was from a Mr. Richard Cull, a
gentleman with whom I became personally and intimately acquainted soon
after my first arrival in London, about the year 1831. Being a man of
taste and superior education, he took great interest in my invention
for cheaply reproducing works of art in bas-relief, and during our
intimacy of that period he proposed to join me as partner in the
commercial carrying-out of my invention, but this proposition was never
carried into effect.
Many years had elapsed since I had seen Mr. Cull, during which time he
had risen to the highest eminence as a philologist and a prominent
member of the Society of Antiquarians. Most fortunately, he had
happened to see my advertisement for Mr. Porter in The Times, and
having been acquainted in early life with Mr. Porter and his family, he
at once wrote to me on the subject; he had also seen my letter in The
Times on the "Reward of Invention," and it is to that circumstance, no
doubt, that I owe the closing remarks of his letter, of which the
following is a verbatim copy, omitting only some irrelevant family
matters relative to Mr. Porter:--
12, Tavistock Street, Bedford Square, November 9th, 1878.
DEAR MR. BESSEMER,
It is some time since we met, but seeing your advertisement for Mr.
Porter, the die-sinker, I determined to write to inform you what I can
on the subject. He was a very good artist, but he failed in business
and took a situation in the City; I knew him very well, and his family,
including his father, mother, and sister. . . . . I think he must now
be dead, as I have not met him for fourteen or fifteen years, and he
never said where he lived after leaving Percival Street.
I remember SEVERAL CONVERSATIONS with you concerning Sir C. Presley and
your invention, AT THE TIME OF YOUR INTERVIEWS WITH HIM. I Well remember the
unfavourable opinions I formed of that official.
I am, Yours very truly, (Signed) R. CULL.
This letter from a gentleman I had for so many years lost sight of was
a most unexpected and spontaneous confirmation of the fact that I was
at the time mentioned in constant communication with Sir Charles
Presley on the subject of my newly-invented stamps, and also that our
conversations at the time had impressed Mr. Cull with "an unfavourable
opinion of that official." I have no doubt but that in our frequent and
friendly intercourse I had complained loudly of the constant evasions
with which my claims were met at the Stamp Office, which must have
given rise to this unfavourable impression in the mind of my friend,
and which, it appears, was strongly enough imprinted to survive for so
many years, although the precise reasons for it are no longer
distinctly remembered. At my suggestion, Mr. Cull unhesitatingly made a
statutory declaration on the 15th of November embodying these facts, a
verbatim copy of which is appended.
In my letter on the "Reward of Invention," I stated that I was twenty
years of age when my experiments for the prevention of forgery were
commenced. Now, I was born on the 19th, January, 1813, hence I had
arrived at twenty years of age in January, 1833. I have also stated
that after some months of study and experiment, I succeeded in
producing a stamp which satisfied all the necessary conditions; then
follow the intervals between my several interviews with Sir Charles
Presley, and also the five or six weeks occupied by Mr. Porter in
engraving the die, which was accepted by the Stamp Office authorities;
and then came the application to Parliament for an Act to empower the
Commissioners of Stamps to call in all the old stamps and issue new
ones in lieu of them. This Act of Parliament, if I correctly
understood Sir Charles Presley, was hurried through the House in six or
eight weeks; it was, in fact, as I now find, passed on August 29th,
1833, or just seven months and ten days after I was twenty years of
age; thus, proving how accurate I was in my statement of the period
when these transactions took place, and which family matters had
impressed indelibly on the memory.
I mentioned also in my letter to The Times that an Act of Parliament
was passed calling in all stocks of stamps dispersed throughout the
country, and authorising the issue of the new dated ones. I did not
know of my own knowledge that such an Act had been passed, but I
perfectly well remember being told so by Sir Charles Presley, because
it was an absolute assurance to me that my plans would be adopted; but
I relied solely on Sir Charles Presley's statement to that effect.
Hence, when it occurred to me that this Act of Parliament would form a
most important link in the chain of evidence I desired to establish, I
must confess to some trepidation lest Sir Charles had misinformed me,
or had spoken only of an Act in the course of passing through
Parliament, but which might have been thrown out and never passed at
all; thus, when I applied to my solicitor to obtain, if possible, a
copy of the Act in question, I was greatly pleased to find that not
only was the statement of Sir Charles Presley (repeated by me in The
Times) confirmed, but I found that this Act of Parliament*[5]
in its preamble admitted the fact that "the laws heretofore enacted,
and now in force in Great Britain, have been FOUND
INSUFFICIENT TO PREVENT THE SELLING AND UTTERING OF FORGED STAMPS ON
VELLUM, PARCHMENT, AND PAPER.
Powers are given under the different sections of this Act to BUY UP AND
DESTROY ALL STAMPS AND STAMPED PARCHMENTS then in possession of all
vendors of stamps throughout the country. Full powers are also given to
the Commissioners to DISCONTINUE the use of ALL DIES HERETOFORE USED in
the Stamp Office, and authorising the employment of ANY NEW DIE OR
DIES, With such DEVICE OR DEVICES as the Commissioners MAY THINK FIT.
The Act also declares that after three months from that date all stamps
previously issued, or any deeds stamped therewith, shall be deemed to
be illegal.
Then follows a most stringent clause (Section 12), making it felony
punishable by TRANSPORTATION FOR LIFE BEYOND SEAS, for any person to
JOIN, FIX, OR PLACE UPON any vellum parchment or paper, any stamp, mark or
impression, which shall have been CUT, TORN, OR GOTTEN OFF, OR REMOVED
from any Vellum, parchment or paper, etc.
The object of this last clause is clearly to add, by the terrors of a
most sweeping and stringent penal law, to the security which the new
stamp was calculated to afford against the heavy losses which the
Government had for so many years sustained by the transfer of stamps
from one deed to another; and bears evidence, as
indeed does the whole document, of the perfect state of panic into
which the Stamp Office was thrown when they fully realised the extreme
facility which my method of making composition dies from any paper
impressions afforded for successfully forging every description of
embossed stamp.
It is almost impossible to realise the spectacle afforded by one of the
most conservative of all the institutions of the State -- one which has
stood its ground for generations -- suddenly and without the smallest
reserve flinging over every tradition of the past, repudiating all its
former issues, and buying back again from the public all the stamps it
could lay hands upon, for no better purpose than their destruction, and
proclaiming by advertisement that their use, if not brought back, would
be illegal; thus suddenly waking up, as it were, from a long period of
fancied security, and seeking in hot haste powers from the legislature
to protect them by the most severe of all penal laws next to that of
death, and asking at the same time full powers to search all domiciles,
shops, warehouses or places, under the mere suspicion that forged
stamps may be concealed there, and to seize all stamps suspected of
being forged; thus showing a not unnatural dread lest the secret of my
method of reproducing embossed impressions might become known, and
result in flooding the country with spurious stamps.
Thus does it sometimes happen that the stern realities of life overstep
the boldest flights of imagination. Who in his wildest dreams could
have supposed that one of the oldest departments of the State would be
thrown into utter confusion, requiring immediate legislative action
for its security; that the loss of vast sums annually to the Revenue
would be prevented, and that a great temptation and incentive to crime
would find a perfect remedy at the hands of a mere boy and girl? Such
things are of themselves strange enough, but it is still more
extraordinary that the Government of a country which prides itself more
than any other in the civilised world on its simple justice and
inviolable honour should have received so great a boon at the hands of
a youth who was struggling hard to create for himself a position in
the world, and who, in the fulness of his unbounded faith in their
honour and integrity, placed unreservedly in their hands the power of
doing all this, without
retaining the smallest check on them for his own protection; and who up
to this hour has never received one iota of the remuneration held out
to him as an inducement to persevere with his invention, or even one
word of thanks acknowledgment of the great and lasting benefits he has
conferred upon the State.
Such, then, are the circumstances under which I now come forward to
vindicate my honour, by proving the truth of the statements publicly
made through The Times; and to claim, at the hands of Her Majesty's
present Ministers, such payment or acknowledgment
of my past services as may be consistent with the honour and dignity
of the State, and at the same time acceptable to myself.
I scarcely need say that I shall at any time be happy to give
personally any further facts or explanations that may be desired in
relation to this matter; and I may further add that Mrs. Bessemer as
well as myself, has a perfect remembrance of the circumstances
connected with her suggestions of the dating on stamps, and which has
for more than half a generation been a sort of tradition in the family,
perfectly well known and fully understood by more than a dozen of its
members.
I have mentioned all these facts most unreservedly, that you might be
in a position to judge if I have not had substantial grounds for
dissatisfaction with the administrators of former Governments.
But the one and only claim I now make has reference to the engagements
entered into with me by the Stamp Office, and in this case I merely ask
that a simple act of common justice may be done, such as in private
life the law would compel, and individual character would render
imperative; nor do I doubt for one moment that Her Majesty's present
Ministers, who have so nobly maintained untarnished the honour of the
British nation in every part of the world, will (now they are aware of
the fact) most gladly blot out from the page of history the deep stain
on the nation's honour which has been so long recorded in the annals of
the British Stamp Office.
In conclusion, allow me to apologise for the length to which I have
extended this letter, and to offer you my most grateful thanks for your
kind perusal of it; and further allow me the honour to subscribe myself
Your most obedient, humble Servant, (Signed) HENRY BESSEMER.
I need not say how anxious I was to receive a reply from Lord
Beaconsfield to this rather bold assertion of my claims on the
Government, but I felt well assured that every enquiry among the still
existing officials at Somerset House could not fail in establishing
the justice of my demands. These printed letters to Her Majesty's
Cabinet, Ministers were posted on May 5th, 1879, and were most
courteously acknowledged, and resulted in an investigation being
instituted. On May 29th, I was honoured by an autograph reply from Lord
Beaconsfield, of which a photographic copy is here given (Fig. 6, Plate
IV.);
and which clearly shows that both he and his colleagues were not
only satisfied of the
truth of the charges I had made, but were honourable enough to offer
such compensation as they had in their power to bestow, and which I
cordially accepted as a full acknowledgment of the services rendered.
The form taken was the more satisfactory to me, inasmuch as it was a
reward in which Mrs. Bessemer would take an equal share with myself, as
she had already done in the invention which had been of such signal
service to the State.
On the 21st June I received an intimation from the Right Honourable
R.A. Cross that Her Most Gracious Majesty had been pleased to signify
her intention of conferring on me the honour of Knighthood, after the
Council which would be held at Windsor Castle, on Thursday, the 26th
instant ensuing. I accordingly repaired to Windsor on that day. One of
the royal carriages awaited my arrival at the station, and conveyed me
to the Castle, where I had the honour of passing through the quaint and
interesting ceremony of kneeling on one knee before Her Majesty, and
receiving a gentle blow across the shoulder from a light and
beautifully jewelled sword, and was commanded to express my gratitude
by kissing the hand of Her Most Gracious Majesty. I afterwards took
lunch at the Castle, and then returned to London.
Footnotes
[2] See engraving of this stamp, Fig. 5, Plate III
[3] Now over seventy years ago
[4] See Fig.5, Plate III
[5] This Act is the 3rd and 4th of William IV., Chapter 97, dated August
29th, 1833
TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF BEACONSFIELD.
Denmark Hill,
November 16th, 1878
THE REWARD OF INVENTION.
To the Editor of The Times.
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[1] The Times