CHAPTER VII.

CONCERNING SOME OF THE POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS AND MISREPRESENTATIONS TO WHICH THE POST-OFFICE IS LIABLE.

The Post-Office, from its peculiar organization and the nature of its business, is liable to many misconceptions from which the other great Government Departments are more or less free. In one of the reports of the Postmaster-General, many of these misunderstandings are recounted and answered with an evident endeavour to bring about a better feeling between the people and the people's Post-Office. We cannot do better than refer here to a few of the instances given, supplementing them by more which have been suggested to us from that consideration of the entire economy of the Post-Office, into which we have been led in dealing with our subject.

1. Unquestionably, the Post-Office is blamed for many errors and shortcomings which ought never to have been charged against it. On this important point, the evidence given by each Post-Office Report is remarkably clear, although, by the way, a writer in a recent number of a highly respectable quarterly review regards the instances given by successive Postmaster-Generals as so many "testimonials to character," reminding him--so he scurvily added--of nothing so much as "the testimonials given by dyspeptic noblemen in favour of the Revalenta Arabica or Holloway's Pills and Ointment."[196] Of course, much trouble and many losses must, from time to time and at all times, have been caused by the carelessness or dishonesty of some of many thousand officials of the Post-Office, though the cases are far from few, and the authorities, in which it has been shown, to the satisfaction even of the complainant, that the fault at first attributed to the Post-Office rested really in other quarters. Some examples are afforded. The publisher of one of the London papers complained of the repeated loss in the Post-Office of copies of his journal, addressed to persons abroad. An investigation showed that the abstraction was made by the publisher's clerk, his object apparently being to appropriate the stamps required to defray the foreign postage. In another case, a general complaint having arisen as to the loss of newspapers sent to the chief office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, the investigation led to the discovery of a regular mart held near the office, which was supplied with newspapers by the private messengers employed to convey them to the post. Again: A man was detected once in robbing a newsvendor's cart by volunteering, on its arrival at the entrance of the General Post-Office, to assist the driver in posting the newspapers. Instead of doing so, however, he walked through the hall with those intrusted to him, and, upon his being stopped, three quires of a weekly paper were found in his possession.

To these cases of newspapers let us add a few concerning letters, the substance of which are adduced in subsequent reports. Thus, a letter containing a cheque for 12_l._ and sent to a London firm, was said not to have reached its destination; the Post-Office was blamed for not delivering it; inspectors were set to work, and after a diligent search, it was traced from the premises of the person to whom it was addressed to those of a papier-maché manufacturer, where it doubtless had been pulped into tea-trays or writing-cases. Again: A bank agent sends his son to the post with a letter, which on his journey he opens. Spying a figured cheque, he abstracts it, and posts the letter without it, and it is afterwards found ornamenting his copy-book! Another bank agent sends his youthful son to the post-office to receive for him his letters, one of which, containing some very valuable inclosures, he leaves in his pocket, and immediately afterwards leaves town for school, carrying with him the precious missive--worth some 1,500_l._--where it consorts with his marbles, Everton toffy, and cold Bologna sausage, till the vacation, the lad all the time being in blissful unconsciousness of the stir paterfamilias was making about it. Another person complained that several of his letters were not forthcoming. This case was a mystery. At length it struck one of the shrewd officials--who grow shrewd through dint of unravelling the most curious cases--that the letter-box at the person's door ought to be carefully examined. This was done, and the box was found exceedingly defective. Fifteen letters were jammed between the box and the door, where some of them had quietly reposed for the space of nine years.[197] The secretary of a charitable institution in London gave directions for posting a large number of "election papers," and supposed that his directions had been duly acted upon. Shortly, however, he received complaints of the non-receipt of many of the papers, and in other cases of delay. He at once lodged a strong complaint at the Post-Office; but, on examination, circumstances soon came to light which cast suspicion on the person employed to post the notices, although this man had been many years in the service of the society, and was supposed to be of strict integrity. Ultimately, the man confessed that he embezzled the postage (3_l._ 15_s._ 6_d._), and had endeavoured to deliver the election papers himself. Once more: A short time since a registered letter was said to have been posted at Newcastle, addressed to a banker in Edinburgh, who, not receiving it according to his expectation, sent a telegraphic message to learn why it had not been forwarded. The banker supposed that the letter had been lost or purloined in the Post-Office; but it was at last found to have been duly delivered to the bank porter in order to post it, but he had locked it up in his desk and forgotten it.

2. The knowledge of the following misconception may also help to save the public and the Post-Office a great amount of trouble. "It is often assumed," says the Postmaster-General, "that a mail-conveyance passing by, or through a place, ought, as a matter of course, to deposit," there and then, "the letters directed thereto; the practice being, on the contrary, that until the mail arrives at the head post-office of the district, the letters in question are not separated from the other letters of the district. A slight consideration of the nature and objects of the postal service will show that such separation cannot be effected in any other way, unless, indeed, the mail-conveyance, even supposing it to be but a _mail-cart_, were converted into a travelling post-office, and furnished with clerks of unlimited local knowledge (which is plainly impossible), or unless every town and village in the kingdom, having any correspondence with the place in question, were to make up a bag for that place; in which case its mail would contain nearly as many bags as letters."

3. "It happens from time to time that, owing to the stream of postal communications having been diverted from the old mail-road to a line of railway, or from other causes of like nature, it becomes desirable to reduce the post-office of a town from the condition of a _principal_ office to that of a _sub_-office. This step not unfrequently gives rise to complaints, the inhabitants being under the impression that they will not in future be so well served. This is a misconception. The change is not made when it will subject the correspondence to delay; nor does it cause any withdrawal of accommodation in respect to money-orders. It is, in fact, only a departmental arrangement, which consists in carrying on the sorting of the letters for the new sub-office at some intermediate office, instead of sending the letters in direct bags."

4. "Another misconception, which occasionally causes trouble and disappointment, consists in assuming that a discretionary power can be intrusted to subordinate officers to remit penalties or overcharges under special circumstances. Cases will occur in which strict observance of a general rule may inflict more or less injustice upon individuals, and where a dispensing power immediately at hand might furnish a remedy. In an establishment as large and as widely spread as the Post-Office, however, there will always be many subordinate officers, some of them carrying on their duties beyond the easy reach of any supervising authority, who are not fit depositaries of such a power, affecting, as it would to a great degree, the public revenue. It therefore becomes necessary to lay down definite and precise rules, from which no departure can be allowed, except under sanction of the Postmaster-General; and in the few instances in which these rules press hardly, appeal must be made to the General Post-Office. It must be added, that in many instances even such appeal is necessarily fruitless, the Postmaster-General being bound to a particular course by positive law."

5. "In regard to the expense of railway conveyance, the public naturally supposes, that as such conveyance is cheapest for ordinary purposes, and as the charges made for the carriage of mails are subject to arbitration, that it must be cheapest for postal purposes also; and, indeed, so cheap, as to warrant the free use of the railways, either as substitutes for other conveyance, or for the multiplication of mails. The fact, however, is very different. Except in certain instances, where companies have entered into arrangements, securing to the Post-Office the use of their trains on moderate, though still highly remunerative terms, railway conveyance, with all its acknowledged advantages, has proved much more expensive than that which it has superseded." We have already spoken at length of railways in relation to the Post-Office, and will not here add any further remark.

6. The English Postmaster-General is frequently supposed to have some control over colonial post-offices, and even those of foreign countries. Except at Gibraltar and Malta, however, he is quite powerless out of the United Kingdom.

7. Frequent applications are made, it seems, for extra foreign and colonial mails, yet those existing are only kept up at a ruinous loss. Of the eight great lines of packet communication, only one pays its expenses and yields a profit. If the letters sent abroad were charged with the whole cost of the packets, the foreign agencies, and other incidental expenses, not only would all the sea-postage be swallowed up, but the mails would entail a loss of nearly four hundred thousand pounds a year. "We want," said a leading weekly commercial paper lately, "increased facilities for communication with our West Indian Colonies;" yet every letter now forwarded to those colonial possessions of ours costs one shilling over and above the postage charged! On each letter conveyed between this country and the Cape there is a dead loss of sixpence; to the West Coast of Africa, one shilling and sixpence. Everybody has heard of the New Galway line of packets for America, now suspended for the second time: every letter carried by these packets under their first contract was charged _one_, and cost the country _six_ shillings; under the second attempt, each letter is said to have cost even more than six shillings! With the change of system and change of management, described briefly in speaking of the packet service, there can be no question that this state of things will not be allowed to continue. The principle of requiring the colonies themselves to pay a moiety of the cost of their service is a step in the right direction, and is, certainly, only just:[198] the colonies will not be taxed for the mother-country, as in one memorable instance in history, nor, as at present, will the mother-country be taxed unfairly for the colonies: there will then be equal interest in keeping down the expenditure, and in establishing rates of postage high enough to be remunerative.

8. The English Post-Office will compare favourably with that of any nation in the world. In no country are post-office privileges procured cheaper than with us. Like any other institution capable of endless growth, and which must grow and expand with the progressive influences of the times, it clearly is not perfect in every arrangement; but in answer to complaints of the hard, unyielding, and stringent rules which are said to bind the English Post-Office, it may not be out of place to institute a few comparisons, asking that some reference should be made to contemporary history. In England, coin was suffered for many years to pass in ordinary letters, to the temptation and seduction of many of the officers, and the practice grew from a thoughtless economy, in spite of all the appeals that were made to the contrary. At present coin is not allowed to pass through the post-office, except in registered letters: in France it has long been, and is now, a _penal_ offence to transmit coin in letters.[199] At the time Sir Rowland Hill was urging his penny-postage scheme on the attention of the British Legislature, another European State (Piedmont, 1837) had the most stringent and severe regulations maintained in its Post-Office. The law punished any one posting a book or a newspaper opposed to the principles of the monarchy with from two to five years' hard labour; any one who might receive of such newspapers or books through the post without having delivered it into the hands of the authorities with two years' imprisonment; a reward of one hundred crowns was offered to any one giving information. These arbitrary and iniquitous laws are equalled and even surpassed, in European codes of still later date--witness Russia and, until quite recently, Austria.

9. The opinion is frequently expressed in conversation, and we have often met with such expressions of opinion in our daily and weekly press, to the effect that the Post-Office ought to give more accommodation to the public in many ways, and so disburse some, if not all, of its enormous profits. These profits are said to be absurdly large; that fifty per cent. is ten times the interest of money lent on decent security, and five times as much as would satisfy sanguine private speculators. This subject of Post-Office profits is made, _de facto_, the principal argument against what is called the Post-Office monopoly.

We have already, in other parts of this book, offered an opinion on steps which might be taken in the way of affording extra facilities to the public. A cheaper sea service and a halfpenny post for our towns are two of the most important and most practicable measures. Granted that our packet service ought to be kept up as at present, we have an invincible argument for universal free deliveries at home. When asked[200] if he thought it necessary that our Colonies should have greater postal facilities than they could pay for, Mr. Hamilton, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, answered that "a colony might reasonably complain if it was deprived of advantages of postal communication, simply because that postal communication might not be remunerative." Again, on the question of Post-Office revenue,[201] "I think the first charge upon that revenue is to supply reasonably all portions of Her Majesty's dominions with postal communication," which consideration, it seems to us, will apply equally at home and abroad. Still more important seems the plan of a halfpenny post for local letters, that is, for letters posted and delivered in the same town. Before the days of penny postage, we had penny posts in all the principal towns of the country. A halfpenny post, if only applied to our largest towns, where it would be certain to be remunerative,[202] would have the effect of materially lessening the weight of the argument that our present rate of charges is anomalous and unfair. But this would be by no means the most important result. Such posts would necessitate more frequent deliveries in provincial towns--the postmen to be paid accordingly as fully, and not as now, only partially, employed. On the other hand, it is quite clear that the Post-Office net revenue is a fair and honourable item on the credit side of the Government accounts, with which the public, except through their representatives in Parliament, have nothing whatever to do. The penny postage scheme was carried through Parliament in the confident expectation resolutely urged by the intrepid founder of that scheme, that all the benefits promised under it would result to the country, without any great relinquishment of Post-Office revenue, and that only for a term of years. Gradually, year by year, with enormous gain to the public convenience in innumerable ways, the revenue derivable from this branch of the service has risen beyond the highest standard of the past. Any relinquishment of the profits--which, by the way, staves off other taxes--depends on Parliament, and not on the Post-Office.[203]

10. Perhaps of all the prevalent misconceptions to which the public have been, and still are, liable, none is so unfounded as that the servants of the Post-Office are, as a body, ill-used and ill-paid. Without question, individual cases of hardship and inequality exist; but that there is anything inherently wrong in the system, or that that system is administered with harshness or partiality, or that there is in this Department more than the usual modicum of cases in which the legislation for the many presses heavily on the few, no one who will make himself acquainted with the subject in all its bearings can believe for a moment. Statements to a contrary effect have often appeared in the public newspapers; instead, however, of representing the feelings of the officers, they have much more frequently goaded them into discontent, no doubt, at times, against their better feeling and judgment. Two or three years ago, the Postmaster-General, in referring to these statements, dwelt upon the weight of responsibility resting with that part of the public press who, unthinkingly, and on an _ex parte_ view of their case, indulged the martial sentiments of the men with encouragement to the utter abandonment of discipline and control. We incline to the belief that the time will come when, in the provinces for instance, more liberal allowances will be made to the lower grades of Post-Office officials; when the graphic description already given by the postman poet would, if uttered, be regarded as a libel on his class of officers. On the other hand, with regard to the same class of men in the metropolitan office, the more the question is calmly considered, the less reason is there for sympathy with the popular view. In 1860, the _Times_ gave a dismal account of the sufferings of the London letter-carriers, whose cause it espoused more warmly than wisely. "Hard-worked and ill-paid," said the leading journal, "these men are all discontented and sullen; they are indifferent to the proper performance of their duties, and hold the threat of dismissal in utter disdain, feeling sure, as they say, that even stone-breaking on the road-side would not be harder labour and scarcely less remunerative." A short time after, the other side of the picture relating to these would-be stone-breakers was given, not by an anonymous writer in the _Times_, but by a Cabinet Minister. The report of the late Lord Elgin stated that "there need not be the least difficulty in procuring, at the present wages, honest, intelligent, and industrious young men, perfectly qualified for the office of letter-carrier: and, I may add, that in cases of dismissal--happily a rare occurrence, considering the number of men employed--the most strenuous efforts are made to obtain readmission to the service." Regarding the question in a practical common-sense light, there could be no manner of doubt as to which statement should carry most weight. Other organs of the press, however, either thought differently, or dispensed with the preliminary investigation which the Post-Office courts rather than discourages, and which inquiry it would only have been fair to make. Only last year an important commercial paper commented sympathisingly on "the loud and deep complainings of the London letter-carrier, of the grinding oppression to which they are subjected, and their ineffectual struggles to obtain redress;" and this opinion was echoed round by many smaller lights.

What, however, are the facts? The rate of wages of the lowest class of letter-carriers in London ranges from 18_s._ to 25_s._ a week. Each man (who must necessarily begin _under 21 years of age_) commences at the former sum, and steadily advances at the rate of a shilling more each year, till he attains the maximum of 25_s._ This is for the lowest class, be it remembered: but besides the chances of rising into a higher class of carrier, he has the prospect, realized by many in the course of two or three years, of being promoted to the higher grade of sorter. If, as some have been, he be appointed to the corps of travelling sorters, he will nearly double his income at a bound. But not to dwell on chances of promotion, the letter-carrier, in addition to his wages, is allowed to receive Christmas-boxes; and many thus receive, as the public must know well, most substantial additions to their income. He is supplied with two suits of clothes, one for summer, and the other for winter wear. If ill, he has medical attendance and medicine gratis. When unfitted for work, he may retire upon a pension for which he has not now to pay a farthing; and during service, if he insure his life for the benefit of his family, the Post-Office will assist him to pay his premiums, by allowing him 20 per cent. on all his payments. Every year he is allowed a fortnight's holiday, without any deduction from his pay; many spare hours each day he may devote to other pursuits, for if, when at work at the office, his hours of duty exceed eight hours daily, he is at full liberty to ask for investigation and redress. In short, a London letter-carrier is in as good a position, relatively, as many skilled artisans, without, as regards his pay, being subject to any of the contingencies of weather, trade, and misfortune, which make the wages of other workmen occasionally so precarious, and without having had to go through any expensive apprenticeship or preparation for his calling, as in the case of most of the numerous handicrafts of life.[204]

Finally, it cannot truly be said that the Post-Office institution is not moving with the age, but is as it used to be, intrenched in the traditions of the past. Different from other departments, with their undeviatingly narrow routine, the Post-Office is managed with that enlightened policy which openly invites suggestion and criticism; nay, it goes further, and offers rewards to persons, either in its employ or otherwise, who may devise any plan for accelerating its business. Post-Office work is of such a nature that the Post-Office establishment admits of constant improvement as well as constant expansion. The authorities publicly intimate that they will be glad to receive clear and correct information respecting any faulty arrangements, promising that such information shall have the best attention of the practical officers of the department. At the same time, they take the opportunity to urge upon John Bull the practice of patience, reminding him of what he is often inclined to forget, that changes in machinery so extensive and delicate must be made carefully, and only after the most mature thought and fullest investigation. "The Post-Office," says Mr. Mathew D. Hill, the respected Recorder of Birmingham,[205] "no longer assumes to be perfect, and its conductors have renounced their claims to infallibility. Suggested improvements, if they can sustain the indispensable test of rigid scrutiny, are welcomed, and not, as of old, frowned away. The Department acts under the conviction that to thrive it must keep ahead of all rivals; that it must discard the confidence heretofore placed in legal prohibitions, and seek its continuance of prosperity only by deserving it."

FOOTNOTES:

[196] In this category we suppose the reviewer placed the following letter addressed to the Secretary of the Post-Office, from Lord Cranworth when Lord Chancellor. We adduce it here, on the contrary, as a specimen of a handsome and manly apology: "Sir,--Complaints were made early last month, that a letter posted by Mr. Anderson, of Lincoln's Inn, and addressed to me, had never reached its destination.... You caused inquiry to be made.... I feel it a duty to you, Sir, and the Post-Office authorities, to say that I have just found the missing letter, which has been accidentally buried under a heap of other papers. I have only to regret the trouble which my oversight thus caused, and to take the earliest opportunity of absolving all persons, except myself, of blame in the matter. I have, &c. &c. CRANWORTH." Somewhat similar to the above case, occurring only last year, we may refer to the circumstance, probably in the memory of most of our readers, when, among a batch of complainants whose letters The _Times_ admitted to its columns, was one from the late Mr. John Gough Nicholls, the eminent _littérateur_, who grieved bitterly that a letter sent through the post to him had not arrived at his address. From a manly apology which he made to the Post-Office authorities a few days afterwards, also given in The _Times_, it appeared that the reason why he never received the letter was, that _it had not been sent through the Post-Office_, as it ought to have been, but was delivered by a private messenger at another house in the street.

[197] We do not mention this latter circumstance, be it understood, to discourage the use of slits or letter-boxes in private doors. An occurrence of the above kind must be exceedingly rare, whilst nothing so much helps the prompt delivery of letters as such an arrangement.

[198] Perhaps, however, there is room to doubt whether the true reform will consist in anything less than the entire abolition of packet subsidies, and the offering of the contracts in the ordinary way of commercial transactions. An ocean penny-postage, _e. g._ penny sea-postage, would then be almost inevitable. A letter charged a penny the half-ounce would amount to nearly 300_l._ a ton, an enormous freightage it will be admitted, to the United States, being even fifteen times steam freight to India. Nor when the letters get across the sea would they be subject to heavy inland postage either in the one country or the other. In the United States letters are circulated for thousands of miles for three cents, while for half an anna, a sum equivalent to three farthings of English money, a letter may be forwarded through the length and breadth of British India.

[199] As another example, take the United States, with Mr. Anthony Trollope for a judge on postal concerns. In his _North America_, vol. ii. p. 368, we read: "It is, I think, undoubtedly true that the amount of accommodation given by the Post-Office of the States is small, as compared with that afforded in some other countries, and that that accommodation is lessened by delays and uncertainty.... Here in England, it is the object of our Post-Office to carry the bulk of our letters at night, to deliver them as early as possible in the morning, and to collect them and take them away for despatch as late as may be in the day; so that the merchant may receive his letters before the beginning of his day's business, and despatch them after its close. In the States no such practice prevails. Letters arrive at any hour of the day miscellaneously, and were despatched at any hour. I found that the postmaster of one town could never tell me with certainty when letters would arrive at another. I ascertained, moreover, by painful experience that the _whole_ of a mail would not always go forward by the first despatch. As regarded myself, this had reference chiefly to English letters and newspapers. 'Only a part of the mail has come,' the clerk would tell me. With us the owners of that part which did not _come_ would consider themselves greatly aggrieved and make loud complaint. But, in the States, complaints made against official departments are held to be of little moment." We are further told that the "letters are subject to great delays by irregularities on railways. They have no travelling post-offices in the States, as with us. And, worst of all, there is no official delivery of letters." "The United States' Post-Office," says Mr. Trollope, "does not assume to itself the duty of taking letters to the houses of those for whom they are intended, but holds itself as having completed the work for which the original postage has been paid when it has brought them to the window of the post-office of the town to which they are addressed." The recognised official mode of delivery is from the office window, many inhabitants paying for private boxes at the post-office. If delivered, a further sum must be paid the bearer. Surely English people have reason to be content with their privileges, and in a certain degree to "rest and be thankful."

[200] Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on Packet and Telegraph Contracts, p. 27.

[201] _Ibid._ p. 34.

[202] A halfpenny post is in full operation at the city of Quebec.

[203] The Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his place in Parliament, has just adverted (April) to the argument indicated above. "If the Post-Office revenue be abandoned in whole, or in part, a gap will be created which will have to be supplied by direct taxation." That our postage rates may be regarded as a kind of mild taxation, not unfairly levied, and that the work is done by the State with more uniformity of purpose and greater regularity than would be possible under any private company, our senators agree, perhaps with the single exception of Mr. Roebuck. That gentleman, however, it will be remembered, held that Sebastapol might have been reduced more easily had the business been made a subject of contract! With respect to the state monopoly and the advantages derived from it, political economists are also pretty well agreed. Blackstone has been referred to previously. Sergeant Stephens, in his _Commentaries_, endorses Blackstone's views. Mr. M'Cullagh, in his _Principles of Political Economy_, is so clear on this point that we venture to make a quotation: "Perhaps, with the single exception of the carriage of letters, there is no branch of industry which Government had not better leave to be conducted by individuals. It does not, however, appear that the Post-Office could be so well conducted by any other party as by Government; the latter only can enforce perfect regularity in all its subordinate departments, can carry it into the smallest villages and even beyond the frontier, and can combine all its separate parts into one uniform system on which the public may rely for security and despatch. Besides providing for the speedy and safe communication of intelligence, the Post-Office has everywhere almost been rendered subservient to fiscal purposes, and made a source of revenue; and provided the duty on letters be not so heavy as to oppose any very serious obstacle to the frequency and facility of correspondence, it seems to be a most unobjectionable tax; and is paid and collected with little trouble and inconvenience." Fourth Edition, 1849, pp. 296-7. See also M'Cullagh's _Commercial Dictionary_, where he speaks still more decidedly, and Mr. Senior's _Political Economy_. Sydney Smith, who with Mr. M'Cullagh was opposed to the penny-postage movement, was favourable to the Government monopoly of the Post-Office.

[204] These remarks must not be understood to apply to the _clerks_ in the different branches of the London establishment. These clerks, &c., who are required to be educated gentlemen, are as a rule, paid on lower scales of salary than obtain, we believe, in the other Government departments.

[205] _Fraser's Magazine_, September, 1862, p. 536.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX (A).

CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE POST-OFFICE

_ENGLAND._

_Her Majesty's Postmaster-General._

THE RIGHT HON. LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY.

_Secretary_ JOHN TILLEY, ESQ.

_Assistant Secretaries_ {FREDERIC HILL, ESQ. and {FRANK IVES SCUDAMORE, ESQ.

_Chief Clerk of the Secretary's Office_ RODIE PARKHURST, ESQ.

_Chief Clerk of Foreign Business_ WILLIAM PAGE, ESQ.

_Solicitor_ WM. HENRY ASHURST, ESQ.

_Assistant Solicitor_ R. W. PEACOCK, ESQ.

_Inspector-General of Mails_ EDWARD JOHN PAGE, ESQ.

_Deputy Inspector-General of Mails_ JOHN WEST, ESQ.

_Receiver and Accountant-General_ VACANT.

_Controller of Circulation Department_ WILLIAM BOKENHAM, ESQ.

_Deputy Controller_ _ditto_ THOMAS BOUCHER, ESQ.

_Controller of Money-Order Office_ FRED. ROWLAND JACKSON, ESQ.

_Controller of Post-Office Savings'_} _Banks_ } GEORGE CHETWYND, ESQ.

_Medical Officer_ WALLER LEWIS, ESQ. M.D.

_Post-Office District Surveyors._

Northern District CHRIS. HODGSON, ESQ. Penrith.

Southern District J. H. NEWMAN, ESQ. Dorking.

Eastern District ANTHONY TROLLOPE, ESQ. Waltham Cross.

Western District G. H. CRESSWELL, ESQ. Devonport.

Derby District ERNEST MILLIKEN, ESQ. Derby.

Manchester District WILLIAM GAY, ESQ. Altrincham.

Shrewsbury District W. J. GODBY, ESQ. Shrewsbury.

Gloucester District JOHN PATTEN GOOD, ESQ. London.

Birmingham District A. M. CUNYNGHAME, ESQ. London.

_IRELAND._

_Secretary_ GUSTAVUS CHARLES CORNWALL, ESQ.

_Accountant_ JOSEPH LONG, ESQ.

_Controller of Sorting Office_ R. O. ANDERSON, ESQ.

_Solicitor_ R. THOMPSON, ESQ.

_Surveyors_ {H. JAMES, ESQ. Limerick, and {W. BARNARD, ESQ. Dublin.

_SCOTLAND._

_Secretary_ FRANCIS ABBOTT, ESQ.

_Accountant_ JOHN MARRABLE, ESQ.

_Controller of Sorting Office_ T. B. LANG, ESQ.

_Solicitor_ J. CAY, JUN. ESQ.

_Surveyors_ {JOHN WARREN, ESQ. Aberdeen, and {E. C. BURCKARDT, ESQ. Edinburgh.

APPENDIX (B).

ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL REGULATIONS.

"It may not be too much to say that half the people in this country who use the Post-Office do not know clearly all the benefit they may derive from it."--_Household Words_, 1856.

We have already directed the attention of those engaged in frequent correspondence, especially with our colonies and foreign countries, to the necessity of consulting the official books published for their guidance. The following digest of Post Office regulations may, perhaps, answer the ordinary requirements of the general reader.

THE LETTER-POST.

As at present constituted, the British Post-Office has, with the few exceptions noticed in our historical survey, an exclusive authority to convey _letters_ within the United Kingdom. It is also required by law to convey newspapers when the public choose to use the post for that purpose. The Post-Office further undertakes the conveyance of books and book-packets, and the remittance of small sums of money. Still more recently, it has entered into competition with the banking interest of the country: it now threatens a scheme which will compete with benefit societies and insurance offices. It is only with regard to the carriage of letters, however, that the Post-Office possesses any special privileges, the other branches of its business being open to any person or persons who may choose to undertake them.

(_a_) The rates of postage on all letters passing through the Post-Office are now regulated by weight,[206] irrespective of distance, and (with some exceptions, which we will mention presently) altogether irrespective of their contents. Letters weighing _less than four ounces_ may be sent unpaid, but they will be charged double postage on delivery. Letters may be sent insufficiently stamped, but that deficiency, whatever it may be, will also be charged double postage on delivery. The rate for letters is familiar to every reader.

(_b_) All re-directed letters are liable to additional postage, but at the _prepaid_, and not the unpaid rate. Thus, for a letter under half an ounce, re-addressed from one post-town to another, additional postage, to the amount of one penny, is levied. Re-directed letters, not addressed to a fresh post-town, but to a place within the district belonging to the same post-town to which they were originally sent, are not charged with any additional postage, the first payment franking them until they are delivered. Letters for officers in the army and navy, and private soldiers and seamen employed on actual service, have their letters re-addressed to them from place to place without any charge for re-direction.

(_c_) No letter, &c. can be forwarded through the post which is more than two feet in length, breadth, or depth, nor any unpaid letter or packet which weighs more than four ounces, unless three-quarters of the postage due on it have been paid. The exceptions to this rule are--

1st. Packets sent to or received from places abroad.

2d. Packets to or from any of the Government departments or public officers.

3d. Petitions or addresses to the Queen, whether directed to Her Majesty or forwarded to any member of either House of Parliament.

4th. Petitions to either House of Parliament.

5th. Printed parliamentary proceedings.

(_d_) Late letters, &c. are received till within five minutes of the despatch of the mails, except where the Post-Office surveyor may deem a longer interval necessary, and providing that this arrangement does not necessitate any office being open after ten o'clock at night. In each post-office window placards are exhibited showing the time up to which such letters may be posted.

No late letters can be forwarded by the mail preparing for despatch unless prepaid in stamps, including the ordinary postage and the late-letter fee. Government letters are an exception to this rule; they may be posted, without extra fee, up to the latest moment.

(_e_) Letters containing sharp instruments, knives, scissors, glass, &c. are not allowed to circulate through the post, to the risk of damaging the general correspondence. Such communications, when posted, are detained and forwarded to the Metropolitan Office, where correspondence is at once opened with the senders.

Letters for the United Kingdom found to contain coin are only forwarded to their destination under certain restrictions. Such letters, if not registered, are at once treated as if they were, and charged on delivery with a double registration-fee, or eightpence in addition to the postage.

REGISTERED LETTERS.

The registration-fee of fourpence, prepaid in stamps, will secure careful treatment to any letter, newspaper, or book-packet addressed to any part of the United Kingdom. Record is kept of all such letters throughout their entire course. The registration of a packet makes its transmission more secure, by rendering it practicable to trace it from its receipt to its delivery. For a fee of sixpence letters may be registered to any British colony, except Ascension, Vancouver's Island, British Columbia, and Labuan, for which places they can only be registered part of the way. Letters may be registered to several foreign countries at varying rates. (_See British Postal Guide._)

Every letter meant for registration should be presented at the post-office window, or counter (as the case may be) and a receipt obtained for it, and must on no account be dropped into the letterbox among the ordinary letters. If, contrary to this rule, a letter marked "registered" be found in the letter-box, addressed to the United Kingdom, it will be charged an extra registration-fee of double the ordinary fee, or one of eightpence instead of fourpence.

The latest time for posting a registered letter on payment of the ordinary fee is generally up to within half an hour of the closing of the letter-box for that particular mail with which it will require to be forwarded. A registered letter will be received at all head offices up to the closing of the general letter-box, or until the office is closed for the night, on payment of a late fee of fourpence in addition to the ordinary registration fee. All fees, as well as postage, of registered letters must be prepaid in stamps. A registered letter, when re-directed, is liable to the same additional charge as if it were an ordinary letter, the original register fee, however, sufficing until it is delivered.

By Act of Parliament, the Post-Office is not responsible for the absolute security of registered letters, though every care and attention are given to them. Each registered letter may be traced from hand to hand, from posting to delivery, with unfailing accuracy, and there can be no question as to the great security which is thus afforded. Any officer who may neglect his duty with registered letters is called to strict account, and, if the Postmaster-General should see fit, will be required to make good any loss that may be sustained. In cases where registered letters have been lost (in the proportion, it is said, of about one in ninety thousand), or some abstraction of their contents, the Department makes good the loss, if the fault is shown to rest with the Post-Office, and if the sum lost be of moderate amount and the sufferer a person not in affluent circumstances.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL LETTER-POSTS.

For information of the despatch of foreign and colonial mails; rates of postage; and as to whether prepayment be optional or compulsory; see the "British Postal Guide," published quarterly.

Letters addressed to places abroad may be prepaid in this country either in money or stamps, but such payment must be made either wholly in stamps or wholly in money. The only exception to this rule is when the rate of postage includes a fractional part of a penny, for which, of course, there are no existing English stamps.

With certain exceptions, the only admitted evidence of the prepayment of a foreign letter is the mark agreed upon with the particular foreign country or colony.

When prepayment is _optional_, any outward letter (_e. g._ going abroad) posted with an insufficient number of stamps is charged with the deficient postage in addition, unless the letter has to go to Holland, or to the United States, or to a country through France, in which case it is treated as wholly unpaid, the postal conventions with these countries not allowing the recognition of partial prepayment. When, however, prepayment of the whole postage is _compulsory_, a letter, or aught else posted with an insufficient number of stamps, is sent (by the first post) to the Returned Letter Office.

Letters for Russia and Poland are also treated as wholly unpaid, if the full postage has not been paid in the first instance.

Letters to or from Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, British West Indies (except Turk's Island), Honduras, and St. Helena, posted wholly unpaid, or paid less than one rate, are detained and returned to the writers for postage. If the letters should be paid with one rate (paid for half an ounce, for instance, when the letter weighs more than half an ounce), they are forwarded (except in the case of New Zealand), charged with the deficient postage and sixpence as a fine. Letters for New Zealand must be fully prepaid.

Letters for nearly all our remaining British colonies, if posted unpaid, either wholly or in part, are, on delivery, charged sixpence each in addition to the ordinary postage.

Letters intended to be sent by private ship should, in all cases, have the words "By private ship," or "By ship," distinctly written above the address. The postage of letters forwarded by private ship is sixpence--if the weight does not exceed half an ounce--and the postage must generally be prepaid. Exception is made to most of our North American and African colonies, to which places prepayment by private ship is not compulsory. (See table in the _British Postal Guide_.)

When the route by which a foreign or colonial letter is to go is not marked on the letter, it will be sent by the principal or earliest route. In some cases, the postage paid (provided it be by stamps) is regarded as an indication of the wish of the sender, and the letters are forwarded by the route for which the prepayment is sufficient. Thus, letters for Holland, Denmark, Norway, &c. which, as a rule, are sent _viâ_ Belgium, are sent _viâ_ France, if the prepayment be insufficient for the former, but sufficient for the latter route.

_North American and Indian Mails._--Letters for passengers on board the Cunard mail packets for America touching at Queenstown, provided they be addressed to the care of the officers in charge of the mails on board such packets, _and be registered_, may be posted in any part of the United Kingdom up to the time at which registered letters intended for transmission to America by the same packets are received, and they will be delivered on board the packets at Queenstown.

Letters for passengers on board the Mediterranean packets about to sail from Southampton for India, China, Australia, &c. and the Canadian mail packets touching at Londonderry, may, under similar conditions, be posted up to the same time as registered letters for India and Canada.

The letters should be addressed thus: "Mr. ----, on board the mail packet at Queenstown, Londonderry, or Southampton (as the case may be), care of the officer in charge of the mails."

Letters directed to the care of the packet agent at Suez, and despatched by the Indian mails _viâ Marseilles_, which always leaves after the mails _viâ Southampton_, will most probably there reach passengers for India, &c. who may have previously sailed in the Southampton packets.

NEWSPAPER POSTS.

(_a_) It is not compulsory to send newspapers through the post.

(_b_) The rate for newspapers stamped with the _impressed_ stamp is one penny for two sheets, three-halfpence for three sheets, and twopence for four sheets, of printed matter.

(_c_) No newspaper, or other publication, can pass through the post, unless the impressed stamp be of the value of at least one penny.

(_d_) The title and date of every publication so passing must be printed at the top of every page.

(_e_) The impressed stamp (or stamps, if more than one publication be sent under one cover) must be distinctly visible on the outside. When a newspaper is folded so as not to expose the stamp, a fine of one penny is made in addition to the proper postage of the paper.

(_f_) The publication must not be printed on pasteboard or cardboard, but on ordinary paper, nor must it be enclosed in a cover of either material.

(_g_) Newspapers bearing the impressed stamp cannot circulate through the post after they are _fifteen days old_.

(_h_) They must not contain any enclosure, and must either have no cover at all, or one which shall be open at both ends. They must have no writing either inside or outside, except the name of the persons to whom they are sent, the printed title of the publications, and the printed names of the publishers or agents sending them. If one of these newspapers be addressed to a second person, the address in the first instance still remaining, it is regarded as an infringement of the above rule, and renders the paper liable to be charged as an unpaid letter.

(_i_) In order that newspapers may be sent abroad, the publishers must first have had them registered at the General Post-Office.

(_j_) Newspapers intended for transmission to our colonies or foreign countries must, in all cases, be prepaid _with postage-stamps_, the impressed stamp here, in all respects, standing for nothing. Though this is the case, all newspapers sent abroad are liable to the same regulations as English newspapers bearing impressed stamps.

(_k_) It must be borne in mind, that the arrangements for inland newspapers forwarded under the book-post regulations, and paid with the ordinary postage-stamp, are entirely distinct from the above.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

(_a_) Printed proceedings of the British Parliament are forwarded through the Post-Office at a special rate, and possess privileges in their transmission not belonging to either the newspaper- or book-postage. Parliamentary proceedings, however, may pass through the post at either the special rate, the newspaper rate, or book-post rate, always provided that the conditions of the particular rate chosen be complied with.

(_b_) "Parliamentary proceedings," if these words are written or printed on the cover (otherwise they are liable to be charged letter rate), may circulate through the United Kingdom at the following rates of postage:--

Weighing not more than 4 oz. 1_d._ Weighing more than 4 oz. and not exceeding 8 oz. 2_d._ " 8 oz. " 12 oz. 3_d._ " 12 oz. " 16 oz. 4_d._

and so on; one penny being charged for every additional _quarter_ of a pound or fraction of a quarter of a pound.

(_c_) Prepayment of parliamentary proceedings is _optional_ throughout the United Kingdom. Prepayment may also be made in part, when the _simple difference only_ will be charged on delivery.

Parliamentary proceedings can only be sent to the colonies or foreign countries by means of the book-post system, and, of course, only where book-posts are established.

THE BOOK-POST.

(_a_) Written or printed matter of any kind--including matter which may be sent by the ordinary newspaper-post, or under the special privileges of parliamentary proceedings--may be sent through the book-post under the following rates and conditions:--

(_b_)

A packet weighing not more than 4 oz. 1_d._ " more than 4 oz. but not exceeding 8 oz. 2_d._ " more than 8 oz. " 1 lb. 4_d._ " more than 1 lb. " 1½ lb. 6_d._ " more than 1½ lb. " 2 lb. 8_d._

and so on; twopence being charged for every additional _half-pound_ or fraction of a half-pound.

(_c_) The postage on book-packets must be prepaid, and that by postage-stamps affixed outside the packets or their covers. If a book-packet should be posted insufficiently prepaid, it is forwarded, charged with the deficient book postage together with an additional rate; thus, one weighing over four ounces and only bearing one penny stamp, would be charged twopence additional postage on delivery. If a book-packet is posted bearing no stamps at all, it is charged as an _unpaid letter_.

(_d_) In cases where a book-packet is re-directed from one to another postal district in the United Kingdom, the same charge is made on delivery as was originally made for the postage, one penny for four ounces, twopence for a packet under eight ounces, and so on.

(_e_) Every book-packet must be sent either without a cover, or with one open at the ends or sides, in order that the contents may be examined if it be thought necessary. For greater security, it may be tied round the ends with string, though each postmaster is empowered to remove it for the purpose of examining the packet. He will re-secure it, however, after examination. As a security against fraud, it has been found necessary to adopt precautionary measures with book-packets and newspapers: it has been demonstrated over and over again that many people will evade the Post-Office charges, cheap as they now are, if it be possible to do so.[207] When any head postmaster has grounds for suspecting an infringement of the rules of the book-post, and occasionally when he has no suspicion, he is required to open and examine packets passing through his office, in order to assure himself that the privileges of the book-post are being legitimately used.

(_f_) A book-packet may contain any number of separate books or other publications (including printed or lithographed letters), photographs (when not on glass or in cases containing glass), prints, maps, or any quantity or quality of paper, parchment, or vellum. The whole of this description of paper, books, and other publications, may either be printed, written, engraved, lithographed, or plain, or the packet may consist of a mixture of any or all these varieties. The binding, mounting, or covering of books and rollers, &c. in the case of prints or maps, are allowed. In short, whatever usually appertains to the sort of articles described, or whatever is necessary for their safe transmission, may be forwarded through the post at the same rate charged for the articles themselves.

(_g_) Among the general restrictions, we find the following:--

No book-packet must exceed two feet in length, width, or depth.

No book-packet must contain anything inclosed which is sealed against inspection, nor must there be any letter inclosed, or anything in the way of writing in the packet of the nature of a communication, either separate or otherwise. Entries on the first page of a book, merely stating who sends it, are allowable (and even desirable in case of failure of delivery) inasmuch as they are not regarded as of the nature of a letter.

Any packets found with a communication written in it (if the communication in question cannot be taken out, but forms a component part of the packet) will be charged with the _unpaid letter postage_, and then sent forward.

If a packet be found containing an enclosure, whether sealed or otherwise, or anything of the shape of a letter, such enclosure or letter will be taken out and forwarded separately to the address given on the packet. It is sent forward, of course, as an unpaid letter, but, in addition, another single rate is charged. Thus, if the article taken out of the packet does not exceed half an ounce in weight, the charge of threepence will be levied on delivery, while the remainder of the packet, if prepaid, will be delivered free at the same time.

(_h_) And lastly. The conveyance of letters being the main business of the Post-Office, the authorities make distinct stipulations that book-packets and newspapers must not interfere with the quick and regular conveyance and delivery of letters. Though it is believed to be of very rare occurrence, head postmasters are authorized to delay forwarding any book-packet or newspaper for a period not exceeding twenty-four hours beyond the ordinary time, if the other interests of their office demands it.

THE PATTERN-POST.

Arrangements for an inland pattern-post, such as has been in existence for a short time between this country and France, for the conveyance of _patterns_, have just been made. The pattern-post is now in operation, and must prove beneficial to those engaged in mercantile pursuits.

(_a_) At present, parcels of patterns may be forwarded through the post, subject to the undermentioned regulations, at the following fixed rates, prepaid with stamps, viz.:--

For a packet weighing under 4 oz. 3_d._ " above 4 oz. and not exceeding 8 oz. 6_d._ " above 8 oz. " 1 lb. 1_s._ 0_d._ " above 1 lb. " 1½ lb. 1_s._ 6_d._

and so on; threepence being charged for every additional four ounces.

(_b_) The pattern must not be of intrinsic value. All articles of a saleable nature, wearing apparel, medicine, &c. or anything which may have a value of its own and not necessarily a money value, are excluded by this rule.

(_c_) The patterns-packet must not contain any writing inside, except the address of the manufacturer or trademark, the numbers, or the prices of the articles sent.

(_d_) The patterns must be sent in covers open at the ends or sides, in the same way as book-packets, so as to admit of easy and thorough examination. Samples of seeds, drugs, and other things of that character, which cannot be sent in open covers, may be inclosed in bags of linen, paper, or other material, tied at the neck with string. If transparent bags are used, as in France, the articles may easily be seen; but even then the bags must not be tied so that they cannot easily be opened in their passage through the post.

(_e_) Articles such as the following are prohibited by this new post, and few of them can be sent even at the letter-rate of postage, viz. metal boxes, porcelain or china, fruit, vegetables, bunches of flowers, cuttings of plants, knives, scissors, needles, pins, pieces of watch or other machinery, sharp-pointed instruments, samples of metals or ores, samples in glass bottles, pieces of glass, acids, &c., copper or steel-engraving plates, or confectionary of all kinds. In almost all these cases, the contents of a letter-bag would be in danger of being damaged or spoiled.

MONEY-ORDERS.

(_a_) Inland money-orders are obtainable at any of the offices of the United Kingdom on payment of the following commission:--

On sums not exceeding 2_l._ for 3_d._ Above 2_l._ and not exceeding 5_l._ " 6_d._ Above 5_l._ " 7_l._ " 9_d._ Above 7_l._ " 10_l._ " 1_s._ 0_d._

The commission on money-orders made payable in any of the British Colonies where money-order business is transacted is _four times_ the sum charged for inland orders, except at Gibraltar and Malta, where the commission is only three times the British rate.

(_b_) The amount of any one money-order cannot exceed 10_l._, nor less than 1_d._ No order is allowed to contain a fractional part of a penny.

(_c_) Applications for a money-order should always be made in writing. "Application Forms" are supplied gratuitously at all money-order offices. The surname, and, at least, the initial of one Christian name of both the person who sends the order, and the person to whom the money is to be paid, must always be given. The address of the remitter of the money should also be given. The following exceptions are allowed to the above rule:--

(1) If the remitter or payee be a peer or bishop, his ordinary title is sufficient.

(2) If a firm, the usual designation will suffice--if that designation consist of names of persons, and not of a company trading under a title.

(3) Money-orders sent to the Privy Council may be issued payable to "The Privy Council Office."

(4) When the remitter notifies that the order is to be paid through a bank, he may withhold the name of the person for whom it is intended if he chooses; or he may, if he wishes, substitute a designation instead of a person's name; as, for example, he may make an order payable, through a bank, to "The Cashier of the Bank of England," or "The Publisher of _The Times_."

(_d_) A money-order is always issued on the _head_ office of any town where there are several money-order offices, except the persons sending it request that it should be made out for some other subordinate office.

(_e_) The sender of any money-order may make his order payable ten days after date, by simply signing a requisition at the foot of the order to that effect, and affixing a penny receipt-stamp to his signature.

(_f_) An order once made out cannot be cancelled by the officer issuing it under any circumstances. If the sender should require to transmit it to a different town than the one he first mentioned, or to a different name, he must apply to the issuing postmaster, and make the necessary application on the proper form which will be furnished to him. Directions on all these subjects are printed on the back of money-orders.

(_g_) When an order is presented for payment (not through a bank), the postmaster is required to see that the signature on the order is identical with the name to which he is advised to pay the money, and that the name be given as full in the one case as it is in the other. If this is so, the person presenting the order is required to state the name of the party sending it, and should the reply be correct, the order is paid, unless the postmaster shall have good reason for believing that the applicant is neither the rightful claimant, nor deputed by him. If presented through a bank, however, it is sufficient that the order be receipted by some name, and that (crossed with the name of the receiving bank) it be presented by some person known to be in the employment of the bank. The owner of a money-order is always at liberty to direct, by crossing it, that an order be paid through a bank, though the sender should not make it so payable. The ordinary questions are then dispensed with.

(_h_) Money-orders, when paid, do not require a receipt-stamp.

(_i_) Under no circumstance can payment of an order be made on the day on which it has been issued.

(_j_) After once paying a money-order, by whomsoever presented, the Post-Office is not liable to any further claim. Every endeavour, it is stated, will be made to pay the money to the proper party, or to some one believed to be delegated by the proper party.

(_k_) A money-order in the United Kingdom becomes _lapsed_, if it be not presented for payment before the end of the second calendar month after that in which it was issued (thus, if issued in January, it must be paid before the end of March). A second commission for a new order will then, after that time, be necessary. _Six_ months are allowed in the colonies.

If the order be not paid before the end of the twelfth calendar month after that in which it was issued, all claim to the money is lost.[208]

(_l_) In case of the miscarriage or loss of an inland money-order, a duplicate is granted on a written application (enclosing the amount of a second commission and the requisite particulars) to the Controller of the Money-Order Office of England, Scotland, or Ireland (as the case may be), where the original order was _issued_. If it be desired to stop payment of an inland order, a similar application, with postage-stamps to the amount of a second commission, must be made to the controller of the money-order office in that part of the United Kingdom in which the order is _payable_. All mistakes made in money-orders can only be rectified in this manner by correspondence with the chief metropolitan office and by payment of a second commission. Whenever the mistake is attributable to the Post-Office, however, and a second commission is rendered necessary, the officer in fault is called upon to pay it.

Proper printed forms, moreover, are supplied for every case likely to arise, and full instructions are given on money-orders. In addition, however, to supplying the proper forms, the postmasters are required to give every necessary information on the subject of second or duplicate orders.

(_m_) No money-order business is transacted at any post-office on Sundays. On every lawful day, the time for issuing and paying money-orders is from ten till four at the chief offices in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, and from nine till six at provincial offices. On Saturday nights it is usual to allow two extra hours for this business.

POST-OFFICE SAVINGS BANKS.

We have already explained at some length the origin and ordinary working of these banks; the following _résumé_ of the distinctive features of the new plan may therefore suffice:--

(_a_) Nearly all the money-order offices in the United Kingdom are now open each working-day for the receipt and payment of savings-bank accounts.

(_b_) Deposits of one shilling, or any number of shillings, will be received, provided the total amount of deposits in any one year does not exceed 30_l._, or the total amount standing in one name does not exceed, exclusive of interest, 150_l._

(_c_) Each depositor, on making the first payment, must give every necessary particular regarding himself, and sign a declaration. He will then receive a book (gratis) in which all entries of payments and withdrawals will be regularly made by an officer of the Post-Office.

(_d_) Interest at the rate of 2_l._ 10_s._ per cent. is given on all money deposited.

(_e_) Secrecy is observed with respect to the names of depositors in post-office banks, and the amounts of their deposits.

(_f_) Depositors have direct Government security for the prompt repayment, with interest, of all their money.

(_g_) Married women may deposit money in these banks, and money so deposited will be paid to the _depositor_, unless her husband give notice of marriage, in writing, and claim payment of the deposits.

(_h_) Money may also be deposited by, or in behalf of, minors. Unlike some ordinary savings-bank, depositors over seven years of age are treated here as persons of full age, though minors under seven cannot withdraw, or have drawn, their deposits until they attain that age.

(_i_) Charitable societies and penny-banks may deposit their funds in the Post-Office banks, but a copy of their rules must, in the first instance, be sent to the Postmaster-General. Special aid is given to penny-banks established in connexion with those of the Post-Office.

(_j_) Friendly societies, duly certified by the Registrar of these societies, may also deposit their funds, without limitation or amount, under the same condition.

(_k_) A depositor in an old savings-bank may have his money transferred to the Post-Office banks with the greatest ease. He has only to apply to the trustees of the old savings-bank for a certificate of transfer (in the form prescribed by the Act of Parliament regulating the transactions of these banks, viz. 24 Vict. cap. 14), and he can then offer the certificate to the Post-Office bank, and it will be received as if it were a cheque. Of course he can draw out from one bank and pay into the other in the usual way, but the transfer certificate will save him both trouble and risk.

(_l_) A depositor in any one of the Post-Office savings-banks may continue his payments in any other bank at pleasure without notice or change of book. The same facilities of withdrawal, as we have previously shown, are also extended to him.

(_m_) Additional information may be obtained at any post-office, or by application to the Controller, Savings-Bank Department, General Post-Office, London. All applications of this kind, or any letters on the business of the savings-banks, as well as the replies thereto, pass and repass free of postage.

MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS.

1. Petitions and addresses to Her Majesty, or to members of either House of Parliament, forwarded for presentation to either House, may be sent _free_, provided that they do not weigh more than two pounds, and are either without covers, or enclosed in covers open at the ends or sides. They must not contain any writing of the nature of a letter, and if, upon examination, anything of the kind be found, the packet is liable to be charged under the book-post arrangement.

2. Letters on the business of the Post-Office, relating to any of its numerous branches, may be forwarded to the head offices of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, by the public, free of all postage. Letters for the different departments of the Government in London may be prepaid, or otherwise, at the option of the sender.

3. Letters addressed by the public to the district surveyors of the Post-Office, on postal business, may also be sent without postage, though all letters addressed to local postmasters should be prepaid by stamps.

4. It is absolutely forbidden that information respecting letters passing through the Post-Office should be given to any persons except those to whom such letters are addressed. Post-Office officials are strictly prohibited from making known official information of a private character, or, in fact, any information on the private affairs of any person which may be gathered from their correspondence.

5. Letters once posted cannot be returned to the writers under any pretence whatever--not even to alter the address, or even the name, on a letter. Further, postmasters have not the power to _delay forwarding_, according to the address, any letter, even though a request to that effect be made on the envelope, or to them personally, either orally or in writing. Each letter, put into the Post-Office, is forwarded, according to its address, by the _first mail_ leaving the place, unless, indeed, it be posted "too late," when it is not forwarded till the next succeeding mail.

6. Each postmaster is required to display a notice in the most conspicuous position in his office, giving every necessary information respecting the time of despatch and receipt of mails, delivery of letters, hours of attendance, &c. &c.

7. On Sundays there is usually but one delivery of letters, viz. in the morning, and two hours are allowed during which the public may purchase postage-stamps, have letters registered, or pay foreign and colonial letters, &c.; but for the rest of the day all other duties, so far as the public are concerned, are wholly suspended. In the General Post-Office in London no attendance is given to the public. In all the towns of Scotland, and also in one or two towns in England, no delivery of letters takes place from door to door, but the public may have them by applying during the time fixed for attendance at the post-office.

8. In England and Ireland, where, as a rule, letters are delivered on Sunday mornings, arrangements are made under which any person may have his letters kept at the post-office till Monday morning by simply addressing a written request to the postmaster to that effect. Of course, all the correspondence for such applicant is kept, even supposing some of it should be marked "immediate;" and no distinction is allowed. Letters directed to be kept at the post-office in this way cannot be delivered from the post-office window, except in the case of holders of private boxes, who may either call for their letters or not, as they may think proper. Instructions sent to the postmasters of towns under this arrangement are binding for three months, nor can a request for a change be granted without a week's notice.

9. Any resident, in town or country, can have a private box at the post-office on payment of an appointed fee. That fee is generally fixed at a guinea per annum, payable in advance, and for a period of not less than a year. Private bags in addition are charged an extra sum.

10. "No postmaster is bound to give _change_, or is authorized to demand change; and when money is paid at a post-office, whether in change or otherwise, no question as to its right amount, goodness, or weight, can be entertained after it has left the counter."

11. Except in the case of foreign or colonial letters about to be prepaid in money, a postmaster or his clerks are not bound to weigh letters for the public, though they may do so provided their other duties will allow of it.

12. Postage-stamps or stamped envelopes (the latter to be had in packets or parts of packets, and charged at an uniform rate, viz. 2_s._ and 3_d._ for a packet of twenty-four envelopes) may be obtained at any post-office in the United Kingdom at any time during which the office is open--in most cases, from 7 or 7.30 A.M. till 10 P.M.

13. A licence to sell postage-stamps can be obtained, free of expense, by any respectable person, on application to the office of Inland Revenue, Somerset House, London, or (in the provinces) by application to the district stamp distributor.

14. Every rural messenger is authorized to sell stamps and embossed envelopes at the same price at which postmasters sell them; and when, in the country, the rural postman is applied to for these articles, he must either supply them, or (if he has none in his possession) must take letters with the postage in money, and carefully affix stamps to them when he arrives at the end of his journey.

15. Each postmaster is authorized to purchase postage-stamps from the public, if not soiled or otherwise damaged, at a fixed charge of 2½ per cent. Single stamps will not be received, but those offered must be presented in strips containing at least two stamps adhering to each other. This arrangement was fixed upon primarily in order to discourage the transmission of coin by post.

16. Letter-carriers and rural messengers are prohibited at any time from distributing letters, newspapers, &c., except such as have passed through the Post-Office. They are not allowed to receive any payment beyond the unpaid postage on letters or newspapers delivered.[209] Further, in delivering letters, they are not allowed to deviate from the route laid down for them by the proper authorities.

17. Persons living within the free delivery of any town cannot obtain their letters at the post-office window, unless they rent a private box, in which case they may apply for them as often as a mail arrives. In some cases where there are not frequent deliveries of letters, persons may apply at the post-office for their letters arriving by a particular mail after which there is not an immediate delivery from door to door.

18. Persons having a distinct residence in any town cannot have their letters addressed to the post-office (except a private box be taken), and a postmaster is warranted, when such letters arrive so addressed, to send them out by the first delivery. The "Poste Restante" is meant for commercial travellers, tourists, and persons without any settled residence. Letters so addressed are kept in the office for one month, after which, if they are not called for, they are returned to the writers through the Dead-Letter Office. "Ship-letters" in sea-port towns, or letters addressed to seamen on board ship expected to arrive at these towns, are kept _three_ months before they are thus dealt with.

19. When any letters, &c. remain undelivered, owing to the residences of the persons to whom they are addressed not being known, a list of such addresses is shown in the window of the post-office to which they may have been sent, during the time (only _one week_ in these cases) they are allowed to remain there.

20. Greenwich time is kept at the Post-Office.

LONDON DISTRICT POSTS.

1. The London district comprises all places within a circle of twelve miles from St. Martin's-le-Grand, including Cheshunt, Hampton, Hampton Court, Sunbury, and the post towns of Barnet, Waltham Cross, Romford, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, and Hounslow.

2. There are ten postal districts, each of which is treated in many respects as a separate post town. The names of the districts are as follows, the initial letter or letters of the name forming the necessary abbreviation to each, viz.:--East Central, West Central, Western, South-Western, North-Western, Northern, North-Eastern, Eastern, South-Eastern, and Southern.

3. The portion of each district within three miles of the General Post-Office is designated the Town Delivery. Within the town limits there are eleven deliveries of letters daily, the first or principal commencing at 7.30 and generally concluded by 9 A.M.; the last delivery commences at 7.45 P.M.; there being something like hourly deliveries within the interval. Each town delivery occupies on an average forty-five minutes. There are seven despatches daily to the suburban districts.

4. As a general rule, the number of despatches from the suburban districts is the same as the number of deliveries.

5. Information relative to the time of delivery and the time for each despatch to the head office, and also from thence to the provinces, is afforded at each town and suburban receiving-house. At each of these houses, several hundreds in number, stamps are sold, letters are registered, and separate boxes are provided for "London District" and "General Post" letters.

THE "POSTE RESTANTE" AT THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

6. The "Poste Restante" arrangements for London are somewhat different to those in the provinces; but like the latter they are meant to provide for strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in London,--residents in London not being allowed the privilege.

7. Letters addressed to "initials" cannot be received; if so addressed they are returned to their writers through the Returned Letter-Office.

8. Letters addressed "Post-Office, London," or "Poste Restante," are delivered only at the Poste Restante Office, on the south side of the hall of the General Post-Office, between the hours of 9 A.M. and 5 P.M.

9. All persons applying for letters at the Poste Restante must be prepared to give the necessary particulars to the clerk on duty, in order to prevent mistakes, and to insure the delivery of the letters to the persons to whom they properly belong. If the applicant be a subject of the United Kingdom (and subjects of states not issuing passports are regarded as British subjects), he must be able to state from what place or district he expects letters, and produce some proof of identification; and if he sends for his letters the messenger must be supplied with this information, as well as show a written authority to receive them. If the applicant be a foreigner, he must produce his passport; or should he send for his letters, the messenger must take it with him.

FOOTNOTES:

[206] The average weight of inland letters is now about a quarter of an ounce; that of colonial letters about a third of an ounce; of a foreign letter also about a quarter of an ounce. The average weight of newspapers is about three ounces, and of book-packets ten ounces.

[207] With charges extremely low, the Post-Office is victimized by all kinds of craftiness. The dodging of the proper payment is sometimes quite ludicrous. Hundreds of newspapers, for instance, are annually caught (and we may reasonably assume that thousands more escape) with short loving messages deftly inscribed between their paragraphs of type, or letters, different descriptions of light articles, and even money curiously imbedded in their folds. Almost everybody might tell of some adventure of this kind in his experience not only before penny-postage, but even after it.

[208] Moneys accruing to the revenue from lapsed orders are allowed to go into a fund for assisting officers of the Post-Office to pay their premiums on life assurance policies. No officer, however, can be assisted to pay for a policy exceeding 300_l._

[209] This prohibition does not extend to Christmas gratuities.

APPENDIX (C).

INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE APPOINTMENTS IN THE POST-OFFICE SERVICE.

All candidates for appointment in the Post-Office, whether to places in the gift of the Postmaster-General, or to those in provincial towns in the gift of the respective postmasters, must pass the stipulated examination prescribed by Government, and which is conducted under the auspices of the Civil Service Commissioners in London.

I. Candidates for clerkships in the Secretary's Office, London, must pass an examination on the following subjects, viz.[210]:--

1. Exercise designed to test handwriting and composition.

2. Arithmetic (higher branches, including vulgar and decimal fractions).

3. Precis.

4. A Continental language, French or German, &c.[211]

II. Candidates for general clerkships in the Metropolitan Offices are examined in[210]--

1. Writing from dictation.

2. Exercise to test orthography and composition.

3. Arithmetic (higher rules).

III. Candidates for the place of letter-carrier, &c.

1. Writing from dictation.

2. Reading manuscript.

3. Arithmetic (elementary).

All officers nominated to places in provincial offices must be examined by the postmaster, under the auspices of the Civil Service Commissioners, the examination-papers to be in all cases submitted to the Commissioners for inspection and judgment.

IV. For clerks, the examination consists in

1. Exercises designed to test handwriting and orthography.

2. Arithmetic.

V. For sorters, letter-carriers, and stampers:--

1. Writing from dictation.

2. Reading manuscript.

3. Arithmetic (of an easy kind).

VI. For messengers:--

1. Writing their names and addresses.

2. Reading the addresses of letters.

3. Adding a few figures together.

No person under sixteen years of age is eligible for any situation in the Post-Office.

Candidates for clerkships in London must be under twenty-four years of age but not under seventeen. The stipulated age in the country is from seventeen to twenty-eight.

No one is eligible for an appointment who has been dismissed the Civil Service.

No one is eligible who is connected, directly or indirectly, with the management of an inn or public-house.

Sorters, stampers, or railway messengers must not be under 5ft. 3in. high in their stockings.

All officers appointed to the London Office must pass a medical examination before the medical officer of the Department. A special examination after probation is required from those appointed to the travelling post-offices. In the country, candidates must provide a medical certificate to the effect that they enjoy good health.

Sorters and letter-carriers may be promoted to clerkships.

Persons of either sex are eligible for appointment in provincial offices.

Letter-carriers are provided with uniforms.

Post-office officials are assisted, at the rate of about 20 per cent. in payment of premiums for life assurance. They are also entitled to superannuation allowance, according to their length of service. Clerks in the General Post-Office are allowed a month's, and sorters, letter-carriers, &c., a fortnight's, leave of absence each year.

Clerks, sorters, &c. in the provinces are allowed leave of absence for a fortnight in each year.

Postmasters in the country and officers in the General Post-Offices must give security to the Postmaster-General for the faithful discharge of their duties, in amounts calculated according to the responsible nature of the appointment. A guarantee office[212] or two sureties are taken.

The clerks, &c. in the country offices are required to give security in the same manner to the postmasters who may have appointed them.

After the preliminary examinations have been passed successfully, each new officer, before commencing duty, is required to make a declaration before a magistrate, to the effect that he will not open, or delay, or cause or suffer to be delayed, any letter or packet to which he may have access. He is then put on _probation_ for a term of six months, after which period, if able to perform all the duties required of him, he receives a permanent appointment.

Promotion from class to class in the Post-Office is now, as a rule, regulated by seniority of service--a much more satisfactory arrangement to the whole body of officers than the system of promotion by merit which it has just superseded.

Heads of departments, postmasters, and all other officers employed in the Post-Office, are prohibited by law, under heavy penalties, from voting or interfering in elections for members of parliament.

No officer of the Post-Office can be _compelled_ to serve as mayor, sheriff, common councilman, or in any public office, either corporate or parochial; nor can he be compelled to serve as a juror or in the militia.

FOOTNOTES:

[210] This examination is for third-class clerks only. Vacancies are filled up in the first and second classes from the third without any further examination.

[211] Clerks in the Solicitor's Office are examined also in conveyancing, and in the general principles of equity and common law.

[212] A Post-Office Mutual Guarantee Fund, suggested by Mr. Banning, the postmaster of Liverpool, is in active operation in London, and deserves mention. By means of this fund many officers of the Post-Office have been relieved from the necessity of providing personal securities, or of paying yearly sums to some guarantee office. Any clerk in London who may wish to join _deposits_ the sum of 10_s._, and letter-carriers 5_s._ These deposits are invested in the name of trustees in Government securities. There are at present nearly 3,000 subscribers, with an invested capital of 900_l._ Last year there were no demands at all on the fund except payments to members leaving the service, who not only draw out their original deposits, but are entitled to receive back a proportionate amount of interest after defaults have been paid.

APPENDIX (D).

APPOINTMENTS IN THE CHIEF OFFICE IN LONDON. (_Extracted from the Estimates of 1864-5._)

In all cases marked thus * the present holders of office, or some of them, receive additional allowances, either on account of length of service, compensation, as paid on some previous _scale_ of salary, or for extra work.

----------+----------------------+------------------------------------- _Number_ | | _Salary of Office._ _of_ | _Designation._ +-----------+------------+------------ _Persons._| | _Minimum | _Annual | _Maximum | |per Annum._|Increment._ |per Annum._ ----------+----------------------+-----------+------------+------------ | | £ | £ _s._ | £ 1 | Postmaster-General | -- | -- | 2,500 1 | Secretary | 1,500 |after 5 yrs | 2,000 2 | Assistant | 700 | 50 0 | 1,000 | Secretaries* | | | | | | | |_Secretary's Office._ | | | | | | | 1 | Chief Clerk | 600 | 25 0 | 800 |{Principal Clerk } | | | 1 |{for Foreign and } | 600 | 25 0 | 800 |{Colonial Business*} | | | 11 | First-class Clerks:--| | | | 4 First Section | 500 | 25 0 | 600 | 7 Second Section* | 400 | 20 0 | 500 4 | Senior Clerks | -- | -- | 440 19 | Second-class Clerks* | 260 | 15 0 | 380 16 | Third-class Clerks | 120 | 10 0 | 240 11 | Supplementary Clerks | 80 | 5 0 | 150 10 | Probationary Clerks | | | | at 5_s._ a day | | | | | | | |_Solicitor's Office._ | | | 1 | Solicitor | -- | -- | 1,500 1 | Assistant Solicitor | -- | -- | 800 1 | Second-class Clerk | 260 | 15 0 | 380 2 | Third-class Clerks | 120 | 10 0 | 240 1 | Fourth-class Clerk | 80 | 5 0 | 150 | | | | | _Mail Office._ | | | | | | | 1 | Inspector-General* | 600 | 25 0 | 800 1 | Deputy | | | | Inspector-General | 500 | 20 0 | 600 1 |{Principal Clerk of } | 400 | 20 0 | 500 |{ Stationary Branch} | | | | | | | 1 |{Principal Clerk of } | 350 | 20 0 | 450 |{ Travelling Branch} | | | | | | | 3 | First-class Clerks | 260 | 10 0 | 350 6 | Second-class Clerks* | 180 | 7 10 | 240 12 | Third-class Clerks | 80 | 5 0 | 150 5 | Inspectors of Mails | 300 | 20 0 | 500 | Allowance of 15_s._| | | | a day when | | | | travelling. | | | | | | | | _Travelling | | | | Post-Office._ | | | | | | | 8 | First-class Clerks | 260 | 10 0 | 350 15 | Second-class Clerks | 180 | 7 10 | 240 30 | Third-class Clerks | 80 | 5 0 | 150 141 | Sorters:-- | | | | 10 First-class |40s. a wk. | 2 12 | 50s. a wk. | 19 Second-class |32s. " | 2 12 | 38s. " | 38 Third-class |25s. " | 2 12 | 30s. " | 74 Fourth-class |18s. " | 2 12 | 25s. " | Clerks in this | | | | office are also | | | | allowed travelling | | | | allowances at the | | | | rate of 5s. a | | | | trip; sorters, 3s. | | | | a trip | | | | | | | 1 |{Supervisor of Mails'}| | | |{ Bag Apparatus }| -- | -- | 290 | | | | | _Receiver and | | | | Accountant-General's | | | | Office._ | | | | | | | 1 |{Receiver and }| 600 | 25 0 | 800 |{ Accountant-General*}| | | | | | | 1 | Chief Examiner* | 475 | 20 0 | 575 1 | Cashier* | 475 | 20 0 | 575 1 |Principal Book-keeper*| 425 | 20 0 | 525 11 | First Class Clerks:--| | | | 5 First Section | 310 | 15 0 | 400 | 6 Second Section* | 260 | 10 0 | 350 17 | Second-class Clerks* | 180 | 7 10 | 240 22 | Third-class Clerks | 80 | 5 0 | 150 | | | | |_Money-Order Office._ | | | | | | | 1 | Controller* | 500 | 25 0 | 750 1 | Chief Clerk* | 400 | 20 0 | 550 1 | Examiner* | 375 | 15 0 | 450 1 | Book-keeper* | 375 | 15 0 | 450 13 | First-class Clerks:--| | | | 4 First Section | 365 | 15 0 | 400 | 9 Second Section | 260 | 10 0 | 350 52 | Second-class Clerks | 180 | 7 10 | 240 55 | Third-class Clerks | 80 | 5 0 | 150 6 | Probationary Clerks | | | | 5_s._ per day | | | | | | | | _Circulation | | | | Department._ | | | | | | | 1 | Controller* | 600 | 25 0 | 800 1 | Vice-Controller* | 500 | 20 0 | 600 3 | Sub-Controllers | 450 | 20 0 | 600 16 | Deputy Controllers | 350 | 15 0 | 500 40 | First-class Clerks* | 260 | 10 0 | 350 80 | Second-class Clerks* | 180 | 7 10 | 240 118 | Third-class Clerks* | 80 | 5 0 | 150 | {First-class } | | | 7 | { Inspectors of } | 210 | 10 0 | 300 | { Letter-carriers } | | | | | | | 15 | Second-class ditto | 150 | 7 10 | 200 20 | Third-class ditto | 110 | 5 10 | 145 2,356 | Sorters, Messengers, | | | | &c. viz.-- | | | | Sorters: | | | | 100 1st Class | 40s. a wk.| 2 12 | 50s. a wk. | 450 2d Class | 24s. " | 2 12 | 38s. " | Messengers: | | | | 20 " | 21s. " | 2 12 | 40s. " | Stampers 60 1st Class| 28s. " | 2 12 | 35s. " | " 199 2d Class| 21s. " | 2 12 | 27s. " | Letter-carriers: | | | | 330 1st Class* | 26s. " | 2 12 | 30s. " | 962 2d Class* | 20s. " | 2 12 | 25s. " | | | | | _Surveyors' | | | | Department._ | | | | | | | 13 | Surveyors* | 500 | 25 0 | 700 32 | Surveyors' Clerks:-- | | | | 13 First Class* | 300 | 20 0 | 400 | 19 Second Class* | 200 | 10 0 | 300 13 | Stationary Clerks | 80 | 5 0 | 150 ----------+----------------------+-----------+------------+------------

The surveyors have travelling allowances at the rate of 20_s._ per diem; surveyors' clerks, 15_s._ per diem; clerks in charge, 10_s._ and 7_s._ per diem. The whole are also allowed actual expenses of locomotion.

PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENTS IN THE CHIEF OFFICES OF DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH.

(_Extracted from the Estimates of 1864-5._)

----------------------------------------------------------------------- | | _Salary of Office._ _Number| |-------------------------------- of | _Designation _ | _Minimum | _Annual | _Maximum Persons_| |per Annum_|Increment_|per Annum_ --------|-----------------------------|----------|----------|---------- | | | | | _DUBLIN_ | £ | £ _s._ | £ | | | | 1 |Secretary | 700 | 50 0 | 1,000 1 |Chief Clerk | 500 | 20 0 | 600 2 |First-class Clerks | 300 | 15 0 | 400 4 |Second-class Clerks | 140 | 10 0 | 300 1 |Solicitor | -- | -- | 1,000 1 |Accountant* | 500 | 20 0 | 600 1 |Examiner* | 325 | 20 0 | 425 1 |Controller of Sorting Office | 400 | 20 0 | 500 4 |Deputy Controllers | 280 | 10 0 | 350 | | | | | _General Body of Clerks._ | | | | | | | 13 |First-class Clerks* | 200 | 10 0 | 300 39 |Second-class Clerks | 125 | 7 10 | 180 14 |Supplementary Clerks | 70 | 5 0 | 120 1 |Inspector of Letter-carriers | 125 | 7 10 | 200 1 |Medical Officer | -- | -- | 200 | | | | | _EDINBURGH._ | | | | | | | 1 |Secretary | 700 | 50 0 | 1,000 1 |Chief Clerk | 500 | 20 0 | 600 2 |First-class Clerks | 300 | 15 0 | 400 3 |Second-class Clerks | 140 | 10 0 | 300 1 |Solicitor | -- | -- | 400 1 |Accountant* | 500 | 20 0 | 600 1 |Examiner* | 325 | 20 0 | 425 1 |Controller of Sorting Office | 450 | 20 0 | 550 3 |Deputy Controllers | 280 | 10 0 | 350 1 |Inspector of Letter-carriers | 125 | 7 10 | 200 1 |Medical Officer | -- | -- | 150 | | | | | _General Body of Clerks._ | | | | | | | 12 |First-class Clerks | 200 | 10 0 | 300 30 |Second-class Clerks | 125 | 7 10 | 180 9 |Probationary Clerks, | | | | 5s. a day | | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------

APPOINTMENTS, WITH SALARIES, OF THE FIVE PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

(_Extracted from the Estimates of 1864-5._)

--------+---------------------+--------+---------------------------------- Number | |Poundage| Salary of Office. of |Designations. |allowed.|-----------+---------+------------ Persons.| |[213] | Minimum |Annual | Maximum | | |per Annum. |Increase |per Annum. --------+---------------------+--------+-----------+---------+------------ | | | | | |_Liverpool Office._ | £ | £ | £ s. d.| £ | | | | | 1 |Postmaster | 730 | -- | -- | 1,000 1 |Chief Clerk | -- | 400 |20 0 0 | 500 2 |Principal Clerks | -- | 200 |10 0 0 | 300 1 |{Controller of} | -- | 300 |10 0 0 | 400 |{Sorting Office} | | | | 5 |Assistant Controllers| -- | 200 | 5 0 0 | 250 1 |{Inspector of } | | | | |{Letter-carriers} | -- | 125 | 7 10 0 | 200 2 |Assistant Inspectors | -- | 80 | 5 0 0 | 120 8 |First-class Clerks | -- | 150 | 5 0 0 | 200 16 |Second-class Clerks | -- | 100 | 4 0 0 | 140 15 |Third-class Clerks | -- | 60 | 3 0 0 | 100 23 |First-class Sorters | -- |31s. a week| 2 12 0 |35s. a week. 23 |Second-class Sorters | -- |26s. " | 2 12 0 |30s. " 46 |Third-class Sorters | -- |22s. " | 1 6 0 |25s. " 93 |Fourth-class Sorters | -- |18s. " | 1 6 0 |21s. " |{Allowance to a } | -- | -- | -- |90l. a-year. |{Medical Officer} | | | | | | | | | |_Manchester Office._ | | | | | | | | | 1 |Postmaster | 790 | -- | -- | 700 1 |Chief Clerk | -- | -- | -- | 450 5 |Principal Clerks | -- | 200 | 7 10 0 | 250 5 |First-class Clerks | -- | 150 | 5 0 0 | 200 10 |Second-class Clerks | -- | 100 | 5 0 0 | 150 |Medical Officer | -- | -- | -- | 80 1 |{Inspector of } | | | | |{Letter-carriers} | -- | 150 | 7 10 0 | 200 2 |Assistant ditto | -- | 80 | 5 0 0 | 120 |Sorting Clerks:-- | | | | 20 | First-class | -- |31s. a week| 3 18 0 |38s. a week. 37 | Second-class | -- |21s. " | 2 12 0 |30s. " 116 |Letter Carriers | -- |18s. " | 1 6 0 |23s. " | | | | | | _Glasgow Office._ | | | | | | | | | 1 |Postmaster | 673 | -- | -- | 700 1 |{Controller of } | | | | |{Sorting Office} | -- | 200 |10 0 0 | 300 5 |First-class Clerks | -- | 150 | 5 0 0 | 200 5 |Second-class Clerks | -- | 100 | 4 0 0 | 140 10 |Supplementary Clerks | | 60 | 3 0 0 | 100 1 |{Inspector of } | | | | |{Letter-carriers} | -- | 125 | 7 0 0 | 200 |{Assistant } | | | | 2 |{Inspectors of } | -- | 80 | 5 0 0 | 120 |{Letter-carriers} | | | | 10 |First-class Sorters | -- |31s. a week| 2 12 0 |35s. a week. 24 |Second-class Sorters | -- |26s. " | 2 12 0 |30s. " 29 |Third-class Sorters | -- |22s. " | 1 6 0 |25s. " 66 |Fourth-class Sorters | -- |18s. " | 1 6 0 |21s. " 97 |{Auxiliary } | | | | |{Letter-carriers} | -- | -- | -- | 6s. " |{Allowance to } | | | | |{Medical Officer} | -- | -- | -- | 90 | | | | | |_Birmingham Office._ | | | | | | | | | 1 |Postmaster | 500 | -- | -- | 700 3 |Chief Clerks | -- | 150 | 5 0 0 | 230 2 |Clerks | -- | 150 | 5 0 0 | 200 12 |Ditto | -- | 60 | 5 0 0 | 140 1 |{Inspector of } | | | | |{Letter-carriers} | -- | 125 | 7 10 0 | 180 |{Assistant } | | | | 1 |{Inspector of } | | | | |{Letter-carriers } | -- | 80 | 5 0 0 | 120 25 |Sorters | -- |21s. a week| 2 10 0 |35s. a week. 20 |{Third-class } | | | | |{Letter-carriers} | -- |22s. " | 1 6 0 |25s. " 48 |{Fourth-class } | -- |18s. " | 1 6 0 |21s. " |{Letter-carriers} | | | | 6 |{Temporary } | -- | -- | -- |18s. " |{Letter-carriers} | | | | 5 |Auxiliaries | -- | -- | -- |10s.6d. " 1 |Medical Officer | -- | -- | -- |60l. a year. | | | | | | _Bristol Office._ | | | | | | | | | 1 |Postmaster | 325 | -- | -- | 600 1 |Chief Clerk | -- | 200 |10 0 0 | 300 2 |First-class Clerks | -- | 150 | 5 0 0 | 200 7 |Second-class Clerks | -- | 100 | 4 0 0 | 140 8 |{Supplementary} | -- | 60 | 3 0 0 | 100 |{Clerks } | 1 |{Inspector of } | | | | |{Letter-Carriers} | -- | 110 | 5 0 0 | 140 9 |First-class Sorters | -- |27s. a week| 2 12 0 |33s. a week. 12 |Second-class Sorters | -- |23s. " | 1 6 0 |26s. " 10 |Third-class Sorters | -- |19s. " | 1 6 0 |22s. " 24 |Fourth-class Sorters | -- |16s. " | 1 6 0 |18s. " 28 |Auxiliaries | -- | -- | -- |10s. 6d. " 1 |Medical Officer | -- | -- | -- |50l. a year. --------+---------------------+--------+-----------+---------+------------

INFORMATION RESPECTING OTHER PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL POST OFFICES.

------------------+----------+--------+------+-----------+------------- |Salary of |Poundage|Staff |Other |Total Name of Town. |Postmaster|allowed.| of |Subordinate|Expenses of | | |Clerks|Officers. |Establishment | | | | |for 1864-5. ------------------+----------+--------+------+-----------+------------- | £ | £ | | | £ Bath | 450 | 155 | 7 | 80 | 4,997 Brighton | 500 | 210 | 8 | 36 | 3,357 Birkenhead | 350 | 74 | 6 | 30 | 2,652 Carlisle | 300 | 68 | 6 | 45 | 3,138 Derby | 300 | 110 | 5 | 42 | 3,449 Exeter | 500 | 145 | 13 | 104 | 6,185 Gloucester | 300 | 72 | 6 | 29 | 2,404 Hull | 450 | 200 | 15 | 63 | 4,887 Leeds | 450 | 280 | 12 | 86 | 7,265 Newcastle-on-Tyne| 450 | 240 | 9 | 54 | 4,318 Norwich | 380 | 118 | 6 | 68 | 4,453 Oxford | 331 | 72 | 8 | 23 | 2,362 Plymouth | 332 | 105 | 6 | 37 | 2,648 Portsmouth | 360 | 118 | 5 | 23 | 2,104 Preston | 300 | 105 | 6 | 43 | 2,995 Sheffield | 400 | 215 | 17 | 57 | 4,708 Shrewsbury | 400 | 95 | 8 | 68 | 4,830 Southampton | 450 | 160 | 8 | 52 | 4,415 Worcester | 320 | 70 | 7 | 40 | 2,514 York | 400 | 125 | 11 | 70 | 5,059 | | | | | Belfast | 340 | 116 | 6 | 47 | 3,407 Cork | 340 | 105 | 6 | 39 | 2,719 | | | | | Aberdeen | 400 | 146 | 10 | 55 | 3,545 Dundee | 230 | 109 | 5 | 30 | 2,038 Greenock | 300 | 100 | 7 | 40 | 2,692 ------------------+----------+--------+------+-----------+-------------

FOOTNOTES:

[213] On the sale of postage-stamps.

APPENDIX (E).

AMOUNT OF POSTAGE (including Postage-Stamps sold by the Post-Office and by the Office of Inland Revenue) during the years 1861 and 1862 at those Towns in the United Kingdom where the amount was largest.

+---------------------+------------- -+----------------+ | | 1861 | 1862 | +---------------------+------------- -+----------------+ | | | | | _ENGLAND._ | £ | £ | | | | | | Bath | 17,795 | 18,433 | | Birmingham | 48,818 | 50,272 | | Bradford, Yorkshire | 17,098 | 19,640 | | Brighton | 21,945 | 22,579 | | Bristol | 33,865 | 35,720 | | Cheltenham | 11,834 | 12,315 | | Exeter | 16,334 | 16,739 | | Hull | 20,561 | 20,819 | | Leeds | 30,641 | 32,736 | | Leicester | 10,420 | 11,238 | | Liverpool | 115,268 | 117,676 | | London | 979,662[214] | 1,033,268[215] | | Manchester | 102,263 | 98,650 | | Newcastle-on-Tyne | 24,844 | 25,998 | | Norwich | 12,740 | 12,997 | | Nottingham | 12,237 | 13,376 | | Plymouth | 11,520 | 11,493 | | Sheffield | 20,364 | 21,188 | | Southampton | 15,182 | 15,852 | | York | 13,368 | 13,850 | | | | | | _IRELAND._ | | | | | | | | Belfast | 18,431 | 19,189 | | Cork | 13,418 | 13,568 | | Dublin | 67,458 | 65,199 | | | | | | _SCOTLAND._ | | | | | | | | Aberdeen | 15,283 | 16,326 | | Edinburgh | 73,863 | 74,569 | | Glasgow | 70,476 | 73,809 | +---------------------+------------- -+----------------+

FOOTNOTES:

[214] Including £163,837 for postage charged on Public Departments.

[215] Including £149,202 for postage charged on Public Departments.

APPENDIX (F).

CONVEYANCE OF MAILS BY RAILWAY.

(_Estimates_ 1863-4).

_Conveyance of Mails by Railway _Amount required in England and Wales, viz._:-- for_ 1864-5.

£ By the Birkenhead Railway 2,500 " Bristol and Exeter 9,875 " Chester and Holyhead 30,200 " Cockermouth and Workington 104 " Colne Valley 15 " Cowes and Newport 23 " Cornwall 5,500 " Great Northern 9,877 " Great Western 49,829 " Great Eastern 21,367 " Knighton 120 " Lancaster and Carlisle 18,206 " Lancashire and Yorkshire 6,900 " Leominster and Kington 300 " Llanelly 40 " London, Brighton, and South Coast 1,890 " London, Chatham, and Dover 94 " London and North Western 82,416 " London and South Western 21,620 " Manchester and Altrincham 60 " Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire 2,600 " Maryport and Carlisle 841 " Midland 35,190 " Monmouthshire 91 " London, Tilbury, and Southend 25 " North Eastern 39,177 " North Staffordshire 712 " North Union 4,878 " Oystermouth 40 " Oldham and Guide Bridge 20 " Seaham and Sunderland 70 " Shrewsbury and Hereford 2,031 " Shrewsbury, Borth, &c. 2,180 " Shropshire Union Railway 2,085 " South Devon 7,479 " South Eastern 23,635 " South Staffordshire 45 " South Yorkshire 18 " Stockton and Darlington 1,311 " Taff Vale 1,000 " Tenbury 8 " West Cornwall 1,500 " West Hartlepool 17 " Whitehaven Junction 364 " Allowance for probable variation of Awards or Agreements 19,313 -------- 405,566

The Irish Railway Service (the principal recipients being the Great Southern and Western £30,982, Midland and Great Western £15,208, Belfast and Dublin Junction £5,917, Dublin and Drogheda, £4,485) requires 86,833

The Scotch Railway Service (the principal items being the Caledonian £28,497, the Scottish Central £13,068, the Scottish North Eastern £12,000, and the Great North of Scotland £7,584) requires 79,754 -------- Total for conveyance of Mails by Railway £564,102

APPENDIX (G).

MANUFACTURE OF POSTAGE-LABELS AND ENVELOPES.

(_From the Estimates of 1864-5._)

--------+--------------------------------------------------+--------- _Number | |_ Amount of | |required Persons | | for_ | | 1864-5. --------+--------------------------------------------------+--------- | | £ 1 | Controller | 500 1 | Assistant-Controller | 300 1 | Assistant-Superintendent of Postage Stamping | 200 1 | Clerk | 120 1 | Superintendent of Printing Label-stamps | 175 1 | " Perforating " | 100 1 | Foreman of Embossing Machines, 42_s._ per week | 109 1 | Packer, at 25_s._ per week | 65 3 | Tellers, from 18_s._ to 30_s._ per week | 211 6 | Assistant-Telling Boys, from 7_s._ to 12_s._ per | | week | 127 24 | Boys for working Machines, from 4_s._ to 12_s._ | | per week | 433 | Allowance to the Accountant's Department for | | keeping the Accounts, to the Receiver- | | General's and to the Warehouse-keeper's | | Departments | 1,050 | | ------ | Total Salaries, &c. | 3,390 | | | Poundage to Distributors and Sub-Distributors | 4,600 | Paper for Labels and Envelopes, Printing | | and Gumming Labels, and Folding and | | Gumming Envelopes | 18,500 | Postage and Carriage of Parcels | 450 | Tradesmen's Bills | 400 | Miscellaneous Expenses | 500 | Estimate of additional expenditure for increase | | of business | nil. | | ------ | Total amount required for the | -- | Manufacture of Postage-Labels | 41 | and Envelopes | 27,840 --------+--------------------------------------------------+---------

APPENDIX (H).

The following important document, published by Sir Rowland Hill on his resignation of the Secretaryship of the Post-Office, and circulated privately, is deserving of careful study, as giving the results of the penny-postage reform up to the latest date:--

RESULTS OF POSTAL REFORM.

Before stating the results of postal reform, it may be convenient that I should briefly enumerate the more important organic improvements effected. They are as follows:--

1. A very large reduction in the rates of postage on all correspondence, whether inland, foreign, or colonial. As instances in point, it may be stated that letters are now conveyed from any part of the United Kingdom to any other part--even from the Channel Islands to the Shetland Isles--at one-fourth of the charge previously levied on letters passing between post towns only a few miles apart;[216] and that the rate formerly charged for this slight distance, viz. fourpence--now suffices to carry a letter from any part of the United Kingdom to any part of France, Algeria included.

2. The adoption of charge by weight, which, by abolishing the charge for mere enclosures, in effect largely extended the reduction of rates.

3. Arrangements which have led to the almost universal resort to prepayment of correspondence, and that by means of stamps.

4. The simplification of the mechanism and accounts of the Department generally by the above and other means.

5. The establishment of the book-post (including in its operation all printed and much MS. matter) at very low rates, and its modified extension to our colonies and to many foreign countries.

6. Increased security in the transmission of valuable letters afforded, and temptation to the letter-carriers and others greatly diminished, by reducing the registration fee from 1_s._ to 4_d._, by making registration of letters containing coin compulsory, and by other means.

7. A reduction to about one-third in the cost--including postage--of money-orders, combined with a great extension and improvement of the system.

8. More frequent and more rapid communication between the metropolis and the larger provincial towns, as also between one provincial town and another.

9. A vast extension of the rural distribution--many thousands of places, and probably some millions of inhabitants, having, for the first time, been included within the postal system.

10. A great extension of free deliveries. Before the adoption of penny postage many considerable towns, and portions of nearly all the larger towns, had either no delivery at all, or deliveries on condition of an extra charge.

11. Greatly increased facilities afforded for the transmission of foreign and colonial correspondence, by improved treaties with foreign countries, by a better arrangement of the packet service, by sorting on board, and other means.

12. A more prompt despatch of letters when posted, and a more prompt delivery on arrival.

13. The division of London and its suburbs into ten postal districts, by which, and other measures, communication within the twelve-miles circle has been greatly facilitated, and the most important delivery of the day has, generally speaking, been accelerated as much as two hours.

14. Concurrently with these improvements, the condition of the _employés_ has been materially improved; their labours, especially on the Sunday, having been very generally reduced, their salaries increased, their chances of promotion augmented, and other important advantages afforded them.

RESULTS.

My pamphlet on "Post-Office Reform" was written in the year 1836. During the preceding twenty years, viz. from 1815 to 1835 inclusive, _there was no increase whatever in the Post-Office revenue, whether gross or net_, and therefore, in all probability, none in the number of letters; and though there was a slight increase in the revenue, and doubtless in the number of letters, between 1835 and the establishment of penny postage early in 1840--an increase chiefly due, in my opinion, to the adoption of part of my plan, viz. the establishment of day mails to and from London--yet, during the whole period of twenty-four years immediately preceding the adoption of penny postage, the revenue, whether gross or net, and the number of letters, were, in effect, stationary.

Contrast with this the rate of increase under the new system, which has been in operation during a period of about equal length. In the first year of penny postage the letters more than doubled; and though since then the increase has, of course, been less rapid, yet it has been so steady that, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of trade, every year, without exception, has shown a considerable advance on the preceding year, and the first year's number is now nearly quadrupled. As regards revenue, there was, of course, at first a large falling off--about a million in gross, and still more in net revenue. Since then, however, the revenue, whether gross or net, has rapidly advanced, till now it even exceeds its former amount, the rate of increase, both of letters and revenue, still remaining undiminished.

In short, a comparison of the year 1863 with 1838 (the last complete year under the old system) shows that the number of chargeable letters has risen from 76,000,000 to 642,000,000; and that the revenue, at first so much impaired, has not only recovered its original amount, but risen, the gross from 2,346,000_l._ to about 3,870,000_l._ and the net from 1,660,000_l._ to about 1,790,000_l._[217]

The expectations I held out before the change were, that eventually, under the operation of my plans, the number of letters would increase fivefold, the gross revenue would be the same as before, while the net revenue would sustain a loss of about 300,000_l._ The preceding statement shows that the letters have increased, not fivefold, but nearly eight and a half fold; that the gross revenue, instead of remaining the same, has increased by about 1,500,000_l._; while the net revenue, instead of falling 300,000_l._, has risen more than 100,000_l._

While the revenue of the Post-Office has thus more than recovered its former amount, the indirect benefit to the general revenue of the country, arising from the greatly increased facilities afforded to commercial transactions, though incapable of exact estimate, must be very large. Perhaps it is not too much to assume that, all things considered, the vast benefit of cheap, rapid, and extended postal communication has been obtained, even as regards the past, without fiscal loss. For the future, there must be a large and ever-increasing gain.

The indirect benefit referred to above is partly manifested in the development of the money-order system, under which, since the year 1839, the annual amount transmitted has risen from 313,000_l._ to 16,494,000_l._--that is, fifty-two fold.

An important collateral benefit of the new system is to be found in the cessation of that contraband conveyance which once prevailed so far that habitual breach of the postal law had become a thing of course.

It may be added, that the organization thus so greatly improved and extended for postal purposes stands available for other objects, and passing over minor matters, has already been applied with great advantage to the new system of savings' banks.

Lastly, the improvements briefly referred to above, with all their commercial, educational, and social benefits, have now been adopted, in greater or less degree--and that through the mere force of example--by the whole civilized world.

I cannot conclude this summary without gratefully acknowledging the cordial co-operation and zealous aid afforded me in the discharge of my arduous duties. I must especially refer to many among the superior officers of the Department--men whose ability would do credit to any service, and whose zeal could not be greater if their object were private instead of public benefit.

ROWLAND HILL.

HAMPSTEAD, _Feb. 23rd, 1864_.

R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, LONDON.

FOOTNOTES:

[216] When my plan was published, the lowest General Post rate was fourpence; but while the plan was under the consideration of Government the rate between post towns not more than eight miles asunder was reduced from fourpence to twopence.

[217] In this comparison of revenue, the mode of calculation in use before the adoption of penny-postage has of course been retained--that is to say, the cost of the packets on the one hand, and the produce of the impressed newspaper stamps on the other, have been excluded. The amounts for 1863 are, to some extent, estimated, the accounts not having as yet been fully made up.

* * * * * *

Transcriber's note:

A missing reference to footnote [83] was inserted.

The following is a list of changes made to the original. The first line is the original line, the second the corrected one.

been the permanent arrangements for the transmision of the been the permanent arrangements for the transmission of the

Nothwithstanding the losses he must have suffered Notwithstanding the losses he must have suffered

wafer or wax, or even if totally unfastened by either. "At wafer or wax, or even if totally unfastened by either. At

rusely no argument against a State monopoly of letter-carrying. surely no argument against a State monopoly of letter-carrying.

Rev. Sydn Smith, Mr. McCullagh. Rev. Sydney Smith, Mr. McCullagh.

it might be desirable, but impracticable" (10,939). "Most it might be "desirable, but impracticable" (10,939). "Most

offices; (3) a hourly delivery of letters instead of one every offices; (3) an hourly delivery of letters instead of one every

vender, and how trade--retail at any rate--is fostered by it. vendor, and how trade--retail at any rate--is fostered by it.

the parties concerned, but the depositor run the risk of the parties concerned, but the depositor ran the risk of

Thus, letters addressed to Newport should alway give the Thus, letters addressed to Newport should always give the

A singular accident befel one of these letter-boxes (1862) in Montrose. A singular accident befell one of these letter-boxes (1862) in Montrose.

every town and village in the kingdom, having any correpondence every town and village in the kingdom, having any correspondence