The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-27 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27.

Tat Post-office is the one department of the
public service in which Government management
is in the main thoroughly successful. It is also,
singularly enough, the department which is most
free from rivalry, and in which the competition of
private contracts cannot be used even as a test.
This remarkable result is due above all to the
great man who last year retired from the office
which he had reconstructed. The case is there-
fore exceptional, like the fact. It proves that when
a man of energy and ability—such as would dis-
tinguish him in private life above his fellows—is
invited to the Government service, and when,
being secured, he is armed with powers sufficient
to carry out his designs, he will enable Govern-
ment to manage its affairs with not leas than
commercial success. Unhappily such men are
rare, and a succession of them is not to be hoped
for. But it is the privilege of genius to
impress its stamp on the character and
actions of those with whom it comes in
contact, and to perpetuate itself in some degree in
the traditions which it leaves. So we must hope
that the spirit of Itowtsxn Hitt will long animate
the Post-office. Frcm the annual Report of its
proceedings and progress which it has just issued
we receive some assurance that our hope may be
realised. It is a record of still continuing ad-
vancement, of desire to meet the public require-
ments, and to take advantage of modern improve.
ments. It is perhaps still more interesting as
oontsining in its review of the past few years, and
comparison of thew with the present moment, the
most striking evidence of our national prosperity
and growth—s growth which it can test not
merely in its material, but its spiritual aspect ; for
the extent r"d facility of our correspondence
proves not only our mercantile progress, but the
spread of education, and the binding together of
separated families by the ties of renewed affection.
It is not inappropriate to the present season to
remember that this result was one which Row-
LAND HILL deemed among the most precious that
were to be hoped for from his now ay-stem.
The figures by which these satisfactory conclu-
sions are established have already appeared in
some detail in our columns, and, therefore, we
shall now only select from them such as place the
result in the clearest light. That an enormous
increase in the number of letters has taken place is
known to everybody, but the amount is now so great
that it is dP:;eult fully to grasp it in thought.
Thus our wlr.:e correspondence iu 1863 within the
United Kingdom reached the number of six hun-
dred and forty millions of letters, and this is an
increase of two hundred millions within the last
ten years. In London alone the number is a
hundred and sixty millions, being above a half
more than it etas ten yet.rs ago. No doubt the
population h.,a increased, but, after allowing for
this, we find Unit la the United Kingdom each per-
son now receives on an average 22 letters instead
of 15 ; and is Lmrion 48 instead of 26, on com-
paring the dc,:eoliial periods. The proportional ad-
vance has Amost equal in each of the three
kingdoms, but the positive numbers are very
di,:erent, there being to each individual of the
population an average of 26 letters in England,
20 in Scotlaad, and only 9in Ireland. Some
dis-
tricta,howeuer, present an except ionalgrowth, which
indicates in a eurinus way the increase of holiday
making in te..l- population. Thus the districts of
Itantsgate, Margate, Brighton, and Scarborongn
now give about •18 letters per head of population,
age:nit some 25 or 30 ten years aim, while -Malvern
heads the li.t with 103 per head, against 57 in the
former peri.al. The reason assigned by the Post-
office for the very large figures in the case of these
dis.ricts is d. r. the population is only taken as that
which is lit, while the bulk of the letters
come for vii t.l ; but the proportionate increase
shoes how •:v the !number of visitors must have
%:.,ther p.-culiar source of increase
throughout tie country is in the use now made of
the Post-Mace for the transmission of advertise-
ments, it b,-lug camputed that in London alone
there were in 18fill inure t 1 an four millions
evidently of this class. It is not very satisfactory
to observe that the Austrian Lottery-office con-
tributed in way to the British revenue to the
extant of i : •.nOO peace.
The authorities very justly claim credit for con•