The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-11 00:00:00

POST-OFFICE SUNDAY LABOUR.

ORIGINAL MINUTE FOR THE CHANGE IN

THE DUTIES OF THE OFFICE.
The followieg is a copy of the original minute sub•
milted to the Postmaster-General in Febenary last :

1. In obedience to your lordship's inetructioas I'
beg to submit my dews u to further measures for
redncirg the burley duties of the Post-offiu, and as
to other improvements connected therewith.
2. Tte importance of affording to all connected
with the Post-offs,e the utmost amount of rest on the
Sunday that is coosis eat with a due regard to public
convenience having led to measures for the total sus-
pension of money order business on that day through-
out En load end Wales, it is very satisfactory to re-
-1 mark that neither the announcement of the change
nor the experience of it thus far has brought on the
department a single complaint from the public; and
I confidentty snicipate a like satisfactory result
should the Treasury concur in your lordship's recent
recommeodation of a similar measure in Ireland and

Scotland.
S. Your lordship will recollect that in considering
the above improvement, the importance of similar
relief as respects other duties was kept in mind; and,
from the investigsions which have been made, then'
can be no doubt that a further very important relief,
es relates to Sunday work, may be effected in all the
provincial (Sloes.
4. The consideration of this question, however, is
closely connected with that of a measure =illy re-
lating to public convenience, but which, contrary to
first appearances, proves on investigation to have a
direct tendency towards the same object of kitanday
relief.

5. The transmission of letters through London
on the Sunday, your lordship is awsre, hu long
been a d.sideratum, having been recommended by
the commissioners of post-office inquiry in 1836 (7th
report, No. 9), and by a committee of the Moues of
Commons, in 1838 (3rd report, page 10), and again
suggested by several members of a committee of the
Howe of Lords, in 1847 (report of select committee,
No. 430, 446).
6. The obstacles to the adoption of these recom-
mendations were, first, an assumption that it would
increase the Sunday work of the department, and a
fear that it would lead to a Sunday delivery in
London.
7. Both these apprehensions, as will be shown here-
after, are roundlet*.
8. Since the time when the above recommendations
were made, the importance of the change has greatly
increased, the Sunday. avenge of letters involved in
the consideration having advanced, since 1836, from
five or six thousand, to fifty or sixty thousand, or ten
fold.
9. The importance of the chanp will be still more
manifest on reference to the feet, that this present num-
ber of London " forward letters' for a single day mutt
exceed what was in 1838 the corresponding number
for a whole week, for the expediting of which it war
determined by government, on the recommendation
of the commissioners of post-office inquiry, to esta-
blish day mail., at an estimated cost of 15,0001. a year.
(17th report, pages 5 and 121).
10. The evil of the present arrangement, already so
great, is constantly increasing; partly because of the
'
general increase of letters, but mainly because of the
centralising tendency of the railways : the greatly
increased speed of conveyance, too, obviously tends to
make any detention more severely felt, and the in-
convenience is particularly serious when it occasion-
' ally happens the detention falls on a mail from the
I East or West Indies.
11. The evil of detention has been found so serious,
that in several asses the rule has been evaded either
I by making use of ether existing channels for the con-
veyance of the mails sent on ordinary days through
London or by the actual establishment of Sunday
cross poets, either of which arrangements obviously
involves increased expense, trouble, liability to error,
perplexity to the publie, sad additional SundaT work.
Thus the mail between Winchester and Birmingham
is sent on the Sunday through Exeter; and win, the
oorrespoodesee between the towns stlifat by the
,North-Esatern Railway, and seerdro 'eed by the
I North-Western Railway, is conveyed on the Sunday
by a mail cart, expressly running on that day be-
tween Cambridge and Wolverton, through Newport
revel, a distance of 47 miles, an arrangement in-
editing an expense of 1481. per annum (981. for the
east, and 501. for additional sating at Newport Pag-
ed), besides a direct increase in Sunday occupation.
19. Meantime the mail trains (excepting a few of
the day smile) run as on other days, and, save as
areanis Inadon, convey letters as usual ; even to
Lend" nearly all letters from Ireland, Scotland, and
the "'Vert', as also all foreign and colonial letters
whatever, are brought as on other days, the same be-
ing partly assorted at the chief office on the Sunday
for delivery, or for forwarding, as the cue may be,
the next morning.
13. For the performance of these duties, and for
the selection and deliver, of the " states" (letters ad-
dressed chiefly to the higher Aces of government),
96 persons are ordinarily employed at the chief office
on the Sunday, their time of occupation being on the
avenge six bees I the arrival of a heavy mail from
*red makes a greater force.
14. To rams the evils of this weekly enseneke
el the gamy tniesederion through redo and
the thaw sifski eat of it, aed with the view of
Ilkaisishisg the smont of Sunday work in the de-
a., a veheies I propose that the
mall -m *eel bring up on the Sunday, 1:122
*a
iien lefts gnesest bags, the forward stamped Weis,
minim however, newspapers, pa!lissarek_arj pre-
osediNft, sod all documents not paying the Mtn
rate. Mime limitations will avert on the we !slid
a M tin
LyaLrorbility of a Sunday delivery of letters
public, and on the other any unneemeeep
addition to the Sunday somata.
15. The restriction to stamped letters may, OP
ham cause some inconvenience to the public,
dally at first, arising oat of their diflicultfam
what correspond's.' panes through
what does not; bet as it is in centempladis m am-
flee the receipt of meney-paid letters to the did
sass of oath proviso's) town, and as the derien
ma he hmtraeted whenever the want of • AMp
weal muss the detention of a letter, to ablis er
wit when it is pretreated for pre-payment, te ar-
which will be facilitated by the eseepars-
=t o of link pest days, it appears to me that
the imager of Inconvenience to the public will be
mill, and certainly far less than that which now
ma% from the doubt es to whether even stamped
Wei, posted on blank post days, w ill be detained or
N. The inland letters thus brought in, as they
weed require no accounts either to be examined or
Mae est, would be despatched by the existing day