The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-08 00:00:00

ENGLISH POSTMARKS.

The remarks of Lord Campbell lately on the im- I
perfect manner in which letters are stamped by the Post- I
hee LI. t rue nt if this country are of some interest and
ionvortanc7. The postmarks on letters stamped in coati- ,
renal post-offices are almost invariably smaller, neater,
and Often more legible than on those stamped in the United
Kingdom. The letters, however, which pass through the
Eag'ash ruststliLe department are vastly more numerous ' I
than those which am marled in any country in Europe, I
and they have to b 7 stamped with greater rapidity, and the ;
rapid ~taping of great numbers of letters soon wears the
stomping inetrumeote, so that the impressions they make on j
letters are dual and imperfect. When a stamping instru-
t, made of good steel, is first cut, no matter how I,
rapidly Of hikes are stamped with it, the im.
pression it makes is a:most always legible ; but is a few ,
dn. it will be so worn that the legibility cannot be de- '
r. led ca. The iniptifeet letter-stamping in this country
very often, Now, see. arises from the number of postmarks
on letter. The great object of stamping letters in England
is not for legal purposes, but for the sake of guarding
&pilot mistake, io transmission by enabling the Postmas-
ter-Leine:Al to lie the blame when • letter has been
mum* or deoyed in passing through the post,
$l,l hence the number of postmarks on English
pater, Every letter going from one town to another.
by aces pest, bears two postmarks; if it has been
posted at a encl. tog office it bears three postmarks; if it
pa..es through London four postmarks ; and if from Lon-
den it has to pa-s through Dublin or Edinburgh, five ; and
one additional poOmark fur every office to which it may
happen to be mis-sent. Owing to the entail size of ordinary
letters, the large size of the English stamp, the stamping
on the back of the letter only, and the peculiar mode by
which the operation of letter stamping is performed, post-
marks see often placed one on another, and rendered
illegible is coomoluence. The mode of stamping letters
in this country is well known. A number of le:-
tem, say ad at a time, are arranged close together
in a row on a padded table ts the plane of
which the letters incline at a very acute angle. The stamper
stand• at the edge of the table, close to the letters, the
back+ of which are towards him. With the fingers of his
left hand he slides one letter from the row until it is fiat
on the padded table, while with the stamp in his right hand
whick has been dipped in a species of ink or coloured con-
pcsitien, he gives it a sharp rap, and the postmark is made.
Letters this way are stamped at the rate of about 100 per
minute. Since the introduction of postal stamps for the
prepayment of postage, the labour of stamping has been in-
creased, for the cancelling of these stamps is precisely a
similar operation to that of stamping postmarks, only it
cannot be done so rapidly. The want of uniformity in the
six and thickness of letters has hitherto prevented the ap.
plication of machinery to letter stamping.
For legal purposes two postmarks only on a letter would
be sufficient ; one made at the office where the letter is
posted, and the:other made at the office from whence the
letter is delivered. One of these postmarks could be a red
one, sad put on the front of the letter, because red marks
do not deface the address ; and the other could be made in
black on the back of the letter. By this arrangement one
postmark could not obliterate another, as now is too often
the case. The cleanliness and legibility of postmarks
depend in a great measure on the contrivances for inking
or colouring the letters and figures of stamping instru-
ments. As this cannot be done in such a formal manner as
that of inking printer's type, bemuse of the time it would
occupy, small tin or wooden dishes are used, in which is
placed layers of cloth, • hard brush with the hairs
upwards, or a composition like that used for a printer's
roller, and which cloth-brush or composition is satu-
rated with colouring matter. This dish is placed
close to the stamper, and he gives the saturated material
a hard rap with the instrument, to colour its letters and
figures previous to striking the letter to make the post-
mark. Various kinds of colouring matter are used for
stamping letters at different offices in this country, such as
red, black, blue, purple, green, yellow, and brown. Red is
the usual post-office colour for a prepaid letter, and black
for an unpaid one. Black composition, however, can never
be used with steel stamps, beaus' the materials of that
colour corrode the metal. The other various colours are
used ito distinguish different districts in the kingdom at
which letters are posted or delivered. Some time sines an
attempt was made to ensure legibility in every postmark by
hoisting upon more care and time being bestowed on
stamping letters, but it was found to be incompatible with
the necessary rapidity with which the stamping operation
must be performed, and the number of times each letter
mast be stamped, and the limited number of stampers em-
ployed. Although postmarks appear oftentimes illegible to
the public, they can generally be deeypbered by the
past-ollles authorities ; and it is rarely that a
delinquent official who has mis-sent • letter can
escape punishment from the want of evidenes
ia bite or red which can be brought against him. What
would be as unintelligible as the arrow-headed alphabet of
the anciest Babylonians to a Lord Chief Justice, can be
molly interpreted by the lynx-eyed Layards of Elt. Martin's-
le-Oraed. It may, perhaps, be interesting to state that
letters stamped in the large post towns in this coautry at
different times of the day bear different signals in the post-
marks, by which mew the hoar of the day almost at
which letters are posted can be ascertained. The utility of
these distinguistiag marks where despatches of mails take
place more than once is 24 hours is obvious. To reform
the postage stamping of this country, and to model it after
that of the continent, it would be necessary to limit the
number of postmarks, and to go to some considerable ex-1
penes in providing oftener new stamps, or repairing them,
sad in employing a greater number of dampen than at pre-
med. It deserves to be noticed, bower, that when the
postmark of a letter is 0009 messier, in • court of Judders.
it is required • thousand time, by the peel-Dies depart-
ment to cheek cerelsemese, and to detect isaffleisuoy in
eatpioyes; and ia all iaveetigatiems of this deeeripticm the
mere postmarks cm a letter the better.