The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-31 00:00:00

THE GENERAL PO3T•GFPICE.

The extraordinary increase in the numberof Post-
officedelinquencise, and the very large amount of plunder by
letter-carriers and others employed in this important branch
of the public service, appear to excite very greatettention, and
the authorities of the establishment are directing their
serious attention to the subject, and have Leen in communi-
cation with the judges with a view, if possible, to devise
some means whereby these tiffences may be put a stop to.
The number of cane brought before the public, where per-
suns iu the eervice of the Post-office are detected and
sent for trial, bean but an exoeediugly small pro-
portion to the extent of the crime, and it pro-
bably would be no exaggeration to state that the
number of cases in which detection follows does not bear
a proportion of one-twentieth part to the number of cases
in which property—in many he-tames to a considerable
smount—has been stolen from letters passing through the
Post-office, the detection in most instances taking place b
means of " trap" or " test" letters, as they are termed,
this step being resorted to after repeated oomplainta being
made of the lota of letters in a particular district. At the
lint sittings of the Central Criminal Court, no fewer than nine
poet office letter-carriers, or sorters, were convicted, or
pleaded guilty to steeling lettere containing in some in-
stances money and property of considerable value, and
this number is nearly double the usual average. In
every one of these cases it appeared that cousteut com-
plaints had been made previously of the loss
of letters containing money, and the Poet-office authorities
were consequently compelled to resort to the expedient of
the " trap" with a view to discover the depredator. This
plan, although in some respects it may be considered
objectionable, has always been successful except in a
few peculiar cases. A good many observations have been
made at various times in reference to the amount of pay re-
ceived by the subordinates in the Post-office, and it has
been alleged that the small amount of wages received by
them has, to a considerable extent, tended to tempt them
to the commission of crime; but there is this retuarkable
fact in connection with some of the cases, ant particularly
with reference to those which have just been disposed of,
that the guilty parties were found to be in poseeuiou of
considerable sums of money at the time they were actually
as it were, caught in the act of committing a fresh offence.
In one instance the officer who searched the lodging of the
culprit, found oo fewer than forty sovereigns in his desk ; in
the possession of another there were found thirteen sove-
reigns ; and a third had seven sovereigns, besides articles of
jewellery of considerable value, all of which had been stolen
from different letters that had been entrusted to him to de-
liver. Similar instances are numerous with regard to these
unhappy offenders, and it would seem that wheu once the
career of crime has been entered upon by a Post-office letter-
carrier, he rarely ceases his depredations until de-
tection and runt° himself and family follow. A great deal
of blame, of course, rests with that portion of the public
who, despite the facilities offered by the money order aye-
tern and the registration of letters containing valuable',
still persist in enclosing money in letters. A
suggestion, it appears, was made by a learned
judge, whose attention was called to the subject,
that there should be a post-office regulation that the re-
ceiver of every letter containing money or valuables should
pay a registration fee of half-a-crown ; but as it is obvious
that in some districts persons in a bumble position of life
have no opportunity to avail themselves of the money order
system, and are compelled occasionally to send small sums
to their relatives, it was felt that such a suggestion would
entail very great hardship upon persons in that condition,
and no attempt, therefore, was made to put it into execu-
tion. A variety of other suggestions have been made at
various times by persons connected with the administration
of justice, with a view to put a stop to this very serious
offence ; but cone of them appear likely to effect the object,
and in the meantime it is to be feared that the crime goes on
steadily endearing, and that the question is becoming one of
very considerable importance.

LONDON, rHATHAM, AND DOVER RAILWAY.

The half-yearly meeting of thie company was
held yesterday at the Westminster Palace Hotel ; Lord
fio:coca ta the chair.

The Rubidium) of the report of the directors has already
appeared in our columns.
After some dimension with respect to the position of the
capital of the old company the report was adopted.
The resolutions were then adopted authorising the raising
of an additional preference capital to the extent of 6:10,0001.
in 25f. shares. Of this amount 00,0001. at fire per
cent., and redeemable at par at the end of twelve years,
was to pay the deferred Interest on the Dover extension
capital, 420,000 f.„ at six per cent., was for the purchase of
steamboat* and the general purposes of the company, and
170,0001. at the same rate for the purposes of the West-cod
extension.
_ _ _

The proceedings then terminated in the usual manner.

UXBRIDGE AND RICKNANSWORTH RAILWAY.

The operation of turning the first sod of this rail-
way, the act for which was obtained in the last session rd
parliament, was performed by Lord Ebury in a tield adjoin-
ing the Uxbridge-road, near the Ivy-house Farm, on Wed-
nesday. There was a very large muster of shareholders and
others interested in the line. The process of "turning the
sod" was accompanied with all the usual ceremonials. The
line commences at Rickmansworth, the present terminal of
the Watford and Rickniansworth Railway, and proceeding
along the valley of the Coln. by an easy and tolerably
level route, after a run of 7i miles reaches Uxbridge
ou the Great Western Railway, which it thus connects
with Watford on the London and North Western Railway.
The valley of the Coins is studded with paper mills, and
other large industrial concerns employing a considerable
amount of labour, and consuming an immense quantity of
coal, and to them it is all important that they should have
the means of obtaining fuel from the Welsh coal field at a
' reasonable rate. To agriculturists, also, this line will give
a double market, with the opportunity of obtaining manure,
Sc., at a much cheaper rate than at present. In construc-
tion it presents few features of ant difficulty, the principal
works being close to Uxbridge, Where it twice crosses the
Coins, and once the Grand Junction Canal.
At the conclusion of the ceremony a &joiner was pro-
vided in Denhani-court.park, over which Lunt Ebury
presided.

WEATHER REPORT,
AtrOVIR fO, $ TO 9 LK.