The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-22 00:00:00

THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

Yesterday, the elaborkte annual report of the Duke of
Argyle to the 'Lords of the Treasury, was published.
From it we extract the following interesting items :
The following table shows the number of letters
delivered in the United Kingdom during the last year,
with the rate of increase, and the proper ion of letters to
population. This table is to some ex'ent an estimate,
being-the result of a calculation founded on a record of

the actual number
month in the Veer.

Ircand
Scotland

United Kingdom.

In London the pi
person,

mill on,
338

About 53
.. 1 2

About

tbout 20 to each pe:-son*
.. 7
.. 16

About 17 to each person

'portion is as high'as about•4o letters to each

As compared with last year this number shows an in-
crease of 22,000,000; and as compared with the year pre-
vious to the introduction of the penny postage (1839), an
inereace (omitting franks) of 402,000,000, or more than
BiX- fold.

The increase in the correspondence with India, conse-
queni on the reduction ;,f postage from is to Gd made in
the beginning of tte year,
tine-third ofis already equal to more than
1300.0;) ale whole • the increase being from about
letters to nearly. 1,100,000.
There has been a farther increase of more than 200,000
letters in the correspondence between the United Kingdom
and .France, making, with the increase of 800,000 last
year (the.first after the late reduction in the postage), a
total increase of upwards of 1,000,000, or about one-
third of the whole former number.
There has been an increase of about 125,000 letters in
the correspondence with the United States; but the
number is still considerably less than it was before the
interruption to the packet service caused by the exigencies
gof the late war.

The number of newspapers of all kinds which passed
tbrongh the Post Office last year is es -imated at
71,000,000 ; about three quarters of which bore the im-
pressed or newspaper stamp, the others having been
franked by postage stamps.
The number of letters returned to the writers last year,
owing to failure in the attempts to deliver them, was nearly
the same as in the previous year, viz, 2,400,000, gr about
lin 200 of the whole number of letters posted. 0 wiJ g
to the same cause, about 550,000 newspapers also were
undelivered; being about 1 in 129 of the whole number.
By recent arrangements, returned letters are sent back
to the writers much more quickly than formerly ; every
such letter (except those from abroad) being now opened,
re--irected, and re-posted on the day of its arrival at the
Returned Letter Office.

Excluding official packets, the average weight of an
inland letter i% now between a quarter and a third of an
ounce; that of a colonial le+ter rather more than a third
of an ounce; and that of a foreign letter rather more than
a quarter of an ounce.

'ills average postage of an inland letter (exclusive of
official letters) is about lid.
The average weight of the newspapers which pass
through the Pest Office is rather less than last year, being
now about two ounces and three quarters. 'Pais is pro-
b.hlv owing to an increase in the number of cheap and
sm., it newspapers.
The number of book packets posted I,st year, exclusive
of newspapers, is estima►ed at nearly 3,000,000.
The average weight of a book packet is about five ounces.

BANKRUPTS.

Leonard Dalton, stone merchant, Canal-bridge, Old Kent-

road.
George Brooks, provision dealer, Leadenhall-market, City.
tßobert A.shling, brewer, Dnxford, Cambridgeshire. •
John Shaw and Joseph Shaw, woollen drapers, Shef-

field.
John Pepper and Edwin Addy Holmes, grocers, Shef-

field.
Michael Neville, brassfounder, Liverpool.
John Week, electro plater, Sheffield.
Thomas Evans, grocer, Newtown, Montgomeryshire.
Samuel Joseph Smith, auctioneer, Birmingham.
Henry Noell, accountant, Phißack, Cornwall.
Frederick Bliedberg and Marc Saran, commission mer-
chants, Liverpool.

A St'. -Petersburg correspondent wrote to the
Independance Beige on the 6th instant, that Prince
G-Jrtschakoff was to receive the "*Grand Cordon"
of the Golden Fleece- from the Emperor of Austria.
The story is what in familiar parlance is called
" fudge." There is no grand cordon of the order
in question, and it can only be given to a Roman
Catholic. An exception was made in favour
of George IV., but that Monarch had good taste
enough .not to wear the order. When a person
is invested with the Golden Fleece he is embraced
by the Grand Master (the Emperor) and addressed
as R. relative: It is a well known. faat that Prince
Gortsohakoff was extremely desirous to have the
Grand Cross of St. Stephen when he quitted
Vienna for. St. Petersburg.