The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-01 00:00:00

Few of our social arrangements have been brought
to greater perfection than our postage system,
whether as regards extent, despatch, or regularity.
Its punctuality and fidelity have become so much
a matter of course, that we are hardly fully
sensible of its value. We put our epistle through
a little slit in a wall after affixing a little square of
coloured paper, and then turn away perfectly con-
fident that the next morning will see it lying on
our friend's breakfast table at Paris or Edinburgh,
ou bien encore embarked on its voyage to Shanghae,
or the antipodes, where we shall certainly reckon
on its arriving at the appointed time. We experi-
ence considerable irritation and annoyance i 4 by a
rare accident, a letter is lost while passing through
the Post, yet we are continually despatching letters
of business or friendship, books, papers, money
orders, circulars, and a dozen other et ceteras, by
its means, which reach their destination with the
regularity of clockwork, without ever giving a
thought to the labour necessary to keep this vast
machinery in working order. If England were
soddenly deprived of the Penny Post we should
appreciate his excellencies to the full even in these
days of good roads and railway communication, and
every year, as the statistics on the subject inform us,
the grand scheme of RoWLAND HILL is increasing
in utility and success. It was a bold idea, but one
based on a sound principle, which cast away all
the old cumbrous and expensive regulations, and
introduced Free Trade into our postage system. To
rely on the support of the many instead of the
patronage of the few, to look for profits to the
number of the receipts instead of to their indivi-
dual amount, is fully in accordance with the spirit
of our own day, but was a principle of commercial
policy less generally accepted when ROWLAND
HILL accomplished his grand reform. There were,
of course, found many who decried the scheme and
prophesied its utter failure—it is probable that its
author himself did not foresee the extent of its suc-
cess. Since the first of those little red portraits of
her Gracious Majesty was affixed to the cumbrous
quarto epistle of those days there has been an in-
crease of 529,000,000 in the number of letters. Of
course the great increase of our trade and commerce
since that time has contributed largely to this re-
sult, as well as the introduction of the uniform rate
of hostage, bat that improvement has itself aided in
stimulating and developing our commercial activity.
The greater diffusion of knowledge, too, helps to
increase the number, every year adding to the list of
those who can read and write. The proportion of
letters to each person is estimated at 24 in England,
19 in Scotland, and 9 in Ireland. Of course such an
average is merely theoretical, but it affords some
test of national education nevertheless. Taken in
this view we may reasonably hope that a few years
will show a still greater proportionate increase in
the quantity of letters posted, and less discrepancy
between England and the sister country. The num-
ber is rapidly rising, 12,000,000 more letters having
been posted in 1862 than in 1861, and doubtless
tie returns for 1863 will exhibit an equal
advance. In the London district alone the
number of letters now pcsted nearly doubles
the postage of the whole United Kingdom I
before 1839. The addition of the Book Post,
which has proved so great a convenience to the
public, has of course largely increased the labours
of the Post-office. No less than 14,000,000 such
packets were delivered in 1862, while the trans-
mission of 73,000,000 newspapers, or half a million
more than in the preceding year, testifies to the
ger eral eagerness for political knowledge. How-
ever• marvellous the exactitude of our London and
provincial postage may be, the regularity of our
ocean mail service is far more astonishing. A few
inste.nces of wonderful punctuality are mentioned
in the report for 1862, such as the arrival of the
mails from Sydney, distant 13,000 miles ; from
Calcutta, distant 8,000 miles; and from Hong
Kong, distant 10,000 miles, one hour and ten
minutes before the time when they were due.
Others have arrived at the very moment calculated
t pen, and although, of course, the wisest navigator

cannot reckon with absolute certainty on his arrival
at a given time, without regarding wind or weather,
such instances prove the high degree of skill and
Efficiency to which our mail service has been
brought, and increase the confidence generally felt
in this department of the public service. Such
efficiency is not maintained without cost and care.
The number of steam vessels employed is 96, ex-
clusive of tenders. The largest of these is the
Scotia, who is known for her quick passages, and
has just accomplished a remarkably rapid transit
from New York. Eight thousand officers and
sailors are engaged in this work, besides 33 naval
agents. The total staff of the Post-office amounts
to 25,380 persons, its revenue in 1862 being esti-
mated at £3,777,304, and its expenditure at
£2,540,363. It is truly a mighty machinery which
is constantly in motion, and affords a substantial
evidence of the energy and activity of our busy,
political, commercial, and social life. With regard
to the men engaged, it is satisfactory to find that
the compulsory registration of money letters has
greatly diminished the number of thefts by lessen-
ing the temptation, while the Post-office Savings
Banks exhibit a wonderful success. The public
owes something to these men, who, as a rule, dis-
charge monotonous and laborious duties with
civility and punctuality, seeing that they are ex-
posed to all weathers in the pursuit of their calling,
and that many of them have to undergo a good deal
of fatigue and exertion in the transmission of the
night mails. They deserve fair and liberal treat-
ment from the authorities, and such must prove in
the end the wisest and most profitable policy, as
securing a superior class of men• for a very impor-
tant branch of the public service. Altogether, the
Postmaster-General's Report for 1862 may fairly
be considered a subject for general congratulation,
as exemplifying the active life of the nation and
the triumphant success attained by the practical
application of enlarged and liberal views.

Last Monday Mr. D. HILL, the Recorder of Bir-
mingham, in his address to the grand jury, made
some most sensible and forcible observations upon
the number of our criminals and the state of our
criminal law generally. He complained that more
than one-third of those arraigned at the present
session had been previously summarily committed,
and in some cases no less than seven or eight times.
While complimenting the magistrates for the mo-
deration and equity with which they have hitherto
fulfilled their duties, he desired that further powers
should be extended to them for dealing with minor
cases which come under their jurisdiction, to the
end that severer sentences than it is now in their
power to inflict may be entrusted to them, so that
the certainty of prompt and severe punishment
might deter the evil disposed from misdemeanours.
While we agree with Mr. HILL to a certain extent
in extending the powers of the magistrates, we do
so with this proviso, namely, that those who sit in
judgment on others shall be themselves beyond re-
proach. If we wished to give a foreigner a speci-
men 'of English justice end fair play, we would
invite him to one of our metropolitan police courts,
presided over by one of our stipendiary magistrates,
where he would see justice meted out at the dicta-
tion of law and combined. The very criminals
prefer this off-handed settlement of their peccadil-
loes, and often plead guilty, to obtain the magis-
trate's sentence rather than chance their case
before a jury. But would any sane man
think of extending this power to county
magistrates, gentlemen who hold their responsibl e
positions not to their aptitude for business,
or legal ability, but solely from a property qualifi-
cation as it were, and who are in most cases depen-
dent on their clerks for the interpetration of the
statutes. There are, no doubt, many exceptions to
this list ; but these rather prove the rule, than
otherwise. Let the power of police magistrates be
extended as far as may be deemed convenient to the
public interest ; but, at the same time, let those
invested with so responsible an authority as must in
such a case devolve upon them, be men uninfluenced
by local or personal interests. In short, le►t the pre-
sent county magistracy, as it exists, be abolished,
and in its stead let stipendiary magistrates be ap-
pointed to every district throughout the country.
This will entail, no doubt, an extra expense on the
county rates in one form; but, on the other hand,
it will relieve them of much unnecessary expense
occasioned by the prosecution of futile and petty
charges at the sessions, which could have been dis-
posed of out of hand by a competent judicial autho-
rity in a primary investigation. It is high time that
the administration of the law, to however small an
extent, should not be left in the hands of game-pre-
serving country gentlemen, and others equally
incompetent for legal jurisdiction. We trust that
when further powers be granted to our magistrates,
a strict revision may be made of those eligible to
appointment. We would in future, so far as prac-
ticable, have stipendiary magistrates appointed by
the Government to all important posts, and where it
may not be convenient to appoint such persons that the
individual in whom is vested a magisterial power
shall be amenable to the stipendiary magistrate of
his district. Mr. HILL animadverts upon all prison
discipline and the general management of prisoners.
He remarks that—" No man, no woman, can, come
out of gaol the same being he or she was when they
went into gaol—they are either better or they are
worse. If the discipline which the law has ap-
pointed, and which has been administered upon
them, has not had the effect of preventing a repeti-
tion of their offences, why they must become more
hardy, more ready to offend again; while they have
gained experience, through the previous offences
which they have committed, of how such offences
are to be committed with safety. The consequence
is, that they come out again with a greater determi-
nation to do wrong, and with greater power of
doing wrong with impunity." We have on many
previous occasions:expressed our conviction that, if
the regimen and discipline in prisons were more
strict and severe, and the treatment of the inmates
of workhouses more lenient and charitable,
crime would be much reduced. A man may be
driven to theft in the first instance by want, and
from the impossibility of obtaining relief through
the agency of the parochial circumlocution office.
But once having entered on the coarse of crime, he
gradually proceeds with that career which ulti-
mately renders him a charge to the country. In
' Mr. HILL'S remarks upon the crime of embezzle-
ment, the learned Recorder asserts that he is sorry
to observe that it is on the increase, and he justly
charges employers in general with aiding and
abetting the offence by their over-confidence in
untried servants, thus leading them into tempta-
tion, and ho further maintained that while the
criminality is on the part of the servant, there is
too often imprudence on the part of the master,
and the question naturally arises whether im-
prudence, which has for its result the fall from
rectitude of a fellow-creature, is not to
some extent tinctured with criminality. After
dilating upon the relations of master and ser-
vant in general, Mr. HILL remarked that be
frequently observed that persons are often pat in
trust of money by their masters, as stewards to
receive debts for them, and in various ways to
handle their master's money, who could not Trea-
sonably be supposed to have the requisite caution