The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-31 00:00:00

venient currency, for they are practically 1. e signs

of money. Money orders were at first noti allowed
to exceed L 5 ; now they may be obtained for £lO.

The Post Office renders effectual Service to edu-
cation by the cheap delivery of book packets. In

862 the number of these was 14,000,000, being an

increase on the previous year of 1,700,000. It acts

also as the distributor of news and of politiccal
opinion. In 1862 it circulated 73,000,000 news-
papers, or half a million more than in 1861. In
this manner it indirectly aids the various trades
connected with literature.

The latest career in which the Post-office has
embarked is that of savings banks, commenced in
September, 1831. The scheme has proved highly
successful, for during the year 1862 accounts were
opened by 180,000 depositors. In the same period
there were in England and Wales, 1,933 ; in Ire-
land, 300 ; and Scotland, 299 of these banks con-
nected with the Post•office. Since the beginning
of the current year there has been an addition
of 332 banks, and the deposits with the interest
figure for £2,952,296. These institutions have
been largely used by friendly, provident, and
charitable societies, and by the managers of penny
banks. It is observed in the report that " one
important advantage of Post-office savings banks is
that they give any person the power of making a
deposit or taking out money in any part of the
country in which he may happen to be, without
reference to the place where his account was origi-
nally opened. Tnis power is largely used. Last
year there were not fewer than 20,872 such deposits
and 15,842 withdrawals." The old savings banks
are expiring under this eompetiiton,:and the volun-
tary retirement of the trustees of 36 such esta-

blishments is already recorded, and £340,000 have
been transferred from them to the Post-office banks.
The new transactions have become so numerous
that they extend to 114,000 books.
The ocean mail service, chiefly performed by
private companies under contract, is admirably
conducted, and the punctuality with which it is

executed is one a the most wonderful achievements

of this wonderful age. A few examples cannot fail
to interest our readers. " The arrival of the mails,
via Marseilles, dispatched from Sydney, New South
Wales, distant nearly 13,000 miles, on the 22d
September; from Calcutta, distant 8,000 miles, on
the 10th October; from Shanghae, distant upwards
of 11,000 miles, on the 19th, and from Hong Kong,
distant upwards of 10,000 miles, on the 27th Sep-
tember; the mails were all due in London on the
18th November, at midnight, and they arrived one
hour and ten minutes before that tine:' The mails
sent from Southamton to the West Indies and
Central America have arrived at their destination
at the precise moment when they are due; and
those from Chili, after having been carried across
the Isthmus of Panama, have been delivered at
Valparaise, 9,000 miles from Southampton, two
hours before the appointed time. Transit, there-
fore, is calculated with as much certainty by sea as
by land—a distinctive triumph of human intellect,
attesting the skill of the naval architect who con-
structs the machine, and of the navigator who
acquires an absolute master over its operations. To
keep up this regularity the fleet of steam ships,

their tenders not included, is 96, with an aggregate '
of 140,000 tons, and of 36,000-horse power. The
largest and most powerful vessel employed in this
service is the Scotia, of 3,871 tons and 1000-horse
power ; and the smallest is the Vivid, ;of 300 tons
and 128 horse power, which runs between Dover and
Calais and Dover and Ostend. This Post-office fleet,
if we may so call it, is manned by a force of 8,000
sailors and officers, and 33 naval agents who are
officers in the royal navy. Such is a rapid outline
of this administrative machinery, as admirable as it
is complicated, as useful as it is wonderful.
The next question is the cost. The net gross re-
venue properly appertaining to the year 1862 was
£3,777;304, an increase over that of 1861 of £114,306.
The expenditure was £2,540,363. The net revenue
described as " the difference between the adjusted
gross revenue and adjusted expenditure," figures for
£1,236;941. If, however, the whole cost of the
packet service were placed to the debit of the Post-
office, instead of part of it being essigned to political
purposes, the net revenue would be reduced to
L 742,681. The staff of the Post-office consists of
25,380 persons, and this number includes agents in
foreign countries for collection of postage. As a part
of the internal administration, in which the public
at large have no direct concern, we must mention
the Mutual Guarantee Fund, which relieves the offi-
cers of the department subscribing to it of the ne-
cessity of giving bonds. A very small payment per
head is found to be sufficient, as defalcations are
rare. The system has been adopted for several years
at the chief cffices. In the London office there are
now more than 2,700 such subscribers, 297 clerks,
and 2,428 letter carriers, sorters, and messengers.
It is the practice of the cfficers to insure their lives,
the Post Office paying part of the premiums—
and this rule has been followed by some of the
great railway companies. Candidates for admissioe
into the service are examined by a medical officer.
In the year 1862 there were 173 candidates exa-
mined, of whom 21 were rejected. as physically
unfit for the duties. It is recommended that none
shall be appointed who have not been vaccinated,
or taken the disease naturally. Out of this section
of the report two facts may be mentioned, as they
interest many persons. Rheumatism and diarrLeca
have been less frequent and less intense since
Mackintosh capes have been discontinued ; and it
is said, from the experience of the medical officer,
that railway travelling is not attended with injuri-
ous effect to the healthy and strong if it be not ex-
cessive ; but that those who begin it at 25 or 30
years of age are more liable to suffer from it than
those accustomed to it from an earlier period of life.