The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-07 00:00:00

THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

From further inquiries instituted at the Chief Post-
office, in St. Martin's-le-Grand, our reporter has ascer-
tained a few additional particulars relative to the in-
crease in the number of employees in this important
department of the public service, slightly alluded to in
the Morning Advertiser of yesterday, and also as to cer-
tain other movements which are at the present time
taking place in that vast establishment. It appears
that the 120 appointments the Right Hon. the Post-
xnaster-General has been authorised to make by order of
the Lords of her Majesty's Treasury, are to be thus
apportioned. Fifty are for the situation of clerk in the
l:nland-office, sixty for letter-carriers, and ten for mes-
s .eugers' places. The reason why sixty letter-carriers
: bre to be appointed is as follows :—According to the pre-
: lent arrangement, sixty of the sub-sorters are employed,
tfter the morning in-door duty is completed, as letter-
, mrriers' assistants, chiefly on the heaviest city walks.
sow, however, it is practically found, that as the arrival
of the mails from some parts of the provinces, from the
Continent, and from foreign parts, is almost continuous
and likely to become altogether so, the constant attend-
ance of the sorters is indispensable— hence the addi-
tional appointments of this class. Why so many clerks
should have been appointed as "clerks" it is difficult
to divine, inasmuch as the uniform rate (now chiefly
pre-paid by label before the correspondence reaches the
Post-office) has nearly altogether obviated the necessity
for the appointment of a class of officers heretofore con-
sidered to be superior to the sub-sorters and letter-ear-
-1 viers, because of their supposed acquaintance with the
routine of the desk or the counting-house. Circum-
stances have, during the last few years, combined to
show that the unremitting duties of the inland sub-
sorters have become, in the modus operandi of the
office, of equal, if not of greater, value than those of
officers higher in rank, and much 'better paid for their
services ; and it is a pleasing fact, that the improved
appearance of this class of officers during the last ten years
is an evidence that this class appreciates the position
in which they are placed, the whole of them having been,
through good conduct, promoted from the ranks of the
body of letter-carriers. Our reporter has learned, that
at the present moment they are preparing, for presenta-
tion to the Postmaster-General, a petition for an ad-
vance of wages, and a more equalised scale of rernune-
ration, to which, comparing their salaries and prospects
with those of the clerks, they are unquestionably
f
en-
titled. It is pleasing to be able to state that
_btuhtelittle
doubt exists as to the favourable reception
me-
morial alluded to, which has already been most nume-
rously signed. It indeed,
of the present
far as can he learned—that in consequence
of offices through-
and proposed increase in the number
day
is not for distant when
is, exceedingly probable—so
out the establishment, the
give instructions for a
complete revision of t lsewveral scales of wages, with
equalising the system of there-
t he
vLieowrdsofofadt
jhuestTinrgea
throughout the entiredepartment, comprising
muneration
of the inland and the London dis-
trictas it does the whole
and the settlement of which has long been
offices, the de q
desired by the authorities themselves, as well as the
subordinate officers employed in the service,..—Morning
Advertiser.