The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-18 00:00:00

BIRTHS IN THE WEEK.

Males
Females

Total

1,542

THE NEW POST-OFFICE REGULATIONS,

Since the report of the commissioners appointed by
the Government "to inquire into the state of the Post-
office" appeared, the Postmaster-General, Viscount Can-
ning, has been actively engaged with Mr. Rowland Hill
and the heads of the several departments, in the arrange-
ment of the necessary preliminaries. The Money-order-
office has been placed upon an entirely different basis,
and the number of clerks therein materially reduced.
This portion of the work has been done some weeks.
On Saturday morning last the new arrangement of the
scale of appointments with reference to the clerks in the
Inland-office was notified to them, and in the evening
the changes decided upon as to those in the London
District Office were communicated to the officers in that
department. We hear also that those affecting the letter-
carriers, messengers, stampers, &c., are in a consider-
able state of forwardness, and that it has been deter-
mined to adopt a system of out-door detective inspection
—a very necessary, entirely novel, but very valuable
arrangement.
The scale of salaries agreed upon is the same as that
proposed by the Lords of her Majesty's Treasury,
namely :—Clerks—For the lowest class, 801. a year, in-
creasing at the rate of 51. per annum, to 1501. ; for the
claps above it; 180/. a year, increasing by 71. 10a. to
2401. ; and for the highest class, 260/. a year, increasing
by 101. a year to 3501. The class termed "sorters,
"messengers," "stampers," "porters," &c., are to be
merged in the common term "letter-carriers," the lowest
in which class is to receive 198. per week, and to rise
by an annual increase of ls. per week, to 235. ; the
next class to begin at 255., and to rise to 30s. ; the class
above them to begin at 325., and to rise to 38s. ; and the
highest class to begin at 405., and to rise to 50s.
The system which has been carried out in making the
new arrangements has been strictly in accordance with
the propositions of the commissioners. Before applying
the new scale the Postmaster-General has made strict
inquiry, and instituted an impartial examination into the
qualifications of the several officers in the departments,
and it has been found that under the system of promo-
tion hitherto adopted some of the officers had advanced
to positions for which they were not properly qualified,
hile others have been overlooked. These anomalies
have been corrected. The number of clerks has been
very materially reduced in the inland office, the total
number being now limited to 130, or not much more than
half the former number, it being the expressed and un-
doubtedly accurate opinion of the Lords of the Treasury
that " the work of sorting letters might, in a great
measure, be entrusted to the members of the inferior
office, if proper precautions were taken for filling this
establishment with well-qualified persons." The Post
master-General has also fixed the future complement
each class according to the nature and amount of, duty
to be performed in it, and in consequence a re-distribu-
tion of the officers has taken place. This has, as might
be expected, given rise to some singular and unprece-
dented changes. The forming of the classes !spying
taken place according to '° qualification and meift" in
all cases, it has happened that some of the senior officers
have fallen into the lower class, while some of the juniors
have risen into the higher class. Much discontent is
said to have been occasioned by this arrangement, but
that was only natural; notwithstanding that, however,
there cannot be two questions as to its wisdom. Pecu-
niarily the parties will not suffer ; for, although the sum
paid to the officers in the lower ranks may be less than
the parties placed there under these peculiar circum-
stances may have formerly received, they are to lose no
pay, the distinct words of the Lords of the Treasury
being, that when the Postmaster-General shall make a
" re-distribution" of its officers, " in no case shall amy
one lose any part of his salary."
Important arrangements have been made, and orders
given in some of the departments as to pensions for the
future. In the London district office, for instance, a
letter-carrier of 45 years' standing never received as su-
perannuation allowance more than Os. per week. In
future, however, this pittance will be altered into some-
thing Like a liberal sum ; for as the men are to be pen-
sioned in accordance with the terms of the acts of Parlia-
ment as to the superannuation of civil servants, an
officer of such standing will be entitled to at least eight-
twelfths of his " salary and indemnity."
In the Mail Coach-office several changes have taken
place. The title of " Mail Coach-office" has been
dropped, and that of "Mail Office" substituted, for a
reason sufficiently obvious. An inspector-general of
mails has been appointed, and a chief clerk of the de-
partment. Four inspectors have also been appointed,
at salaries commencing at 3001. a year, and rising by an
annual increasement of 201. to 5001. It is, hovsever,
rather singular that, although these situations are filled
up, nothing has at present been done for that deserving
body the "mail guards," whose claims to be placed
upon the superannuation list, above alluded to, were so
frankly admitted by the Lords of her Majesty's Trea-
sury. It is to be hoped that the humane recommenda-
tions of their lordships in their case will not be over-
looked by the right hon. viscount at the head of the
Post-office department:

THE VICTORIA-BRIDGE AT MONTREAL,

The Victoria-bridge over the St. Lawrence will cer-
tainly be the most remarkable work of the kind in the
Canadas—we might say in the whole world. It reminds
us of some of the old Roman works, such as the ancient
aqueducts which span the valleys of Italy, in their grand
and gigantic proportions more than of an ordinary bridge
over a river. The success of the engineer in the build-
ing of the Britannia-bridge has fully justified him in
deciding upon the adoption of the same plan for the
Victoria-bridge, which will be constructed on 24 piers,
with spans or spaces for the navigation, exclusive of
the two abutments whence the tubes spring on either
side. The centre spade or span will be 330 feet wide,
and each of the other 24 spans will be 220 feet wide.
The width of the piers nearest to each abutment will be
15 feet, and as the piers approach the centre piers, it
will amount to 18 feet. The abutments from which the
tubes spring will be each of them 242 feet long, and 90
feet wide, and from the north shores of the St. Law-
rence, to the north abutment there will be a solid stone
embankment of rough masonry 1,200 feet in length,
raised like an artificial rock to resist the current. The
stone embankment leading from the south shore of the
river to the south abutment will be half this length, or
600 feet. The length of the bridge itself from abut-
ment to abutment, and its total length from the river
bank to river bank, will be 10,234 feet, or about 50
yards less than two English miles. The clear distance
between the under surface of the centre tube, and the
average summer level of the liver is to be 60 feet, and
the height will diminish towards either side with a grade
at the rate of 1 in 130 or 140 feet in the mile ; so that
at the outer or river edge of each abutment the height
will be 36 feet above the summer level. Unless unfore-
seen difficulties arise, the first railway train will pass
over the broad St. Lawrence by the summer of 1853.
A few years hence, and this very bridge will become one
of the greatest attractions to the tourist and the traveller.
The Colossus of Rhodes, under which the pigmy shal-
lops of former ages could pass, was esteemed one of the
wonders of the Old World. But an iron bridge, span-
ning a river two miles in width, giving safe passage to
hundreds of tons of weight between its iron sides, and
permitting ships of the largest tonnage to pass beneath
its elevated arches, is an achievement still more remark-
able for the New World, and is worthy of the young
; giant in the West.—Ahntivai