The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-29 00:00:00

THE DECEMBE
COLB UR N'S N
MAGAZINE AN

EDITED BY THEO
Is embellished with a fine Portrai
" Rattlin the Reefer,"
The End of My Tour. By the I

Editor.
A day at the Falls.
Nobody in Town.
Shakspeare's Historical Plays.
By the Right Hon. T. P.
Courtenay.
Excursions in the Environs of
Dieppe.
The Manager's Note Book—
Mr. Knight.
My Grandfather's Papers--Don-
nington Gibbet.
Love's Gifts. By Mrs. C. B.
Wilson.

Henry Colburn, Publisher, 1

The publication of THE Sun NEWSPAPER commenced this day
at 0 minutes past Three o' Clock.

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WITH WHICH
THE " TRUE SUN" IS NOW
INCORPORATED.

LONDON :
THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 29, 1833.

It is expected that at the Council to-day the Par-
liament will be further prorogued, and not summoned
to meet for the dispatch of business till the usual time.

Up to the hour of our going to press Lord
DURHAM had not reached town ; and, judging by
our Correspondent's letter from Plymouth, can scarcely
be expected to arrive this evening.

We directed public attention a few days ago to the
fact that the high rate of postage has been most inju-
rious to the interests, moral feelings, and affections of
the poorer classes. Our observations have elicited the
following letter, which we publish here, to confirm our
remarks :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
ROCHDALE, 11th Mo. 26th, 1838.
I have read with pleasure the articles on Post-office Reform
which have lately appeared in The Sun, and have been particu-
larly struck with the effects which exorbitant rates of postage are
calculated to produce upon the correspondence of the working
classes, and upon all whose means are limited. This is a part of the
general question which has often occurred to myself as deserv-
ing far greater attention than it has hitherto received. A case
which illustrates the hardship to which the poor are often sub-
, jetted from this cause has recently come under my notice, and
I venture to send it for insertion in The Sun, if it be found
sufficiently important.
A few months ago, a young woman, a native of Woodbridge,
in Suffolk, and who had come into Lancashire along with some
of her relatives in search of employment, had engaged in a ma-
nufactory in this town. Her health was not good and she
showed symptoms of consumption. She gradually became
worse, and was unable to follow her occupation, and fearing she
might not recover, was naturally very anxious to return to her
parents, or at least, that her mother should come over to see
her. Accordingly she wrote to her mother by the post, and
anxiously awaited a reply. In twelve or fourteen days a reply
arrived, in which the mother stated that her daughter's letter
had been brought her by the postman, but that she had been
unable to liberate it, from the impossibility of paying one shil-
ling, the charge of postage. The letter had therefore to be re-
placed in the office, where it remainedfor a week, until, by some
means, she was enabled to spare a shilling to defray the charge
upon it.
This may appear a very small matter to the unthinking, and
scarcely worth publishing in a daily journal, but when we con-
sider the anxiety of a parent to know the contents of a letter
from her daughter, from whom, to receive a letter by the post,
must have been a very unusual occurrence, and the anxiety of
the daughter, gradually sinking from disease, to receive a
reply, which would probably inform her if she should ever see
her parent again, and when we reflect that this case is but one
out of very many which are continually occurring, and all owing
to the extravagant amount charged by the Post•office, it surely
cannot be unreasonable to demand that such a change shall take
place as shall make that establishment more generally useful,
and more calculated to meet the wants of a great and in-
-1,-easing population.—l am, respectfully,
JOHN BRIGHT.
We ventured some time ago to throw out a hint that
the public might be made to sort the letters themselves
to a considerable extent, by having boxes put up at the
receiving houses, in which letters might be put for the
different districts, so as to save at least the first stage
of sorting. On this subject we shall now lay before
our readers the suggestions of a gentleman which
would much tend we think to facilitate both the
despatch and the delivery of letters. H. suggests
that at the district offices established through the me-
tropolis the letters should be divided into districts,
stamped and taxed before they are carried to the Gene-
ral Office. They would then nave only to be put into
the boxes of the post towns at the iDad divisions and
brought into account against the Deputy Postmaster of
the different places. Such an operation would save all the
time which is now, so far as those letters are concerned,
occupied after they are carried to the General Post-office
in sorting, facing, stamping and taxing. Another im-
provement, as it seems to us, would he to divide the seve-
ral large towns of the empire into districts, and have the
letters coming to those towns sorted for the districts in
the places where they are posted. For example, the me-
tropolis contains about the fifteenth part of the whole
population, and about the seventh part of all the letters
sent pass through its Post-office, and proceed from or
are directed to its inhabitants. It includes the
Borough, with Camberwell and Highgate, Kensing-
ton and Blackwall. At least the metropolis ought to
be divided into five, if not more districts, and the
letters put into the country Post-offices, might come
sorted for the Borough, for the East-side of Grace-
church-street, for the centre of the City, for a district
west of Charing-cross, and for a district north of
Holborn. Why should not letters be sorted in Edin-
burgh, for example, for these separate districts, as well
as for Liverpool and Manchester? In the same man-
per, the letters for Edinburgh may be separated at
least into letters for the old and new town. This
411ys • •.ci •le is obviously capable of great extension in
_ - 0,4Y,;',1" nd if combined with pigeon-holes or boxes at
two ,
eceiving-houses to make the public sort their
$ll-4 would, we believe, so facilitate both the
,Zlt9; letters for the departure of the mails, and
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