The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-21 00:00:00

the limited amount of correspondence would war-
rant me in expending.
By an extension of the parcel post service, and
by other arrangements, more frequent p stal com-
munication has also been provided bet een many
provincial towns.
More frequent mails are now despatched to the
Channel Islands, and some of the deliveries there
have been improved.
Many of the mails last year, besides those on the
Great Western Railway, already referred to, were
accelerated; but the most important acceleration
for which arrangements were made did not come
into operation till the Ist of February in the pre-
sent year.
The latter measure is the. result of a proposal
made by the department more than three years ago
to the London and North Western, the Lancaster
and Carlisle, and the Caledonian Railway Com-
panies ; the proposal being that, to ensure a more
punctual working of the night mail trains to and
from the north, and at the same time to admit of an
acceleration of those trains, the passenger and par-
cel traffic conveyed by them should either altogether
cease or be strictly limited. After much negotia-
tion the three companies assented, in July last, to
the limitation ; and at the same time undertook to
effect a material acceleration.
Apart from the more regular working of the
trains (an advantage extending to the whole coun-
try), a special benefit has accrued to Scotland, par-
ticularly to Edinburgh and Glasgow, where, since
the Ist of February, 1859, the London night mail
has arrived in time for the letters to be delivered at
eight o'clock the next morning, and where there is
a later despatch, by nearly two hours, of the return
mail. The benefit, however, is participated in by
all towns further northward ; as these towns
have now an earlier arrival of the London mail by
more than an hour and a half, and a later despatch
to an extent varying from an hour and a half to
nearly three hours.
Much credit is due to Mr. Edward Page, Inspec-
tor-General of Mails, to the Inspectors of Mails, and
to the other officers by whom this important mea-
sure has been carried into effect, for their great and
successful exertions.
Unforeseen difficulties arose in completing the con-
tract which was long pending for a great improve-
ment in the postal service between London and
Dublin ; but by much labour and perseverance these
difficulties have been removed, and the contract for-
mally ratified. As time will be required, however,
for building the powerful steam-packets necessary
for the service, the new arrangements will not com-
mence till the middle of next year.
Applications are frequently made for the esta-
blishment of an additional post-office, or of an
additional mail, or for the acceleration of a mail,
which lam unable to comply with. Except in
special cases the rule in such matters is not to grant
the application unless it appears on inquiry either
that the existing amount of correspondence gives a
fair claim to the alteration, or that the improve-
ment will probably lead to such an increase of cor-
responden9e as to make good the additional expense.
And this -rule seems to me the only one which is
just to the public at large; since increased postal
accommodation can only be afforded by an expen-
diture of the public money.
It is sometimes urged that the particular corres-
pondence concerned is of unusual importance, as for
instance, that it relates to large commercial trans-
actions ; but it is obviously impossible for the de-
partment to investigate such statements, "and to
judge between the comparative value of different
classes of letters. A letter from the smallest village
relating to a matter of life or death may be as im-
portant as one from a large town containing a great
mercantile order ; but to provide in either case
beyond the expense warranted by the amount of
postage would be to tax the country at large for
the benefit of the few.
By paying the difference, however, between the
sum which the department considers itself war-
ranted in expending, and the actual cost of the ser-
vice, it is always open to those persons to whom any
particular branch of correspondence is important to
obtain the improvement they desire; and as respects
additional post-offices, at least, this arrangement is
not unfrequently adopted.
General contracts, giving the department the use
of all the trains, have been made with the Great
Western and Bristol and Exeter Railway Compa-
nies, making the whole number of such contracts
now in force 14.
The great number of arrangements still necessary
for the conveyance of letters to long distances, not-
withstanding. the length of many of the railways
for which a single contract suffices, is shown by the
fact, that for the transmission of a letter from
Land's-end to John o' Groat's—exclusive of engage-
ments with rural passengers, and of arrangements
for the conveyance of mail bags between railway
stations and post offices-21 separate contracts are
required.
Numerous alterations have been made in the con-
struction and interior fittings of the travelling post
offices on the railways, with a view to the greater
security from injury of the officers employed. The
ventilation, too, of these carriages has been improved.
Extended use has been made of the apparatus for
exchanging mail bags without stopping the train ;
and an improvement of this apparatus, devised by
Mr. Pearson Hill, a clerk of the department, by
which larger mails than formerly can with safety
be exchanged, having proved successful in a trial
on the South Eastern Railway, will shortly be
brought into use elsewhere.
Another useful invention has been made by Mr.
Dicker, supervisor of the mail bag apparatus, viz.,
a signal lamp affixed to the apparatus standards,
for notifying to the guards in the post office car-
riage the due setting of the apparatus at the rail-
way station.
The distance over which mails are now conveyed
within the United Kingdom by railways, mail
coaches, &c., steam packets, boats, and foot messen-
gers is about 133,000 miles per day, being about
3,000 miles more than at the end of 1857. This in-
crease is principally in railway conveyance ; but it
will be observed that nearly as much duty is still
performed by coaches and mail carts as by railways.
The total number of letters delivered in the
United Kingdom during the past year was
523,000,000, showing an. increase of 31 per cent.
The proportion to each person was 18.
As compared with 1857 the total shows an increase
of 19 millions ; and as compared with the year pre-
vious to the introduction of penny postage (1839)
an increase (omitting franks) of 447 millions ; mak-
ing the present number of letters nearly sevenfold
what it was in 1839.
During the last five years the rate of increase, as
compared in each instance with the number in the
preceding year, has been as follows :-
1857
1855
1856 421
77
53 11
• 31- 77

1857
1858

Average nearly 5

. .
Of the whole number of letters last year nearly
a quarter were delivered in London and the subur-
ban district; and, counting those also which were
despatched, nearly one-half passed through the
London office.

The number of letters given in the foregoing
statements include colonial and foreign letters deli-
vered in the United Kingdom, as well as inland
letters. The great bulk, however, are inland ; the
colonial and foreign forming less than 1-50th of the
whole number delivered.

The number of registered letters last year was
nearly 1,300,0000; or one registered letter to about
400 ordinary letters.
The number of newspapers deliveredin the United
Kingdom last year was about the same as in each
of the two previous years—viz., about 71,000,000.
The remark still holds good that the proportion
of newspapers and books sent through the post be-
tween this country and places abroad is much
greater than that of letters ; for while of letters the
portion, as already stated, is less than 1-50th of the
whole, of newspapers and books it is about 1-16th.
As already explained in a previous report this
difference is probably owing, in part, to the means
by which large numbers of inland newspapers and
books arc distributed otherwise than through the
post, not being available for newspapers and books
sent here from abroad, and to the rates of postage
on colonial and foreign letters being much higher,
compared with newspapers, than is the case with
inland letters.
This great disparity in the rates of postage gives
rise to petty fraud in using foreign and colonial
newspapers for letter writing.
The number of letters returned to the writers last
Sear, owing to the failure in the attempts to deliver
them,o was about 1,700,000, being the same within
°'°oo as in the previous year. This is equal to about
1 in 300 of the whole number.
Owing to the same cause about 570,000 newspa-
pers also were undelivered, being 1 in 124 of the
whole number.
abto the
o
There were about 7,250,000 of book packets last
year,_ being an increase of more than one-fifth on
the previous year ; still, however, owing to the
great decrease of newspapers sent by post since the
abolition of the compulsory stamp, the total weight
"le mails is probably less than it was four years
ago.

-The average postage of an ordinary inland letter
continues to be about 1 , and the average postage
of a book packet about 21.-d.
F'xcludig official packets, the average Weight of
an inland letter continues to be rather more than a
quarter of an ounce ; that of a colonial letter rather
more than one-thitd. of an ounce, and that of a
foreign letter about a quarter of an ounce.
The average weigh an inland newspaper pass-
ing through the postonce is about 21 ounces ; that