The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-31 00:00:00

THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

The extraordinary increase in the numb er of
Post-office delinquencies, and. the very large
amount of plunder by letter-carriers ant/. others
employed in this important branch of t:ae public
service, appear to excite very great attention, and
the authorities of the establishment rare directing
their serious attention to the subject, and have been
in communication with the judges whereby these
offences may be put a stop to. The number of cases
brought before the public, where persons in the ser-
vice of the Post-office are detected and sent for
trial, bears but an exceedingly small proportion
to the extent of the crime, and it probably
would be no exaggeration to state that the number
of cases in which detection follows does not bear
a proportion of one-twentieth part to the number
of cases in which property—in many instances to
a considerable amount—has been stolen from let-
ters passing through the Post-office, the detection
in most instances taking place by means of " trap"
or " test" letters, as they are termed, this step being
resorted to after repeated complaints being made of
the loss of letters in a particular district. At the
last sittings of the Central Criminal Court, no fewer
than nine post office letter-carriers, or sorters,
were convicted, or pleaded guilty to stealing
letters containing in some instances money and
property of considerable value, and this number
is nearly double the usual average. In every
one of these cases it appeared that constant com-
plaints had been made previously of the loss
of letters containing money, and the Post-office
authorities were consequently compelled t o resort
to the expedient of the " trap" with a vierw to dis-
cover the depredator. This plan, althoug'b. in some
respects it be considered objectionable, always
been successful except in a few peculiar cast ?..s. A good
many observations have been made at various times
in reference to the amount of pay received by the
subordinates in the Post-office, and it has been
alleged that the small amount of wages re ceived by
them has, to a considerable extent, 'tended to
tempt them to the commission crime)
but there is this remarkable fact in conn E 'xion with
some of the cases, and particularly wit to reference
to those which have just been disposed of,
that the guilty parties were found to be' in
posses-
sion of considerable sums of money
.a t the time
they were actually as it were, caught in. the act of
co,,mmitting a fresh offence. In one instance the
officer who searched the lodging of tthe culprit,
found no fewer than 40 sovereigr.s in his desk ; in
the possession of another there were 13 sovereigns ;
and a third had seven sovereigns, besides articles of
jewellery of considerable value, e.ll of which had
been stolen from different letters that had been en-
trusted to him to deliver. Similar instances are
numerous with regard to these rinhappy offenders,
and it would seem that when 'once the career of
crime had been entered upon by a Post-office letter-
carrier, he rarely ceases his depredations until de-
tection and ruin to himself and family follow. A
great deal of blame, of course, rests with that por-
tion of the public who, despite the facilities offered
by the money order system and the registration of
letters containing valuables, still pert3ist in enclosing
mone'y in letters. A suggestion, it appears, was
made by a learned judge, whose attention was called
to the subject, that there should be a post-office re-
gulation that the receiver of every letter containing
money or valuables should pay a registration fee of
half-a-crown ; but as it is obvions that in some
districts persons in a humble position life
ofhave no opportunity to avail themselves of the
money order system, and are compelled occasionally
w
to send small sums to their relatives,
would
it
was felt that such a suggestion
entail very great hardship upo' n persons
that condition, and no attempt, therefore, was made
to put it into execution. A v ari elly
of
times other
enin
ld
sug-
gestions have been made at various
with the administration of justice„
with a view to
connected
put a stop to this very serious offence
object, and in theoffenee ; but none of
them appear likely to effect
meantime it is to be feared that the crime goes on
and that the question is steadily ;Increasing,
be-
coming Qne of very considerable importance.

The brushwood covering one of the hills over the
town. of :Toulon took fire on the 2.2 d inst., and continued
burning for sixty hours. It preened the appearance dur-
ing the night of an ocean on fixe. The inhabitants of the
neighbouring villages hastened to the spot to prevent th
fire from extending to a valuable wood. This was effects
without any great injury, except to a vast number of foxes
who were dislodged from their earth and ran howling pi e-
ously into the plain. The Smoke Was so dense that the
monastery of Notre Dame de la Garde, situated at the top
of the mountain, was not visible. The origin of the fire
'
has not been ascertained but it is supposed to have been
caw 3ed by the imprudence
of some sportsoaan. Others say
that it was maliciously fired by some trarapers who were
in the neighbourhood'