The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-30 00:00:00

THOUGH TS on POSTAGE REFORM

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
EVENING DU TT.-INLANDrOFFICE.
Precisely at half-past four in the afternoon the
" duty" in the "Inland-office" begins. Before this
hour several mail-carts have taken up letter-bags from
the various " receiving-houses," situate in every part
of the metropolis. These collections are consecutively
continued until the closing of the " boxes" in the hall
of the General Post-office. The bags which have been
received prior to the commencement of business are
" ticked of as stated by us in our notice of the
"morning duty." They are then emptied of their
contents, and the letters and newspapers are conveyed
in baskets to the inner office, where they are thrown,
en masse, upon a large table, and "faced." This ope-
ration consists in placing the directions so as to face
the person so employed, for the purpose of facilitating
the 1% hole of the subsequent part of the process. As
they are being faced, those which are pre-paid are
laid before the stamper, who impresses each letter
with the evening stamp. While this operation is
being performed upon the letters collected by the
medium of carts, other arrivals are continually pouring
in. From the " ring-bags" of the letter-carriers, and
the boxes of thb office- in St. Martin's-le-Grand, a
constant supply is regularly maintained, so that the
different parts of the duty are thus rendered capable of
simultaneous performance. After stamping with the
outward date stamp, the label is defaced by what is
called the obliterating stamp. Certainly a misnomer
in this case, as it frequently happens from the rapidity
and carelessness of the stamper:: • that the postage frank
is scarcely touched—hardly defaced, not obliterated,
and therefore likely to be used again, to the injury of
the revenue. This being done, the letters are con-
veyed to the " sorters," who separate them into as
many parts as there are mail-coaches or railroads for
their transmission ; they are then subdivided into
towns, put into pigeon-holes representing those towns,
tied up into bundles, and returned into the boxes until
the latest moment preceding the 4;making-up" of the
mail.

This notice gives only a general outline of the duty.
Besides this regular course, there are circumstanc es
which necessarily cause a variation in it. Let it ba
supposed that a letter is posted, subject to the
following official irregularities or distinctions :
without an address superscribed, but im-
perfectly directed unpaid intended for any
of the Ministers of State or her Majesty,. Prince
Albert, or any part of the Royal Family
a specific mode is adopted in these cases, suited to the
peculiarities of the case. A letter finds its way intc7
the Post-office without a direction, a circumstance of
daily occurrence. It is quite clear that the wishes of
the writer, in having it forwarded to his correspond-
ent cannot be complied with ; it is therefore treated
as a "blind letter," and forwarded to the Dead Letter-
office to be returned to the writer if he has given his
address; if not, it is treated as waste paper.
Imperfectly directed letters are very numerous, and
it is no wonder that they are so, as it is impossible for
the public to understand upon what principle they
ought to be addressed so as to prevent the trouble
they occasion. Frequently, in endeavouring to be
explicit, the sender causes difficulty to the Post-office.
As a rule, it is best to direct as simply as possible,
without attempting to instruct the Post-office in their
own business, for the proper performance of which
they are, or ought to be, held responsible. It is but
justice to state, that in all cases of this kind there is,
on the part of the " blind" clerks of the office, the
utmost diligence and anxiety evinced, in order to
forward the unintelligible correspondence to its in-
tended destination.

Unpaid letters impede the evening duty upon the
same principle as they do the duty of the morning,
from the fact qf their being unpaid. Taxing, account-
ing for, and debiting, fbrm an amount of surplus
labour, the expense of which is not covered by the
additional rate of charge, while the process itself de-
stroys the power of the Post-office, which power con-
sists in its capability to perform the greatest possible
amount of duty in the most effective manner, and with
the greatest possible dispatch.
Dispatches sent in pouches or cases, intended for
the Queen, Prince Albert, or any other branch of the
Royal Family, or to the Ministers of State, are
specially confided to the charge of the "Inspectors of
Official Correspondence," who personally witness
their being safely deposited in the bag of the post
town to which they are sent.- Any neglect on the
part of such officers would subject them to the loss of
their situations. In such cases it is not possible for
the Post-office authorities to do more.

From half-past four to half-past seven the above
process proceeds. , As the letters are received, so
they are sent forward through the various stages of
official practice above enumerated. By this time the
supplies of the carts are exhausted, the letter-c irriers
have poured out the contents of their bags into the
general stream, and now they are actively engag_d
forwarding the duty. The last drawer from the wil
dows of the hall under the portico of the office h:s
been emptied, and nothing now remains but to ply
every energy to assort the few thousand letters still
untouched. Every man is at his post. The
thousands are divided into hundreds, and subdivided
into much smaller quantities. A few minutes
elapse—the letters are distributed, and by fif,een-
minutes to eight only a few stragglers are left,
which have been accidentally taken to a wrong di-
vision of the office. Another minute, and the last
letter appears, the centre of the office and the assorting
tables are deserted, and completely around the vast
parallelogram of the Inland-office may be seen about
three hundred men, all employed, but no one inter-
fering with the business of the other. The bags are
now filled, then tied and sealed. There stands the
mail-guard, witnessing their being deposited in his
road-sack in such order that he may draw them out
as he reaches the several towns on his route ; another
moment, and the duty is completed. Simultaneously
the sacks are shouldered by the men, and by the
time St. Paul's tolls out eight of the clock, the " mes-
sengers of weal or woe" are on the way to their
destination, to distribute hope, and joy, and fear, and
love, to tens of thousands of the anxious souls who
form the family man.

EVENING DUTY.-NEWSPAPER OFFICE.

Adjoining the Inland-office is situated .the News-
paper-office, which extends the whole length of
front, from the portico to the right wing of the build-
ing. The duty commences at half-past five o'clock
in the evening, except Monday and Saturday, upon
which days it begins three-quarters of an hour ear-
lier, to meet the vastly additional number of newspa-
pers that are posted on those days. The papers, after
being taken from the collected bags in the Tick-
room, are carried through the Inland Sorters'-room
into the Letter-Carriers'-bffice. Here they are
" faced" in a similar manner to the letters, with
this difference, that from their hulk they are placed
in trays for the purpose of sorting. The same prin-
ciple is followed up respecting the division of them as
we have previously detailed ;
.the object being in both
instances the same. Generally the pressure of the
duty in this office is overcome by seven o'clock ; the
great glut occurring immediately before six, after
which hour a half- penny is charged for forwarding each
paper. From seven until twenty minutes past that
hour there are not more, upon an average, than three
hundred papers posted; but during the next ten
minutes, the latest period allowed for posting for that
night's dispatches, there are upwards of two thousand
more. Of these the second editions of the even-
ing papers form the principal part—The Sun alone
sending daily not less than one-half of the
entire number. The papers are received at the win-
dow by an officer appointed for the purpose. He
throws them into a basket, whence they are taken by
one of the Assistant-Inspectors of Letter-Carriers
and " told." The amount of the tale is then charged
upon the receiver, and handed at the close of the
evening by the Inspector to the President on duty
in the Inland-office, who transfers it with his
other receipts to the Receiver-General. By twenty
minutes to eight the mass of papers are in the
boxes, and in five minutes more the bags are
" made up" and taken to the Inland-office to receive
the letters. Upon no evening in the week are
there less than thirty thousand papers passing through
this office, and on Saturday evening the average num-
ber is not less than one hundred thousand! Not less
than seventy pounds per month are averaged by the
halfpence taken at the " too late" window, and what
is still more surprising and satisfactory to notice is
the fact, that notwithstanding the enormous number
constantly passing through this department, the
complaints of failure do not average more than
thirty weekly, many of which are made pre-
maturely by parties, who too often act before
they give themselves the trouble to think. That
failures do occur is true, and that cause for complaint
respecting them exists is true also ; but it should be
remembered, that if a newspaper does not arrive when
expected, it may be accidentally " mis-sent," and if
so it will reach with the stamp of the town to which
it has been so forwarded, by enclosing which cover
due caution would be exacted in future from the care •
less author of the mistake. Judging from these facts,
we opine that much credit is due from the public to
the functionaries who have the control and superin-
tendence of this important branch of the service, the
whole business of which is transacted by the inspector
of letter-terriers, his assistants, the sub-sorters, and
letter-carriers of the General Post-office.
VERAX.

SCARCITY OF FUEL.—Firewood is said to be so
scarce in some parts of the Middle States, that a man
with a wooden leg is afraid to venture out after dark,
for fear of being robbed of it.—New York paper.
ANOTHER SIGN OF THE TIMES.—We recently
sta'ed that the Sovereign day coach from this city to
London, via Oxford and the Great Western Railway,
instead of running daily, would only run for four days
in the week, and we have now to state that it has al-
together ceased to run, Friday having witnessed its
last JoUrney.--}Vorcestershire Chronicle.