The New York herald., 1851-11-18
The Dead Letter Office OF Great Britain.

The Dead Letter Office OF Great Britain.
(From the London Times, October Is
The system adopted in the dead letter office Is as
follows;-When letters are returned to the depart
meht as dead, the first step to ascertain It posi-
BILE, their parentage and then return them to their
birthplace for inteIment. If this attempt fails,
they are consigned to absolute destruction, except
where they come from abroad, in which cases they
are exchanged for similar waits with the postofces
of foreign governments. When, however, they
contain property, they are treated with much
greater consideration If the property is in the
form Of cash. the letters are carefully preserved,
register and index being kept Of their contents,
and restitution is duly made to all claimants prov.
ing their title. In default Of such claim, the
to the revenue. If the property is in the form Of
not actual cash, but Of bills, checks, notes of hand
money orders, or SO FORTH the letters are kept for
three years, at the end Of which period they are
destroyed, and the property is converted into mo-
ney by public auction for the benefit of the revenue
as before.
How much money or moneys worth does the
reader imagine was consigned to the Post Office
within TIVE nty four months, so loosely and careessy
ttat it could net be delivered at ally No less than
million and quarter stTttag' Bet Teen the 9th
Of January, 1919, and the 9th Of January, 1851,
there was found in dead letters the of 226 2S2
49, Id, in the shape of bulls, checks notes of hand,
and money orders; and in hard cash. OF bank notes,
elS,s70 los. I'D. more. There are few persons, We
suspect, to whom this will not appear almost in
credible; and yet here the plain figures before
UP, showing that sum OF money exceeding the
whole receipts of the Great Exhibition is every year
dropped into the Post office, under such circum-
stances to axe its loss very possible. Conoer
rg tie restitution disposition Of this property, il
was merely stated, in general terms. that NEARLY
the whole" was ultimately delivered 20 the writer's
Of the letters; but il is clear that the es,ape
due wholly to the provision made by government
against the general carelessness of the population
1t is very probable that some Of the bills and
notes thus discovered represented but little bona
hut AZ hn sprn ehl fuNt nf
the case are prooigious. Ten thousand pounds q
year are actually risked in money and bank notes,
not to mention checks and money orders, which
must be in a far larger proportion, and which are
little less available then cash After this disco.
sule il can be matter Of surprise that the total
number Of casualties should be absolutely un nen-
toDahie. We may safely believe that a letter
containing property is posted, in vast sjority
OF cares, with greater care than letter contaiz-
ing none; and if these particular letters therefore,
" Gle " in such numbers that their effects yield
100000 a year, we may form some conjecture of
the gross mortality. Certainly the Post Office
authorities are justified in Sd earnestly beseechng
people rot to transmit money by post, except
through the Office orders.
II is not in conte nplaton, We learn, to adopt any
fresh asures for improving the system in use but
some additional care we trust will be exercised by
the public after this exposure of its earelessness
Making all allowance for unavoidable accidents, it
must be quite certain that the death of letter is
due, in very large proportion of cases, to want Of
pains or forehoush en- the part Of the writer
Sometimes letters posted without being addressed
at all, sometimes with the address illegible, and
sometimes with a superscription for which no owner
can be discovered. All this admits of very simple
medy, especially the writer's Of letters contain
ing property must generally be persons of sufficient
education to their wits well their pens with
better effect, when reminded Of their folly. The
reader will think, perhaps, that we have made more
Of dead letter" than ever was anticipated in the
proverb but, as we are upon the subject, it
may be serviceable 20 add that letters are often lost
for want of prepayment and that after nert !Sgtw-
day no uGpuym,nt can be mate IN pioney, but only
By means If Me stamp. From that time forth no
"pepny" can be received at the window, and, as an
unpaid letter is frequt n,ly turned away from its ad
dress it will be we'll not to add this source sf ac
cident to those enumerated above.