The Red Cloud chief., 1884-06-06
fight. The pture by a French

privateer Of a fIailboat in the very bay
OF pibl.n indlced our Postmaster
General x bud boats OF force to
withstand Ia enemy" after which
they Were me- at ease. one of them
feeling suilicirM at ease TO indulge in
an occasional 6 ,f the govt, as appears
from frequenf notices in the Agents
Letter Book 20 this effect: sYour
business cannDl be settled until Sir
Thomas Frankls I'd, who hath a iitte of
the govt. shall be somewhat recovered"
Their surveyor " special agent made
ayearly visit . Hh postmaster in the
Kingdom. Alb ,terSiield he found
the postmaster unhappy in his cir
camStanccs thai e cannot appear but
on Sundays" bys which he means that
the worthy of'icor was liable to arrest
for debt if he caD, out of doors on q
week day. At CT ester he found the
deputy very uneasv in his mind. He
charged the CLARKE with being frequent
" out and accepting company thought to
be- more expensive than the wages al
lowed him" Hel complains that the
gentry ''loe give much money to
the riders. whereby hey be very subject
to get in liquoE which slopes the
males All ths surveyors letters
prove him to havcl cen as jealous for
the service as his u principals, whose
deputies. especially in the foreign
packet service, IL sometimes very
curious consiSnm@ hts to test their
fidelity and ingen6iI. 1t is not to be
supposed, for instSnts ,, that they were
able to put into 1 Q mail bag ff-
teen couple of hounds going
to the King q the Romans ="
especially as that sun mail took ''two
servant maids going Is lanndresses to
my Lord Ambassador Methnen;f. nor
is it likely that Doctor CrichtOn, carry
ing with him Il COW aud divers other nee
cS,arics" (cven thouyh lie and his COW
We're post-ollice con>i&n ncnt). was CON-
PEELED to goalong viii adeal case o n
tanning four flitchcs ofb ,con."
But the most mystet3c Is item of all
contained in these nl;lpt st-oifice records
IS 1.-TWO bales of stocking for the use of
the Ambassador of the { rown of -POr-
tugal.' What mystery ) here? For,
suppose the worthy diIno nate, with all
his family, to have chdns ell their hose
thrice daily. the two bi3es would have
still lasted a half a gcnHa ion. Itis not
to he supposed that he lid imbibed East
crn habits and customs and had in
augurated 4 scraglio in 70 ,don. What
then is the solution? IlHr it is des-
tined to be an historical z mystery, COM
pared to which the idcnttfy of Junius or
of the man in the iron MD are clear as
translucent crystal.
Up to the year 1884 Tho privilege of
ranking was allowed to IN members of
Parliament and Ia official departments,
and it had by that time gfown to be a
great abGsc. Members we in the habit
of distributing vast quaint hies of franks
among their friends. and soi providing
their servants with them il s'uch num-
bers that these latter drov0A d%Ourishing
trade in them. But in this \ ,ar severe
restrictions were imposed Snt continued
till the abolition of frankinSi, 1910.
Up to the veal 1874 the H ais were
carried on horseback. ~ were now
transferred to the much faster passenger
coaches. whose time continnei to i'm
prove with the improvement of roads
and appliances till the ma imim Of
about ten miles an hour. ino1uiing stop
pages. was reached early in tn. present
century. But even this would not do,
SO in 1880 the first mail was carried on
the railway from Liverpool 70 Man
chester.
In 1872 the first money order business
was done. but the business never STAINED
great propor;ion.t;ll $40. when the Gov
charge. were very n uch d.
unfinished. The savings bank vas es-
tahlished in 1861. The telegrs n sys-
of the country was taken yer by
the Government i'm 1870, white the
parcels post" strange to say, lid not
into being until August II If the
present year.-COr. National Ref1sssS.~