POST-OFFICE.

It has been usual to trace the origin of posts to a remote antiquity; certain establishments, having something in common with the modern post system, being found to have existed at an early period of the world’s history. Herodotus and Xenophon mention that, amongst the ancient Persians, stations were appointed at intervals along the great roads of the empire, where couriers were constantly kept in readiness to convey dispatches and intelligence. Similar institutions, as we learn from Suetonius, were maintained amongst the Romans in the time of Augustus, and such probably existed much earlier.

But although the name of the post may be traced to this source, (from the Latin word positus, whether as applied to the accommodation and means of transport placed at intervals for the service of the couriers, or to the couriers themselves, placed or posted at the several stations,) such institutions obviously bear but a general resemblance to the postoffice of the present times. The couriers were mere state messengers, the communication only to and from the seat of government; nor, as far as appears, was there any regular machinery for the receipt and delivery of letters, so essential to the idea of a modern post establishment.

The posts which were first instituted in the kingdoms of modern Europe, as those by Charlemagne and Louis XI. of France, the Emperor Charles V., and some other sovereigns, differed little, if at all, from those now described. It is indeed probable, that whenever the posts or couriers were appointed to perform their journeys at stated periods (which, as soon as the occasions for employing them became frequent, would be found at once the most economical and effective mode,) such a convenient means of conveying correspondence, though primarily intended only for state purposes, would soon come to be used by individuals. Houses of call, for the receipt and delivery of letters, would in process of time be established by custom, if not by regular appointment; and in this way might grow up the modern post system. The earlier posts instituted in Europe, however, were in general but of temporary duration; their existence being dependent sometimes on occasion, sometimes on the disposition or policy of particular monarchs.

Between the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century, indeed, there were several members, in succession, of the noble family of Taxis in Germany who applied themselves in a remarkable manner to the establishment of posts, and the office of postmaster-general of the empire was eventually conferred on the family as a hereditary fief. As certain posts settled by this family fat a period preceding that in which the modern post system was generally introduced in Europe,) continued permanent, such posts may be considered (unless, indeed, they were at first formed on the modern plan (as affording an instance of transition from the ancient to the modern system. In other cases, however, there is no room for representing the latter as having grown out of any extension, adaptation, or improvement of the former. Thus, in our own country, the insular position of which made our sovereigns less anxious about intelligence from their frontier, nothing of the nature of a public post establishment can be said to have existed, (with an immaterial exception in the reign of Edward IV.) until after the modern form was introduced, the rise ofwhich itis a matterof no difficulty to explain. Theconvey-ance of letters, indeed, is what must inevitably become, in the course of human transactions, as much matter of necessity, as the conveyance of persons or of commodities; and the same circumstances which generate the formation of roads and bridges, and give existence to the trade or occupation of carrier, shipmaster, or innkeeper, must necessarily lead to the employment of the post messenger, under greater or less degrees of system and regularity.

History, more attentive to record the transactions of monarchs, than the steps by which communities effect their advancement and improve their conveniences, furnishes nothing beyond an incidental notice of the modes by which the circulation of correspondence was conducted, before it became matter of state regulation. Of course, however, it is not to be supposed that no such modes existed, or that notices of these are entirely wanting. The conveyance and delivery of letters was often part of the regular occupation of travelling pedlars and others whose business led them to perform stated or frequent journeys. When commerce began to advance, regular conveyances for correspondence were established between some of the principal trading cities, either by the municipal authorities,^[1. Kennedy, in bis annals of Aberdeen, mentions that the magistrates of that city, in the year 1590, appointed a person to convey their dispatches to and from Edinburgh and other places of royal residence. This functionary bore the style of council post, and was arrayed in a garment of blue cloth with the town’s armorial bearings in silver upon the sleeve. Vol. i. p. 262. ] or by concert of private individuals or associations. A permanent establishment of messengers for the conveyance of letters was attached to the university of Par is, from the beginning of the thirteenth century, and, indeed, was not abolished until the year 1719, long after a general post had been settled in France. Other universities were similarly provided.^[2. In the act of Queen Anne there is a special clause, permitting letters to be sent to and from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, “in manner as heretofore hath been used, anything herein to the contrary notwithstanding.” The privilege has since ceased to exist. ] In some instances powerful and opulent individuals established posts, either as a mercantile speculation, or for the convenience of any district in the prosperity ofwhich they took an interest. But although the conveyance of correspondence was thus brought to some degree of system, or rather prevailed under a variety of systems, even in places where the state authorities had not yet provided any public establishment for this purpose, it is easy to see that communication, especially between more distant places, must have been slow, irregular, and insecure. The advantage and even necessity of having a uniform and legalized system of post conveyance, could not have failed to present itself to thd eyes both of subjects and rulers; although it may be a question whether the sovereigns who first established such systems in their dominions were, in general, moved so much by large and enlightened views of public benefit, as by the wish to create, according to the practice so usual in that age, a lucrative trading monopoly in behalf of some of their favourites.

The establishment of the modern post system, then, in regard to the mode of its taking place in some of the principal countries of Europe, is not properly to be viewed as of the nature of a political or civil invention; being merely the assumption, on the part of the state, of the conduct of a particular department of human affairs, which had grown up with the progress of society, but could no longer be corn [7:18:487]petently managed by individuals, whether acting severally or in concert. And accordingly, in acts and ordinances relative to posts, there is not so much in the shape of offer of a new species of accommodation, as of prohibition against procuring the same accommodation by any other than the offered means.

The notices we possess of the early history of the British post-office, are but meagre and indistinct. What they amount to may be stated as follows. There was a chief postmaster of England in the reign of Elizabeth, if not earlier, Randolph having that title assigned him by Camden (1581); but his duties, of which that author takes no notice, probably related but partially, if at all, to the conveyance of correspondence.^[3. The name of posts, as already observed, had its origin in relation to an arrangement of travelling stations, a relation which it continued to preserve; and before the establishment of letter offices, the postmaster (a use of the term not yet obsolete), was the person who provided the means of conveyance from one station to another. The necessity of regulation and superintendence in regard to an office of this kind, led to the appointment of a postmaster-general, to whom such superintendence was committed. For some time after the establishment of letter-offices, the duties of postmaster, in the earlier and later meaning of the term, were conjoined. ] James I. appointed a postmaster to take charge of the conveyance of letters to and from foreign parts ; and different persons are named as successively enjoying this office during his reign and that of his son Charles. In 1635 Charles established a letter office for England and Scotland, which may properly be regarded as the origin of the British post-office. The persons to whose management it was committed, were directed to establish, within a limited time, a post from London to Edinburgh, one to Westchester and Holyhead, and another to Plymouth and Exeter; and the journey from London to the termination of each of these lines and back, was appointed to be performed in six days. Bye-posts were ordered to be established, and other principal lines opened upas occasion might arise; and conveyance of letters otherwise than by post was now prohibited within the kingdom, as it had formerly been between the kingdom and places abroad.^[4. Foedera, tom. xix. p. 649. ]

In the year 1642, a committee of the House of Commons was appointed to report on certain matters connected with the post-office; and the subject continued afterwards, at intervals, to engage the attention of the House. In 1644, Mr. Edmund Prideaux, who afterwards held the office of attorney-general to the commonwealth, and who had been chairman of the committee of 1642, was elected postmaster-general by resolution of both Houses of Parliament; “in the execution of which office,” says Blackstone, “he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation, thereby saving to the public the charge of maintaining postmasters to the amount of L.7000 per annum.”^[5. Com. book i. ch. 8. ] This has been interpreted to mean (whether correctly or not) that the charges of the post-office previously to the improvement effected by Prideaux, exceeded its income by the sum mentioned.^[6. It is stated that the revenue in 1614 was estimated at L.5000. Macpherson’s Annals of Commerce, vol. iii. p. 408, ] Be this as it may, there seems to have been, from the period of these improvements, a considerable profit realised from the posts. Whether from a desire to share in this profit, or for other reasons, the Common Council of London, in the year 1649, set about establishing a separate post-office; an attempt, however, which was promptly put down by a resolution of the House of Commons, declaring that “the office of postmaster is and ought to be in the sole power and disposal of Parliament.”

Itappearslikely, that, originally, any surplus revenue which might be obtained from the posts, was allowed to belong to the postmaster, and even that the charges for postage were fixed by him, although subsequently regulated otherwise.

Tims, the proclamation of Charles I. in 1632,^[7. Rymer’s Foedera, tom xix. p. 385. ] forbidding the conveyance of letters abroad otherwise than by the post, refers to the act of his father, by which the post to foreign parts was first established; and narrates, that that act gave to the postmasters “power to take moderate salaries,” meaning, it might be supposed, to charge such rates as would afford moderate salaries; and a little later, in regard to the case of Wytherings, from whom the office of postmaster had been sequestrated by proclamation in 1640,^[8. Foedera, torn-xx. p. 429. ] we find the Commons in 1642 declaring the sequestration a grievance and illegal, and “that Mr. Wytherings ought to be restored into the possession of his place as postmaster for foreign parts, and to the mean profits received since he was out of possession, deducting the reasonable and usual charge of execution.”^[9. Journals, 28th March, 164?. ] At a later period, commencing probably about the time when Prideaux held the office of postmaster, it was the custom to farm the revenues of the post-office.^[10. They were farmed in 1654, by a person named Maubey, or Manley, for L. 10,000. In a view of the public revenue made up by a Committee of the Commons in 1659, there is an item, “By postage of letters in farm, L. 14,000.” Journals, vol. vii. p. 627. ]

The post rates first established were twopence for a single letter for a distance under 80 miles, fourpence from 80 to 140, and sixpence above 140. About the year 1654, they were fixed at twopence for 80 miles, and threepence for a greater distance.

Under the authority of the Protector and his Parliament, some material changes were again made in regal’d to the management of the post-office in 1657, by which it was brought nearer to the model under which it has more latterly subsisted. An advantage held forth in an ordinance^[11. ScobelΓs Acts, 1656, p. 511. ] passed on this occasion, as one that was to be derived from the establishment of posts, is worth noticing, namely, that “they will be the best means to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs against the commonwealth.” Possibly a hint from Charles, some twenty years before, as to making the post-office aftbrd this sort of convenience, had not been very well taken. It does not appear, however, that either at this or any subsequent time, the secrecy of correspondence passing through the British post-office, was ever violated to serve the purposes of government.^[12. lθ It is implied by an exception in the declaration made by every post-officer at his entrance into office, that a letter may be opened by warrant of a Secretary of State. ]

The arrangements made in 1657 were confirmed, and some further improvements effected, at the Restoration.^[13. 12th Charles II. c. 35. ] In 166.3, the post-office revenues were assigned to the Duke of York and his heirs male,^[14. 15th Charles II. c. 14. ] and again settled, after his accession to the throne, on the king and his successors, thus becoming part of the hereditary revenues of the crown. From this time nothing of importance seems to have occurred iii the history of the post-office, until the year 1710, when was passed the statute 9 Anne, ch. 10, which may be called the charter of the British post-office.

In the system of posts established by Charles I. in 1635, provision was made for the conveyance of letters between England and Scotland, but the royal ordinance makes no mention of an internal post for the latter kingdom. The postage between the two capitals was then eightpence; in the time of Cromwell it was fourpence. After the Restoration, the postage to Berwick was fixed at threepence. In the latter part of this century, however, there was a postmaster-general in Scotland, and posts on some of the principal lines of road. In 1667, a post was established to pass between Edinburgh and Aberdeen twice a-week, and one [7:18:488]about the sametime, between Edinburgh and Inverness once a-week.^[15. The former was established by the magistrates of Aberdeen, but was transferred to the direction of the Scotch postmaster-general in 1674.—Kennedy’s Aηηαls. vol. i. p. 262. ] Somewhat earlier, (in 1662) a post was established between Ireland and Scotland, and the privy council gave Robert Main, then postmaster-general, an allowance of L.200 sterling, to build a packet boat for conveying the mails between Portpatrick and Donaghadee. The postage to Ireland was sixpence. But whatever was effected in these respects in Scotland, seems to have been entirely by the authority of the local executive, or the magistrates of the principal towns; the first legislative act appointing an internal post in Scotland, being that of the 20th of the 5th Session of the 1st Parliament of William III., passed at Edinburgh in 1695. The preamble of this act embodies the statement that, “for the maintenance of mutual correspondence, and preventing of many inconveniences that happen by private posts, several public post-offices have been heretofore erected for carrying and receiving letters by posts, to and from most parts and places of this kingdom.” This act, as also that of the 12th Charles II., was repealed (unless so far as re-enacted) by the statute of Anne above referred to.

The act of Queen Anne established a general post-office for, and throughout the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the colonies in North America and the West Indies, with one master of such office, who was to bear the name and style of her Majesty’s postmaster-general. The postmaster-general was empowered to keep one chief letteroffice in Edinburgh, one in Dublin, one in New York, and others in the West Indies. In the year 1784, however, about which time there prevailed in Ireland a remarkable jealousy of any assumption of superiority on the part of Britain, an act was passed by the Irish parliament, by which, as well as by certain corresponding acts^[16. Geo. III. e. 6, 8. , ] on the part of the British legislature, the Irish post-office was withdrawn from the government of the British postmaster-general, and placed under an independent officer styled “his Majesty’s postmaster-general for Ireland ;” but the two offices were, agreeably to the recommendation of the commissioners of revenue inquiry, again consolidated by an act passed in 1831;^[17. ] Wm. IV. c. 8. ] and at the same time the office of deputy postmaster-general of Scotland was abolished. The whole affairs relating to the post-office throughout the kingdom, were thus put under the direct management of the London board; but the secretaries at Edinburgh and Dublin are still the organs of communication with the country offices, and exercise a general administrative superintendence in their respective divisions of the kingdom.

During the period for which an account has now been given of what may be called the constitutional history of. the post-office, a very great increase has, as may be supposed, taken place, in the speed of conveyance, and the extent of the communications maintained.

For a considerable time after the first establishment of the post-office, there were no relays of post-boys or horses at different stages; one man and horse accomplishing the whole ride, and taking the necessary rests by the way. The post between Edinburgh and Aberdeen stopped one night at Dundee, and another at Montrose. This system continued in Scotland till about the middle of the last century. Until 1763, the communication between London and Edinburgh was only three times a week; but in that year it was made to be five times a week. At first, the mail was 85 hours in travelling from London to Edinburgh, and 131 hours in returning. In 1757, the time was shortened to 82 hours in the one case, and 85 in the other. Latterly, the journey has been performed by the mail coach, in 42 and 45 hours, the 42 being farther reduced, by the use of the curricle from Morpeth, now discontinued, to 40. Mails are at present conveyed partially by railway, from London to Edinburgh in 33 hours, and from Edinburgh to London in 36.

Until the year 1788, there was no direct mail from London to Glasgow. Previously to that period, the course of post had been five days, the letters being sent round by Edinburgh; and as no mails were dispatched from the latter city upon Sunday, there was in consequence one arrival the less at Glasgow each week. Dr. Cleland^[18. Statistical Account of Glasccw. ] tells, that, when a direct mail conveyance was first established (a little before the time now spoken of) from London to Carlisle, the mail for Glasgow, that otherwise would have been the one delayed on Sunday at Edinburgh, was transmitted through Carlisle to Glasgow in four days; notwithstanding which the mails of the other days were allowed for a year to be carried round by Edinburgh; and the delay, the means of saving which was thus shewn in regard to one day in the week, acquiesced in for all the other days.

One of the most remarkable steps which the post-office has made in advance, is usually and justly considered to be the adoption of Mr. Palmer’s celebrated plan in 1784. The chief part of this plan, as is well known, was, to have the mails conveyed in charge of an armed guard, by the stagecoaches, (which thus became mail coaches) instead of by a boy on horseback, or mail cart, as formerly. The credit due to Mr. Palmer, is not perhaps so properly that of having discovered a means to an end, as that of having conceived and aimed at the end itself; for it is not easy to see how the increased speed and regularity, which were in effect obtained, were bound up in his specific proposal, or how (as the advantages of that proposal are sometimes described) the post-office was at once to borrow regularity from the stagecoaches, and the stage-coaches from the post office. Mr. Palmer’s merit really consisted in seeing that a greater degree of speed and regularity in post conveyance was possible, which nobody saw but himself; and in catching the hint from the stage-coaches, which nobody else caught. The advantage of employing the stage-coaches instead of conveyances furnished expressly by the post-office, would seem to resolve mainly into the point of economy.

Mr. Palmer was afterwards appointed controller of the post-office, in which capacity he is understood to have made some important improvements in the internal details and arrangements.

The first mails on Mr. Palmer’s plan, were the Bath and Bristol, on the 2d August 1784. Previously to the adoption of this plan, the ordinary speed of the post is said to have been but about three miles and-a-half in an hour. After that, the speed was doubled. At present, the average speed of the mail coaches, is eight miles seven furlongs, the highest reaching to ten miles five furlongs. This is exclusive of stops.

The number of miles travelled over^in England and Scotland, by the mail coaches in 1833, was 5,911,006; in 1836 it was 6,643,217.^[19. 4pp to p irgt p cpurt 0 f p ' stage Corn. 1838, No. 23. ]

Mails were first conveyed between Liverpool and Manchester, in 1828. Three communications took place daily between these towns, until September 1835; afterwards there were four, and latterly there have been six, from Liverpool to Manchester, and five the contrary way. The important line of railway connecting London with Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, and extending northwards to Preston, having lately been opened, mails are now regularly transmitted by it from the capital to the various towns in the extensive and populous district through which it passes, and onwards to Scotland and Ireland, from its terminating points in each direction. A travelling post office is conveyed along the [7:18:489]line, in which letters are sorted during the passage, the advantage of which will be afterwards explained. The only, or principal, other line of railway by which mails are at present conveyed, is that connecting Carlisle and Newcastle, but this mode of carriage must of course extend itself as new lines are completed. A late act^[20. and 2 Vict. c. 98. ] empowers the postmaster-general to require railway proprietors to carry the mails at a rate fixed by arbitration. The effect of the rapid transmission of correspondence by railway, increased as that rapidity yet may be, if there were added such a reduction of postage as has lately been proposed, would almost be that of bringing the inhabitants of the extremes of the kingdom into personal communication. The revolution which may thus be produced on trade, science, government, and social economy, it is hardly possible to calculate.

In the course of the last twelve or fiftecn years, the facilities of communication, both inland and foreign, have been mate-riallyextended, by reduction of postage duties and otherwise.

Until the year 1827, letters passing between Britain and Ireland b ad been charged the added amount of the British and Irish land postage, severally taken. From that year, the rate has been calculated the same as if such letters had been conveyed the whole distance in Great Britain. At the same time, the law which required double postage to be charged on one sheet of paper with two letters written on it, or a letter and invoice, &c. was repealed, and a single sheet declared to be in any case but a single letter.^[21. and 8th Geo. IV∙ e. 21. ]

In the year 1835 it was enacted,^[22. 5th and Gth Will. IV. c. 25. ] that after an agreement shallhave been made with the post-office of any foreign kingdom or state, it shall be optional with persons sending letters by post to such foreign kingdom, to pay both the British and foreign postage at the time of sending the same, or to send the same without payment of any part of the postage, or to pay the British postage only: persons residing in foreign kingdoms having tb.e same option. Following out the powers given by this statute, a convention was entered into, and signed at Paris, on the 30th March 1836, between his Britannic Majesty and the King of the French, in which the requisite arrangements are made for giving the proposed option as to payment of postage on all correspondence between France, on the one hand, and Great Britain and Ireland, and those British colonies and possessions where the post-office of Great Britain has established post-offices, on the other. The postage between Paris and the British frontier is fixed at one franc, between London and the French frontier at tenpence, and in proportion for other distances in each kingdom. And though under the present arrangements the option of sending letters without payment is confined to those for France alone, letters may be sent through France, paid for the full distance, to any post town in Switzerland, Sardinia, Central Germany, or Bavaria; also to the Southern Italian States, as far as Sarzane, the Italian frontier of Sardinia, and to Austria, Bohemia, Venice, &c., as far as the French frontier offices of Huninguen or Forbach.

By the same statute,^[23. and 6th Will. IV. c. 25. ] the postage on letters sent by private ship from the United Kingdom to places beyond seas, (which until then had been one-half of the packet rates), was fixed at the uniform rate of eightpence, single, on letters posted at the port, and one shilling if posted at any other part of the kingdom. Letters were at the same time permitted to be sent abroad, from any port, by a private vessel, without passing through the post-office, or from one port to another, within the United Kingdom, by private ship, at a sea postage of eightpence.

In 1835, a post communication was opened up between Britain and India, through the Mediterranean, by which the course of post with that part of the world has been very greatly shortened. Letters for India can also be forwarded through France by steam boats sailing three times a month from Marseilles.

Very important facilities and immunities have recently been given in regard to the transmission of newspapers.

At first the transmission of newspapers seems to have been a privilege confined to certain officers in the post-office. In 1763 an act was passed,^[24. 4th Geo. III. c. 24. ] giving the sanction of law to what then seems to have become the current practice, namely, that of allowing newspapers to be sent free by members of Parliament and certain public officers, when signed on the outside by their hand, or to such members at any place of which they had given notice in writing to the postmaster-gen cral. By gradual relaxations, the restrictions on the free transmission of newspapers degenerated into a mere form, that of printing or writing a member’s name on the cover; and in 1825 an act^[25. 6th Geo. IV. c. 68. ] ® was passed, rendering even the observance of this form unnecessary. The same act, as subsequently amended,^[26. 7th and 8th Geo. IV. e. 21. ] allowed printed newspapers to be sent to the colonies, by the packet boats, at a postage of one penny halfpenny each paper, and colonial newspapers to be brought to Britain and Ireland, by packet or private ship, at a postage of threepence. In 1834^[27. 4th and õth Will. IV. c. 44. ] the postage on newspapers sent to the colonies by packet, and on colonial newspapers brought by packet, was wholly taken off. At this time, too, a most important enactment was made in regard to the transmission of newspapers to and from foreign states. Hitherto the power of such transmission (unless at an expense amounting to a prchibition) had been enjoyed exclusively by certain officers in the post-office, from whom individuals could only obtain the accommodation at a considerable charge. By the statute now passed, British and Irish newspapers were allowed to be sent to foreign states, and foreign newspapers received into Britain and Ireland at a postage of twopence for each paper. A later statute^[28. and 7th Will. IV. c. 54. (1836.) ] extends the accommodation still farther, by a clause authorising the postmaster-general to allow newspapers to pass free to and from such ioreign states as grant a corresponding allowance in regard to Britain; or even, if he sees fit, without such a reciprocal arrangement on the part of other states; or to impose in any case an equivalent duty. And, by virtue of these provisions, there is now a free transmission of newspapers between Britain and the following states and places abroad: viz. Hamburg, Bremen, Cuxhaven, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Ionian Islands, Hayti, Buenos Ayres, Brazil, Columbia. British newspapers are sent to France without any charge in this country, but pay four centimes there. Newspapers from France are charged one halfpenny in Britain.

At this time also newspapers to or from penny post towns, passing through the general post, were freed from penny postage.

To these facilities for the circulation of newspapers is to be added that arising from the important alteration in the stamp laws, by which the duty on newspapers was reduced, from and after the 15th September 1836, from 3 1 -d. (nominally 4d.) to ld.^[29. and 7th Will. IV. c. 76. ] °

In proceeding to give a brief account of the post-office business and establishments, it may not be improper to advert to the new and improved accommodation lately provided for the use of this department, in the metropolis. About the year 1815 the premises in Lombard Street being found, after every possible enlargement, to be quite inadequate for the uses they were required to serve, measures were taken for the erection of a more ample, commodious, and clcgant structure. It was not, however, until Scptem∙
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ber 1829, that this purpose was finally accomplished, and the new building brought into a state of readiness for the public service. It is constructed of Portland stone, after a design by Mr. Smirke, and is in length about 390 feet, width 130, and height 64. The principal front, towards the west, in St. Martin’s-le-grand, is composed of three Ionic portico, that in the centre surmounted with a pediment. The middle space in the interior, lying between the principal and back entrances, is occupied by a hall of eighty by sixty feet in extent, having a range of columns and pilasters on each side. On the right, or south side of this hall, are the secretary’s, accountant’s, and receiver-generaΓs chambers, together with the foreign letter and twopenny post-offices. The opposite side contains the inland, the newspaper, and the ship-letter offices. The mails, inwards and outwards, pass through a vestibule on the eastern front, communicating with the inland office. The latter is nearly ninety feet in length, and about fifty-six in width; the letter-carriers’, or newspaper office, adjoining the inland, 103 by 35. The building contains a variety of other apartments for the different branches of the service, general and particular. To avoid the inconvenience and confusion of communication, through the public hall, between the departments on each side of it, the letters are conveyed from the one to the other through a tunnel below, by means of a curious machinery contrived on purpose.

The office at St. Martin’s-le-grand, may be said to consist of two distinct establishments; one is the general postoffice, properly so called, or that devoted to the post business of the empire in general; the other is just the postoffice of London. In the first division, under the postmaster-general, are the departments of the secretary, accountant, the dead letter, mail coach offices, &c. The principal departments of the second division, are the inlandaxA twopenny post offices. The former has charge of the dispatch of the London letters and newspapers, and of those from abroad, passing through London, to all parts of the kingdom. It also manages the delivery of all those arriving at, and destined for London.^[30. Foreign mails arriving after the general post delivery, are delivered by the twopenny post letter-carriers. ] Subject to this department there are seventy receiving-houses within a circle of three miles from the office. Within this circle letters are taken in and delivered without any charge beyond the general post rates. The inland office employs eighty-four clerks, two hundred and ninety-one subsorters and lettercarriers, and about fifty messengers, stampers, &c. The most arduous business of this department, that requiring the greatest energy and rapidity, is the dispatch of the mails, in number twenty-nine, at eight o’clock each evening. So near has the time up to which letters and newspapers are received, been brought to the hour of dispatch, and such is the increase of business, particularly in regard to newspapers, that it almost exceeds the utmost efforts of the persons engaged to accomplish the duties within the limited space. By an account kept on the 19th February 1838, it was found that of 47,795 letters received at the inland office, up to fifteen minutes before eight, only 9,428 had arrived before half-past five, and 9,842 came in after seven. The sum of 6d. charged on each letter taken in during a limited time each day after the receiving box is shut, amounts to above L.1000 a-year. Sometimes 30,000 newspapers are received within the last fifteen minutes allowed for taking them in. The letters are successively stamped, sorted into divisions corresponding with the principal lines of road, taxed, (or marked with postage, after the necessary examination,)^[31. Stamping is performed at the rate of from 100 to 200 letters in a minute; examining and taxing, 33; and sorting, 30. ] and subdivided for post towns. The amount charged on each postmaster is then told, and entered in his bill, and duplicate preserved. From thirty-five to fifty-five persons are employed in sorting, twenty in tax ing, and as many in telling up. The newspapers are sorted by the letter-carriers in their own office: from 120 to 300 being thus employed on different days. Six or more arc occupied in examining newspapers, to detect private communications, enclosures, &c. From forty to sixty newspapers are charged daily, the postage amounting to L.100 a-week. After all these operations are finished, the bags are to be filled, tied, sealed, and delivered to the guards. The daily average of letters dispatched from London is 36,000. On Mondays the number is from 40,000 to 50,000. The number of newspapers dispatched from London in the last three months of 1835, was 3,146,127; of 1837, 5,020,230; the one period being previous, the other subsequent, to the reduction of the stamp duty. On Saturdays and Mondays, when the numbers are greatest, (sometimes exceeding 100,000,) it is necessary to engage one or two outside seats on the coaches for their conveyance. Sometimes they are sent separately by the stage-coaches. About 3000 are sent by the Edinburgh mail. The weight of the Edinburgh mail, as ascertained by one evening’s trial, was as follows: sacks and bags, 1 cwt. 9 lb. 8 oz.; 2296 newspapers, 2 cwt. 2 qrs. 3 lb. 8 oz.; two stamp parcels, 1 qr. 12 lb·; 484 franks, 1 qr. 19 lb. 15 oz.; 1555 chargeable letters, 1 qr. 6 lb. 14 oz.; in all, 4 cwt. 2 qrs. 23 lb. 13 oz. The weight of the Holyhead mail on the 30th June 1838, was: bags, 1 cwt. 10 lbs.; letters, 1 cwt. 2 qrs. 17 lbs.; Newspapers, 15 cwt. 1 qr. 18 lbs.

In the morning, on the arrival of the mails, the bags are counted and inspected, to ascertain that all have arrived, and with the seals secure; after which they are emptied, and turned inside out, and the amount of the postage marked on the paid letters compared with the account sent by the postmaster. The letters then undergo an examination, in order to its being seen that all have been rightly charged, as single, double, &c. Being then stamped, they are distributed into several larger divisions, as those for the twopenny post, for the window-men, and for the different districts of the town; which last divisions areagain subdivided for the walks of individual letter-carriers. Each of the different persons to be engaged in the delivery is then required to tell the amount of postage on that portion of the letters committed to him; and on his reporting an amount corresponding with that brought out by a separate telling previously made, but not communicated, the charge becomes established, and is signed by the party. In case of difference, reference is made to a third person. Each man’s letters being then arranged, the delivery commences. The letter-carriers having the more distant walks, are conveyed to the ground by omnibuses, (of which ten are employed for this purpose,) each man being dropped at the commencement of his walk. In the morning duties, there are fifteen persons employed in opening the bags, and checking the accounts; nine in examining letters; fifty sorters; and ten tellers. The number of letters arriving in London daily, is from 30,000 to 40,000.

There is a separate department for dispatch and receipt of foreign mails, and another for the same duties in regard to ship-letter mails. Masters of vessels are allowed 2d. for each letter brought from, or carried abroad.

The number of letters from France in the year 1837, was from 30,000 to 36,000, and about half as many more in transit, through France. Letters expedited to France, from 33,000 to 39,000; in transit through France, from 11,000 to 15,000. Newspapers sent to the continent of Europe, about 30,000 per month; received, about 20,000.

The London penny, or twopenny post, was first set on foot by a person named Murray, an upholsterer, about the year 1683, and by him assigned to one Dockwra. A suit, however, [7:18:491]was commenced against the latter by Government, and the management of this post withdrawn from him. But he received an indemnification, and was afterwards appointed controller of the office. The present limits of the twopenny and threepenny posts were fixed in 1831.

A. penny or twopenny post-office delivers and collects the correspondence of a particular portion of the district belonging to any principal office. In the former respect, (however the duties may be farther subdivided,) it just performs the part of one letter-carrier, with merely the difference of the additional charge on the letters. All letters arriving by the general post at London, for parties residing beyond a circle of three, and within a circle of twelve miles, are transferred to the twopenny post department for delivery; and letters posted for dispatch within the same space, are collected by this department, and transferred to the general post. Such letters are charged 2d. in addition to the general post rates. So far the London twopenny post performs exactly the same functions as any of the penny posts in other parts of the kingdom. It differs from them in so far as it collects and delivers all the local correspondence, not merely in its own portion of the district annexed to the principal office, but in the whole of that district: having its own receiving houses, and its own letter-carriers, within, as well as beyond, the circle of general post delivery. Letters both posted and delivered within the three-mile circle, are charged with a postage of twopence; those crossing beyond it into the space within the wider circle, or vice versa ; also those both posted and delivered between the inner and outer circles, threepence. The twopenny post subdivides its duties within the three-mile circle, among four branch offices, besides the chief office of the department. The correspondence to and from these, as well as to and from the district beyond the three-mile circle, is conveyed by horse posts, or mail carts. The rides to the country are ten in number, some dividing into two branches, besides four cross rides. There are 209 twopenny post receiving houses^[32. A consolidation of the general and twopenny post receiving-houses, within the three-mile circle, is understood to be now resolved upon. ] within the three-mile circle, and 194 in the country, and 640 letter-carriers and assistants, of whom 270 are employed within the smaller circle. Seven collections and deliveries take place daily within the three-mile circle, and from two to six between it and the outer one. The w hole of the twopenny and threepenny post letters, wheresoever collected, are carried to the chief office, and reissued from thence, with exception only of those passing between receiving houses lying in the line of one ride.

The whole number of persons employed on the London general and twopenny post establishment in 1835, was 1338. This includes the country surveyors, 7, and mail guards, 228. In the same year there were 258 persons on the Dublin, and 97 on the Edinburgh establishment.^[33. Parliamentary Paper, No. 442. About ninety years before this period, (the Earl of Leicester and Sir John Eyles being postmastersgeneraD the London general post establishment consisted of 157 persons. About the same time the Edinburgh establishment (Sir John Inglis being deputy postmaster-generaD consisted of eleven persons, including three letter-carriers, and an officer designated “apprehendet of private letter-carriers.” (Present State of Great Britain, by Mr. Bolton, 1745.) ] But there has been some increase since.

The number of post-offices is constantly varying. At present they may be stated about as follows: England 649; Scotland 211; Ireland 328: Sub-offices^[34. Sub offices differ from penny posts merely in having their letters charged according to distance only, as in principal offices. Fifth clause posts, (so called from the clause of the act 41st Geo. III., under which they are established,) are posts to villages, the inhabitants of which become bound for any deficiency in the expense of maintaining them. ] in the three kingdoms, respectively 191—105—102: Penny posts 1085— 225—197. Convention or fifth clause p osts in England 50. There are 42 offices in the interior of Jamaica, and 337 in British North America.

There are in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 194 mail coaches and other carriages; 217 saddle-horse posts; 374 mail carts, and 806 foot posts.

The following are the numbers of letters and newspapers posted at all the offices throughout the United Kingdom, in the week commencing 15th January 1838:

General post letters, paid, 164,719

unpaid, 776,543 Penny post, paid, 16,998

unpaid, 123,773 Privileged, 122,901

Total, 1,204,935

Of which

For England, 916,815

... Scotland, 128,584

... Ireland, 159,536

1,204,935

Total newspapers, 842,646

London twopenny post, (not included above,) total letters, 231,900; newspapers, 10,724.

In the week commencing 29th January, the total number was (including the London twopenny post) 1,550,620,—the postage amounting to L.45,509: Newspapers 858,927. In the week commencing 5th March, the proportion of the classes of general post letters was, (in the united kingdom), single, 699,182; double, 38,562; treble, 11,358; ounce, 1,908; above an ounce, 2447.

The number of charged newspapers returned to the deadletter office in London in 1837, was above 19,000. The number of undelivered letters, opened and returned to the writers, are about 20,000 in a month.

The total number of ship-letters (z. e. letters by private ship, not post-office packets,) both sent and received through all the posts in the kingdom was,

For the year ending 5th January 1834, 1,044,000

1838, 1,547,000 The two principal ship-letter ports are Liverpool and Hull; the former being the great channel (by the weekly packets) to America; the latter (by the steam-boats to Hamburgh twice a-week,) to Germany and the north of Europe. The number of letters sent by these, was,
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The regular mail packets for the conveyance of foreign and colonial correspondence are as follows :—

To France, every day except Sunday, by Dover and Calais, (steam). To Belgium, by Dover and Ostend, four times a-week, (steam). To Hamburgh from London, twice a-week, and to Holland by London and Rotterdam, twice a-week. (These two mails are conveyed by contract in private steam-vessels.)

From Falmouth, to Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, once a-week, (steam). From Gibraltar to Malta, Greece, and Ionian Islands, once a-fortnight, and from Malta to Egypt and India, every four weeks, (steam).

To Jamaica, St. Domingo, and Leeward Islands, once a-fortnight, carrying letters to La Guayra one fortnight, to Carthagena the other. To Mexicoand Cuba, monthly.

To Halifax, North America, monthly. To Madeira, Brazil, and Buenos Ayres, monthly.

The mails are conveyed between the West India islands by steam-boats, on contract.

On the Falmouth station, there are thirty vessels employed in the packet service, six at the Dover station, and eight steam vessels from the Thames.
[7:18:492]

For communication between Britain and Ireland, there are packets from Liverpool and Holyhead to Kingston, from Milford to Waterford, and from Port-Patrick to Donaghadec. There are also packets from Weymouth to Guernsey and Jersey, Liverpool to Isle of Man, Aberdeen to Shetland,&c.

Until about fifteen years ago, the post-office had the whole charge of procuring, fitting out, and maintaining the different mail packets. About that time the Falmouth packets were transferred to the Admiralty. A further transfer of most or all of the others was recommended by different commissions appointed to inquire into the management of the post-office, and carried into effect last year, (1837). The grounds of this recommendation were, that the duties required for the efficient and economical management of the packets, were such as the peculiar habits and qualifications of the heads of a civil department did not adequately fit them to perform. A great saving has accordingly been effected by the change of management. The packet communication with France is regulated by treaty made in 1833; and that with Belgium by a similar treaty made the following year.^[35. Sixth Report of Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry. ] France maintains her own packets for carriage of the French mails to Dover; but receives from L.l 0,000 to L. 12,000 annually from Britain for transit postage ofletters carried through her dominions to Italy, Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, <⅞c., according to a scale fixed by the treaties of 1802 and 1836. Out of this, however, she has to pay to Austria the transit duty of letters passing through that country. Hamburgh and Holland pay nothing for having their correspondence conveyed by British packets, but charge no transit. Belgium also charges no transit against Britain, and moreover pays L.1000 yearly for packet conveyance, there being four weekly mails to that country, and only two to Hamburgh and Holland. From L.200 to L.300 a-year is paid by Rio Janeiro.

The mode in which letters are circulated, and the post revenues collected, is as follows :—Each of the three capitals, London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, sends a bag direct to, and receives one direct from, every office in its respective division of the kingdom. Every postmaster sends a bag to every office on the different lines of road leading from his own, as far as the first office (inclusive), at which the mail conveyance makes a stop. Into the bag for the most distant office, are put all the letters (tied up together indiscriminately) that are for places beyond it; and which, accordingly, are here sorted into the bags for each place, as faι^ as that, inclusive, where the next stop takes place, and where the same process is repeated. Letters thus sent to another office to be sorted and forwarded arc called forward letters. Such as are to go off at a cross line, are sent, as forward, to the office from which the cross line diverges. This is the general principle of the circulation. The moving post-office on the railway answers all the purpose that a sorting office interposed between every two stations on the line would do, at the same time saving the necessity of stoppage. Every office conveys its letters, as forward, into the moving one as it passes. In it, the mails for the station next occurring are immediately made up, ready against arrival there: the letters going to stations beyond being separated, so to speak, as forward on the position of the moving office, after passing that station. Letters are taxed (or marked with postage) as well as stamped, at the office where they arc put in; and with every bag is sent a bill containing simply two items, namely, the amount of postage for letters in the bag, chargeable on the sending postmaster for paid, and on the receiving, for unpaid. The bill consequently does not include the. paid postage on letters from offices behind the sending postmaster’s, nor on unpaid letters going beyond the receiving postmaster’s: the former having been already charged, the latter afterwards to be charged on other offices. Thus the postage on every letter whatever, paid or unpaid, is brought to the charge of one office or another. Both the items of every bill are entered in an account at each of the two offices to which its contents relate; the one account checking the other, and the bill remaining to settle differences if any; and when the accounts are summed, the charge against each postmaster is just his sent paid, and received unpaid. This charge he liquidates either by actual remittances, by allowances to his credit for his own salary and other payments, and by his dead-letter account. The last is vouched, first, by dead-letters actually returned; secondly, by receipts for overcharges; and thirdly, by claims for letters re-sent to other offices; which claims, as noted on a form prepared for that purpose and transmitted along with the re-sent letter, are certified by the receiving postmaster; and being forwarded to the inspector of dead-letters, serve to check the claimant’s account.

The country postmasters’ remittances are made to the secretary, who transfers them ov er to the receiver-general, after furnishing a note of the amount to the accountant, who from thence credits the postmaster, and debits the receivergeneral. The revenue collected at the general post-office is paid direct into the hands of the receiver-general by the persons actually collecting, who are merely the window clerks and the letter-carriers; the charge against each, certified by the parties as admitted, being furnished at once to the receiver-general and the accountant by the superintending officer. No account of the paid letters is sent from the general to the country offices; the check being there maintained between one department and another. Postmasters advancing the charge on a letter observed to be under-taxed, are required to put their initials to the alteration, which, if the letter is for their own delivery, is in effect sending out a receipt for the additional charge.

The deputy postmasters-general in the coloni es are charged with the amount of letters sent them by each mail, in the same way as the country postmasters within the kingdom; the method of check and account between the internal colonial offices being also the same as between the different country offices at home.

The present rates of inland postage in the - United Kingdom are as follows :—
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And for every 100 miles above 300, (or fractional part of that distance,) one penny additional.

If the amount of all the rates in this scale is taken, and divided by the number of rates, it will yield an average of 9d. A similar process applied to the scale of 1710, gives 3½d. for the average. The increase in the intermediate period has been almost gradual, though the intervals between the alterations have been very different. There was no alteration from 1710 to 1765. Since that time, either in the British or Irish, there have been ten alterations. In 1800 the average was 5½d.; in 1810, 7½d.

The sea rates from Port-Patrick, Holyhead, or Milford [7:18:493]Haven, and Liverpool, to Ireland, are respectively 4d., 2d., and 8d.; from Weymouth to Guernsey and Jersey, 3d.; and from Liverpool to the Isle of Man, 6d.

The packet postage from London to France is 10d.; to Switzerland, Is. 2d.; FIolland and Belgium, and Germany, via France, ls. 4d.; Germany and north of Europe, (by Hamburgh,) Is. 8d.; Spain, Italy, and Turkey, via France, ls. 7d∙; Spain, via Cadiz, 2s. 2d.: to which is to be added the inland rate to London, less 2rZ., from any office in the country, where a letter maybe posted. From Falmouth to Portugal is Is. 7d.; Madeira, Azores, and Canaries, Is. 8d.; Brazils, 2s. 7d.; West Indies and North America, ls. 3d; and inland postage to Falmouth, less ∖d. ; to Buenos Ayres, Chili, Peru, 2s. 5d.; St. Domingo, ls. 3d.; Carthagena, La Guayra, Mexico Honduras, Cuba, 2s. ld.; and the full inland postage to Falmouth. To Gibraltar, Malta, Ionian Islands, Greece, Egypt, and India, (by steam from Falmouth,) a uniform rate of 2s. 6d. from all parts of the kingdom. To Cape of Good Hope, East Indies, New South Wales, and Van Diemen’s Land, 2d. more than the inland postage.

Letters from India, Van Diemen’s Land, Cape of Good Hope, &c., 4d. a letter above the inland postage; from other parts of the world by private ship, 8d. a single letter, and in proportion for double, &c. The charge on ship-letters outwards., has been already noticed.

All letters to places abroad must be paid at posting, except packet letters for the British colonies in America and the West Indies, or for France. Failing of this, the letters are opened at the dead-letter office, and returned to the writers.

Letters to and from soldiers and seamen in the service, pass through the whole British dominions for a postage of one penny, payable in advance.^[36. ' There are other descriptions of special, and modifications of general rates, which would require too much space to particularize. The system of rates is full of the most preposterous niceties and anomalies. It is but fair to state, however, that some attempts have lately been made to introduce greater uniformity, as in the ship-letter and Mediterranean rates. ]

Letters under an ounce weight are charged single, double, or triple, according to the number of pieces of which they consist; triple being the highest rate below that weight. An ounce is charged four single postages, and every additional quarter of an ounce, a single postage more.

Certain public officers, nearly a hundred in number, have the privilege of franking without any limitation either as to weight or number of Ietters. Every member of parliament can send ten and receive fifteen letters a-day, free; each letter not exceeding one ounce in weight, and being to and from a place within the United Kingdom. On occasion of passing the bill for the regulation of the post-office in 1657, “a proviso was tendered for freeing members of parliament and other officers of state from payment of any money for letters, which was laid aside without a question.”^[37. Journals, 9th June. ] Freedom from postage, however, was claimed by the House of Commons in 1660, but the claim was afterwards dropped on an assurance from the crown that the privilege would be allowed. Accordingly, a warrant was always issued to the postmaster-general directing the allowance to the extent of two ounces in weight.^[38. Blackstone. ] The privilege, however, was abused to an enormous extent, so much so that the servants of members sometimes procured a number of franks for the purpose of selling them. Occasionally, too, considerable frauds were practised by writing promissory notes or other instruments over the signature of a member given on a blank cover. Many curious devices were used by members in writing their signature to prevent this.^[39. See Gentleman’s Magazine, 1784, vol. liv.; also vol. xxvii. p. 593. ] The estimated postage of franked letters in 1715 was L.23,600; in 1763 it had risen to L.170,700. Until that period, a letter passed free simply by the signature of a member. Even the requirement made by the act passed in 1763,^[40. Geo. III. c. 24. ] s that the whole superscription should be in the member’s hand-writing, was found an insufficient check to the abuse; and it was further required by the statute of 1784,^[41. Geo. III. c. 37. ] that the direction should bear the name of the post-town, and the day, (written in words at length) month, and year of posting. Letters can be franked from any post-town which the member has been within twenty miles of, on the day of, or day before date. They cannot be delivered but for full postage at a place where the member himself is not, (as to any agent or relation,) unless at his residence in London, or his proper house of parliament. Printed votes and proceedings in parliament pass free under certain regulations to and from members of parliament and some public officers. Petitions to parliament, not exceeding six ounces in weight, may be sent free to any member in covers open at the ends.

In 1653, the post-office revenue was farmed for L. 10,000; in 1663 it yielded L.21,500; in 1685, when made over to James II. as part of his private income, it was estimated at L.65,000. The average of the nett revenue, during the eight years of King William’s wars, is stated^[42. ^ Chambers’s Historical View of the Domestic Economy of Britain. The gross, on a medium of three years prior to 169S, is stated by D’Avenant at L.90,440. ] at L 67,222; during four years of subsequent peace, at L.82,3l9; the average of the years 1707—10, at L.58,052; of 1711—14, at L.90,223. The gross in 1711,^[43. The revenue, as stated for the years previous to 1711, are believed to include the Irish- From that year to the end of the century, the account given relates to the British revenue solely; the Irish, for this period, not being stated in any of the documents from which the account is taken. In comparing different accounts of the post-office revenue, even including those found in parliamentary documents, the most puzzling discrepancies are to be met with. These, however, are not so much, if at all, to be ascribed to error, as to differences, not expressed in the subjects of the statements. Sometimes the Irish, or twopenny post revenue is included, sometimes not; the revenue for a year, ending 5th April or 5th January, is sometimes given as the revenue for that, sometimes for the preceding year; the nett sometimes means the remainder after deducting from the gross the simple charges of management, sometimes after farther deduction of returns, parliamentary grants, &c. ] wasL.l 11,426. In 1722 the gross was L.201,804, nett L.98,010. From that period till after the middle of the century, the revenue, though of course, subject to occasional fluctuations, made on the whole but little advance, since we find that of the year 1754 to be only, gross, L.210,663, nett, L∙97,365. Its progress for the remainder of the century, taken at intervals often years, (each ending 5th ApriD, may be seen as follows:^[44. Second Report of Postage Com. Ap. p. 176- The nett is after deduction of returns. In 1782, the expense of collection was 72 per cent. ]
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From the beginning of the present century the revenue continued increasing progressively until the year ending the 5th January 1816; the following year it was considerably lower, and never rose to such an amount again, until the corresponding year 1837, when it reached its highest. The following table exhibits the particulars; (the Marlborough grants, &c. are not included in the charges of collection.) [7:18:494]General and Twopenny Post of United Kingdom.^[45. Appendix to First Report of Postage Committee, 1838. ]
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The gross Irish general post revenue for the year ending 5th January 1800, was L.84,040; it increased progressing until 1816 when it reached L.225,000; it never attained so high again until 1829, from which it continued increasing till 1832, when it reached its highest, viz L.256,976. In 1837 it was L.255,070. The lowest amount after 1816 was that of 1823, which was L. 186,024. The highest nett in the whole period was in 1832, viz. L.154,322; the smallest after 1816, was 1821, viz. L.65,017. The highest rate per cent, of collection, January 1800, L.7θ, 9s. 2d., lowest, 1832, L,32, Ils. 9d.

The gross receipts of the London twopenny post in the year ending January 5,1804, was L.60,069; 1837, L.l 20,801; nett for the same years, L.35,640 and L.73,334; rate per cent, of collection for the same years, L.40, 13s. 3∣d. and L.39, 5s. 10½d.

It is related^[46. Old Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. vi. p. 586. ] that in the year 1698, Sir Robert Sinclair of Stevenson had a grant from King William of the whole revenue of the post-office of Scotland, together with a pension of L.300 to maintain the post. Even with this allowance, however, the undertaking was considered hazardous and the grant surrendered. At the union, the post-office revenue was farmed for L.l 194. The nett revenue, on an average for three years preceding 1711, was estimated at only L.2000; in 1733 it was L.5399; in 1754, L.8927; in 1776,L.31,103. In the year ending 5th January 1801, the revenue was, gross, L.100,652, nett, L.83,755. It increased progressively till the corresponding year 1815, when the gross was L.203,366, nett, L.161,551. In 1822 the gross had sunk to L.179,404, whence again it took a start in the other direction, and in 1837 was L.220,759, nett, L.160,813. The expense of collection in the present century has varied from 14 to 28 per cent.^[47. Second Report of Postage Committee, 1838. ]

The amount of postage charged on postmasters in the West Indiesand British North Américain the year ended 5th January 1838, was L.78,905, of which above L.18,000 was for unpaid letters from Britain. Of the first sum, there was for Canada, L.38,977, for Jamaica, L.18,274.

The postmaster-general is not responsible, under any circumstances, for the safety of letters passing through the post-office, nor for the value they may inclose, if lost or stolen. This point was first settled in the case, Lane v. the Postmaster-General, in 1699, (reported in Raymond, vol. i. p. 646). Some doubts hanging over the principle of this decision, the point was again tried, before Lord Mansfield, in 1778, (Whitfield v. the Postmaster-General, Cowper’s Reports, p. 754,) and judgment given for the defenders. The punishment of death for letter stealing was abolished in 1835,^[48. and 6 William IV. c. 81. ] and transportation substituted. Forging, or altering a frank is punishable with seven years’ transportation. A newspaper with an enclosure, or any writing or marks, is subject to three times the postage of a packet of equal contents: which postage may be recovered from the sender,^[49. The postage of all returned letters is recoverable from the sender, (1 Vict∙ c. 34, § 2,) but the law has not hitherto been enforced· ] or the postmaster-general may prosecute as for a misdemeanour. Masters, crews, or passengers of vessels from abroad, failing to deliver their letters at the first postoffice, incur heavy fines. Penalties and postage debts not above L.20, are summarily recoverable. Letters once posted become the property of the person addressed, and cannot be again withdrawn. Other laws (those against illicit conveyance being frequently made public) are of less general concernment.

In the year ending October 1834, there were fifteen criminal prosecutions in England for post-office offences, and twelve convictions, some of them capital; and thirty-four prosecutions for penalties, in which the parties submitted.

The whole acts relating to the post-office have been consolidated into five statutes, viz. 1 Victoria, ch. 32—36.

The British post-office has generally been allowed to be remarkable for the precision and regularity with which it circulates the correspondence passing through it, and the celerity with which the official business is conducted; and the prevalent opinion has until lately been, that the department, on the whole, has been skilfully and efficiently administered. Instances, however, both of defects and mismanagement, have, within these few years, been somewhat frequently brought forward, and perhaps with a degree of exaggeration answerable to the indifference with which they had in former periods been regarded. As respects, in the first place, the constitution of the department, the inexpediency has been maintained of having the supreme direction vested in a single person, generally a nobleman, removeable at every change of government, and who, by his education and habits, cannot be supposed peculiarly fitted to superintend an establishment, possessing fully more of a commercial than of a civil, or even fiscal character. The tendency, and even the actual effect of such a system has been alleged [7:18:495]to be, that of removing the charge from the really responsible head, and throwing it upon a secondary officer. The abolition of the office of postmaster-general, and the substitution of a permanent board of three or more persons, has accordingly been recommended by successive commissions of inquiry; and a bill for giving effect to such recommendation has been twice sent np from the lower, to the upper house of parliament, but refused a second reading by the latter. As regards the laws of the post-office, the grand subject of complaint, and that on which perhaps the mind of the community is more made up than on any other, is the high rate of postage, both generally, and in particular cases, as for shorter distances, circuitous routes,^[50. Since this was written, it has been announced that postage is in future to be charged only for the distance by the nearest carriage road without regard to the actual distance the letter may be conveyed. ] penny postage on general post letters, and the like. That there is a great fault in this respect, is argued from the fact of there being little or no increase on the annual revenue, for more than twenty years; and though this fact, to a certain extent, at least, admits of other explanations, it is undeniable that a large amount of correspondence is conveyed otherwise than by post, merely to avoid the expense of postage; and that the existing laws are insufficient, as would any laws be that could possibly be framed, to check such practice. The complaints against the administration of the post-office relate principally to the alleged want of sufficiently frequent and numerous communications on various lines of road, and the consequent delay of correspondence, of which the most important case is the want of day mails and Sunday mails^[51. It is, perhaps, superfluous to observe, that the subject of Sunday mails and deliveries, involves considerations of a nature quite distinct from those on which questions, relating to post accommodation usually fall to lie determined. ] from London, there being at present but one day mail, and that but lately established. Without entering into a consideration of the justice of any of the complaints now enumerated, (the fact of their existence being all that it concerns the present purpose to notice), it may be remarked with regard to the nature of the particular class just adverted to, that they frequently resolve into questions between the interests of one portion of the community and those of another; or into similar questions between a portion and the whole; or between an advantage with a corresponding sacrifice, and the loss of such advantage; questions to which the administrators of the post-office, at least, profess and appear to have given full consideration, and, either in regard to what is done or what is contemplated, to have determined with a view to the best.

One cause of complaint of not unfrequent occurrence, namely, that regarding the losses that occur in the post-office, by the abstraction of letters containing value, may be said to have been of late in a great measure obviated by the establishment of a system of money orders, to be granted by one office, payable at another, to the amount of L.5, at an expense of from 6d. to 1 s. 6d. Larger sums can, in general, be safely transmitted through banks.

Within these few years, a plan of singular boldness and ingenuity, and developed with the utmost perspicuity and fairness of intention, has been put forth by Mr. Rowland Hill; a plan which aims at the removal of several of the defects of the present post system, but the practicability ofwhich is matterof much doubt and dispute. The main feature of this plan, as every body knows, consists in a proposal to reduce the postage of all letters under half an ounce weight, to a penny, to be collected by a stamp-duty on the paper of the letter or envelope. The great benefits of such a system as this are obvious, the objections are not less so. These (omitting minor articles) resolve chiefly into this dilemma; either the number of letters would not be sufficiently great to produce the required gross amount, or, if it were, they would be unmanageable without an additional expense that would as much diminish theneíí. On Mr. Hill’s part, the necessity of the alternative is denied. As respects the first branch of it, he calculates on as many letters as would be sufficient at once to keep up the revenue, and defray any additional expense, first, from the falling in of all the illicit and most of the franked correspondence; next, from the great number of letters that would be sent by persons who now cannot often, or at all, afford postage, and are restrained by fear or conscience from smuggling; and lastly from the variety of printed bills, lists, advertisements, &c., which may be legally sent otherwise than by post, but for which the post would be preferred at a low expense. On the other branch of the alternative he maintains, that, as regards the matters of receipt, despatch, and delivery, the post-office, by being freed from examining, taxing, and the ιchole business of accounts, would be relieved from a great part of the additional labour that would be imposed upon it by the increased number of letters; and, as to conveyance, that the estimated increase of chargeable letters, would add but by a very small proportion to the weight or bulk of the mails; the far greater part of which is made up of newspapers, parliamentary documents, and franks.^[52. That a system promising so great a reduction in the expense of correspondence, would meet with extensive favour and support, is what might be expected; and, consequently, in. estimating the weight of the testimony in its behalf, which such support is calculated to yield, it is necessary to distinguish between a desire for its adoption, and a conviction of its practicability; so that we may not ascribe to the latter, what may be wholly due to the former. It is to be remembered, too, that what is called the practicability of the scheme, is a very vague expression. In the strictest sense, it must mean practicability, consistently with the maintenance of the present revenue from the post-office, or a revenue not materially smaller; in another sense, the practicability of the plan may mean that its adoption would occasion no deficiency, but what could, and ought to be, otherwise provided for. The supporters of the plan differ in the sort of practicability which they ascribe to it; but a conviction of its practicability generally, has been expressed by so many individuals and bodies of men, qualified by their knowledge and habits to judge of such a matter, and so little likely to think with indifference of an embarrassment of the public finances, that a strong presumption of the intrinsic merits of Mr. Hill’s plan is unavoidable. The subject has been taken up in most of the principal cities of the empire, by constituted bodies, or associations formed for the specific purpose. Regular inquiries have been instituted by the circulation of minute queries, and otherwise, with the view of ascertaining how far the present system is sufficient as a means of accommodation; how far, as a source of revenue, the duties it imposes are liable to be evaded; and what increase of correspondence by post, or decrease of illicit conveyance, might be expected to take place, under such a reduction of postage as Mr. Hill proposes. Numerous petitions from the most influential and respectable quarters have been presented to parliament, in behalf of Mr. Hill’s plan. A Committee of the House of Commons, appointed on the 23d of November 1837, to consider, generally, the subject of a reduction of postage, and especially the merits of Mr. Hill’s proposal, has, in the course of two sessions, during which it has been sitting, examined a great number of witnesses, officers of the post-office, merchants, literary men, agents of trading companies, and philanthropic associations, clergymen, and others; all descriptions of persons, in short, the most likely to be able to shew the working of the present system, and to estimate the probable effects of the new. The Committee has, at the same time, collected a vast body of statistical evidence relating to the post establishment, in regard to every particular bearing on the subject of the investigation. The results of the inquiry have been communicated in two voluminous reports. That the present high rates of postage have operated, in one way, to the repression of correspondence altogether, and in another, to the diversion, into illegal channels, of a vast portion of its existing amount,—a portion much more vast than had ever previously been suspected; that in the latter way, they beget a disregard to the law, and produce that deterioration of the moral feelings, which actions requiring concealment, tend to generate; that, in both ways, they embarrass the motions of trade, check the dissemination of knowledge, curb the exercise of the social affections, and confine the efforts of philanthropy; that the post-office, in short, is neither fully and effectually available for the purposes which it is the essential object of such an institution to serve, nor able to preserve the monopoly conferred upon it by law, from systematic and extensive violation; these are points which may fairly be considered as settled by the evidence given before the Committee. The questions involved in the investigation, as far as it relates to the practicability of Mr. Hill’s plan, have been partly of fact, partly of calculation, partly of conjecture and estimate. It being incumbent on Mr. Hill’s part to make it appear that the increase of the number of letters would counterbalance the decrease on the postage of each, it became necessary to ascertain what is the actual number by which the present annual revenue is created, and annual expense incurred. This is a question of fact; how many letters at any definite reduced rate would produce the same gross revenue, is one of mere calculation; what increased number of letters might be consequent on such reduction, is one of conjecture. Even the first two descriptions of questions, however, have not been so easily determined as their nature would seem to promise. Actual returns beyond the suspicion of incompleteness or incorrectness are, under the circumstances of haste and perplexity, in which such returns can only be made, and the incapacity of some of those who have to make them, hardly to be expected; whilst, from the fluctuations in the amount of correspondence at different periods, a fair season for presenting an average is not easily fixed upon. See Sir Edward Lees’s evidence, Q. 9413. Even, however, after an agreement, actual or assumed, has been attained on this point, several of those differences on subjects of calculation (which, viewed in the abstract, might be supposed of impossible occurrence, but in point of fact, arc so often found to occur in regard to the admissibility of data and the mode of applying them,) have arisen to complicate and embarrass the inquiry. One cannot help observing that some of the calculations, the correctness of which has been made matter of dispute, refer to rather irrelevant points. Such, for instance, is that regarding the exact cost of the conveyance of letters, &c. in Britain. Mr. Hill’s calculations on this point, are probably subservient to the single purpose of evincing the justice of a uniform charge, which is done by shewing that the cost of mere conveyance, as distinguished from other parts of the charge of postage, is so small, as to make mere distance an immaterial element in the adjustment of the rate. Without examining (and certainly without admitting) the correctness of Mr. Hill’s statements on this subject, If postage is to be charged according to the actual cost of conveyance, as compared with the returns, then a letter for ten miles will often cost more than one for 100; i f on an average of such cost as applied to the whole, then, of course, the postage will be uniform; but if the charge is to be fixed on the general principle, that the cost of establishing and maintaining a conveyance for a large distance, must exceed that for a small; and that conveyance for a large distance is worth a greater price to the payer, inasmuch, as generally it would increase the difficulty to him of getting his letter conveyed, (which seems the actual principle of the charge' then distance must be reckoned a tai r element. it may be held as allowed, on all hands, that whatever considerations may exist, to justify, or even recommend, the regulation of postage according to distance, these considerations may fairly be made to yield to the advantage of uniformity, especially at a very low absolute rate. But conveyance being but a part of the expense of distributing correspondence, In this particular, and otherwise, Mr. Hill’s statements have been applied (though apparently not intended by him to serve such' to purposes of utter delusion and misrepresentation. the calculation now alluded to, goes to no farther end. Equally irrelevant to the main question (except as facilitating a calculation of the increase of expense under the proposed system, if indeed they serve even for that) are all those analyses which Mr. Hill makes of the composition of the present post-office expenditure. It is obvious that, throughout the inquiry (so far as it relates merely to a point of finance, its sole relation as presently considered) the nett revenue now derived from the post-office, must be taken as a standard, by which, according as the revenue to be raised by Mr. Hill’s system Teaches or approximates to it, the merits of that system are to be tested. Consequently, in comparing Mr. Hill’s plan with the present, we must take the expenditure of the pos⅛office as it is, unless so far as a saving can be shewn to arise specifically out of Mr. Hill’s plan. If any deduction, otherwise, is made from the charges of management, as applied to Mr. Hill’s plan, the same deduction must be made from the present expenditure, thereby raising the present nett— that is, raising the standard that Mr. Hill is bound to reach, just in the same proportion that it raises his means of reaching it. These considerations are not brought forward as if in opposition to Mr. Hill, (by whom, in his latter statement presented to the committee, they axe given full effect to. though apparently overlooked in his pamphlet) but in order that persons wìio desire to see the matter with their own eyes, may not be deterred by the apprehension of having to encounter a tedious or intricate calculation. The real question as to the increase of letters that would be necessary on Mr. Hill’s plan, lies in the smallest possible compass. The gross revenue to be raised in a given year, after deducting L.71,755, arising from extraneous sources, supposed available under Mr. Hill’s plan as well as the present, is L.2,390,515, or 573,723,600 pence. This revenue is at present raised, This assumption appears incorrect, as; supposing the year’s revenue to be wholly raised from letters posted in the United Kingdom, without taking into account the postage of those arriving from abroad. And as, on the assumption in question, Mr. Hill multiplies the letters of due week by 53, instead of 52, (the postage of the weik being but 1-53.1 of the year s revenue) a deuuction of about a million of letters would fall to be made from his estimate. (taking Mr. Hill’s own calculation) from fifty-seven millions of general post letters, eight millions of penny post letters, and thirteen millions of twopenny and threepenny post letters. On the penny letters, Mr. Hill calculates on no increase; the twopenny and threepenny, if reduced to a penny, he expects^to increase threefold, making these three descriptions of letters amount to forty-seven millions. Forty-seven millions of pence, deducted from the 573,7'23,600, leave 526,7'23,600 to be raised from the general post letters, which Mr. Hill estimates (taking in the weights above the penny rate) to produce lid. each. It requires 4'21,378,880 letters at l⅛d. to produce this; and to give such a number, the fifty-seven millions (the present number) require to be multiplied by about 7⅛, "that is, to be increased 7⅜ fold. Now this would only leave the present nett revenue, supposing the expenses to remain as at present. But Mr. Hill allows that a sevenfold increase of the number of letters would, or might, increase the expense of internal distribution by nearly half a million of pounds, (the difference between L.575,384, the present, and 1,035,833 the prospective expense.) To balance this, he has the estimated additional rate on foreign and ship letters L.200,000, Mr. Hill also claims, as a receipt to fall into him, L.48,000 for “payments by government offices not entitled to frank.” But, it is presumed, the letters for which these payments were made on the year taken, were part of the 78,000,00(>; and, if so, query, farther, whether these oughtnot to be deducted from the number of increasable letters? The government officers would send no more letters at a penny than they do at present. In the uncertainty, however, as to the grounds of this claim, let it be allowed; still the deficiency, after so great an increase, will remain a quarter of a million. (supposing a way shewn of raising this) thus leaving, after an increase of 7½-fold, a deficit of L.300,000. Let the fairness of this calculation be tested, and then let it be reviewed in comparison with that by which Mr. Hill brings out a quite different result, that is to say, nearly as favourable a result from an increase of five-fold as has now been done from 7⅛. After having on grounds, the correctness of which have been in part already questioned, (and, for the rest, are neither admitted nor denied), raised the number of letters for a year, from seventy-four to seventy-eight millions; he next, on a ground which, on a moment’s reflection he would probably give up as untenable, The ground is. the high postage of ship and foreign letters which came in the week of the return, Q. 11032. But letters arriving from aoroad, formed no part of the return, nor could their postage affect the question. It isbut fair to say, however, that the suggestion on this point did not. come originally from Mr. Hill. raises them to eighty millions. These, at lid. each, would produce L.416,666. Increased five-fold, they yield L.2,083,330, The cost on inland distribution he makes L.868,967, which, together with L. 112,162, (other branches of expenditure) makes L.981,129. This deducted from the gross, leaves L.l,102,201 for the nett; to which he adds the two items just mentioned of L. 196,000 and L. 48,000, thus making the total nett L.l,346,201, or only something more than L.300,000 of a deficit on a five fold increase. Now all that is necessary for the purpose of explaining how this more favourable result is brought out, is to compare the produce of his ∕⅛β-fold, with that of his one-fold. The former will be found just five times the amount of the latter; and as the one-fold includes all descriptions of letters, penny, twopenny, and threepenny, five times the produce of the one-fold, of course, suppose an equal increase on all. Is not this multiplying the penny letters in the same ratio with the others, as objected to by Lord Litchfield ì It is true, that with the explanation that Mr. Hill would give it, namely, that by a fivefold increase, he means the average of a sixfold on the general post, and a threefold on the twopenny and threepenny, (the penny remaining the same); this would be merely a different mode of expressing the same thing. Practically, it is a deception; because, any increase promised by Mr. Hili, being an increase by virtue of reduced postage, whenever he says that a fivefold increase would produce such and such a revenue, every body will understand him to mean, a fivefold increase of reducible letters, that is, (mainly) of general post letters. If Mr. Hill owns, as he would own that his statement, in this meaning, would be untrue, how can he complain of Lord Litchfield for supposing what would be necessary to make it true; namely, a fivefold multiplication of the penny letters, as well as of the others? In substance, then, there is an agreement as to the principle of the calculation; a difference as to the data — the number of letters from which a given revenue is at present drawn. Finding the average postage of a letter is merely another method of arriving at the same result. The average postage of a general post letter, appears from the returns to be above 10d. An eight-fold increase (at l∣d. on average for each letter) would therefore produce the same amount on the present number at 10d. Other two folds of an increase would produce L.475,000, to which the L.200,000 for foreign and ship letters being added, there would be L.675,000 for additional expenses. While it is admitted then to be a vague statement, (vague as respects the estimate of the increased expense, which can only be a guess), it is believed to be a moderate one, to say, that on ten-fold increase of general post letters, with a three-fold increase on the twopenny and threepenny post letters, would be necessary to uphold the present revenue. The average postage of a letter has been represented to be 6jd; consequently, it is meant to be inferred, a sixfold increase, or little more, would produce the present revenue. But if this is the average at all, is it the average otherwise than by including the penny and twopenny letters ì or would these increase sixfold? Do not the more unscrupulous supporters of Mr. Hill’s plan, who blazon abroad partial statements of the kind, see that they prove too much? If 6 Id. is the average of increasable, that is, of general post letters, (the sense intended to be conveyed) what becomes of the outcry about the exorbitant rate of postage? TeD a man, that for 6jd., at an average, he may have a. letter conveyed, with the utmost possible speed, and with all but infallible certainty, to any part of the known world, and will he sympathise in the complaint of excessive charge? Mr. Hill’s plan may safely be allowed to rest on its merits; let it be allowed to rest there, without the employment of deception and misrepresentation. This, indeed, is a calculation, both the data and the conclusions of which, any plain man who pays twenty shillings to the post-office in a twelvemonth, may verify on five minutes’ reflection. Let such a one consider, whether the average of his general post letters can be less than 10d., and then say, if the average cost were reduced to l∣d., whether it could require less than ten letters for one, taking into consideration the increase of expense, to uphold the present revenue? Passing now from matters of calculation, to those of conjecture and estimate, we encounter, as maybe supposed, a much wider diversity of opinions. This head embraces that most essential question,—what precise increase of correspondence might be expected unde· such a reduction as recommended by Mr. Hill. That an increase would take place which, absolutely speaking, may be characterized as immense, may be held as at all hands acknowledged; but in specifying the probable rate of such increase, in relation to that which would be necessary for the safety of the revenue, there is every possible variety of estimate, The importance of keeping these two points distinct in the mind, is shewn from this, that Lord Ashburton is made, in the Appendix to the Report, to give evidence of the probability of a “great increase,” while his Lordship explicitly states his belief, that the adoption of Mr. Hill’s plan would be equivalent to a surrenderor the whole post-office revenue. ranging from, “very considerable” up to “beyond calculation,” from four to a hundred fold ∙, of which extremes the medium may be given as “ten-fold,” or “increase that would keep up the revenue.” It is obvious, however, that evidence of this nature requires to be received with some degree of deduction. Besides being mostly conjectural, it may be said to be all ex-parte, brought forward in support of the scheme, the eligibility of which was the subject of investigation. There is no opposing party. Government is constrained, in such an inquiry, to be neutral. To the administrators of the post-office, interference would be an invidious office, seeing that even their evidence is apt to be viewed as that of interested, or at all events, prejudiced persons. The cross-examinations instituted by some of the members of the Committee, would be required even as a counterpoise to the effect of leading questions put (certainly without the slightest appearance of unfair intentions) by the others. When to this is added the significant fact, that few, indeed, of the witnesses ventured to state, that they would pay as much postage under the proposed reduction as at present, (while an increase of outlay is admitted to be inevitable on such reduction) and that the generality only hoped for a surplus revenue equal to the present, after the lapse of a considerable period; when we advert to another important fact, that scarcely one of the witnesses professed to have examined Mr. Hill’s calculations, but merely to have assumed their correctness; when these considerations ate taken into account, it is surely not too much to say, that the adoption of the plan in question would place the post-office revenue in very imminent hazard. But although Mr. Hill’s plan has been perilled by some of his supporters, if not by himself, on this issue, that it would, at least, maintain the present revenue, its proved insufficiency on this issue, is not, on a larger view of the question, to be viewed as conclusive against it. Even in a financial point of view, a defalcation in this source of revenue would probably be met by a proportionate growth in others. The increased facilities given to trade, would, in a variety of ways, tend to the creation of revenue. Even the increase on the paper duties might not be an inconsiderable item, though perhaps liable to be balanced by a corresponding decrease on those on advertisements. Viewing the advantage to commerce, literature, and morality, which would arise from a cheap system of postage, there are probably few persons conversant with subjects of social or political economy, who would advocate the employment of the post-office as a source of revenue, on any other grounds than, in the present circumstances of this country, the difficulty of finding another as a snbstitute. Might such a mode as this be suggested:— Let a bill be brought into Parliament, to grant her Majesty a certain revenue from postage, to be raised after the manner described by Mr. Hill; but containing provisions, that any deficiency of such revenue is to be supplied from other defined sources. Let these sources be named by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or offered by the supporters of Mr. Hill’s scheme, (to which the latter could not object, as on their principles the provisions would be inoperative for want of occasion ;) but, at all events, agreed upon as an essential part of the bill. Put off the supposition, however, that such an increase of correspondence would ensue, as that which has been mentioned as the average of the estimates on this point, the question has arisen, to what extent a corresponding increase of the post establishment must take place, both as regards the space in which the duties are to be performed, and the number of persons required for such performances. As regards increase of expense for conveyance, there does not seem so much ground for apprehension. The chief difficulty apprehended, is that which would be experienced in the dispatch of the mails from London, and other large offices, under the circumstances of the closeness of the hour of receipt to that of dispatch, to which the public are accustomed, and the great proportion of letters that are put in at the very latest hour. Various suggestions might be offered tor !essening this difficulty. For a time, at least, the system of receiving a∕ce with late letters might be extended. This would be no nullification of the boon of a cheap postage; for it would be the fairest and most convenient way of throwing the expense on those who most created it, and whocou∣d best find their account in increasing it. Or London might be split down into separate post towns, with separate bags from earh, (an inconvenience that would be gradually diminishin·;, as railways, with mot∣>ng offices. were established.) Or three or four different kinds of stamped covers might be sold, distinguishing by colour, and marked respectively, late, later, latest, and charged 3d., od , or Is. ea. h, to be received up to certain hours, A cierk, at the receiving box, could, with great quickness, throw out in transition all of the wrong colour for the hou , to wait next dispatch; or, as often as the sorting boxes are filled, their contents might be transfened to the tags. On these points, the officers of the post-office, who can alone, or who can best form an opinion, while they concur in stating that a large additional expense would certainly be incurred, profess not to be able to form, or, in point of fact, not to have formed, any definite idea of its extent. The sums put to this amount in the foregoing calculations, may be considered as stated in mere conjecture; nor is it very easy to offer anything on the subject further than to observe, that any saving of time or labour, in regard to the business of dispatch, effected by Mr. Hill’s plan, applies only to the taxing; partly, if at all, to the examination, and to the telling up: the duty occupying the longest time, (that of sorting) together with the stamping, being increased in full proportion to the increase of letters. Of the minor difficulties attending Mr. Hill’s plan, that which regards the mode of collecting'the postage on foreign letters, is the most considerable. Mr. Hill seems latterly to think, that, as regards these, it might be necessary to take payment on delivery. But it seems, by no means clear, that Mr. Hill’s first suggestion on that point, (namely, that of charging twopence in advance outwards, and nothing inwards) is liable to any great objection peculiar to this part of his plan ; the persons who send letters abroad, being generally the same who receive from abroad. The inconvenience of having letters above weight, returned (after opening) from the dead letter office, cannot be allowed to stand in the way of an extensive arrangement otherwise beneficial. If parties would neither be at the pains to weigh their letters, nor use a stamp of a penny higher price, when in doubt, they might very fairly be left to take the consequence. But after considering all the defects and difficulties of Mr. Hill’s plan, the question recurs, if we do not adopt it, what else is to be done? That a great reduction of postage must be made, seems to be universally admitted; but what other scheme of reduction has been proposed, or who is ready to propose one? If we are to reduce at all, there seems much reason to question, whether any reduction short of that proposed by Mr. Hill, will be to good purpose. The Committee have recommended a penny rate for distances not exceeding fifteen miles, and twopence for larger distances. But there are not wanting good grounds for maintaining that the penny rate might fetch a greater revenue than the twopenny one. Speaking loosely, it may be reckoned that, at a uniform penny postage, a fourfold increase on the general post letters, and a threefold on the twopenny and threepenny, would more than cover the charges of management. That an increase to this extent would ensue, may be held for certain; that it would ensue to double or treble this extent is, if improbable, not beyond the bounds of possibility. So that, at the worst, perhaps, the utmost evil that would arise from the adoption of Mr. Hill’s plan, would be the payment of a million and-a-half of taxes in one way, instead of in another, while the vast advantage of a low rate of postage would be so much clear gainobtained. And this leads to a consideration of what, in a question of political economy, ought to be reckoned the proper measure of the advantage of Mr. Hill’s plan. Suppose a person to pay L.l a-year in postage, and L.ó in other taxes; suppose that in another year he pays only 5s. for postage, and L.5, 15s. in other taxes, it is evident that, ceteris paribus, matters will remain the same, both as regards the state and the individual, that is, if the number of letters which the individual gets conveyed remains the same. But if, on the latter supposition, he gets twenty-five letters conveyed, while on the former he only got twenty, the conveyance of the five letters additional is a clear advantage gained. The true measure then of the benefits of Mr. Hill’s plan, is not the amount of surplus revenue it creates, as relative to the present, but the number of letters conveyed, on that plan, as relative to the expense of conveyance. If Mr. Hill, by adding twenty-five per cent, to the cost of conveyance, can add 100 per cent, to the number of letters conveyed, this is clear benefit. And as there can be no real advantage from the adoption of his plan that does not resolve into this principle, so (speaking on the abstract) any alleged disadvantage, not resolving into the same principle, may be regarded as only apparent. ]

The French post-office, after the modern system, had its [7:18:496]origin early in the 17th century. Asin Britain, its revenues at first accrued to the postmaster, and were next for a time farmed. In 1791, the French post-office yielded a revenue of 11,000,000 of francs; about thirty years later, the revenue had become nearly double, and in 1836 it amounted to 37,405,516 francs; the number of letters for that year being 78,970,561. The French post establishment is under the direction of a council, consisting of a chief, and two or more members. The French differs from the British office, in charging postage by weight, a mode usual throughout the continent. The French office has been remarkable for the facilities it affords to the circulation of printed matter. All sorts of circulars, lists, advertisements, and the like, may first be stamped on payment of five centimes, and then transmitted by post for ten centimes more, in whole about 1½d. British money. The number of such circulars passing through the French post-office is immense. The business of the Parisian office even exceeds that of the London, there being from forty to fifty thousand letters, and 100,000 printed papers of different descriptions, dispatched from the former daily, Sundays not excepted. The French post towns amount in number to about 1460, but the post accommodation is carried to the utmost possible extent, letters being delivered not merely within the towns and villages, but throughout the country generally.^[66. The average of each letter is about fivepence. In Britain, it is probably double this, at least. The charges of collection in France are about 50 per cent., in Britain 28 per cent. ] The same degree of dispatch in post business has not, however, been attained in France.

The post-office of the United States is under the charge of the general government. For a long period it was a source of expense, and it is only during the last six or seven years that it has yielded a revenue, which, however, is now rapidly increasing. The following particulars regarding its present state, are from a report of the Postmaster-General of the United States to the President. On the first of July 1837, the post routes were about 141,242 miles in extent, and the annual transportation of the mails upon them was: on horses and in sulkeys 11,999,282 miles; in stages and coaches 18,804,800; and in steam-boats and [7:18:497]railroad cars 1,793,024. The number of post-offices on the 1st December 1837, was 12,089. The revenue of the department for the preceding year was
[table]

The average number of dead letters annually, is about 900,000. The number of letters delivered in the year, is estimated at 29,360,992. Free and dead letters about three millions more. The number of newspapers, pamphlets, &c. paying postage, is estimated at about 25 millions. Dead and free newspapers, four millions more.

The Americans charge in the same mode as the British, namely, by the pieces of which the letter consists. The rates are as follows: for a distance not exceeding
[7:18:498]
[table]

Ship letters at the port of arrival, 6 cents; 2 cents more than the inland postage, if carried inland. Newspapers 1 cent, or 1⅛. Magazines and pamphlets from l½ cent to 6 cents per sheet, according to mode of publication and distance.^[67. A cent, or hundredth part of a dollar, is about a halfpenny. ]