Her Majesty's Mails

h now regulate the Post-Office are those of 1 Vict. c. 32-36, entitled "An Act to repeal the several laws relating to the Post-Office;" "An Act for the management of the Post-Office;" "An Act for co

rtant Acts, there are others of later date relating to the Money-order Office, co

e total number of letters passing through the Post-Office during the year 1863 was 642,000,000, or, in the proportion of letters to population, no less than 22 to each person in the three kingdoms. As contrasted with the last year of dear postage, the number of letters show an eightfold increase. The distance over which the m

0,000l. for the impressed stamp on newspapers sent through the post, the charges for which are collected by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. The actual expenditure of the Department, including the expenses of mail-packets (great part of which appertain to the Admiralty), amounted, in round numbers, to 3,000,000l. The amount of all the items belonging

t home, between 3,000 and 4,000 are attached to the London Office alone, while the remainder, including more than 11,000 postmasters, belong to the establishments in the various towns and villages of the United Kingdom. The entire staff is under the immediate control of the Postmast

g in the gift of the Treasury Lords), and to those in Ireland and Scotland where the salary is 100l. and upwards. Besides this amount of patronage, now dispensed to officers already in the service, he has the power of nomination to all vacancies in the General Post-Offices of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.[142] The following noblemen have occupied the position of Postmaster-General during the last forty years, or since the joint Postmaster-Generalship was abolished in 1823,[143] viz. Earl of Chichester (1823), Lord Frederick Montague

dviser of the Postmaster-General. The principal secretaries during the century have been Francis Freeling, Esq. (1797), created a baronet in 18

ncy and discipline of their respective branches. Something like the same arrangement, though on a much smaller scale, is preserved in the less-important chief offices of Edinburgh and Dublin. The branches i

ting in other branches, or in country offices, pass through this office to the Postmaster-General, returning through the same channel. In 1763, the secretaries of the Post-Office had one clerk and two supernumerary clerks assigned to them. Now, the three secretaries are assist

h the law business of the Post-Office. It gives employmen

s for which are included provision for the employment of post-offices fitted up in railway-carriages; it also looks to the proper performance of each post-office contract embracing mail-conveyance. The staff of the Mail Office comprises an inspector-general of mails, a deputy inspector-general, two principal clerks, and twenty-one clerks in three classes. The connexion be

this office being charged with the examination of the postage and revenue accounts of each postmaster. All salaries, pensions, and items of current expenditure are also paid through this office. In 1763, the duties of these offices, then distinct, w

er office for the metropolis. Of course, everything relating to this particular branch of post-office business, and also some part of the savings' bank accounts, pass through this channel. Each provincial postma

reat number of places are sent in transit through London, where it is requisite they should be rearranged and forwarded. This daily Herculean labour is performed by the clerks, sorters, and letter-carriers attached to the department. The ten district-offices in London, engaged with the same kind of work on a small scale, are subordinate to the Circulation Office at St. Martin's-le-Grand. The Registered Letter Branch, employing no less than fifty clerks, and the Return

respondence with postmasters and the public on any subject connected with the banks in question is managed entirely by this department. The already-existing machinery of the Post-Office has been freely called into operation, and the business of the new banks has increased the work of almost all the other branches, especially those of the Receiver and Accountant-General's and the Money-order Offices. Through the former all the investments are received, and all remittances to postmasters for the repayment of deposits are made; while the surplus revenue goes from that office direct to that of the Commissioners fo

ce for 1863-4, including medicine (given gratuitously to all officers who are not in receipt of 150l. salary), is 1,715l. A House-keeper's Department, including a housekeeper and sixteen female servants, requiring a yearly payment of 763l. Six engineers, ten constables, and six firemen are also constantly employed and paid by th

n, all defects in the working of the postal system; to remove, when possible, all just grounds of complaint on the part of the public; "to give to the correspondence of their district increased celerity, regularity, and security" when opportunity offers, and to arrange for contracts with these objects. The Act of Queen Anne provided for the appointment of one surveyor to the Post-Office, whose duties it should be to make proper surveys of post-roads. Little more than a hundred years ago, one of these functionaries was sufficient to compass the duty of surveyor

otherwise acquire from other and ordinary circumstances. The number of sub-offices attached to each town also varies greatly, according to the position of the head-office.[150] Next to the three chief offices, the largest establishments are those of Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Bristol. Among the most important offices of the second class, we may enumerate Aberdeen, Bath, Belfast, Cork,

sioners, the postmaster is allowed to appoint nearly the whole of his own officers, he being responsible to the authorities for their proper discipline and good conduct. Formerly, and up to as late as eight years ago, each postmaster rendered a

TNO

64, and Revenue Estimates for 1864-5, from w

r-General. All appointments to these offices are made by the Colonial Secretary, if th

f offices in other large towns, a measure which had the effect of rousing the people of the sister-countries to arms. The Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry

tions, examinations, &c. of candidates for appointment in

" we find his successors to have been Sir William Paget, one of Henry VIII.'s Chief Secretaries of State, and John Mason, Esq. "Secretary for the French Tongue." "The fees or wages" of each of these functionaries are given at 66l. 13s. 6

am an

; Thomas Franklan

en

kland; Sir John

rge

; James Craggs,

Esq.; Galfridus

rge

Esq.; Lord Thom

es; Lord Lov

(now Earl of Le

Besbor

rge

nt; Hon. R.

Hon. R. H

orough; Lord

wich; Lord d

gton; Hon. Henr

ville; Hon. H.

et; Lord Wa

m; Earl of Che

rfield; Earl o

ester; Lord

; Lord Charle

r; Duke of

hamshire; Earl

hichester

ter; Marquis of

not appointed, the joint office being abolished, principa

ee Appe

all the other metropolitan offices, see Appendix (

e greatly increased the work of the central office, and this will follow as

e system of keeping accounts. In 1855 the Civil Service Commission suggested various improvement

ter General's

ee Appe

e neighbourhood. Those post-offices at which money-orders are issued and paid are designated Money-order Offices, and include all the head-offices and a large number of sub-offices, and a few receiving-offices. Packet-Offices are those at which the regular mail-packets (ship-letters may be received or despatched. at any por

endix (D), Revenue Estimates; also, for a statement of the amou

staff is smaller, the clerks also engage in sorting and despatching letters. In many small country towns females are employed as clerks. The sorters are principally engaged in sorting duties. Stampers and messengers do duties such as their designations denote. Letter-carriers-the familiar "postmen" of every household-are almost exclusively engaged i

tted into the service, and afterwards promoted therein, very few losses have occurred, of late years at least, through defalcation. More than twenty years ago, however, a postmaster who owed the office 2,000l. but who had given security for only a part of that sum, absconded, leaving an unpaid debt of upwards of 1,000l. The recovery of the debt had long been considered ho