Foot-prints of a letter carrier; or, a history of the world's correspondece

fices-E

calculations afford. It is, however, a history that goes hand in hand with its trade and commerce; and whatever improvements have been made

nic, the farmer, and the merchant. The former are the aristocrats of so

parts of the civilized world, laden with the handiwork of art and the richness of a nation's growth. Society becomes more dignified, man more ennobled. It is to this power that kings, emperors, and lords owe

tness. The politics of England is its disgrace; its commerce, its honor. The king and Parlia

ch other of twenty-five miles. This mode of conveying letters was by horses; and it is stated by Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, that there were frequently as many as three or four hundred horses in waiting at one of t

in France. Post-horses and stages were

ondence, however, was carried on very differently. The students of a university in Paris established a postal institution in the eleventh century. A number of pedestrian messengers were emp

scoveries of the Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards, created a necessity for a m

o to Cuzco, and messages as to the progress of the invasion, as well as on other subjects, were forwarded to the Inca

starts on his mission into the settlement, and actually arouses the sleepers with his cry of, "Ah, massa, here de right book come at last!" The Kaffir carries his letters in a split sti

and others. The former had, however, what were termed "government messengers," whose business was more particularly to summon the barons, sheriffs,

essengers were first perma

e sent throug

king's livery, as in the reign of Henry III. Several private letters are in existence, dating as far back as the reign of Edward I

he end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Even then it simply corrected some of the ab

ore her death the expenses of the post did not exceed ￡5000 per annum. Previous to this estimate, however, the expen

ure in all its various branches,-statesmen, warriors, divines, scholars, poets, and philosophers. Among them we find the names of Raleigh, Drake, Coke, Hooker, and others of higher sounding and more frequently quoted,-S

d to the merchant's demands for new laws and regulations which the increasing business demanded: hence t

gn post, which up to this reign they had been allowed to manage among themselves. In 1558, the queen's council of state issued a procl

was given to the "Master of the Postes," who, therefore, took charge of the foreign office. The title of his office

each other: hence their correspondence was very limited. Few of them could read or write. Palmers, nay, even wandering gipsies, w

d by all who could find the means. Even then England was behind the other European nations in esta

l and Thomas Witherings, to whom the office ha

general satisfaction, and tended much to satisfy those who had

en no certain and constant interc

the said roads the letters as there shall be occasion, and to pay twopence for every single letter under fourscore miles; and if one hundred and forty miles, fourpence; and if above, then sixpence. The like rule the king is pleased to order to be observed to Westchester, Holyhead, and from thence to Ireland; and also to observe the like rule from London to Plymouth, Exeter, and other places in that road;

department, that the above forms the groundwork of that gigantic institution whic

rvient to the interests of the commonwealth. One of the peculiar features which it assumed under Cromwell's rule was that "it might be made the agent in discovering and preventing many wi

to. But Cromwell's rule was based on fanaticism: hence those leading principles, the result of a long and religious study, and which made u

intellect of the people, and various changes took place, which gave

is monarch the first penny post

n post-office annals. The penny post was found to be a decided success. No sooner was this fact made apparent, than the Duke of York, on whom and his heirs ma

oted king who commenced the practice of granting pensions out of the post-office revenues. The year after he ascended the throne he granted ￡4700 a year to Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, one of his brother's many mistresses, to be paid out of the post-office receipts. It is a curio

f Leed

Schomb

Keepe

Docwray,

transferred to the Consolidated Fund. There was, it must be admitted, some semblance of reason in giving Docwray a pension, for he had claims as founder of the district post or the penny post; but he only held his pension for four years, losing both his emoluments and his office in 1698, when charges of gross mismanagement were br

to the government department sprung up, in the shape of a half-penny

importance of the post-office and added to the available revenue of the country. For ten years no further steps were taken to develop the service; but in 1720, Ralph Allen, immortalized by Pope, appeared on the scene, and he was destined to be one of the great improvers of the establishment. Mr. Allen, who at this time was postmaster of Bath, and who from his position was aware of the defects of the system, proposed to the government to establish cross-posts between Exeter and Chester, going by way of Bristol, Gloucester, and Worcester, thus connecting the west of England with the Lancashire district. The Bath postmaster proposed a complete reconstruction of the cross-post system, guaranteeing improvement to the revenue and increased accommodation to the public. The Lords of the Treasury granted him a lease of the cross-posts for life, his engagement

llen, with an

lth and blush t

ete that at the end of the first year profits to the amount of ￡20,000 were handed over to the crown. In subsequent years the proceeds cont

at present numbers several thousand officers of different grades, was worke

ecaution was used in the reigns of George I. and George II. that thousands of letters passed through the post-office with the forged signatures of members. Even in the early part of the reign of George III. it was related, in the investigation of 1763, that one man had in the course of five months counterfeited one thousand two hundred dozens of franks of different members of Parliament. In the year 1763 the worth of franked correspondence passing through the post-office was estimated at ￡170,000. In 1764, when George III. had been fo

ght, but that the stage-coach which left through the day on Monday arrived in London on the following morning. He pointed out to the authorities that commercial men and tradesmen, for safety and speed, sent their correspondence as parcels, robberies from carelessness and incompetence of post-office servants being then frequent. Mr. Palmer was ready with remedies for these countless defects. In 1783 he submitted his scheme to Mr. Pitt, who lent a ready ear. The officials,

were beginning to exhibit elements of success, it was deemed desirable that Palmer should surrender his appointment. In consideration, however, of his valuable services, a pension of ￡3000 per annum was granted to him; but this sum fell far short of the emoluments which had been promised to him, and he memorialized the government, but without success. He protested against this treatment, and his son, General Palmer, member for Bath, frequently urged his father's claims before Parliament; but it was not until 1813, after a struggle of twenty years, that the House of Commons voted him a grant of ￡50,000. This great benefactor of his country died in 1818. In the first year of the introduction of his plans, the net revenue of the post-office was about

chmen and most of the guards wore bouquets in their button-holes. In the year 1814 the business of the post-office had increased so greatly that better accommodation was sought than was afforded by the office then in Lombard Street. The first general post-office, opened in Cloak Lane, was removed from thence to the Black Swan, in Bishop

man, was indefatigable in the service of the department over which he was placed from 1830 to 1834. At first his grace refused to accept any remuneration for his services; but at length, in compliance with the strong representations of the treasury lords as to the objectionable nature of gratuitous services, "which must involve in many cases the sacrifice of private fortune to of

Manchester line, however, in 1830, the mails of the district were consigned to the new company for transmission. After railways had been in exist

Colonel Maberly, the son of a gentleman who, having amassed a considerable fortune by trade, entered Parliament, and ultimately succeeded Perry as the proprietor of the "Morning Chronicle." Colonel Maberly had been himself in Parliament, and was generally considered a good man of busines

at the new postmaster and secretary introduced many important reforms. The money-order office was transferred from private hands to the general establishment. At this

ed from 3-1/4d. to 1d.,-a reduction which led to an enormou

Colonel Maberly, the secretary, had no sooner learned the business of his office than he made a proposition to the treasury that the letters should be charged in all cases according to the exact dista

t that in the reign of Queen Anne the postage of a letter between London and Edinburgh was less than half as much as the amount charged at the accession of Queen Victoria

increase of trade and the diffusion of knowledge, the increase of this sum had only been between three and four thousand pounds. The evil of high rates led not merely t

a single bag in the warehouse of a London carrier. The head of this firm proffered instant payment of ￡500 if the penalties w

ent motions and speeches directed public attention specifically to the subject and incalculably advanced the cause of reform. Mr. Wallace was not aided by the government or by the arist

. In January, 1837, Mr. Hill published the results of his investigations and embodied his schemes in a pamphlet entitled "Post-Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability." The pamphlet created a sensation in the mercantile world. It was well noticed in the "Spectator" and "Morning Chronicle," to both of which journals Mr. Hill's elder brother Matthew, now a commissioner of bankruptcy at Bristol, contributed. Mr. Rowland Hill contended that the post-office was not making progress like other great national interests,-that its revenue had diminished instead of increased, though the population had augmented six millions and trade and commerce had proportionally increased. From data in his possession Mr. Hill pretty accurately proved that the primary distribution, as he called the cost of receiving and delivering the letters, and also the cost of transit, took t

letter; 2d, increased speed in the delivery of letters; 3d, more frequent opportunity for the despatch of let

ondon established a committee for the purpose of distributing information on the subject by means of pamphlets and papers and for the general purposes of the agitation. A month or two after Mr. Wallace's motion, Mr. Baring, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed a committee to inquire into the present rates of charging postage, with a view to

et done. The post-office authorities traversed every statement of Mr. Hill and his supporters, and Colonel Maberly expressed an opinion that if the postage were reduced to one penny the revenue would not recover itself for forty or fifty years. But, notwithstanding the opposition of the post-office authorities, the committee report

y letter not exceeding half an ounce should be conveyed free within the metropolis, and the distric

orm rate of 4d. The country was greatly dissatisfied. It required Mr. Hill's plan; and the fourpenny rate was in no respect his. The treasury lords were at length convinced they had made a mistake, and on the 10th of January, 1840, another minute was issued, ordering the adoption of a uniform penny rate. On the 10th of August the treasury had its minute confirmed by the statute 3 &

made a Knight Commander of the Bath. During the autumn of 1863 his health began to fail him, and in March of the present year (1865) he resigned his situation. The executive government showed a just and liberal sense of Sir Rowland Hill's merits. By a treasury minute of the 11th of March, 1864, advantage was taken by the government of the special clause in the Superannuation Act relating to extraordinary services, to grant him a pension of three times the usual retiring allowance. This was not merely a just but a generous act; and

s full salary of ￡2000 per annum, but Lord Palmerston gave notice that the pension should be continued to Lady Hill in the event of her ladyship surviving her husband.18 Since this notice was given by the premier, an influential dep

aid or that may be hereafter paid to him, whether as an annuity or a gratuity; we think he deserves the order of K.C.B., which he obtained, and, further, that he deserves to have his merits and his name commemorated by a statue intended to be erected at Birmingham in his honor. But how few are there in this world of ours who obtain a tithe of their deserts! Neither Harvey, Jenner, Newton, nor Locke was properly r

pness, and celerity. Common carriers, too, are greatly benefited by the penny postage. Pickford & Co. now despatch by post more than ten times the number of letters they despatched in 1839. Mr. Charles Knight, the London publisher, stated that the penny postage stimulated every branch of his trade, and brought the country booksellers into daily communication with the London houses. Mr. Bagster, the publisher of the Polyglot Bible in twenty-four languages, stated to Mr. Hill that the revision which he was just giving to his work would on the old system have cost him ￡1500 in postage alone, and that the Bible could not be printed but for the penny post. One of the principal advocates for the repeal of the Corn Laws stated that the objects of the league were achieved two years earlier than otherwise, owing to the introduction of cheap postage. Conductors of schools and educational establishments stated how people were learning everywhere to write for the firs

f Argyll was postmaster-general. For this amalgamation Mr. Hill had been striving from the commencement. It avoided the waste of tim

f the new scheme was that London should be considered in the principal post-offices as ten different towns, each with its own centre of operations, and that the letters should be assorted and despatched on this principle. A new and special service was brought into operation between England and Ireland on the 1st of October, 1860. Night and day mail-trains hav

and as he was frequently employed, by gentlemen attending the courts, in sending letters to different parts of the city, and as he had doubtless hear

MM

1740. Offices erected, 1643, and in 1657; made general in England, 1656; in Scotland, 1695; as at present formed, 12 Charles II., December 27, 1660. Penny posts began in London, 1681; taken in

conveyed by coaches, on Pal

st-chaises inv

imposed, 1779;

N DIS

r and the rate of living fifty per cent cheaper than it is now. The fact is, there are not ten men in the post-office department whose salaries are adequate to their wants; and to their just demand for an increase of salary they are coolly answered that "if they are not satisfied they can resign, as there are plenty outside willing to take their place." Is it to be expected that men so treated can consistently admire a system or maintain a principle that strikes at the root of their interest and patriotism? In another part of this work we have alluded to this subject, and referring to it here is simply to contrast a portion of our postal system with that of the English. Let it be distinctly understood that these remarks apply as much to the heads of the postal department at Washington as they do to their officials: the latter simply imitate the actions and carry out the plans of their superiors, and not unfrequently in a manner as insulting as their action and conduct are repulsive. Men in power should be gentlemen; and in selecting their assistants, this natural attribute of the man, refined by education, would exercise its influence

ctura pasc

rinciple conveyed in

ucis cont

ent; and that is, a man is not discharged from office simply on political grounds, but is retained as long as he attends to his business and conducts himself properly. The reward of merit and long service

on "Postal Gui

nd Sunbury, and the post towns of Barnet, Waltham Cross, Romford, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, and Hounslow. It is divided into ten postal districts,

N. Southw

ern N.E.

N.W. Easter

n S. We

S.E. Wester

esses of letters for London and its neighborhood, the publ

ry important street or place

DELIV

es of the general post-office is designated the tow

nland, colonial, and foreign letters arriving in sufficient time, commences about 7.30 A.M., and is generally completed t

from Ireland and France, and letters from the provinces and abroad which may arrive too late for the first del

lude all letters reaching the general post-office

ery commences

d at from forty-five minutes to an hour from the time of despatch from the general post-office, according to the di

. The day mails from Ireland, France, and the continent generally, and the letters received from Brighton and other towns which ha

with this difference, however, that in some of the less-thi

STE RE

mmodation of strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in London, letters for residence in London must not be addressed "Post-Office till calle

Philadelphia," without the word "Transient," "or Poste Restante," must necessarily take its winding way through all the

hey must have them addressed to their place of residence, in order that they may be sent by the letter-carrie

the south side of the hall of the general post-office, St. Martin's-le-Grand; and at this office also, and there only, ar

he necessary particulars to the clerk on duty, in order to prevent mistakes, and t

rinciple would be an important feature in our pos