FOOTNOTES:
[139] Postmaster-General's Reports, 1863, 1864, and Revenue Estimates for 1864-5, from which the whole of our statistics are derived.
[140] The colonial post-offices proper are not under the rule of the English Postmaster-General. All appointments to these offices are made by the Colonial Secretary, if the salary is over 200l.; if under that sum, by the Governors of the different colonies.
[141] An attempt was made at further centralization a few years ago, when it was proposed to reduce the chief offices of Edinburgh and Dublin to the position of 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 who sat in 1855 reported against the proposal, considering the present system to possess advantages to the public over those accruing from the suggested change.
[142] For information relative to the necessary qualifications, examinations, &c. of candidates for appointment in the metropolitan or provincial offices, see [Appendix (C)].
[143] The following list of Postmasters-General before this period, taken from a return made to the House of Commons, March 25, 1844, may not be uninteresting to some of our readers. After Sir Brian Tuke, the first "Master of the Postes," 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. 6d. a-year. The reader will be familiar with the Postmasters-General under Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and the Commonwealth. Coming to the reign of Charles II. we find Philip Froude, Esq. acting for the Duke of York from 1678 to 1688.
| William and Mary. | |
| Sir Robert Cotton; Thomas Frankland, Esq. | 1690-1708 |
| Queen Anne. | |
| Sir Thomas Frankland; Sir John Evelyn | 1708-1715 |
| George I. | |
| Lord Cornwallis; James Craggs, Esq. | 1715-1720 |
| Edward Carteret, Esq.; Galfridus Walpole | 1720-1733 |
| George II. | |
| Edward Carteret, Esq.; Lord Thomas Lovel | 1733-1739 |
| Sir John Eyles; Lord Lovel | 1739-1744 |
| Lord Lovel alone (now Earl of Leicester) | 1744-1759 |
| Earl of Besborough | 1759 |
| George III. | |
| Earl of Egmont; Hon. R. Hampden | 1762 |
| Lord Hyde; Hon. R. Hampden | 1763 |
| Earl of Besborough; Lord Grantham | 1765 |
| Earl of Sandwich; Lord de Spencer | 1768 |
| Viscount Barrington; Hon. Henry Carteret | 1782 |
| Earl of Tankerville; Hon. H. Carteret | 1784 |
| Lord Carteret; Lord Walsingham | 1787 |
| Lord Walsingham; Earl of Chesterfield | 1790 |
| Earl of Chesterfield; Earl of Leicester | 1794 |
| Earl of Leicester; Lord Auckland | 1798 |
| Lord Auckland; Lord Charles Spencer | 1801 |
| Lord Spencer; Duke of Montrose | 1804 |
| Earl of Buckinghamshire; Earl of Carysfort | 1806 |
| Earl of Chichester alone | 1814 |
| Earl of Chichester; Marquis of Salisbury | 1816 |
When the Earl of Salisbury died in 1823, a successor was not appointed, the joint office being abolished, principally through the exertions of the late Marquis of Normanby.
[144] See [Appendix (A)].
[145] For further information respecting this and all the other metropolitan offices, see [Appendix (D)]. Extracts from the Revenue Estimates of 1864-5.
[146] The closing of the Birmingham old Savings' Bank, for example, must have greatly increased the work of the central office, and this will follow as a consequence if in other large towns the example of Birmingham be followed.
[147] Large as this staff undoubtedly is, it would have been larger but for timely changes in the system of keeping accounts. In 1855 the Civil Service Commission suggested various improvements in the organization, which resulted in a decrease of officers attached to some of the branches.
[148] Postmaster General's Second Report.
[149] See [Appendix (A)].
[150] Head-office is the official term given to the independent post-towns, and such as are only subordinate to one of the three metropolitan offices. Sub-offices are, of course, under the head-offices. Receiving-offices, at which letters are received, but not delivered, are also under the authority of the head-office of the 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 port) are received and from which they are despatched. London and Southampton are packet-offices for the Continental Mails, the East and West Indies, and South America. Liverpool, and Queenstown take the United States and Canada. The mail-packets for the Cape of Good Hope and the West Coast of Africa sail to and from Devonport.
[151] For further information respecting these offices, see [Appendix (D)], Revenue Estimates; also, for a statement of the amount of postage collected in our largest towns, see [Appendix (E)].
[152] The staff of the largest provincial offices usually consists of clerks, sorters, stampers, messengers, letter-carriers, and rural post-messengers. The clerks are now principally engaged on clerical duties, attending to the public on money-order business, &c. or in connexion with registered letters or unpaid-letter accounts. In offices where the 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 in delivering letters, &c. from door to door. Auxiliary letter-carriers are those only partially so employed, principally on the largest, or early morning delivery. Rural post-messengers is the official name for "country postmen," who make daily journeys among the villages and hamlets surrounding each town, delivering and taking up letters on their way.
[153] For fuller information on this head, see Appendix, to the Postmaster-General's First Report, pp. 71-4. The following forms part of a later Document (Ninth Report, 1862-3), and is interesting enough to be quoted entire: "Owing to the successful measures which the Department has adopted by means of bonds, frequent supervision, and care in the selection of persons admitted 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 hopeless, but a short time ago a letter was unexpectedly received from the postmaster's son enclosing a remittance in payment of part of his father's debt, and expressing a hope that after a time he should be able to pay the remainder—a hope which was soon realized, every farthing of the debt having now been discharged, in a manner most creditable to the gentleman concerned."
[CHAPTER II.]
ON THE CIRCULATION OF LETTERS.
In order to give the reader a proper idea of the channel through which ordinary correspondence flows—the circulation of letters in the Post-Office system—it will be necessary to devote a long chapter to the subject. We therefore propose to post an imaginary letter in the metropolis for a village in the far away North, following it from its place of posting till we finally see it deposited in the hands of the person to whom it is addressed.