Her Majesty's Mails / An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-Office

by William Lewins

THE LETTER-POST.

As at present constituted, the British Post-Office has, with the few exceptions noticed in our historical survey, an exclusive authority to convey letters within the United Kingdom. It is also required by law to convey newspapers when the public choose to use the post for that purpose. The Post-Office further undertakes the conveyance of books and book-packets, and the remittance of small sums of money. Still more recently, it has entered into competition with the banking interest of the country: it now threatens a scheme which will compete with benefit societies and insurance offices. It is only with regard to the carriage of letters, however, that the Post-Office possesses any special privileges, the other branches of its business being open to any person or persons who may choose to undertake them.

• (a) The rates of postage on all letters passing through the Post-Office are now regulated by weight,[206] irrespective of distance, and (with some exceptions, which we will mention presently) altogether irrespective of their contents. Letters weighing less than four ounces may be sent unpaid, but they will be charged double postage on delivery. Letters may be sent insufficiently stamped, but that deficiency, whatever it may be, will also be charged double postage on delivery. The rate for letters is familiar to every reader.
• (b) All re-directed letters are liable to additional postage, but at the prepaid, and not the unpaid rate. Thus, for a letter under half an ounce, re-addressed from one post-town to another, additional postage, to the amount of one penny, is levied. Re-directed letters, not addressed to a fresh post-town, but to a place within the district belonging to the same post-town to which they were originally sent, are not charged with any additional postage, the first payment franking them until they are delivered. Letters for officers in the army and navy, and private soldiers and seamen employed on actual service, have their letters re-addressed to them from place to place without any charge for re-direction.
• (c) No letter, &c. can be forwarded through the post which is more than two feet in length, breadth, or depth, nor any unpaid letter or packet which weighs more than four ounces, unless three-quarters of the postage due on it have been paid. The exceptions to this rule are—
  • 1st. Packets sent to or received from places abroad.
  • 2d. Packets to or from any of the Government departments or public officers.
  • 3d. Petitions or addresses to the Queen, whether directed to Her Majesty or forwarded to any member of either House of Parliament.
  • 4th. Petitions to either House of Parliament.
  • 5th. Printed parliamentary proceedings.
• (d) Late letters, &c. are received till within five minutes of the despatch of the mails, except where the Post-Office surveyor may deem a longer interval necessary, and providing that this arrangement does not necessitate any office being open after ten o'clock at night. In each post-office window placards are exhibited showing the time up to which such letters may be posted.
• No late letters can be forwarded by the mail preparing for despatch unless prepaid in stamps, including the ordinary postage and the late-letter fee. Government letters are an exception to this rule; they may be posted, without extra fee, up to the latest moment.
• (e) Letters containing sharp instruments, knives, scissors, glass, &c. are not allowed to circulate through the post, to the risk of damaging the general correspondence. Such communications, when posted, are detained and forwarded to the Metropolitan Office, where correspondence is at once opened with the senders.
• Letters for the United Kingdom found to contain coin are only forwarded to their destination under certain restrictions. Such letters, if not registered, are at once treated as if they were, and charged on delivery with a double registration-fee, or eightpence in addition to the postage.