“His visits,” continues M. Vandal, “are solicited with ardour and received with gratitude.” But his remuneration is not on a par with these feelings. There are 673 whose pay is only £12 a year, 996 who receive £14, 2,970 between £14 and £20, 9,988 between £20 and £24, and only 1,779 who receive higher than £24; the average is only £21. 4s. per man. They are allowed, however (as is the case in England), to supplement their postal pay by performing certain little commissions and conveying small parcels for the inhabitants of the districts in which their services are employed.
Belgium possesses a rural postal system as extensive and penetrating as that just described, but, although food and rent are cheaper there than in France, the average pay of Belgian rural postmen is £30 a year, just 2 francs a day.
[38] There are no official means afforded of distinguishing between the number of newspapers and of book parcels sent through the post. A writer in the September number (1862) of Fraser’s Magazine (said to be Mr. M. D. Hill, brother to Sir Rowland) states, that, in that year, the number of book parcels was 12,000,000. The circulation of newspapers through the post is, we apprehend, decreasing, but the diminution is more than compensated for by the increased number of book parcels.
[39] From 1839 until 1862, the number of Money Orders issued was regularly stated in the appendices to the annual reports. Half the value of the returns now issued is lost through the omission of this information, especially as it was in 1862 that the limit of an Inland Money Order was raised from £5 to £10.
[40] We trust there is no doubt whatever upon this point, yet two cases have recently occurred which cannot fail to awaken much apprehension in the minds of depositors. In each it appears that a fraudulent person got hold of a depositor’s book and withdrew the sum to his credit. The Post Office denied its responsibility on the ground that it had already discharged its obligation. Machinery to prevent the repetition of such a fraud could, we apprehend, be easily instituted, which would protect the Office, and at the same time not interpose unnecessary delay or impediment to the withdrawal of deposits. For some few years after the establishment of money orders some frauds were successfully practised upon the Post Office, but there do not appear to have been of late even attempts at fraud, yet the money order system is much more simple now, as regards the public, than it formerly was.
[41] Since the commencement of the present century the idea of making the machinery of the Post Office available as a means of carrying out the saving bank system, was occasionally in the minds of benevolent persons, and the idea so far took shape, that in 1806 Mr. Whitbread brought into the House of Commons, a bill for the purpose of effecting this object; but the nation was then too deeply immersed in war and in considering the ways and means for its sustainment to give attention to philanthropy. The bill was rejected at an early stage of its career. In 1817 the first comprehensive Savings Bank Act was passed, but it does not appear that during its progress through Parliament, any effective efforts were made to connect the Post Office with the system.
On the 31st December, 1865, 3,321 Post Office Savings Banks had been opened throughout the United Kingdom. Since then the number has been considerably added to. They have had some but not a very marked effect upon the savings banks on the old system, for whilst the “capital” of these latter, that is, the amount of money to the credit of depositors at the end of each year, was, on the 31st December, 1861, 41,546,475, it had fallen to £36,307,019 on 31st of December, 1866, but on the other hand, the “capital” of the Post Office Savings Bank was, at the last date, £8,121,175, making the total of savings bank capital £44,428,194, an increase of £2,881,719 since the end of 1861. It is to be remembered that this last named sum is principally, it might very nearly be said, altogether due to depositors of the humblest classes and of the smallest means who, until the establishment of Post Office Savings Banks, were never able to, at all events did not, avail themselves of any depositories for their earnings. The subject is one of deepest interest, but it cannot be perused further in these pages.
[42] The Duke of Argyll is equally distinguished as a senator, a politician, and a man of letters. The Quarterly Review, vol. 84, page 79, reviewing his “Presbytery Examined,” (published in 1848, when His Grace was not twenty-five years of age), thus speaks:—
“Every peer who employs the opportunities furnished by his high position, together with his natural gifts, in conscientious labour for the public good, is now, more than ever, an ornament and a bulwark to the State, and a blessing to the people. It is therefore, with unfeigned satisfaction, that we find another of our nobles, one of the highest in rank, and not the least wealthy in traditional fame, adding himself to the number who are pledged in the face of the world, by early efforts, to a life of continued labour. The Duke has not entered the field of ostensible authorship with any light or frivolous aim, nor has he incurred the heavier responsibility of handling subjects of deep moment to human destiny, for the purpose of displaying his intellectual gifts. The theme he has chosen is one of extended interest, and has points of contact with a wider sphere, while his pages bear throughout the marks of an earnestness not to be mistaken; besides, they present specimens of acuteness and of eloquence full of promise for his literary fame.”
Of the Duke’s last work, the “Reign of Law,” four editions have gone rapidly through the press. It is described respectively by the Times, the Spectator, and the Examiner, as “a very able book,” “a masterly book,” and “a very remarkable volume;” whilst the Pall Mall Gazette says of it,—“The aim of this book is lofty, and requires not only a thorough familiarity with metaphysical and scientific subjects, but a breadth of thought, a freedom from prejudice, a general versatility, and sympathetic quality of mind, and a power of clear exposition rare in all ages and in all countries. We have no hesitation in expressing an opinion that all these qualifications are to be recognised in the Duke of Argyll, and that his book is as unanswerable as it is attractive.”