[43] Mr. Lewins, one of the senior clerks, we believe, in the Post Office, has written a very pleasant and amusing book upon the British Post, but he naturally looks upon St. Martin’s-le-Grand as perfection. The Post Office has produced several literary men. Allen, who was the inventor of Cross Posts, introduced in 1720, by which he amassed considerable wealth, although not an author, was a great patron of literature, as well as a most benevolent man. He was the friend of Fielding, Warburton, and Pope, the last of whom has celebrated his benevolence in the well known lines,—
“Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.”
At the present day, there are Anthony Trollope, Edmund Yates, besides many who adopt the anonymous, and are contributors to our magazines and reviews, and occasionally to comic periodicals. But there is one man who, if his duties, first as Accountant-General, and now as one of the secretaries of the Post Office, had not been so unceasing and absorbing for many years, would have been, in another sense, among the most distinguished men of letters of his day. Mr. Frank Ives Scudamore’s “People that One Never Sees” and his essays “On Dreams,” are amongst the most brilliant and exquisite little conceptions that pen has ever committed to paper. Mr. Scudamore finds “sermons in stones,” and sweetest harmony also.
[44] The following very seriously meant paragraph is contained in the Postmaster-General’s Fourth Report:—“I think I am safe in stating, as a general fact, that those boards of directors of railway companies which have evinced the greatest readiness to meet the wishes of the Post Office, and to convey mail bags by frequent trains, and at moderate rates, are, at the same time those boards which have been most successful in promoting the interests of their companies, as shown by the market value of their shares!” The company which the writer had specially in view when framing the foregoing paragraph, was the London, Brighton and South Coast. The note of admiration is ours.
[45] This is the amount stated in evidence before the Royal Commissioners on Railways.
[46] Some persons have odd notions of the speed of railway trains. Some few years ago, a jockey who had missed the express to Newmarket, was anxious to have a special train, but on being informed of the cost, he earnestly asked an officer of the Company “if he did not think the express might be overtaken if he followed it in a cab!” The express train was running on the Eastern Counties.
[47] The “narrow” gauge, the gauge all but universal through England, Scotland, Wales, and Europe generally, is 4 feet 8½ inches; the “broad,” or Great Western gauge, is 7 feet. The New York and Erie Railway gauge is 6 feet; the other American railways are the same as in England and Europe. The Irish gauge is 5 feet 3 inches. The Canadian and Indian 5 feet 6 inches.
[48] There is a difference of twenty-six minutes between London and Dublin times, London being to the east, is the earlier; thus when it is for instance 9 o’clock, it is 9.26 in Dublin. Dublin time has now become universal time in Ireland.
[49] At page 6 of the Ninth Report of the Postmaster-General, dated 30th April, 1863, signed by Lord Stanley, of Alderley, it is stated, “Postal communication between provincial towns has also, in many instances, been made more frequent. Between Manchester and Liverpool there are not fewer than eight mails in each direction daily.” At page 11 of the Twelfth Report, dated “March, 1866,” and signed also by Lord Stanley, of Alderley, the following words occur:—“The town districts of Liverpool have now six deliveries of letters from Manchester daily, as compared with only three deliveries of such letters in 1863. The improvement in the course of post between ordinary correspondents in Liverpool and ordinary correspondents in Manchester, is at present only partial and one-sided. A scheme is under consideration, however, for the extension of the deliveries and collections in Manchester, and when this plan shall have been carried out, a very marked improvement will be effected in the course of post between these great towns, and will, I doubt not, be followed by a rapid development of their already large correspondence.” The italics in the foregoing extracts are ours. To solve the difficulty, if possible, we obtained the October number of the “Local Postal Guide for Manchester, (published monthly) by command of the Postmaster-General,” and it appears by it there are ten collections for Liverpool at the head office, and three at the receiving offices and pillar posts,—one of which only began on the 4th of October, 1867. There are eight arrivals from Liverpool, and six deliveries.
[50] The following admirable and eloquent description of Manchester is, with one unimportant omission, taken from Engineering, of the 22nd of March, 1867:—