I cite also from Mr. Scudamore’s Report the following curious passage:—
“The packets in those times, when war raged for so many years, and when every sea was covered with French privateers, gave our Postmasters-General very great and constant anxiety. Their orders to the captains of such vessels are urgent, that they shall run while they can, fight when they can no longer run, and throw the mails overboard when fighting will no longer avail. . . . [There is] a piteous petition from James Vickers, captain of the Grace Dogger, who, as he lay in Dublin Bay waiting until the tide would take him over the bar, was seized by a French privateer, the captain of which stripped the Grace Dogger of her rigging, sails, spars, and yards, and of all the furniture ‘wherewith she had been provided for the due accommodation of passengers, leaving not so much as a spoone or a nail-hooke to hang anything on,’ and finally ransomed her to the aforesaid James Vickers for fifty guineas, which sum, with the cost of the other losses, our Postmaster-General had to pay.”
Improvement in Accounts.
A passage from the Report of the Chief Examiner shows the great improvements which had taken place in the system of accounts, and the strange laxity which had existed before the late reforms.
By this it appeared that under the old system the accounts of the provincial postmasters were usually from three to six months in arrear; that no vouchers were demanded for the proper disbursement of the money with which the postmasters were credited; that through this dilatoriness they were themselves frequently ignorant of the real state of their affairs, and under temptation to use the public money for their own purposes;[177] while, at the same time, the revenue was injured by the delay in remitting the balances. This was contrasted with the new system, under which “each postmaster renders his account week by week, with all its proper vouchers for every receipt and every payment, and showing the revenue left in his hands at the close of each week to be the smallest possible sum.”[178]
At the same time, notwithstanding the “many and great struggles made to bring the accounts of the Post Office into a satisfactory state,” the force in the offices of the Receiver and Accountant-General had been reduced from ninety-three to fifty-one, and that not only without any demand for extra time, but with a fair allowance of holiday to those engaged.
PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT FROM 1855 TO 1859.
NUMBER OF POST OFFICES, ETC.
The number of receptacles for letters in the United Kingdom, which before the establishment of penny postage was about 4,500, and which had subsequently been raised to about 10,000, was increased during the period now under consideration to more than 13,000,[179] thus nearly tripling the original number.[180] Of these about 2,000 were pillar-boxes. It is to be observed that, while these cannot fulfil all the purposes of post offices, they have the advantage over them in one important respect. They can be cleared at all hours of the night, when receiving-houses and sub-post offices are closed; a convenience especially valuable in London, in reference to the morning mails. Their superiority in respect of economy is obvious; and this valuable quality so facilitates their multiplication that in London, by the close of the period, there was scarcely a house but had a posting-place within a furlong.[181]
Some inconvenience arose at first, and probably is still experienced in a less degree, from the greater opportunity for mischief afforded by these isolated boxes, though there is some set-off in the circumstance that the most wanton or malicious act directed against them can extend no further than to the boxes and their contents. An abominable attempt, made in the year 1859, to set fire during the night to the contents of a box at a post office—that of Devonport—besides partially effecting this detestable purpose, greatly imperilled the whole building, and even placed in jeopardy the lives of the postmaster and his family.[182]