[73] The salary of the Secretary to the Post-Office in the last century was 600l. a-year, and a commission of 2½ per cent. on the produce of the mail-packets.—(Vide Pitt's Speeches, vol. i. p. 53-5, Debate of June 17, 1783.) In 1830 the Secretary's salary was 300l. a-year, but what with compensations, fees, and other emoluments, his annual income is stated to have amounted to no less than 4,560l.—(Mirror of Parliament, 1835). The clerks, according to a Parliamentary return, were paid small salaries, regulated on different scales, but their income consisted principally of emoluments derived from other sources. The established allowances, charged on the public revenue, consisted of sums for postage, stationery, payment in lieu of apartments, and for continuing indexes to official books. The remaining emoluments, of course not chargeable against the revenue, arose from fees on deputations, commissions, expresses, profits on the publication of the Shipping and Packet Lists, payments for franking letters on the business of the Land-Tax Redemption, and for the Tax-Office, &c. and from Lloyd's Coffee House for shipping intelligence, &c. There were, besides, other gratuities for special services.
[74] We give the following simply to show the vagaries of clever, scientific men. Speaking of London, the Professor said:—"Perhaps if the steeples of churches, properly selected, were made use of—as, for instance, St. Paul's—and if a similar apparatus were placed at the top of each steeple, and a man to work it during the day, it might be possible to diminish the expense of the twopenny post, and make deliveries every half-hour over the greater part of the metropolis." P. 221.
[75] Evidence of Colonel Maberly before the Select Committee on Postage, 1843, p. 170.
[76] Mr. Matthew Devonport Hill. 1862.
[77] Mirror of Parliament. Barrow. 1833.
[78] Now and then the House was enlivened and amused by even Post-Office discussions. Thus, in the discussion on the above motion, Mr. Cobbett complained that a letter of his, which "was not only meant to be read, but to be printed," had never been received by him, nor could he get any satisfaction out of the Post-Office authorities. He advised all honourable members who had complaints to make against the Post-Office, to make them at once to the House, without having any interview with Ministers. For his own part, with regard to letters being opened, he felt sure that the Post-Office read all the letters it cared to read; so he took care to write accordingly. He didn't care about his letters being read, provided they were allowed to go on, as he addressed them.
Mr. Secretary Stanley (the present Lord Derby) thought it would be a subject of deep regret that any negligence on the part of the Post-Office had prevented the elaborate lucubrations of the hon. member for Oldham from appearing in the Register on the appointed Saturday.
Mr. Cobbett. It never appeared at all.
Mr. Secretary Stanley was grieved. He felt sure, however, that the hon. member spends too much time over the midnight oil not to have kept a copy of his precious essay. He protested against hon. members taking up the time of the House with complaints against a department which managed its work very well.
[79] Some of his motions must have been far from palatable to the powers that were, and we confess to thinking some of them wanting in charity and good taste. For example, September 7, 1835, we find him moving for a return, to supplement another which had been sent in imperfectly drawn up, which should show "what the special services are for which Sir Francis Freeling receives 700l. a-year, the number of rooms allotted to him at the General Post-Office, and how often he resides there. Also the number allotted to the Under-Secretary; whether the whole or part, and what parts are furnished at the public expense; also the annual sum for coals and candles, for servants, &c.; also the probable expense of expresses, messengers, and runners, passing between the Post-Office and the Secretary at his private residence," and a number of other items still more trifling.