FOOTNOTES:
[139] Postmaster-General's Reports, 1863, 1864, and Revenue Estimates for 1864-5, from which the whole of our statistics are derived.
[140] The colonial post-offices proper are not under the rule of the English Postmaster-General. All appointments to these offices are made by the Colonial Secretary, if the salary is over 200l.; if under that sum, by the Governors of the different colonies.
[141] An attempt was made at further centralization a few years ago, when it was proposed to reduce the chief offices of Edinburgh and Dublin to the position of offices in other large towns, a measure which had the effect of rousing the people of the sister-countries to arms. The Commissioners of Post-Office Inquiry who sat in 1855 reported against the proposal, considering the present system to possess advantages to the public over those accruing from the suggested change.
[142] For information relative to the necessary qualifications, examinations, &c. of candidates for appointment in the metropolitan or provincial offices, see [Appendix (C)].
[143] The following list of Postmasters-General before this period, taken from a return made to the House of Commons, March 25, 1844, may not be uninteresting to some of our readers. After Sir Brian Tuke, the first "Master of the Postes," we find his successors to have been Sir William Paget, one of Henry VIII.'s Chief Secretaries of State, and John Mason, Esq. "Secretary for the French Tongue." "The fees or wages" of each of these functionaries are given at 66l. 13s. 6d. a-year. The reader will be familiar with the Postmasters-General under Elizabeth, James I., Charles I. and the Commonwealth. Coming to the reign of Charles II. we find Philip Froude, Esq. acting for the Duke of York from 1678 to 1688.
| William and Mary. | |
| Sir Robert Cotton; Thomas Frankland, Esq. | 1690-1708 |
| Queen Anne. | |
| Sir Thomas Frankland; Sir John Evelyn | 1708-1715 |
| George I. | |
| Lord Cornwallis; James Craggs, Esq. | 1715-1720 |
| Edward Carteret, Esq.; Galfridus Walpole | 1720-1733 |
| George II. | |
| Edward Carteret, Esq.; Lord Thomas Lovel | 1733-1739 |
| Sir John Eyles; Lord Lovel | 1739-1744 |
| Lord Lovel alone (now Earl of Leicester) | 1744-1759 |
| Earl of Besborough | 1759 |
| George III. | |
| Earl of Egmont; Hon. R. Hampden | 1762 |
| Lord Hyde; Hon. R. Hampden | 1763 |
| Earl of Besborough; Lord Grantham | 1765 |
| Earl of Sandwich; Lord de Spencer | 1768 |
| Viscount Barrington; Hon. Henry Carteret | 1782 |
| Earl of Tankerville; Hon. H. Carteret | 1784 |
| Lord Carteret; Lord Walsingham | 1787 |
| Lord Walsingham; Earl of Chesterfield | 1790 |
| Earl of Chesterfield; Earl of Leicester | 1794 |
| Earl of Leicester; Lord Auckland | 1798 |
| Lord Auckland; Lord Charles Spencer | 1801 |
| Lord Spencer; Duke of Montrose | 1804 |
| Earl of Buckinghamshire; Earl of Carysfort | 1806 |
| Earl of Chichester alone | 1814 |
| Earl of Chichester; Marquis of Salisbury | 1816 |
When the Earl of Salisbury died in 1823, a successor was not appointed, the joint office being abolished, principally through the exertions of the late Marquis of Normanby.
[144] See [Appendix (A)].
[145] For further information respecting this and all the other metropolitan offices, see [Appendix (D)]. Extracts from the Revenue Estimates of 1864-5.