receive them? People do not like the idea i large amount of gold required for the daily
of having their letters opened at the Dead service, from the Bank, he is also responsi-
Letter-office, and finally consigned to the ble. Thirteen officers (chief clerks, and
waste-paper basket of that department. others) assist daily in this duty.
Let them never forget, that through care-
lessness or thoughtlessness they may cause
a great outlay in swelling the cost of man-
agement in these inquiries; and, as the
transit rate is now so exceedingly moderate,
the least the public can do is, not to annoy
the office and waste the time of the officers,
and thus squander the revenue by an in-
crease of evils which a little care would at
once annihilate.

Besides these officers, necessarily engaged in advancing the subsidiary duties from day to day, there are others, employed in the Accountant and Receiver-General's offices, and also in the office of the Superintending President, at the London district office. In the Accountant General's office, a large amount of business is done. The Accountant has the general control and superintendence of the accounts and checks, relating to the revenue. He furnishes the items of expenditure, and provides for their production at the Audit-office once a year, where they are examined and allowed. The clerks are employed in superintending the bye and cross road accounts throughout the kingdom; examining the accounts of the inland and London district office, and those of the letter-bill, postage stamps, rural posts, and the colonial and foreign accounts with the office, and in the entry of remittances. There are employed in these duties about forty officers daily.

Inquiries, applications, and complaints of all kinds, cither with reference to letters or newspapers sent through the London District Post-Office, are examined and replied to in the Superintending President's Office, as well as all the "rides" in that department, and the Surveyor's work, which requires careful and, indeed, unremitting attention.

The mid-day mail is superintended by the President of the Inland Office. Several of the General Post sub-sorters assort the letters daily, and the delivery in the central parts of the metropolis is effected by the General Post letter-carriers, while those of the District Post-Office circulate the remainder of the correspondence, which now begins to be very considerable.

The mail-guard service is separately regulated. Officers are on duty all day; and the guards, who attend to the delivery of the bags throughout the country, are sent out by day or by night, as their services may be required.

THE MONEY ORDER OFFICE.

One of the most valuable branches of the Post-Office service is the Money Order Office. Commenced as a private speculation by Robert Watts, Esq., about half a century since, it has continued to increase from year to year in importance, until it has at length become the "working man's bank," through which he may send when The Receiver-general's office is one en- at a distance, his earnings to his wife and tirely independent of the Post-office, though family. It is enough with reference to the connected with it. As the operations per-utility of this department and the high estiformed therein are a check upon the Post-mation in which it is held, for us to say, that office, the chief officer takes his appoint- since its establishment the number of orders ment not under the Post-Master-General, but by warrant from the Lords of the Treasury. The Receiver-general is responsible for the gross receipts of the revenue. He pays all salaries, and other expenses; signs all drafts upon the Bank of England both on revenue and money order accounts; pays into the Exchequer the net revenue, signing the specifications and "write offs" for that purpose. The requisitions to the Stamp Office for postage stamps he also signs, and it is he who is responsible for the general accounts of receipts and payments to the Commissioners for auditing public To the Treasury, this officer sends a weekly account of receipt and expenditure and for the safe custody of the

accounts.

issued and paid within the year has increased
upwards of thirty-fold. Its branches have
been extended to every town in the United
Kingdom where a Post-Office of compara-
tive substance is to be found, so that now
but little difficulty exists in obtaining either
an issue or the payment of money orders.

Nearly three hundred officers are employ-
ed in this service in the London Office in
Aldersgate-street alone, and several others
at the Branch Offices in the Metropolis.
The hours are from ten to four, and the
amount charged for commission is 3d. for
sums under £5, and 6d. for amounts trans-
mitted beyond that sum.
In the year,
ended the 5th of January, 1847, 7,024,882
money-orders were issued and paid, the

total amount of money represented by the building. As the letters thus teem in, which, reached the enormous total of £14,- the work of obliteration and affixing the 115,153. 19s. 9d. dated stamp, proceeds; and as this is acInquiries for money orders lost may be complished the correspondence is han led made in the same manner as those for miss-over to the sorters who divide the letters ing letters.

THE GENERAL POST EVENING DUTY.

Perhaps the most interesting of all the manifold duties performed at the Post-Office, is what is called the evening duty, which consists of the reception of the vast body of correspondence posted in, and for twelve miles round London, besides the large despatch into the Provinces of the morning, evening, and weekly papers.

into what are termed "roads," or rather "lines of road," traversed by the several mail conveyances or embraced on the routes of the lines of railway.

The letters so divided are then collected and taken to other assorters, or "clerks at the roads," who make the final assortment by placing each letter into boxes labelled with the name of the post towns comprised in the division or road. Besides this, letters which have been registered by the payIt is scarcely possible to convey to the ment of a fee of one shilling, are all entergeneral reader a complete idea of this gi- ed in what is called the " country letter gantic work: indeed such a description book;" thence they are transferred to the would far exceed the limits which could be "road," where the clerk enters the name spared in a serial publication. We will, and address of the party to whom they are however, endeavor, so far as convenient, to sent on the bill of the post-master; and present a bird's-eye view of the duty which, finally they are tied up in the "way bill," it is hoped, will prove interesting, inasmuch separately from all the other letters, that as it will show what system will do even in the deputy may send, with the bill, back the most gigantic of all our public institu- to the Post-Office the next day, the receipt tions where the greatest amount of duty is showing that the " money letter" has been to be performed in the smallest allowance" duly received" by the proper party. Up of time, before the mass of correspondence to six o'clock in the evening, the glut must be on its way in every species of con- of the letters is excessive; and a casual veyance, hastened forward by all the kinds looker-on would wonder how it is possible of motive power with which we are at pre- that so great a mass of correspondence can sent acquainted. be possibly got through. Presidents, howThe evening duty in the General Post-ever, exert themselves to the uttermost in Office and at the several branch offices order to spread the duty as much as possible; throughout the Metropolis, commences and clerks, sorters, messengers, and other about four o'clock in the afternoon. The officers, do all they can to keep the duty first process at the chief office is the recep-" down" as much as can be, or they would tion of the contents of the several mail be speedily overwhelmed and reported for carts employed throughout London, the collection of the different bags from the receiving houses and the pouring out the letters and newspapers upon what are called the "facing tables" in the inland and newspaper offices. This preliminary business is performed by the junior hands, who place all the letters with the directions uppermost, that the obliterators and the other stampers may have easy access to them. At this moment the interior of the receiving rooms where the boxes are placed, communicating with the hall, presents a most busy and animated appearance, showers of letters teeming through the openings and continually falling into the large drawers fixed for their reception The clerks at the windows and the paid letter messengers are also fully ngaged, and the busy hum of the stampers resounds through the whole of this part of

being "late" at their division. The hour of six having struck, the correspondence arrives more gradually, in consequence of the late "fee;" and then the officers are enabled to "master" the pressure, by hard working until about quarter before eight o'clock, when only a few straggling, badly directed, or doubtful letters have to be sorted. Immediately afterwards the bundles, being all tied up, are placed in the bags brought over from the newspaper-office to receive the letters thus prepared for them in the Inland-office.

Simultaneously with the above duty, the work of assorting the newspapers is performed, but in a different part of the building-an upper-room over the Inland-office. The great body of newspapers is received from the London vendors a few minutes before six o'clock in the evening, 40,000 be

At length the final letter is sorted, and the bags "brought over." In five minutes all the letters are deposited; and in five more the bags are tied up in sacks, and given in charge to the several guards, who from that moment become responsible for their safe delivery to the Deputy Postmaster in the provinces. Messengers convey them to the different omnibuses, and in the course of a few more minutes-as the clock of the Postoffice strikes eight,—the rumbling wheels of the various vehicles announce the fact, that this vast body of correspondence is on its way to its destination to every part of the United Kingdom, the colonies, and the most distant parts of the habitable globe.

ing posted within ten minutes, 50,000 hav- | management, are considered, while "the ing been received and assorted in the course rights of the many" are too frequently overof the afternoon and evening. After six looked, or only very cursorily and tardily o'clock the supply is limited, there being inquired into. That principle, in a public from that hour until half-past seven one establishment cannot be a good one, which halfpenny fee. Upon upwards of 1,000 regards the rank of the officer only, and not per night, however, this fee is paid upon his actual value to the service; and that each paper. The newspapers are not stamp- scheme must be faulty which prevents a ed, they are sorted similarly to the letters; worthy subordinate officer from rising in but, being more bulky, the process is neces- rank beyond his own class, however indussarily of a slower character than the letter trious he may have proved himself or fit for sorting. From time to time during the duty higher duty and increased salary. Nor is the boxes are emptied, and the papers put this the end of the evil. In the upper deinto the bags; and at 7:45 these bags are grees of seniority in clerkships the amount sent into the Inland-office, some of them of remuneration is princely; while in the being let down by slides into the office, and first classes of the lower offices, the pittance others of them being conveyed by the steam- is " poor indeed." This should not be ; for machine to the clerks in that department. the fact is that in both cases the responsibility is,-to say the least,-equal; and the actual labor falls, without question, far most severely upon the worst paid men, though the date of appointment in both instances may be the same. And in the case of superannuation allowances the well-paid clerk, who rises from an easy seniority to the maximum sum of £450 per annum has always before him the pleasing prospect of a liberal pension. According to the scale furnished in the Acts of Parliament 3 Geo. IV., c. 113, and 4 and 5 William IV., c. 24, he can look forward to certain twelfths of his salary and emoluments, according to length of service, this allowance increasing every five years up to 45 years' servitude, at which time this officer is entitled to the WHOLE of his salary and emoluments, if appointed before the 6th of August, 1829, and two-thirds if he was appointed since that date. But what is the case in the instance of "sub-sorters" and "letter-carriers?" They are allowed (if in the General-post) £20 per annum from 15 to 20 years' servitude; £30 from 20 to 25 years' active duty; £40 from 25 to 30 years, and if they remain 30 years more, they cannot obtain any addition to £50 per annum! The messengers receive a trifle extra, as they are permitted to rise to £60 per annum after 35 years service. But what do the poor London district-postmen get the men who most need help, because during active service they are the worst paid? Nine shillings per week after 25 years service; seven shillings from 20 to 25; six shillings from 15 to 20; and under 15 years an allowance not to exceed five shillings per week, and that only in very special cases. Naturally enough we inquire why this is so? The answer is returned in a document relating to

The Post-office is, after this hour, comparatively deserted: nobody remains there except the night messengers waiting for foreign arrivals, and the private watchmen who perambulate its silent offices and empty apartments, until the early morning duty again awakens life and activity by new arrivals from the provinces and abroad.

CONCLUSION.

Having now enumerated the different duties of the Post-office establishment, both of an executive and departmental character, it remains for us only to glance at the mode of appointment and the rate of pay provided for the "officers and persons" connected with this vast social machine. Glad should we have been to have had it in our power to say that the "working classes" in this most responsible and important section of the public service were fitly and adequately remunerated. It is to be regretted that such is not the case; and so much the more, because it is to be feared that the interests of the "few," under the existing system of

the Post-office (713) dated 21st of July, | Large as is now the postal establishment of 1847, page 33:-the above scale is "more this country, and widely as its ramificasuitable to their rank," while at the same tions penetrate into distant lands, a few time "it embraces a fair consideration of years will show that the maximum is notheir respective length of service."* thing like attained. The principle of an uniform rate once admitted into the Postoffice has opened an almost interminable line of business before the authorities; and the simplification of the mode of payment through the Stamp-office will effect still more. Such a result is the natural consequence of the steps already taken. Many of the now existing anomalies with respect to ship and foreign rates must be removed; and an almost total change must and will take place, both in the mode of management and the terms of contract between nation and nation, with respect to the transmission of correspondence. Further than this. We hesitate not to say, that the time will come, when not only the utmost simplicity will be introduced into all the arrangements of the department, but that a still further reduction of rates of postage will be made, and that in the end, we shall have, not merely an inland but a continental, an OCEAN,"-aye, farther,an UNIVERSAL "PENNY POSTAGE."

The objection we take to this practice is powerful: it is this, THAT THE SYSTEM IS NOT JUST. It required the same influence and patronage to procure a situation for a letter carrier as for the highest clerk in the service. Both of them had to be trained to the duties they are required to fill, but the one happened to fall among the ranks of the "gentlemen" of the establishment, and the other was officially unfortunate in having to wear the "uniform," stamping him in the eyes of the "Heads of Departments" as a "person" in the service! Let it not be supposed that in writing these strictures that we wish to impute blame to the men placed in the superior offices for the purpose of carrying out the practice. By no means; they are but the creatures of the system; the tools of the practice. But this we do say, that in order to encourage the honest man, who faithfully performs his duty in the midst of all the difficulties of a rising family and an inadequate income, the path of promotion ought to be opened, and something like THE LONDON PRESS. On this very day (31s equal justice should be distributed through-January) new proprietors take possession of the out the establishment. Let not the authori- official organ of the Liberal party. Many yeart Morning Chronicle, for many years the morning ties take advantage of the prostrate condi- ago this paper was purchased by Sir John, then Mrs tion of the "working classes" in the office Easthope, a stock broker, under whose management to drive men to despondency at their of time became a good property. But latterly, the its circulation increased, and the paper in the course prospects and perhaps to dishonesty be- circulation has been decreasing, and an effort was cause of them; but let the Lords of Her made to recover it by reducing the price from 5d. Majesty's Treasury in future repudiate any circulation continued to decline, and the influence to 4d. This reduction of price did not answer, the tampering with the rights, immunities, and of the paper became privileges of the so-called "subordinate" officers and "persons." Encouragement given to such men would be repaid with interest. The men are willing to labor; let them not be trampled upon, but equitably paid for their services, promoted according to their deserts independently of "class interests," or venal preference, or any other interested arrangements, and let them be honorably paid according to the terms of the Acts of Parliament when they are no longer able to labor in the public service.

We now take our leave of this interesting department. Much as has been accomplished by the perseverance of Mr. Rowland Hill and others for the good of the public, much more remains to be done.

Letter of the Duke of Richmond to the Lords of the Treasury. Date, Jan. 26th, 1833.

"Small by degrees, and beautifully less."

Sir John Easthope and his late partners in the concern, Mr. Duncan, bookseller, of Paternoster Row, and Mr. Parker (of poor-law notoriety), wished to get rid of the property, and they have found a purchaser in Mr. Moffat, the Member for Dartmouth, With the late proprietors, Mr. Andrew Doyle the who takes possession this day, as I am informed. editor (son-in-law of Sir John Easthope, who a few years ago succeeded Dr. Black, for a great number of years the editor of the paper), goes out also. The In 1828, 1829, or 1830, this paper was purchased by Sun, evening newspaper, has also changed hands. Mr. Patrick Grant of Redcastle, in your county [Ross-shire], who engaged as manager Mr. Murdo Young, at the recommendation of Mr. Calder of Cromarty, for several years editor of the Times. Mr. Grant and Mr. Young subsequently fell out, and the latter became sole proprietor; and he has continued so until within the last few weeks, when Alderman Harmer, the proprietor of the Dispatch, became sole proprietor, retaining Mr. Young in his employment as manager-London Correspondent of Rossshire Advertiser.