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HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE POST-OFFICE.

THE RISE OF THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE 15

ON OLD ROADS AND SLOW COACHES 37

THE SETTLEMENT OF THE POST-OFFICE 47

PALMER AND THE MAIL-COACH ERA 73

THE TRANSITION PERIOD AT THE POST-OFFICE 94

SIR ROWLAND HILL AND PENNY POSTAGE 108

EARLY RESULTS OF THE PENNY-POSTAGE SCHEME 132

THE POST-OFFICE AND LETTER-OPENING 150

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE POST-OFFICE 165

DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE POST-OFFICE.

PREFATORY 186

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE POST-OFFICE 187

ON THE CIRCULATION OF LETTERS 199

THE MAIL-PACKET SERVICE 245

ON POSTAGE-STAMPS 255

POST-OFFICE SAVINGS' BANKS 268

BEING MISCELLANEOUS AND SUGGESTIVE 279

CONCERNING SOME OF THE POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS AND MISREPRESENTATIONS TO WHICH THE POST-OFFICE IS LIABLE 291

CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE POST-OFFICE 308

ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL REGULATIONS 309

INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE APPOINTMENTS IN THE POST-OFFICE SERVICE 330

APPOINTMENTS IN THE CHIEF OFFICE IN LONDON 333

PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENTS IN THE CHIEF OFFICES OF DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH 336

APPOINTMENTS, WITH SALARIES, OF THE FIVE PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 337

INFORMATION RESPECTING OTHER PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL POST-OFFICES 340

SALE OF POSTAGE-STAMPS 341

CONVEYANCE OF MAILS BY RAILWAY 342

MANUFACTURE OF POSTAGE-LABELS AND ENVELOPES 344

RESULTS OF POSTAL REFORM 345

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE POST-OFFICE.

HER MAJESTY'S MAILS.

INTRODUCTORY.

We may gather from the existing materials, scanty though they be, something like a continuous account of the early history of the English post-office, tracing, very clearly, its progress from the fifteenth century to its present position.

SIR,

According to the Queen's Majesty's pleasure, and your advertisement, you shall receive a form of prayer, which, after you have perused and judged of it, shall be put in print and published immediately, &c. &c.

From my house at Croyden, this 22d July, 1566, at four of the clock, afternoon.

Your honour's alway,

MATTHEW CANT.

This letter is thus endorsed by successive postmasters, according to the existing custom.

Received at Waltham Cross the 23d of July, at nine at night. Received at Ware the 23d of July at 12 at night. Received at Croxton the 24th of July, between 7 and 8 of the morning.

So that his Grace's letter, which would appear to have been so important as that one or more messengers were required to travel night and day in order to deliver it at the earliest possible moment, took 40 hours to travel 63 miles.

FOOTNOTES:

Xenophon.

Herodotus.

Travels of Marco Polo, pp. 139, 140.

Camden's Annals.

Historian of Craven, speaking of the close of the sixteenth century.

THE RISE OF THE GENERAL POST-OFFICE.

It was reserved for the Stuarts to organize for the first time in England a regular system of post communication, the benefits of which should be shared by all who could find the means. England was behind other European nations in establishing a public letter-post. It was not until the foreign post had been in existence a hundred years, and until the foreigners had drawn particular attention to their postal arrangements by their constant disputes, that the English government established a general post for inland letters, similar to the one whose benefits "the strangers" had enjoyed even prior to the reign of Henry the Eighth. Little progress towards this end was made in the reign of the first James, if we except a better organization for the conveyance of official despatches. At the same time, it ought to be stated, that the improved organization here referred to was the groundwork for the subsequent public post.

It will be readily observed that in the arrangements of the packet-post there was nothing to prevent its being extensively used, except the important restrictions which the King put upon its use. During the reign of James nothing but the despatches of ambassadors were allowed to jostle the Government letters in the leather bags, "lined with baize or cotton," of "the post for the packet." It was not until Charles the First had succeeded his father, that this post came to be used, under certain conditions, by merchants and private persons.

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