| Show OLD POSTAL USAGES tURIOUS PHASES OF THE MAIL SERVICE SERV-ICE SIXTY YEARS AGO lIaea an tirdinary Letters In England Wor Alat lohlbltlAdrtlo ot the Penny Jt ad lIa In r Agu or Against It When Queen Victoria ascended the throne there were no telegraphs lu this country nud few railways Tho mall were forwarded by coach and tho post ago rates were to nil but tho well to do prohibitive It cost from Id 1 < 1 to Is 8d to iend < 1 n single letter under nit unco In weight from cue port of the tiugdoiu to another There wero somo 40 charges varying according to tile trance tile average rate being Od or ball tile days wago of n laborer A tingle letter meant n singlo piece of paper adbeshe envelopes had not been invented nnd tho addition < of a second crap of paper made tho letter n dou Well ono The postugo was paid < on do livery by tho recipient and as no credit cred-It wa given the Incursion 01 n postman Into u poor neighborhood was watched ou all sides with fear rather than hope Coleridge the poet Haw a poor woman wom-an declining to accept n letter ou tho score of Inability to ray Tho good lalurrd bard doubtless with omo dim cultfound tho required nliiepeuce despite tho woman rimomtrinccs When the postmun bad gone nway she bowed Colcridgo that the letter was but It blank sheet of piper Her brother hall arranged to scud her at intervals each n sheet addressed < In n certain fashion as evidence that nil was well with him and she ni regularly after Inspecting the adJresi refused to accept it 80mn homorit ou Ono ucenlon split out large numbers of letters each on i sheet as largo as a tablecloth all of which had to bo delivered n 0 single uilffihci This system practically stilled written intercourse among tile crklug class and preyed with severity upon tho middle class but the rich and highly placed entirely escaped Postal taxation The privilege of franking cohered tho corrc Rpoudenco not only of ministers peers and mernlers of parliament but ot their relatives friends find acquaint nuces 1hllo In Ono year early III the queens reign no lees thin 7400000 letters virn frniikid u single London firm paid annually ill000 for lObUgo and n wilier In The Quarterly referred flippantly to so slight uud rare nu incident In-cident in n laborers life at the receipt of n letter AmoiiB the packets franked w as n grand piano An army of clerks was employed to llx the charges to bo collected unit the postal revenue remained stationary between 1815 anti JB35 although in tile Panic period tho population Inreused from 11100000 to J5COOOOO Moved by this state of things parliament parlia-ment in 1839 adopted liowlind Hills proposal of uniform inland penny postage post-age which came into operation on Jan 101810 J The writer po ies < iti n copy of Tile Quarterly licvicvvcf IbdO in which n contributor believed to bo Croker Herely denounces tire kchemo Will clerks hosavs vvrito only to their fathers and girli to their mothers Will riot letters ot romneo or lon intrigue or mischief increase In nt lest equal proportional Wo donbt whether social mail dometlo correspondence will bo moro than doubled A gigantic exem iditicitlon of the old proMrb 1enny wlo mail pound foolish etc Mocauluy nays that tho penny post when first established was tho object of violent invective us u manifest con trlvancoof tho popo to enslave tho fouls of Englishmen It was described as sedition mild ensy Ibo postal authorities au-thorities who is 1781 had opposed the Institution at mail rouehea were 1m placable enemies of penny postage Tho Postmaster geucrnl of IbJU Lord Lich field based 1 his objections on the curl OUt ground that the building tt Marls Mar-ls If rand would not bo largo enough The secretary Colonel Maher ly constantly repeated This plan wo know will flirts A flir-ts wo know it succeeded and tho penny rate his been generally adopted In Europe on well as in tho United htatei The number of letters rose from bO000000 In 1817 to 30 000000 in 1817 and for tho year ending on March 81 1807 about 1000000000 Tho tal surplus was iu 183 1059510 null I in ISOU7 3033133 Tho number of letters which was iu 1837 about 3 per bead and in 1851 15 tier head is t now 77 per head Fortnightly Review |
