Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
136
This
placed
them,
however,
in
no
better
position,
for
the
arrival
at
Aberdeen
was
so
late
at
night,
that
the
letters
could
only
be
dealt
with
next
day.
It
was
not
easy
to
accommodate
all
parties,
and
there
was
a
good
deal
of
trouble
over
this
matter.
The
Edinburgh
newspapers
required
an
interval,
after
the
arrival
of
the
London
mail,
for
the
printing
of
their
journals
and
preparing
them
for
the
North
despatch.
The
Aberdeen
people
thought
that
an
interval
of
three
hours
was
sufficient
for
all
purposes,
and
urged
that
the
North
mail
should
start
at
9
A.M.
In
one
of
their
memorials
they
write
thus:--"They
think
that
the
institution
of
posts
was,
in
the
first
place,
to
facilitate
commerce
by
the
conveyance
of
letters
with
the
quickest
possible
despatch
from
one
end
of
the
kingdom
to
the
other,
and,
in
the
next
place,
to
raise
a
revenue
for
Government;
and
they
cannot
conceive
that
either
of
those
ends
will
be
promoted
by
the
letters
of
two-thirds
of
the
kingdom
of
Scotland
lying
dormant
for
many
hours
at
Edinburgh."
In
another
of
the
petitions
from
the
people
of
Aberdeen,
they
strangely
introduce
their
loyalty
as
a
lever
in
pressing
their
claims:--"Were
we
of
this
city,"
say
they,
"to
lay
claim
to
any
peculiar
merit,
it
might
perhaps
be
that
of
a
sincere
attachment
to
order
and
good
government,
which
places
us,
in
this
respect
at
least,
equal
to
the
most
dignified
city
in
Britain."
From
a
Post-office
point
of
view,
the
memorialists
appeared
to
be
under
some
mistake
as
to
the
gain
to
be
derived
from
the
change
desired,
for
there
was
something
connected
with
the
return
mails
which
did
not
fall
in
with
the
plan,
and
the
surveyor
made
some
opposition
to
it.
In
one
of
his
reports
he
makes
this
curious
observation:--"I
am
persuaded
that
some
of
them,
as
now
appears
to
be
the
case,
may
be
very
well
pleased
to
get
free
from
the
obligation
of
answering
their
letters
in
course--and
particularly
in
money
matters"!
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
