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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
193
It
would
seem
that
his
official
delinquencies
had
extended
over
some
six
or
eight
years;
but
so
far
as
the
letters
showed,
theft
in
the
ordinary
sense
could
hardly
have
been
the
man's
purpose,
inasmuch
as
the
letters
had
not
been
opened,
with
one
exception,
and
in
this
instance
the
person
for
whom
the
letter
was
intended
could
not
be
found.
The
motive
underlying
this
free
departure
from
the
ways
of
honesty
seems
to
have
had
its
root
in
simple
acquisitiveness;
the
hundredweight
of
letters,
book-packets,
&c.,
the
old
mail-bags,
discarded
uniforms,
and
waste
official
papers
(not
to
mention
the
thirty
milk-cans,
supposed
to
have
been
picked
up
when
going
his
rounds
as
a
postman,
and
the
case
of
rifles),
having
been
turned
to
no
profitable
account.
Had
the
superannuated
postman
opened
the
letters
found
in
his
premises,
the
punishment
which
would
have
followed
would
necessarily
have
been
severe.
As
the
case
stood,
however,
he
was
merely
charged
under
the
Post-office
Acts
with
their
unlawful
detention,
and
sentence
was
passed
upon
him
of
eighteen
months'
imprisonment
with
hard
labour.
It
seems
astonishing
that
this
postman
should
have
had
the
folly
to
retain
about
him
so
long
the
evidences
of
his
errors,
which
might
at
any
time
have
been
brought
up
against
him;
but,
perhaps,
the
feeling
prompting
this
may
be
akin
to
that
which
leads
criminals
to
visit
the
scenes
of
former
iniquities,
even
when
incurring
the
risk
of
discovery,
and
if
discovered,
of
certain
punishment.
The
following
is
a
case
of
robbery
which
occurred
in
1883,
as
reported
by
the
newspapers
of
the
day,
the
culprit
being
quite
a
young
person:--
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