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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
241
Endeavouring
to
exclude
all
matter
that
is
purely
technical,
and
presenting
the
reader
with
no
more
statistical
information
than
is
necessary
to
a
proper
understanding
of
the
subject,
and
only
premising
that
this
information--for
the
correctness
of
which
we
are
alone
responsible--has
been
carefully
collated
from
a
mass
of
official
documents
not
easily
accessible,
and
others
presented
to
the
public
from
time
to
time,
we
will
first
describe--
CHAPTER
I.
THE
ORGANIZATION
OF
THE
POST-OFFICE.
The
Post-Office
being
a
branch
of
the
public
service,
instituted
by
statute,
is,
of
course,
under
the
control
of
the
Government
of
the
country
in
every
respect.
The
principal
Acts
of
Parliament
which
now
regulate
the
Post-Office
are
those
of
1
Vict.
c.
32-36,
entitled
"An
Act
to
repeal
the
several
laws
relating
to
the
Post-Office;"
"An
Act
for
the
management
of
the
Post-Office;"
"An
Act
for
consolidating
the
laws
relative
to
offences
against
the
Post-Office;"
one
to
which
we
have
previously
referred,
2
Vict.
c.
98,
"An
Act
to
provide
for
the
conveyance
of
mails
by
railway;"
3
&
4
Vict.
c.
96,
"An
Act
for
the
regulation
of
the
duties
of
Postage."
Besides
these
more
important
Acts,
there
are
others
of
later
date
relating
to
the
Money-order
Office,
colonial
posts,
and,
more
recently,
one
relating
to
the
Post-Office
Savings'
Banks.
According
to
the
latest
returns,[139]
there
are
11,316
post-offices
in
the
United
Kingdom,
of
which
808
are
head-offices,
and
10,508
sub-offices.
To
these
must
be
added
a
great
number
of
road
letter-boxes,
making
a
total
of
14,776
public
receptacles
for
letters,
or
more
by
10,000
than
the
total
number
before
penny
postage.
The
total
number
of
letters
passing
through
the
Post-Office
during
the
year
1863
was
642,000,000,
or,
in
the
proportion
of
letters
to
population,
no
less
than
22
to
each
person
in
the
three
kingdoms.
As
contrasted
with
the
last
year
of
dear
postage,
the
number
of
letters
show
an
eightfold
increase.
The
distance
over
which
the
mails
travel
with
this
enormous
amount
of
correspondence,
in
the
United
Kingdom
alone,
is
nearly
160,000
miles
per
day.
Of
the
mails
conveyed
by
railway,
a
distance
of
50,000
miles
is
accomplished
every
working-day;
72,000
miles
per
diem
are
traversed
on
foot;
and
the
rest
are
carried
by
mail-coaches,
mail-carts,
and
steamboats.
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