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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
260
When
the
letters
have
been
stamped,
and
those
insufficiently
paid
picked
out,
they
are
carried
away
to
undergo
the
process
of
sorting.
In
this
operation
they
are
very
rapidly
divided
into
"roads,"
representing
a
line
of
large
towns:
thus,
letters
for
Derby,
Loughborough,
Nottingham,
Lincoln,
&c.
might
be
placed
in
companionship
in
one
division
or
"road,"
and
Bilston,
Wednesbury,
Walsall,
West
Bromwich,
&c.
in
another.
When
this
primary
divisional
sorting
is
finished,
the
letters
are
divided
and
subdivided
over
and
over
again,
with
the
exception
of
those
for
the
various
travelling
sorting-carriages
upon
the
different
lines
of
railway,
which
remain
in
divisions
corresponding
with
various
portions
of
the
country
through
which
the
several
mail-trains
run.
It
is
into
one
of
these
divisions
that
our
own
letter
falls,
to
be
seen
again,
however,
when
we
come
to
describe
the
Travelling
Post-Offices.
During
the
time
occupied
in
making
up
the
mails,
the
Circulation
Branch
of
the
General
Post-Office
presents
a
busy
scene,
yet
retains
the
utmost
order
and
regularity.
Hundreds
of
men
are
engaged
in
the
various
operations
of
sorting
and
sub-sorting,
yet
all
proceeds
really
noiselessly,
and
as
if
the
hundreds
and
thousands
of
letters
representing
the
commerce
and
intelligence
of
the
English
people
could
not
be
treated
too
carefully.
Every
now
and
again
the
sorter
pauses
in
his
rapid
movements,
and
places
a
letter
on
one
side.
In
some
cases
this
signifies
that
he
has
detected
a
letter
containing
a
coin
of
some
sort;
and
when
such
letters
have
been
posted
without
being
registered
by
the
sender,
the
Department
takes
this
duty
upon
itself,
charging
a
double
fee
on
delivery.
The
number
of
letters
of
this
class
detected
in
London
alone
during
the
first
six
months
after
the
plan
was
brought
into
operation,
was
upwards
of
58,000.
Letters
which
cannot
be
read,
or
letters
imperfectly
addressed,
are
also
thrown
on
one
side
and
conveyed
to
another
part
of
the
Circulation
Branch,
where
gentlemen
whose
extraordinary
faculty
of
discernment
have
gained
them
the
singularly
inappropriate
name
of
"blind
officers"
sit
in
state.
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