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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
3
INTRODUCTION.
Of
all
institutions
of
modern
times,
there
is,
perhaps,
none
so
pre-eminently
a
people's
institution
as
is
the
Post-office.
Not
only
does
it
carry
letters
and
newspapers
everywhere,
both
within
and
without
the
kingdom,
but
it
is
the
transmitter
of
messages
by
telegraph,
a
vast
banker
for
the
savings
of
the
working
classes,
an
insurer
of
lives,
a
carrier
of
parcels,
and
a
distributor
of
various
kinds
of
Government
licences.
Its
services
are
claimed
exclusively
or
mainly
by
no
one
class;
the
rich,
the
poor,
the
educated,
and
the
illiterate,
and
indeed,
the
young
as
well
as
the
old,--all
have
dealings
with
the
Post-office.
Yet
it
may
seem
strange
that
an
institution
which
is
familiar
by
its
operations
to
all
classes
alike,
should
be
so
little
known
by
its
internal
management
and
organisation.
A
few
persons,
no
doubt,
have
been
privileged
to
see
the
interior
working
of
some
important
Post-office,
but
it
is
the
bare
truth
to
say
that
the
people
know
nothing
of
what
goes
on
within
the
doors
of
that
ubiquitous
establishment.
When
it
is
remembered
that
the
metropolitan
offices
of
London,
Edinburgh,
and
Dublin
have
to
maintain
touch
with
every
petty
office
and
every
one
of
their
servants
scattered
throughout
England,
Scotland,
and
Ireland;
that
discipline
has
to
be
exercised
everywhere;
that
a
system
of
accounting
must
necessarily
be
maintained,
reaching
to
the
remotest
corners;
and
that
the
whole
threads
have
to
be
gathered
up
and
made
answerable
to
the
great
head,
which
is
London,--some
vague
idea
may
be
formed
of
what
must
come
within
the
view
of
whoever
pretends
to
a
knowledge
of
Post-office
work.
But
intimately
connected
with
that
which
was
the
original
work
of
the
Post-office,
and
is
still
the
main
work--the
conveyance
of
letters--there
is
the
subject
of
circulation,
the
simple
yet
complex
scheme
under
which
letters
flow
from
each
individual
centre
to
every
other
part
of
the
country.
Circulation
as
a
system
is
the
outcome
of
planning,
devising,
and
scheming
by
many
heads
during
a
long
series
of
years--its
object,
of
course,
being
to
bring
letters
to
their
destinations
in
the
shortest
possible
time.
So
intricate
and
delicate
is
the
fabric,
that
by
interference
an
unskilled
hand
could
not
fail
to
produce
an
effect
upon
the
structure
analogous
to
that
which
would
certainly
follow
any
rude
treatment
applied
to
a
house
built
of
cards.
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