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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
306
From
our
long
training
among
the
letters
of
our
district,
we
knew
the
handwriting
of
most
persons
so
intimately,
that
no
attempt
at
disguise,
however
cunningly
executed,
could
succeed
with
us.
We
noticed
the
ominous
lawyers'
letters
addressed
to
tradesmen
whose
circumstances
were
growing
embarrassed;
and
we
saw
the
carefully
ill-written
direction
to
the
street
in
Liverpool
and
London,
where
some
poor
fugitive
debtor
was
in
hiding.
The
evangelical
curate,
who
wrote
in
a
disguised
hand
and
under
an
assumed
name
to
the
fascinating
public
singer,
did
not
deceive
us;
the
young
man
who
posted
a
circular
love-letter
to
three
or
four
girls
the
same
night,
never
escaped
our
notice;
the
wary
maiden,
prudently
keeping
two
strings
to
her
bow,
unconsciously
depended
upon
our
good
faith.
The
public
never
know
how
much
they
owe
to
official
secresy
and
official
honour,
and
how
rarely
this
confidence
is
betrayed.
Petty
tricks
and
artifices,
small
dishonesties,
histories
of
tyranny
and
suffering,
exaggerations
and
disappointments
were
thrust
upon
our
notice.
As
if
we
were
the
official
confidants
of
the
neighbourhood,
we
were
acquainted
with
the
leading
events
in
the
lives
of
most
of
the
inhabitants."
Once
more,
"Never,
surely,
has
any
one
a
better
chance
of
seeing
himself
as
others
see
him
than
a
country
postmaster.
Letters
of
complaint
very
securely
enveloped
and
sealed
passed
through
our
hands,
addressed
to
the
Postmaster-General,
and
then
came
back
to
us
for
our
own
perusal
and
explanation.
One
of
our
neighbours
informed
the
Postmaster-General,
in
confidence,
that
we
were
'ignorant
and
stupid.'
A
clergyman
wrote
a
pathetic
remonstrance,
stating
that
he
was
so
often
disappointed
of
his
Morning
Star
and
Dial,
that
he
had
come
to
the
conclusion
that
we
disapproved
of
that
paper
for
the
clergy,[165]
and,
from
scruples
of
conscience,
or
political
motives,
prevented
it--one
of
400
passing
daily
through
our
office--from
reaching
his
hands
whenever
there
was
anything
we
considered
objectionable
in
it."
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