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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
309
By
Command]
Traditions
of
hard
work
and
long
hours
linger
still
in
the
Post-office,
though
nowadays
the
periods
of
duty
are
generally
reduced
to
moderate
limits.
Some
idea
of
the
service
required
to
be
rendered
formerly
by
Post-office
servants
may
be
gathered
from
the
following
order,
dating
about
1780
or
1790.
It
refers
to
the
Secretary
to
the
Post-office
in
Dublin,
but
we
ought
perhaps
to
put
a
very
free
interpretation
upon
it:--"The
duty
of
the
Secretary
is
to
carry
on
the
general
correspondence,
and,
under
the
direction
of
the
Postmaster-General,
to
superintend
the
whole
business
of
the
office;
to
attend
the
Board,
and
give
directions
for
carrying
into
execution
the
orders
of
the
Postmaster-General.
His
attendance
is
constant,
and
at
all
hours
by
day
and
by
night--generally
from
7
until
10,
from
12
until
5,
and
from
9
until
11
o'clock
each
day."
The
postmasters
of
the
United
Kingdom
are
a
very
large
class,
numbering
many
thousands,
and
comprising
every
variety
of
individual
from
the
honest
country
shopkeeper
to
the
highly
intelligent
men
who
are
placed
in
charge
of
the
offices
in
our
principal
towns.
The
former
have
enough
to
do
in
mastering
the
various
codes
of
rules
under
which
the
many
branches
of
business
are
carried
on;
while
the
latter,
in
exercising
discipline
over
their
forces,
carrying
out
changes
of
administration,
and
endeavouring
to
meet
the
wishes
of
a
public
ever
wakeful
to
their
interests
and
privileges,
are
something
in
their
way
like
petty
sovereigns,
of
whom
it
might
not
inaptly
be
said,
"Uneasy
is
the
head
that
wears
a
crown,"
though
the
material
emblem
itself
be
wanting.
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