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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
312
And
how
does
all
the
correspondence
for
the
Secretary
at
headquarters
find
its
way
to
its
proper
quarter
for
treatment?
There
is
a
branch
called
the
Registry,
in
which
every
letter
or
communication
of
any
importance
is
registered
on
receipt--that
is,
it
receives
a
number,
the
name
of
the
writer
is
indexed,
and
the
subject
of
his
letter
recorded.
The
number
of
officers
employed
in
the
Registry
is
73;
and
the
original
papers
passing
through
the
branch
in
the
way
stated
exceed
320,000
annually.
From
this
branch
every
morning
the
papers
for
treatment
are
distributed
over
the
Secretariat,
each
officer
receiving
the
papers
proper
to
his
duty.
Nor
does
the
business
of
the
Registry
end
here,
for
every
case--each
separate
set
of
papers
on
a
subject
is
called
a
case--is
recorded
again
whenever
sent
elsewhere,
so
that
its
destination
can
be
traced.
Were
this
not
done,
laggard
postmasters,
or
persons
acting
from
base
or
interested
motives,
might
find
it
convenient
not
to
return
the
papers,
and
so
by
silence
end
them.
Sometimes
a
single
case
will
go
backwards
and
forwards
thirty
or
forty
times,
yet
its
whole
history
of
travel
is
recorded.
This
is
the
routine
which
some
people
call
red
tape.
In
dealing
in
this
way
with
large
masses
of
correspondence,
each
atom
of
which
has
to
receive
its
due
share
of
brain-attention,
there
is
necessarily
some
degree
of
retardation;
and
it
may
be
remarked
that,
between
this
process
and
the
law
in
mechanics,
under
which,
other
things
being
equal,
a
gain
of
power
is
accompanied
by
a
loss
of
speed,
there
exists
a
strong
analogy.
But
by
this
classification
and
division
of
labour
it
is
possible
to
bring
about
results
which
could
not
be
achieved
by
a
much
larger
staff
under
any
plan
of
desultory
working.
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