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435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
80
Every
provision
is
supplied
by
the
authorities
in
London,
and
salaries
and
pensions
of
all
kinds
are
granted.
Thus,
in
one
place,
a
chaplain
is
appointed
for
the
crew
of
one
of
the
packets,
with
a
small
stipend,
"for
doing
their
offices
of
births,
marriage,
and
burial."
Pensions
for
wounds
received
in
the
service
are
granted
with
nice
discrimination
of
the
relative
parts
of
the
body.
In
a
letter
to
their
agent
at
Falmouth,
the
Postmasters-General
send
a
scale
of
pensions
to
be
granted
according
to
the
kind
of
wound--thus:
"For
every
arm
or
leg
amputated
above
the
elbow
or
knee,
L.8
per
annum;
below
the
arm
or
knee,
twenty
nobles.
Loss
of
the
sight
of
one
eye
must
be
L.4;
of
the
pupil
of
the
eye,
L.5;
of
the
sight
of
both
eyes,
L.12;
of
the
pupils
of
both
eyes,
L.14;
and
according
to
these
rules,
we
consider
also
how
much
also
the
hurts
affect
the
body,
and
make
the
allowances
accordingly."
The
duties
devolving
upon
the
chief
Post-Office
officials
seem
not
only
to
have
been
onerous
and
heavy--some
of
their
instructions
to
their
agents
bearing
dates
from
the
middle
of
the
night
and
other
extraordinary
hours--but
curiously
varied.
Many
of
their
letters
are
preserved
among
the
old
records
in
the
vaults
under
the
General
Post-Office,
and
some
of
them
are
quite
sad
and
plaintive
in
their
tone.
"We
are
concerned,"
they
say
to
one
agent,
"to
find
the
letters
brought
by
your
boat
[one
from
the
West
Indies]
to
be
so
consumed
by
the
ratts,
that
we
cannot
find
out
to
whom
they
belong."
Another
letter
to
their
agent
at
Harwich
is
evidently
disciplinary,
and
runs
as
follows:--
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
