Her Majesty's Mails

[73] The salary of the Secretary to the Post-Office in the last century was 600l. a-year, and a commission of 2½ per cent. on the produce of the mail-packets.--(Vide Pitt's Speeches, vol. i. p. 53-5, Debate of June 17, 1783.) In 1830 the Secretary's salary was 300l. a-year, but what with compensations, fees, and other emoluments, his annual income is stated to have amounted to no less than 4,560l.--(Mirror of Parliament, 1835). The clerks, according to a Parliamentary return, were paid small salaries, regulated on different scales, but their income consisted principally of emoluments derived from other sources. The established allowances, charged on the public revenue, consisted of sums for postage, stationery, payment in lieu of apartments, and for continuing indexes to official books. The remaining emoluments, of course not chargeable against the revenue, arose from fees on deputations, commissions, expresses, profits on the publication of the Shipping and Packet Lists, payments for franking letters on the business of the Land-Tax Redemption, and for the Tax-Office, &c. and from Lloyd's Coffee House for shipping intelligence, &c. There were, besides, other gratuities for special services. [74] We give the following simply to show the vagaries of clever, scientific men. Speaking of London, the Professor said:--"Perhaps if the steeples of churches, properly selected, were made use of--as, for instance, St. Paul's--and if a similar apparatus were placed at the top of each steeple, and a man to work it during the day, it might be possible to diminish the expense of the twopenny post, and make deliveries every half-hour over the greater part of the metropolis." P. 221.