Her Majesty's Mails

From the date of Allen's improvement in 1720 to the year 1761, when the postage of letters was again disturbed and many other alterations made, little of special importance was done in the Post-Office, and we cannot do better than take advantage of this quiet time to give some account of the internal arrangements of the establishment, and to notice certain minutiæ, which, though trifling in themselves, will serve to give the reader an insight into the details, the way and means, of this early period.[40] In the time of George I. the officers of the Post-Office in London consisted of two Postmasters-General, with a secretary and a clerk. There were four chief officers in the Inland-office--viz. a controller, a receiver, an accountant, and a solicitor. The staff of clerks consisted of seven for the different roads--Chester, North West, Bristol, Yarmouth, Kent, and Kent night-road. Thirteen clerks were engaged in other duties, and three more clerks attended at the window to answer inquiries and deliver letters. The foreign office, which was a separate department, included a controller and an alphabet keeper, with eight assistant clerks. The whole London establishment, which at the present day numbers several thousand officers of different grades, was then, without counting letter-carriers, worked with a staff of thirty-two. "To show the method, diligence, and exactness of our General Post-Office," says a writer of the period, "and the due despatch of the post at each stage, take this specimen." And for our purpose we cannot do better than take Stowe's advice, and insert here a copy of a Post-Office proclamation to postmasters and time-bill, given in his History of London:--