The post office and its story an interesting account of the activities of a great government department

It is curious now to know that one of the objections raised to the mails going by railway was the doubt that trains could journey by night. No less a person than the President of the Society of Engineers at that time said, “If mails and passengers were conveyed, policemen would be required along the line during the night.” Policemen, indeed, were stationed on the Leeds and Selby line until the night train had passed. Other authorities were of opinion that the lines would have to be lit up throughout with gas or other lights. The agitation for Penny Postage arose out of the excessive and unequal charges and the abuses which had grown up in order to evade the charges. The Post Office had achieved wonders during the early years of the nineteenth century in speeding up the mails and in the organisation of the service. But there had been no attempt during that time to change materially the system of charging letters and newspapers sent by post. The root idea at the back of the old system was payment by distance and on delivery of the posted packet. It is unnecessary to give a table of the different charges which were in existence; it is enough to supply only two illustrations. A single letter between London and Edinburgh or Glasgow cost 1s. 3½d. The average produce of a letter in 1837 was about 7d.