The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

CHAPTER VIII. GROWTH OF CERTAIN POST-OFFICES. When the past history of the Post-office is looked into, at a period which cannot yet be said to be very remote, it is both curious and instructive to observe the contrast which presents itself, as between the unpretending institution of those other days, and the great and ubiquitous machine which is now the indispensable medium for the conveyance of news to every corner of the empire. To imagine what our country would be without the Post-office as it now is, would be attempting something quite beyond our powers; and if such an institution did not exist, and an endeavour were made to construct one at once by the conceits and imaginings of men's minds, failure would be the inevitable result, for the British Post-office is the child of long experience and never-ending improvement, having a complexity and yet simplicity in its fabric, which nothing but many years of growth and studied application to its aims could have produced. But it is not the purpose here to go into the history of its improvements, or of its changes. It is merely proposed to show how rapidly it has grown, and from what small beginnings. The staff of the Edinburgh Post-office in 1708 was composed of no more than seven persons, described as follows:-- Salary. Manager for Scotland, L200 0 0 Accountant, 50 0 0 Clerk, 50 0 0 Clerk's Assistant, 25 0 0 Three Letter-carriers, at 5s. a-week each. In 1736 the number of persons employed had increased to eleven, whose several official positions were as follows:--