The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

Postmaster-General for Scotland. Accountant. Secretary to the Postmaster. Principal Clerk. Second Clerk. Clerk's Assistant. Apprehender of Private Letter-carriers. Clerk to the Irish Correspondents. Three Letter-carriers. The apprehender of private letter-carriers, as the name implies, was an officer whose duty it was to take up persons who infringed the Post-office work of carrying letters for money. The work continued steadily to grow, for in 1781 we find there were 23 persons employed, of whom 6 were letter-carriers; and in 1791 the numbers had increased to 31. In 1828 there were 82; in 1840, when the penny post was set on foot, there were 136; and in 1860, 244. In 1884 the total number of persons employed in all branches of the Post-office service in Edinburgh was 939. The Post-office of Glasgow, which claims to be the second city of the kingdom, shows a similar rapidity of growth, if not a greater; and this growth may be taken as an index of the expansion of the city itself, though the former has to be referred to three several causes--namely, increase of population, spread of education, and development of trade. In 1799 the staff of the Glasgow Post-office was as follows, viz.:-- Salary. Postmaster, L200 0 0 First Clerk, 30 0 0 Second Clerk, 25 0 0 Four Letter-carriers, at 10s. 6d. a-week each, 109 4 0 A Stamper or Sorter, at 10s. 6d. a-week, 27 6 0 So that the whole expense for staff was no more than L391, 10s. per annum, and this had been the recognised establishment for several years. But it appears from official records, that though the postmaster was nominally receiving L200 a-year, he had in 1796 given L10 each to the clerks out of his salary, and expended besides, on office-rent, coal, and candles, L30, 2s. 8d. Somewhat similar deductions were made in 1797 and 1798, and thus the postmaster's salary was then less than L150 a-year in reality. It is worthy of note here that letters were at that time delivered in Glasgow only twice a-day.