The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

We would present a further contrast between the past and the present as regards the packet service. So late as 1829, and perhaps later still, the voyages out to the undermentioned places and home again were estimated to take the following number of days, viz.:-- Days. To Jamaica, 112 " America, 105 " Leeward Islands, 91 " Malta, 98 " Brazil, 140 " Lisbon, 28 There were then no regular packets to China, New South Wales, Sierra Leone, Cape Coast Castle, Goree, Senegal, St Helena, and many parts of South America; opportunity being taken to send ship letter-bags to these places as occasion offered by trading vessels. Nowadays the transit of letters to the places first above-mentioned is estimated to occupy the following number of days:-- Days. To Jamaica, 18 " America, 7 " West Indies, 16 " Malta, 4-1/2 " Brazil, 21 " Lisbon, 3 And the return mails would occupy a similar amount of time. In nothing perhaps will the advantages now offered by the Post-office, in connection with the packet service, be more appreciated by the public than in the reduced rates of postage. The following table shows the initial rates for letters to several places abroad in 1829 and in 1884:-- 1829. 1884. France, 2s. 1d. 2-1/2d. Italy, 2s. 10d. 2-1/2d. Spain, 3s. 1d. 2-1/2d. Sweden, 2s. 7d. 2-1/2d. Portugal, 2s. 9d. 2-1/2d. Gibraltar, 3s. 1d. 2-1/2d. Malta, 3s. 5d. 2-1/2d. United States, 2s. 5d. 2-1/2d. Brazil, 3s. 9d. 4d.