that nearly ten thousand pounds remained unclaimed at the end of the year. It seems extraordinary that so large an amount should be wanting owners; but the following quotation from Mr. Dickens's "Household Words " will show that even this small sum gives very little idea of the carelessness of the public:

"Upon an average three hundred letters per day pass through the General Post-Office totally unfastened, chiefly in consequence of the use of what stationers are pleased to call 'adhesive envelopes.' Many are virgin ones, without either seal or direction; and not a few contain money. In Sir F. Freeling's time the sum of £5,000 in bank-notes was found in a blank.' It was not till after some trouble that the sender was traced, and the cash restored to him. Not long since, an humble Postmistress of an obscure Welsh town, unable to decipher the address on a letter, perceived, on examining it, the folds of several bank-notes protruding from a torn edge of the envelope. She securely enclosed it to the Secretary of the Post-Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, who found the contents to be £1,500, and the superscription too much even for the hieroglyphic powers of the 'blind clerk.' Eventually the enclosures found their true destination. "It is estimated that there lies, from time to time, in the DeadLetter Office, undergoing the process of finding owners, some £11,000, annually, in cash alone. In July, 1847, for instance, only a twomonths' accumulation, the post-haste of 4,658 letters, all containing property, was arrested by the bad superscriptions of the writers. There were bank-notes in them of the value of £1,010, and moneyorders for £407. 12s. But most of these ill-directed letters contained

coin in small sums, amounting to £310. 9s. 7d. On the 17th of July, 1847, there were lying in the Dead-Letter Office bills of exchange for the immense sum of £40,410. 5s. 7d."—Vol. i., p. 10.

The Money-Order Office is now one of the most profitable departments of the Post-Office, as the actual profit resulting from it rises very rapidly with an increase of the sums which are paid into it. For whilst, in 1850, the profit upon £8,494,498. 10s. 7d. was only £3,236, the profit, in 1854, upon £10,462,411. 16s. 4d. was as much as £16,538; so that, although the increase in the amount of money-orders from 1850 to 1854 was but 21 per cent., the increase of profit derived in 1854 was 500 per cent. over that obtained in 1850.

We pass from the Income of this branch to some account of the General Revenue and Expenditure, as given in the Report. We must remark that the statements under this head do not profess to be strictly accurate, as the receipts are partly the result of estimate," although it is believed that any error which may exist is so slight as to be scarcely appreciable." Under the head of "Expenditure," it is still more difficult to ascertain the exact cost of our postal system, inasmuch as the packet service is mainly under the superintendence of the Admiralty; and as the contracts are framed with a view to the

Gross and Net Revenues.

167

performance of duties for that Board, the payments which they make are not included. Against this must be placed the charge for transmission of newspapers, which is paid into the treasury of the Stamp-Office. In 1854, the Gross Revenue was as follows:

:

Letters, Book Packets, &c.
Commission on Money-Orders..

Total..

L. 2,597,700

91,300

£2,689,000

being an increase of nearly £98,000, or about 4 per cent., on the

gross receipts of 1853.

being an increase of about £39,000, or nearly 3 per cent., on the expenditure of 1853.

The Total Net Revenue, therefore, was £1,276,000; which is an increase of about £58,000, or nearly 5 per cent., on the net revenue of 1853.

Hard work and bad pay used to be thought the lot of all, save a few superior officials, who were engaged in this branch of the public service. The quotations given by Mr. Scudamore show that the Deputies in "the good old times" used to grumble sorely about the lowness of their salaries, and were constantly presenting various excuses for the non-payment of arrears. 66 Indeed, to be in arrear was the normal condition of Deputy Postmasters." Whilst the Deputies starved, some in the Inland Office fared much more sumptuously:

"There was an 'Alphabet Keeper,' who had £40 a year for instructing young officers; but not, it is to be presumed, for teaching them their alphabet. Then there was Thomas Hornsby, who had £20 per annum as watchman, and £80 per annum for lighting fourteen lamps, which must surely have been very difficult to light, as a man might well undertake even to light fourteen lamps, and find the material into the bargain, for £80 per annum."

The man who hoisted the colours from March, 1761, to June, 1764, had £6. 78. Drink and feast money to the clerks was

allowed, amounting to £100 a year; and Mr. Henry Porter had £50 per annum for taking care of the candles.

Those times have passed away from Her Majesty's servants of the Post-Office; but in this department, at any rate, they have not been succeeded by either incompetent or indolent officers. Before the admission of any person, a Report is required respecting his age, health, character, and acquirements; whilst all applicants for appointments in the London Office are subjected to an examination. These arrangements for securing competent officers are much assisted by a recent regulation, which provides that "provincial Postmasterships, of which the salary is not less than £175, will henceforward be conferred upon meritorious officers of the department, and not upon strangers ;" and by the establishment of the general principle, "that every superior appointment is to be filled, as far as possible, by promotion from below, and that regard will be had to no other claims than those of meritorious conduct and proved good service."

Whilst, however, these very desirable alterations are being made to improve the position and prospects of the officers, we find that changes of no less importance are in the course of being carried out in the internal economy, to increase its efficiency. These have been mainly effected in the departments of the Receiver and Accountant General, and of the Comptroller of the MoneyOrder Office; and the Report bears ample witness to the readiness with which both Superintendents and clerks submitted to the extra labour and attendance which these improvements involved. The Receiver and Accountant General's offices have been amalgamated at a great saving of expense and labour; whilst, in startling distinction from the old system of arrears, Postmasters are now required to deliver weekly accounts. The Chief Examiner has given so clear a description of these changes, and one which shows us so much of the inner working of our subject, that we quote it at length:

"When it is considered that, under the old system, each Postmaster's account was rendered to him quarter by quarter, and usually three months in arrear of the quarter for which it was rendered; that at any intermediate period the condition of a Postmaster's account could only be estimated, and that too with the greatest uncertainty and risk of error; that each Postmaster was credited quarterly with a gross sum for salaries, wages, and allowances, and that no vouchers for the proper disbursement of that sum were demanded of him, so that, in fact, (as was afterwards proved,) many Postmasters received credit for sums which they did not distribute, and were indeed themselves at times unconscious of the wrong so done to the revenue and when, finally, it is remembered that this dilatoriness in the rendering of the accounts to the Postmasters, whilst it left them always ignorant of the real state of their affairs, entailed a corresponding dilatoriness in the rendering of their balances, whereby not only many of them may have

Chief Examiner's Evidence.

169

been tempted to use the public money, but also a much larger capital was required for carrying on the business of the Post-Office:when all these things are taken into account, and when on the other hand we consider the new system, by which each Postmaster renders his account week by week, with all its proper vouchers for every receipt and every payment, and showing the revenue left in his hands at the close of each week to be the smallest possible sum, it will be allowed, I think, that few Government offices have witnessed a change so great or so beneficial.

"Every week there are received in your Office the accounts of 565 Postmasters and 526 Receivers, and these 1.090 accounts are all examined and adjusted within the week in which they arrive; in one week, also, they are all entered in the Bookkeeper's Office. The examination of the Postmasters' accounts for one week entails the inspecting of 80,000 letter-bills and 5,500 receipts for various disbursements; but when the accounts for the last week in the quarter are examined, there are upwards of 12,000 receipts for payments made. "The examination of these accounts is performed by ten of your officers, who have each 56 accounts, 8,000 letter-bills, and 550 or, at the end of the quarter, 1,200 receipts, to inspect. I should not be treating these ten officers fairly, if I did not remind you, that I have seen thirty officers employed in the same duty, or, rather, a similar duty, falling short of the present duty by several items of work which I have found it necessary to impose.

"It is but fair to add, too, that the entry of these 1,090 weekly accounts in the Abstract Ledgers is effected by three officers of the Bookkeeper's branch; whereas, (and I say it without the least desire to disparage those by whom the duty was formerly done,) I have seen five officers engaged on it during the official hours, with the assistance of eight other officers for two hours per diem.

"I now proceed to those branches of duty in which, heretofore, there was a double action of the Receiver-General and the AccountantGeneral, and in which very important improvements have been effected.

"The examination of accounts, and the preparation of the salary bills and payment warrants generally, which formerly gave employment to two officers in the Secretary's department, three in the Accountant-General's office, and one in the Receiver-General's office, do not now give full employment to three officers in my branch of your department; one of the three being rarely so employed, save on the periodical payment of salaries.

"The distribution of postage-stamps to Postmasters and LetterReceivers formerly gave employment to one officer in the Secretary's department, one in the London District Office, one in the AccountantGeneral's office, and two in the Receiver-General's office; but it is now effected by two officers in the Cashier's branch of your department. I may add here, that since the 1st of October we have reduced the number of consignments of stamps to Letter-Receivers from 1,100 per month to 800 per month, and we have reason to hope a still further reduction will take place.

"It was incumbent on the late Receiver-General to send stamps (on receipt of the requisitions of the London District Office) in frequent consignments of small quantities to the Letter-Receivers, of

whom several were in the habit of having a small consignment on each of four or five consecutive days. They are now supplied, as the Postmasters have long been, with a certain stock, which is made up for the greater number of them on the first day of each month, when we have not to consign stamps to Postmasters, and for certain of the larger offices on the Friday in each week, when, also, we have to consign no stamps to Postmasters. Formerly, too, each Receiver applied for stamps as he pleased, without stating what he had in hand, and with but small reference to the state of his account. Now no Receiver has stamps sent to him unless he forwards a detailed return of his stock in hand; and against the preparation of this return many of the Receivers, who were not in the habit of dealing quite fairly by the stamps which came into their possession, for a time struggled very hard; but, by patient perseverance, the whole body have at length been brought to a regularity and uniformity of practice to which they had long been strangers.

"The Revenue Cash Account, the Vote Cash Account, and the Money-Order Cash Account, which were formerly kept in duplicate in the Receiver-General's Office and the Accountant-General's Office, are now kept singly in my branch of your department; so that there has been effected a reduction of half the labour formerly bestowed on these accounts."-Pp. 69-72.

"In the quarter ending June 30th, 1854, there were employed in the Receiver-General's office

In the Accountant-General's office And also in the latter office, as extra clerks "If we consider, also, that in this quarter certain officers were paid for 7,032 hours of extra work upon the accounts, we shall, by dividing that number of hours by 6, the number of hours in an official day, and by 78, the number of days in the quarter, have an additional force of ....

Making in all.

19 officers.

45

14

15

93

"In the quarter ending December 31st, there were employed in your office only fifty-one officers; from whom no extra attendance was ever exacted. During the first-named quarter, no holidays were allowed. During the last, eight officers had leave of absence, each for a period of three weeks; thirteen had leave for a period of one fortnight; and four had leave of absence for periods exceeding a week, but less than a fortnight."-Pp. 71, 73.

To this we may add, "that every person in the London Office will henceforward be allowed an annual holiday, varying in duration from a fortnight to a month, without any deduction on that account from his salary."

So much for the improvements effected in the interior working: let us now direct our attention outwards, and see how far the public has been benefited during the last twelve months.