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Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including non-standard spelling and inconsistenthyphenation. Some changes of spelling and punctuation have beenmade. They are listed at the end of the text.
AN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE
ACCOUNT OF
THE BRITISH POST-OFFICE.
TOGETHER WITH AN APPENDIX.
BY
WILLIAM LEWINS.
"OUR ENGLISH POST-OFFICE IS A SPLENDID TRIUMPH
OF CIVILIZATION."—Lord Macaulay.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,
14, LUDGATE HILL.
1864.
LONDON:
R. CLAY, SON, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS,
BREAD STREET HILL.
This volume is the first of a contemplated series designed to furnishsome account of the history and ordinary working of the revenuedepartments of the country—to do for the great Governmentalindustries what Mr. Smiles has so ably done (to compare his great thingswith our small) for the profession of civil engineering and severalnational industries. Few attempts have ever been made to trace therise and progress of the invaluable institution of the Post-Office. Wehave more than once seen the question asked in Notes and Queries—thatsine quâ non of the curious and the learned—where a continuousaccount might be found of English postal history. In each case, theinquirer has been referred to a short summary of the history of thePost-Office, prefixed to the Postmaster-General's First Report. Sincethat, the Messrs. Black, in the eighth edition of the EncyclopædiaBritannica, have supplied an excellent and more extended notice. Stillmore recently, however, in an admirable paper on the Post-Office inFraser's Magazine, Mr. Matthew D. Hill has expressed his astonishmentthat so little study has been given to the subject—that it "hasattracted the attention of so small a number of students, and of each,as it would[Pg iv] appear, for so short a time." "I have not been able tofind," adds Mr. Hill, "that even Germany has produced a single workwhich affects to furnish more than a sketch or outline of postalhistory." The first part of the following pages is offered as acontribution to the study of the subj