Baptist, and are reported to appear always on the day of St. John's being beheaded (August 29th).

And so much for this common, but interesting little plant, whose golden blossoms enliven our grassy banks and shady lanes often till far on in September.

THE

POST OFFICE.

JOHN TIMBS.

HE General Post Office, London, has had five locations since the Postmaster to Charles I. fixed his receiving-house in Sherborne-lane, in 1635, whence dates "the settling of the letter office of England and Scotland." The office was next removed to Cloak-lane, Dowgate; and then to Black Swan, Bishopsgatestreet. After the Great Fire, the office was shifted to the Black Pillars, in Brydges-street, Covent-garden; thence early in the last century, to the mansion of Sir Robert Viner (close to Sherbornelane), in Lombard-street; and the chief office to St. Martin's-leGrand in 1829.

The General Post-office occupies the site of the College of St. Martin's-le-Grand, at the junction with Newgate-street. It was designed by Sir R. Smirke, R. A., and was built betwen 1825 and 1829: it is insulated, and is externally of Portland stone; four hundred feet long, one hundred and thirty wide, and sixty-four high. It stands in the three parishes of St. Ann and St. Agnes, St. Leonard, and St. Micheal-le-quern; and one hundred and thirty-one houses and nearly one thousand inhabitants were displaced to make room for this single edifice. Several Roman remains were found during the progress of the work. The St. Martin's-le-Grand facade has three Ionic porticoes: one at each end, tetrastyle, of four fluted columns; and one in the centre, hexastyle, of six columns (from the temple of Minerva Polias, at Athens); it is surmounted by a pediment, in the tympanum of which are sculptured the imperial arms of the United Kingdom; and on the frieze is inscribed, "GEORGIO QUARTO REGE, MDCCCXXIX." Beneath are entrances to the Grand Public Hall eighty feet long by about sixty wide, divided by Ionic columns into a centre and two aisles; and in the vaulted basement are the warm-air apparatus and gasometers. North of the Hall are the offices for newspapers, inland letters, and foreign letters; south are the offices of the London local post; the communication being by a tunnel and railway under the Hall floor. In the middle story north are the offices for dead, mis-sent, and returned letters; south, secretary's offices, board-rooms, &c. The clock, over the principal entrance, was made by Vulliamy; the bob of the pendulum weighs four

hundred and forty-eight pounds, the object being to counteract the effects of wind on the hands of the dial. In the eastern front, facing Foster-lane, the letter-bags are received. The mechanical contrivances for the despatch of the business of the office display great ingenuity; steam-power is variously employed: two endless chains, worked by a steam-engine, carry, in rapid succession, a series of shelves, each holding four or five men and their letterbags, which are thus raised to various parts of the building.

King James II. has the credit of having established something like an organized foreign post: when a man could more speedily receive a reply to a letter sent to Madrid than he could to one despatched to Ireland or Scotland. The home post was in the hands of carriers, and also of pedestrian wayfarers: and the former even could not convey a note to the North, and bring an answer back, under two months at the very earliest. Witherings, one of the chief postmasters of Charles I.'s days, reformed this abuse. He established a running-post, as it was called, between England and Scotland, the riders pushing forward night and day; and it was hoped, if the thing was not actually accomplished at the time, that the writer of a letter from London to Edinburgh would receive a reply within a week! When this running or rather riding, post was established, very sanguine was Witherings. "If the post," he said, “be punctually paid, the news will come sooner than thought." He considered that news which passed from Edinburgh to London in three days and nights, by relays of horses, whose swinging trot never ceased, was outstripping thought.

The arrangements for the Foreign Mails in the present day show, in a forcible manner, the wonderful extent of British commerce and relationships. Here are departments for Austria, Baden, Bavaria, France, Norway, Denmark, and the most northern latitudes; the Brazils, Chili, the Equator, Spain, Sardinia, Switzerland, United States of America, North America, the various districts of India, Australia, &c. Here arrangements are made for the overland Indian and other mails. The letters, newspapers, and books are secured in cases of sheet-iron, which, when full, are carefully soldered up and inclosed in wooden chests, which are branded with crosses of red or black, and marked with the name of the district, city, &c., at which its arrival is awaited. Each of the boxes referred to weighs, when filled with letters and papers, about eighty six pounds, and the ordinary Australian mail, exclusive of the portion sent overland, generally consists of four hundred and eighty boxes of books and newspapers, and one hundred boxes of letters-in all five hundred and eighty boxes. These would weigh altogether forty-nine thousand eight hundred and eighty pounds, equal to nearly twenty-two tons and a half.

The Mails were originally conveyed on horseback and in light carts, until 1784, when mail-coaches were substituted by Mr. Palmer. The first mail-coach left the Three Kings yard, Piccadilly,

for Bristol, Aug. 24th, 1784. The speed of the mails was at once increased from three and a half to more than six miles an hour, and subsequently still greater acceleration was effected. About the year 1818, Mr. Macadam's improved system of road-making began to be of great service to the Post-office, by enabling the mails to be much accelerated. Their speed was gradually increased to ten miles an hour, and even more; until, in the case of the Devonport mail, the journey of two hundred and sixteen miles, including stoppages, was punctually performed in twenty-one hours and fourteen minutes. In 1830, upon the opening of the line between Liverpool and Manchester, the mails were for the first time conveyed by railway. In 1835, Lieutenant Waghorn commenced transmission to India, by the direct route through the Mediterranean and over the Isthmus of Suez, a line of communication subsequently extended to China and Australia. In 1859, the distance over which mails were conveyed by mail-coaches, railways, foot-messengers, and steam-packets was about one hundred and thirty-three thousand miles per day, this being about three thousand miles more than in the year ending 1857. In the year 1859, the whole distance traversed by the various mails was thirty-seven millions, five hundred and forty-five thousand miles! The annual procession of the mail-coaches on the birthday of George III. (June 4) was once a metropolitan sight which the king loved to see from the windows of Buckingham House. The letters are now conveyed to the railways in omnibuses, nine of which are sometimes filled by one night's mail at one railway. In 1839 was invented the travelling post-office, in which clerks sort the letters during the railway journey, and the guard ties in and exchanges the letter-bags, without stopping the train. Four miles an hour was the common rate of the first mail-carts; a railway mail-train now averages twenty-four miles an hour; while, between certain stations on certain lines, a speed of fifty miles an hour is attained. By the Pneumatic Despatch the mail-bags are blown through the tube in iron cars in about one minute, the usual time occupied by the mail-carts being about ten minutes. Persons have been conveyed through the tube, and returned by vacuum, without having experienced the slightest discomfort.

The Rates of Postage varied according to distance until December 5th, 1839, when the uniform rate of 4d. was tried; and January 10th, 1840, was commenced the uniform rate of 1d. per letter of half an ounce weight, etc. The Government received two thousand plans for a new system, and adopted that of Mr. Rowland Hill; but not until the change had been some years agitated by a Post Magazine established for the purpose. Among the opponents of the uniform penny stamp was the Secretary of the Postoffice, who maintained that the revenue would not recover itself for half a century, and that the poor would not write. Lord Lichfield pointed to the absurdity of supposing that letters, the

conveyance of which cost on an average twopence-halfpenny each, could ever be carried for a penny and leave a profit on the transaction! The uniform rate was pronounced by Colonel Maberley to be "impracticable;" and as to pre-payment, he was sure the public would object to it, however low the rate might be! And a Scotch journalist ridiculed the idea of persons having to stick pieces of paper upon their letters! The stamped postage-covers came into use may 6, 1840; but the idea of a prepaid envelope is as old as the time of Louis XIV. A pictorial envelope was designed by W. Mulready, R. A., but little used. A fancied value is attached to this envelope; for we have seen advertised in the Times:— "The Mulready Postage Envelope-For sale, an Indian-proof impression. One of six, from the original block engraved by John Thompson in the year 1840, price 20 guineas." The postage label-stamps were first used in 1841; perforated, 1854.

Number of Letters.-The greatest number of letters, under the old system, ever known to pass through the General Post-office in one day, was received there on July 15, 1839, viz. ninety thousand; the amount of postage being £4050 a sum greater by £530 than any hitherto collected in one day. In the third week of February the number of letters is usually highest. The ordinary daily average is four hundred thousand letters; on 19th August, 1853, it reached six hundred and thirty thousand. The number of letters which pass through the Post-office in a year is nearly four hundred million. In 1864, six hundred and seventy-nine million eighty-four thousand eight hundred and twenty-two letters passed through the post, being an increase of thirty-seven million over the previous year; and in the same period the number of bookpackets and newspapers which were transmitted rose to over fifty million, or seven million more than in 1863.

"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 instanceonly a two months' accumulation-the post-haste of four thousand six hundred and fifty-eight letters, all containing property, was arrested by the bad superscriptions of the writers. They were consigned-after a searching inquest upon each by that efficient coroner, the "blind clerk"-to the post-office Morgue. There were bank-notes of the value of £1010, and money-orders for £407 12s. But most of these ill-directed letters contained coin in small sums, amounting to £310 98. 5d. On the 17th of July, 1847, there were lying in the Dead-Letter Office bills of exchange for the immense sum of £40,410 58. 7d." The value of property contained in missing letters, during twelve months, is about £200,000.

There are employed in the General Post-office, including the London District letter-carriers, but exclusive of the receivers, two thousand five hundred persons, in different offices:-Secretary's, Accountant's, Receiver's, Dead-Letter, Money-Order, Inland, and

London District Offices. For more than half a century there were only two secretaries to the Post-office, Sir Francis Freeling and Colonel Maberly. Sir Francis was brought up in the Post-office, had performed the humblest as well as the highest duties of the department, and was a protégé of Mr. Palmer, the great Post-office reformer. He was succeeded by Lieut. Col. Maberly, M. P., who retired in 1854, when Mr. Rowland Hill, the originator of the penny-post, was appointed secretary; his services were rewarded in 1846 by a public testimonial of £13,360; Knighthood and grant. It is singular that all postal reformers have been unacquainted with the department which they have revolutionized.

The net Revenue of the Post-office to the end of the year 1865 was £1,482,522. The number of effective persons employed was twenty-five thousand and eighty-two; of pensioners, one thousand two hundred and seventy-four; salaries, wages, allowances, &c., £1,295,153; postage stamps, £22,064; stationery, £32,396; buildings, repairs, etc., £75,331; conveyance by coaches, carts, etc., £140,517; by railways, £528,220; of mails by private ships and by packets, etc, £796,397; over the Isthmuses of Suez and Panama, with salaries of Admiralty agents, etc., £28,786; and for mail-bags and boxes, tolls, etc., £22,220; a total for conveyance of £1,516,442.

THE PENNY POST was originally projected by Robert Murray, a milliner, of the Company of Clothworkers; and William Dockwra, a sub-searcher in the Customs. It was commenced as a foot-post, in 1680, with four deliveries a day. These projectors, however, quarrelled: Murray set up his office at Hall's Coffeehouse, in Wood-street; and Dockwra, at the Penny Post-house in Lime-street, formerly the mansion of Sir Robert Abdy. But this was considered an infringement on the right of the Duke of York, on whom the Post-office revenue had been settled; and in a suit to try the question, a verdict was given against Dockwra. He was compensated by a pension, and appointed Comptroller of the Penny Post, but was dismissed in 1698. The first office was in Cornhill, near the 'Change: parcels were received. In 1708, one Povey set up the "Half-penny Carriage" private post, which was soon suppressed by the Post-office authorities. They continued to convey parcels down to 1765, when the weight was limited to four ounces. The postage was paid in advance down to 1794. In 1801, the Penny Post became a Twopenny Post; and the postage was advanced to three-pence beyond the limits of London, Southwark, and Westminster; but in 1840 they were consolidated with the Penny General Post.

The Money-Order Office, a distinct branch of the Post-office, is a handsome new edifice on the west side of St. Martin's-le-Grand. Money-orders are issued by millions during the year, in numbers and amount, and have considerably added by commission to the Post-office revenue.