Gross number and amount of letters returned to Returned letters finally Postage on Irish, Colonial, and Foreign letters returned for disposal Postage of letters to be tendered at corrected addresses . Postage. Number. £. 8. d. 626,073 663 8 11 28,546 119 15 0 226 10 0 53,873 1,330 0 4 45,800 905 0 3 - be returned to the writer without | once appear by the following statement for The seals of chartered companies the year ending 5th January, 1849:noblemen are usually sufficient to efobject; and if the public, especially business would inscribe upon their seals dresses,instead of their crests,or coatsthey would in any of the cases we entioned, including that of sending in undirected envelopes, enable the or of the dead letter office to return eir packets &c., unopened. he receipt of country dead letters, the y of the department in London is to ne whether the rural postmaster has every possible effort to find "the -his reasons for not having done so ritten by him on the back of the lethis investigation having been made in = soon as, in the six rooms we have ed, the letters have been opened, e, if possible, returned without delay velope to the senders. If containing y, they are registered; and the when resident in London, are reto call for them; if resident in the , the document is enclosed there to master for delivery, on obtaining a Those containing no property, and ch owners cannot be found, are torn clerk who opened them into six or eces, and then, without even noting bers, they are, according to an old sold, on a legal engagement that disposed of to paper makers to be actured. dering the immense importance which out the United Kingdom is justly to letters addressed to living pereven to the dead, we must own it 1 to us that the gentlemen whose uty it is to make themselves, to a egree, acquainted with the confidenents of all dead letters, ought not to ersons entrusted to destroy them, or ccording to the old custom we have ed, to transfer each letter, in about zen pieces only, to the hands of a who merely undertakes to destroy Of the newspapers, waste vouchers, rs, sold annually by the Post-Office t £450, not one-tenth of this money ed for the dead letters. For the am, therefore, of about £45 a year, ect due by a great country to the of so many hundreds of thousands etters is openly, and, we must add, inion, unnecessarily violated. aluable results of the exertions of A-Letter Office in London will at Destroyed in ordinary 7,675 18 7 Under the old system of heavy postages, the number of rejected valentines (all, of course, anonymous) that found their way into the Dead-Letter Office amounted to no less than 120,000. Under the penny postage, the number of "dead valentines" has fallen to 70,000. It appears, therefore, that at all events as regards postage, Cupid in London is not-as he is poetically believed to be-stone-blind! NEWSPAPERS.-We have stated that the newspapers, as fast as they are either delivered at the windows of the Post-Office or unpacked from the red mail-carts, which shortly after six begin to arrive, are lifted in white wicker basketsfull from the great double sorting-hall on the ground floor to that suspended above it. On entering, at about half-past six, these splendid apartments which, being beautifully lighed by the sunshine of heaven, form a striking contrast to the dark and apparently subterranean, gas-smoking sorting cavern beneath-we must confess that, although for some time we had been gazing on the ascending panniers, we were altogether astonished at suddenly finding ourselves in a new world, and, indeed, almost in a new atmosphere of newspapers. As the baskets in rapid succession rose from below, their contents were emptied by very powerful men upon a large table, in the middle of which, on an enormous heap-a literary mountain in labor, composed of a celestial and terrestrial conglomeration of Suns, Stars, Globes, Records, Spectators, Standards, Times, Heralds, Posts, Chronicles, Punches, Bulls, Examiners, Household Words &c there postman armed with a long-handled wooden broad-hoe (such as is used in the London streets for collecting macadamized mud), with which very dexterously and violently he kept pushing the white mass from the centre to the circumference, which was surrounded by red postmen, who, as quickly as they could fill their arms, carried off the papers (each hugging about seventy) toward the sorting-tables. In doing so, they unavoidably dropped several on the floor; and thus, beneath, above, in the pigeon-holes of all the sorting-tables, as also moving about in all directions there was to be seen that astonishing creation of English newspapers which, like the rays of the sun, enliven and enlighten every region of the globe. On Friday evenings the mountain is increased by above half a ton of "Sunday" publications, to be delivered in the country on Saturday. As the processes of sorting are, generally speaking, similar to those of the letters below, we will not weary our readers by detailing them, but will merely observe that, in order to ensure the utmost possible attention to this public work, in which not only the British people, but the whole family of mankind are interested, it is notified on a board hung up in as nearly as possible the middle of the hall, that for every paper missent, the man who shall have made the mistake will be fined a penny, which at the end of the quarter is divided among his comrades. All newspapers for foreign countries, as fast as they are collected, are despatched through a zinc shoot into the "Foreign Department" below. In arranging the multitudinous mass which remains, one of the most important duties that the sorter has to perform is to detect any fraud on that indulgence of the Imperial Parliament which liberally allows them to circulate, even in India, postage free. Under the old system of heavy charges on letters, there were innumerable attempts to carry on an illicit correspondence by means of newspapers. One of the most common of these frauds was, commencing at the beginning of the first page, to under-dot consecutively with ink, or to under-mark, by little holes made with a pin, each letter needful to make up the several words of the fraudulent communication. Letters, and enclosures even of plumcake, are still very commonly concealed within newspapers; but by very ingenious means, which it would not be proper for us svolle detested and Of what strange and minute mat is the enormous revenue of the British pire composed! At seven minutes before a quart eight the newspapers, which throug both the upper halls have by this time all sorted, are, almost simultaneously, ac ing to their destinations, packed into lea bags, a few of which are tied, sealed, then dropped through a wooden shoot t conveyed at once to the termini of the se railway stations; the remainder are also into bags, which, without being closed, at a quarter to eight precisely, lowere charge of scarlet postmen, via the mach into the great sorting-halls beneath. As as they arrive there, the letters belongin each sack (the letter-carrier holds it while the sorter fills it) are super-packed strata above the newspapers, until by al three minutes to eight the bags are not all sealed, but are to be seen, eight or ter a lump, on the shoulders of postmen, w appearing almost as if they would b the loads they are standing und the bag and seal, and if there appears to be anything wrong about either, without opening, he reports it. If, however, all be right, he cuts it open, and then turning it inside out, he deposits the whole of its contents on his table. ly block up, like ladies waiting for riages, the passages which lead to exeunt-door. As soon, however, clock, which has been attentively the operations, benevolently strikes e president's authoritative voice is om his elevated desk to utter very Although all the Queen's heads in the the monosyllable "Go!" on which heap have been obliterated by the different flies open, the mass of white and postmasters in the country, the letters have gs, of scarlet cloth, red faces, and each to be examined to ascertain whether its l backs moves on, and in a very few postage by stamp or by money is correct, in the great sorting-halls above as well which operation the clerk separates the mass vare all empty! The night-scene as he proceeds into two divisions, "Town" f stuffing the bags into accelerators, and "Country"—the former usually containving therein merely room enoughing about three-fourths and the latter onehard, is very soon concluded, and thus y few minutes after eight-the last clamation of "All right! drive on !" The small letters are then, by messengers, ready died away-the whole of the stamped, if pre-paid on their faces, and if by nd newspapers from the Inland De- postage-stamps, on their backs, with the letof the London Post-Office are in ter of the table, day, month, and year, and directions rumbling through the in order that every operator may be made ward their respective destinations. responsible for the work he undertakes, a ING DELIVERY. -Our heart aches book is stamped and signed daily by the state, that most of those intelligent stamping messenger, which of course not rvants whom we have but just dis-only identifies him, but shows whether the o homes more or less poor, as well letter, dates, &c., he had used on his instruor less distant, to enjoy that pittance ment were correct. As fast as the messenstic happiness, and of rest, which ger, in stamping, passes the letters behind xcepting on the Sabbath-day, is him, his satellite letter-carrier bears them off to them, have to arise, dress, and to other sorting tables, at which "country St. Martin's-le-Grand early enough letters," including foreign ones, are disposed there before five A. M., to arrange of at one double desk, divided on either side ing delivery; and if, as is the case, into twelve compartments, each two feet erfully, week after week, month after nine inches broad, labelled in two tiers of nd year after year, daily assemble pigeon-holes, the same as for the evening m this endless duty, our readers, as delivery. The "large packets" are taken to eclining in their easy chairs, will a single adjoining table containing three comhope, shrink from the fatigue of partments, each of the extra breadth of four for a few minutes, a very brief ab- feet seven inches. The "Town letters" are he manner in which these important taken to desks divided into two tiers of seven e performed. and eight compartments each, numbering from one to fifteen, of which Nos. 1 to 13 are for "Divisions," each of which comprehends about one-thirteenth of that portion of London which lies within the three-mile circle, No. 14 for small letters for public offices; and No. 15 for the remaining portion of the | London district lying between the three and twelve mile circles, the letters and documents for which, are at once, by means of a flywheel and endless rope, forwarded through the tunnel from the Inland" to the "District Office." fourth. He also lays aside in one compartment the large letters and parcels. gs reaching London from all the ost-offices, or in other words from of the United Kingdom, as well as ad, are rapidly brought from the f the principal railways by twonail-carts and four-wheeled accelerno mail-coaches are now employed work) to St. Martin's-le-Grand, y begin to arrive at 5 o'clock A. M. they are unloaded at the door, the "roadsacks" containing them are ad the bags from within these are ght on the shoulders of the red iers to twenty-four "opening tainged alphabetically, so as to give is nearly as possible the same I work innior clerz examines 66 This first process of assortment having been concluded, the letter-carriers next convey the whole of the thirteen London Divisions of letters to one double and one single desk dvilad into frute each of which is subdivided into a double | rumbling of the tunnel ropes and row of eight bins, called "walks," and as steam-engine,-form the everlasting fast as this latter operation is effected, they accompaniment to which the sorter are again carried off in wooden trays, con- sengers, bagmen. &c., seem to work structed to be held under one arm, to the floors of both the double halls appe two lifting machines at each end of the hall ally swarming alive with human -in or upon which machines the red carriers dressed in dark clothes or in scarlet in tiers, or, geologically speaking, in strata and as the eye of the stranger, in m one above another, are rapidly uplifted to miration of the busy scene, glancin the large, well-lighted, double hall used at zontally over the mass, suddenly obse night for newspapers, where, by arrange- each end of the room jaded human fig ments which we shall detail in describing bright red uniforms, standing bolt the deliveries of the London District De- with white letter-bags in their hands, partment, the letters are finally sorted into under their arms, or newspapers at streets by the very letter-carriers who are feet, and vertically moving upwar themselves to deliver them. downwards in iron cages from one f the other-it is almost impossible for help fancying them to be the spirits parted postmen, who, according to general performances, and especially a ing to the mode in which they may been in the habit of handling letters co ing sovereigns, half-sovereigns, shilling sixpences, are, from the troubled inte St. Martin's-le-Grand, ascending or des ing to their dooms! The whole of these operations throughout the halls above and below must, if possible, be concluded by seven o'clock A. M., after which half an hour is allowed to the London letter-carriers finally to arrange and tie up their parcels for actual delivery-and accordingly, at half-past seven precisely, they and their bags are dispatched by accelerator-omnibuses, which, starting brim full of red postmen and white bags, rapidly drop one after another at the commencement of his respective walk, until the last carrier, bag in hand, having descended from the steps, the vehicle veers round and slowly returns to its resting place. Each "walk" is so constructed as to enable the postman, excepting on Mondays, to complete his delivery of social advantages which Mr. Ro MONEY ORDER OFFICE.-Among th Hill's penny postage system has con upon the community, may be enume the extension and increased facility i afforded to the transmission of money-on an arrangement which, from its origina tablishment in September, 1838 (wh was composed of three clerks,) has in dimensions with the United Kingdon grown into a vast banking system, ide which at a very trifling charge, and wit most perfect safety, any small sum ca any person be transmitted from and to part of England, Ireland, Scotland, G in about an hour, when he takes his "timecard" to the nearest receiving house that the name and time may be certified thereon. The postmen's duties end generally about half-past nine, according to distance-and, excepting seventy men reserved for the little midday dispatches to Brighton and Southampton, and deliveries of the letters of the day-mails, they are then their own masters until 5 P. M., when they again assemble for the busy and exhausting duties we have de-sey, or Jersey. The number of postma scribed. When both halls, above and below, the foreign room, and the blind-man's chamber, are each in full and vigorous operation, the picture altogether is one which, from being composed of very odd noises, as well as very strange objects of vision, could not possibly be delineated by any crayon or pencil but Hogarth's. The tramping, puffing and occasional snuffling of the carriers, as with arms full, bags full, or trays full of letters, they proceed rapidly from one long table to another,--the reverberations of the stampers, the fluttering or shuffling of and receivers authorized to issue and may £ s. d. 7,160 19 263,386 9 4 4 it be observed, that if the prest of the money-order office were to be ed from the gross amount of poundtely received for money-orders issued mout the United Kingdom, there emain a small profit or revenue. enormous business transacted in this of the Post-office may be faintly exd by the fact, that every morning's ally brings to the chief office in Lona which there are employed 178 no less than 12,000 advices, amountnearly four millions a-year! The Postmaster-General lately detero reduce the dimensions of these adom a semi-sheet of foolscap to about t size, by which act of apparent innt economy a saving of no less than a-year has been effected, although ernment is supplied with paper at a sly cheap rate. By another alteraich his Lordship has lately effected Form of the correspondence of the order department, the number of transmitted on that service to the ondon office has been reduced about -week, and of course the expense ble of receiving, of conveying, and ng these letters on their arrrival at don inland office, have also been The latter effect, however, although in the estimated results, was subseOverlooked; and accordingly, shortly alteration had been effected, it was , with no little alarm, that there was ent decrease in the correspondence ountry with London! The cause of ness for a short time remained an nearly tallied with, the reduction of letters from the provincial postmasters to the London money office, as created by the alteration we have described. In consequence of these as well as other reductions, and the adoption of a more simple system of accounts, the services of about one-fourth of the clerks of the money office have lately been dispensed with, and a saving of about £11,000 a-year effected. THE LONDON DISTRICT DEPARTMENT—— Commonly called the Two-penny Post.The work of this office is a wearing, wasting, intermittent fever, which, excepting Sundays; comes on regularly every morning throughout the year at 6 A. M., and which in ten cold and hot fits of unequal severity afflicts the various sets of patients, who are successively exposed to it, until ten minutes past nine at night. After a night's rest, such as only the weary in this world enjoy, the first symptom of uneasiness in this great department-by which more letters are now delivered than, before the introduction of the penny system, passed through all the postoffices of the United Kingdom-is the arrival, at the early hour we have named, of a detachment of clerks and letter-sorters, who, in winter often paddling under umbrellas and in mackintoshes through sleet, snow, and dark wet streets, assemble for the purpose of receiving, but not opening, a tide of wooden boxes full of letters and newspapers from all parts of the United Kingdom, which, under the influence of machinery and of an endless chain, flow in a succession of waves from the Inland Department (commonly called The General Post Office) for delivery in that portion of the London District which lies between the three and twelve mile circles. At six o'clock, the hour of the arrival of the president and his assistants, amounting altogether to ninety persons, these boxes are opened, and the contents taken out and sorted, during which operation boxes full of letters, sometimes in a stream and sometimes in a torrent, continue unceasingly to pour in through the sewer or tunnel. While the sorting of all these letters and newspapers, in a mode we shall shortly describe, is, like the deposition of honey in the cells of a hive, going on, a number of men and boys, like bees flying from flower to flower, are in all directions occupied in the |