Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/376

356 England was the result. "Little bags called envelopes" had already been in use to prevent letter-opening by post-office officials, and now the familiar, stamp with an impression of the Queen appeared in the right-hand corner, and writer instead of recipient paid for the letter. Letter-boxes now made their appearance in London, where letters might be posted any time between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m.; from these local letter-boxes everything went to the central office at St. Martin-le-Grand, so that a letter from one part of the town to another often took fifteen hours. Other now familiar innovations followed in quick succession. Book post, money orders, post-office savings bank, and post cards (1870) succeeded one another, each in turn adding vastly to the facilities of correspondence in the growing commerce of the land.

A yet more rapid means of communication was now reached by the institution of the electric telegraph. The first was established across the twenty miles between Paddington and Slough in 1844. How step by step it gained in popularity is a matter of ancient history now. So, too, is the hitherto undreamt-of development which enabled men to lay the first submarine cable (1851) and to transmit messages to the Continent