Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/624

618 progress, and the state of his health was evinced by the selection of the names from a list previously agreed upon, with which the newspaper was franked. Sir Francis Burdett, I recollect, denoted vigorous health.

"Once on the poet's [Coleridge's] visit to the Lake district, he halted at the door of a wayside inn at the moment when the rural postman was delivering a letter to the barmaid of the place. On receiving it she turned it over and over in her hand, and then asked the postage of it. The postman demanded a shilling. Sighing deeply, the girl handed the letter back, saying she was too poor to pay the required sum. The poet at once offered to pay the postage, and did so. The messenger had scarcely left the place when the young barmaid confessed she had learnt all she was likely to learn from the letter; that she had only been practising a preconceived trick – she and her brother having agreed that a few hieroglyphics on the back of the letter should tell her all she wanted to know, whilst the letter would contain no writing." – The Royal Mail, pp. 181, 182.

When we consider the interests of hearts and homes, it is clear that nothing has tended so much to add to the happiness of the world as the Post-office; it unites kingdoms and societies, strengthens the ties of family and affection, relieves the minds of the anxious, and soothes the sufferer in his sickness and loneliness. It is a trite observation that men never value blessings until they are deprived of them. The expedition and regularity of the Post-office service is most appreciated when there is any mishap, and a mail is delayed a day, or even a few hours. What consternation is caused by a missing mail-bag! the non-arrival of an expected letter has been known to agitate even the most gentle natures. The magnitude of the interest in the Post-office may in some measure be realised when we read in the twenty-ninth report of the Postmaster-General, that 1323 millions of letters passed through the British Post-office last year. What imagination can grapple with such stupendous figures? Four million letters stamped in the United Kingdom every day! And the average rate of letters per head of the population is 36 in the United Kingdom; in the United States it is 21; in France it is 15; in Germany 13; in Italy 6; and in Spain 5.

No other period can be compared to the last half-century in the marvellous progress science has made, and in the application of science to the conquest of time and space, and most especially in its application to the postal service throughout Europe. We underline Europe, for we learn from Marco Polo that the post was established in China before our Norman Conquest. Every 25 miles there were post-stations, called "jambs," and frequently as many as 300 or 400 horses kept at one of these stations. There were 10,000 of these stations in the empire, and more than 200,000 horses are said to have been engaged in the service; but this gigantic empire, which combined marvellous knowledge with the lowest barbarism, walled in its civilisation, and the very existence of the empire itself was scarcely realised at the time when the first post known in Europe was planned by Charlemagne in A.D. 807. This, however, led to little result, and it was not until the thirteenth century that the Hanse Towns established a regular post. This federation of republics required constant communication, for their commercial interests were very great, and a rapid interchange of views and opinions was essential for its continuance. A post was said to