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 The comparative postal statistics for all France during the years 1900 and 1905 stands thus:—

The savings banks system of France, so far as it is connected with the postal service, dates only from 1875, and began then (at first) simply by the use of post offices as agencies and feeders for the pre-existing banks. Prior to the postal connexion the aggregate of the deposits stood at £22,920,000. In 1877 it reached £32,000,000. Postal savings banks, strictly so called, began only during the year 1881. At the close of 1882 they had 210,712 depositors, with an aggregate deposit of £1,872,938 sterling; in 1905 they had 12,134,523 depositors, with an aggregate deposit of £229,094,155.

The union of the telegraph with the post office dates only from 1878. The following table gives the figures for 1900 and 1905:— The postal telephonic system began in 1879. The following table gives the figures for 1901 and 1905:—

.—P. d’Alméras, Réglement sur le port des lettres (1627); Le Quien de la Neufville, Usages des postes (1730); Rowland Hill, Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the French Post Office (1837); Annuaire des postes (from 1850–); M. du Camp, “De L’administration. . . et de l’hôtel des postes,” in Revue des deux mondes (1865), 3rd series; Revue des postes et télégraphes (pub. at various periods); A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la poste-lux-lettres (1875); “Entwickelung des Post- u. Telegraphenwesens in Frankreich,” in ''Archiv f. Post. u. Telegraphie'' (1882); “Die französischen Postsparkassen, " and other articles, in L’Union postale (Berne).

The Austrian postal system is among the oldest on record. Vienna possessed a local letter post and a parcel post, on the plan of prepayment, as early as May 1772, at which date no city in Germany possessed the like. This local post was established by a Frenchman (M. Hardy) and managed by a Dutchman (Schooten). Thirteen years after its organization it became merged in the imperial post. The separate postal organizations of the empire (Austria) and of the kingdom (Hungary) date from 1867. In Austria the post office and the telegraph office are

placed under the control of the minister of commerce, in Hungary under that of the minister of public works. The following table gives the figures for 1900 and 1904:— Austria Hungary

The Prussian postal system developed mainly by the ability and energy of Dr Stephan, to whom the organization of the International Postal Union was so largely indebted, into the admirably organized post and telegraph office of the empire began with the Great Elector, and with the establishment in 1646 of a Government post from Cleves to Memel. Frederick, II. largely extended it, and by his successor the laws relating to it were consolidated. In Strasburg a messenger code existed as early as 1443. A postal service was organized at Nuremberg in 1570. In 1803 the rights in the indemnity-lands (Entschädigungsländer) of the counts of Taxis as hereditary imperial postmasters were abolished. The first mail steam packet was built in 1821; the first transmission of mails by, railway was in 1847; the beginning of the postal administration of the telegraphs was in 1849; and, by the treaty of postal union with Austria, not only was the basis of the existing system of the posts and telegraphs of Germany fully laid, but the germ was virtually set of the International Postal Union. That treaty was made for ten years on the 6th of April 1850, and was immediately accepted by Bavaria. It came into full operation on the 1st of July following, and then included Saxony, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Holstein. Other German states followed; and the treaty was renewed in August 1860. The following table gives figures for 1900 and 1905:—