Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/603

Rh FRANCE.] P S T-0 F F I C E 581 stamps, effected under the presidency of Louis Napoleon (1849) ; (3) the organization of an excellent system of not only transmitting but insuring articles of declared value, whatever their nature, effected under Napoleon III. (1859) ; (4) the issue of postal notes payable to bearer (1860); (5) the establishment of a post-office library (1878); (6) the creation of postal savings banks (1880). France, as we have seen, possessed a postal money- transmission service as early as 1627. But for almost two centuries the thing the remitter delivered at the post-office was the thing given to the payee, whether it were coin or paper money. In 1817 the money-transmission service became a money -order service. In that year the aggre gate value of inland money orders was 364,000, in 1830 528,000, in 1845 844,000, in 1864 4,520,000, in 1868 6,280,000, in 1877 9,238,644, in 1878 11,036,712, in 1881 18,793,188, in 1882 19,655,117, in 1883 20,770,078. The average amount of each order varied very little during the fifty-eight years 1821 to 1878, rang ing only between 28 francs 62 centimes and 30 francs (twenty-four shillings). The number of orders was in the first-named year only 317,642. In 1868 the number was (in round figures) 5,320,000; in 1878 it had grown to 9,304,840, in 1881 to 14,626,117, in 1882 to 15,791,774, and in 1883 to 16, 808,627. l The average amount of each order has been, since 1878, somewhat upon the increase. 2 France may also fairly claim to have been in advance of the United Kingdom not only in facilities for the safe transmission of money and other precious commodities but also in the facilities of book post and parcel post. In the tariff for ordinary correspondence, however, it has always contrasted unfavourably. Whilst under the regulations of January 1849 and of July 1854 respectively the letter tariff was double that of Great Britain, it has come to be treble since the adoption by the latter country of the one- ounce unit of charge; l|d. is the French rate under the regulation (M. Cochery s) of 1st May 1878 fora half-ounce letter; Id. is the English rate for an ounce letter. Post cards are charged double the English rate. 3 The growth of postal correspondence in France prior to the great check inflicted by the calamities of 1870-71 may, very briefly, be shown thus : TABLE XVIII. Comparative Numbers of Letters, Newspapers, and Books conveyed. Ordinary Letters. 4 Registered Letters. Newspapers and Book-Parcels. 1848 1857 ( 1867 tlS68 126,480,000 252,921,942 349,335,000 176,000 4,SiO,000 c. 4,500,000 c. 15,000,000 The ingenuity of the French postal authorities was severely tried by the exigencies of the German War of 1870-71 ; but they proved themselves singularly successful in maintaining a correspondence, inland and foreign, under difficulties which were probably greater than any postal staff had ever before had to encounter since posts were known. The first contrivance was to organize a pigeon service, 5 1 These figures apply only to inland orders issued. _ 2 Bernard, &quot; Notice sur le Service postal en France, &quot; in Journal des Economistes, ser. 3, xv. 366-385 ; Statistique generate du Service postal, 1881, v. sq. 3 Recueil de Renseignements sur le Regime postal, 5 ; Annuaire des Pastes, for various years, to 1883 inclusive, passim. Comp. Reports of Secretaries of Embassy, &c., France (1879), 5. 4 During the years from 1849 to 1857 ordinary letters in France increased at the annual rate of 12| per cent, (under Napoleon III. as president and as emperor) ; during the rest of his rule the yearly rate of increase is calculated (to 1869 inclusive) at 3| per cent. only. 5 The employment of pigeons as carriers of despatches dates from a very early period, the curious annals of which are given in Die Tauben- post (Berlin). It was not, however, until the commencement of the present century that they were systematically utilized as bearers of messages to the sporting and other papers. Before the organization of the electric telegraph pigeons were regularly employed by the members carrying microscopic despatches prepared by the aid of photographic appliances. 6 The number of postal pigeons employed was 363, of which number fifty-seven returned with despatches. During the height of the siege the English postal authorities received letters for transmission by pigeon post into Paris by way of Tours, subject to the regulations that no information concerning the war was given, that the number of words did not exceed twenty, that the letters were delivered open, and that 5d. a word, with a registration fee of 6d., 7 was prepaid as postage. At this rate the postage of the 200 letters on each folio was 40, that on the eighteen pellicles of sixteen folios each, carried by one pigeon, 11,520. Each despatch was repeated until its arrival had been acknowledged by balloon post ; consequently many were sent off twenty and some even more than thirty times. The second step was to establish a regular system of postal balloons, fifty-one being employed for letter service and six for telegraphic service. To M. Durnouf belongs very much of the honour of making the balloon service successful. On the basis of experiments carried out by him a decree of 26th September 1870 regulated the new postal system. Out of sixty-four several ascents, each costing on the average about 200, fifty-seven achieved their purpose, notwithstanding the building by Krupp of twenty guns, supplied with telescopic apparatus, expressly for the destruction of the postal balloons. Only five were captured, and two others were lost at sea. The aggregate weight of the letters and newspapers thus aerially mailed by the French post-office amounted to about eight tons and a half, including upwards of 3,000,000 letters ; and, besides the aeronauts, ninety-one passengers were conveyed. The heroism displayed by French balloon postmen was equalled by that of many of the ordinary letter-carriers in the conveyance of letters through the catacombs and quarries of Paris and its suburbs, and, under various disguises, often through the midst of the Prussian army. Several lost their lives in the discharge of their duty, in some cases saving their despatches by the sacrifice. No less than eighty-five faced the extremity of danger. 8 During the war the Marseilles route for the Anglo-Indian mails was, of course, aban doned. They were sent through Belgium and Germany, by the Brenner Pass to Brinclisi, and thence by Italian packets to Alexan dria. The French route was resumed in 1872. 9 Before dealing with the latest statistics of the French postal Latest system, it may be of interest to cite from L Union Postale of Bern statistics, (ii. 87 sq. ) a brief comparison of the mail matter within the limits of Paris with that of the state at large in the year 1874 (Table XIX.). 4. Newspapers, books, mercantile patterns Paris. France. 95,791,000 1,730,000 8,935,000 242,013,000 047,400 343,808,000 6,786,000 56,534,000 368,782,000 4,793,680 349,716,400 780,703,680 J The reader will observe on glancing from this table to Table of the stock exchange for conveying early intelligence of the state of the money markets in Paris, &c. , the entire journey being broken up into short relays, so that transmission of messages might be secured even during unfavourable weather. At the present time all the important fortresses in France and Germany have their staff of voyageur or homing pigeons that are well trained for 50 to 100 miles, so that they could be relied on for holding communication with the fortress ill case it should be surrounded by hostile troops. The utility of these birds in conveying messages from the sea in case of war has not yet been recognized in Britain. 6 The despatches carried by the pigeons were in the first instance photographed on a reduced scale on thin sheets of paper, the original writing being preserved, but after the ascent of the twenty-fifth balloon leaving the city an improved system was organized. The communica tions, whether public despatches or private letters, were printed in ordinary type, and micro-photographed on to thin films of collodion. Each pellicle measured less than 2 inches by 1, and the reproduction of sixteen folio pages of type contained above 3000 private letters. These pellicles were so light that 50,000 despatches, weighing less than 1 gramme, were regarded as the weight for one pigeon. In order to ensure their safety during transit the films were rolled up tightly and placed in a small quill which was attached longitudinally to one of the tail feathers of the bird. On their arrival in Paris they were flattened out and thrown by means of the electric lantern on to a screen, copied by clerks, and despatched to their destination. This method was after wards improved upon, sensitive paper being substituted for the screen, so that the letters were printed at once and distributed. 7 Seventeenth Report of the Postmaster-General, p. 7. 8 Boissay, &quot; La Poste et la Telegraphic pendant le Siege de Paris,&quot; in Journal des Economists, ser. 3, xxii. 117-129 and 273-282. Com pare Postal Gazette, i. 7 (1883). 9 Sixteenth Report of the Postmaster-General, p. 8. 10 Slatistique generate du Service postal (Bern, 1882-83), passim.