Page:The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago.djvu/90

22 It must be borne in mind that the public convenience requires that the delivery of letters should follow as closely as possible the arrival of the Mails; and that the receipt of letters should be continued as close as possible up to the departure of the Mails. It follows, therefore, that all these multifarious duties have to be performed in the shortest possible space of time, though some, from their difficulty and complexity, involve an enormous amount of labour, while their accurate performance demands a degree of vigilance rarely to be met with. Take for instance the financial proceedings in the evening. First there are the accounts to be settled with the Receivers (71 in number) for the post-paid letters; then there is to tax the letters, which, without counting the franks, are frequently as many as 40,000, and every one of which is to be examined with a candle to see whether it is single or double; then the proper postage is to be determined, not only with reference to such inspection, but also with reference to the distance of the post-town to which it is addressed, and to be marked on the letter with pen and ink; and lastly, nearly 700 accounts of postage are to be made out against as many Deputy Post-masters.

When the hurried manner in which these complex operations have to be performed is considered, it is