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  always brought into close connexion with some organization already existing, as in the case of the Post Office. Though there was some system of posts in the reigns of James I and Charles I, the idea of the Post Office as now understood belongs to the period of the Commonwealth, and was adopted and developed after the Restoration. The original object of the office seems to have been to keep a control over correspondence in general, so that in the days of plots and counter-plots the Government might have the means of discovering the plotters. For this purpose the Post Office was brought into connexion with the Secretary of State, who could and still can send a warrant to the Post Office to detain and open letters.

On the other hand the Post Office became an important source of revenue, and was brought into close connexion with the Exchequer and the Treasury, and with the successive organizations used for auditing public accounts.

I have hitherto said but little of the effect of Parliament in the modern sense of the term—of that Parliament in which the Commons play so prominent a part—upon the organization of Departments of the Government, and the records which spring up in consequence. You will, perhaps, think I am speaking without due consideration when I say that Parliament has done but little to alter the fundamental methods of administration. It has, of course, abolished various offices, it has created new offices, and it has transferred the business of one office to another. It has had an effect in this last way on many of the offices which I have already mentioned. But, for all that, the machinery by which we work has not undergone any radical change of design. The machinery expands, and it branches out in various directions, but it almost always retains its original character.