Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/313

 I have to pay a penny extra in order to send a foreign letter on the same day by the night mails, and even so I have to go, or to send, to Central District offices. Worse than all this, and a positive outrage upon six millions of Londoners, it is impossible to have a letter delivered on Sunday at a less cost than 10d. This sum I have frequently paid during the last few months, owing to serious sickness in my family. It is all very well to say that I can use the telegraph, if away; but a telegram costs 6d. and you cannot possibly say in a telegram what you may wish to say in a letter.

"There is no metropolis in the world that is so shamefully served in the matter of letters, especially in the matter of this outrageous Sunday interdict, as London."

This is one who would set fire to the Post Office to roast his eggs. Snub him.

Now we have numerous attempts to make you pay for accidents to postal packets during transmission. The favourite argument seems to be that, since a common carrier is liable for loss or injury of goods entrusted to him, you ought to be. They forget you are not a common carrier, but a State official, protected from liability by Act of Parliament.

The total liability for loss and damage would be but a small portion of my annual profit, but I cannot disobey an Act of Parliament.

Here is our answer to a claim for some postage stamps stolen by a postman: