The Royal Mail Part 7

"The poor blacksmith is next brought forward. I do not know that a man's character is to be decided by his calling. He was engaged by the Office to keep a receiving-house for the runners. He is paid for his trouble by Government, and is as much under the confidence and trust of the Office, till he proves himself unworthy of it, as the postmasters of Perth, Coupar-Angus, or Blairgowrie. It is not surprising, however, that this poor blacksmith should be in general terms decided unfit for such duty, when officers who should have been much better acquainted with the _hammer and nails of office_, do not know how to drive them!

"A very short explanation to the idea mentioned by the memorialists that the opposition by the Blairgowrie gentlemen rose from the supposition that they were to be cut out of their post altogether. I never heard of this before, nor do I know this idea to have existed. The Blairgowrie district did not interfere with the Post-office, nor the Office with them, more than has happened in writing; nor, so far as consists with my knowledge, have I heard or understood that the Coupar district wished to deprive Blairgowrie of an office. That Coupar wishes to have Blairgowrie subservient to and pa.s.sing through it is clear enough. But they do not advert that, as both Coupar and Blairgowrie are within one stage of Perth; had Coupar gone through Blairgowrie or Blairgowrie through Coupar, the law might say that one of them must pay an additional rate from Perth--that is, 4d. instead of 3d.; and which both Mr Edwards and I were clearly of opinion would rather have injured than improved the Revenue, as has been experienced in some similar cases. This legal distinction my Lord ---- does not appear to have observed. It is, however, stated, that by this plan of going through Coupar to Blairgowrie a very easy and direct communication would be established betwixt the two places. This I have no doubt of for private business-parcels, money, &c., &c.; because it would be easier for Blairgowrie to communicate in this way by one runner, by one with Coupar and two to Perth, than by two to Coupar and two to Perth, and for Coupar to communicate with Perth by one than two each way. This is harping on the old key. But it is a reduction of service, like the shortening of the road here, I do not wish to see. I do not want a reconciliation of this kind; and whatever obloquy I may endure, with imputation of _ignorance_ and other general epithets of a similar kind, I believe the memorialists, upon cool reflection, may be more inclined to ascribe these observations to proceed from honest zeal rather than wanton opposition. If it should be otherwise, I shall remain very satisfied that I have given my judgment of it according to conscience; and I cannot be afraid, if it is necessary, that the whole writings upon the subject should be again submitted to the final decision of his Majesty's Postmaster-General. In regard to the power of altering the course of the posts, I am decidedly of opinion the question ought to go to their lords.h.i.+ps' judgment; but as to any personal opposition to the memorialists, I disclaim it; and as they say they are determined to fight till they conquer, I would now retire from the contest, with this observation, that, though such doctrines and resolutions may be very good for the memorialists, they would, in my humble opinion, if generally expressed and followed, be very bad for the country."

It is really surprising how some of the ideas and practices of the feudal times still survive, ancient arrangements coming up from time to time for revision, as those who suffer acquire greater independence or a truer conception of their position in the State. Quite recently the Postmaster-General was called upon to settle a dispute between the Senior Magistrate of Fraserburgh and Lord ---- (the local seigneur) as to who had the right to receive letters addressed to "The Provost" or "Chief Magistrate" of Fraserburgh, both parties claiming such letters.

His lords.h.i.+p had hitherto obtained delivery of the letters, on the ground of his being "heritable provost" or baron-bailie, t.i.tles which smell strongly of antiquity; but the modern Provost and Chief Magistrate being no longer disposed to submit to the arrangement, appealed to headquarters, and obtained a decision as follows--viz., that he being Senior Police Magistrate, should receive all communications addressed to "The Provost," "The Chief Magistrate," or "The Acting Chief Magistrate,"

and that Lord ---- should have a right to claim any addressed to the "Baron-Bailie." The surprise is, that the ancient method of disposing of the letters should have been endured so long, and that a town's Provost should have been so slighted.

Personal interest, unfortunately, often steps in to prevent or hinder the carrying out of reforms for the general good; even the selfishness of mere pleasure placing itself as an obstacle to the accomplishment of things of great consequence in practical life. The Post-office being called upon to consider the question of affording a daily post to a small place in Ireland, which until then had had but a tri-weekly post, a gentleman called upon the postmaster to urge that things might be left as they were, stating as his reason that the change of hours, as regards the mail-car, rendered necessary in connection with the proposed improvements, would not suit himself and some other gentlemen, who were in the habit of using the car when going to fish on a lake near the mail-car route! Is not this a case showing a sad lack of public spirit?

CHAPTER X.

THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE.

Travellers who are in the habit of journeying over the princ.i.p.al railway lines, must at some time or other have noticed certain carriages in the express trains which had an unusually dull and van-like appearance, though set off with a gilded crown and the well-known letters V.R., and that generally these carriages appeared to have no proper doors, and were possessed of none but very diminutive windows--on one side, at any rate. It will have been observed, also, that sometimes two, three, or more of such carriages are placed end to end in certain trains, and that a hooded gangway or pa.s.sage enables those inside one carriage to visit any or all of the other carriages. When the small square holes or dwarf doorways which communicate with the outside are open, a glare of light is seen within, which reveals a variety of human legs and much canvas--the latter in the shape of mail-bags, either suspended from the walls of the carriage or lying on the floor. These carriages are what are called in the Post-office the "Travelling Post-office"; or, when brevity is desirable--as is often the case--the "T.P.O." There are several travelling post-offices of more or less importance pursuing their rapid flight during the night in different quarters of the country; but the most important, no doubt, are the "London and North-Western and Caledonian," running from London to Aberdeen; the "Midland," running from Newcastle diagonally across England to Bristol; and the "London and Holyhead" travelling post-office, by which the Irish mails to Dublin are conveyed as far as Holyhead.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Travelling Post-office.]

If a stranger were allowed to travel in one of these carriages, the first thing that would probably take his notice would be the brilliant light which fills the interior; and the necessity for a good light to enable men, standing on a vibrating and oscillating floor, to read quickly all sorts of ma.n.u.script addresses, will be understood by whoever has attempted to peruse writing by the light derived from the ordinary oil-lamps of a railway carriage. Yet for years the light supplied in the Travelling Post-office has been given by improved oil-lamps, though more recently gas has been introduced in some of the carriages. The next thing he would notice would likely be the long series of pigeon-holes occupying the whole of one side of the vehicle, divided into groups--each box having a name upon it or a number, and a narrow table running along in front of the boxes, bearing a burden of letters which the sorters are busily disposing of by putting each one in its proper place--that is, in the pigeon-hole, from which it will afterwards be despatched. Then hanging on the walls or lying under the table will be seen canvas bags and canvas sacks, each having its name stencilled in bold letters on its side; and somewhere about the floor great rolls of black leather, with enormously strong straps and buckles--the expanse of leather in each roll being almost sufficient to cover an ox. The use of these hides of leather will be described further on.

The _raison d'etre_ of the travelling post-office is to circ.u.mvent time,--to enable that to be done on the way which, without it, would have to be done before the train started or after it arrived at its destination, at the expense of time in the doing, and to collect and dispose of correspondence at all points along the route of the train--which correspondence would otherwise in many cases have to pa.s.s through some intermediate town, to be detained for a subsequent means of conveyance. The T.P.O. is one of the most useful parts of the machinery of the Post-office. Among the smaller things that might be observed in the carriage would be b.a.l.l.s of string for tying bags or bundles of letters, cyclopean sticks of sealing-wax, a chronometer to indicate sure time, a lamp used for melting the wax, and various books, report-forms, seals, &c.

The stranger would be surprised, also, to see with what expedition an experienced sorter can pa.s.s the letters through his hands, seldom hesitating at an address, but reading so much of it as is necessary for his purpose, and, without raising his eyes, carrying his hand to the proper pigeon-hole, just as a proficient on a musical instrument can strike with certainty the proper note without taking his eye off his music. In some cases--as in dealing with registered letters--a sorter has much writing to do; but, standing with his feet well apart, and holding a light board on his left arm on which to write, and further, by accommodating his body to the swinging of the carriages, he is able to use his pen or pencil with considerable freedom and success.

As the duties in the T.P.O. are for the most part performed during the night, the sorters employed have a great deal of night-work, and in some cases their terms of duty are very broken and irregular. Thus, with the hards.h.i.+ps they have to endure in periods of severe frost, when no heating apparatus is supplied except a few warming-pans, they live a life of duty far removed from ease or soft idleness.

The large pieces of leather with stout straps attached, already referred to, called pouches, are used as a protection to mail-bags which have to be delivered by what is commonly known as the apparatus. The mail-bags to be so disposed of are rolled up inside one of these pouches; the ends of the leather are folded in; the whole is bound round with the strong leather straps; and, the buckles being fastened, the pouch is ready for delivery. But, first, let the apparatus itself be described. This consists of two parts: an arm or arms of stout iron attached to the carriage, which can be extended outwards from the side, and to the end of which the pouch containing the bag is suspended when ready; and a receiving net, also attached to the side of the carriage, which can likewise be extended outwards to catch the mails to be taken up--this portion acting the part of an aerial trawl-net to capture the bags suspended from brackets on the roadside. The apparatus on the roadside is the counterpart of that on the carriage, the suspending arm in each case fitting itself to the nets on the carriage and roadside respectively. Now the use of this apparatus demands much attention and alacrity on the part of the men who are in charge of it; for arms and net must not, for fear of accidents, be extended anywhere but at the appointed places, and within 200 or 300 yards of where the exchange of mails is to take place. The operators, in timing the delivery, are guided by certain features of the country they are pa.s.sing through--a bridge, a tree on a rising ground which can be seen against the sky, a cutting along the line through which the train pa.s.ses with much clatter, a railway station, and so on--as well as by their estimate of the speed at which the train is running. When the nights are clear, a trained operator can easily recognise his marks; but in a very dark night, or during a fog, his skill and experience are put to the test. On such occasions he seems to be guided by the promptings of his collective senses. He puts his face close to the window, shutting off the light from the carriage with his hands, and peers into the darkness, trying to recognise some wayside object; he listens to the noise made by the train, estimates its speed of travelling, and by these means he judges of his position, and effects the exchange of the mails.

It is indeed marvellous that so few failures take place; but this is an instance of how, by constant application and experience, things are accomplished which might at first sight be considered wellnigh impossible. When the exchange takes place, it is the work of a moment--"thud, thud." The arm which bore the bag springs, disengaged, to the side of the carriage; the operator takes the inwards bag from the net, draws the net close up to the side of the vehicle, and the whole thing is done, and we are ready for the next exchange.

The blow sustained by the pouch containing the mail-bag at the moment of delivery, on occasions when the train is running at a high speed, is exceedingly severe, and sometimes causes damage to the contents of the bags when of a fragile nature and these are not secured in strong covers. A bracelet sent by post was once damaged in this way, giving rise to the following humorous note:--

"Mr ---- is sorry to return the bracelet to be repaired. It came this morning with the box smashed, the bracelet bent, and one of the cairngorms forced out. Among the modern improvements of the Post-office appears to be the introduction of sledge-hammers to stamp with. It would be advisable for Mr ---- to remonstrate with the Postmaster-General,"

&c.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Delivering Arm, showing how the Pouch is suspended.]

The Travelling Post-office apparatus is said to have been originally suggested by Mr Ramsay of the General Post-office; but his machinery was not very satisfactory when brought into practice. The idea was, however, improved upon by Mr d.i.c.ker, who was able to bring it into working condition; and for his services in this matter he was awarded a sum of 500 by the Lords of the Treasury, and the Postmaster-General conferred upon him an appointment as Supervisor of mail-bag apparatus. Some further improvements were carried out by Mr Pearson Hill, as, for example, the double arm, so that two pouches might be discharged at once from the same carriage-door. The apparatus first came to be used about thirty years ago, and there are now in the United Kingdom some 250 points or stations at which this magical game of give and take is carried on daily, and in many cases several times a day. At certain places not merely one or two pouches are discharged at a time, but a running fire is sometimes kept up to the extent of nine discharges of pouches. By the limited mail proceeding to the North, nine pouches are discharged at Oxenholme from the three Post-office carriages, the method followed being this:--Two pouches are suspended from the arms at each carriage-door, and upon these being discharged, three of the arms are immediately reloaded, when the pouches are caught by a second set of roadside nets, distant only about 600 yards from the first. It is necessary that great care should be taken in adjusting the nets, arms, and roadside standards to their proper positions in relation to one another, for any departure from such adjustment sometimes leads to accident. The pouches occasionally are sent bounding over hedges, over the carriages, or under the carriage-wheels, where they and their contents get cut to pieces. Pouches have been found at the end of a journey on the carriage-roof, or hanging on to a buffer. In November last, a pouch containing several mail-bags was discharged from the Midland Travelling Post-office at Cudworth, near Barnsley; but something going wrong, the pouch got cut up, and the contents were strewn along the line as far as Normanton. Some of these were found to be cheques, a silver watch, a set of artificial teeth, &c.

The following is a list of the Travelling Post-offices in the United Kingdom, most of which travel by night, distributing their freight of intellectual produce through all parts of the country:--

North-Western and Caledonian.

Birmingham and Stafford.

London and Holyhead.

Bangor and Crewe, and Normanton and Stalybridge.

London and Exeter.

Bristol and Exeter.

York and Newcastle.

St Pancras and Derby.

Midland.

Bristol and Newton Abbot.

South-Western.

South-Eastern.

Great Northern.

London and Bristol.

London and Crewe.

----------------- Dublin and Belfast.

Belfast and Northern Counties.

Ulster.

Midland (Ireland).

Great Southern and Western.

Dublin to Cork.

There are, besides, a great many other Travelling Post-offices of minor importance throughout the country, designated Sorting Tenders.

CHAPTER XI.

SORTERS AND CIRCULATION.

Post-office sorters, unlike men who follow other avocations, are a race unsung, and a people unknown to fame. The soldier of adventure, the mariner on the high seas, the village blacksmith, the tiller of the soil, the woodman in the forest--nay, even the tailor on his bench,--all of these have formed the theme of song, and have claimed the notice of writers of verse. It is otherwise with the men who sort our letters.

This may possibly be due to two causes--that sorters are comparatively a modern inst.i.tution, and that their work is carried on practically under seal. In times which are little beyond the recollection of persons now living, the lines of post were so few, and the division and distribution of letters so simple, that the clerks who examined and taxed the correspondence also sorted it: and the time taken over the work would seem to show much deliberation in the process; for we find that in 1796, when correspondence was very limited, it took above an hour at Edinburgh "to tell up, examine, and retax" the letters received by the mail from England for places in the north; and that, when foreign mails arrived, two hours were required; and further time was necessary for taxing and sorting letters posted in Edinburgh for the same district of country--the staff employed in the business being two clerks. In those days there were really no sorters, unless such as were employed in the chief office in London. As to the work being carried on under seal, it is not going beyond the truth to say that, to the great majority of persons, the interior of the Post-office is a _terra incognita_, their sole knowledge of the inst.i.tution being derived from the pillar and the postman.

Yet the sorters of the present age, forming a very large body, are ever engaged in doing an important and by no means simple duty. As letters arrive in the morning, and are handed in at the breakfast-table, speculation arises as to their origin; a well-known hand is recognised, interest is excited by the contents, or the well-springs of emotion are opened--joy is brought with the silvered note, or sorrow with the black insignia of death; and thus, absorbed in the matter of the letters themselves, no pa.s.sing thought is spared to the operators whose diligent hands have given them wings or directed their line of flight.

When most men are enjoying the refreshment of nature's sweet restorer, which it is the privilege of the night-hours to give, the sorters in a large number of post-offices throughout the country are hard at work, and on nearly all the great lines of railway the travelling post-offices are speeding their wakeful flight in every direction, carrying not only immense quant.i.ties of correspondence, but a large staff of men who arrange and sort it in transit. Unconsciously though it may be, these men by their work are really a most powerful agency in binding society together, and promoting the commercial enterprise of the country. It lies in the nature of things that sorters' duties should largely fall into the night. Like a skilful mariner who bends to his use every wind that blows, the Post-office avails itself of every opportunity to send forward its letters. To lay aside till morning, correspondence arriving at an intermediate stage at night, would not consort with the demands of the age we live in; despatch is of the first consequence, and hence it is that to deal with _through_ correspondence, many offices are open during the night. Some offices are never closed: at all hours the round of duty goes on without intermission; but in these, as also in many other cases where the periods of duty are long, relays of sorters are necessarily employed. Much might be said of the broken hours of attendance, the early risings, the discomforts and cold of the travelling post-offices in winter, and the like, which sorters have to endure; and something might also be said of their loyalty to duty, punctuality in attendance, and readiness to strain every nerve under the pressure of occasions like Christmas. But these things would not, perhaps, be of general interest, and our object here is rather to show what a sorter's work really is.

Does it ever occur to an ordinary member of the community how letters are sorted? And if so, what has the thinking member made of it? We fear the idea would wear a somewhat hazy complexion. This is how it is done in Edinburgh, for example. The letters when posted are of course found all mixed together, and bearing addresses of every kind. They are first arranged with the postage-stamps all in one direction, then they are stamped (the labels being defaced in the process), and thereafter the letters are ready to be sorted. They are conveyed to sorting frames, where a first division is carried out, the letters being divided into about twenty lots, representing roads or despatching divisions, and a few large towns. Then at these divisions the final sortation takes place, to accord with the bags in which the letters will be enclosed when the proper hour of despatch arrives. This seems a very simple process, does it not?

But before a sorter is competent to do this work, he must learn "circulation," which is the technical name for the system under which correspondence flows to its destination, as the blood courses through the body by means of the arteries and veins. By way of contrast to what will be stated hereafter, it may be convenient to see how letters circulated less than a hundred years ago. In 1793 the London mail arrived at Glasgow at 6 o'clock in the morning, but the letters for Paisley did not reach the latter place till 11 A.M.--that is, five hours after their arrival in Glasgow, though the distance between the places is only seven miles. A couple of years before that, letters arriving at Edinburgh on Sunday morning for Stirling, Alloa, and other places north thereof, which went by way of Falkirk, were not despatched till Sunday night; they reached Falkirk the same night or early on Monday morning, and there they remained till Tuesday morning, when they went on with the North mail--so that between Edinburgh and Falkirk two whole days were consumed. In the year 1794 the London mail reached Edinburgh at 6 A.M., unless when detained by bad weather or breakdowns. The letters which it brought for Perth, Aberdeen, and places on that line, lay in Edinburgh fourteen hours--viz., till 8 P.M.--before being sent on. The people of Aberdeen were not satisfied with the arrangement, and as the result of agitation, the hour was altered to 1 P.M. This placed them, however, in no better position, for the arrival at Aberdeen was so late at night, that the letters could only be dealt with next day. It was not easy to accommodate all parties, and there was a good deal of trouble over this matter. The Edinburgh newspapers required an interval, after the arrival of the London mail, for the printing of their journals and preparing them for the North despatch. The Aberdeen people thought that an interval of three hours was sufficient for all purposes, and urged that the North mail should start at 9 A.M. In one of their memorials they write thus:--"They think that the inst.i.tution of posts was, in the first place, to facilitate commerce by the conveyance of letters with the quickest possible despatch from one end of the kingdom to the other, and, in the next place, to raise a revenue for Government; and they cannot conceive that either of those ends will be promoted by the letters of two-thirds of the kingdom of Scotland lying dormant for many hours at Edinburgh."

In another of the pet.i.tions from the people of Aberdeen, they strangely introduce their loyalty as a lever in pressing their claims:--"Were we of this city," say they, "to lay claim to any peculiar merit, it might perhaps be that of a sincere attachment to order and good government, which places us, in this respect at least, equal to the most dignified city in Britain."

From a Post-office point of view, the memorialists appeared to be under some mistake as to the gain to be derived from the change desired, for there was something connected with the return mails which did not fall in with the plan, and the surveyor made some opposition to it. In one of his reports he makes this curious observation:--"I am persuaded that some of them, as now appears to be the case, may be very well pleased to get free from the obligation of answering their letters in course--and particularly in money matters"!

One or two instances of the cross-post service of former times, in England itself, which might be supposed to be more fortunate than its Scottish neighbour, will repay consideration. Thus we find it duly recorded in official reports, that in 1792 there was no direct post between Thrapston and Wellingborough, though the distance separating them was only nine miles. Letters could circulate between these towns by way of Stilton, Newark, Nottingham, and Northampton, performing a circuit of 148 miles, or they could be sent by way of London, 74 miles up and 68-1/2 down, in which latter case they reached their destination one day sooner than by the former round-about route.

Again, from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds, two important towns of 11,277[3]

and 7655[4] inhabitants respectively, and distant from one another only 22 miles, there was no direct post. Letters had to be forwarded either through Norwich and Newmarket, or by way of London, the distance to be covered in the one case being 105 miles, and in the other 143-1/2 miles.

We have not the means of computing the time letters took to travel from Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds in 1792, but an Itinerary for 1812 affords the necessary information as regards the later period. Suppose a letter were posted at Ipswich for Bury St Edmunds on Monday, it would be despatched to Norwich at 5.30 A.M. on Tuesday, reaching Norwich some six hours thereafter. It would leave Norwich at 4.0 P.M. same day (Tuesday), and arrive at Newmarket at about 11.0 P.M., where it would lie all night and the greater part of next day, and would only arrive at Bury St Edmunds at 5.40 P.M. on Wednesday. If the letter were sent by the Metropolitan route, its time would be the same, thus:--Leaving Ipswich at 9.30 P.M. on Monday, it would reach London at 8.0 A.M. on Tuesday.

Thence it would not get despatched till 7.30 P.M.; and proceeding to Newmarket, would arrive there at 4.0 A.M. on Wednesday. Here it would remain till the afternoon, and would reach Bury St Edmunds, as in the former case, at 5.40 P.M. (on Wednesday). So that, in practice, to cover this short interval of 22 miles by post, three whole days were necessary.