The Bristol Royal Mail Part 6

CHAPTER VIII.

THE LOCAL POST OFFICE IN EARLY DAYS. SIR ROWLAND HILL.--RECENT PROGRESS.

It is pleasing to look back to the time, little more than one hundred years ago, when Bristol was the premier provincial post town. It had long ranked next to London in wealth, in population, and in its Post Office. Bristol has, however, in a postal sense, yielded place to other towns, and now ranks after Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester.

Dipping into history, it is found that there was a Post Office at Clifton a hundred years since. At about the time of the Battle of Waterloo it was situated near Saville Place, in a small tenement. The post keeper was a knight of the shears, who sat cross-legged at his work on a shop-board in the window, whilst his better-half sold "goodies."

The "Staff" consisted of this pigeon pair, and the work of carrying the bags to and from Bristol, and of delivering the missives, was undertaken by them conjointly.

The year 1793 was signalised by the extension to Bristol of the penny post for local letters, that is, letters for Bristol city, its suburbs, and neighbouring villages. That post covered a wide area ranging from Thornbury and Wotton-under-Edge in the North, to Temple Cloud, Chewton-Mendip, and Oakhill in the South; eastward in the direction of Box, and westward to Portishead. This inst.i.tution had until then been established nowhere else but in London and in Dublin; but Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Manchester were granted the privilege at the same time as Bristol. During the year 1794-95 the penny post brought a clear gain to the revenue:--in Bristol of 469, in Manchester of 586, and in Birmingham of 240. Notwithstanding these gains, the Post Office authorities concluded that neither at Liverpool nor at Leeds, nor at any other town in the Kingdom, would a penny post defray its own expenses.

There is little more on record about local Post Office details for some years; but we learn that in April, 1825, an evening delivery of post letters was ordered to Kingsdown, Montpelier, Wellington Place, and Catherine Place, Stoke's Croft, all the year round; and to Lawrence Hill, West Street, Gloucester Lane, in the parish of St. Philip and Jacob, from 1st of March to 1st of November in each year. A receiving house for letters was established at the corner of West Street on May 20th, 1825; and also one in Harford Street, New Cut. In December, 1827, the population of Bristol was estimated at 50,000 persons; and in August, 1831, the number of persons the Post Office had to serve was 59,070.

Evans's _New Guide; or, Pictures of Bristol_, published in 1828, furnishes the next record. It stated that "the London mail goes out every afternoon at twenty minutes past 5, and arrives every day at 9.0 in the morning. Bath: Out every morning at 7.0 and 10.0, and at twenty minutes past 5 in the evening; arrives at 9.0 morning, and a quarter before 5 and a quarter before 7 in the evening. Sodbury, through Stapleton, Hambrook, Winterbourne, and Iron Acton: Goes out at twenty minutes before 10 in the morning; arrives at half-past 4 in the evening.

Thornbury, through Filton, Almondsbury, and Rudgeway: Goes out twenty minutes before 10 in the morning; arrives at half-past 4 in the evening.

Bitton, through New Church, Kingswood, Hanham, and Willsbridge: Goes out at 10.0 in the morning; arrives at half-past 4 in the evening. Exeter and Westward: Out every morning between 9.0 and 10.0; arrives every evening between 4.0 and 5.0. Portsmouth, Chichester, Salisbury, etc.: Out at half-past 5 in the afternoon; arrives every day previously to the London mail. Tetbury and Cirencester: Out every morning at half-past 9; arrives every evening at 5.0. Birmingham and Northward: Out every evening at 7.0; arrives every morning between 6.0 and 7.0. Milford and South Wales: Out every day at half-past 9; arrives at half-past 3 in the afternoon. The Irish mail is made up every day, and letters from Ireland may be expected to arrive every day at half-past 3. Jamaica and Leeward Islands, first and third Wednesday in the month; Lisbon, every week; Gibraltar and Mediterranean, every three weeks; Madeira and Brazils, first Tuesday in each month; Surinam, Berbice, and Demorara, second Wednesday in each month; France and Spain, Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; Holland and Hamburgh, Mondays and Thursdays; Guernsey and Jersey, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Letters for all parts may be put into the Post Office at any time, but should be delivered half an hour before the mail is made up. Letters delivered later than half an hour previous to the departure of the respective mails to be accompanied with one penny. Payment of postage will not be received unless tendered full half an hour before the time fixed for closing the bags. Letters for Axbridge, Weston-super-Mare, and adjacent places are sent and received by the Western mail. Letter bags are made up daily, after the sorting of the London mail, for Bourton, Wrington, Langford, Churchill, Nailsea, Clevedon, and their respective deliveries.

The letters must be put in by 9.0 o'clock. The return to Bristol is at 4.0 in the afternoon. Letters may be put into the receiving offices for all parts of the kingdom, and the full postage, if desired, paid with them. Letter carriers are despatched regularly every day (Sundays not excepted) with letters to and from Durdham Down, Westbury, Stapleton, Frenchay, Downend, Hambrook, and Winterbourne; and also to Brislington, Keynsham, and other places. The delivery of letters at Clifton is each day at 10.0 and 6.0. Letters should be in the offices at Clifton and the Wells for the London and the North mails by 4.0."

It may be interesting to state, what the rates of postage from this city were in 1830. Thus: Australia, 11d.; Buenos Ayres, 3s. 5d.; Canary Islands, 2s. 6d.; Cape de Verde Islands, 2s. 6d.; Chili, 3s. 5d.; China, 11d.; Colombo, 3s.; Cuba, 3s.; East Indies, 11d.; Havana, 3s.; St.

Helena, 11d.; South America, 3s. 5d.; Van Dieman's Land, 11d.; whilst for the Continent the rates were considerably higher, thus: Austria, 2s.

2d.; Belgium, 1s. 11d.; Corsica, 2s. 2d.; Denmark, 2s. 3d.; Flanders, 2s. 2d.; France--Calais, 1s. 5d.; Germany, 2s. 3d.; Gibraltar, 2s. 6d.; Holland, 1s. 11d.; Italy, 2s. 2d.; Malta, 2s. 6d.; Poland, 2s. 3d.; Prussia, 2s. 3d.; Russia, 2s. 3d.; Spain, 2s. 2d.; Turkey, 2s. 2d. At that period the Inland Rates were very high, and the cost was regulated thus: From any Post Office in England or Wales, to any place not exceeding 15 miles from such office, 4d.; above 15 to 20 miles, 5d.; 20 to 30 miles, 6d.; 30 to 50 miles, 7d.; 50 to 80 miles, 8d.; 80 to 120 miles, 9d.; 120 to 170 miles, 10d.; 170 to 230 miles, 11d.; 230 to 300 miles, 12d. And one penny in addition on each letter for every 100 miles beyond 300. Thus a letter from Bristol to Cirencester cost 7d.; Cheltenham, 8d.; Banbury, 10d.; Leeds, 11d.; Hull; 12d., and so on. Now a letter four ounces in weight can be sent from one end of the land to the other for a penny, and a parcel one pound in weight for threepence.

The Bristol ex-Postal Superintendent, Mr. H. T. Carter, carrying his mind back over his forty years of diligent and zealous service, recalls the time when the mails for the not far-distant village of s.h.i.+rehampton were conveyed in a cart drawn by a dog, the property of rural postman Ham. The cart was not large, but of sufficient size to carry postman and mail bags. The dog, of Newfoundland breed, got over the ground at a rapid pace. Ham was addicted to drink, but nevertheless, whether he was drunk or sober, asleep or awake, in stormy or fine weather, the dog took him and the mails to their proper destination.

A venerable man now living at Earthcott Green, a hamlet within ten miles of our great city, well recollects the time when he received his letters through Iron Acton, at a special cost to him of 2d. each, with a delivery only every other day. The plan was for an additional penny to be charged on all letters sent out by rural posts for delivery, and in addition to this penny an extra charge was levied on all letters delivered from sub-Post Offices to bye houses or places beyond the several village deliveries. In some cases recognised men or women attended at the Head Office, Bristol, once or twice a week to take out letters for delivery in the remote country regions--of course for a "consideration."

The Bristol district shared in the representations in 1838 of the hards.h.i.+ps borne by poor people in respect of the heavy charges for the conveyance of letters. The postmaster at Congresbury deposed thus:--"The price of a letter is a great tax on poor people. I sent one, charged eightpence, to a poor labouring man about a week ago; it came from his daughter. He first refused it, saying it would take a loaf of bread from his other children; but, after hesitating a little time, he paid the money, and opened the letter. I seldom return letters of this kind to Bristol, because I let the poor people have them, and take the chance of being paid; sometimes I lose the postage, but generally the poor people pay me by degrees." Then the postmaster of Yatton stated as follows:--"I have had a letter waiting lately for a poor woman, from her husband who is at work in Wales; the charge was 9d.,--it lay many days, in consequence of her not being able to pay the postage. I at last trusted her with it." Of the desire of the poor to correspond, a Mr. Emery gave evidence, stating "that the poor near Bristol have signed a pet.i.tion to Parliament for the reduction of the postage. He never saw greater enthusiasm in any public thing that was ever got up in the shape of a pet.i.tion; they seemed all to enter into the thing as fully and with as much feeling as it was possible, as a boon or G.o.dsend to them, that they should be able to correspond with their distant friends."

Uniform penny postage came in 1840. The Bristol citizens, of course, found it no cheaper than before to send a single letter to places in their own neighbourhood, but a light enclosure could be put in without extra charge, though the weight had to be brought down from four ounces to half an ounce.

It may not be out of place to mention in these pages that one of the penny postage stamps of the very earliest issue after the penny postage system came into operation in 1840 was made use of for the prepayment of a letter sent by His Grace the Duke of Wellington to H. Nuttall Tomlins, Esq., of the Hotwells, Bristol. It was sent six days before stamps and stamped covers were first used by the general public, the Duke, as Prime Minister, having no doubt been supplied in advance with stamps, one of which he attached to his letter, to give a surprise to his friend Nuttall Tomlins. The envelope, with the stamp still upon it, is now in the possession of a well-known philatelist in London.

The allusion to the "Penny Post" naturally calls to mind its originator.

On the hill slope of the still pleasant rural village of Stapleton, four miles from Bristol Post Office,--once a Roman settlement, and in later days the head-quarters of Oliver Cromwell during the siege of Bristol,--the great postal reformer, Sir Rowland Hill, frequently spent some of his leisure time with his brother, the late Recorder of Bristol, Mr. Matthew Davenport Hill. There is in the Bristol postal service at the present time a mail officer who recalls that, in his very young days, it was his mission to set out from Heath House to fetch the morning letters for Sir Rowland from the Stapleton Post Office. He tells how he had to ride the old pony at a rapid rate, as, even in those days, Sir Rowland's time was valuable, and if his letters were late he had to curtail his "const.i.tutional," which usually consisted of a three-mile sharp walk, with cap in hand instead of on head, over Purdown, past Stoke House, returning through Frenchay.

In December, 1844, Sir Rowland Hill, in connection with the National Testimonial to him as the author of Penny Postage, recorded the circ.u.mstance that he had received a letter from Mr. Estlin, an eminent surgeon of Bristol, giving an account of proceedings in that important city anterior to any movement in London. Sir Rowland believed it was in Bristol, and from Mr. Estlin, that the testimonial had its origin. The sum presented from Bristol to the national collection amounted to about 300.

The celebration of the Jubilee of Penny Postage in 1890 took the practical turn in one respect of increasing the Rowland Hill Benevolent Fund. Bristol contributed its quota of 72 14s. 6d., made up in great measure of public subscriptions. When the grand celebration took place on July 2nd, at the South Kensington Museum, with the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Edinburgh present at the conversazione, Bristol took its part, and immediately after a signal from South Kensington was received over the telegraph wire at 10 o'clock three hearty cheers for Her Majesty were given, the postmaster leading. The Post Office band then struck up the National Anthem, and cheers for the Queen were at once taken up by a body of about 200 postmen who had a.s.sembled in the Post Office yard.

As in 1847 the state of things at the provincial offices generally was not regarded as satisfactory, Sir Rowland Hill, in accordance with the wish of the Postmaster-General, visited Bristol on April 1st in that year. He found that the first delivery of the day, by far the most important of all, was not completed until 12 o'clock; the letter-carriers, as he was informed, often staying after departure from the office to take their breakfast before commencing their rounds. He was able to show how at a small cost (only 125 a year) it might be completed by 9.0. The office itself he found small, badly lighted, and ill ventilated. The day mail bag to London was nearly useless, its contents for London delivery being on the morning of his inquiry only sixty-four letters, thirty-seven of which might have been sent by the previous mail on the mere payment of the extra penny. His impression regarding this mail, both in and out of the office, agreed exactly with his evidence in 1843; viz., that all day mails, to be efficient for their purpose, should start as late as was consistent with their reaching London in time for their letters to be forwarded by the outgoing evening mails. The satisfaction Sir Rowland felt in such improvements as he had been able to make on the spot was much enhanced by his receiving at the termination of his visit the thanks of both clerks and letter-carriers for the new arrangements. It should be said that Sir Rowland Hill did not by his action cast any reflection upon Mr.

Todd Walton, junior, as he was at pains to say that, regarded as a specimen of the administration of provincial Post Offices at the time the Bristol specimen was by no means an unfavourable one. At that time there were only about 20,000 letters, etc., delivered in a week.

The Bristol Chamber of Commerce took no notice of the Post Office for nearly twenty years (1835-1855), but in the latter year it did so, for its records of the annual meeting of 31st January, 1855, with John Salmon, President, in the chair, shew the following, viz.:--

"The Post Office questions of salaries, internal arrangements, and local inquiry, are still in the same position as they were six months ago, except that, after repeated further applications to the Postmaster-General, your Committee extracted, on the 10th December last, a renewed promise from his lords.h.i.+p that 'no time should be lost in making the enquiry at the Bristol Post Office.' As the inefficiency of the public service arises from the unjust treatment of the employes and defective internal arrangements of the local office, your Committee cannot desist, notwithstanding the tedious and disagreeable nature of the task which they have undertaken, from insisting on these repeated promises being redeemed."

Then, under the same presidency, at the next half-yearly meeting in the same year, it was stated that "Subsequent to the date of the last report, your Committee discovered that the Postmaster-General had caused a private local enquiry to be made with respect to the cla.s.sification and salaries of the officers of the Bristol Post Office."

There was this further remonstrance:--

".... It would have been more satisfactory to your Committee if the Postmaster-General had fulfilled his promise to the deputation who waited upon him on the 30th of January, 1854, to hold a local enquiry at which they should be present, as there were several other matters connected with the internal arrangements of the Bristol Post Office (particularly the money order department, which is still very defective) with respect to which they were desirous of making some suggestions."

Then followed a copy of the report made to the Postmaster-General by Mr.

Tilley, who conducted the enquiry, also a statement of the proposed Establishment.

At the Chamber's next annual meeting on 30th January, 1856, with James Ha.s.sell, the president, in the chair, the Post Office is again reproved thus:--

"No further reply than the official printed acknowledgment and promise of attention has yet reached your Committee respecting the memorial on the subject of the Welsh mail, the West India mails, etc.; but past experience and general repute do not lead them to antic.i.p.ate prompt redress from the Post Office authorities. It required repeated applications, extending over a period of about eighteen months, to obtain a remedy for the grievances set forth in our former memorial; and even now the Money Order Department is not completed, and probably similar perseverance will again be required, as it is now more than a month ago the memorial relating to the West India mail was presented."

It was thought worthy of note in the _Bristol Mirror_ of November 5th, 1831, that "500 letters were brought yesterday from Clifton for the general post." In demonstration of the strides which the Post Office has made, it may be mentioned that in the "fifties," in addition to the Post Office at Clifton, the only offices were the branches at Haberfield Crescent and Phippen Street, with four collections a day, and the receiving houses at Ashley Road, Bedminster, Hotwells, and Redland, with three collections a day. The city only boasted at that time of pillar letter boxes at Arley Chapel, Armoury Square, Bedminster Bridge, Bristol Bridge, Castle Street, Christmas Steps, College Green, Freemantle Square, Kingsdown, Milk Street, Railway Station, St. Philip's Police Station, Kingsland Road, Whiteladies Road, and Woodwell Crescent, with three collections daily. Now there are 167 Post Offices in the district.

On the Gloucesters.h.i.+re side there are 99, at 41 of which telegraph business is carried on; and on the Somersets.h.i.+re side 68, 27 of which are telegraph offices. In addition telegraph business is carried on for the Postmaster-General at five railway stations on the Gloucesters.h.i.+re side and five on the Somersets.h.i.+re side. Licenses to sell postage stamps are held by over a hundred shopkeepers.

There are now 350 pillar and wall letter boxes provided for public convenience.

It may be mentioned in pa.s.sing that during the strike amongst the deal-runners in Bristol, when men were brought from other towns and housed and fed at "Huntersholm" (a large wooden building erected specially in one of the timber yards), and allowed out under police supervision, a stamp license was applied for and granted, to meet a large demand for postage stamps which these men made in consequence of having to send their wages home weekly to their families.

In detail, but without complication by mention of the names of all the districts, the local improvements for the seven years from March, 1892, to February, 1899, inclusive, were as follows:--New post offices established, 33; telegraph offices opened, 18; money order and savings bank business extended to 17 offices; postal orders sold at 6 additional offices; new pillar and wall boxes erected, 142; new or additional day mails from 34 districts; and out to 44 districts; new extra deliveries established in 65 districts, and two extra deliveries in 7 districts.

Free delivery extended in 35 rural districts, and the ordinary second or third delivery extended in 44 rural districts; morning delivery accelerated in 63, and the day delivery in 8, rural districts. A later posting for North mail in 6, and for the night mail in 58, rural districts. New collections established in 73, and a later collection in 30, rural districts.

Increased facilities in the postal world are almost invariably followed by augmentation of business. It certainly has been so in the Bristol district, for there has been a marvellous development in the last seven years. The letters delivered have increased by 60 per cent., and those posted have grown at the rate of 55 per cent. Parcels have increased by 25 per cent. There has been a similar marked increase in all branches of business. The three preceding periods of seven years were comparatively "lean" periods, for the increase in the number of letters during the whole twenty-one years was actually less than during the seven last years. The increase is altogether out of proportion to the growth of population, and it is far in excess of the general increase of letter correspondence throughout the country generally, which has been only at the rate of 22 per cent. during the period as against Bristol's 60 per cent. It is hoped that this may be taken as a sure indication of the well-being of the trade of Bristol, and as a sign that there is quickened life in the commerce of the good old city. At all events, it shows that the local Post Office organization is quite abreast of the times, and that the facilities afforded are appreciated and are fully taken advantage of.

CHAPTER IX.

BRISTOL AS A MAIL STEAMER STATION FOR IRELAND, WEST INDIES, AMERICA, AND CANADA.

From the archives of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce it transpires that from the very first const.i.tution of the Chamber in 1823, it had before it a scheme for the conveyance of mails between this port and the South of Ireland by direct steam packet. It was considered that such a service would be highly advantageous to the city, and correspondence on the subject from time to time took place with the Post Office Department.

Allusion is made to it in the Chamber's Annual Report in January, 1824; again in 1828, when the President of the Chamber, Mr. Joseph Cookson, had a conference with the leading officer of the Post Office; and once more in 1829. The case is so fully and ably set forth in the Board's Annual Report of the 26th January, 1829, that its reproduction _in extenso_ cannot fail to be of deep interest to the citizens of the present day as their attention is often drawn to the steams.h.i.+p traffic.

It ran thus:--

"The transmission of the mails direct from Bristol was earnestly pressed upon the attention of the Postmaster-General in the year 1823, on which occasion the Chamber minutely investigated the practicability, safety, and general advantages of the measure, the material points of which were embodied in a memorial, accompanied by a list of queries and replies.

The Civic Corporation, the Society of Merchant Venturers, and the Bristol Dock Company each presented similar memorials.

"In resuming the enquiry, the Board have resorted to the channels best calculated to convey accurate information. The managing proprietor of the steam packet establishments at this port, Captain Dungey, an individual on whose experience and judgment reliance may be placed, and other persons of practical knowledge, have been consulted on the subject. All concur in establis.h.i.+ng the fact that the voyage to and from Dunmore may, with general certainty, be accomplished by efficient steamboats in from 24 to 26 hours during the eight summer months, and in from 26 to 30 hours in the four months of winter; that the instances of exceeding this scale would not be more frequent than at the present station, the navigation of the Bristol Channel being protected by the coast on either side, and consequently less influenced by severe weather than the Irish Sea.

"The earlier arrival of the London mail and its later departure, as altered some time since, accords materially with the proposition for making Bristol a packet station. By the present regulations, the London mail arrives in Bristol at five minutes past 9 in the morning; and leaves at half-past 5 in the evening; it is capable of being still further accelerated by taking the two last stages in the direct line through Marshfield, instead of pa.s.sing through Bath. According to the present arrangements, the Irish mails may with ease and convenience to pa.s.sengers be despatched from the mouth of the Bristol river, five miles from the Post Office, every day at half-past 10, and those from Ireland, if arriving by 4.0, be forwarded to London the same evening. The time saved by this route as compared with that of Milford would be, at least during the summer months, equal to one whole day for the purposes of business, since the arrival at Dunmore would be in the morning instead of evening, and the departure at noon instead of at an early hour of the morning as at present.

"The present slips at Lamplighter's Hall and Broad Pill now serve for landing pa.s.sengers from the packets on special occasions; with very trifling expense they may be made efficient for pa.s.sengers, and not more objectionable than the present accommodation for crossing the estuary of the Severn--carriages, horses, baggage, and heavy goods might at an earlier hour be put on board at the Bristol Docks, which the boat would leave at the height of tide in order to be in waiting for the mails at the place appointed for receiving them. At Lamplighter's Hall an hotel is established, which, with the contiguity to the city, would ensure to the public a supply of all the accommodation a packet station would require. These are the facilities which can at present be afforded. At no very distant date the accommodation will, in all probability, be yet further increased, first, by the erection of a pier with hotel and establishment at Portishead on the Somersets.h.i.+re side of the Avon, which the Corporation of the City have for some time had under consideration with a view to promote the convenience of pa.s.sengers by the steam vessels and thus encourage the intercourse between this city and the South of Ireland. In aid of the present enquiry they have directed a survey and report by Mr. Milne, the engineer, on the practicability and probable cost of the proposed pier. Secondly, and arising also from this scheme, is a plan for erecting a bridge across the Avon, by the application in part of a fund amounting to nearly 8,000, held by the Society of Merchant Venturers in trust under the will of William Vick, deceased, for the especial purpose; with the formation of an improved line of road by Mr. Gordon, Mr. Miles, and other landed proprietors on that side of the river, for the short distance to Portishead. These several improvements the respective parties interested are disposed to effect, and which any impelling motive, such as the establishment of a regular mail packet station, may induce them immediately to undertake. The accomplishment of these works would render Portishead a most eligible station. It is protected from weather, is a safe anchorage, would have ample depth of water at any state of the tide, the landing would be instant on arrival, and it would be supplied with every convenience and accommodation for pa.s.sengers.

"The Board believe an important saving of expense to Government would result from establis.h.i.+ng Bristol as a mail packet station. The great deficiency on the Milford station in the receipts as compared with the expenditure arises from the very limited number of persons who avail themselves of that line of communication. The land journey of twenty hours at a fare of 3 10s., followed by a twelve hours' voyage by open sea at a further expense of 1 10s., with the inconvenience frequently sustained in crossing the estuary of the Severn, deters people from taking the Milford route by choice. The general introduction of steam packets, the degree of perfection in sailing to which they have been brought, the regularity and safety with which the voyages are performed, the accommodation to pa.s.sengers, and the moderate scale of fares, have contributed to effect of late years a material change in the general opinion on steamboat conveyance. The long voyage by sea is now generally preferred to a long journey by land and the shorter one by sea. The number and efficiency of the Bristol boats, and the economy in the fares, induce a large proportion of travellers to take the direct course from Bristol. Indeed, to so great an extent has this preference operated that the contractors for conveying the mail throughout the whole line from Bristol to Milford are understood to have given notice of their intention to determine their engagement, on account of the gradual decrease in the number of pa.s.sengers and the consequent loss they incur. A similar statement appears in the report of the Postmaster-General on the memorial of the innkeepers on the Holyhead route.

"In favour of Bristol it may be fairly stated that, at a comparatively trifling expense, the port may be made commodious for a packet station; that the present strength of the establishment at Milford would serve, with some addition, for that of Bristol; that the difference in price of coal at Portishead would reduce the expense of sailing the packets from that station; that Bristol affords every prospect of increase of receipt, whilst at Milford it must, for the reasons before stated, necessarily decrease; that the demands of a large commercial city, with its populous adjoining and connected districts, will create a traffic for boats making quick and regular voyages, which Milford, from its position, never can acquire--the conveyance of fish and provisions alone could be made to yield a revenue of consequence. Numerous other sources of receipt would arise from the conveniency of its regularity and expedition. Indeed, so much are the Board impressed with the belief that the traffic would be extensive and productive that they venture to antic.i.p.ate it may, at no very distant period, relieve the Government from any further charge than a comparatively nominal sum for the transport of the mails. The Board are induced also to put the proposition in a national point of view. They feel that the more closely Ireland can be brought into direct and active communication with this country, the more rapid will be its course of improvement. The introduction of steam navigation has, at this port, given an energy and extension to the Irish trade that far exceeds any previous expectations; each succeeding month brings a vast increase of import and a corresponding export, to the material benefit of each kingdom, and the more complete the intercourse can be established the more important will the trade become.

"The port of Bristol, from its position, possesses numerous capabilities for a mail packet station. Its contiguity and means of land and water communication with the capital; its being the princ.i.p.al s.h.i.+pping port for the manufacturing districts of the South-west part of the kingdom; its close connection and water communication with Birmingham, Worcester, and other large towns in the centre of the kingdom; the convenience of its floating harbour; the reduced scale of its local tolls--all these circ.u.mstances combine to give Bristol a superiority over other places on the coast, whether the subject he viewed as regards the economy of the Post Office Department or the accommodation of the public.