POST is no legal way of sending a written letter through the post for a postage of a halfpenny except by means of a post card. A certain number of persons seem to imagine—so the post-office authorities say—that if envelopes are left unfastened letters may be enclosed in them and sent for a postage of a halfpenny only. The authorities there fore specially point out that the minimum postage upon all written letters (which are not written on post cards) is one penny, whether they are open or closed, and that letters posted contrary to the rule are liable to an additional charge. A private post card must be made of ordinary card board, not thicker than an official card ; it must not exceed by 3A inches in size, or be less than 31 by 21 inches. Nothing must be written or printed on the address side in inconvenient proximity to the stamp, or in any way which tends to prevent the quick and easy reading of the address, or to otherwise embarrass the officials. A post card can be re-directed on the same conditions as a letter. One intended for a colony or foreign country must have the words "Post Card" printed on the address side. And there also may appear engravings or advertisements which do not interfere with the clear indication of the address, or with the stamping or marking ; and postal directions too, such as "Registered," " Acknowledgment of delivery," &c.; and also the name and address of the recipient in writing, or on a gummed label not exceeding in size 2 by inches, and the written or printed name and address of the sender.
POSTE parcels, &c., to be called for are, as a rule, taken in at all the Post Offices excepting town sub-offices. They should have the words "to be called for" or "Poste Restante" included in the address. The Poste Restante being intended solely for the accommodation of strangers and travellers who have no permanent abode in the town, letters or parcels for residents may not be addressed to the Post Office " to be called for." Even strangers may not use the Poste Restante for more than two months. Letters or parcels addressed to initials, or to fictitious names, or to a Christian name without a surname, are not taken in at the l'oste Restante, but are at once sent to the Returned Letter Office. And they cannot be redirected from one Poste Restante to another in the same town, nor from a private address to a Poste Restante in the same town. Any one applying for Poste Restante letters or parcels must, if required, be able to state from what place or district he expects them, and produce some proof of identity; and if lie sends for his letters or parcels, the messenger, besides being furnished with this information, must have a written authority to receive them. If the applicant be a foreigner he must produce his passport or other evidence of identity ; or if he send for his letters or parcels the messenger must produce such evidence. Subjects, however, of States not issuing passports are treated as subjects of the United Kingdom. Letters from abroad addressed to the Poste Restante, London, are retained for two months, letters from provincial towns for one month, and letters posted in London for one fortnight ; all such letters at the end of these periods being sent to the Returned Letter Office for disposal. A letter addressed to a Provincial Post Office to be called for is, as a rule, retained one month. If not called for by the end of that time, it is sent to the Returned Letter Office. A letter addressed to a Post Office at a seaport town for a person on board a ship, expected to arrive at that port, is kept for two months. When, however, letters, &c., addressed to a Post Office to be called for bear a request for their return within a specified time if not delivered, they are dealt with in accordance with such request.
POST OFFIOE.—Originally this office was established by the State for the conveyance of letters and other documents from and to places in England. But the office as we know it to-day has functions far more extensive than those it originally possessed. Its activities are not now limited to England, for they extend through the British Islands to the colonies and all civilised foreign countries. Nor is the conveyance of letters its only concern. It operates a great
inland, foreign, and colonial telegraph system ; has instituted an inland telephone service, as well as a direct communication between London and Paris ; conducts a national savings bank, and in connection therewith acts as an agent for invest ment in Government stock ; effects life assurances and grants annuities ; transmits money by means of money orders and postal orders; carries and delivers parcels; and will even personally conduct a strayed stranger to his desired destination. Many other functions of this great department of the State could readily be enumerated. The foregoing are sufficient, however, to generally indicate the place it occupies in modern life. Before the seventeenth century the post office, as now understood, can hardly be said to have had an existence. There then were established in certain parts of the country from the time of Edward II. a number of fixed stations or " posts," whereat were kept horses for the use of messengers. These posts were controlled and regulated by a public official known as the master of the posts, subsequently to be styled the chief postmaster ; but common carriers and private messengers were nevertheless the persons who generally carried private letters, the duties of the official postmaster, so far as the public were concerned, being confined to the posts and horses. Even as late as 1644 it would appear that the postmaster's duties were not connected. directly with letters. In 1656, however, the post office may be said to have been actually established. An Act was then passed, the preamble to which set forth "that the erecting of one Generall Post Office for the speedy conveying and re-carryino- of letters by post to and from all places within England, Scotland, and Ireland', and into several parts beyond the seas, hath been and is the best means not only to maintain a certain and constant intercourse of trade and commerce between all the said places, to the great benefit of the people of these nations, but also to convey the publique dispatches, and to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs which have been and are greatly contrived against the peace and welfare of this common wealth, the intelligence whereof cannot well be communicated but by letter of escript." It also enacted that "there shall be one Generall Post Office, and one officer stiled the postmaster generall of England and comptroller of the Post Office." This officer was to have the horsing of all " through ' posts and persons " riding in posts." Prices for letters, both English, Scotch, Irish, and foreign, and for post horses, were fixed. All other persons were forbidden to " set up or employ any foot-posts, horse-posts, or pacquet boats." These arrangements con tinued until the reign of Queen Anne, and then from 1710 to 1838 upwards of 150 Acts regulating the post office were passed. In 1837 ninety-nine of these Acts were repealed, either wholly or partially, and a series of Acts were passed by which the whole department of the post office was regulated anew. In the following year the legislature effected arrangements for the conveyance of the posts by railways, and since then similar arrangements have been made with regard to tramways. But the year 1840 is perhaps the most remarkable in the annals of post-office legislation, for then was introduced a uniform system of penny postage. On the 10th January, when this system came into operation, the old-established parliamentary franking also entirely ceased, and on the 6th May stamps were introduced. Among the most remarkable of subsequent postal reforms may be noticed the introduction of money orders in 1840, the institution of the savings bank in 1861, the acquisition of a telegraph monopoly in 1868-70, the addition of the parcels post in 1882, and the power to purchase and work telephones in 1892. Such in outline is the road by which the post office has travelled from the mediaeval " posts " to the modern mailing, banking, carrying, assurance, and express messenger department of State under the control of the Postmaster-General.