THE POST OFFICE.
On the 1st of July 1831, there were in the United States, 8686 post-offices: and the post-roads were in extent about 116,000 miles.
The annual transportation of the mail was, as stated by the postmaster-general: In stages and steam-boats, 10,728,348 On horseback and in sulkies, 4,740,344 Making the whole annual trans portation equal to - - 15,468,692 miles.
From the 1st of July 1830 to the 1st of July 1831, the increase of the transportation of the mail was, In stages, equal to 834,450 On horseback and in sulkies, 134,252 Making an increase within the - year equal to 968,702 miles.
Such is the present state of the post-office estab lishment of the United States, and at this rate is it annually extending its operations. Between all the most important places in the country there are daily mails, which perform their journeys at the rate of six to ten miles an hour. To the second and third rate towns, not lying in the main routes, mails go twice or thrice a week: and there are few villages of any size which arc not visited by the mail at least once a week.
The advantages of this system are felt by every man who can read and write: but we cannot pro perly appreciate them, without considering the origin of the post-office establishment in other countries, and its progress in our own. Nothing more clearly than the letter-mail marks the dif ference in the character of ancient and modern times.
Philip de Comines dates the establishment of regular posts in 1462, and ascribes their origin to Louis XI. of France. Other authors contend that they were in use in the reign of Charlemagne, and afterwards discontinued. Be this as it may, the posts established by Louis XL were only for the use of the court:, for the author of the life of the Duke d'Espernon says, that the packet or letter office was not set up in France in the year 1619.
As establishments for the use of government, posts are of a far more ancient date than the time of either Louis XI. or of Charlemagne. Herodotus ascribes their origin to Cyrus. Augustus intro duced them among the Romans; and they are men tioned in the code of Theodosius. But they were
employed only to forward the public dispatches, or to convey political intelligence.
It is surprising that they were not sooner used for the purposes of commerce and of private com munication. It is, at most, but about 200 years since the public posts were made to afford any great facilities to individuals. In Camden's An nals, we read that Mr. Thomas Randolph, who was often employed by Queen Elizabeth in affairs re lating to Scotland, was, in 1581, in the office of chief postmaster of England: but in what manner the office was instituted does not clearly appear. Charles I. certainly regarded it as a source of emolument: for in the nineteenth volume of the Fcedera, there is a grant to William Frizell, and others, of the office of postmaster for foreign parts in reversion: and in 1631 the king strictly pro hibited private persons from engaging in the busi ness of forwarding letters to foreign countries, or receiving them from abroad for distribution in England.
In 1635, the king issued a proclamation declaring that " whereas to this time there has been no cer tain intercourse between the kingdoms of England and Scotland, he now commands his postmaster of England for foreign parts, to settle a running post or two to run night and clay, between Edinburgh and London, to go thither and come back again in six days: and to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post-towns in or near the road." By the same proclamation, posts were established to Westchester, Holyhead, and thence to Ireland: and also to Plymouth and Exeter.
In the following year, Charles the first of England and Louis the thirteenth of France, both issued proclamations forbidding private persons from en gaging in the business of letter carrying: but the operations of the public posts must, notwithstand ing, have been very limited, for in 1653, the whole establishment in England, Scotland, and Ireland, was farmed to John Manly, Esq. for ten thousand pounds yearly. At that time, members of par liament had not the privilege of franking letters.