[190] The following announcement from the postmaster of Manchester, as given in a bill dated 1721, contrasts strangely with the latitude allowed now. "The post goes out to London," says he, "on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, at nine o'clock in the morning. It will be best to bring the letters the _night before the going out of the post_, because the accounts and baggs are usually made up _over-night_." In these days, when we may post up to within five minutes of the despatch of a mail, and letters for America may be posted within ten minutes of the sailing of the packet, we cannot be too thankful for our privileges.
[191] This arrangement does not apply to foreign letters coming to or going out of this country.
[192] The number of registered letters last year was over two millions, or one registered letter to about three hundred ordinary letters.
[193] Most of our readers will have heard or read stories of curious articles passing through the post, and without doubt the records of the Returned-Letter Branch of the London Office will present strange appearances in this respect. Sir Francis B. Head, who was permitted to peruse an extraordinary ledger in the General Post-Office where several notable letters and packets were registered, has strung together a catalogue of them, which reminds us of the articles passing through the post before the revocation of the franking privilege. He tells us he found amongst the number--two canaries; a pork-pie from Devonport to London; a pair of piebald mice, which were kept at the office a month, and duly fed till they were called for by the owner; two rabbits; plum-pudding; leeches in bladders, "several of which having burst, many of the poor creatures were found crawling over the correspondence of the country." Further, there was a bottle of cream from Devonshire; a pottle of strawberries; a sample bottle of cider; half a pound of soft soap wrapped in thin paper; a roast duck; a pistol, _loaded almost to the mouth with slugs and ball_; a live snake; a paper of fish-hooks; fish innumerable; and last of all, and most extraordinary of all, a human heart and stomach.--_Head's Essays._
[194] The annual return just published (February, 1864) shows to some extent how far the public prefers the stamped newspaper, which can be sent through the Post-Office, in fact, until it is fifteen days old. The number of stamps issued to the principal London newspapers from June, 1862, to June, 1863, are as follows:--