ABSTRACT OF THE PRINCIPAL REGULATIONS 309
INFORMATION RELATIVE TO THE APPOINTMENTS IN THE POST-OFFICE SERVICE 330
APPOINTMENTS IN THE CHIEF OFFICE IN LONDON 333
PRINCIPAL APPOINTMENTS IN THE CHIEF OFFICES OF DUBLIN AND EDINBURGH 336
APPOINTMENTS, WITH SALARIES, OF THE FIVE PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 337
INFORMATION RESPECTING OTHER PRINCIPAL PROVINCIAL POST-OFFICES 340
MANUFACTURE OF POSTAGE-LABELS AND ENVELOPES 344
Circular letters, and a kind of post for conveying them, are frequently mentioned both in sacred and profane history. Queen Jezebel is remarkable as being the first letter-writer on record, though it is not surprising to find that she used her pen for purposes of deception. According to the sacred chronicler, she "wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles in the city." From the Book of Esther we learn that Ahasuerus, king of Persia, being displeased at the disobedience of his wife, Vashti, sent letters into every province of his vast empire, informing his subjects that it was his imperial will that "every man should bear rule in his own house." The first recorded _riding post_ was established in the Persian empire by Cyrus, who, when engaged in his Scythian expedition, in order to have news brought expeditiously, "caused it to be tried how far a horse could go in a day without baiting, and, at that distance, appointed stages and men whose business it was to have horses always in readiness."[1] Another authority[2] tells us that there were one hundred and eleven postal stages, a day's journey distant from one another, between Susa and the Ægean Sea, and that at each stage a large and beautiful structure was erected, with every convenience for the purpose designed.
It is certainly remarkable that neither in this nor in any other recorded instance have the posts in ancient times developed into one for the conveyance of private correspondence. It is certain that the Greeks and Romans, even when at the height of their civilization, had no regular public post. There are some traces of _statores_ and _stationes_ under the Roman Republic; and Augustus, we find, instituted posts on the principal trunk-roads, for the use of the Imperial Government. He also established a class of mounted messengers, called _tabellarii_, who went in charge of the despatches. That these messengers should have been strictly forbidden to convey letters for private persons, or that no provision was subsequently made for that purpose, is the more wonderful, when we consider the high character of the nations themselves, and the fact, often pointed out, that the progress of civilization has always been intimately and essentially connected with, and dependent upon, facilities for intercommunication--keeping pace, in fact, with the means which nations possessed for the interchange of person and property, and with them of thought and knowledge. That those nations to which we are so greatly indebted for so much that exalts the intellect and adorns life, should not have left us an example of such a useful and (considering the vast extent of their respective territories), we should have thought, indispensable institution as that of a public letter-post, is marvellous.