So far as regards the long established articles of conveyance by the Post Office. Let us now come to those of more modern date. The year before the commencement of the penny postal system, the number of money orders issued was 188,921. In 1855 they had risen to 5,807,412. Now, taking the advices that must be sent to each office upon which an order is issued, the returns that are forwarded daily to the accountant’s office in the metropolis of each part of the United Kingdom in which each Post Office Order has been issued, the remittances unceasingly sent from the provincial offices to the metropolis, and from the metropolis to the provincial offices, the receipts for these remittances and the correspondence which they entail, the weekly advices that are sent to London, and the correspondence connected with them, there were at least twelve millions more of letters or documents from this source in 1855 than there were in 1839. None of these letters or documents does Mr. Page bring into calculation, although, each being official, the certainty is that they are heavier in weight and greater in bulk than a like amount of chargeable letters; all these are carried free in the letter bags. And it is a question that it is not necessary to discuss at present, whether they and the letters and documents (we shall see presently that these are enormous in number, and very great as regards weight) connected with the new services and functions which the Post Office performs, should not be brought into account as a postal charge against the department. The other revenue departments, such, for instance, as the Customs, Inland Revenue, &c., transmit large masses of documents necessary in the transaction of their business with their sub-offices all over the kingdom; but these documents are each subjected to postal charges which are regularly debited in the account of the transmitting department.
In 1839 all expenditure was made by the postmasters throughout the kingdom, and the voucher for each item was retained in their offices.
In 1855 the expenditure was made as heretofore, and as it now continues to be, but instead of the vouchers being retained, every tradesman’s bill and every other item of expenditure that is incurred at a provincial office, no matter how small the item may be, is, with the voucher, sent up to its metropolitan office. To specify the number of these documents would be impossible, but there must be tons weight of them through the post every year.