the City of London in that year. The history of the telephone | preference was given to army, navy and royal marine pensioners, service and the growth of the industry are set out in the article TELEPHONE. POST OFFICE STAFF The staff of the post office on the 31st of March 1906 amounted to 195,432. Of these 41,081 were women, a proportion of over one-fifth of the staff. The postmasters numbered 875 (including to employed abroad), and the sub-postmasters 21,027. Reveaue. and men of the army reserve. Due regard was paid to the legitimate claims of telegraph messengers or other persons who had prospects of succeeding to these situations. In August 1897 the government decided to reserve one-half of all suitable vacancies for ex-soldiers and sailors, as postmen, porters and labourers, and preference has been shown to them for employment as lift-attendants, caretakers, &c. Finance. The following table shows the financial working of the post office: £ 150,742 2,829,210 53.928 3.350.563 188,919 4.597.355 269,002 5,963.399 286,238 6,277,275 377,131 7.737,010 £ The total number of offices (including branch offices) was 22,088. The unestablished staff, not entitled to pension, made up chiefly of telegraph boys, and of persons who are employed for only part of the day on post office business, included 87,753 out of the grand total, and almost the whole of the sub-postmasters. The pay and prospects of almost all classes have been greatly improved since 1884, when the number stood at 91,184. The principal schemes of general revision of pay have been: 1881, Fawcett's scheme for sorting-clerks, sorters and telegraphists (additional cost £210,000 a year), and for postmen, 1882, £110,000: Raikes's various revisions, 1888, chief clerks and supervising officers, £6230; 1890, sorting-clerks, sorters and telegraphists, £179,600; 1890, supervising force, £65,000; 1890, London sorters, £20,700; 1891, London overseers, £9400; 1891, postmen, £125,650: Arnold Morley, 1884, London overseers, £1400, and rural auxiliaries, £20,000. A committee was appointed in June 1895 with Lord Tweedmouth as chairman, to consider the pay and position of the post office staff, excluding the clerical force and those employed at headquarters. The committee reported on the 15th of December 1896 and its recommendations were adopted at an immediate increased expense of £139,000 a year, which has since risen to £500,000. In 1897 additional concessions were made at a cost of £100,000 a year. In July 1890 a number of postmen in London went out on strike. Over 450 were dismissed in one morning, and the work of the post office was carried on without interruption. The men received no sympathy from the public, and most of them were ultimately successful in their plea to be reinstated. A quasi-political agitation was carried on during the general election of 1892 by some of the London sorters, who, under the plea of civil rights, claimed the right to influence candidates for parliament by exacting pledges for the promise of parliamentary support. The leaders were dismissed, and the post office has upheld the principle that its officers are to hold themselves free to serve either party in the State without putting themselves prominently forward as political partisans. Parliament has been repeatedly asked to sanction a parliamentary inquiry to reopen the settlement of the Tweedmouth Committee, and the telegraphists have been especially active in pressing for a further committee. The rates of pay at various dates since 1881 are set out with great fullness in the Parliamentary papers (Postmen, No. 237 of 1897; Sorters, Telegraphists, &c., No. 230 of 1898, and Report of the Select Committee on Post Office Servants, 1907; this latter contains important recommendations for the removal of many grievances which the staff had been long agitating to have removed). in the United Kingdom. A post-paid envelope was in common For all practical purposes the history of postage stamps begins use in Paris in the year 1653. Stamped postal letter-paper (carta postale bollata) was issued to the public by the government of the Sardinian States in November 1818, and stamped postal envelopes were issued by the same government from 1820 until 1836.1 Stamped wrappers for newspapers were made experimentally in London by Charles Whiting, under the name of "go-frees," in 1830. Four years later (June 1834), and in ignorance of what Whiting had already done, Charles Knight, the well-known publisher, in a letter addressed to Lord Althorp, then chancellor of the exchequer, recommended similar wrappers for adoption. From this suggestion apparently Rowland Hill, who is justly regarded as the originator of postage stamps, got his idea. Meanwhile, however, the adhesive stamp was made experimentally by James Chalmers in his printing-office at Dundee in August 1834. These experimental stamps were printed from ordinary type, and were made adhesive by a wash of gum. Chalmers had already won local distinction by his successful efforts in 1822, for the acceleration of the Scottish mails from London. Those efforts resulted in a saving of forty-eight hours on the double mail journey, and were highly appreciated in Scotland. Rowland Hill brought the adhesive stamp under the notice of the commissioners of post office inquiry on the 13th of February 1837. Chalmers made no public mention of his stamp of 1834 until November 1837. Rowland Hill's pamphlet led to the appointment of a committee of the House of Commons on the 22nd of November 1837, "to inquire into the rates and modes of charging postage, with a view to such a reduction thereof as may be made without injury to the revenue." This committee reported in favour of Hill's proposals; and an act was passed in 1839, authorizing the treasury to fix the rates of postage, and regulate the mode of their collection, whether by prepayment or otherwise. A premium of £200 was offered for the best, and £100 for the next best, proposal for bringing stamps into use, having regard to Catalogue of Postage Stamps, 6th ed., 167. Patrick Chalmers, Sir Rowland Hill and James Chalmers, Inventor of the Adhesive Stamp (London, 1882), passim. See also the same writer's pamphlet, entitled The Position of Sir Rowland Hill made plain (1882), and his The Adhesive Stamp: a Fresh Chapter in the History of Post-Office Reform (1881). Compare Pearson Hill's tract, A Paper on Postage Stamps, in reply to Chalmers, reprinted In November 1891 an important change was made in the method from the Philatelic Record of November 1881. Pearson Hill has of recruiting postmen, with the object of encouraging military therein shown conclusively the priority of publication by Sir Rowland service, and providing situations for those who after serving in the Hill. He has also given proof of James Chalmers's express acknowarmy or navy are left without employment at a comparatively ledgment of that priority. But he has not weakened the evidence early age. In making appointments to the situation of postman, I of the priority of invention by Chalmers. "(1) the convenience as regards the public use; (2) the security against forgery; (3) the facility of being checked and distinguished at the post office, which must of necessity be rapid; and (4) the expense of the production and circulation of the stamps." To this invitation 2600 replies were received, but no improvement was made upon Rowland Hill's suggestions. A further Minute, of the 26th of December 1839, announced that the treasury had decided to require that, as far as practicable, the postage of letters should be prepaid, and such prepayment effected by means of stamps. Stamped covers or wrappers, stamped envelopes, and adhesive stamps were to be issued by government. The stamps were engraved by Messrs Perkins, Bacon & Petch, of Fleet Street, from Hill's designs, and the Mulready envelopes and covers by Messrs Clowes & Son, of Blackfriars. The stamps were appointed to be brought into use on the 6th of May 1840, but they appear to have been issued to the public as early as the 1st of May. The penny stamp, bearing a profile of Queen Victoria, was coloured black, and the twopenny stamp blue, with check-letters in the lower angles (in all four angles from April 1858). Up to the 28th of January 1854 the stamps were not officially perforated, except in the session of 1851, when stamps, perforated by a Mr Archer, were issued at the House of Commons post office. In 1853 the government purchased Archer's patent for £4000. The stamps were first water-marked in April 1840. The canton of Zürich was the first foreign state to adopt postage stamps, in 1843. The stamps reached America in the same year, being introduced by the government of Brazil. That of the United States did not adopt them until 1847; but a tentative issue was made by the post office of New York in 1845. An adhesive stamp was also issued at St Louis in the same year, and in Rhode Island in the next. In Europe the Swiss cantons of Geneva (1844) and of Basel (1845) soon followed the example set by Zürich. In the Russian Empire the use of postage stamps became general in 1848 (after preliminary issues at St Petersburg and in Finland in 1845). France issued them in 1849. The same year witnessed their introduction into Tuscany, Belgium and Bavaria, and also into New South Wales. Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Spain, Italy, followed in 1850. The use of postage stamps seems to have extended to the Hawaiian Islands (1851?) a year before it reached the Dutch Netherlands (1852). Within twenty-five years of the first issue of a postage stamp in London, the known varieties, issued in ali parts of the world, amounted to 1391. Of these 841 were of European origin, 333 were American, 59 Asiatic, 55 African. The varieties of stamp issued in the several countries of Oceania were 103. Of the whole 1391 stamps no less than 811 were already obsolete in 1865, leaving 580 still in currency. ENGLISH ISSUES (i.) Line-engraved Stamps. Halfpenny Stamp.-First issue, October 1, 1870: size 18 mm. by 14 mm.; lake-red varying to rose-red. One Penny Stamp.-First issue, 1st (for 6th) May 1840: the head executed by Frederick Heath, from a drawing by Henry Corbould of William Wyon's medal struck to commemorate her majesty's visit to the City of London on the 9th of November 1837: size 22 mm. by 18 mm.; black, watermarked with a small crown; a few sheets in 1841 struck in red, two essays were made in April and October 1840 in blue and blue-back; imperforate. The second issue, January 20, 1841, differed only from the first issue as to colour-red instead of black. It is stated that the colour, "though always officially referred to as 'red,' was really a redbrown, and this may be regarded as the normal colour; but considerable variations in tone and shade (brick-red, orange-red, lakered) occurred from time to time, often accentuated by the blueing of the paper, though primarily due to a want of uniformity in the method employed for preparing the ink." The change of colour from black was made in order to render the obliteration (now in black instead of red ink) more distinct; imperforate. Third issue, February 1854: small crown watermark; perforated 16 (i.e. 16 holes to 2 centimetres). The fourth issue, January 1855. differed only from the third issue in being perforated 14. Fifth issue, February 1855: from a new die, with minute variations of engraving. In the second die the eyelid is more distinctly shaded, the nostril more curved, and the band round the hair has a thick dark line forming its lower edge. Small crown watermark; perfor: ated 16 and 14. Sixth issue, July 1855: large crown watermark; perforated 14; a certain number 16. Seventh issue, January 1858: carmine-rose varying from pale to very deep. Large crown watermark; perforated, chiefly 14. Eighth issue, April 1, 1864: Wright and Creeke, History of the Adhesive Stamp of the British Isles available for Postal and Telegraph Purposes (London, 1899). check-letters in all four corners instead of two only; large crown watermark; perforated 14. the surface-printed one of similar value in venetian red, designed In 1880 the line-engraved one penny stamps were superseded by and printed by Messrs De la Rue & Co. Three-halfpenny Stamp.-October 1, 1870: large crown watermark; lake-red; perforated 14. Superseded in October 1880 by De la Rue's surface-printed stamp. Two penny Stamp.-First issue, 1st (for 6th) May 1840: small crown watermark; light blue, dark blue; imperforate. Second issue, March 1841: small crown watermark; white line below forate. Postage" and above "Twopence "; duli to dark blue; imperblue, dark blue; perforated 16. Fourth issue, March 1855: small Third issue, February (?) 1854: small crown watermark; crown watermark; blue, dark blue; perforated 14. Fifth issue, July 1855: large crown watermark; blue; perforated 16; blue, dark blue; perforated 14. Sixth issue, May (?) 1857: large crown watermark; white lines thinner, blue, dark blue; perforated 14; dark blue; perforated 16. Seventh issue, July 1858: large crown watermark; white lines as in fifth issue; deep to very deep blue; perforated 16. Eighth issue, April (?) 1869: large crown watermark; white lines thinner; dull blue, deep to very deep blue, la Rue's surface-printed stamp. violet blue; perforated 14. Superseded in December 1880 by De (ii.) Embossed Stamps. Produced by Dryden Brothers, of Lambeth, from designs submitted by Mr Ormond Hill of Somerset House, engraved after Wyon's medal. imperforate. Superseded in October 1856 by De la Rue's surfaceSixpence.-March 1, 1854: violet, reddish lilac, dark violet; printed stamp. Tenpence.-November 6, 1848: pale to very deep chestnutbrown; imperforate. Superseded by De la Rue's surface-printed stamp in 1867. One Shilling.-September 11, 1847: emerald green, pure deep green, yellow-green; imperforate. Superseded in November 1856 by De la Rue's surface-printed stamp. (iii.) Surface-printed Stamps before 1880." Twopence-half-penny.-First issue, July 1, 1875: small anchor watermark; lilac-rose; perforated 14. Second issue, May 1876: orb watermark; lilac-rose, perforated 14. Third issue, February 5. 1880: orb watermark; cobalt, and some ultramarine; perforated 14. Fourth issue, March 23, 1881: large crown watermark; bright blue; perforated 14. Threepence.-All perforated 14. First issue, May 1, 1862: heraldic emblems watermark; carmine (pale to deep). Second issue, March 1, 1865: same watermark as above; carmine-pink. Third issue, July 1867: watermarked with a spray of rose; carminepink, carmine-rose. Fourth issue, July 1873 watermark as third issue; carmine-rose. Fifth issue, January 1, 1881: watermark large crown; carmine-rose. Sixth issue, January 1, 1883; watermark as fifth issue; purple shades overprinted with value in deep pink. Fourpence. All perforated 14. First issue, July 31, 1855: watermark small garter; deep and dull carmine. Second issue, February 1856: watermark medium garter; pale carmine. Third issue, November 1, 1856: watermark medium garter; dull rose. Fourth issue, January 1857: watermark large garter; dull and pale to deep rose, pink. Fifth issue, January 15, 1862: watermark large garter; carmine-vermilion, vermilion-red. Sixth issue, July 1865: watermark large garter; pale to dark vermilion. Seventh issue, March 1, 1876. watermark large garter; pale vermilion. Eighth issue, February 27, 1877: watermark large garter; pale sage-green. Ninth issue, July 1880: watermark large garter; mouse-brown. Tenth issue, January 1, 1881: watermark large crown; mouse-brown. letters in angles; watermark heraldic emblems; dull lilac. Second Sixpence. All perforated 14. First issue, October 21, 1856: no issue, December 1, 1862: small white letters in angles; otherwise as first issue. Third issue, April 1, 1865: large white letters in angles; otherwise as first issue. Fourth issue, June 1867: watermark spray of rose; otherwise as third issue; some in bright lilac. Fifth issue, March 1869: as fourth issue; lilac, deep lilac, purplelilac. Sixth issue, April 1, 1872: as fourth issue; bright chestnutbrown. Seventh issue, October 1872: as fourth issue; buff. Eighth Ninth issue, issue, April 1873: as fourth issue; greenish grey, April 1, 1874: watermarked as fourth issue; large coloured letters in angles; greenish grey. Tenth issue, January 1, 1881: large crown watermark; otherwise as ninth issue. Eleventh issue, January 1, 1883: as tenth issue; purple, overprinted with value in deep pink. chrome-yellow, pale yellow; perforated 14. Eight pence.-September 11, 1876: watermark large garter; Ninepence. All perforated 14. First issue, January 15, 1862: watermark heraldic emblems; ochre-brown, bright bistre. Second issue, December 1, 1865: watermark as above; bistre-brown, straw. Third issue, October 1867: watermark spray of rose; straw. Tenpence.-July 1, 1867: watermark spray of rose; red-brown. perforated 14. One Shilling.-All perforated 14. First issue, November 1, 1856: watermark heraldic emblems; no letters in angles; dull green, pale to dark green. Second issue, December 1, 1862: as above; small white letters in angles; pale to dark green. Third issue, February 1865: as above; large white letters in angles; pale to dark green, bluish green. Fourth issue, August 1867: watermark spray of rose; otherwise as third issue; pale to dark green, bluish green. Fifth issue, September 1873: large coloured letters in angles; otherwise as fourth issue; light to dark green, bluish green. Sixth issue, October 14, 1880: as fifth issue; pale redbrown. Seventh issue, June 15, 1881: watermark large crown; otherwise as sixth issue; pale red-brown. Two Shillings.-Watermark spray of rose; perforated 14. issue, July 1, 1867: pale to full blue, very deep blue. issue, February 1880: light brown. First Second Five Shillings. First issue, July 1, 1867: watermarked with a cross paté; pink, pale rose; perforated 15 by 15. Second issue, November 1882: watermark large anchor; carmine-pink; perforated 14. Ten Shillings.-First issue, September 26, 1878: watermark cross paté; green-grey; perforated 15 by 15. Second issue, February 1883: watermark large anchor; green-grey; perforated 14. One Pound. First issue, September 26, 1878: watermark cross paté; brown-violet; perforated 15 by 15. Second issue, December 1882: watermark large anchor; brown-violet; perforated 14. (iv.) After 1880. In 1880-1881 the halfpenny, penny, three-halfpenny and twopenny surface-printed stamps superseded the line-engraved stamps of the same value, and a new surface-printed stamp of fivepence was introduced. These stamps are distinguished from the stamps already described by the absence of plate-numbers and (except in the penny stamp) of check-letters in the corners; also by the coarser style of engraving necessary for printing by machines driven by steam-power. One Halfpenny-First issue, October 14, 1880: large crown watermark; pale green, bluish green, dark green; perforated 14. Second issue, April 1, 1884: slate-blue. One Penny.-January 1, 1880: large crown watermark; venetian red; perforated 14. Three-halfpence.-October 14, 1880: large crown watermark; venetian red; perforated 14. Twopence. December 8, 1880: large crown watermark; pale to very deep carmine red; perforated 14. Five pence.-March 15, 1881: large crown watermark; dark dull indigo, indigo-black; perforated 14. The Customs and Inland Revenue Act which came into force on June 1, 1881, made it unnecessary to provide separate penny stamps for postal and fiscal purposes. By an act of 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 72) it became unnecessary to provide separate stamps for postal and fiscal purposes up to and including stamps of the value of 2s. 6d. A new series was therefore issued:-. One Penny. All perforated 14. First issue, July 12, 1881: large crown watermark; 14 pearls in each angle; purple-lilac, purple. Second issue, December 12, 1881: as first issue; 16 pearls in cach angle; purple. Three-halfpence.-April 1, 1884: large crown watermark; purple; Four pence.-Ditto, except in colour (sea-green). Nine pence.-Ditto. One Shilling. Ditto. Two Shillings and Sixpence.-July 22, 1883: watermark large anchor; purple, dull lilac, dark purple; perforated 14. Five Shillings.-April 1, 1884: ditto: pale to very deep carmine. Ten Shillings.-Ditto; pale blue, cobalt, light to dull blue. One Pound-First issue, April 1, 1884: large crown watermark, 3 appearing in each stamp; brown-violet; perforated 14. Second issue, January 27, 1891: same watermark; bright green; perforated 14. Five Pounds.-March 21, 1882: large anchor watermark; orangevermilion, vermilion, bright vermilion; perforated 14. Following upon the report of a committee of officials of the General Post Office and Somerset House, a series of new stamps commonly known as the "Jubilee issue, was introduced on January 1, 1887, all of which between one halfpenny and one shilling exclusive were printed either in two colours or on a coloured paper, so that each stamp was printed in part in one or other of the doubly fugitive inks-green and purple. One Halfpenny.-January 1, 1887: large crown watermark; orange-vermilion to bright vermilion; perforated 14. Three-halfpence.-January 1, 1887: as the halfpenny; green and purple. Twopence.-Ditto: green and scarlet to carmine. Threepence.-January 1, 1887: yellow paper; watermarked with a large crown; purple ; perforated 14. Four pence.-January 1, 1887: watermark and perforation as in threepence; green and brown. Four pence-halfpenny.-September 15, 1892: as the fourpence; green and carmine. Five pence.-January 1, 1887: as the fourpence; purple and blue. Sixpence.-January 1, 1887: pale red paper; watermarked with a large crown; purple; perforated 14. Ninepence.-January 1, 1887: large crown watermark; purple and blue; perforated 14. carmine-red. Tenpence.-February 24, 1890: as the ninepence; purple and One Shilling.-January 1, 1887: as the ninepence; green. The various fiscal stamps admitted to postage uses, the overprinted official stamps for use by government departments, and the stamps specially surcharged for use in the Ottoman Empire, do not call for detailed notice in this article. The distinctive telegraph stamps are as follows: One Halfpenny.-April 1, 1880: shamrock watermark; orange vermilion; perforated 14. One Penny-February 1, 1876: as the halfpenny; reddish brown. Threepence.-Perforated 14. First issue, February 1, 1876: watermark spray of rose; carmine. Second issue, August 1881: watermark large crown; carmine. Four pence.-March 1, 1877: watermark large garter; pale sage-green; perforated 14. mark spray of rose; greenish-grey. Second issue, July 1881: as Sixpence.-Perforated 14. First issue, March 1, 1877: waterfirst issue; watermark large crown. One Shilling.-Perforated 14. First issue, February 1, 1876: watermark spray of rose; green. Second issue, October 1880: watermark spray of rose; pale red-brown. Third issue, February 1881: watermark large crown; pale red brown. Three Shillings-Perforated 14; slate blue. First issue, March 1, 1877: watermark spray of rose. Second issue, August 1881: watermark large crown. Five Shillings. First issue, February 1, 1876: watermark cross paté; dark to light rose; perforated 15 by 15. Second issue, August 1881: watermark large anchor; carmine-rose; perforated BRITISH COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES Australian Commonwealth.-In 1905 there were 6654 post offices open; 311,401,539 letters and cards, 171,844,868 newspapers, book-packets and circulars, 2,168,810 parcels, and 13,680,239 telegrams were received and despatched; the revenue was £2,738,146 and the expenditure £2,720,735. New Zealand.-In 1905 there were 1937 post offices open; 74,767,288 letters and cards, 47,334,263 newspapers, bookpackets and circulars, 392,017 parcels, and 5,640,219 telegrams were dealt with. The revenue from the post office was £410,968, office was £302,146 and on telegraphs £276,581. and from telegraphs £273,911, while the expenditure on the post Dominion of Canada.-In 1905 there were 10,879 post offices open; 331,792,500 letters and cards, 60,405,000 newspapers, book-packets and circulars, and 58,338 parcels were received and despatched. The revenue from the post office amounted to £1,053,548, and from telegraphs £28,727, while the expenditure was, on the post office £952,652 and on telegraphs £78,934. Cape of Good Hope.-The number of post offices open in 1905 book-packets and circulars, 536,800 parcels, and 6,045,228 was 1043; 7,596,600 letters and cards, 3.706,960 newspapers, telegrams were dealt with. The revenue from the post office was £423,056, and from telegraphs £206,842 the expenditure being, £456,171 on the post office and £272,863 on telegraphs. British India.-In 1905 there were 16,033 post offices open; 597,707,867 letters and cards, 76,671,197 newspapers, bookpackets and circulars, 4,541,367 parcels, and 9,098,345 telegrams were dealt with. The revenue from the post office was Twopence-halfpenny.-January 1, 1887: blue paper; watermark £1,566,704 and from telegraphs £733,193, while the expenditure large crown; dark purple; perforated 14. was, on the post office, £1,199,557 and on telegraphs £546,914. Early History. FRANCE The French postal system was founded by Louis XI. (June 19, 1464), was largely extended by Charles IX. (1565), and received considerable improvements at various periods under the respective governments of Henry IV. and Louis XIII. (1603, 1622, 1627 seq.). In 1627 France originated a postal money-transmission system, a system of cheap registration for letters. The postmaster who thus anticipated modern improvements was Pierre d'Alméras, a man of high birth, who gave about £20,000 (of modern money) for the privilege of serving the public. The turmoils of the Fronde wrecked much that he had achieved. The first farm of postal income was made in 1672, and by farmers it was administered until June 1790. To increase the income postmasterships for a long time were not only sold but made hereditary. Many administrative improvements of detail were introduced, indeed, by Mazarin (1643), by Louvois (c. 1680 seq.), and by Cardinal de Fleury (1728); but many formidable abuses also continued. The revolutionary government transferred rather than removed them. Characteristically, it put a board of postmasters in room of a farming postmaster-general and controlling one. Napoleon (during the consulate?) abolished the board, recommitted the business to a postmaster-general as it had been under Louis XIII., and greatly improved the details of the service; Napoleon's organization of 1802 is, in substance, that which now obtains, although, of course, large modifications and developments have been made from time to time." The university of Paris, as early as the 13th century, possessed a special postal system, for the abolition of which in the 18th it received a large compensation. But it continued to possess certain minor postal privileges until the Revolution. Mazarin's edict of the 3rd of December 1643 shows that France at that date had a parcel post as well as a letter post. That edict creates for each head post office throughout the kingdom three several officers styled respectively (1) comptroller, (2) weigher, (3) assessor; and, instead of remunerating them by salary, it directs the addition of one-fourth to the existing letter rate and parcel rate, and the division of the surcharge between the three. Fleury's edicts of 1728 make sub-postmasters directly responsible for the loss of letters or parcels; they also make it necessary that senders should post their letters at an office, and not give them to the carriers, and regulate the book-post by directing that book parcels (whether MS. or printed) shall be open at the ends. In 1758, almost eighty years after Dockwra's establishment of a penny post in London, an historian of that city published an account of it, which in Paris came under the eye of Claude Piarron de Chamousset, who obtained letters-patent to do the like, and, before setting to work or seeking profit for himself, issued a tract with the title, Mémoire sur la petite-poste établie à Londres, sur la modèle de laquelle on pourrait en établir de semblables dans les plus grandes villes d'Europe. The reform was successfully carried out. By this time the general post office of France was producing For the details, see Ency. Brit., 8th ed., xviii. 420-424, and Maxime Du Camp, "L'Administration des Postes," in Revue des deux mondes (1865), 2nd series, vol. lxvii. 169 seq. 228 Pluviose, an XII. - the 18th of February 1804. Le Quien de la Neufville, Usages des postes (1730), pp. 59-67, 80, 121-123, 147-149, 286–291; Maxime du Camp, op. cit. passim; Pierre Clément, Appréciation des conséquences de la réforme postale, passim: Loret, Gazette rimée (Aug. 16, 1653); Furetière, Le Roman Bourgeois (in Du Camp, ut supra); " Die ersten Posteinrichtungen, u.s.W., in L'Union postale, viii. 138: Ordonnances des Rois de France, as cited by A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la poste-auxlettres (3rd ed., 1876), í. 171, 216, 269. We quote M. de Rothschild's clever book with some misgivings. It is eminently sparkling in style, and most readable; but its citations are so given that one is constantly in doubt lest they be given at second or even at third hand instead of from the sources. The essay of M. du Camp is, up to its date, far more trustworthy. He approaches his subject as a publicist, M. de Rothschild as a stamp-collector. There are several charters confirmatory of this original privilege. a considerable and growing revenue. In 1676 the farmers had paid to the king £48,000 in the money of that day. A century later they paid a fixed rent of £352,000, and covenanted to pay in addition one-fifth of their net profits. In 1788-the date of the last letting to farm of the postal revenue-the fixed and the variable payments were commuted for one settled sum of £480,000 a year. The result of the devastations of the Revolu tion and of the wars of the empire together is shown strikingly by the fact that in 1814 the gross income of the post office was but little more than three-fifths of the net income in 1788. Six years of the peaceful government of Louis XVIII. raised the gross annual revenue to £928,000. On the eve of the Revolution of 1830 it reached £1,348,000. Towards the close of the next reign the post office yielded £2,100,000 (gross). Under the revolutionary government of 1848-1849 it declined again (falling in 1850 to £1,744,000); under that of Napoleon III. it rose steadily and uniformly with every year. In 1858 the gross revenue was £2,296,000, in 1868 £3,596,000. The ingenuity of the French postal authorities was severely tried by the exigencies of the German War of 1870-71. first contrivance was to organize pigeon service (see The Pigeon and Posts. also PIGEON POST), carrying microscopic despatches Balloon 'The despatches carried by the pigeons were in the first instance photographed on a reduced scale on thin sheets of paper, the original writing being preserved, but after the ascent of the twenty-fifth balloon leaving the city an improved system was organized. The communications, whether public despatches, newspapers or private letters, were printed in ordinary type, and micro-photographed on to thin films of collodion. Each pellicle measured less than 2 in. by 1, and the reproduction of sixteen folio pages of type contained above 3000 private letters. These pellicles were so light that 50.000 despatches, weighing less than 1 gramme, were regarded as the weight for one pigeon. In order to ensure their safety during transit the films were rolled up tightly and placed in a small quill which was attached longitudinally to one of the tail feathers of the bird. On their arrival in Paris they were flattened out and thrown by means of the electric lantern on to a screen, copied by clerks, and despatched to their destination. This method was afterwards improved upon, sensitive paper being substituted for the screen, so that the letters were printed at once and distributed. Seventeenth Report of the Postmaster-General, p. 7. Boissay. "La Poste et la télégraphie pendant le siège de Paris," in Journal des économistes. 3rd series, vol. xxii. pp. 117-129 anJ There is an interesting biographical notice of Piarron de pp. 273-282. Cf. Postal Gazette (1883), i. 7. Chamousset in Le Journal officiel of July 5, 1875. 10 Sixteenth Report of the Postmaster-General, p. 8. The comparative postal statistics for all France during the | placed under the control of the minister of commerce, in Hunyears 1900 and 1905 stands thus:gary under that of the minister of public works. The following table gives the figures for 1900 and 1904 1900. 1905. Austria. No. Letters Post-cards 1900. 980,629,000 1904. 1,113,090,000 Newspapers, printed matter, samples, circulars, &c. Letters and post-cards 1,193,418,000 1,421,107,000 Value of money French francs Newspapers 56,210,000 Packet post: 73,229,000 money letters 1900. Length of line. kilometres 117,559 129,826 73,004 80,622 kilometres 388,814 418.331 miles 241.453 259.784 Total gross receipts { francs Receipts 43.977,000 46.490,000 Value of postal orders The savings banks system of France, so far as it is connected with the postal service, dates only from 1875, and began then (at first) simply by the use of post offices as agencies and feeders for the pre-existing banks. Prior to the postal connexion the aggre gate of the deposits stood at £22,920,000. In 1877 it reached £32,000,000. Postal savings banks, strictly so called, began only during the year 1881. At the close of 1882 they had 210,712 depositors, with an aggregate deposit of £1,872,938 sterling: in 1905 they had 12,134,523 depositors, with an aggregate deposit of £229,094,155. The union of the telegraph with the post office dates only from 1878. The following table gives the figures for 1900 and 1905: 30.397,000 countries . (Total francs) 10,239,546 The Prussian postal system developed mainly by the ability and energy of Dr Stephan, to whom the organization of the International Postal Union was so largely indebted, into the admirably organized post and telegraph office of the empirebegan with the Great Elector, and with the establishment in 1646 of a Government post from Cleves to Memel. Frederick II. largely extended it, and by his successor the laws relating to The postal telephonic system began in 1879. The following it were consolidated. In Strasburg a messenger code existed table gives the figures for 1901 and 1905: BIBLIOGRAPHY.-P. d'Alméras, Réglement sur le port des lettres (1627); Le Quien de la Neufville, Usages des postes (1730); Rowland Hill, Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the French Post Office (1837); Annuaire des postes (from 1850- ); M. du Camp, "De L'administration... et de l'hôtel des postes," in Revue des deux mondes (1865), 3rd series: Revue des postes et télégraphes (pub. at various periods); A. de Rothschild, Histoire de la posteux-lettres (1875); "Entwickelung des Post- u. Telegraphenwesens in Frankreich, in Archiv f. Post. u. Telegraphie (1882); " Die französischen Postsparkassen," and other articles, in L'Union postale (Berne). AUSTRIA-HUNGARY as early as 1443. A postal service was organized at Nuremberg in 1570. In 1803 the rights in the indemnity-lands (Entschädigungsländer) of the counts of Taxis as hereditary imperial postmasters were abolished. The first mail steampacket was built in 1821; the first transmission of mails by railway was in 1847; the beginning of the postal administration of the telegraphs was in 1849; and, by the treaty of postal union with Austria, not only was the basis of the existing system of the posts and telegraphs of Germany fully laid, but the germ was virtually set of the International Postal Union. That treaty was made for ten years on the 6th of April 1850, and was immediately accepted by Bavaria. It came into full operation on the 1st of July following, and then included Saxony, Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Holstein. Other German states followed; and the treaty was renewed in August 1860. The following table gives figures for 1900 and 1905: The Austrian postal system is among the oldest, on record. Vienna possessed a local letter post and a parcel post, on the plan of prepayment, as early as May 1772, at which date no city in Germany possessed the like. This local post was established by a Frenchman (M. Hardy) and managed by a Dutchman (Schooten). Thirteen years after its organization it became merged in the imperial post. The separate postal organizations of the empire (Austria) and of the kingdom (Hungary) date from The International Postal Union was founded at Berne in 18741867. In Austria the post office and the telegraph office are All the countries of the world belong to it, with the exception of Afghanistan, Baluchistan, China, Abyssinia and Morocco. ConLoeper, "Organisation des postes de ville," in L'Inion postalegresses have been held at Paris (1878), Lisbon (1885), Vienna (1891), Washington (1897) and Rome (1906). vii. I seq. 1000 marks 9,807.934 |