deliver the Mail to another post-boy, but went on to Dundee, where he rested the first night; to Montrose, where he staid the second; and, on the third, he arrived at Aberdeen, and, as he passed by Kinghorn, it behoved the tide, and sometimes also the weather, to render the time of his arrival more late and uncertain." In this manner the Mail was conveyed thrice a week. The communication by post between London and Edinburgh was not much better. The condition of the roads, however, in Scotland, would not admit of anything like rapid travelling. The best roads, even in the populous districts, were often to be found in the channels of streams. The common carrier from Edinburgh to Selkirk, 38 miles, required a fortnight for his journey, going and returning; the channel of the river Gala, which for a considerable distance ran parallel with the road, being, when not flooded, the track chosen as the most level and easiest to travel in. Between the principal cities, the means of travelling were little better. It took a day and a half for the stagecoach to travel from Edinburgh to Glasgow.

In the year 1757 the Mail was upon the road from London to Edinburgh 87 hours, but from Edinburgh to London 131 hours. At this time, from a representation from the Committee of Royal Burghs, such regulations were adopted, that the time was reduced to 82 hours from London to Edinburgh, and 85 hours from Edinburgh to London.

In 1763, a further improvement was made on the London Mail, by having it despatched five times a week instead of three, as formerly. Previously it had travelled in so dilatory a manner, that in winter the letters which were sent from London on Tuesday night, for the most part, were not distributed in Edinburgh till Sunday between sermons.

In 1776, the modern stage coach was introduced into Scotland; the first coach arriving in Edinburgh on the 10th of April. It performed the journey to London in 60 hours. And in the same year, the first Penny Post in Scotland was established in Edinburgh, by Peter Williamson, an eccentric native of Aberdeen, who in consequence of keeping a coffee shop in the hall of the Parliament House, was frequently employed by gentlemen attending the Courts, to forward letters to different parts of the city. This kind of business increased so much that he opened an office, and established a regular Penny Post delivery of letters throughout the city. He had hourly deliveries, and agents at various parts of the town to collect letters. The men who delivered, of whom there were four (in uniform), also collected letters, and for this purpose they rang a bell as they proceeded on their rounds, to give information of their approach.

Williamson's success soon induced others to attempt a similar undertaking; but the authorities of the General Post Office, seeing the importance of this branch of business as a source of revenue, gave Williamson a pension for the goodwill of the business, and the Penny Post was then attached to the general establishment.

A direct Mail between London and Glasgow was not established before 1788, when, on the 7th July, the first Mail coach from London arrived in Glasgow. Previously the correspondence between those

cities passed through Edinburgh; where it was detained twelve hours to be sent with the Mail to Glasgow at night.

Having followed the Scottish Post Office down to the close of the eighteenth century, it may be observed that for a long time after its introduction and establishment it was conducted solely with a view to the convenience and security of the correspondence of the public, and that it frequently received assistance from the Scottish Government by pecuniary grants. And if we except the periods of rebellion, when a certain amount of surveillance was exercised by the Agents of Government as a measure of state security, the Post Office in Scotland appears to have been conducted with great integrity and with freedom from abuse.

In April, 1713, the Edinburgh Post Office was removed to the first story of a house opposite the Tolbooth on the north side of the High Street. At a later time it occupied the first floor of a house near the Cross, above an alley which still bears the name of the Post Office Close. It was removed from this to a floor on the south side of the Parliament Square, which was fitted up like a shop, and the letters were dealt across an ordinary counter like other goods. At this time all the out-of-door business of delivery was managed by one Letter Carrier. From the Parliament Square the Post Office was removed to Lord Covington's house, thence after some years to a house on the North Bridge and finally it was removed to the present office in 1821, at which period the dispatch of the Mails was conducted in an apartment about 30 feet square. This apartment was purposely kept as dark as possible, in order to derive the full advantage of artificial light, employed in the process of examining letters to see whether they contained enclosures or not.

In the body of the Second Report, a letter from Archbishop Parker to the Secretary, Cecil, and bearing date Croydon, 22nd July, 1566, 4 o'clock, P.M., has the following indorsements of successive Postmasters :—

"Received at Waltham Cross, the 23rd of July, about 9 at night."

"Received at Ware, the 23rd July, at 12 o'clock at night." "Received at Croxton, the 24th of July, between 7 and 8 of the clock in the morning."

So that his Grace's letter, leaving Croydon at 4 in the afternoon of July 22nd, reached Waltham Cross, a distance of nearly 26 miles, by 9 at night of the 23rd; whence, in three hours, it seems to have advanced 8 miles to Ware; and within eight hours more to have reached Croxton, a further distance of 29 miles; having taken nearly 40 hours to travel about 6.3 miles.

From these Reports it is evident that many of the complaints made against the Post Office are unfounded. Doubtless, where 21,000 servants are employed, some must be careless

or dishonest; but the following facts shew that the public are somewhat to blame :

Notwithstanding repeated warnings on the subject, and in disregard of the facilities afforded by the Money Order System, as well as of the comparative security which can be obtained by registration, culpable heedlessness is often displayed in sending coin and bank notes in letters; in the case of bank notes, even the simple precaution of cutting them into halves (withholding the second halves until the receipt of the first has been acknowledged) being often omitted. This precaution should be taken even when the letter is registered; nor should it be necessary to add that the packet containing such enclosure ought always to be sealed. In one case which occurred lately in Ireland, a considerable sum of money was sent in a letter open at both ends like a book or a newspaper.

Whenever coin is sent by the post, special care should be taken to see that the packet is securely fastened. Sometimes, for want of such care, coins fall out even of registered letters.

In March last an unregistered letter, containing a 107. Bank of England note, posted at Macclesfield, addressed to Manchester, was stated not to have reached its destination. Full inquiry was made, but the letter could not be found. Subsequently, however, the note was presented at the Bank of England, and on being traced, it was discovered that the letter had been stolen after its delivery.

In December last, a letter containing two 51. Bank of England notes, was stated to have been posted at Leeds, addressed to a lady at Leamington, without reaching its destination; but the inquiry that was instituted by the Department caused the sender to withdraw his complaint, and to prefer against the clerk whom he had intrusted with the letter, a charge of having purloined it before it reached the Post Office.

Last spring, a gentleman at Archerstown, County Westmeath, complained of a letter, containing half bank notes and post bills, amounting to 400l., addressed to Dublin, not having come to hand; but when the matter came to be fully examined, it was ascertained by one of our officers, that the letter was in a drawer of the house of the very person to whom it had been directed, but by whom it had been entirely overlooked.

-·

In the spring of last year a young lady about 15 years of age, whose parents reside at a small town in - -shire, was sent to a school not far from The mother of the young lady was suffering from illness in April last, and letters were written from time to time to the daughter at school announcing the state of her mother's health. The young lady declared that she wrote on the 17th of April to enquire how her mother was; that letter was not delivered; and that on the morning of the 19th of that month a brown paper parcel was placed in a very mysterious manner in the hall of the house at which the young lady was at school. This parcel contained a letter which stated that her mother was dead, and that the parcel had been conveyed by a friend, which accounted for its not bearing any post marks.

Other circumstances were related by the young lady, such as her having seen a man galloping on the road, who halted and informed her that he had left the parcel announcing her mother's death.

On the 21st of the same month, a letter enclosed in an envelope was posted at the town in shire, informing the young lady that her mother was much better; but when the envelope was opened, the young lady produced another letter requiring her immediate presence to attend her mother's funeral.

The case excited great interest, and suspicion arose that a conspiracy existed, aided by some person in the service of this department, to carry off the young lady.

The papers on the subject were referred, in the first instance, to the Surveyor of the Home District; but he was unable to solve the mystery; and the Surveyor of the Western District, to whom the papers were subsequently sent, was equally unsuccessful. At length the Solicitor to the Post Office suggested that Mr. Christopher Hodgson, an officer attached to the Home District, who had displayed considerable skill in investigating matters of this nature, should be despatched to the school to make further inquiry. This was done, and on a full examination Mr. Hodgson reported it as his opinion that the whole proceedings were but a plot of a school girl to get home, as its contriver afterwards confessed to be the case.

The first of these Reports bears the name of "Canning" as Postmaster general; the second bears that of "Argyll." It has, in reading these Reports, frequently appeared to us most singular that this absurdity of a Postmaster General, changing with the Ministry, should have been so long suffered to

exist.

We place some aristocratic supporter of the Government in this important situation; we give him authority to check and control men such as Rowland Hill; we pay him an enormous salary, and endow him with large patronage; and just as he may be, if he has the brains and the application, acquiring some knowledge of his office and of its duties, a new Ministry may come in, and with them a new Postmaster General.

Surely, if the Right Man is ever to be in the Right Place, this is a case for Mr. Roebuck and the Adminstrative Reform Association. Rowland Hill makes our Postal system, and the Duke of Argyll signs Rowland Hill's Reports. Rowland Hill has the head to design a feature in our social progress, and he is made secretary to a Scotch Duke, who, however excellent he may be in other respects, cannot serve the Nation as well as those who have given time, thought and active toil, to the invention, elaboration, and succesful working of a well designed principle.

Our task here, for the present paper, ends; and if we have not amused the reader, we trust we have been able to show him "What a wonderful man The Post-Man is!"

OF SOCIAL HISTORY.

BY AN IRISH WORKMAN.

The Census of Ireland for the Year, 1851. Parts I. to V. Dublin. Alex. Thom, 1852-56.

The social history of the country whose society, in the same lapse of time, experienced more ups and downs than perhaps all other human societies put together, has not, that I know of, been so much as outlined. It is true that the political historian, the politician, the traveller -curious, philosophic, or benevolent, and the novelist, every one after his own manner, has now and again with admirable fidelity pictured some impressive or instructive episode of this history; and therein has done so well that we feel he should have done better still in doing more to the same effect. But not the less stands the fact: as a whole, the social history of Great Britain's Poor Relation, Ireland, has not in any wise been portrayed.

In this sketch I have left untouched the political history of the country; conceiving that were that to be made prominent it would cast into the shade what I deem more important, the social history.

Veritas, lux vera, is the maxim with which I backed my first sheet: a bold maxim as it shows itself in its two-fold bearing. Seeing, in the first place, that with regard to the obscurer parts of this and every social history, the truth of the exposition grounds itself upon the fact of its being, like the light, self-evidencing. And again, if the truth of history in its important and leading points be manifested, that not alone the succession of cause and effect from good and evil-Right and Wrongwill in the past, as it is brought into the field of view, become apparent, but, still further, that society present-the Passing-so vast and complex and imposing as it is, that this, too, will have its weak points, its glaring defects exposed.

Veritas, lux vera! brave words or merely braggart; which, this history will in effect disclose.

It was sketched during the famine-time, in the endeavor to lay down for myself my own position and prospects, and my line of duty, whither leading, home or abroad.

I.

I am an Irishman, full-grown and healthy; for all which blessings I thank God. I have a desire for labor, to do what work may fall to my hand; and I am thus, I believe, so far further blessed, since the will to work is in a measure the grace of God. I do not desire to toil for myself only; but assuredly I must get a fairly proportionate share of the value of my labor. No man shall fatten through the sweat of my brow whilst I hunger or am naked; nor shall the lean kine of the land eat up all that I have herded with care. As I sow I shall and will reap if not here, elsewhere. For while I love my country and its people but the people rather than the land, if this people-if I, cannot live as becomes man, in comfort and independence, if I cannot, without danger of social degradation, should I will to do so, take wife and (God send) have children grow up about me, whilst doing my duty as man and citizen, society here is a swindle; and I will not remain one with it a day longer than I need. The world is wide; there is space enough