[15] Letters were generally in the form of rolls, round a stick, or, if a long letter, round two sticks, beginning at each end and rolling them until they met in the middle. Books of every size were called _rolls_. Our word volume means just the same thing in its original signification. Jer. xxxvi. 2; Ps. xl.; Isa. xxxiv. 4. The roll, book, or letter was commonly written on one side: that which was given to Ezekiel, in vision, was written on both, within and without.—Ezek. ii. 10. Letters then, as is the custom in the East at present, were sent in most cases without being sealed; while those addressed to persons of distinction were placed in a valuable purse, or bag, which was tied, closed over with clay or wax, and so stamped with the writer’s signet. The Roman scrinium, or book-case, a very costly cabinet, shows how these rolls were preserved. They were put in lengthwise, and labeled at top. [16] The mail was carried on horseback with the ancient pack-saddle, vulgarly called “saddle-bags.” In passing along, he announced his approach by blowing a “ram’s horn.” [17] The number of letters annually transmitted throughout the kingdom is estimated at about 77,000,000; the gross receipts for postage (1837) were £2,339,737 18_s._ 3_d._; the total cost of management and transportation, £698,632 2_s._ 2_d._,—leaving a balance of £1,641,105 10_s._ 1_d._ as the revenue received by the government from the department. The number of franked letters was 7,000,000,—and 44,500,000 newspapers, which were free of postage. [18] Since the text was written,—namely, on the evening of Monday, the 6th of June,—the Lord Chancellor in the one house and Viscount Palmerston in the other communicated a message of the queen of her majesty’s gracious intention to confer on Sir Rowland Hill a sum of £20,000, and asking her faithful Commons to make provision for the same. [19] Condensed from a work entitled “Her Majesty’s Mails: an Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-Office.” By William Lewins. London, Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 14, Ludgate Hill. 1864. [20] “He fills his mind with a vain or idle picture;” or, “He feeds his mind with empty representations. He dwells with eagerness upon the painted semblance,” &c. [21] “A mind regardless of life [if sacrificed in a good cause].” [22] Hinton.