Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-OfficeLewins, William
History
Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-Office
Lewins, William
Postal service -- Great Britain
Postmasters of Irish towns send their "dead and insolvent letters" to
Dublin, and the residuum of the local Scotch post-towns are sent to
Edinburgh. In both these capitals, this particular class of letters is
dealt with in exactly the same manner as in the London office. We are
assured that the letters themselves, and the articles found in the
Scotch and Irish dead letters, illustrate no little the characters, the
feeling, and habits of the two people. The Scotch have, comparatively
speaking, the fewest dead letters; and as the writers are generally
careful to give their addresses inside the letters, little trouble is
said to be experienced in returning them, if it is necessary. The Irish
dead letters are more numerous than either the English or the Scotch.
This mainly arises from the circumstance of the nomadic habits of a
considerable portion of the Irish people: owing also to the same
circumstance, it is impossible to return many of the letters to the
writers. The Scotch dead letters rarely contain coin or any very
valuable enclosures, while of articles of jewellery, such as usually
form presents or tokens of affection, we are told there is a "lamentable
deficiency." The Irish dead letters, on the contrary, "are full of
little _cadeaux_ and small sums of money," illustrating at the same time
both the careless and the affectionate nature of the people.
Letters which can neither be delivered nor returned through the
Post-Office are, if found to be valuable and if posted in the United
Kingdom, appropriated to the public revenue after a certain time; if
received for delivery from a foreign State, they are sent back to the
chief office of that country for final disposition. Letters posted in
this country found to be of no value, are kept at the Post-Office for a
month and then destroyed; foreign letters under the same circumstances
are not destroyed for two months.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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