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
Every provision is supplied by the authorities in London, and salaries
and pensions of all kinds are granted. Thus, in one place, a chaplain is
appointed for the crew of one of the packets, with a small stipend, "for
doing their offices of births, marriage, and burial." Pensions for
wounds received in the service are granted with nice discrimination of
the relative parts of the body. In a letter to their agent at Falmouth,
the Postmasters-General send a scale of pensions to be granted according
to the kind of wound--thus: "For every arm or leg amputated above the
elbow or knee, L.8 per annum; below the arm or knee, twenty nobles. Loss
of the sight of one eye must be L.4; of the pupil of the eye, L.5; of
the sight of both eyes, L.12; of the pupils of both eyes, L.14; and
according to these rules, we _consider also how much also the hurts
affect the body_, and make the allowances accordingly." The duties
devolving upon the chief Post-Office officials seem not only to have
been onerous and heavy--some of their instructions to their agents
bearing dates from the middle of the night and other extraordinary
hours--but curiously varied. Many of their letters are preserved among
the old records in the vaults under the General Post-Office, and some of
them are quite sad and plaintive in their tone. "We are concerned," they
say to one agent, "to find the letters brought by your boat [one from
the West Indies] _to be so consumed by the ratts_, that we cannot find
out to whom they belong." Another letter to their agent at Harwich is
evidently disciplinary, and runs as follows:--
"MR. EDISBURY--The woman whose complaint we herewith send you,
_having given us much trouble upon the same_, we desire you will
inquire into the same, and see justice done her, believing she may
have had her brandy stole from her by the sailors.--We are your
affectionate friends[!],
R. C., T. F."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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