The proportion of registered letters, too, which under the original high charge had been comparatively small, was now steadily advancing; the Fourth Annual Report showing that in the year 1857 it was one out of 400.[188] In the year 1868 it was as high as one out of 333. The general adoption of registration, however, was, and probably still is, somewhat retarded by the fear that, as the very fact of registration indicates value, which might otherwise remain unobserved, its use tends rather to create danger than to diminish it. This objection is sufficiently disposed of by a statement in the Sixth Annual Report, by which it appears that of the 1,400,000 letters registered within the year, only 785, or one in about 1,750, were reported as not having reached their destination. Further, that all these except 15 were afterwards recovered; and that of eight, out of this small exceptional number, the loss had occurred after they had left the custody of the British office.[189] In contrast with this it may be mentioned that in the same year (1859) no less than £260 found in unregistered letters remained in the hands of the Post Office simply from the want of means to find out either the addressee or the sender.[190] Such negligence in remitting money is the more blameable because, as remarked in the Postmaster-General's Third Report, it offers temptations to theft which often prove irresistible, "bringing many a man in the service of the Post Office to disgrace and ruin, who, but for the thoughtlessness[191] or parsimony of others, might have remained an honest and useful member of society."[192] As if this were not quite enough, a cry was raised that the dishonesty really due to this blameable conduct on the part of individuals was attributable to parsimony in the department. It was alleged, though without any justification, as will hereafter be shown, that men were driven to depredation through scantiness of pay. _Soldiers' Remittances._ During the time of the Russian War the money order system was carried into active operation amongst our forces serving in the East, who, in the course of the year 1856, sent home by this means more than £100,000.[193] _Increased Facilities of Remittance._ It was in this period that the maximum amount for a single money order was raised from £5 to £10,[194] an improvement long urged; that opportunity was given for converting, at an almost nominal charge, a money order into what was in effect a bill payable ten days after date; and that, to facilitate small remittances, postage stamps were made exchangeable for money at a low commission, on application at a post office.[195] _Extension of Money Order System to Colonies._