9. The importance of the change will be still more manifest on reference to the fact, that this present number of London "forward letters" for a single day much exceeds what was in 1836 the corresponding number for a whole week, for the expediting of which it was determined by Government, on the recommendation of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, to establish day mails at an estimated cost of £15,000 a year (7 Report, pp. 5 and 121). 10. The evil of the present arrangement, already so great, is constantly increasing, partly because of the general increase of letters, but mainly because of the centralising tendency of the railways. The greatly increased speed of conveyance, too, obviously tends to make any detention more severely felt; and the inconvenience is particularly serious when, as occasionally happens, the detention falls on a mail from the East or West Indies. 11. The evil of detention has been found so serious, that in several cases the rule has been evaded, either by making use of other existing channels for the conveyance of the mails sent on ordinary days through London, or by the actual establishment of Sunday cross-posts; either of which arrangements obviously involves increased expense, trouble, liability to error, perplexity to the public, and additional Sunday work. Thus the mail between Winchester and Birmingham is sent on the Sunday through Exeter; and again, the correspondence between the towns served by the North-Eastern Railway and those served by the North-Western Railway is conveyed on a Sunday by a mail-cart, expressly running on that day between Cambridge and Wolverton, through Newport Pagnel, a distance of 47 miles--an arrangement involving an expense of £148 per annum (£98 for the cart and £50 for additional sorting at Newport Pagnel), besides a direct increase in Sunday occupation. 12. Meantime the mail trains, excepting a few of the day mails, run as on other days, and, save as regards London, convey letters as usual. Even to London nearly all letters from Ireland, Scotland, and the out-ports, as also all foreign and colonial letters whatever, are brought, as on other days, the same being partly assorted at the chief office on the Sunday, for delivery or for forwarding, as the case may be, the next morning. 13. For the performance of these duties and for the selection and delivery of the "States" (letters addressed chiefly to the higher offices of Government), twenty-six persons are ordinarily employed at the chief office on Sunday, their time of occupation being, on the average, six hours. The arrival of a heavy mail from abroad requires a greater force.