Many grievances against a public office arise, I am convinced, not out of the thing done or undone, but on account of the way complainants are sometimes approached. It is the officialism of the average official man which we dislike. A certain clergyman was once summoned to the presence of his bishop, a dignitary who was known throughout his diocese for his want of urbanity, and on leaving the august presence he was asked by a sympathising brother how he had fared. The clergyman simply threw up his hands despairingly and said: “He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who is able to abide his frost?” There are too many officials in the public service who resemble this bishop: the influence of “the system” on their official characters has been to develop in them a sort of consciousness of caste. But I have written this story of the Post Office in vain if I have not brought out clearly the human side of the Department, and if I have not shown that, although it is in appearance and working a huge machine, yet the human factor counts in the highest as well as the lowest duties of the Service. And I hope I have proved my case that the Post Office is a live institution and adapts itself readily to the needs of the British people. INDEX Abbot's Cliff, 191 Aberdeen, 72, 73, 80 Accountant-General, 45, 55 Addresses on letters, 108, 111, 115, 120, 252 Admiralty, 220 Advertising postal facilities, 85, 323 Aldersgate Street, 129 Allen, Ralph, 36 Alphabet keeper, 45 America, 64 Anglo-American Telegraph Company, 160 Animals by post, 323 _Annals of the Road_, 27 Annuities, Post Office, 143 Architecture of Post Offices, 233, 302 Army Post Office— Crimea, 130 Early history, 336 Duties of, 337 Arran Islands, 217 Assistant Secretaries, 261 Associations, their recognition by Postmaster-General, 262 Atlantic Ferry, 209, 212 Athens, 81 Australia— First mail service to, 215 Postal service, 258 Articles refused by post, 328 Austria, 160 Awards Committee, 206 Aylesbury Coach Road, 89 Bagnigge Wells, 85 Baines, F. E., C.B., 32, 265 Balloons, 235 _Balmoral Castle_, 216 Band conveyors, 60 Baptism, commercial idea of, 150 Barnet, 98 Bartholomew's Hospital, 58 _Batavia_, 213 Bath, 22, 36 Baudot system— Introduction, 155 Circuit, 160 Working of, 167 Bawtry, 281 Bedminster Town Penny Bank, 325 Bees by post, 323 Belfast, 279 Belgium— Parcel Post to, 84 Money Orders to, 131 Wires to, 160 Telephone to, 191 Bell, A. M., 182 Bell, Graham, 182 Berlin, 327 Berne— First Congress, 225 Treaty of, 226 Second Congress, 228 Monument, 230 Bicycles, 99 Birmingham, 31, 35, 70, 72, 164, 279 Blackfriars Power Station, 162, 169 “Black Swan,” 44 Blackwood, Sir Arthur, K.C.B., 264 Blind Section, 62, 89, 90 Bombay, 215, 216 Bousseul, Charles, 181 Boxmoor, 72