Rats are occasionally very troublesome visitors in the Sorting Office: they are doubtless attracted by the many toothsome morsels contained in the parcels. It would seem, therefore, that cats should form a portion of the staff of every Parcel Office. The cat, however, is an animal capable of rapid demoralisation. It has been found from experience that a lazy cat will find it less irksome to feed off a pair of partridges or a pair of soles not properly packed than to wait and watch in holes and corners for rats. Besides, rats are everyday food. I am afraid that when the only thing which can be delivered to the addressee is a label with the intelligence on the back, “Found loose in Parcel Office,” the cat knows something of the contents. What is the answer of the Department to unreasonable people who, not satisfied with the explanation on the label, demand their parcels? Something to this effect: “Exhaustive inquiry has been made, but the parcel cannot be traced. There is no legal obligation to pay compensation for any loss or damage to unregistered parcels, but the Postmaster-General voluntarily, and as an act of grace, has seen fit to pay compensation in this particular instance up to cost price of the goods.” Such compensation in unregistered parcels must never exceed £2. The Department takes great pains to repair damaged parcels where repair is at all practicable, and every Parcel Sorting Office has a hospital for dealing with parcels in all stages of dilapidation. Frequently the only damage consists in a torn paper cover or a box with a broken lid, or a cracked bottle, the contents of which are beginning to leak out. In such cases repair is easy, but when the damage consists in a broken violin bow, smashed lantern slides, a piece of carving with some of the figures knocked off, or a dress with grease stains, the matter has to be referred to the sender or addressee, and negotiations follow. All the railway companies convey parcels over their lines, and they receive a percentage on every parcel carried. The Parcel Mail Coaches I am dealing with in a subsequent chapter. The disposal of parcels is not always a simple matter. Many towns and villages are far removed from the main lines of railway, and a parcel has sometimes to be sent to two or three intermediate towns before it can reach its destination. The journey, in fact, has to be done in stages. Owing to most of the main lines converging on London, that city has better facilities than any other for disposing of parcels. It is often quicker to send through London a parcel from a town in the Midlands or in the West addressed to a town in the Eastern counties. An important development in connection with the Parcel Post has been the Express Delivery Service. On payment of a special fee a parcel can either be sent out in advance of the ordinary delivery after travelling by the ordinary mail, or it can be sent by express messenger all the way from the place of posting to the addressee.