It does not seem to have been thought prudent to intrust the date-stamping of letters to postmasters generally until some time in the present century. Down to the close of last century, at any rate, according to a Survey report of the year 1800, this was allowed only at the more important offices. The report is as follows:--"In regard to having the Dumbarton letters stamped with the day of the month, as now done at Glasgow, the subject has often been considered, and although it has been approved of with some large commercial towns in England, and Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, it has been much doubted how far it would be proper or necessary to establish it generally with less towns, where the practice might be more subject to irregularity or abuses, besides the very great expense such a supply of stamps would occasion to the revenue." The smallness of the salaries allowed to the postmasters of former times is referred to in another chapter, and this may, no doubt, have contributed to the lack of interest taken in the work by some of these officials. But while their pay was small, a good deal of form and circumstance attended their appointment, as will be seen from the following reproduction, on a reduced scale, of the formal appointment of the postmaster of East Grinstead in 1786. From a Post-office point of view the form is interesting, as no such documents are now in use. [Illustration: This whole page is a facsimile. CHARLES _Earl of_ TANKERVILLE, _and_ HENRY FREDERICK _Lord_ CARTERET, _His Majesty's Postmaster-General of all His Majesty's Dominions in_ Europe, Africa, _and_ America.