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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
The General Post Office is one of the noblest institutions not only in London, but in the world. It is worthy of a great country like England, and in none but such a country could it ever have been brought to that admirable, I may almost say perfect, state in which it now exists. It will be my chief purpose in this chapter to convey to my readers some idea of the vast and complicated, though perfectly harmonious machinery, in constant operation in this wonderful establishment.
The Post Office dates its origin from the year 1635, in the time of Charles the First. Previous to that time letters were forwarded to different parts of the country by any chance conveyance which offered itself. The necessary consequence was not only an exceedingly dilatory delivery, but, in many cases, the miscarriage of important letters. It was this that induced a Mr. Palmer of Bath to endeavour to devise some plan by which the important object of a safe and speedy conveyance of letters from one place to another, might be gained. He accordingly suggested the propriety of establishing coaches for the purpose, which should run at regular intervals of time. The experiment, for it was at the time viewed in no other light than as an experiment, was first tried by causing coaches to run between London and Bath. It was soon found to answer the intended purposes so admirably, both as regarded safety, dispatch, and even economy, that in a very short time similar coaches were appointed to run throughout every part of the kingdom in which there existed any considerable traffic.
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