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This volume is the first of a contemplated series designed to furnish some account of the history and ordinary working of the revenue departments of the country—to do for the great Governmental industries what Mr. Smiles has so ably done (to compare his great things with our small) for the profession of civil engineering and several national industries. Few attempts have ever been made to trace the rise and progress of the invaluable institution of the Post-Office. We have more than once seen the question asked in Notes and Queries—that sine quâ non of the curious and the learned—where a continuous account might be found of English postal history. In each case, the inquirer has been referred to a short summary of the history of the Post-Office, prefixed to the Postmaster-General's First Report. Since that, the Messrs. Black, in the eighth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, have supplied an excellent and more extended notice. Still more recently, however, in an admirable paper on the Post-Office in Fraser's Magazine, Mr. Matthew D. Hill has expressed his astonishment that so little study has been given to the subject—that it "has attracted the attention of so small a number of students, and of each, as it would appear, for so short a time." "I have not been able to find," adds Mr. Hill, "that even Germany has produced a single work which affects to furnish more than a sketch or outline of postal history." The first part of the following pages is offered as a contribution to the study of the subject, in the hope that it will be allowed to fill the vacant place, at any rate, until the work is done more worthily. With regard to that most interesting episode in the history of the Post-Office which resulted in the penny-post reform, the materials for our work—scanty though they undoubtedly are in the earlier periods—are here sufficiently abundant. The scope, however, of the present undertaking would not allow of much more than a proportionate amount of space being devoted to that epoch. Besides, the history of that eventful struggle can be properly told but by one hand, and that hand, if spared, intends, we believe, to tell his own story. Mr. Torrens MacCullagh, in his Life of Sir James Graham, has thrown much new light on the letter-opening transactions of 1844, and we have been led, on inquiry, to concur in many of his views on the subject.

The greater portion of the second division of this volume, as well as a portion of the first part, appeared originally in the pages of several popular serial publications—principally Chambers's Journal and Mr. Chambers's Book of Days; the whole, however, has been thoroughly revised, where it has not been re-written, and otherwise adapted to the purposes of the present work. We are indebted to Mr. Robert Chambers, LL.D., not only for permitting the republication of these papers in this form, but also for kindly indicating to us sources of information from the rich storehouse of his experience, which we have found very useful. On collateral subjects, such as roads and conveyances, besides having, in common with other readers, the benefit of Mr. Smiles's valuable researches in his Lives of the Engineers, we are personally indebted to him for kindly advice. We have only to add that, while in no sense an authorized publication, personal acquaintance has been brought to bear on the treatment of different parts of it, and that we have received, in describing the various branches of the Post-Office, much valuable information from Mr. J. Bowker and several gentlemen connected with the London Establishment. It is hoped that the information, now for the first time brought together, may prove interesting to many letter-writers who are ignorant, though not willingly so, of the channels through which their correspondence flows. If our readers think that the Wise Man was right when he likened the receipt of pleasant intelligence from a far country to cold water given to a thirsty soul, surely they will also admit that the agency employed to compass this good service, which has made its influence felt in every social circle, and which has brought manifold blessings in its train, deserves some passing thought and attention.

The Appendix is designed to afford a source of general reference on many important matters relating to the Post-Office, some parts of it having been carefully collated from Parliamentary documents not easily accessible to the public.

April 16, 1864.