POST-OFFICE 



351 



other. In addition, enactments have been passed 

 from time to time bearing; ppon the other branches 

 of post-office business. The following are some of 

 the offences recognised in the enactments : Every 

 person employed by or under the post-office who 

 steals, secretes, or destroys a post-letter is guilty 

 of felony, and it it contain a chattel or money the 

 punishment is increased. Strangers also who steal 

 letters or other postal packets out of the custody 

 of the post-office or its officers are likewise guilty 

 of felony, and similarly punishable ; and a person 

 who fraudulently retains or wilfully keeps or detains 

 a letter or other postal packet delivered to him by 

 mistake, or which having been lost in course of con- 

 veyance he may have found, is punishable by fine 

 and imprisonment. The moment a letter or other 

 postal packet is put into the post-office, or is 

 delivered to a person authorised to receive such 

 missives for the post, the protection of the statutes 

 commences, and it ceases on the letter or packet 

 being delivered at the place of its address. If a 

 postman delay the delivery wilfully, or if an officer 

 of the post-office disclose or intercept or wilfully 

 delay a telegraphic message, he commits a mis- 

 demeanour. Receivers of post-letters or their 

 contents stolen or taken from the post-office are 

 guilty of felony. By the 1 Viet. chap. 36 sect. 2, 

 any person sending or conveying otherwise than by 

 post letters or packets not exempted from the 

 exclusive privilege of the postmaster-general, or 

 performing otherwise than by the post any services 

 incidental to conveying letters or packets from 

 place to place, is liable to a penalty of 5 for every 

 such letter or packet. This exclusive privilege or 

 monopoly does not extend to newspapers. There 

 are, however, exceptions to the general rule as 

 regards letters or packets. Thus, a letter may be 

 conveyed by a private friend and not by the post- 

 office. Letters sent by messengers on purpose, on 

 the private affairs of the sender or receiver, com- 

 missions and legal writs, letters of merchants sent 

 by their own vessels or along with goods to which 

 they relate, are likewise excepted. But no person 

 is permitted even to collect these excepted letters 

 for the purpose of sending them in the manner 

 described, for this is infringing the exclusive 

 privilege of the post-office. Aforeover, certain 

 persons are expressly prohibited from carrying 

 letters even gratuitously viz. common carriers, 

 unless the letters relate to goods in their carts or 

 wagons ; owners, masters or commanders of ships, 

 except letters of the owners of the ships or such as 

 relate to goods on board ; and passengers or other 

 persons on board ships. 



Bv statute the transmission of telegrams within 

 the United Kingdom is secured to the postmaster- 

 general as a monopoly, and telegrams enjoy many 

 of the protective privileges applicable to post- 

 letters. The postmaster-general has power to 

 arrest in the post any missive bearing thereon any 

 words, marks, or designs of an indecent, obscene, 

 or grossly offensive character. Under the Post- 

 office (Money Orders) Acts, 1848 to 1883, an officer 

 of the post-office who with a fraudulent intent 

 issues a money order or postal order, or re-issues 

 a postal order previously paid, is liable to penal 

 servitude not exceeding seven years ; and any 

 person who forges an order, or utters a bcgM 

 order, is liable to penal servitude for a longer term. 

 An officer of the post-office who fraudulently em- 

 bezzles or misappropriates moneys or securities 

 entrusted to or received by him by virtue of his 

 employment is liable to penal servitude not exceed- 

 ing fourteen yearn. 



By 43 and 44 Viet. chap. 33, sect. 3, any person 

 who, with intent to defraud, obliterates, acids to, 

 or alters any such lines or words on a postal order 

 a* would, in the case of a cheque, be a crossing of 



that cheque, or knowingly offers, utters, or disposes 

 of any order, with such fraudulent obliteration, 

 addition, or alteration, is guilty of a felony, and is 

 liable to the like punishment as if the order were a 

 cheque. By the Act 45 and 46 Viet. chap. 74, relat- 

 ing to the parcel post, that act is to be deemed to 

 be a post-office act within the meaning of the Post- 

 office (Offences) Act, 1837 (1 Viet. chap. 36), and 

 subject to its provisions. The Post-office Acts 

 apply to parcels in like manner as they apply to 

 other postal packets. Act 47 and 48 Viet. chap. 76 

 the Post-office ( Protection ) Act, 1884-^deals with 

 a variety of offences under the following heads : 

 prohibition of placing injurious substances in or 

 against post-office letter-boxes ; prohibition of send- 

 ing by post explosive, dangerous, or deleterious 

 substances, or indecent prints, words, &c. ; pro- 

 hibition of affixing placards, notices, &c. on a 

 post-office, letter-box, or other post-office pro- 

 perty ; prohibition of imitation of post-office stamps, 

 envelopes, cards, forms, and marks ; prohibition of 

 fictitious stamps ; prohibition of false notice imply- 

 ing that any place is a post-office, postal telegraph 

 office, or post-office letter-box ; obstruction of officers 

 of the post-office or of business in a post-office ; re- 

 taining of clothing by officers of the post-office on 

 ceasing to be officers ; forgery and improper dis- 

 closure of telegrams. Contraventions of these pro- 

 hibitions entail penalties generally ranging from 

 twelve months' imprisonment with hard latponr, or 

 a fine of 200, to fines not exceeding forty shillings. 



Foreign Post-office Systems. The advantages of 

 the post are now enjoyed, in a greater or less 

 degree, by all civilised countries ; and the several 

 systems bear in their main features a general 

 resemblance to the British system, upon which, in 

 many cases, they have been modelled. At the 

 same time details of marked difference may be 

 observed, each country having adapted its system 

 to its own particular wants. Thus, in certain 

 countries subscriptions to the newspapers and 

 accounts for merchandise are collected by the post- 

 office ; the parcel post conveys larger and heavier 

 articles than are conveyed in Great Britain ; a 

 system of sending through the post letters of 

 declared value is in force in some ; and a different 

 means is employed for transferring mails to and 

 from mail trains while running^ Besides this, the 

 classification of postal matter in regard to rates of 

 postage is not uniform. The amount of matter 

 conveyed through the post between Great Britain 

 and certain foreign countries is enormous e.g. the 

 average number of sacks of mails despatched 

 weekly in 1890 from Britain to the United States 

 was 1200, and to the Australian colonies 410. 



United States. The lieginnings of a postal ser- 

 vice in the United States date from 1639, when a 

 house in Boston was employed for the receipt ami 

 delivery of letters for or from beyond the seas. In 

 1672 the government of New York colony estali 

 li-lied 'a post to goe monthly from New York to 

 Boston;' in 1702 it was changed to a fortnightly 

 one. A general post-office was established and 

 erected in Virginia in 1692, and in Philadelphia 

 in 1693. A deputy postmaster-general for America 

 was appointed in 1692 ; and by act of parliament 

 in 1710 (see p. 347) he was directed to keep his 

 principal office in New York, 'and other chief 

 offices in some convenient place or places in other 

 of Her Majesty's provinces or colonies in America ;' 

 a monopoly was established which included also the 

 transport of travellers, and a tariff was fixed. The 

 system, however, proved a failure, until 1753, when 

 Benjamin Franklin became postmaster-genera! ; 

 when he was removed from office in 1774 the net 

 revenue exceeded 3000. 



In 1789, when the post-office was transferred to 

 the new federal government, the number of offices 



