POSTING 



POST OFFICE 



After Cezanne, the chief exponents 

 of the new school were Paul 

 Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh. 

 Younger followers of note are 

 Henri Matisse, Maurice Denis, and 

 Picasso. The movement has found 

 disciples in Holland and Belgium, 

 Germany and Sweden, and since 

 the Post-Impressionist Exhibition 

 in London, 1910, several British 

 artists have been experimenting 

 upon the same lines. See Art : 

 Painting. 



Posting. System of road travel. 

 By it fixed points (posts) were 

 established on the main road, 

 where relays of horses, drivers, etc., 

 were known to be available. The 

 system is of great antiquity, is 

 found in the ancient Roman 

 Empire andin China, and, a govern- 

 ment monopoly in many countries, 

 survived in Europe until the 

 development of rly. transport 

 superseded it. See Postchaise; 

 Post Office. 



Postlude (Lat. post, after ; 

 hidere, to play). Instrumental 

 piece played after a service as a 

 concluding voluntary, and there- 

 fore often applied as a specific title 

 to acomposition 

 appropriate for 

 that purpose. 



Post Mark. 

 An official mark 

 stamped upon 

 the envelopes 

 of letters, post 

 cards, and pack- 

 ages passing 

 Primarily em- 



Post Mark 



through the post, 

 ployed for cancelling the adhesive 

 stamp, it was later used with names 



and dates to indicate where and 

 when the package was posted. In 

 the illustration, S.W. 1 indicates 

 the office of dispatch and A the 

 stamping, clerk. During the Great 

 War post marks were utilised for 

 various public purposes in Great 

 Britain and elsewhere ; for adver- 

 tising War Loan, for emphasising 

 the necessity of food economy, etc. 



Postmaster-General. In the 

 United Kingdom, the member of 

 the government in control of all 

 departments of the post office, and, 

 as such, responsible to Parliament 

 for policy and efficient adminis- 

 tration. The office dates from 1710, 

 when a general post office for the 

 whole of the British dominions 

 was set up in London. The post- 

 master-general is sometimes a mem- 

 ber of the Cabinet. See Post Office. 



Post Mortem (Lat., after 

 death). Term used for the examin- 

 ation or dissection of a body after 

 death, usually with the object of 

 discovering or verifying the cause 

 of death. See Autopsy; Coroner. 



Post-obit Bond (Lat. post, after; 

 obitus, death). Bond, or written 

 obligation, to pay a sum of money 

 after the death of a certain person. 

 As a rule, such bonds are given by 

 expectant heirs, to take effect after 

 the death of the person from 

 whom the expectations arise. They 

 were formerly a favourite form of 

 usurer's security, but they are very 

 hazardous, as a court will set such 

 a bond aside if given by an ex- 

 pectant heir, unless the person in 

 whose favour it is drawn can show 

 that he paid a fair price for it, 

 having regard to the risk. 



THE POST OFFICE AND ITS WORK 



Ernest. A. Carr, Author of How to Enter the Civil Service 



In connexion with this subject see the articles A ir Post ; Telegraph ; 



T flephwr. See also Civil Service ; Money Order ; Postage Stamp ; 



Postcard ; etc. 



The word post, derived through 

 the French from the Latin parti- 

 ciple positiis, placed, or set in 

 station, carries back the mind to 

 the great days of Rome. Before 

 then, Persia had an established im- 

 perial system of state couriers (see 

 Angary), but the origin of the 

 modern post office is to be found in 

 the system of couriers organized 

 to secure a speedy communication 

 between imperial Rome and its 

 provinces ; couriers were stationed 

 at regular stages or posts along the 

 maui roads, their duty being, on 

 receipt of dispatches, to convey 

 these with all haste t ) the next 

 stage on the journey. 



In France, the university of 

 Paris had its own postal system as 

 early as the 13th century ; but no 

 state service existed until 1464. 

 The organization then created was 

 greatly improved under Henry IV 



and Louis XIII. Unfortunately it 

 was farmed to speculators from 

 1672until the Revolution. Napoleon 

 re-modelled it on lines which in the 

 main persist to-day. The Italian 

 post office originated in the ser- 

 vice of state couriers formed by the 

 Venetian Republic in the early 16th 

 century. Strasbourg had its own 

 messenger service in 1443, and 

 Nuremberg in 1570. The Prussian 

 system dates from the establish- 

 ment of an official post between 

 Memel and Cleves in 1646, but it 

 was greatly extended by Frederick 

 the Great. The American colonies 

 for long had only rudimentary pos- 

 tal services. A uniform postal 

 rate of three cents was established 

 in 1863, and was reduced to two 

 cents twenty years afterwards. 



In England, public dispatches 

 were long sent by special mes- 

 sengers, private letters travelling 



as best they might by common 

 carrier, or by personal servant. 

 In the reign of Edward I, posting- 

 houses were established along 

 certain main roads, at which the 

 king's messenger could hire a 

 change of horses, and in the next 

 reign a similar system was set up 

 for private couriers. In England 

 the first recorded reference to the 

 office of master of the posts dates 

 from 1516, in an entry describing 

 Sir Brian Tuke as Magister nun- 

 ciorum, cursorum, sive postarum. 

 His duties, however, were probably 

 restricted to organizing the service 

 of remounts for the king's couriers- 



In the reign of Elizabeth a 

 government postal service was 

 set up for letters to the Continent ; 

 and in 1603 the accession of a 

 Scottish monarch to the English 

 throne led to improvements in 

 the supply of posts between the 

 capitals of the two countries. 

 Twelve years later the first post- 

 master-general for foreign parts 

 was nominated in the person of 

 Matthew de Quester. 



A State Monopoly 



The first inland post for public 

 use was established by royal 

 proclamation in 1635, a service of 

 messengers being set up for con- 

 veying letters along eight main 

 routes at a minimum charge of 

 twopence. Shortly afterwards the 

 carrying of letters along these 

 roads by private messengers was 

 forbidden. In 1649 the common 

 council of London set up a local 

 service of its own ; but this was 

 promptly suppressed by the Com- 

 mons as an infringement of the 

 state's monopoly. The posts were 

 farmed to one John Manley in 

 1653 for 10,000 a year ; a mis- 

 chievous method which happily 

 was short-lived. Thirty years 

 later a private penny post was es- 

 tablished in London for the con- 

 veyance of letters and small parcels 

 locally; but again the govern- 

 ment intervened. The undertak- 

 ing was forfeited, was resumed as 

 a branch of the official system, 

 and exists to-day as tiie London 

 postal district service. 



A statute of 1710 created a 

 general post office for the three 

 kingdoms and the colonies under 

 control of the postmaster-general. 



The speed and safety of the post 

 were greatly improved when post- 

 boys were replaced by mail- 

 coaches. With the dispatch of a 

 coach bearing the royal mails 

 from Bristol on August 2, 1784, the 

 famous mail-coach system was in- 

 augurated. During the half cen- 

 tury that this flourished, the 

 postal service was completely re- 

 modelled. The surfaces of the 

 roads were improved, the system 



