[ 197 1 



CHAPTEE XII. 



THE CITY OF MANCHESTER. 



When I first visited Manchester I found the post- 

 office established in a large, dark, and, for postal 

 purposes, ill-arranged building in Brown Street, 

 which had been designed as a borough court, and 

 not as a post-office at all. The department has had 

 to find out for itself by painful and costly experience, 

 that, of all the administrative mistakes which can 

 be committed with the eyes open, occupation of an 

 adapted buildmg for the business of a head post- 

 office stands in the front rank. 



However, this error has been retrieved by the erec- 

 tion of an imposing and spacious edifice in Spring 

 Gardens, close at hand, which houses all branches of 

 business except the parcel post. 



Manchester considered herself a seaport long before 

 the Ship Canal was completed, or even planned. lYTjZcpC^C-r^ 

 Intersected by three rivers, not to speak of the ^^^^t'-Zv 

 Bridgwater and other canals, she had some claim to 1 ^"""^^^^ 



be styled a city of the waters. ^^"^^^T^'^u^^ 



'But,' says a comparatively modern writer, 'not- /^/ ^ 



