a foreign mail is overdue. Moreover, to write in haste and repent at leisure is the experience of many an impetuous correspondent, who is ignorant or oblivious of the rule that a letter once posted can never be taken out of the box, that it becomes the property of the Postmaster-General until it is delivered to the person to whom it is addressed. The reports give many instances of the painful results of haste and carelessness; "On one occasion a gentlemanly-looking person called and expressed a fear that he had enclosed two letters in wrong envelopes, and that all his prospects in life depended on his having his letters back, and correcting the mistake; inasmuch as they revealed plans which he had adopted to save two mercantile houses in the same line of business, whose interests clashed at every point." A similar blunder occurred in a more delicate affair, when a young lady was most urgent to have her letters returned, as she had accepted the wrong offer of marriage. The local postmaster was unable to resist her earnest entreaties, and thus prevented a painful catastrophe. But a whole romance might be written on the following incident: A young lady, who had been engaged to a prosperous young manufacturer, was informed, a few days before the marriage was fixed for, that the firm was insolvent. Not a moment was to be lost, and a letter was written and posted, breaking the engagement; when, within two hours, it was discovered that the report was entirely unfounded. The report continues: "The daughter with her parents rushed to the post-office, and no words can describe the scene – the appeals, the tears, the wringing of hands, the united entreaties of the family, to have the fatal letter restored, but, alas! all was vain, the rule admitted of no exception."
The Blind Office is perhaps the part of the building of the greatest interest to visitors. Here a number of clerks, selected from the most efficient of the officers, have to decipher addresses, which to the inexperienced would seem utterly illegible or unintelligible. He should find it difficult what bag to place the enclosed in –
"Coneyach Lunentick
A Siliam."
The clerk strikes his pen through the address, and writes –
"Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum."
Again –
"Obern Yenen,"
is by a stroke of the pen converted into
"Holborn Union."
"Ann Megs, Oileywhite, Amshire."
It is seen that Ann Megs resides in the
"Isle of Wight, Hampshire."
"For Mister Willy wot brinds de Baber in Lang Caster ware te gal is,"
puzzled the officers, until it was discovered it was intended for the editor of a Lancaster paper where the jail is.
There was less difficulty in
"Qeen Vic Tory at Winer Casel, and to the King of Rusheyn. Feoren with speed."
"Lord John Manners gives a great many entertaining applications made to the office, and extraordinary letters received.
"May 1878.
"My Lord, – I ask you for some information about finding out persons
