means of preventing abstraction, it might be well to use a tell-tale stamp at the Central Office, the reckoning being recorded as the stamping of the letters from each receiving-house was completed.
The Deputy Post-masters at the several post-towns, in transmitting their letters to London, would account for the postage they received precisely in the same manner and under the same checks as the metropolitan receivers.
It is not necessary to enumerate all the advantages which would result from such an arrangement as this, indeed such an enumeration would be impossible, for it invariably happens in all extensive operations that simplification is productive of advantages which were unexpected. One, however, occurs to me as arising indirectly out of these arrangements, which is too important to be altogether omitted. A great source of trouble at the Post Office is, the incompleteness or inaccuracy of the addresses to the letters. Frequently these imperfections are apparent on the face of the letter; for instance, there is no inconsiderable number of letters put into the Post Office daily with no address whatever, and, what is very remarkable, not a few of these letters contain money. Now, as the receiver would have to look at the address of each letter before putting it into its proper box, and as this examination might take
two latter may or may not be tell-tale stamps. Many other provisions, which would soon be discovered in practice, have, for the sake of brevity, been purposely passed sub silentio.
