5th. Printed parliamentary proceedings.

(_d_) Late letters, &c. are received till within five minutes of the despatch of the mails, except where the Post-Office surveyor may deem a longer interval necessary, and providing that this arrangement does not necessitate any office being open after ten o'clock at night. In each post-office window placards are exhibited showing the time up to which such letters may be posted.

No late letters can be forwarded by the mail preparing for despatch unless prepaid in stamps, including the ordinary postage and the late-letter fee. Government letters are an exception to this rule; they may be posted, without extra fee, up to the latest moment.

(_e_) Letters containing sharp instruments, knives, scissors, gla.s.s, &c.

are not allowed to circulate through the post, to the risk of damaging the general correspondence. Such communications, when posted, are detained and forwarded to the Metropolitan Office, where correspondence is at once opened with the senders.

Letters for the United Kingdom found to contain coin are only forwarded to their destination under certain restrictions. Such letters, if not registered, are at once treated as if they were, and charged on delivery with a double registration-fee, or eightpence in addition to the postage.

REGISTERED LETTERS.

The registration-fee of fourpence, prepaid in stamps, will secure careful treatment to any letter, newspaper, or book-packet addressed to any part of the United Kingdom. Record is kept of all such letters throughout their entire course. The registration of a packet makes its transmission more secure, by rendering it practicable to trace it from its receipt to its delivery. For a fee of sixpence letters may be registered to any British colony, except Ascension, Vancouver's Island, British Columbia, and Labuan, for which places they can only be registered part of the way. Letters may be registered to several foreign countries at varying rates. (_See British Postal Guide._)

Every letter meant for registration should be presented at the post-office window, or counter (as the case may be) and a receipt obtained for it, and must on no account be dropped into the letterbox among the ordinary letters. If, contrary to this rule, a letter marked "registered" be found in the letter-box, addressed to the United Kingdom, it will be charged an extra registration-fee of double the ordinary fee, or one of eightpence instead of fourpence.

The latest time for posting a registered letter on payment of the ordinary fee is generally up to within half an hour of the closing of the letter-box for that particular mail with which it will require to be forwarded. A registered letter will be received at all head offices up to the closing of the general letter-box, or until the office is closed for the night, on payment of a late fee of fourpence in addition to the ordinary registration fee. All fees, as well as postage, of registered letters must be prepaid in stamps. A registered letter, when re-directed, is liable to the same additional charge as if it were an ordinary letter, the original register fee, however, sufficing until it is delivered.

By Act of Parliament, the Post-Office is not responsible for the absolute security of registered letters, though every care and attention are given to them. Each registered letter may be traced from hand to hand, from posting to delivery, with unfailing accuracy, and there can be no question as to the great security which is thus afforded. Any officer who may neglect his duty with registered letters is called to strict account, and, if the Postmaster-General should see fit, will be required to make good any loss that may be sustained. In cases where registered letters have been lost (in the proportion, it is said, of about one in ninety thousand), or some abstraction of their contents, the Department makes good the loss, if the fault is shown to rest with the Post-Office, and if the sum lost be of moderate amount and the sufferer a person not in affluent circ.u.mstances.

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL LETTER-POSTS.

For information of the despatch of foreign and colonial mails; rates of postage; and as to whether prepayment be optional or compulsory; see the "British Postal Guide," published quarterly.

Letters addressed to places abroad may be prepaid in this country either in money or stamps, but such payment must be made either wholly in stamps or wholly in money. The only exception to this rule is when the rate of postage includes a fractional part of a penny, for which, of course, there are no existing English stamps.

With certain exceptions, the only admitted evidence of the prepayment of a foreign letter is the mark agreed upon with the particular foreign country or colony.

When prepayment is _optional_, any outward letter (_e. g._ going abroad) posted with an insufficient number of stamps is charged with the deficient postage in addition, unless the letter has to go to Holland, or to the United States, or to a country through France, in which case it is treated as wholly unpaid, the postal conventions with these countries not allowing the recognition of partial prepayment. When, however, prepayment of the whole postage is _compulsory_, a letter, or aught else posted with an insufficient number of stamps, is sent (by the first post) to the Returned Letter Office.

Letters for Russia and Poland are also treated as wholly unpaid, if the full postage has not been paid in the first instance.

Letters to or from Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, British West Indies (except Turk's Island), Honduras, and St. Helena, posted wholly unpaid, or paid less than one rate, are detained and returned to the writers for postage. If the letters should be paid with one rate (paid for half an ounce, for instance, when the letter weighs more than half an ounce), they are forwarded (except in the case of New Zealand), charged with the deficient postage and sixpence as a fine. Letters for New Zealand must be fully prepaid.

Letters for nearly all our remaining British colonies, if posted unpaid, either wholly or in part, are, on delivery, charged sixpence each in addition to the ordinary postage.

Letters intended to be sent by private ship should, in all cases, have the words "By private ship," or "By ship," distinctly written above the address. The postage of letters forwarded by private ship is sixpence--if the weight does not exceed half an ounce--and the postage must generally be prepaid. Exception is made to most of our North American and African colonies, to which places prepayment by private ship is not compulsory. (See table in the _British Postal Guide_.)

When the route by which a foreign or colonial letter is to go is not marked on the letter, it will be sent by the princ.i.p.al or earliest route. In some cases, the postage paid (provided it be by stamps) is regarded as an indication of the wish of the sender, and the letters are forwarded by the route for which the prepayment is sufficient. Thus, letters for Holland, Denmark, Norway, &c. which, as a rule, are sent _via_ Belgium, are sent _via_ France, if the prepayment be insufficient for the former, but sufficient for the latter route.

_North American and Indian Mails._--Letters for pa.s.sengers on board the Cunard mail packets for America touching at Queenstown, provided they be addressed to the care of the officers in charge of the mails on board such packets, _and be registered_, may be posted in any part of the United Kingdom up to the time at which registered letters intended for transmission to America by the same packets are received, and they will be delivered on board the packets at Queenstown.

Letters for pa.s.sengers on board the Mediterranean packets about to sail from Southampton for India, China, Australia, &c. and the Canadian mail packets touching at Londonderry, may, under similar conditions, be posted up to the same time as registered letters for India and Canada.

The letters should be addressed thus: "Mr. ----, on board the mail packet at Queenstown, Londonderry, or Southampton (as the case may be), care of the officer in charge of the mails."

Letters directed to the care of the packet agent at Suez, and despatched by the Indian mails _via Ma.r.s.eilles_, which always leaves after the mails _via Southampton_, will most probably there reach pa.s.sengers for India, &c. who may have previously sailed in the Southampton packets.

NEWSPAPER POSTS.

(_a_) It is not compulsory to send newspapers through the post.

(_b_) The rate for newspapers stamped with the _impressed_ stamp is one penny for two sheets, three-halfpence for three sheets, and twopence for four sheets, of printed matter.

(_c_) No newspaper, or other publication, can pa.s.s through the post, unless the impressed stamp be of the value of at least one penny.

(_d_) The t.i.tle and date of every publication so pa.s.sing must be printed at the top of every page.

(_e_) The impressed stamp (or stamps, if more than one publication be sent under one cover) must be distinctly visible on the outside. When a newspaper is folded so as not to expose the stamp, a fine of one penny is made in addition to the proper postage of the paper.

(_f_) The publication must not be printed on pasteboard or cardboard, but on ordinary paper, nor must it be enclosed in a cover of either material.

(_g_) Newspapers bearing the impressed stamp cannot circulate through the post after they are _fifteen days old_.

(_h_) They must not contain any enclosure, and must either have no cover at all, or one which shall be open at both ends. They must have no writing either inside or outside, except the name of the persons to whom they are sent, the printed t.i.tle of the publications, and the printed names of the publishers or agents sending them. If one of these newspapers be addressed to a second person, the address in the first instance still remaining, it is regarded as an infringement of the above rule, and renders the paper liable to be charged as an unpaid letter.

(_i_) In order that newspapers may be sent abroad, the publishers must first have had them registered at the General Post-Office.

(_j_) Newspapers intended for transmission to our colonies or foreign countries must, in all cases, be prepaid _with postage-stamps_, the impressed stamp here, in all respects, standing for nothing. Though this is the case, all newspapers sent abroad are liable to the same regulations as English newspapers bearing impressed stamps.

(_k_) It must be borne in mind, that the arrangements for inland newspapers forwarded under the book-post regulations, and paid with the ordinary postage-stamp, are entirely distinct from the above.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

(_a_) Printed proceedings of the British Parliament are forwarded through the Post-Office at a special rate, and possess privileges in their transmission not belonging to either the newspaper- or book-postage. Parliamentary proceedings, however, may pa.s.s through the post at either the special rate, the newspaper rate, or book-post rate, always provided that the conditions of the particular rate chosen be complied with.

(_b_) "Parliamentary proceedings," if these words are written or printed on the cover (otherwise they are liable to be charged letter rate), may circulate through the United Kingdom at the following rates of postage:--

Weighing not more than 4 oz. 1_d._ Weighing more than 4 oz. and not exceeding 8 oz. 2_d._ " 8 oz. " 12 oz. 3_d._ " 12 oz. " 16 oz. 4_d._

and so on; one penny being charged for every additional _quarter_ of a pound or fraction of a quarter of a pound.

(_c_) Prepayment of parliamentary proceedings is _optional_ throughout the United Kingdom. Prepayment may also be made in part, when the _simple difference only_ will be charged on delivery.

Parliamentary proceedings can only be sent to the colonies or foreign countries by means of the book-post system, and, of course, only where book-posts are established.

THE BOOK-POST.

(_a_) Written or printed matter of any kind--including matter which may be sent by the ordinary newspaper-post, or under the special privileges of parliamentary proceedings--may be sent through the book-post under the following rates and conditions:--

(_b_)

A packet weighing not more than 4 oz. 1_d._ " more than 4 oz. but not exceeding 8 oz. 2_d._ " more than 8 oz. " 1 lb. 4_d._ " more than 1 lb. " 1 lb. 6_d._ " more than 1 lb. " 2 lb. 8_d._