The first business undertaken by the General Post Office, other than that of the despatch and delivery of correspondence, was the Money Order system. This has existed for considerably more than a century, but it was not taken over by the Post Office until the year 1838. It is not difficult to understand why the need for the system became urgent in carrying on the service of the posts. The sending of letters containing money was a constant and almost necessary practice, and the frequent thefts of letters of this kind became a public scandal. In 1791 a scheme was proposed to the Postmaster-General, but the legal adviser of the Department raised difficulties, and eventually it was decided that the business could not be officially adopted. Then followed the curious history of a private undertaking sanctioned and encouraged by the Postmaster-General. The six Clerks of the Roads, who were already conducting a large newspaper business for their own advantage, came forward with a proposal to undertake a Money Order plan, or as it was then called a “Money Letter” plan, and the Postmaster-General decided to give it official countenance. That is to say, he bore the cost of advertising it and allowed the advices of the Money Orders to go free by post under the frank of the Secretary of the Post Office. The Clerks of the Roads traded under the name of a private firm. They issued orders and advices very much as at present, the amounts paid and received being accounted for quarterly with the Clerks of the Roads.

The theory of those opposed to the Postmaster-General undertaking directly the business, was that the money used by the country postmasters in the business was not the public revenue, but money which they had received as agents for the Clerks of the Roads in their newspaper business.

The scheme came into operation on 1st October 1792, and the limit of a Money Order was fixed at £5, 5s., and the commission charged was at first 6d. in the £1, of which the payee contributed half. The commission was reduced in 1793 to 4d. for Orders to and from London, while it remained at 6d. between country towns. Subsequently the commission rose to 8d. in the £1 for all Orders, in addition to stamp duty.

Over and above the commission on the Orders and the stamp duty the persons making use of them were obliged to pay the high postage of double letters, as the packet would contain both a letter and a Money Order. This was felt to be such a burden that in 1837 the Orders were printed at the top of a large sheet of paper on which a letter might be written, and the whole might pass for a single postage.

The capital embarked originally in the Money Order business by the Clerks of the Roads was £1000, and it does not seem to have been, even with the countenance of the Post Office, a paying concern, for in 1798 the Clerks of the Roads abandoned it, their loss on the six years' trading being £298. Three of the clerks, however, continued the business as a private speculation, and the anomaly of the arrangement came in for a great deal of adverse criticism. At last, in 1829, a Commission reported that they entirely disapproved of such a concern being carried on by private persons for their own profit, and they recommended “that its management should be directly controlled by proper officers of the Department, and that the produce be appropriated to the Revenue.” It was nine years, however, after the Commission reported before the Postmaster-General was able to act on the suggestion, and to compensate the officers whose vested interests in the business had to be considered.

A large amount of coin was still sent by post, and with the intention of taking away all inducements to remit money in this way the commission was reduced in 1840 to 3d. and 6d. The number of Orders issued from 1797 to 1800 averaged 11,880 a year; in 1839, when the Post Office had taken over the business, the numbers rose to 188,000; and in the following two years after the rates were reduced the numbers were 587,000 in 1840 and 1,500,000 in 1841.

The Penny Postage reform gave a tremendous impetus to the use of Money Orders, and by the year 1853 the number had reached 5,000,000. Further reductions and adjustments of rates were made, and by 1870 the number stood at 9,750,000 Orders issued during one year; and in 1878 the highest number on record was reached, viz. 18,000,000. On sums of 10s. and under, only 1d. had been charged since 1871, and this low charge was found to be unremunerative. There was a loss on the whole business, and the rates were raised again in 1878. The introduction of Postal Orders in 1881 led to a diversion of much of the Money Order business, especially in the matter of small sums.

There are many stories in existence of the early days of the Money Order Office. All public offices have a sort of atmosphere of their own, a tradition of work and the manner of work which lingers persistently under altering conditions. When the Money Order Office came under the direct control of the Post Office it was a long time before it was able to shake off the traditions of its early history as a private concern. Those were the days before competitive examinations, and when men could be pitchforked into high positions in the Civil Service from outside without official experience. In 1841 a President was appointed to the new Money Order Office, and his claim to the post seems to have been that he lent the premises which he occupied as a timber-merchant for political purposes. These were burnt down, and as compensation for disturbance his political friends rewarded him with a position at the Post Office.

If all the stories are true this ex-timber-merchant was a remarkable man and a still more remarkable official. Hourly his bell was rung. The messenger appeared. “What did I have last?” “Half a pint of stout, sir.” “Then bring me half a pint of bitter.” Another hour passed and the same form was gone through. “What did I have last?” “Half a pint of bitter, sir.” “Then bring me half a pint of stout.”

It was said that until the Money Order Office was taken in hand seriously by the Department, the most conspicuous article of office furniture was the pewter pot. At about 11 A.M. the potman from the old “Raglan” opposite used to come over with a great tray full of pints and half-pints, and the clerks drank the health of their friends and themselves before tackling the arduous business of the day. The potman grew to consider himself a member of the Post Office staff, and he is said on one occasion to have sharply reprimanded the Secretary of the Post Office in language peculiar to his class, for not making way for the pots to pass him on the stairs. In the potman's eyes it was as big a crime as to delay the advance of his Majesty's mails.

This first President was said to be very amenable to the softening influence of a judicious present. The clerk who wanted a holiday would call in at Sweeting's and buy a brace of pheasants. Then he would put in his application for leave with the pheasants. Things were very lax indeed. One man was asked to explain his absence on a Saturday morning, and he replied: “My absence to-day was really not intended on my part. I mistook the day of the week, and thought the day was Sunday.” I do not know whether it was in finding the door of his parish church closed that he discovered his mistake.

A man absented himself from the Office during the first three days of the week, and then calmly explained on the Thursday morning that he had overslept himself; in no other way could he explain the passing of the three days.

In those days, when a new Postmaster-General had an opportunity of using his patronage, new officers used to come up from the country in batches. Three or four Cumberland men, newly appointed as clerks, arrived at the Money Order Office one morning in a farmer's cart, in which they had been driven up to town from the north. They had saved their coach fares, and were mightily proud of their achievement.

The Office was moved in 1847 from St. Martin's le Grand to an ugly and lofty building in Aldersgate Street. It was frankly stated at the time that “the building was not intended to be an ornament to the City, but only the Money Order Office.” Those who remember this unsightly building do not require the unnecessary explanation.

In 1850 a new President was appointed, and he proved to be a different man from his predecessor, and to the astonishment of his subordinates he declined pheasants and refused special leave. The Office had now grown considerably, and there were no less than 160 clerks. In 1854 a Commission, of which the late Sir Stafford Northcote was chairman, made a thorough investigation into the working of the Office, and many of the old abuses were swept away. One of the reforms which affected the public was to allow crossed Orders to be paid through banks without the usual formalities over a post office counter.

Almost from the first the Office undertook the free payment of Orders issued by the spending departments at Whitehall, the greater part of which consisted of Orders issued by the Admiralty and War Office in payment of pensions to soldiers and sailors. No payment is made to the Post Office for the work, but the advantages to the pensioner are great and obvious. By means of Money Orders they obtain payment at the nearest offices to their homes instead of having to attend personally at central pay offices and running the risk of being swindled by sharpers.

The Foreign Order system came into operation during the Crimean War. The British army in the East, and especially the civilian element of the expedition, who had not, like the soldiers, a regular official means of remitting money home, felt the need of some special arrangements for this purpose. Miss Nightingale remitted for these people no less a sum than £50 a week during 1855, and at the end of the year it was decided that the Army Post Office should issue Money Orders at inland rates at Constantinople, Scutari Headquarters, and Balaclava. The system began in January 1856, and during the first eight weeks more than £13,000 was remitted. The total amount sent home during the war was £106,000.

In 1859 a Money Order Convention was arranged with Canada. The Postmaster-General reported on this as follows: “The enlargement of the Money Order system has worked very satisfactorily, and will, I hope, lead to the extension to other Colonies. Such an extension would, I am convinced, be productive of much good, would save much money that now probably runs to waste, would afford great relief to many weak and aged persons, separated by the broad ocean from the younger and more vigorous members of the family, and would materially promote self-supporting immigration.”

The Money Order system was extended in 1862 and 1863 to Cape Colony, to the Australian and several of the West Indian Colonies. The rest of the Colonies soon followed the example.

Switzerland began to exchange Orders with us in 1869. Six months later Belgium followed, and then Germany came into the system in 1871. The United States and France followed suit a few years later. Spain and some of the States of Central and South America are now the only countries of importance with which this country does not exchange Money Orders.

The Foreign and Colonial Branch of the Office conducts a most complicated business. It is supposed to have the world's geography at its fingers' ends, to be able to find the whereabouts of every remote hamlet in South Africa or North America, to read half-a-dozen foreign languages, and to understand a score of systems of currency. The clerks are expected to be able to pacify hungry and ill-looking Poles and Italians, whose ignorance of the English language is only equal to their inability to grasp our system.

Some years ago, in a discussion on the attitude of the Church of Rome towards the Church of England, Mr. Gladstone wrote a letter to the Times on the subject which was very much quoted in other journals. Several poor foreigners from the East End called at the Money Order Office in great distress. They had sent money abroad in postal notes and orders, and inquired anxiously as to their safety, as they had been alarmed by hearing that the Roman Catholic Archbishop had denied in the papers “the validity of Anglican orders.” This is a good story even if it is not true.

I am reminded of a joint application to the Department by a clergyman and an official of the Bank of England. The occupations of the two were described as “Clerks in Holy Orders and in Bank of England.” In justice to the clergyman, the description is in the writing of the Bank of England clerk.

Telegraph Money Orders were first introduced in 1889, and several years later the system was extended to most of the European countries.

Postal Orders were first issued in 1881, and from the first were a huge success. Nearly 650,000 were sold during the first three months, and the immediate effect was a reduction in the issue of Money Orders. The Postmaster-General in one of his reports was able to say that “Money Orders are often lost and often stolen, but the departmental check is so complete that not more than one in every hundred thousand of the Orders issued is paid to other than the lawful owner.” That was a proud but justifiable boast, but of course it is a different matter altogether with the Postal Order. Still its cheapness and handiness outweighed all risks, and its popularity has never diminished. The total number of Orders issued during 1910 was 125,855,000, and the commission on them realised £483,421.

The competitions arranged of late years by magazines and newspapers in the shape of missing words, Limericks, and puzzles have been felt nowhere more keenly than in the Postal Order branch. Some years ago a member of the staff in a private letter gave her experiences of a time of stress of this kind. “We are at present inundated with Pearson's Weekly. It is like the charge of the Light Brigade. Bundles to the right of us, bundles to the left of us, upstairs and downstairs. Pearson says in some interview that one of his female clerks counts the Postal Orders at the rate of 14,000 an hour with very few mistakes. The ordinary rate for the Post Office clerks who have had a good deal of experience, and who do it all day long, is between 3000 and 4000 per hour, and there are very few mistakes. I think any one who tried to count more than that would be a raving lunatic soon, and at any rate would not be able to continue at that speed (viz. 14,000 an hour) for six or seven consecutive hours. On one Tuesday morning a postmaster sent his ordinary requisition for a fortnight's supply, and over and above this asked for 250 at 1s. for some gentlemen who had already paid for them and wanted them urgently by Wednesday. When the competitions were announced to end several postmasters wrote asking for their stock to be taken back, as they were now overstocked. We ourselves helped to swell the number, and we have won occasionally, so that on the whole we don't mind the rush very much. There was one gentleman we heard of who having already sent up several words in one competition, thought of another at the last moment. He rushed out to the nearest post office, and asked a flaxen-haired damsel behind the counter for the necessary shilling Order. She had a scared look in her face, and she did not reply to the gentleman. She simply called out despairingly, 'Father, here's another,' and fled. And the father put the shutters up, turned the gas out, and the word never reached Pearson's.”

In the Postmaster-General's report for 1908 reference is made to the demand during 1907 for sixpenny orders in connection with “Limerick” competitions. The Postmaster-General is never flippant, nor does he feel bound as the head of a big business to deprecate this particular form of gambling: indeed there is almost a note of jubilation in the way he records an advance in the sales of Postal Orders of 23,000,000, largely due, as he says, to the competitions. And in his report for 1909 there is just a shade of disappointment in his manner of stating that the falling off in the sale of Orders, amounting to more than 10,000,000, is due to the passing away of the “Limerick” competitions.

Both in the Money Order and Postal Order Departments a great deal of the seamy side of our social life is revealed. Considerable numbers of Money Orders are sent to various lottery agents abroad, not a few go to firms of horse-racing bookmakers. Sometimes the public is unreasonable; it is curious how inquiries about money are usually expressed angrily and suspiciously. A payee was asked for full particulars of his Order, merely in order to trace it and help him to his lost property. His reply was on a postcard: “Why this humbug? I want my money.”

One man had sent an Order to purchase a performing dog, but wanted his money back, because “the dog that played tricks was a fraud, and could no more sham death than a dying duck in a thunderstorm could sing the National Anthem.” There was a twist in the man's mind which somehow led him to associate the Post Office with the dog having been palmed off on him.

A small boy altered the amount on an Order, and on being found out wrote up to the Secretary, “I am a Sunday School scholar, and have been to Sunday School all the days of my life,” and he wound up with, “O Lord, forgive me.” The father undertook to administer the cane to the young scholar, and the Secretary did not pursue the matter.

In spite of the huge number of posted Orders which are issued, a small percentage only go astray. Extra commission is charged on Orders not presented within a given time, and there are often cases when on an Order being presented it is found that this extra commission amounts to more than the value of the Order. In every recorded instance of this sort the payee has preferred to retain the Order! People have sometimes inadvertently thrown Orders on the fire, and have then collected the ashes in a little tin box, which they have sent to the Department as a guarantee of their good faith, and not with any hope that the Order can be identified from the ashes. Applications have even been received respecting Orders which have accidentally been “sent to the wash,” but the cleansing process has not been successful enough to obliterate the printing, and the Order can be cashed.

“They told me at the Post Office to go to the devil, and so I have come to you about my missing Order,” exclaimed an excitable gentleman as he entered the Inquiry Office.

We hear many complaints of the incivility of Post Office clerks, but there is often another side to the matter. Some day, perhaps, a literary counter clerk will give us his opinions on the civility of the British public. Think of the numerous inquiries and complaints which are addressed in an hour to the busy man or woman behind the counter on every conceivable subject of Post Office business, and we may wonder sometimes at the tempers which are not lost. In Household Words, many years ago, there was a description of the scene at a Money Order counter. “The clerks in this office ought to rival the lamented Sir Charles Bell in their knowledge of the expression of the hand. The varieties of hands that hover about the grating and are thrust through the little doorways in it are a continual study for them—or would be if they had time to spare, which assuredly they have not. The coarse-grained hand, which seems all thumb and knuckle and no nail, and which takes up money or puts it down with such an odd, clumsy, lumbering touch: the retail trader's hand, which clinks it up and tosses it over with a bounce: the housewife's hand, which has a lingering propensity to keep some of it back, and to drive a bargain by not paying in the last shilling or so of the sum for which her Order is obtained: the quick, the slow, the coarse, the fine, the sensitive and dull, the ready and unready—they are always at the grating all day long.” And the Post Office man or woman has to humour the possessors of these hands, to be patient with the foolish, to be restrained with the impatient, “to be merciful towards the absurd,” and to pay out or receive money all the time. Not all men and very few women understand the mysteries of change and commissions, and when they don't understand they suspect, and when they suspect they become unreasonable. It is difficult to say whether the public is most touchy when cashing or purchasing an Order. But in both cases it thinks it is being done by the long-suffering individual behind the counter.