1. Every person or firm engaged in extensive correspondence should purchase the "British Postal Guide," at least once a-year. It is published quarterly, and may be had at any post-office for a shilling.
2. Those engaged in frequent correspondence with our colonies or with foreign countries should, in addition, subscribe for the "Postal Official Circular," published weekly for a penny, which gives the latest information on all points regarding the incoming and outgoing of all foreign and colonial mails.
3. Since the division of the metropolis into postal districts, those requiring frequent communication with different parts of London will find of great service a penny book which contains a list of all the streets, &c. in London and its environs, as divided into the ten districts, and giving the initials in each case. This book may be purchased at any post-office. It is said that delay is sometimes avoided by adding the initials of the London districts to letters forwarded from the provinces.
4. As a rule, with few exceptions indeed, letters are forwarded according to their address. It is of paramount importance, therefore, that the addresses of letters should not only be legible, but the proper and the complete address. Perhaps the following suggestions on this head may be found useful, viz.:—
   • (a) Never to post a letter without addressing it either a post town or a county. If the information cannot otherwise be obtained, the "British Postal Guide" contains a list of all post-offices in the United Kingdom, and gives post town to which they are subordinate.
   • (b) Letters for small towns or villages ought not to addressed to the nearest large town, merely because it the nearest; although, as a rule, the town in question will be the correct post town, there are many exceptions, which can only be known by reference to the "Guide" provided, or by inquiry.
   • (c) If the town be not well known, or if there be two towns of the same name in the country, the county ought to be added. (All the cities and county towns are well known.) Thus, letters addressed to Newport should always give the county, inasmuch as there are several towns and villages of that name in England. Again, letters for Newcastle should either have the county added, or the usual designation thus: Newcastle-on-Tyne, Newcastle-under-Lyme, or Newcastle Emlyn.
   • (d) Letters posted in England for Scotland or Ireland, vice vers (except in the case of the great towns of the three countries), should have the name of the country to which they are sent given as part of the address. N. B. (North Britain) for Scotland, and S. B. (South Britain) for England, would generally be thought sufficient for letters circulating between the two countries.
   • (e) Foreign letters should invariably have the name of the country given (in English if possible). It ought also to be given in full. Letters addressed "London, C. W." and intended for London in Western Canada, have not unfrequently been sent to the West Central District in London, and so delayed. Letters addressed to "Hamilton, C. W." have also been mis-sent to Hamilton in Scotland, the initials having been overlooked.
   • (f) The street, &c. should be given on all addresses. Well known persons and firms get their letters, &c. regularly, although this rule may not be adhered to; but the omission frequently leads to delays in the general distribution, and sometimes to serious mistakes. In large towns where many names of firms approximate in appearance somewhat to each other, the addresses of letters cannot be too fully given. With London letters, this rule should be strictly adhered to.
   • (g) The number of the house, and the correct one, should be carefully added.[184] When information of this sort is kept back, hesitation and delay frequently occur in delivery; though, perhaps, few letters eventually fail to reach their destination on this account.
5. Every letter should be examined with care before it is dropped in a letter-box, in order to see that it has been securely sealed. Thousands of letters are posted yearly without any precaution of the kind having been taken with them, the Post-Office authorities having to secure them as a consequence.[185] Not only so, but twelve thousand letters are yearly posted without any address at all.
6. Good adhesive envelopes, not too highly glazed, of the ordinary size, are sufficient security for letters,[186] if the adhesive matter has been but slightly wetted. If, for additional security, it be thought advisable also to seal a letter with wax, it should be placed outside the envelope. Very frequently, the wax is found to have been placed on the adhesive matter inside the envelope, thus rendering both ineffective.
7. Letters intended for warm climates should not be sealed with wax at all, inasmuch as there is great danger of the wax melting and injuring the letter, as well as the other contents of the mail-bag.
8. Care should be used in securing newspapers and large packets.[187] Newspapers, when not sent at first from the newspaper offices, should be addressed on the paper itself and tied with string, as great risk is run in the matter of covers becoming detached from the newspapers themselves. Book packets, in addition to being enclosed in covers, sealed with wax, gum, or other adhesive matter (but open at the ends or sides), may be tied round the ends with string, as additional security. When the latter precaution is taken, there is less chance of letters getting within the folds of the packet, which may happen when it is not thoroughly secured.
9. Valuable packets or books, if they cannot be well secured, should scarcely be sent through the post. All such packets are liable to be roughly handled, and in the mail-bags exposed to pressure and friction. When safely deposited in the mail-bags, valuable packets are still in danger, inasmuch as the bags in many cases are constantly being transferred from one kind of conveyance to another, and frequently despatched from railway trains by apparatus machinery whilst the train is in motion.
10. Books with valuable bindings, if it is necessary that they should be sent through the post, might be well secured in strong boards; valuable papers or prints should be enclosed in strong paper, linen, parchment, or other material which will not readily tear or break. Fragile articles of value (which should by all means be registered, as special care will then be taken of them in all respects) might best be enclosed in wooden boxes, and then wrapped in paper.
11. It is hardly necessary now to point out that the postage-stamp should be placed on the upper right-hand corner of the envelope, and the address written as much towards the left hand as possible; the address will then be removed from the stamp and the postmark of the office, which will be impressed upon the letter before it is despatched. Delay is caused to the Post-Office operations when the stamp is otherwise placed; and in cases which occasionally occur, where the stamp is placed at the back of the letter, it frequently happens that it is sent away charged with the unpaid postage.
12. The penny receipt-stamp will not, under any circumstances, serve the purpose of the penny postage-stamp, though many people would seem to think differently; all letters bearing a receipt-stamp are, of course, charged as if unpaid. The two kinds of stamp might easily be assimilated, and there are rumours that this may soon be done; but they have their distinct duties at present, and the one cannot take the place of the other.
13. The Post-Office stamped envelopes (which may be obtained singly, in part packets, or entire packets, of two or three sizes, and embossed with either penny or twopenny stamps) are in every way the most secure; and if the paper were of better quality, would be quite as economical, as if the ordinary env

    In the case of newspapers and book-packets, the same remarks, as well as the same arrangements, apply. It should be particularly remembered that a newspaper when posted, say wet from the printing-office, will often weigh more than it does on delivery; hence surcharges for which the receiver sometimes cannot account.

14. In posting letters, care should be taken to see that they fall into the box, and do not stick in the passage. The pillar-boxes of our towns, whatever may be said to the contrary, are completely safe as a rule, though the same care should be exercised in depositing the letters.[189]
15. The earlier a letter is posted the better in all cases: towards the time for the closing of the letter-box, great haste is indispensably necessary in the manipulations which a town's correspondence must undergo, whilst earlier on it gets carefully disposed of in proper box and bag. When letters or newspapers are posted in great numbers, as in the case of circulars, they should be posted as early as practicable, and should be tied up in bundles with the addresses all in one direction, or they may be delayed in the press of work.[190]
16. Every letter of consequence put into the post should contain the name of the sender and also his address, in order that, if it cannot be delivered as addressed, it may be promptly returned to the writer.
17. All business letters, at any rate, might have the sender's name and address embossed on the back of the envelope. On failure to deliver such letters, they would then be returned to the writers without being opened. Care should be taken, however, not to use envelopes with another person's name embossed in this way, as the letter will be forwarded back to the address thus given, though it should not happen to be the sender's own.
18. Coin is prohibited to be sent in ordinary letters passing between one part of the United Kingdom and another.[191] If a letter be posted containing coin, it will be registered and charged a double registration fee. Coins or any other articles of value, if properly secured, will be certain of careful treatment under the registration system.[192]
19. Letters meant to be registered must never be dropped into the letter-box as in the case of ordinary letters, but should be given to the clerk in charge of the post-office counter or window to be dealt with, who will in each case give his receipt for it. The receipt is the sender's evidence that it has been posted in proper course.
20. Letters containing sharp instruments, liquids, &c. or any other articles which would be likely of themselves, or if they should escape, to do injury to the other contents of the mail-bag, should never be posted. Postmasters have instructions not to forward such letters according to their address, but, when observed, to send them to the Dead-Letter Office, from which place they will be returned to the writers. Valuable letters of this forbidden kind, therefore, run great risks of delay, while the articles are liable to be destroyed in their passage through the post.[193]
21. Though the transmission of coin in letters is now absolutely forbidden, except under the registration scheme, arrangements are made for rendering it easy to send small sums by post in postage-stamps. When presented at any of the numerous money-order offices in the United Kingdom, they may be exchanged for money, at a charge of 2½ per cent. Any person wishful to send through the post a sum of money under five or six shillings will find it cheaper to buy stamps and enclose them, in place of a post-office order. One penny will be charged for buying forty stamps, a halfpenny for twenty stamps. 60,000l. worth of postage-stamps were bought from the public during the year 1862.
22. In sending postage-stamps in letters, care should be taken to use thick envelopes, so that enclosures of this kind may neither be seen nor felt. It is easy to feel a quantity of postage-stamps in a letter sent in a thin and crisp envelope, and some official becoming aware of this may not be able to resist the temptation to appropriate them.
23. No enclosures whatever should be sent in newspapers impressed with the regular newspaper-stamp. Even an old address of such a newspaper should be carefully cut out. It is not enough that it be obliterated with the pen, as the rules forbid writing of any kind in addition to the mere address.[194]

    With newspapers stamped by the ordinary postage-label the arrangements are quite different. Any printed paper or manuscript may be folded up with the newspaper on which an ordinary penny-stamp is placed, provided the total amount of the package does not exceed four ounces. The old address (supposing the newspaper has circulated through the post before) may be left on or not at the discretion of the sender, as this does not interfere with the regulation that nothing in the packet shall be of the nature of a letter. On the other hand, any sentence or message written in ink or pencil on any part of the paper makes the packet liable to the unpaid letter-rate of postage.

24. When any letter, book-packet, or newspaper is lost, miscarried, or delayed, inquiry should be made as soon as evidence has been obtained that the article in question was really posted. The postmaster of the town should be informed by the complainant of every particular relating to the missing letter, &c. the day and hour of its posting, the office at which and the person by whom this was done. In cases of delay or mis-sending, the covers ought to be produced in order that the office stamps on them may indicate the exact place where the delay has been occasioned. Correspondence on the subject of the complaints will subsequently be carried on between the applicant and the Secretary's department in England, Scotland, or Ireland, as the case may be.
25. When any one has reason to believe that he has paid extra postage on a letter or packet improperly, or has been charged more than the case would warrant, he should apply to his postmaster, who will bring the case before the notice of the Secretary, when, if any mistake has been made, the money will be refunded by order. Postmasters cannot return postage paid improperly until instructed to do so from the chief offices.
26. When an unpaid letter is presented to a person who has not the means at disposal of paying the demand upon it (some foreign or colonial letter may be taxed heavily), it will be kept at the post-office a month, if a request be made to that effect, in order that efforts may be made to obtain the necessary money to release it.
27. Postmasters and their clerks are forbidden to be parties to the deceptions which used to be practised, and which are now sometimes attempted, as to the place of posting of a letter. If any communication should be forwarded, under cover, to the postmaster of a provincial town, with a request that it may be posted at his office, it will be sent to the Returned-Letter Branch in London, and from thence to the writer.
28. Advertisements are occasionally seen, and applications frequently made, for defaced postage-stamps. It is stated, in some cases, that a given number will gain certain individuals admission to different charitable institutions. Whatever may be the purpose for which the old stamps are required, the Post-Office authorities have found, by inquiry, that the ostensible reason here given has uniformly been false. It is sometimes feared that attempts are made to clean and re-issue them, though this can be attended with but partial success. It is much more probable that they are sought to indulge some whim, such as papering boxes or even rooms.
29. With reference to money-orders, the public should be careful—
    • (a) Always to give particulars of any order required in writing. When a number of orders are required, to write out a full list of them. Forms for single orders may be had gratuitously at all money-order offices. These forms, or other written papers, are invariably kept on files for a given time, so that reference may easily be made to them in the event of any mistake. Mistakes may, of course, be made either by the applicant or the clerk on duty. If, on production of the paper, the error is seen to have been the sender's, he must pay (generally a second commission) for the necessary alterations: if, however, it be proved to be caused by the clerk issuing the order, the Post-Office calls upon the latter to bear the expense himself.
    • (b) Never to present an order for payment on the day on which it is issued, nor, on the other hand, to allow two months to elapse before calling for payment.[195]
    • (c) When sending an order, either to send it to its destination singly, or in a letter signed only by initials. Money-orders passing between friends need not be accompanied with information such as is sometimes required in business transactions.

[184] The irregularities and eccentricities in the numbering of streets and houses is a great difficulty. On one occasion a London inspector of letter-carriers, going round the districts, noticed a brass-plate with the number 95 between two houses numbered respectively 15 and 16. He made inquiry, when the old lady who tenanted the house said that the number had belonged to a former residence, and, thinking it a pity that it should be thrown away, she had transferred it to her new home, supposing that it would do as well as any other number!