the last
evening delivery. Speaking broadly, there is as regards delivery, as for
other operations, essential separation between parcels and all other
classes of packets.

In regard to packets other than parcels, the chief, and in many cases
the only, separation in actual handling is as between those packets
which can be passed through the stamping machine and those which
cannot; and between those packets which can conveniently be dealt with
at the ordinary letter-sorting frames, and tied in bundles for enclosure
in the mail-bags, and those which on account of their irregular size and
shape are sorted at pigeon-hole frames, and cannot be tied in bundles,
but are forwarded loose in the mail-bags. The dividing line is almost
identical in both cases, and is determined by the size and shape of the
packet. In the largest offices more divisions are made, in some cases as
many as five.[613]

The more usual number is three, "short letters," "long letters," and
other packets.[614] The division of the packets is made in all cases,
not with reference to the various rates of postage under which the
packets may have been posted, but with the view simply of securing that
packets of the same shape and size shall, as far as possible, be brought
together, and their subsequent handling thereby facilitated.

In cases where there are four or five such divisions of the packets, the
separation is likewise made from considerations independent of the rates
of postage, although it happens that, as a rule, a large proportion of
the packets posted under a given rate fall into a certain group. Thus
all postcards fall to be handled with the short letters; all newspapers
fall to be handled with the heavier packets sent at the letter rate; and
a large proportion of the halfpenny packets, viz. the short halfpenny
packets, fall to be handled with the short letters.

There are in general three methods of handling. The sorting is done
either at the ordinary open frames, or at the newspaper frames, or
directly into the mail-bags, the two latter methods being alternative.
Short letters are dealt with at the ordinary sorting frames. Long
letters (which include a large proportion of "circulars") are dealt with
in some cases at the ordinary frames, and in some cases at the frames
provided for the larger packets (the "newspaper" frames). All other
packets are dealt with at the newspaper frames, or are sorted directly
into the mail-bags in those cases wher