icient consideration for the slight trouble of keeping the
office. The letters are taken to the post-office at stated hours, by
persons employed for that purpose; those which are to be mailed are
separated, and those which are for local delivery sorted and delivered to
the carriers to go out by the next delivery. I have not a list of the
number or size of the cities and towns within which the free delivery is
enjoyed. Its necessary effect in increasing the number of letters sent by
mail, and benefiting the country and the government by the aid it
furnishes to trade and general prosperity, would seem to be a guaranty
that the department would be likely to extend the free delivery as far as
it could possibly answer, within the reasonable ability of the government,
to meet the reasonable wants of the people.

The London District Post was originally a penny post, and was created by
private enterprise. One William Dockwra, in the reign of Charles II., set
up a private post for the delivery of letters in the city of London, for
which the charge was 1_d_., payable invariably in advance. It was soon
taken possession of by the government, and the same rate of postage
retained until 1801, when, for the sake of revenue, the postage was
doubled, and so remained until the establishment of the general penny
postage. Its limits were gradually extended to include the city of
Westminster and the borough of Southwark, then all places within a circle
of three miles, and finally to twelve miles from the General Post-Office.

Within the three miles circle there are 220 receiving houses, of which 180
are within the town portions of the district. At these offices, letters
are despatched to the post-office, ten times daily, viz. at 8, 10, and 12,
in the morning, and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8, in the afternoon. Letters are
required to be left at the receiving house a quarter of an hour previous
to the hour. The letters so left may be expected to be delivered within
the three miles circle in about two hours from the hour at which they are
sent to the post-office; that is, the 8 o'clock letters are delivered by
10, and so on.

There are now ten deliveries daily, within a circle of three miles from
the post-office; five deliveries in a circle of six miles, and three
deliveries to the circle of twelve miles distance. In the three miles
circle, the delivery is completed in one hour and a quarter from the time
the carrier leaves the office; in the six