igh rates of commission, and to high
postage, little business was done in the earlier years. In 1839 less
than 190,000 orders were issued of the value of L313,000, while last
year the total number of transactions within the United Kingdom was
9,228,183, representing a sum of nearly L23,000,000 sterling.

In the year 1861 the Post Office entered upon the business of banking by
the establishment of the Post Office Savings Banks. At the present time
there are upwards of 9000 offices within the kingdom at which Post
Office Savings Bank business is transacted. The number of persons having
accounts with these banks is now 4,220,927, and the annual deposits
represent a gross sum of over L19,000,000.

In order of time the next additional business taken up by the Department
was that of the telegraphs. Before 1870 the telegraph work for the
public was carried on by several commercial companies and by the railway
companies; but in that year this business became a monopoly, like the
transmission of letters, in the hands of the Post Office. The work of
taking over these various telegraphs, and, consolidating them into a
harmonious whole, was one of gigantic proportions, requiring indomitable
courage and unwearying energy, as well as consummate ability; and when
the history of this enterprise comes to be written, it will perhaps be
found that the undertaking, in magnitude and importance, comes in no
measure short of the Penny Postage scheme of Sir Rowland Hill.

In the first year of the control of the telegraphs by the Post Office
the number of messages sent was nearly 9,472,000, excluding 700,000
press messages. At that time the minimum charge was 1s. per message. In
1885 the minimum was reduced to 6d., and under this rate the number of
messages rose last year to 62,368,000.

The most recent addition of importance to the varied work of the Post
Office is that of the Parcel Post. This business was started in 1883. In
the first year of its operation the number of inland parcels transmitted
was upwards of 22,900,000. Last year the number, including a proportion
of foreign and colonial parcels, rose to 39,500,000, earning a gross
postage of over L878,547. The uniform rates in respect of distance, the
vast number of offices where parcels are received and delivered, and the
extensive machinery at the command of the Post Office for the work,
render this business one of extreme accommodation to the public. Not
only is the Parcel Post tak