George IV., it was held by two joint commissioners, who were expressly disqualified for sitting in the House of Commons, on account of the office having been created in 1711, subsequent to the statute of Anne, which declared that all new offices' should render their possessors ineligible for a seat in the House of Commons. For this reason the Postmaster-General has been hitherto almost invariably a peer. During the Canning administration, in 1827, the office was conferred upon a commoner; but this occasioned considerable inconvenience, as the department was unrepresented in both Houses, and the experiment was never repeated. At length, after several unsuccessful attempts," an Act was passed in the year 1866 to render the Postmaster-General eligible for the House of Commons. When he is a member of the House of Lords it becomes the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to represent the department in the Lower House.j g The Postmaster-General reports annually to the Lords of the Treasury upon the condition of his department, and these reports are invariably laid before Parliament. the depart In 1839 the system of transmitting Money Orders New duties through the Post Office was first formally established, imposed on though it had been in partial operation for some years ment. previously; and in the year 1861, advantage was taken of the facilities afforded by the Post-office money order system in operation throughout the kingdom to introduce Post-office Savings Banks, which have proved of incalculable benefit to the poorer classes in Great Britain and Ireland. And in 1864 another boon was bestowed by See ante, p. 233. See Mr. Darby Griffiths' motions, Hans. Deb. vol. clxxvi. p. 1390; vol. clxxviii. P. 378. 1 Act 29 & 30 Vict. c. 55. J Authority for the preceding statements, and further particulars concerning this department, will be found in the Report on Official Sala ries, 1850, Evid. 3238-3292. Com- By the Act 24 Vict. c. 14. For Lay sed mo.ey orders. Sunday labour. Government upon the poorer classes in the United Kingdom by empowering small payments to be received from time to time through the Post Office, towards the purchase of Government Annuities of small amounts, and on behalf of contracts for payments of sums of money on death.1 A question has lately arisen before the Committee of Public Accounts, in regard to the disposal of unclaimed Post-office money orders. Hitherto the moneys accruing from lapsed Post-office orders have been used by the department to form a fund for assisting its officers in the insurance of their lives. But as it is obviously improper for a department to create a fund out of money which neither belongs to them nor has been appropriated by Parliament, it has been suggested by Mr. Vine, of the Audit Office, in evidence before the Committee of Public Accounts, in 1867, that the money represented by these lapsed orders should be paid into the Exchequer, and if the orders are afterwards presented, Parliament should provide the means of paying them. But as yet the question stands open, the Treasury having come to no decision upon it.m The propriety and expediency of enjoining the cessation of Sunday labour in the various Post Offices throughout the United Kingdom has also frequently engaged the attention of Parliament, and has sometimes given rise to the expression of contrary opinions thereon." In 1850, a 1865, Appx. No. 2, pp. 156-189. Act 27 & 28 Vict. c. 43. See tables of premiums to be charged under contracts for the insurance of lives or the grant of Government annuities: and under contracts for the grant of Government deferred life annuities; also, regulations made pursuant to the Act aforesaid, by the PostmasterGeneral, respecting Government insurances and annuities. Commons Papers, 1865, vol. xxx. pp. 683-806. Second Rep. Com. Pub. Accts. 1867. Min. of Evid. 509–517. n See ante, vol. i. p. 262. royal commission appointed to investigate this question, made various recommendations on the subject, to which the Lords of the Treasury gave effect, with a view to lighten as far as possible labour in this department on the Lord's Day, and to discontinue all Sunday posts in rural districts, at the request of the receivers of sixsevenths of the Sunday letters.' But persons employed in the Post Office are expressly prohibited from agitating for a discontinuance of the Sunday delivery of letters. tracts. It devolves upon the Post-office department to enter Postal coninto contracts for the transmission of mails by steam or sailing vessels to places beyond the seas; but no such contracts are considered to be binding until an opportunity has been afforded to the House of Commons of expressing its opinion thereon. And while it is manifestly undesirable that either the Government or the House should be fettered by the House of Commons adopting an abstract resolution defining the terms upon which all postal subsidies shall be hereafter granted, it is essential that every postal contract should be submitted to the House at a sufficiently early stage of the agreement, to admit of a free expression of opinion in regard to the same, without entailing any pecuniary responsibility to the proposed contractors, in the event of the House objecting to the contract.* Tele In 1868, an important addition was made to the duties Electric of the General Post Office by transferring the control of graphs. the Electric Telegraphs within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to that department. This reform had been in contemplation by the government for several years, and had been advocated by the Chambers of Commerce throughout the kingdom, as well as by a large and influential portion of the public press. It was • Commons Papers, 1850, vol. xx. P. 455. Ibid. vol. liii. p. 183. Ibid. 1854, vol. lx. p. 27. 1867-8, No. 230. a Ibid. 1867-8, No. 230. See ante, vol. i. pp. 298, 501. ultimately effected by means of a permissive Act;" which empowers the Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Lords of the Treasury, from time to time to purchase, with moneys to be granted by Parliament for the purpose, the undertakings of any existing telegraph company whose shareholders may consent to such sale and transfer. Provided that the terms of the proposed purchase shall have previously 'lain for one month on the table of both Houses of Parliament without disapproval.' This Act is not intended to confer on the PostmasterGeneral any rights which the telegraph companies have not been authorised to exercise, or to give him any greater powers over the holders of private property than the said companies have already obtained from Parliament. It is designed merely to place the PostmasterGeneral in the position of a newly organised telegraph company, leaving him to negotiate with the existing companies for the transfer of their property on such terms as shall be satisfactory to him and to them, and shall be approved of by Parliament. When the object contemplated by this Act shall have been fully accomplished, there is no doubt that it will be attended with great advantages to the State, as well as to the public at large, by establishing a cheaper, more widely extended, and more expeditious system of telegraphy throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, and also by strengthening the means of defence against hostility from without, and aiding in the maintenance of law and order within the kingdom." "Act 31 & 32 Vic. 310. In its progress through the House of Commons the Bill was referred to a select committee, who took evidence thereon, and reported it with amendments, and with an opinion that it is not desirable that the transmission of messages for the public should become a legal monopoly in the Post Office.' Also, that the Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Treasury, should be empowered to make special agreements for the transmission of certain classes of messages at reduced rates, but that the House of Commons shall be duly informed of the same; and furthermore, recommendations in regard to the acquisition and working of submarine cables, &c. Commons Papers, 1867-8, No. 435. See Reports, and other papers, upon the proposed transfer to the The department of the Postmaster-General is under Employés. the control of a secretary, whose salary ranges from 1,500l. to 2,000l. a year; with two assistant secretaries. The number of employés in the chief offices in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, amounted, in 1868, to 4,430," THE SECRETARIAT OF STATE. 6 L'SKARY The origin of the office of Secretary of State, or, as it Secretary was formerly styled, King's Secretary, is difficult to trace of State. From the researches of Sir Harris Nicolas we may infer that the ancient English monarchs, like those of other countries, were always attended by a learned ecclesiastic, known at first as their clerk,' and afterwards as secretary,' whose duty it was to conduct the king's correspondence, and to convey his commands in writing to the high officers of State, when they were not personally communicated by the mouth of the sovereign. These functionaries were not, however, in any sense regarded as Secretaries of State, nor were they styled such, in England, until the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign; after which the term was generally employed to designate the king's secretary. Moreover, unless they had a seat in the Privy Council, they were never accounted responsible for the measures of government.* Until the middle of the reign of Henry VIII., the king's secretary appears always to have been a priest. After a few years' service, he was usually promoted to a bishopric, or to some other lucrative post. He was not ordinarily a member of the Privy Council until the time of Henry VI., but when admitted to this distinction, although he shared the responsibilities of other Councillors, he was otherwise nothing more than an executive officer, Post Office of the control and management of the Electric Telegraphs. Commons Papers, 1867-8, Nos. 202, 272. Also Edinb. Rev. Jan. 1869, Art. vi. Civil Service Estimates 1868-9. Nicolas, Pro. of Privy Council, |