Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

89 HIS MAJESTY’S MAILS. ASIMPLE statement in figures will often give to a reader a better idea of the extent of a business undertaking than pages of descriptive writing. But when the figures run into billions the limits of the human understanding are almost reached, and the average man experiences only a sense of bewilderment when he sees the numbers in print. The billions of packets, of course, imply a huge machinery which is at work day and night throughout the British Isles, and a staff of workers with whom the most minute division of labour is a necessity, in order to produce that smooth and rapid movement on which the whole business depends. I he counter clerk who sells the penny stamp, and the postman who delivers the letter, are the two officials who are known best to the public, but the different officers who conduct the operations which come between the transactions mentioned are almost un- known outside the walls of their own offices. In the London district alone there are 5,414 12 persons employed in the sorting of postal packets, and there are 658 persons engaged in superintending this particular work. 1 he postmen of London number 8,776, and there is a miscellaneous postal force, including mail officers, messengers, etc., of 1,753 persons. These are all employed in the work of the delivery and the despatch of “His Majesty’s Mails” in London. A very large proportion of these officials are at work at the head office, St. Martin’s- le-Grand, or at the sorting offices, Mount Pleasant, and here is to be seen on a large scale the same routine which goes on at every district branch and head office in the United Kingdom. What becomes of a letter after it has disappeared down the capacious mouth which swallows thousands of postal packets daily at St. Martin’s-le-Grand ? I he first process is very simple. The letters are taken from the collecting box, and are turned out just as they are on to what is called the “facing” table. Here the letters