I.  Europa.  _  624  35.  Großbritannien  und  Irland.

Post  Office  and  Telegraph  Service.

The  post-office  owes  its  establishment  to  the  Parliament  of  1643,  but  a  House  of  Commons
report  1844  states:  “It  is  uncertain  at  what  precise  period  the  Crown  undertook  to  be  the  regular
carrier  of  Letters  for  its  subjects“.  The  first  ‘Master  of  the  Posts”  was  appointed  in  1516,  but
the  duty  was  not  then  undertaken  as  a  remunerative  department  of  the  Government.  The  Post
Office  is  now  one  of  the  tlıree  great  revenue-collecting  departments.

“King  James  I.  originally  erected  a  post-office  under  the  control  of  one  Matthew  de  Quester
for  tho  conveyance  of  letters  to  and  from  foreign  parts’’!.  But  as  a  source  of  revenue  it  dates
from  the  reign  of  Charles  II.?.  Before  this  period  the  business  was  entrusted  to  a  Postmaster“,
who  took  the  risks  and  profits  of  the  undertaking’’”.  According  to  15  Car.  II,  c.  14  the  proceeds
of  the  Post  Office  were  made  hereditary  to  the  Crown.  Since  1760  the  revenues  tlıus  obtained
were  merged  into  the  general  revenue,  and  since  1787  (Civil  List  Acts)  into  the  Consolidated  Fund.

At  the  head  of  the  Post  Office  is  a  Postinaster-General  who  is  a  cabinet  minister.

Amongst  the  usual  postal  duties,  the  Post  Office  has  a  savings  bank,  known  as  tlıe  Post
Office  Savings  Bank,  established  in  1861.  It  also  acts  as  an  office  for  insurance  of  life  (from
£  5to  £  100),  and  for  the  purchase  of  annuities  within  the  same  limits.  The  Post  Office
Telegraplı  service  was  established  in  1868,  and  it  has  undertaken  Telephone  service  since  1892;
but  most  Telephone  lines  in  England  are  in  the  hands  of  private  companies  at  present.

Cf.  C.  B.  Hill;  Life  of  Sir  Rowland  Hill,  and  tho  History  of  Penny  Postage  1890;
Reports  of  tlie  Postmaster-General  (Annual);  Post  Office  Guide  (Quarterly);  The  Laws  of
England,  by  tlıe  Earl  of  Halsbury,  Title:  Post  Office;  Encyclopaedia  of  Local  Government
Law,  Vol.  V,  Postal  Facilities.

The  Board  of  Trade.

(1)  “A  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations  was  established  by  Charles  II.  in  1660,  and  in  place
of  this  body  a  Committee  of  the  Council  on  Trade  was  established  in  1786.  The  duties  of  this
Committee  (which,  unlike  the  other  Council  Committees,  has  a  president  of  its  own)  are  to  collect
Trade  Statistics,  control  the  issue  of  Patents,  keep  the  Standards  of  Weights  and  Measures,  the
non-legal  machinery  of  Bankruptcey,  the  Registration  of  Joint  Stock  Companies,  Railway,  Tramway,
Water  and  Gas  Companies,  Electric  Lighting,  Harbours  and  Lightliouses,  and  Merchant  Shipping,
acting  under  the  latter  heading  as  Auditor  of  the  Trinity  House?  accounts’’®.

Thus  the  duties  of  the  Board  of  Trade  are  multifarious,  inter  alias  the  comptrolling  of  corn
returns  for  the  purpose  of  the  titlhe  commutations®,  the  regulation  of  copyright  and  designs.  It
is  also  charged  with  the  carrying  out  of  tlıe  provisions  relating  to  life  assuring  coinpanies  contained
  in  the  Acts  concerning  such  companies’.

(2)  The  Board  of  Trade  is  the  oldest  of  the  Boards,  and  ‘it  has  never  ceased  to  be  a  Committee
  of  the  Council’  (Anson).  Originally  it  was  known  as  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations®.
That  is  to  say,  it  embodied  the  present  Colonial  Office.  From  1782  until  the  present  time  the
Board  of  Trade  has  been  a  Committee  of  tlıe  Privy  Council.  Its  present  chief  functions  may
be  said  to  be  Statistical.  Any  statistical  information  on  the  subject  of  trade  and  navigation,
of  the  conditions  of  labour  in  Great  Britain  can  be  obtained  here.  It  regulates  and  furthers  trade

i  Blackstone’s  Commentaries,  vol.  I,  321  (1809  ed.).

2  12  Car.  II,  c.  35.

®  Anson,  Laws  and  Customs,  vol.  II,  Part  II,  p.  131  et  seq.

*  Trinity  House  is  the  general  lighthouse  authority  for  England  and  Wales,  the  Channel
Islands,  and  adjacent  seas  and  islands,  and  for  Gibraltar,  and  has  a  controlling  power  with  regard
to  schemes  proposed  by  tlıe  Commissioners  of  Northern  Lishthouses  and  the  Commissioners  of
Irish  Lights.  The  Elder  Bretliren  of  the  corporation  (or  Trinity  Masters),  as  nautical  assessors,
assist  the  judges  of  the  Admiralty  Divisions  and  other  judges  if  required,  in  shipping  casos.  —-Harmsworth
  Encyclopaedia..  Vide  Mayo’s  The  Trinity  House,  London  1903.

s  Whitaker  1909.

®  Vide  6  and  7  Will.  4,  c.  71,  $  56.

'Stephen’s  Cormmentaries,  vol.  II,  pp.  462/3.

®  Establised  as  such  in  1695.