on FEES, GRATUITIES, See. Holyhead, the one called the Packet Book inwards, the other the Packet Book outwards. In the former is entered the amount of the Poftage, appearing by the Docket accompanying the Mail to be charged on the Letters reclved by it the under or overcharges if any, the amount of the daily charges a rain ft the Letter Carriers and the Alphabet, the total charge for Letters addleffed to the Country and the Infh proportion of the charge on Letters for the country parts of Ireland the 1 oftageof which had been paid in Great Britain. In the latter is entered the number of Letters made up in each Mail, the amount of the Inland Pofta- e on Letters to Dublin forwarded from thence, and of the Britifh Poftatte on poft- paid Letters; both thefe Books are fent occafionally to the Accountant General for the purpose of his entering the particulars in the feveral Accounts kept in his Office • and the Packet Book inwards is fent to the Treafurer, to enable him to enter in the Letter Carriers Pay- book, the daily charges againft the Letter Carriers and the Alphabet. The difpatch of the Mails to Haverford Weft and Port Patrick, and their receipt from thence, are condu& ed by the refpeftive Poftmafters of Waterford and Donaghadee, who make weekly Returns to the Accountant General, diftinguifhing the amount of the Poftage charged on the paid and* unpaid Letters paffing through their Offices to and from Great Britain; they alfo make Quarterly Returns to the fame Officer of the total charge againft each Poft Town for the Poftage on Britifh Letters forwarded by them to fuch Poft Town, and for the Poftage received on Letters poft- paid and difpatched from thence for Great Britain by Waterford and Donaghadee. A confiderable accommodation is we Appendix, No. 4. find afforded to the Public by the delivery in Dublin of Britifh Mails on Sunday, and by their difpatch on that day to the country. No provifion was it feems made for this latter fervice in the agreements entered into originally with the Mail Coach Contractors, and a feparate charge has been confequently incurred under this head; but we underftand that the conveyance of the Sunday Mails, as they are termed, now very properly forms a part of all new Mail Coach Contra& s ; the Appendix, No. 3 . accommodation to Dublin is however in another refpeft not fo complete as it might be, for whenever a Britifh Mail arrives at any time between half paft five and feven o'clock in the afternoon, though the Letters which it contains for the country are forwarded that evening, thofe for Dublin are not delivered until Appendix, No. 4. the next day, a delay that may be often attended with inconvenience to com- mercial correfponaence, and the neceffity of which we cannot perceive, as, while the Letters are forting in order to their being difpatched to the country, thofe for Dublin might we think with little additional time or trouble be alfo prepared and fent out for delivery, fo as to afford on many occafions an opportunity of Letters being anfwered by the Mails difpatched to Great Britain on the fame day on which they were received, inftead of their being delayed until the following day. In no refpeft does the Poft Office department appear to have been fo defective, previous to its being new modelled, as in the infecurity that attended property ^ confided to its conveyance. In the years 1805, 1806, and 1807, the Bank of Ireland Appenux^ o^ A is reprefented to have paid, on the application of 3,260 perfons, a fum of74,550, on account of the mifcarriage of Bank Notes and Bank Poft Bills that had been fent by Poft; and it is probable, that this was far fhort of the actual value of Bank Notes and Bills loft within thofe years in this way, as the Bank of Ireland refufed to pay any claimant who was unable to declare the number of the Note or Bill ailedged to have been loft as well as its value, and we have no account of the amount ofthe lofs of private Bankers Notes. In the year 1808, however, it Appendix, No. 7, appears that the payments of the Bank of Ireland on this account were greatly diminished, amounting only to 9,066. Though fuch loffes may have been partly occafioned by Mail Robberies, we are difpofed to attribute the greateft pro- portion of them to the embezzlement of Letters by the Officers ofthe Poft Office, to which the defective arrangements and want of fyftem and order in the interior of the Sorting Office, and the Offices connected with it, afforded great facility. To guard however againft fuch frauds, by increafmg the probability of deteftion Appendix, No. r. greater precautions than in ordinary cafes are now taken, both in the difpatch from the Country and the delivery in Dublin, of Letters containing money, delivered as fuch to the Deputy Poftmafters, and of poft- paid Letters, generally prefumed to contain property. With refpeft to poft- paid Letters, Deputy Poftmafters are required to enter the addrefs of each on the backs ot the Letter Bills; with thefe entries, the forting Clerk by whom the Bag is opened, compares the poft- paid Letters it contains, and delivers them with a licket, on which is marked their number, to the Infpeftor of Letter Carriers, who figns and , . ti returns ( 54-) A and which are the