The Life of Sir Rowland Hill and the

1854] FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 313
the aforesaid James Vickers for fifty guineas, which sum, with the
cost of the other losses, our Postmaster-General had to pay."
Improvement in Accounts.
A passage from the Report of the Chief Examiner shows the
great improvements which had taken place in the system of
accounts, and the strange laxity which had existed before the late
reforms.
By this it appeared that under the old system
provincial postmasters were usually
the accounts of the
from three to six months in
arrear; that no vouchers were demanded for the proper disbursement
of the money with which the postmasters were credited ; that
through this dilatoriness they were themselves frequently ignorant
of the real state of their affairs, and under temptation to use the
public money for their own purposes ;* while, at the same time, the
revenue was injured by the delay in remitting the balances. This
was contrasted with the new system, under which "each post-
master renders his account week by week, with all its proper
vouchers for every receipt and every payment, and showing the
revenue left in his hands at the close of each week to be the
smallest possible sum." f
At the same time, notwithstanding the " many and great struggles
made to bring the accounts of the Post Office into a satisfactory
state," the force in the offices of the Receiver and Accountant-
General had been reduced from ninety-three to fifty-one, and that
not only without any demand for extra time, but with a fair
allowance of holiday to those engaged.
PROGRESS OF IMPROVEMENT FROM 1855 TO 1859.
NUMBER OF POST OFFICES, ETC.
The number of receptacles for letters in the United Kingdom,
which before the establishment of penny postage was about 4,500,
and which had subsequently been raised to about 10,000, was
* "April 7, 1849. Accounts of debts due by late Postmasters not yet dis-
charged by the sureties (some many years old) show that, while the amount of
revenue collected in Great Britain is about ten times as great as that collected
in Ireland, the debts in Ireland more than double those in Great Britain." Sir
R. Hill's Journal. ED.
"
First Annual Report," p. 71.