Manchester is greatly excited by one of the oddest acts
of official tyranny we ever remember to have seen recorded. There is a place near the city known as Alderley Edge, which has grown into a kind of suburb for the wealthier citizens. It was prospering quietly enough, when suddenly all its letters were seized, carried to Congle- ton, and there re-directed to " Chorley," the new postal name ordered by the Postmaster-General. The unlucky inhabitants protested that the place had been called Alderley Edge since the Conquest, but without effect. The Postmaster-General is Lord Stanley of Alderley, and, according to Manchester belief, he is determined that his lordly name shall not be borne by a thriving colony of vulgar villas which do not belong to him. The story seems incredible, but it is repeated in shoals of letters from the inhabitants of the place unlucky enough to possess a name which Lord Stanley wants to keep exclusively to his own property. Is there no right of action against the Postmaster-General as a common carrier ?
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