FRENCH POST AND POSTING.
M. PELET (de la Lozilo), on the subject of the post-office of France, has complained in the Chamber of Deputies, that letters were fre- quently as lung in passing from the interior parts of the kingdom to their destination as if they had came from the United States of Ame- rica. He alluded I o an instance in his own department. From a cer- tain commuue to the principal post-office of the district is only about six or sae s ea leagues, yet a letter comnotted to the post in that com- mune onbs arrives at this head pest-office of the dktrict by travelling over aboot thirt soseven leagues, and making a circuit at of the de- partment. i.ssr also complained of the Slos.v transmission of let- ters from Paris to London: private couriers outstrip the post by thirty hours : letters from London to Paris are only delivered on the fourth day. One of the Ministers gave the house to understand that a law was about to be proposed to the Chambers to amend this part of the transmission of letters. It is rumoured that the Paris letters will in future pass by Boulogne instead of Calais ; and that several of the emplov6s of the London post-office are instructing our neighbours at Paris in the ammo of our admirable management.
It appears from this debate, that the administration of the post can make no changes in the post-office regulations without applying to the Legislature. The inconvenience of such it proceeding, may be imagined by supposing, that if Sir FRANCIS FREELING wished to change the hour of the departure of the mails, or to alter in any respect their route, he were compelled to procure the sanction of an act of
The poste aux chevaux in France is differently circumstanced : the director of that branch is competent to make any internal changes in the maniesoment of his depart inent. This liberty, is, however, pro- duetive of another ineonvsnience : M. PELET complained that the Post. Book of France was as changeable as the Almanac!: Royal, or Red Book. Every director sioonlises his administration by some boon to the postmasters. Thus, the (;stances between towns long since firmly fixed, are continually enlarging ; mountains are discovered Hint were never heard of before, in order that the privilege Of an additional horse may be grantel ; and fortified towns, which give the postmaster a gratuitous half-mile on entering a department, on account of a supposed passage over the stones, arc increasing in itumber every dily.
It may be necessary to inform those who have not travelled in Fiance, that the business of supplying- posthorses to travellers is iet,eii out of the hands of individuals—'it is a national concern: your 0 does not drive up to an ion, but to the Poste Royale ; all the posts :ire fixed; the number of horses you are obliged to take depends on the nature of your carriage, your party, or the road ; the price is settled by law for both horse and drivers ; and all this is laid down, together with all the different routes through the country, in a Govern- ment publication which appears annually, and is entitled Livre des Posts.
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