The British mails are carried under contract with the colonial government by packets of the Union-Castle Steamship Co., which leave Southampton every Saturday and Cape Town every Wednesday.
But these two memoirs contain only a part of the electrical researches he carried out between 1771 and 1781, and many more were found after his death in a number of sealed packets of papers.
He would have been astonished to hear that, before the end of the century, his office had to deal with more than 3,000,000,000 postal packets a year, and that the net profit which it paid into the exchequer was to be more than double what it received in 1839.
Posts and Telegraphs.-There were 379 post offices and receiving offices in 1905, and 327 telegraphic stations; 12,616,000 postcards and letters, 2,800,000 packets, and 7,200,000 newspapers were received and despatched.
It was not, however, until August 1823 that the emperor drew up the necessary papers, in the presence of the metropolitan Philaret and other witnesses, and deposited them in sealed packets, to be opened at his death, with the council of state, the senate and the holy synod.