_POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS._
BY treaty agreement, the postage rates for the Continent are now
very much reduced from what they used to be, and are comparatively
moderate, although to those who write much the expense becomes in
the aggregate a considerable item of travelling expenditure. Single
postage from England to France, Switzerland, and Italy, and I think to
most Continental countries, is 2½d., and to this rate the Continental
countries on letters to England conform as nearly as their coinage
permits. But in France and Italy, taking advantage of the fact that
a franc is between 9½d. and 10d., they charge 30 centimes, or about
3d.;[11] so that the price of four stamps in these countries is close
upon 1s., instead of being 10d., as with ourselves. Single postage on
letters for the Continent covers one–half ounce in England; abroad
it covers 15 grammes, which seems to be the precise equivalent.
Little pocket letter–weighers are sold in France at 1 franc and 1½
francs, containing a scale marked in grammes by which letters can
be conveniently weighed, and for prolonged residence are all but
indispensable. If a letter posted in England be insufficiently stamped,
the post office abroad charges the recipient with double the postage
the letter ought to have borne according to the foreign rate, deducting
the amount of the stamps which it carries. Thus, if a person in
England put by mistake a penny stamp upon a single letter, the French
Government charge double the 30 centimes and deduct the penny paid,
so that the recipient has to pay 5d. upon the letter. If the letter
have been stamped with 2½d. postage, but exceeds the half ounce, the
recipient pays 1s., less the 2½d., or 9½d. altogether (more correctly,
95 centimes). It is astonishing how many blunders friends at home make
in this respect. Over and over again have we had to pay for them. If
people are not acquainted with the foreign postage, they ought to study
the postal guides, and in event of any difficulty to make inquiry at a
post office. One lady told me she had summed up what these mistakes had
cost her in one winter, and found they came to 11 francs.
* * * * *
Newspapers posted in England require a penny stamp, but abroad are
reckoned by weight. The small Continental papers go for 5 centimes, or
one halfpenny; but in France, at least, English newspapers always cost
one penny or 10 centimes.
* * * * *
The rate in France for registering a letter to England is 5d. (50
centimes), while it was 4d. in England, being another instance of the
way in which the French take advantage of the small difference between
our monetary values. The reduction in England of fee to 2d. applies to
foreign as well as inland letters.
* * * * *
Letters for the interior are always less than for abroad. In France,
where postage is high, the rate was 25 centimes (now 15 centimes) to
any part of France except the district in which the letter was posted,
when it was 15 centimes, possibly now less. For book delivery in town,
the French have a 2 centimes rate, and in Italy there is a similar rate
for newspapers for the interior.
* * * * *
Post cards are usually one–half of letter rates. Thus a French
post card to England is 15 centimes (1½d.), as against our 1¼d.
But in Switzerland, where postage is cheap,—there being half rates
for letters,—and in Italy, post cards for England are only 1d. (10
centimes). English people always familiarly call a 10 centime piece a
penny, which in size as well as in value it resembles.
* * * * *
Letters are, I think, delivered with great accuracy. I have only
known of two letters which have not reached us during the whole time
we were away, and one of these was misaddressed. Newspapers, on the
contrary, have not, in France, reached us with the same regularity
as letters. This has been attributed to the French Government being
jealous of newspapers from Great Britain containing animadversions
upon its policy, and during the French crisis of the autumn of 1877,
we regularly missed a _Scotsman_, once a week, sometimes of a Tuesday,
but more commonly of a Thursday, when, if there were no leading article
touching upon the French Government, we fancied it might contain some
gleanings from _Punch_. As _Punch_ carries a free lance and hesitates
not to strike whatever is vulnerable, it is, I suppose, fully more
exposed to be stopped than any ordinary newspaper; but in spite of
precaution, it finds its way abroad even when stopped.
The stoppage of newspapers, while it can do no manner of good, produces
a good deal of irritation and ill–will on the part of the English. I
believe that the attention of the French Parliament has been called to
it, and latterly we found greater regularity. Of course, in many cases
newspapers may miscarry from addresses being insufficient or getting
torn off. It is always safer to write on the newspaper itself; and if
a cover be used, the newspaper stamp must not connect the cover with
the paper, otherwise it is liable to be charged as a letter.
* * * * *
When the hotel at which to stop has been decided upon, it is best to
direct letters to be delivered at it. If not so fixed upon, it is usual
to address letters to the _Poste Restante_, where they are got upon
exhibition of a visiting card; but in some places the post is very
particular, and perhaps rightly so. Thus, in San Remo, I was desired
to give my card to the _facteur_ (postman) in whose beat our quarters
were, and the letters would be delivered at the house. In Paris, I was
refused letters for my wife without a written authority from her. In
other large towns, the rule is to ask for passport; and if the inquirer
have no passport, he must prove his identity in a manner satisfactory
to the post clerk, as by exhibition of envelopes of letters received
elsewhere, or otherwise—regulations most reasonable for the security of
the recipients.
* * * * *
Registered letters are treated with peculiar care. In France, the
postman declines to give up such a letter except into the hand of the
person to whom it is addressed, who signs his name in a book kept for
the purpose, with date of reception, etc. If he do not happen to be
in the house at the time, the postman takes away the letter, marks
‘absent’ upon it, and brings it back at succeeding deliveries till he
find him. In Italy, they are even more particular. At Milan, I received
at the hotel an intimation from the post office that a registered
letter was lying there for me. In order to procure this letter, I was
under the necessity of going personally to the post office, a good way
off, and of taking with me a certificate by a resident in Milan of my
identity. I knew nobody residing in Milan, but the landlord of the
hotel was kind enough to sign the document. Delivering this document,
I was also required to exhibit my passport to the post office, and
then to sign my name in a book kept there for the purpose. These
precautions, although troublesome to the traveller, make registered
letters very secure; and all letters transmitting money orders ought
to be registered and put in firm, tough envelopes, for I believe that
letters are sometimes lost in consequence of the thinness of the
foreign letter envelopes in which, for the sake of lightness, they are
generally enclosed.
* * * * *
On leaving a town, the new address should be given to the post
office or to the _concierge_ of the hotel, and letters will then be
readdressed and forwarded free of charge. Occasionally, we have found
them forwarded to three or four successive addresses before receipt by
us, and that without any extra payment, which would not be the case
in England. Nay, I have discovered, though only after many postages
had unfortunately been paid on the readdress in England, that letters
arriving in England from a colony, say New Zealand, may be readdressed
to the address abroad without charge,—a fact, therefore, well worthy of
being noted. After a lapse of time, whether done by the post office at
request of the landlord or _concierge_ of the hotel or not, we could
not tell, letters have been opened and returned to the writers, from
whom we have received them reinclosed and restamped about a month after
we had left the place to which they were originally addressed.
* * * * *
Tradesmen, on seeing arrivals announced in the lists, send in their
business cards; and a circular of this kind, posted to our hotel at
Cannes, stamped with 15 centimes district postage, was forwarded to
us at Mentone. On this, 25 centimes (2½d.) had to be paid, showing a
difference in the treatment of interior letters, which may be explained
in this way, that the letter was not originally insufficiently stamped,
and there was not, therefore, excuse for charging it double.
The French have a good system in regard to letter pillars which might
with advantage be adopted by ourselves. When the postman has made his
collection from the pillar box, he turns a dial, which indicates that
that particular collection has been made; _e.g._, suppose he has taken
the first collection upon a Wednesday, the dial bears: ‘Mercredi,
la première levée est faite.’ And this is particularly necessary in
France, because the postmen are by no means particular in adhering to
the time fixed for making the collection. Day after day have I seen
the notice up half an hour before the collection was due, obliging one
either to post early, or to go to the general post. The French letter
pillars are small wooden boxes stuck upon a wall, pretty well out of
reach of mischievous urchins; but their slits are very narrow, and will
not admit of an ordinary English newspaper.
* * * * *
French postmen, for protection and security, carry their letters for
delivery in a box suspended by a strap round the neck like a pedlar’s
tray, and registered letters are kept in a separate pocket or portion
of the box. The newspapers and book packets (often immense bundles) are
simply carried bound together by a strap.
* * * * *
It is astonishing with what rapidity letters and newspapers are
received from home. London newspapers are received at Biarritz on the
afternoon of the day following publication. At Venice it takes a day
longer, and some places not so distant are, in consequence of the
arrival of the post late in the evening, just as long. Thus, while the
London newspapers are delivered at Nice the evening of the day after
publication, they are not delivered at Mentone till the following
morning, because they arrive after the last postal delivery at Mentone.
When the mail is accelerated, as no doubt it will be in time, this
delay will be remedied; but the practical effect is that letters and
newspapers posted in Edinburgh upon a Monday before five o’clock are
delivered in Nice upon Wednesday evening, but are not delivered in
Mentone until Thursday morning. At Venice or Rome they are delivered on
the Thursday. Letters posted on a Saturday are always one day longer,
in consequence of there being no despatch from London on the Sunday; so
that, leaving Edinburgh on Saturday, they are not delivered in Mentone
till Wednesday morning. Newspapers are often a post later, and not
delivered till the second or evening delivery; for in Mentone, as in
many other places, there are only two deliveries in the day.