“The estimate for 1839 is founded on the ascertained
number of letters for one week in the
month of November, and strictly speaking, it is for the
year ending Dec. 5th, at which time 4d.
was made the maximum rate. The estimate for each subsequent year
is founded on the ascertained
number of letters for one week in each calendar month.”
The number of franks was ascertained for each of
the weeks ending January 11, January 21, and February 4, 1838; and the mean of these
three gives 126,212 as the estimated number for one week, which is 8 per cent. of
the whole, and leaves 1,459,761 as the number of chargeable letters.
Week ending April 21, 1847. The whole number in the
week ending February was 6,569,696. The number 6,148,876, for one week, multiplied by 52,
gives 319,741,552, the total number for the year 1847.
Including all payments out of the
revenue in its progress to the Exchequer, except advances to the Money Order Office;
of these sums £10,307 10s. per annum is for pensions, and forms
no part of the disbursements on account of the service of the Post Office.
By multiplying any of
these numbers by 13, you get the number for 62 weeks, which is, for
all practical purposes, the number for a year; as 20,087,971 in 1839,
to 109,362,997 in 1847
The increase of the total, since 1839,
is 418 per cent.; of paid in coin, since 1840, 39 per
cent.; of unpaid, since 1841, 21 per cent.; of stamps, since 1841,
183 per cent.