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The Post-Office is a large institution for carrying letters all over the kingdom and to foreign countries. With the PostOffice are now connected:

1. The Telegraph.

2. The Money-Order system, by which people can send money from one part of the country to the other, and to the English Colonies, by merely paying it into the Post-Office, and sending an order to their correspondent, which is presented and paid at the PostOffice nearest him.

3. A system of Savings Banks, by which small sums can be put in, and a small rate of interest is given. A system of Government Annuities is also attached to the Post-Office.

CERTAIN SPECIAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES.

Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service Commission consists of :

1. First Commissioner, salary £1,500.
2. Second Commissioner, salary £1,200.

Their functions are to provide for the admission and examination of candidates for employment in Government offices. It depends upon the several Government offices themselves whether they will or will not adopt the scheme of the Commissioners. In some offices the appointments are open to general competition; in others the appointments are not open to competition, though upon nomination an examination has to be passed.

The Charity Commission.

The Charity Commission consists of :

1 Unpaid Commissioner.

1 Chief Commissioner, salary £1,500.

2 Commissioners, salary £1,200 each.

Their work is :

1. Generally to supervise the management of charitable

institutions, which have been endowed, that is, have

had funds given and secured to them for ever.

2. To give authority to the trustees of such institutions to sell or buy land, to make leases, and generally to deal with the funds of the charity.

Such institutions are endowed poor-houses, hospitals, and certain schools.

The Mint and Coinage Department

Has for its purpose the coining of money. It is under the superintendence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The National Debt Office

Is concerned with the reduction of the National Debt, that is, the paying it off. The National Debt is very large in this country, amounting to about £800,000,000. Some of it is constantly being paid off. It has arisen through being borrowed to carry on war.

The Lunacy Commission Consists of six Commissioners, with salary of £1,500. Their work is :

1. To inspect and licence all buildings used for the confinement of lunatics.

2. To secure lunatics in every way against abuses, either through undue detention or cruelty.

3. To provide that proper lunatic asylums, or houses for the confinement of lunatics, are built in places needing them.

Patent Office.

A Patent right is the right of some one to produce and sell the result of a valuable invention, without other persons being allowed to produce and sell it. It is granted for a certain number of years. The invention must be new and useful. The process has to be described in a written paper, which is kept secret under the care of the Government, and the patent is registered.

The management of this is committed to the above office, under the care of the law officers of the Crown.

Public Record Office.

This office has the care of all the public documents of the State. There are an enormous number of these, tracing back to very ancient times. They are now deposited in a great building in Fetter Lane. A number of clerks (men and women) are attached to the office, and are daily employed making catalogues of the records, and assisting persons who wish to consult portions of them in doing so.

Registrar of Friendly Societies.

By certain Acts of Parliament, persons joining together for mutual assurance against sickness, age, or death, can by complying with certain rules, become registered, -the effect of which is that they can be treated as corporate bodies, and bring actions at law, or hold property. The principle of these societies is that every member pays in a certain sum every week, month, or year, and if he becomes ill, or unable to work through age, he receives a large weekly or monthly payment from the common sum, or his family receives a sum on his death.

Commissioners of Woods and Forests.

These are persons who manage the Woods and Forests belonging to the Crown, that is to the State. Their function is to appoint subordinate keepers and servants, as may be needed, and to make the regulations under which the public shall be allowed to make use of the Woods and Forests. They also have to undertake all business connected with selling wood, or selling, exchanging, or purchasing land, forming or to form portions of the Crown Woods and Forests.

Customs-Inland Revenue.

The two offices to which these departments belong are concerned with the Public Revenue of the State. The "Customs" is that part of the Public Revenue which is derived from foreign imports of all sorts, as spirits, tea, tobacco, wine, and all foreign products which are taxed on being introduced into this country.

The Inland Revenue includes the part of the National Revenue which is derived from all other sources, as the income tax, excise (that is, a tax on home products, as home-made spirits, malt, and certain other like things), and Stamps and Duties, that is, payments to Government on certain transactions or events, as,—(1) succeeding to landed property on the death of the last owner, (2) taking money by Will, (3) making certain transfers and contracts.*

Education, Science, and Art.

It

This office (1) makes grants to schools in certain cases. also controls the South Kensington Museum, which is full of scientific and artistic specimens, and in which public lectures are given, under the control of the Government, on scientific and artistic subjects.

The offices are all independent of each other, though, for the management of some of them, certain of the individual members of the Cabinet (that is of Her Majesty's Ministers) are directly responsible. Thus the Prime Minister is the First Lord of the Treasury Board, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer is also one of the Board. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is now head of the Department of the Mint. He is also responsible, as representing the Treasury Board, for the management of the National Debt Office, the Customs, and the Inland Revenue. The Post Office is subject to the superintendence of the Postmaster General, though the monetary side of it, as an instrument of revenue, is under the control of the Treasury, as represented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The Patent Office is under the general control of the Treasury, with the assistance of the Law Officers of the Crown.

Commissioners in every case sit by the force of the Royal Commission under which they are appointed, and are wholly independent of any Minister of the Crown. It is true that the Cabinet always nominate the Commissioners, in the Queen's name.

The Local Government Board in its different departments is under the control of its President, who is generally a member of the Cabinet, and wholly independent of the Home Office.

The other offices mentioned are each subject to their own particular chief, the several chiefs generally constituting, when taken together, the Cabinet. They are independent of each other, though the whole body does its utmost to act harmoniously together under the conduct of the Prime Minister or "First Lord of the Treasury."

* See, afterwards, "Taxation and the Revenue."

Foreign Office.

The head of this department, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has the following functions :

1. He nominates ambassadors and consuls.

2. He grants passports to persons travelling abroad.

3. He is chiefly responsible for negociating Treaties.

4. He conducts correspondence with foreign Governments.

5. He is the means of communication with Ambassadors

resident in this country.

6. He protects English citizens travelling abroad.

7. He communicates to Parliament the state of the re

lations of England and Foreign States.

Lord High Chancellor.

He is head of the judicial department of Government.

He is the Chief Judge of one class of Courts of Justice. (See below.)

He is a member of the Cabinet, and presides in the House of Lords.

He is one of the highest persons in rank in the kingdom.

He is appointed by the Crown, on the advice of the First Lord of the Treasury.

Law Officers of the Crown.

The Law Officers of the Crown are :

1. The Attorney General.

2. The Solicitor General.

3. The Queen's Advocate.

The functions of 1 and 2 are (1) to conduct suits in which the Government is closely concerned, and to prosecute criminals in cases of great importance. They are both members of the House of Commons. They have to give their assent to the granting of a

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