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ON THE POST-OFFICE, &c.
375

parts of the world; and independent of the uninterrupted and excellent communication maintained with the British colonies abroad, the influence of her example and activity is felt and acknowledged far beyond the limits of her actual power and administration: but our object is description and not panegyric; we will only therefore claim our readers' indulgence before we proceed to a sketch of this important establishment, while we take a hasty review of the progress of post communication from the earliest periods, so far as our limits and the scanty materials afforded by history will permit. And we may here pause to express regret that this interesting subject has not yet furnished more inducement to that spirit of antiquarian research which, although often directed to frivolous objects, has in so many matters of real importance achieved the most valuable discoveries.

That the invention of posts originated in military necessity rather than civil policy seems to be a matter of little doubt. The opening page of history at once introduces us to rapine and bloodshed; and military enterprise appears to have been the early result of the extension and division of society into territorial distinctions. The first mention of a regular system of posts is to be found in Xenophon's account of Cyrus, to whom the Greek historian attributes the institution; describing it as an establishment applied

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