Transcriber's Notes:

(1) Obvious spelling, punctuation, and typographical errors have been corrected. On page 99, footnote marker [6] is duplicated - it has been altered to [381] and the surrounding footnotes adjusted suitably. Footnote [616] has an uncorrectable duplication of "Ionian Isles".

(2) Table V in the Appendix has been divided into two parts (Scotland and Ireland), in view of its page width.

(3) All footnotes have been moved to the end of the book, with html links.

(4) The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

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THE HISTORY OF
THE BRITISH POST OFFICE

BY

J. C. HEMMEON, Ph.D.

PUBLISHED FROM THE INCOME OF THE
WILLIAM H. BALDWIN, JR., 1885, FUND

CAMBRIDGE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published January 1912

PREFACE

In justice to those principles which influenced the policy of the Post Office before the introduction of penny postage, it is perhaps unnecessary to call attention to the fact that no opinion as to their desirability or otherwise is justifiable which does not take into consideration the conditions and prejudices which then prevailed. Some of the earlier writers on the Post Office have made the mistake of condemning everything which has not satisfied the measure of their own particular rule. If there is anything that the historical treatment of a subject teaches the investigator it is an appreciation of the fact that different conditions call for different methods of treatment. For example, the introduction of cheap postage was possibly delayed too long. But during the era of high postal rates a large net revenue was of primary importance, nor were those conditions present which would have made low rates a success.

The consideration of such debatable subjects as the telegraph system of the Postal Department and the department's attitude toward the telephone companies, as well as the intention of the Post Office to acquire the business of the latter, must necessarily give rise to controversy. Thanks to the magnificent net revenue obtained from letters in the United Kingdom the department has been able to lose a good deal of money by the extension of its activities into the realm of affairs not purely postal. Possibly a democratic type of government should, from the financial point of view, interfere least in the direct management of economic institutions, on account of the pressure which can easily be brought to bear upon it for the extension of such institutions on other than economic grounds. If non-economic principles are to be substituted in justifying the initiation or increase of government ownership, a popular form of government seems the least suitable for the presentation of such as shall be fair to all concerned, not to mention the difficult problem of dealing with those members of the civil service who do not hesitate to make use of their political power to enforce their demands upon the government.

In the treatment of a subject so complex as the history of the British Post Office it is not easy to decide how far its presentation should be strictly chronological or how far it should be mounted in "longitudinal sections," exposing its most salient features. Both methods have their advantages and their disadvantages. In order to obtain what is useful in both, I have described chronologically in the first four chapters the progress of the Post Office, while in the remaining chapters I have examined separately some of the more important aspects of postal development. But I am aware that by this compromise I have not entirely escaped the dangers of abrupt transitions from subject to subject and of the accumulation of dry details. I can only plead in extenuation, in the first place the nature of my subject, an institution with a long and varied history, characterized by the steady extension of its field of activity, and in the second place my desire to make my study as thorough as possible, even at the risk of some sacrifice of unity and interest of treatment.

The material for this sketch has been obtained from the Harvard University Library, the Boston Public Library, and the Canadian Parliamentary Library. Work was also done in the Library of the British Museum. I wish to acknowledge the help I have received from the advice and criticism of Professor Gay, under whose supervision the larger part of this history was prepared.

J. C. Hemmeon.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

APPENDIX

TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS

THE HISTORY OF
THE BRITISH POST OFFICE

CHAPTER I

THE POSTAL ESTABLISHMENT SUPPORTED DIRECTLY
BY THE STATE

The history of the British Post Office starts with the beginning of the sixteenth century. Long before this, however, a system of communication had been established both for the personal use of the King and for the conveyance of official letters and documents. These continued to be the principal functions of the royal posts until well on in the seventeenth century.

Before the sixteenth century, postal communications were carried on by royal messengers. These messengers either received stated wages or were paid according to the length of the journeys they made. We find them mentioned as early as the reign of King John under the name of nuncii or cursores; and payments to them form a large item in the Household and Wardrobe accounts of the King as early as these accounts exist.[1] They travelled the whole of the journey themselves and delivered their letters personally to the people to whom they were directed. A somewhat different style of postal service, a precursor of the modern method, was inaugurated by the fourth Edward. During the war with Scotland he found himself in need of a speedier and better system of communication between the seat of war and the seat of government. He accomplished this by placing horses at intervals of twenty miles along the great road between England and Scotland. By so doing his messengers were able to take up fresh horses along the way and his despatches were carried at the rate of a hundred miles a day.[2]

From an early period private letters were conveyed by carriers and travellers both within the kingdom and between it and the Continent. The Paston letters,[3] containing the correspondence of the different members of the Paston family, throw some light upon the manner in which letters were conveyed during the latter half of the fifteenth century. Judging from such references as we find in the letters themselves, they were generally carried by a servant,[4] a messenger,[5] or a friend.[6] The later letters of this series, written towards the close of the fifteenth century, show that regular messengers and carriers, who carried letters and parcels, travelled between London and Norwich and other parts of Norfolk.[7] From the fourteenth century down, we have instances of writs being issued to mayors, sheriffs, and bailiffs for the apprehension and examination of travellers, who were suspected of conveying treasonable correspondence between England and the Continent.[8] For the most part these letters were carried by servants, messengers, and merchants.[9]

Sir Brian Tuke is the first English Postmaster-General of whom we have any record. The King's "Book of Payments" for the year 1512 contains an order for the payment of £100 to Sir Brian for his use as Master of the Posts.[10] As the King's appointed Postmaster, he received a salary of £66 13s. 4d.[11] He named the postmen, or deputy postmasters as they were called later, and he was held responsible for the performance of their duties.[12] All letters carried by the royal postmen were delivered to him, and after being sorted by him personally were carried to their destination by the court messengers.[13] The wages of the postmen varied from 1s. to 2s. a day according to the number of horses provided, and they were paid by the Postmaster-General, who had authority to make all payments to those regularly employed.[14] If messages or letters were sent by special messengers, their payment entailed additional expense upon the state and the use of such messengers, when regular postmen were available, was strongly discouraged.[15]

In addition to his other duties Sir Brian was supposed to have a general supervision over the horses used for the conveyance of letters and of travellers riding on affairs of state. Of course on the regular roads there were always horses in readiness, provided by the postmen. Where there were no regular post roads, the townships were supposed to provide the necessary horses, and it was part of the Postmaster-General's duties to see that the townships were kept up to the mark.[16] It was largely on account of the fact that the same horses were used for conveying travellers and mails that the systems of postal and personal communication were so closely interwoven as well in England as in continental countries.[17]

The postmen along the old established routes and on the routes temporarily established for some definite purpose received a fixed daily wage. These men were called the ordinary posts.[18] If, however, letters should arrive in Dover after the ordinary post had left for London, they were generally sent on at once by a messenger hired for the occasion only. He was called a special post and was paid only for the work which he actually performed.[19] Those regular posts, who carried the royal and state letters between London and the place where the Court might be, were called "Court Posts."[20] During the sovereign's tours, posts were always stationed between him and London to carry his and the state's letters backward and forward. These were called extraordinary posts and received regular wages while so employed.[21] In addition there were always messengers employed to carry important despatches to foreign sovereigns. These received no fixed wages, but were paid according to the distance travelled and the expenses incurred on the road.[22]

Apart from his regular duties as outlined above, the Postmaster-General had little initiative power. He could not on his own responsibility order new posts to be laid. Such decisions always originated with the King or the Council and Tuke simply executed their orders.[23] Any increase in the wages of the posts also required the consent of the King or Council.[24]

During the sixteenth century there were three ways to send letters between England and the Continent: by the Royal Post, the Foreigners' Post, and the Merchant Adventurers' Post, apart from such opportunities as occasional travellers and messengers offered. The Royal Posts were presumed to carry only state letters, and consequently the conveyance of a large part of the private letters fell to the other two. Owing to industrial and later to religious motives there had been a large emigration of foreigners from the Continent to England. Edward III had induced many Flemings to leave their native country in the middle of the fourteenth century.[25] Froude says, probably with exaggeration, that in 1527 there were 15,000 Flemings in London alone.[26] In the fifteenth century many Italian artisans came over to reside but not to settle.[27] They were a thrifty people, who did much to place the industrial life of England on a better footing, and were probably more intelligent and better educated than the majority of the English artisans among whom they settled. It seems therefore only natural that they should seek to establish a better system of communication between their adopted and native countries. Their business relations with the cloth markets of the continental cities made necessary a better and speedier postal system than was afforded by the Royal Posts. In addition to this, it was only by act of grace that private letters were carried by Tuke's postmen. In the opening year of the sixteenth century, by permission of the state, the foreign merchants in London established a system of posts of their own between the English capital and the Continent. This was called the "Foreign or Strangers' Post," and was managed by a Postmaster-General, nominated by the Italians, Spanish, and Dutch and confirmed by the Council.[28] These posts were used largely by the English merchants in spite of considerable dissatisfaction on account of the poor service afforded and on political grounds. Their grievances were detailed in a petition to the Privy Council. They considered it unprecedented that so important a service as the carriage of letters should be in the hands of men who owed no allegiance to the King. Such a procedure was unheard of in any of the continental countries. "What check could there be over treasonable correspondence while the carriage of letters continued to be in the hands of foreigners and most of them Dutchmen?" In addition they were not treated so well as were their fellow merchants of foreign allegiance. Their letters were often retained for several days at a time, while all others were delivered as soon as they arrived. The foreign ambassadors could not complain if a change were made, for most of their correspondence was carried on by special messengers.[29] The "Strangers' Post" seems to have come to an end after the Proclamation of 1591 was issued, forbidding any but the Royal Posts from carrying letters to and from foreign countries.[30]

Sir Brian Tuke died in 1545 and was succeeded by Sir John Mason and Mr. Paget, who acted as joint Postmasters-General. Mr. Paget was the sleeping partner, and what little was done was by Mason.[31] They were succeeded in 1568 by Thomas Randolph.[32] He was occasionally sent as special ambassador to France and during his absence Gascoyne, a former court post, performed his duties. From Sir Brian's death until the end of Elizabeth's reign was a period of little advance in postal matters. The regular posts, and it is with them that our chief interest lies, appear to have fallen into disuse. The payments for special messengers are much larger than they had been during Henry's reign. In 1549, a warrant was issued empowering Sir John Mason to pay £400 to the special messengers used during the summer. If anything was left, he was instructed to use it in paying arrears due the ordinary posts.[33] Elizabeth is generally credited with being economical to the extreme of parsimony so far as state expenses were concerned. However this may be, she is responsible for an order to discharge all the regular posts unless they would serve for half of their old wages.[34] The postmen did not receive their wages at all regularly. Randolph was accused by the Governor of Berwick of withholding all of their first year's wages, of receiving every year thereafter a percentage of their salaries, and of demanding certain fees from them, all for his personal use. The Governor considered that Randolph's extortions were largely the cause of the general inefficiency in the posts,[35] but the accusation may have been due to personal grudge. At any rate one measure of postal reform may be credited to Randolph. In 1582, orders were issued to all the London-Berwick posts to the following effect. Every post on the arrival of letters to or from the Queen or Council was to fasten a label to the packet. On this label he was to write the day and hour when the packet came into his hands and he was to make the same entry in a book kept for the purpose. He was also to keep two or three good horses in his stable for the speedier conveyance of such packets.[36]

In 1590, John Lord Stanhope was appointed Postmaster-General by order of the Queen. The office was given to him for his life and then was to go to his son for his son's life.[37] Both the Stanhopes were men of action, but they looked upon their position rather as a means of enriching themselves than as a trust for the good of the state. They proved a stumbling block to the advancement of better men and it was not for sixty years that they were finally swept away to make room for men of greater ability. In 1621, the elder Stanhope was succeeded by his son Charles according to the terms of the original patent.[38] It had been the custom for the Postmasters-General to demand fees and percentages from their appointees. So lucrative were many of their positions from the monopoly in letting horses and the receipts from private letters that many applicants were willing to pay for appointments as deputy postmasters. The ordinary payments when Lord Charles was at the head of the posts amounted to 2s. in the pound as poundage and a fee of £2 from each man. These payments were considered so exorbitant that the Council ordered them to be reduced.[39] One, Hutchins, entered the lists as the champion of the postmasters. He himself was one of them and acted as their solicitor in the contest. Stanhope was glad to compound the case by the payment of £30. Hutchins gave the Council so much trouble that they gave orders that "turbulent Hutchins" should cease to act as the postmasters' solicitor and leave them in peace.[40] His object, however, seems to have been accomplished so far as Stanhope was concerned. The struggle with the Paymasters of the Posts was not so successful, for, supported by a report of the Treasurer, they continued to receive their shilling in the pound.[41]

By a Privy Council Proclamation issued in 1603, all posts receiving a daily fee were required to have two leather bags, lined with "bayes" or cotton, and the post himself was to sound a horn whenever he met any one on the road or four times in every mile. The packet of letters was not to be delayed more than fifteen minutes and was to be carried at a rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five in winter. The time at which it was delivered into a post's hands and the names and addresses of the people by whom and to whom it was sent were to be entered in a book kept for the purpose. All posts and their servants were exempted from being "pressed" and from attendance at assizes, sessions, inquests, and musters.[42]

It is doubtful how far the postmasters were held responsible for the delivery of letters to the persons to whom they were addressed. This did not become a burning question, however, until after the recognition of the fact that the letters of private individuals should receive as good treatment at the hands of the postmen as the letters of the state officials. Lord Stanhope in 1618 issued an order to the Justices of the Peace in Southwark to aid the postmaster of that place in the delivery of letters within six miles.[43] This was followed two years later by a general order to establish two or three foot-posts in every parish for the conveyance of letters.[44]

During the early part of the seventeenth century, Stanhope had employed a foreigner, de Quester, as one of the King's posts "beyond seas." He commended himself to the notice of his superiors by his promptitude in dealing with the foreign letters.[45] In 1619 James appointed him Postmaster-General for "foreign parts" and henceforth he was his own master.[46] This was followed four years later by a formal proclamation, confirming to de Quester and his son the position already granted to the father.[47] He was to have the sole monopoly of carrying foreign letters and was to appoint the necessary officials. All persons were formally prohibited from entrenching upon the privileges granted him in 1619. From this time until 1635, the foreign and inland posts were under separate management and the accounts were kept separate until long after the latter date. Stanhope was unwilling to submit to the curtailment of his profits, which necessarily followed the appointment of de Quester. There was much to be said for Stanhope's contention that the patent of 1623 was illegal for, ever since there had been a Postmaster-General, his duties had extended to the foreign as well as to the inland office. The question was referred to a committee, composed of the Lord Chamberlain, one of the Secretaries of State and the Attorney-General, who decided that Stanhope's patent extended only to the inland office.[48] The whole question was finally brought before the Court of King's Bench, which decided the case in favour of Stanhope.[49] This was in 1625, but de Quester seems to have paid no attention to the decision for it is certain that he continued to act as Foreign Postmaster until 1629[50] and in 1632 he resigned his patent to Frizell and Witherings. It can be imagined what must have been the chaotic condition of the foreign post while this struggle was going on. The Merchant Adventurers established posts of their own between London and the Continent under Billingsley. The Council issued the most perplexing orders. First they forbade Billingsley from having anything to do with foreign letters.[51] Then they decided that the Adventurers might establish posts of their own and choose a Postmaster.[52] Then they extended the same privilege to all merchants. Next this was withdrawn and the Adventurers were allowed to send letters only to Antwerp, Delft and Hamburg or wherever the staple of cloth might be.[53] These orders do not seem to have been passed in full council for, in 1628, Secretary Coke in writing to Secretary Conway said that "Billingsley, a broker by trade, strives to draw over to the merchants that power over foreign letters which in all states is a branch of royal authority. The merchant's purse has swayed much in other matters but he has never heard that it encroached upon the King's prerogative until now." He adds "I confess it troubleth me to see the audacity of men in these times and especially that Billingsley." He enclosed a copy of an order "made at a full Council and under the Broad Seal," which in effect was a supersedeas of the place which de Quester enjoyed.[54] When de Quester resigned in favour of Frizell and Witherings, the resignation and new appointments were confirmed by the King.[55] Of these men Witherings was far the abler. He had a plan in view, which was eventually to place the foreign and inland systems on a basis unchanged until the time of penny postage. In the meantime he had to overcome the prejudices of the King and get rid of Frizell. In order to raise money for the promotion of his plan, Witherings mortgaged his place. Capital was obtained from the Earl of Arundel and others through John Hall, who held the mortgage. The King heard of this and ordered the office to be sequestered to his old servant de Quester and commanded Hall to make over his interest to the same person.[56] There were now three claimants for the place, Frizell, Witherings, and de Quester. Frizell rushed off to Court, where he offered to pay off his part of the mortgage and asked to have sole charge of the Foreign Post. "Witherings," he said, "proposes to take charge of all packets of State if he may have the office, but being a home-bred shopkeeper, without languages, tainted of delinquency and in dislike with the foreign correspondents, he is no fit person to carry a trust of such secrecy and importance."[57] Coke knew better than this, however, and through his influence Witherings, who had in the meantime paid off the mortgage and satisfied Frizell's interest, was made sole Postmaster-General for Foreign Parts.[58] With Witherings' advent a new period of English postal history begins. His dominant idea was to make the posts self-supporting and no longer a charge to the state. It had been established as a service for the royal household and continued as an official necessity. The letters of private individuals had been carried by its messengers but the state had derived no revenue for their conveyance. The convenient activity of other agencies for the carriage of private letters was not only tolerated but officially recognized. The change to a revenue-paying basis tended naturally to emphasize the monopolistic character of the government service.[59]

CHAPTER II

THE POSTAL ESTABLISHMENT A SOURCE OF REVENUE
TO THE STATE

1633-1711

For some time there had been dissatisfaction with the services rendered by the inland posts. It was said that letters would arrive sooner from Spain and Italy than from remote parts of the kingdom of England.[60] The only alternative was to send them by express and this was not only expensive but was not looked upon with favour by the Postmaster-General. The five great roads from London to Edinburgh, Holyhead, Bristol, Plymouth, and Dover were in operation. From the Edinburgh Road there were branches to York and Carlisle, from the Dover Road to Margate, Gravesend, and Sandwich, and from the Plymouth Road to Falmouth, but the posts were slow and the rates for private letters uncertain.[61] In 1633, a project was advanced for the new arrangement of the Post Office. The plan was not entirely theoretical, for an attempt was made to show that it would prove a financial success. There were about 512 market towns in England. It was considered that each of these would send 50 letters a week to London and as many answers would be returned. At 4d. a day for each letter, this would amount to £426 a week. The charge for conveyance was estimated at £37 a week, leaving a weekly profit of £389, from which £1500 a year for the conveyance of state letters and despatches must be deducted. Letters on the northern road were to pay 2d. for a single and 4d. for a double letter, to Yorkshire and Northumberland 3d., and to Scotland 8d. a letter. The postmasters in the country were not to take any charge for a letter except one penny for carriage to the next market town.[62] It is probable that this project originated with Witherings. At any rate it resembles closely the plan which was introduced by him two years later. He had already reformed the foreign post by appointing "stafetti" from London to Dover and through France and they had proved so efficient as to disarm the opposition even of the London merchants. His name is without doubt the most distinguished in the annals of the British Post Office. Convinced that the carriage of private letters must be placed upon a secure footing, he laid the foundation for the system of postal rates and regulations, which continued to the time of national penny postage. He introduced the first legal provision for the carriage of private letters at fixed rates, greatly increased the speed of the posts, and above all made the Post Office a financial success. In order to do this he saw that the proceeds from private letters must go to the state and not to the deputy postmasters.

His plan was entitled "A proposition for settling of Stafetti or pacquet posts betwixt London and all parts of His Majesty's Dominions. The profits to go to pay the postmasters, who now are paid by His Majesty at a cost of £3400 per annum." A general office or counting house was to be established in London for the reception of all letters coming to or leaving the capital. Letters leaving London on each of the great roads were to be enclosed in a leather "portmantle" and left at the post-towns on the way. Letters for any of the towns off the great roads were to be placed in smaller leather bags to be carried in the large portmantle. These leather bags were to be left at the post-towns nearest the country towns to which they were directed. They were then to be carried to their destination by foot-posts to a distance of six or eight miles and for each letter these foot-posts were to charge 2d., the same price that was charged by the country carriers. At the same time that the foot-posts delivered their letters, they were to collect letters to be sent to London and carry them back to the post-town from which they had started and there meet the portmantle on its way back from Edinburgh or Bristol or wherever the terminus of the road might be. The speed of the posts was to be at least 120 miles in twenty-four hours and they were to travel day and night. He concludes his proposition by saying that no harm would result to Stanhope by his plan "for neither Lord Stanhope nor anie other, that ever enjoyed the Postmaster's place of England, had any benefit of the carrying and re-carrying of the subjects' letters."[63]

The question now was, Who was to see that these reforms were carried out? Stanhope was not the man for so important and revolutionary an undertaking. Witherings alone, the author of the proposition, should carry it into effect. Sir John Coke made no mistake in constituting himself the friend of the postal reformer. Witherings was already Foreign Postmaster-General and in 1635 he was charged with the reformation of the inland office on the basis of his projected scheme. In 1637 the inland and foreign offices were again united when he was made Foreign and Inland Postmaster-General.[64] His experiment was tried on the Northern Road first and was exceedingly successful. Letters were sent to Edinburgh and answers returned in six days. On the Northern Road bye-posts were established to Lincoln, Hull and other places.[65] Orders were given to extend the same arrangement to the other great roads, and by 1636 his reform was in full and profitable operation.

Witherings still continued to sell the positions of the postmasters, if we are to trust the complaints of non-successful applicants. One man said that he offered £100 for a position but Witherings sold it to another for £40.[66] The Postmaster at Ferrybridge asserted that he had paid Stanhope £200 and Witherings £35 and yet now fears that he will be ousted. Complaints of a reduction in wages were also made, and this was a serious matter, since the postmasters no longer obtained anything from private letters.[67] The old complaint, however, of failure to pay wages at all is not heard under Witherings' administration. He was punctual in his payments and held his employees to equally rigid account. Their arrears were not excused.[68] An absentee postmaster, who hired deputies to perform his duties, was dismissed.[69] His ambition to establish a self-supporting postal system demanded rigid economy and strict administration, and with the then prevailing laxity of administrative methods, this was no mean achievement. From one occasional practice of the Post Office, that of tampering with private letters, he cannot perhaps wholly be absolved. It is hinted that he may have been guilty of opening letters, but the suggestion follows that this may have happened before they reached England, for the letters so opened were from abroad.[70]

In June of 1637, Coke and Windebank, the two Secretaries of State, were appointed Postmasters-General for their lives. The surviving one was to surrender his office to the King, who would then grant it to the Secretaries for the time being.[71] It does not appear that Witherings was altogether dismissed from the service, for his name continued to appear in connection with postal affairs.[72] Windebank later urged as reasons for the withdrawal of Witherings' patent, that he was not a sworn officer, that there was a suspicion that his patent had been obtained surreptitiously, and that the continental postmasters disdained to correspond with a man of his low birth. He concludes by saying that something may be given him, but that he is said to be worth £800 a year in land and to have enriched himself from his position.[73] At the time of his removal, in June, 1637, the London merchants petitioned for his continuance in office, as he had always given them satisfaction. When they heard who had been appointed in his stead, like loyal and fearful subjects, they hastened to add that they thought someone else was trying for the position but they had no doubt that it would be managed best by the Secretaries.[74] If they thought so they were mistaken, for the commander of the English army against Scotland found that his letters were opened,[75] the Lord High Admiral complained that his were delayed,[76] and Windebank promised an unknown correspondent that the delay in his letters should be seen to at once and Witherings was the agent chosen for the investigation.[77] This, however, was not the worst, for only a month after Witherings had been degraded, orders were issued to the postmasters that no packets or letters were to be sent by post but such as should be directed "For His Majesty's Special Affairs" and were subscribed by certain officials connected with the Government.[78] It is fair to add that this check on private correspondence may have been a protective measure induced by the unsettled state of the kingdom.

In 1640 both the inland and foreign offices were sequestered into the hands of Philip Burlamachi, a wealthy London merchant who had lent money to the king. No reasons were given except that information had been received "of divers abuses and misdemeanours committed by Thomas Witherings."[79] Stanhope, who had resigned his patent in 1637, now came forward claiming that his resignation had been unfairly obtained by the Council, and at the same time he presented his bill for £1266, the arrears in his salary for nineteen years.[80] In reply to his demand it was said that shortly before he resigned he had assigned his rights in the Post Office to the Porters, father and son. The Attorney-General gave his opinion that whatever rights Stanhope and the Porters had, they certainly had no claim to the proceeds from the carriage of private letters.[81] Stanhope had offered to enter an appearance in a suit brought against him by the Porters but now he refused to do so.[82] Windebank was also looking out for money due to him while Coke and he were Postmasters-General.[83] The state had indeed entered upon troublous times and it was every man for himself before it was too late.

As long as Witherings had enjoyed the King's favour, the House of Commons had looked upon him with suspicion. They had ordered in 1640 "that a Sub-Committee of the Committee of Grievances should be made a House Committee to consider abuses in the inland posts, to take into consideration the rates for letters and packets together with the abuses of Witherings and the rest of the postmasters."[84] As soon as Witherings was finally dismissed, the Commons took him up and resolutions were passed that the sequestration was illegal and ought to be repealed, that the proclamation for ousting him from his position ought not to be put into execution, and that he ought to be restored to his old position and be paid the mean profits which had been received since his nominal dismissal.[85] Protected by the authority of the House of Commons, Witherings continued to act as Postmaster-General.[86] Windebank, in Paris, was trying to collect evidence against him through Frizell, who, he said, had been forced out of his position by Witherings and Coke.[87] Coke himself was in disgrace and could do nothing. Parliament was now supreme. Witherings was ordered to send to a Committee of the Lords, acting with Sir Henry Vane, all letters coming into or going out of the kingdom for examination and search. Frequent orders to the same effect followed during the turbulent summer and autumn of 1641.[88] Among other letters opened were those of the Venetian Ambassador in England. He was so indignant that a Committee of the Lords was sent to him to ask his pardon.[89] The two Houses of Parliament united in condemning the sequestration to Burlamachi, but Witherings, who had become tired of the strife, assigned his position to the Earl of Warwick.[90] The Earl was supported by both Houses, but the Lower House played a double part, for, while openly supporting Warwick, they now secretly favoured Burlamachi, who had found an influential friend in Edmund Prideaux, former chairman of the committee appointed to investigate the condition of the posts and later Attorney-General under the Commonwealth.[91] Prideaux was a strong Parliamentarian, but was distrusted even by his own friends. But for the time being, as the representative of the Commons, he was supported by them. The messenger of the Upper House made oath that he had delivered the Commons' resolution to Burlamachi, commanding him to hand over the Inland Letter Office to Warwick, but James Hicks had presented an order at the place appointed by Warwick for receiving letters, to deliver all letters to Prideaux. Burlamachi on being summoned before the Lords for contempt said that Prideaux had hired his house and now had charge of the mails. The fight went merrily on. Two servants of Warwick seized the Holyhead letters from Hicks, but were in turn stopped by five troopers, agents of Prideaux, who took the letters from them by order of the House of Commons. Prideaux also seized the Chester and Plymouth letters, one of his servants calling out "that an order of the House of Commons ought to be obeyed before an order of the House of Lords."[92] Hicks, who had been arrested by order of the Lords, was liberated by the Commons as a servant of a member of Parliament.[93] As between Lords and Commons, there could be no doubt as to which side would carry the day, and by the end of 1642 the Lower House was triumphant all along the line. Understanding that discretion was the better part of valour, the Lords freed Burlamachi and dropped the contest. Warwick now petitioned the Lords again, setting forth that he was the legal successor and assignee of Witherings. Stanhope put in a counter-petition to the effect that Witherings never had any right to the position which Warwick now claimed. The House of Lords felt its own weakness too much to interfere directly, but ordered the whole matter to trial.[94] Besides Stanhope and Warwick, the following put in claims before the Council of State: Henry Robinson, through the Porters, to whom Stanhope had assigned; Sir David Watkins in trust for Thomas Witherings, Jr., for the foreign office; Moore and Jessop through Watkins and Walter Warde. Billingsley also, the old Postmaster of the Merchant Adventurers, made a claim for the foreign office.[95]

The confusion in postal administration which naturally resulted from the struggle among the rival claimants was increased by the Civil War. In 1643 the Royal Court was moved to Oxford. The Secretaries of State acting as Postmasters-General sent James Hicks, the quondam servant of Prideaux, to collect arrears from the postmasters due to the Letter Office. In addition to collecting the money due, he was to require all postmasters on the road to Coventry to convey to and from the Court all letters and packets on His Majesty's service, to establish new stages, to forward the names of those willing to supply horses and guides, and to report those postmasters who were disobedient or disloyal.[96] During the most desperate period of the royal cause Hicks acted as special messenger for the King, and apparently had some exciting experiences in carrying the letters of his royal master. He lived to enjoy his reward when the second Charles had come to his own. Parliament, in the meantime, was establishing its control over the posts and reorganizing the service. In the early period of Parliamentary government, postal affairs were as a rule looked after by what was known as the "Committee of Both Kingdoms," and the orders which it issued were necessarily based upon political conditions. Later the Postmaster-General acted under the Council of State or under Cromwell himself. In 1644 the House of Commons issued an order that protection should be granted to the postmasters between London and Hull, to their servants, horses and goods.[97] The fact that it was necessary to re-settle posts on the old established London-Berwick road shows how demoralized conditions had been during the conflict.[98] Many of the loyal postmasters were dismissed. Their lukewarm conduct in supplying the messengers of the Commonwealth with horses produced a reprimand from the Committee and a sharp warning from Prideaux.[99] Posts were settled from London to Lyme Regis for better communication with the southwestern counties. In 1644 Edmund Prideaux was formally appointed Postmaster-General.[100] He was allowed to use as his office part of the building occupied by the Committee of Accounts, formerly the house of a London alderman.[101] As long as the war continued it was necessary that a close watch should be kept over letters passing by post. Many of the new postmasters were military men and in addition others were appointed in each town under the heading of "persons to give intelligence."[102] With the return of normal conditions after 1649 Prideaux was ordered by the Council of State to make arrangements for establishing posts all over England as in the peaceful days before the war.[103] His report of the same year to the Council of State indicates the successful fulfilment of his instructions. He said that he had established a weekly conveyance of letters to all parts of the Commonwealth and that with the receipts from private letters he had paid all the postmasters except those on the Dover road.[104]

For the safety of the Commonwealth it was often found necessary to search the letters. Sometimes the posts were stopped and all the letters examined. When this was done, it was by order of the Council of State, which appointed certain officials to go through the correspondence.[105] Sir Kenelm Digby, writing to Lord Conway from Calais, asks him to direct his letters to that place, where they would find him, "if no curious overseer of the packets at the post break them open for the superscription's sake."[106] The Commonwealth did openly and is consequently blamed for what had been done more or less secretly by the Royal Government.

In 1651 the first proposal for farming the Post Office was submitted to the Council of State. The Council reported the question to Parliament but there is no evidence as to their attitude on the question at that time.[107] The next year Parliament ordered that the question of management, whether by contract or otherwise, should be re-committed to the Council,[108] and in 1653 it was decided that it would be better to let the posts out to farm. Prideaux had been quietly dropped by the Council after making, as it was reported, a large fortune. When we remember that under his management there was an annual deficit of £600 besides the expenses of the Dover road and that in 1653 there was a net revenue of £10,000, it seems probable that there is some truth in the report. The conditions upon which the Post Office was farmed, were as follows:—

The farmers must be men of stability and good credit and must be selected from those contracting. Official letters and letters from and to members of Parliament must be carried free. All postage rates must be fixed by the Council and not changed without its consent. Finally all postmasters should be approved by the Council and Lord Protector.[109]

The policy of the Commonwealth in letting the posts out to farm had much in its favour. The evil usually resulting from farming is the temptation and the opportunity it offers for extortion from the people. But in the case of the posts no oppression was possible, for the farmer was limited in his charge to the rate fixed by the Government. More than this, private control over the post office business afforded what was most needed at the time, greater economy and stricter supervision over the deputy postmasters. It was upon the deputy postmasters alone that the farming system might exercise undue pressure, but from them there was no complaint of the withholding or reduction of wages until after Cromwell's death.[110]

John Manley was appointed "Farmer of the Posts" for two years at a yearly rent of £10,000. There were at least four higher tenders than his, and Manley contracted only for £8259. It was hinted that Manley and the Council had come to a private agreement concerning the rent to be paid.[111] In his orders to the postmasters, Manley requested them to take particular care of government packets and to see that no one was allowed to ride in post unless by special warrant. All letters should be counted by them and the number certified in London. They were to keep a sharp eye upon people, especially travellers, and report any discontent or disaffection.[112] In 1654 Manley's title of Postmaster-General was confirmed by act of Parliament, the first act dealing directly with postal affairs.[113] He was unsuccessful in having his franchise extended beyond the original two years, and by order of the Council of State the management of the Posts was entrusted to Mr. Thurloe, Secretary of State, for £10,000 a year, the same amount which Manley had paid.[114]

Shortly after Thurloe had been appointed Postmaster-General, general orders were issued by Cromwell to all the postmasters. He forbade them to send by express any letters or packets except those sent by certain officials on affairs of state, all others to await the regular time for the departure of the mails. The old regulations for providing mail-bags, registration of the time of reception, and the like were repeated. The number of mails to and from London was increased from one to three a week each way, and to ensure higher speed, each postmaster was to provide a horse ready saddled and was not to detain the mail longer than half an hour under any consideration. He was ordered to deliver all letters in the country at or near his stage and was to collect the postage marked on the letter unless it was postpaid. The money so collected was to be returned to London every three months.[115]

In 1657 the first act of Parliament was passed which fixed rates for the conveyance of letters and established the system for the British Islands. The preamble stated: "That whereas it hath been found by experience that the writing and settling of one General Post Office ... is the best means not only to maintain certain intercourse of trade and commerce betwixt all the said places to the great benefit of the people of these nations, but also to convey the public despatches and to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs, which have been and are daily continued against the peace and welfare of this Commonwealth," it is enacted that there shall be one General Post Office called the Post Office of England, and one Postmaster-General nominated and appointed by the Protector for life or for a term of years not exceeding eleven.[116] In accordance with the terms of this act, Thurloe was appointed by Cromwell and continued to act as Postmaster-General until the downfall of the Commonwealth.[117]

After the Restoration most of the old claimants to the Post Office came to the front again. Stanhope besieged King and Parliament for restoration to his old place. He seems to have received some compensation, which he deserved for his pertinacity if for nothing else. The Porters were up in arms at once, for he had promised them to come to no agreement until they were satisfied.[118] The two daughters of Burlamachi pleaded for some mark of favour, on the ground that their father had ruined himself for the late King. Frizell was still very much alive, and a nephew of Witherings carried on the family feud.[119] In the meantime James Hicks was employed by the Secretary of State to ascertain how many of the old deputy postmasters were still eligible for positions. He reported that many of them were dead and that many of those who were applying for positions had been enemies of the King. For the time being it was decided that the present officials should remain in office until a settlement should be made.[120]

Henry Bishop was appointed by royal patent Postmaster-General of England for seven years at a rent of £21,500 a year. The King agreed to persuade Parliament to pass an act[121] settling the rates and terms under which Bishop was to exercise his duties. For the time being he was to charge the same rates as those in the "pretended Act of 1657," to defray all postal expenses and to carry free all public letters and letters of members of Parliament during the present session. He agreed also to allow the Secretaries to examine letters and not to change old routes or set up new without their consent. He was to dismiss all officials whom they should object to on reasonable grounds. If his income should be lessened by war or plague or if this grant should prove ineffectual, the Secretaries agreed to allow such abatement in his farm as should seem reasonable to them.[122] Bishop's régime does not seem to have been popular with the postmasters, for a petition in behalf of 300 of them, representing themselves to be "all the postmasters in England, Scotland, and Ireland," was presented to Parliament in protest against the Postmaster-General's actions. They describe how Cromwell had let the Post Office out to farm. They credit him with respecting their rights and paying their wages. Lately, however, Bishop had been appointed farmer, and unless they submitted to his orders, they were dismissed at once. He had decreased their wages by more than one half, made them pay for their places again, and demanded bonds from them that they should not disclose any of these things.[123]

In 1633, Bishop resigned his grant to Daniel O'Neale for £8000. O'Neale offered £2000 and, in addition, promised £1000 a year, during the lease, to Bennet, Secretary of State, if he would have the assignment confirmed. He explained that this would not injure the Duke of York's interest, who could expect no increase until the expiration of the original contract, which still had four years and a quarter to run.[124] This refers to an act of Parliament which had just been passed, settling the £21,500 post revenue upon the Duke of York and his male heirs,[125] with the exception of some £5000 which had been assigned by the King to his mistresses and favourites. O'Neale having died before his lease expired, his wife, the Countess of Chesterfield, performed his duties until 1667.[126]

According to the grant made to O'Neale in 1663 no postmaster nor any other person except the one to whom it was directed or returned was to open any letter unless ordered so to do by an express warrant from one of the Secretaries of State. If any letter was overcharged, the excess was to be returned to the person to whom it was directed. Nothing was said about letters which were lost or stolen in the post. A certain John Pawlett complained that of sixteen letters which he had posted not one was ever delivered in London although the postage was prepaid.[127] Letters not prepaid were stamped with the postage due in the London Office when they were sent from London. Letters sent to London were charged by the receiving postmaster in the country and the charge verified at the London Office. An account was kept there of the amounts due and the postmasters were debited with them, less the sum for letters not delivered, which had also to be returned for verification.[128] All this meant losses to the postal revenue, but compulsory prepayment would have been impracticable at the time. The postmasters had nothing to gain by retaining letters not prepaid, but by neglecting to forward prepaid letters, they could keep the whole of the postage, for stamps were unknown. An incentive to the delivery of letters was provided by the penny payment which it was customary to give the postmasters for each letter delivered, over and above the regular postage. The postmasters were required to remit the postage collected to London every month and give bonds for the performance of their duties.[129]

The postal service was very much demoralized by the plague in 1665 and 1666 and the great fire which followed. Hicks, the clerk, said that the gains during this time would be very small. To prevent contagion the building was so "fumed" that they could hardly see each other.[130] The letters were aired over vinegar or in front of large fires and Hicks remarks that had the pestilence been carried by letters they would have been dead long ago. While the plague was still dangerous, the King's letters were not allowed to pass through London.[131] After the fire the headquarters of the Post-Office in London were removed to Gresham College.

When O'Neale's lease had expired in 1667, Lord Arlington, Secretary of State, was appointed Postmaster-General.[132] The real head was Sir John Bennet, with whom Hicks was entirely out of sympathy. He accused Bennet of "scurviness" and condemned the changes initiated by him. These changes were in the shape of reductions in wages. The postmasters' salaries were to be reduced from £40 to £20 a year. In the London Office, the wages of the carriers and porters were also to be reduced.[133]

At the close of the seventeenth century there were forty-nine men employed in the Inland Department of the Post Office in London. The Postmaster-General, or Controller as he was sometimes called, was nominally responsible for the whole management although the accountant and treasurer were more or less independent. Then there were eight clerks of the roads. They had charge of the mails coming and going on the six great roads to Holyhead, Bristol, Plymouth, Edinburgh, Yarmouth, and Dover. The old veteran Hicks had been at their head until his resignation in 1670. The General Post Office building was in Lombard Street.[134] Letters might be posted there or at the receiving stations at Westminster, Charing Cross, Pall Mall, Covent Garden, and the Inns of Court. From these stations, letters were despatched to the General Office twice on mail nights. For this work thirty-two letter carriers were employed, but they did not deliver letters as their namesakes now do. The mails left London for all parts of the country on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday late at night or early the next morning. On these days all officials had to attend at 6 P.M. and were generally at work all night. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday when the mails arrived from all parts of England they had to be on hand at 4 or 5 A.M. The postage to be paid was stamped on the letters by the clerks of the roads. In addition three sorters and three window-men were employed. The window-men were the officials who stood at the window to receive the letters handed in and to collect postage when it was prepaid. Then there were an alphabet-man, who posted the names of merchants for whom letters had arrived, a sorter of paid letters, and a clerk of undertaxed letters.[135] In the Foreign Office, there were a controller, two sorters, an alphabet-man, and eight letter receivers, of whom two were women. In addition the Foreign Office had a rebate man who saw that overcharged letters were corrected. Both offices seem to have shared the carriers in common.[136]

Before 1680 there was no post between one part of London and another. A Londoner having a letter for delivery had either to take it himself or send it by a special messenger. The houses were not numbered and were generally recognized by the signs they bore or their nearness to some public building. Such was the condition in the metropolis when William Dockwra organized his London Penny Post. On the first of April, 1680, London found itself in possession of a postal system which in some respects was superior to that of to-day. In the Penny Post Office as so established there were employed a controller, an accountant, a receiver, thirteen clerks in the six offices, and about a hundred messengers to collect and deliver letters. The six offices were:—

The General Office in Star Court, Cornhill;
St. Paul's Office in Queen's Head Alley, Newgate Street;
Temple Office in Colchester Rents in Chancery Lane;
Westminster Office, St. Martin's Lane;
Southwark Office near St. Mary Overy's Church;
Hermitage Office in Swedeland Court, East Smithfield.

There were in all about 179 places in London where letters might be posted. Shops and coffee-houses were used for this purpose in addition to the six offices, and in almost every street a table might be seen at some door or shop-window bearing in large letters the sign "Penny Post Letters and Parcels are taken in here." From these places letters were collected every hour and taken to the six main receiving-houses. There they were sorted and stamped by the thirteen clerks. The same messengers carried them from the receiving-houses to the people to whom they were addressed. There were four deliveries a day to most parts of the city and six or eight to the business centres.

The postage fee for all letters or parcels to be delivered within the bills of mortality was one penny, payable in advance. The penny rate was uniform for all letters and parcels up to one pound in weight, which was the maximum allowed. Articles or money to the value of £10 might be sent and the penny payment insured their safe delivery. There was a daily delivery to places ten or fifteen miles from London and there was also a daily collection for such places. The charge of one penny in such cases paid only for conveyance to the post-house and an additional penny was paid on delivery. From such places to London, however, only one penny was demanded and there was no fee for delivery. The carriers in London travelled on foot, but in some of the neighbouring towns they rode on horseback.[137]

Dockwra is credited with being the first to make use of post-marks. All letters were stamped at the six principal receiving-offices with the name of the receiving-office and the hour of their reception. For instance, we have samples of letters post-marked thus:

The first figure shows that they were Penny Post letters and that they were prepaid. The "W" in the centre is the initial letter of the receiving-office, Westminster. The second figure shows the hour of arrival at the Westminster office, 9 A.M. The earliest instance of these marks is on a letter dated Dec. 9, 1681, written by the Bishop of London to the Lord Mayor.[138]

Whenever letters came from any part of the world by the General Post, directed to persons in London or in any of the towns where the Penny Post carriers went, they were handed over to these carriers to be delivered. In the same way, letters directed to any part of the world might be left at any of the receiving-offices of the Penny Post to be carried by its messengers to the General Office. This must have increased greatly the number of letters carried by the General Post. In the case of letters arriving by the General and delivered by the Penny Post, the postage was paid on delivery.[139] Over two hundred and thirty years ago then, London had for a time a system of postal delivery not only unrivalled until a short time ago, but in the matter of parcel rates and insurance not yet equalled.

What was Dockwra's reward for the boon which he had conferred? He himself says that it had been undertaken at his sole charge and had cost him £10,000. It had not paid for the first few months, and the friends who had associated themselves with him fell away.[140] As long as it produced no surplus, Dockwra was left to do as he pleased, for the General Post was gaining indirectly from it. As soon as it began to pay, the Duke of York cast his eye on it. In 1683 an action was brought against Dockwra for infringing upon the prerogative of His Royal Highness, and the Duke won the case. The Penny Post was incorporated in the General Post soon after.[141] After William and Mary had come to the throne, Dockwra was given a pension of £500 a year for seven years. At the end of that time he was appointed manager of the Penny Post Department of the General Post and his pension was continued for three years longer. In 1700 he was dismissed, charged with "forbidding the taking in of band-boxes (unless very small) and all parcels above one pound in weight, with stopping parcels, and opening and detaining letters."[142] Such was Dockwra's reward and such had been Witherings'. He who would reform the Post Office must be prepared to take his official life in his hands.

The transition between two reigns was usually a period of unrest and disquietude, and the Revolution which resulted in the expulsion of James was naturally accompanied by internal disorder. For a time the posts suffered quite severely. The Irish and Scotch mails were robbed several times and not even the "Black Box" escaped. This was the box in which were carried the despatches between Scotland and the Secretaries of State, the use of which was not discontinued until after the accession of the new King and Queen. After 1693 each Secretary was to send and receive his own despatches separately and all expenses were to be met from the proceeds of the London-Berwick post.[143] Major Wildman had been appointed to the oversight of the Post Office, but held office for a few months only, being succeeded in 1691 by Cotton and Frankland. The Postmasters-General were henceforth to act under the Lords of the Treasury.[144]

Important improvements in the frequency and extension of postal communication were inaugurated under the management of Cotton and Frankland. It was, however, for the extension of the foreign postal service and for that to Ireland and the plantations that their administration is most notable.

On Monday and Thursday letters went to France, Italy, and Spain, on Monday and Friday to the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, mails left for all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and there was a daily post to Kent and the Downs. Letters arrived in London from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from Wales every Monday and from Kent and the Downs every day. Besides the establishment of the General Post in London, there were about 200 deputy postmasters employed in England and Scotland.[145] The Irish Post was supervised from London and during the Irish war its headquarters in Ireland were transferred from Dublin to Belfast. It was directly managed by a Deputy Postmaster-General, aided by ten or a dozen officials and clerks. The net receipts were sent to England and the books were audited by a deputy sent over by the Auditor-General of the English Post.[146]

The Scotch Post Office was not in so good condition as the Irish. The time when every Scotchman could read and write was yet very far distant. The only post road of any importance was from Edinburgh to Berwick and this had been established by the English. For many years the vast majority of letters travelling over this road were official despatches. After the crowns of England and Scotland were united, it was necessary for the English Government to keep in close touch with Scotland and "Black Box" made frequent journeys between the two countries. The canny people in the north had discovered a rich country to the south waiting to be exploited, and the post horses between Edinburgh and London were kept busy carrying the lean and hungry northern folk to the land of milk and honey. Until 1695 the English and Scotch Post Offices had been united under the English Postmaster-General with an Edinburgh deputy; but by the Scotch act of 1695 the Post Office of Scotland was separated from that of England. The terms of this act were much the same as those of the English act of 1660, although the rates established were somewhat higher. There was to be a Postmaster-General living in Edinburgh, who was to have the monopoly of carrying all letters and packets where posts were settled.[147]

The first proposal for a postal establishment in the American colonies came from New England in 1638. The reason given was that a post office was "so useful and absolutely necessary."[148] Nothing was done by the home government until fifty years later when a proclamation was issued, ordering letter offices to be settled in convenient places on the North American continent. Rates were established for the continental colonies and Jamaica.[149] In 1691, acting upon a report of the Governors of the Post-Office, the Lords of Trade and Plantations granted a patent to Thomas Neale to establish post offices in North America. About the same time an act was passed by the Colony of Massachusetts appointing Andrew Hamilton Postmaster-General. The Lords of Trade and Plantations called attention to the fact that this act was not subject to the patent granted to Neale. Matters were adjusted by Neale himself, who appointed Hamilton his deputy in North America.[150] In 1699 a report was made by Cotton and Frankland to the Lords of the Treasury based on a memorial from Neale and Hamilton. The latter had established a regular weekly post between Boston and New York and from New York to Newcastle in Pennsylvania. The receipts had increased every year and now covered all expenses except Hamilton's own salary, £200. Postmasters had been appointed in New York and Philadelphia, Hamilton himself being in Boston. The New York postmaster received a salary of £20 with an additional £90 for carrying the mail half-way to Boston. The Philadelphia postmaster was paid £10 a year.[151]

The business of the Post Office was rapidly increasing. The same decade that saw the establishment of the Board of Trade witnessed also the organization of the Colonial Post. The expansion of English commerce[152] necessarily reacted on communications both internal and foreign, while the linking of the country posts with the general system and the stimulus given by the London Penny Post showed itself in the increased postal revenue.[153] The way was prepared for the great expansion of the following century, an expansion turned to account as a source of taxation.

CHAPTER III

THE POSTAL ESTABLISHMENT AN INSTRUMENT OF TAXATION

1711-1840

The year 1711 is an important landmark in the history of the British Post Office. England and Scotland had united not only under one king but under one Parliament, the war with France made a larger revenue necessary, the growth of the Colonies required better communication with the mother country and each other, and it was highly expedient that certain changes in the policy of the Post Office should receive parliamentary sanction. The act of 1711 was intended to meet these conditions. The English and Scotch Post Offices were united under one Postmaster-General in London, where letters might be received from and sent to all parts of Great Britain, Ireland, the colonies and foreign countries. The postage rates were increased to meet the demand for a larger revenue. In addition to the General Office in London, chief letter offices were ordered to be set up in Edinburgh, Dublin, New York, the West Indies, and other American colonies, and deputies were appointed to take charge of them.

One of the most important clauses of this act, by providing regulations for the management of the London Penny Post, finally placed the seal of the approval of Parliament upon a branch of the General Post, which had existed for nearly thirty years by virtue of royal proclamations and legal decisions alone. A penny rate was imposed upon all letters and packets passing by the Penny Post in London, Westminster and Southwark to be received and delivered within ten miles from the General Post Office building. This would seem at first sight to be an improvement on the old custom, by which a penny had carried only within the bills of mortality; but as a matter of fact an extra penny was demanded on letters delivered outside the bills and within the ten mile limit. Protest was, however, made against this as being illegal, and it was not until 1730 that the custom was sanctioned.[154]

One other provision of the new act remains to be mentioned. The last section forbade any official connected with the Post Office from meddling in politics.[155] The system of party government which had begun to take form during William and Mary's reign, was developing. Under Anne, the Whigs had been the war party, the expansionists, while the Tories were anxious for peace. So different were their policies that Marlborough had gone over to the Whigs. But the Queen and probably the majority of the people were tired of war. Godolphin, the great financier, had given way to Harley and the general election was favourable to the Tories. Frankland had died before the act was passed, but Cotton, who was a member of Parliament, preferred to keep his position in the Post Office and accordingly accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. A Mr. Evelyn was associated with him as Postmaster-General.

Shortly after his appointment the attention of the department was directed to a weakness in administrative control which had already resulted in considerable financial loss. The Postmasters-General had always experienced considerable difficulty in collecting the postage on bye and cross road letters.[156] Since these letters did not reach London, no check was possible to ascertain whether the postmaster transmitted to headquarters the full amount of the postage collected on them. The difficulty had been met before 1711 by farming a large number of the country post offices.[157] In 1711 the leases under which the farmers had held office were cancelled and all the posts in the kingdom came again under the direct oversight of the Postmasters-General. The old farmers were made managers, with an allowance of 10 per cent from the net proceeds of the posts under their control, and the deputy postmasters were again paid directly by the state. The Government had refused o appoint surveyors when the act of 1711 was drafted and for a time these managers acted in that capacity.[158] The experiment was not a success and the Postmasters-General were at their wits' end to know what to do to save the revenue which was being diverted to the pockets of the country postmasters.

The country was happily spared any new device on their part, for in 1721 a man came forward with a proposal to take all the losses upon himself or rather to prevent them entirely. This was Ralph Allen, whose name is worth remembering, not as a reformer but as a good business man who came to the rescue of the postal revenue at a rather critical time. He was the son of an innkeeper at St. Blazey. At an early age we find him living with his grandmother, the postmistress of St. Columb. He came under the notice of one of the surveyors there on account of the neatness with which he kept the accounts for his grandmother. When he was old enough, he was appointed to a position in the Post Office at Bath and in time was made postmaster there. Tradition has it that during the insurrection of 1715 he informed the authorities that a wagon load of arms was on its way from the West for the use of the rebels and that this led to his preferment.[159] He offered to farm the cross and bye posts throughout the kingdom. The net product from these posts amounted to £4000 in 1719. Allen offered to pay half as much again and meet all expenses. The offer was accepted, and in 1721 he was given the lease of the cross and bye posts for a period of seven years. The rent was fixed at £6000 a year in accordance with the agreement. For the first quarter, the receipts exceeded expectations, but later the postmasters began to relapse into their old ways. In addition, the contract was rather hard on Allen, as £300 of the £4000 nominally received by the Post Office was for letters not delivered and hence not paid for. After the third year, matters began to improve and the receipts increased greatly. The contract was renewed for terms of seven years, until Allen's death in 1769, and the rent was increased at each renewal.[160]

How did he succeed when so many others had failed? In the first place he introduced the use of post bills and every postmaster had to distinguish on these bills the bye letters from all others. The voucher, which he also introduced, seems to have been only an acknowledgment of the amount to be collected by each postmaster. Besides this, Allen had a most intimate knowledge of the various post towns in the kingdom, of their importance and of the number of letters which might naturally be expected to pass between them. He based his conclusions upon quite obvious considerations. Between any two towns of much the same importance he expected about the same correspondence, that it would not vary much, and that the letters received and despatched would pretty well equal each other.[161]

When Allen's contract was renewed in 1741 it was proposed that he should be obliged to settle and support at his own charge posts six days a week instead of the former tri-weekly posts between London, Cambridge, Lynn, Norwich, and Yarmouth and from London to Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, and intermediate towns. This was not done at once, but during the next few years this proposition was put into effect.[162] In 1734, in addition to his cross and bye post letters, Allen undertook to pay for the improvements which he had made in the conveyance of country letters.[163] He pointed out at the same time that there was some opposition between the two parts of his contract, since country and cross post letters interfered more or less with each other.[164]

Allen died in 1769, being worth, according to current report, £500,000. Lewins says that he made £12,000 a year from his farm. Probably both statements are exaggerated, but it is certain that he accumulated a respectable fortune while managing the bye and cross posts.[165]

There had been a considerable increase in the staff of the General Office and many improvements introduced since 1711. At the head of the office were two Commissioners called Postmasters-General, each with a salary of £2000, assisted by a Secretary and four clerks. There were in addition a Receiver-General, an Accountant-General, a Solicitor, a Resident-Surveyor, and two inspectors of missent letters. In addition to the Penny Post carriers, who were employed also by the General Post, there were a Court Messenger and a carrier for the House of Commons. At the General Office, letters were taxed and sorted by the "Clerks of the Road" and their assistants and by seventeen sorters. The window-man and alphabet-keeper received the money on prepaid letters and posted lists of those for whom letters had arrived. Undertaxed letters from the country were re-taxed by the "Clerks of the Road." Besides the receiving-houses of the Penny Post where all letters might be posted, there were thirty receiving-houses for the General Post. Letters were conveyed from these to the central office by sixty-nine carriers.[166]

Letters were sent every night to the principal South and Midland towns of England. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, there were mails for all parts of England and Scotland and on Tuesday and Saturday for Ireland and Wales. On Monday and Thursday, letters were sent to France, Spain, and Italy, on Monday and Friday to Germany, Flanders, Sweden, and Denmark, and on Tuesday and Friday to Holland. Letters arrived in London every day from the South and Midland towns, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from all parts of England and Scotland, and on Monday and Friday from Ireland and Wales.[167] It will be seen from this that the improvements in postal communications, which had taken place since the beginning of the century, had been confined to the South and Midland towns of England and to foreign countries.

With the foregoing enlargement of postal facilities an old grievance on the part of the public began to assume an acute form. It had always been a debated question as to how far the postmasters were responsible for the delivery of letters. There was no general rule upon the question and the practice varied in different parts of England. Although the towns on the post roads were fairly well off as far as their letters were concerned, it was different with those places which were neither on the great roads nor on the bye-roads leading off from them. The mails for such places were left at the nearest post towns and were conveyed to their destination by carriers and messengers. Cotton and Frankland stated that in addition to collecting the regular postage, they demanded for this service an extra payment of 3d., 6d., and sometimes 12d. It was proposed in 1699 that the delivery should be made by persons appointed to collect as well as to deliver all letters and parcels. For this they were allowed to take one penny or whatever the people wished to give them.[168] In Sandwich the cross and bye post letters had always been delivered free, although a fee was charged for the London letters. The postmaster there decided to charge for all letters, and the inhabitants of Sandwich protested. The case was carried to the courts and the Post Office lost. Sandwich, however, was a place where there had been a free delivery of part of the letters at least. The Postmasters-General were very much disturbed at this decision and still more disturbed lest the courts might decide for free delivery in other post towns, which had always paid. They resolved to bring on a test case. The town of Hungerford in Berkshire was chosen, as it could be proved that the postmaster of that place had received a penny for each letter delivered since the beginning of the century. The case came before the Court of King's Bench, Lord Mansfield presiding, and the Post Office lost again. This case was decided in 1774, and the next year the "Liverpool Advertiser" records a complaint to the Postmasters-General that there was only one letter carrier in Liverpool. The reply was that only one carrier was maintained in any provincial town and that Liverpool could expect no better treatment.[169]

At the same time that the Post Office received this adverse decision it had begun to suffer severely from the illegal carriage of letters by the post coaches. These post coaches were so called merely because they were most numerous on the post roads. John Palmer, the proprietor of a theatre in Bath, pointed out to the Postmasters-General that the coaches were speedier and cheaper than the post boys who carried the mails on horseback and proposed that he should be allowed to establish mail coaches and thus save the postage on letters illegally carried by the post coaches. His coaches were to be protected by a guard, presumably a retired soldier, who was to be armed with two guns and to sit facing the road in front of him. The driver was to carry pistols. No outside passengers were to be carried, since they impeded the guard in performing his duties. The speed was to be not less than eight or nine miles an hour, twice as fast as the post boys travelled. In addition the mails were to leave London at 8 P.M. instead of after midnight. The coaches were all to leave London together and return together as far as possible. To insure this they were not to wait for government letters when the latter were delayed.[170]

The first mail coach ran between London and Bristol in 1784. It was furnished by contractors at a cost of 3d. a mile. This was the initial cost, however, and by 1797, the rate had been reduced to a penny a mile each way. In the early part of August, 1784, there was only one mail coach. At the end of the same month, coaches went to Norwich, Nottingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. During the next year they were sent to Leeds, Gloucester, Swansea, Hereford, Milford, Worcester, Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Holyhead, Exeter, Portsmouth, and other places. In 1786 they ran between London and Edinburgh. In 1797 there were forty-two mail coach routes established, connecting sixty of the most important towns in the kingdom, as well as intermediate places. These coaches travelled a total distance of 4110 miles and cost the Government £12,416 a year, only half the sum paid for post horses and riders under the old system. The coaches made daily journeys over nearly two thirds of the total distance traversed and tri-weekly journeys over something less than one third the total distance. The remainder travelled one, two, four, and six times a week. The result of the establishment of these mail coaches was summed up by a Parliamentary committee in the following words: "They have lessened the chance of robbery, diminished the need for special messengers and expresses, and now carry the letters formerly sent by post coaches."[171]

Palmer had been appointed Controller-General of the Post Office and had chosen as his assistant a man by the name of Bonner. Palmer himself was of a violent and headstrong disposition, and as ill-luck would have it, Walsingham, one of the Postmasters-General, was as masterful as himself. Palmer considered that his office was outside the scope of Walsingham's authority, and although he failed in making his position absolutely free from the control of the Postmasters-General, yet he heeded them as little as possible. He organized a newspaper department without consulting his superiors and paid no attention to them when an explanation was asked. He stirred up the London merchants to complain about the late delivery of their letters, a delay which he had probably brought about intentionally. A mail coach had been ordered by Walsingham to carry the King's private despatches while His Majesty was taking the waters at Cheltenham. This was done without consulting Palmer, who was so indignant that he persuaded the contractor to send in an enormous bill for supplying the coach. All this came out through the treachery of Bonner, who owed his advancement entirely to the friend whom he betrayed. He went so far as to hand over to the Postmasters-General the private letters which Palmer had written him. Palmer was dismissed in 1792 with a pension.[172]

At the time of Palmer's appointment, a Treasury warrant had been issued for the payment to him of £1500 a year and 2 per cent of the increase from the Post Office revenue, but this warrant had been pronounced illegal by the Attorney-General. Through Pitt's influence, Palmer finally obtained £1500 a year and 2 per cent on any increase in net revenue over £240,000 a year. Palmer objected to this on the ground that the old net revenue was only £150,000 a year, but Pitt replied that the increased rates of 1784 would produce at least £90,000. It is improbable, however, that the new rates produced the increase estimated. In 1797 Palmer presented a petition to the House of Commons, asking for the arrears due him according to his method of estimating the increase in net revenue, upon which his percentage was due. He said that before his system was introduced the gross product of the Post Office was decreasing at the rate of £13,000 a year. This was not true. He claimed that the increase after 1784 was wholly due to his own reforms, taking no account of the increased rates and the industrial expansion of England. No action was taken by Parliament.[173]

One of the arguments advanced by Palmer for the use of mail coaches was their security against robbers. Previous to and during the rebellion of 1745 numerous attempts were made to rob the mails, and many of them were successful. These robberies occurred principally at night. It was said that the mails were carried by boys not always of the best character, and that very often they were in league with the robbers. The Postmasters-General asked for soldiers to patrol the roads where these robberies were the most frequent. This was the method which Cromwell had used to protect the mails. The request does not seem to have been granted, but in 1765 the death penalty was imposed for robbing the mail and for stealing a letter containing a bank note or bill. Any post boy deserting the mail or allowing any one but the guard to ride on the horse or carriage with the mails was liable to commitment to hard labour.[174] Palmer's prediction was fulfilled by the comparative safety with which the mails were carried after his coaches had come into use.

Charles, Earl of Tankerville, and Lord Carteret had been the Postmasters-General in 1782 and 1783. On the fall of Shelburne's ministry in the latter year, Tankerville left the Post Office, but Carteret still remained. So far these two men had worked together fairly well, although Tankerville had a suspicion that his colleague had been engaged in some doubtful transactions. In 1784, when Pitt became Prime Minister, Tankerville was restored to his old office. In the same year a transaction came under his notice which aroused his suspicion. A Mr. Lees had been appointed Secretary of the Irish Post Office. The man who had held this position was made agent of the Dover packet boats, the old agent having been superannuated. The new agent agreed to pay to his predecessor the full amount of the salary coming to the place, while he himself was to be paid by Mr. Lees the total salary coming to the Secretary in Ireland. So far there was nothing uncommon about the arrangement. The unusual part of the agreement and the part which attracted Tankerville's attention was Lees' promise to pay the money to "A. B.," an unknown person, after the old agent's death. Suspicion pointed to Carteret as the man to whom the money was to be paid. Lees himself denied this, but did not say who "A. B." was.[175]

In 1787 a Mr. Staunton, the postmaster of Islesworth, a position worth £400 a year, was in addition appointed Controller and Resident Surveyor of the Bye and Cross Posts, to which was attached a salary of £500, coals and candles and a house. The First Lord of the Treasury proposed that the house should not go with the office, and Carteret decided that Staunton should receive an extra £100 a year in lieu of the house. Tankerville refused to agree to this, and the contention became so warm that the whole matter was referred to Pitt, who, rather than lose Carteret's political support, dismissed Tankerville.[176] Tankerville at once demanded an investigation, which was granted. The results showed the Post Office to be in a deplorable state. Tankerville was completely exonerated, but failed to obtain much sympathy on account of the violence of his attack upon Pitt and Carteret. It came out in the investigation that "A. B." was a foreigner named Treves, who had no claim on the Post Office or any other department of the government except that he was a friend of Carteret. Carteret himself knew the condition of his appointment, but had done nothing except to express himself displeased with the whole arrangement. A payment of £200 a year had also been exacted from Mr. Dashwood, Postmaster-General of Jamaica, as the condition of his appointment, and that too had gone to Treves. The agent at Helvoetsluys had been allowed by Carteret to sell his position to a man as incapable as himself. Staunton's office had been abolished soon after his appointment, and he had been allowed to retire at the age of forty years with a pension of £600 a year in the face of the rule that officers of an advanced age and after long service were allowed upon retirement to receive only two thirds of their salaries.[177]

The Postmasters-General had received in 1783, in addition to their salaries, over £900 for coals. They had also received £694 for candles during two years and a half and £150 for tinware for the same period. Tankerville had taken his share of these perquisites, but it is only fair to add that Carteret's emoluments exceeded his by £213 for the periods under consideration. It had become customary to receive a money payment in place of a large part of their supplies. In 1782 the total sum going to the officials of the General Office amounted to £28,431, of which sum about £10,000 were placed under the heading of emoluments other than salaries.[178] Of all the departments of the Post Office, the Sailing Packet Service was the one most in need of reform.

The light, which was then let in among the dark places of the Post Office, had a most excellent effect. Acting on the report furnished by the committee of the House, a new establishment was effected in 1793. The reforms were approved by the Postmasters-General and carried out under the direction of the Lords of the Treasury. The good work had been begun in 1784 by Palmer. He had appointed additional clerks, letter carriers, surveyors and messengers, had established new offices, and had increased the inadequate pay of minor officials. This had entailed an increase of £19,022 in expenses in the General and Penny Posts, but the increase was justified by increased efficiency and by larger returns from the conveyance of letters. Of the total increase, £11,451 had been spent on the General Office and £7571 on the Penny Post, to which had been added eighty-six more letter carriers for London and seventy-eight more for the suburbs, as well as some supernumerary carriers.[179] The reforms introduced in 1793 may be grouped under three heads: regulations respecting fees and emoluments, abolition of some offices and an increase in officers and clerks in others; regulation of official business. The regulations respecting fees and emoluments were necessarily negative in their character. The most important were as follows: The postmasters were no longer to pay fees to the Postmasters-General on the renewal of the bonds given by their securities. The two per cent allowed to the Scotch Deputy Postmaster-General on all remittances from Scotland was discontinued and a compensation for life was granted instead. The fees for tinware were abolished, and the pension to the New York agent was to cease. No postal official was allowed to own shares in the sailing packets, and with a few minor exceptions all salaries were henceforth to be in lieu of every emolument or fee.[180]

A number of sinecure and useless offices were abolished. The chief among them were: Jamineau's perquisite office which had the monopoly of selling newspapers to the "Clerks of the Roads," the Secretary's position as agent for the packets, the Controller of the Bye and Cross Posts, the Inspector of Dead Letters in the Bye Letter Office, the Collector in the Bye Letter Office, the Secretary of the Foreign Office, and the Controller of the Inland Office.[181]

The changes in business regulations were as follows: The Postmasters-General were no longer to include legal charges, chaise hire, and pensions under the head of dead letters. The Postmasters-General's warrant must be entered previous to any money being paid. The payment of debts must be enforced. The West India accounts should be sent to the deputy there every quarter. The payments to mail coach contractors must be made directly by warrant instead of through the Controller-General. No change was made in the anomalous position of the Accountant-General. He was supposed to be a check upon the Receiver-General, but had to depend upon the Receiver-General's books for verifying the remittances from the deputies.[182]

The Englishman's belief in the sanctity of vested interests has usually been too strong to permit any abridgment of rights or privileges without compensation. Those postal officials who had been dismissed or whose sinecure offices had been abolished were not to be turned entirely adrift. Provision was made for pensioning most of them. Before the reform the total sum paid by the Post Office in pensions was £1500. The incumbrances dismissed were allowed £6101, and between 1793 and 1797 £1475 more were added to the pension list. It was pointed out at the time that it was far better to pension them off and leave them to die than to continue them in service. In 1797 it was a relief to be able to announce "that already £648 had been saved from dead and promoted pensioners."[183]

The report of the committee which had been appointed at Tankerville's suggestion is silent on the question of the opening and detention of letters. It had been provided by the act of 1711 that no letters should be opened or detained except under protection of an express warrant from one of the Secretaries of State. The Royal Commission of 1844 reported that from 1712 to 1798, the number of warrants so issued was 101, excluding those which were well known or easily ascertained. The Secretary of State for the Inland Department issued most of them. From 1798 to 1844, 372 warrants were issued, many of them being general warrants and often for very trivial causes. At the trial of Bishop Atterbury, the principal witnesses against him were Post Office clerks, who had opened and copied letters to and from him, under warrant from one of the Secretaries.[184]

In addition to this regular method for intercepting letters, a particular department had been in existence for some time with no other duties than to examine letters. Strictly speaking it had nothing to do with the Post Office and was supported entirely from the "Secret Service Fund." The truth about it came out in the examination of the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole by the "Committee of Secrecy." From 1732 to 1742, £45,675 had been spent upon this department. It had originated in 1718 and the expenses for that year were only £446, but by 1742 they had increased more than tenfold. The Secretary of the Post Office in giving his evidence before the committee, said that this office received instructions from the Secretaries of State and reported to them. The working force consisted of a chief decipherer, assisted by his son and three other decipherers, five clerks, the Controller of the Foreign Office, a doorkeeper and a former alphabet keeper. Either considerable business was transacted there or it was a retreat for useless officials.[185]

An account is given in Howell's "State Trials" of the trial of Hensey and of the practice then in vogue for finding treasonable correspondence. His letters were handed over for investigation to the Secretary of State by a Post Office clerk. This clerk in giving his evidence said that when war was declared against any nation, the Postmasters-General issued orders at once to stop all suspected letters. These orders were given to all the Post Office clerks and letter carriers. Such instructions can only be justified as a war measure, for the act of 1711 had provided that no letter should be detained or opened unless by express warrant from one of the Secretaries of State for every such detention or opening.[186]

We find very few complaints about the opening of letters during the second half of the eighteenth century. On the other hand it must be confessed that letters were at times opened and searched merely to learn the beliefs and plans of political opponents. It is difficult to determine to how great an extent this practice was prevalent as there seems little doubt that the complainants may occasionally have been prompted by their own vanity to believe that their correspondence had been tampered with.[187] In 1795, during the great war with France, the Government ordered all letters directed to the United Provinces to be detained. The question then was, what was to be done with them? None of them seems to have been opened and the cause for their detention was only to prevent any information being given to the enemy. Accordingly by an act of Parliament passed in the same year, the Post Office was empowered to return them to the writers.[188]

Although the larger part of the fees and emoluments enjoyed by the postal officials had been abolished in 1793, the proceeds from those which were left continued to increase steadily. By far the most lucrative was the privilege of franking newspapers, within the kingdom, to the colonies, and to foreign countries. Ever since newspapers had been printed, the "Clerks of the Roads" had been allowed to send them to any part of the kingdom without paying postage. After 1763, when members of Parliament were allowed the same privilege, every one felt at liberty to make use of a member's frank for this purpose, and the Clerks suffered accordingly. Newspapers to the Colonies were franked by the Secretary of the Post Office and produced a revenue of £3700 in 1817, all of which went to Sir Francis Freeling who was then Secretary. In 1825 the privilege of franking papers within the kingdom and to the colonies was withdrawn, but compensation was granted to Sir Francis.[189] This did not end the trouble, for the Clerks still acted as newspaper venders. On account of their official position they were able to post them until 8 P.M., while the regular newsvenders were allowed to do so only until 5 P.M. at the Lombard Street Office and 6 P.M. at the General Office or they must pay a special fee of a halfpenny on each.[190] Mr. Hume, the member for Montrose, brought the case before the House, and in 1834 all Post Office officials were forbidden to sell newspapers. At the same time the officials in the Foreign Office lost the right to frank papers to any foreign country.[191]

The members of the Secretary's office had, since 1799 and 1801, issued two official publications, which paid no postage. These were called the "Packet List" and the "Shipping List." The first of these contained all the intelligence received at the Post Office concerning the sailing packets. The second contained information about private vessels, furnished principally by "Lloyds." The Commissioners commented upon this practice in very uncomplimentary language.[192] In addition, the members of the Secretary's department received fees on the deputations granted to new postmasters in England and Wales, upon commissions granted to agents and postmasters abroad, upon private expresses to and from London, and upon news supplied to the London press during a general election.[193] In 1837 the fees on deputations and commissions were abolished, private expresses were discontinued, the "Shipping List" was discontinued, and the "Packet List" passed from the control of the Post Office. The revenue from these fees in the Secretary's Office which were still continued was to go henceforth to the general revenue.[194]

An extra charge of 6d. was demanded upon letters posted between 7 P.M. and 8 P.M. This had been the rule since 1800, and the proceeds went either to the Inland or Foreign Office. So also did the registration fees on ships' letters. These fees were transferred to the general revenue in 1837.[195] In 1827 the total amount received in fees, emoluments, and gratuities by the officials in the London Office was £23,100, by agents and country postmasters £16,500. Most of these were either abolished or transferred to the general revenue in 1837.[196]

The distinguishing feature of the Post Office during the eighteenth century was the extension of its service, which accompanied the industrial expansion of the kingdom. The abuses which naturally flourish during a prosperous period had been largely remedied by the reform of 1793. The nation's need for a larger revenue led not only to a great increase in postage rates but also to stricter economy in the organization of the Post Office. The London and Dublin Penny Posts were reformed and extended, the work of the General and Penny Posts in London was harmonized, the employees were increased, and the new departments which had been established were reformed and consolidated.

The Newspaper Office which had been illegally established by Palmer was continued after his dismissal. Walsingham had objected to it on the ground that Palmer had no right to appoint any officials without his consent. Previously all newspapers had been forwarded to the postmasters free of postage by the "Clerks of the Roads." Now that they might be sent with the letters, they were brought in at the last moment still wet from the press so that they defaced the writing on the letters sent in the same bag.[197] In 1784 a Dead Letter Office was also established. Previously, dead and missent letters had been handed to a clerk in the General Office. During Allen's farm of the cross and bye post letters, missent letters were no longer forwarded to London, but any postmaster, into whose hands they came, was instructed to place them on the right track.[198] Four years later a third office was instituted, a Money Order Office. No order could be issued for more than five guineas and the fee for that sum was 4s. 6d. It was started as a private speculation by some of the postal officials and so remained until 1838 when it was taken over by the General Post Office.[199]

The policy of the Post Office with reference to the registration of letters containing valuables varied with the nature of the enclosure and the manner in which it was sent. On ships' letters sent from England, the registration fee was one guinea, and a receipt was given to the person sending a registered letter. The fee for a letter coming into the kingdom was only 5s.[200] If bank notes were enclosed in a letter, it received no special attention from the Post Office. If gold or silver was sent in a letter marked "money letter," the postmaster placed it in a separate envelope and made a special entry on the way bill, which was repeated at every office it passed through. No special fee was charged for the extra attention bestowed upon these letters until 1835 when the Postmaster-General was allowed to charge a fee for their registration in addition to the ordinary postage.[201] The Money Order Department, still a private undertaking, had its fees reduced from 6d. to 3d. on sums not exceeding £2 and from 18d. to 6d. on sums exceeding £2 but not more than £5.[202]

At the same time that the General Post was being reformed, a former letter carrier by the name of Johnson was improving the Penny Post. The six principal receiving-houses which Dockwra had instituted had been reduced to five and were now still further reduced to two. The subsidiary receiving-houses in the shops and coffee-houses were increased and the number of letter carriers more than doubled. Six regular deliveries for the city proper and three for the suburbs were introduced. Before 1793 the deliveries in the city had not been made at the same time, for the carriers had to go to one of the main receiving-houses to get their letters. The deliveries were now made as near the same time as possible all over the city and the delivery hours were posted so that people might know when to expect the carriers and thus act as a check upon them. Mounted messengers conveyed the letters to those carriers who delivered in distant parts of the city.[203]

In 1794 an act was passed "to regulate the postage and conveyance of letters by the carriage called the Penny Post." The rate for letters posted in London, Westminster, Southwark and the suburbs for any place within these places and their suburbs remained one penny. Letters sent from these places to any place outside paid 2d. as before. Hitherto letters sent from outside to London, Westminster, Southwark and the suburbs had paid only one penny. This was raised by the act of 1794 to 2d. It was also provided that the postage for Penny Post letters need not be paid in advance. This would increase the expense but the idea was probably to secure greater safety in the delivery of letters. Finally, the surplus revenue at the end of each quarter was to be considered part of the revenue of the General Post.[204]

The changes introduced by Johnson and the act of 1794 were in the right direction. This seems a reasonable conclusion not so much on account of the increase in net product, which was not great, as on account of the increase in gross product, showing that the number of letters and parcels sent by the Penny Post had doubled. The financial condition of the Penny Post before and after the reform is shown by the following figures:—

London was not the only place which could boast a Penny Post in 1793. The system was extended in that year to Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol, and Birmingham, while Dublin had been so favoured since 1773. It is almost unnecessary to add that in all these places, it was a pronounced success from a financial and social point of view.[206]

In 1801 the London Penny Post which had lasted for 120 years was practically swept out of existence, for 2d. was then charged where a penny had formerly been the rate. An exception was made in the case of letters passing first by the General Post, for on these the old rate still held.[207] Four years later, the limits of the Twopenny Post, as it was called, were restricted to the General Post Delivery and 3d. was charged for letters crossing the bounds of this delivery. This was called the Threepenny Post.[208] The effect of the increased rates and the growth of population in the metropolis is shown by the increase in gross receipts, which rose from £11,768 in 1703 to £96,089 in 1816 and to £105,052 in 1823. During the same period, the number of letter carriers was increased from 181 to 235, and nineteen officials were added to the establishment.[209]

Although the General, the Twopenny, and the Threepenny Posts, were all under one management, no attempt was made to harmonize their methods of procedure until 1831. Letters for the General Post were often entrusted to the Twopenny Post but the receiving-houses of both Posts were frequently established in the same street and close together. The General Post had seventy receiving-houses in the city, the Twopenny Post 209, the Threepenny Post 200 more in the suburbs and adjoining country. In addition there were 110 "bellmen" who collected letters from door to door, ringing their bells as they went. They charged one penny for each letter collected.[210] The General Post receiving-houses closed at 7 P.M., the Twopenny receiving-houses at 8 P.M., but letters might be posted at the Charing Cross Office until 8.30 and at the General Office until 9 P.M.[211] At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were three deliveries, by the Inland, Foreign, and Twopenny Post carriers. The limits of the Inland Post Delivery were very irregular and left out a large part of the populous suburbs. The Foreign Post Delivery was also very irregular and still more restricted in area. The Twopenny Post Delivery included London, Westminster, Southwark and their suburbs, and was the most extensive. Letters were delivered by the Threepenny Post within an irregular area bounded on the inside by the Twopenny Delivery and extending nearly twelve miles from the General Post Office. The separate delivery of foreign letters was abolished first and all foreign letters were delivered by the General Post carriers, and in 1831 the deliveries of the General and Twopenny Posts were made co-extensive, extending to a distance of three miles from the General Office at St. Martin's-le-Grand. Three years later the Twopenny Post building in Gerard Street was given up and all Twopenny Post letters henceforth were sent to the General Post Office building to be sorted.[212]

The regular collections of Twopenny Post letters were made at 8 A.M., 10 A.M., 12 M. and 2, 5 and 8 P.M. Deliveries were made at the same hours in the morning, at noon, and at 2, 4 and 7 o'clock in the afternoon. A letter posted at or before 8 A.M. was sent for delivery at 10 A.M. and so on. The letters collected were taken to the General Office by horsemen to be sorted. Two sets of men were employed, one collecting while the other delivered.[213] There was an additional "early delivery" as it was called. The carriers on the way to their own "walks" delivered letters to subscribers, who paid 5s. a quarter for the accommodation thus afforded. The postage for letters so delivered was not paid until the carriers called again on their regular delivery.[214] In 1837 the times of the regular deliveries were changed to every second hour from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. and collections were made at the same hours.[215] In the Threepenny Post limits, there were on an average three deliveries a day but those towns which had a General Post delivery received only two a day from the Threepenny Post. Letters were sent by horsemen or mail carts for delivery. The same receiving-houses were used for General and Threepenny Post letters.[216]

The Dublin Penny Post was remodelled in 1810. The deliveries, which had been only two a day, were increased to four and then to six, additional letter carriers were appointed and receiving-houses established. The penny delivery extended to four miles around the city. There was a 2d. rate for letters beyond the four mile radius.[217] Previous to 1835, the boundary of the Edinburgh Penny Post was a circle with a radius of 1-3/8 miles from the Register Office. Some Scotch mathematician must have been consulted when in 1835 the boundary was made an ellipse with its foci a furlong apart, the distance from each focus to the most remote part of the circumference being 1-5/16 miles. Outside this ellipse, there was a 2d. rate. There had been three deliveries a day, raised in 1838 to five.[218]

Before 1837 Penny Posts had also been established in Newcastle and Glasgow.[219]

Since nearly all the mail coaches left London at 8 o'clock in the evening, most of the letters arriving there in the morning for outside places were not despatched until the same evening. It was pointed out by the commissioners in the Report of 1837 that a large proportion of these letters might be forwarded by the post coaches.[220] If they arrived on Saturday morning they were not forwarded until Monday evening since Sunday was not a mail day and mail coaches arriving on Sunday were detained in the outskirts of the city.[221] The rumour that the Post Office was considering the expedience of a Sunday Post brought forth a flood of protests. Bankers, merchants, vestries, and religious societies were represented by delegations and petitions to the Postmaster-General and the House of Commons, praying that no change might be made.[222] Sixteen hundred solicitors joined in the opposition. Lord Melbourne informed the Bishop of London that the subject was not under consideration, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer told Sir Robert Inglis that the Government had no intention of opening the Post Office on Sunday.[223] Derby had a Sunday delivery in 1839, but, on their own request, many of the inhabitants were excluded from it.[224]

For over forty years all the mail-coaches in England were provided by one man, with whom a new contract was made every seven years. Before 1797 a penny a mile was paid each way but on the imposition of a tax on carriages, the rate was raised to 1½d., then to 1¾d., and later to 2-1/8d. a mile. One contractor supplied the coaches, others provided horses and drivers, but the guards were hired directly by the Post Office. In Scotland and Ireland, coaches, horses, and drivers were all provided by the same men. The number of miles a day covered by the mail-coaches in 1827 was 7862 and the mileage allowance for that year was £46,900. When the mails were exceptionally heavy, mail carts were used, which cost somewhat more than the coaches, since they carried no passengers. In 1836 the contract for the supply of coaches was thrown open to public competition. By this move, the expenses dropped from £61,009 a year to £53,191 although the total distance travelled per day increased from 13,148 to 14,482 miles.[225] The mail-coaches were at a disadvantage in competing with the post-coaches, since the former were allowed to carry no more than four inside and two outside passengers nor were they allowed to carry any luggage on the roof.[226] On the other hand the mail-coaches in England paid no tolls until 1837.[227] The 268 mail guards of the British coaches received £7577 in salaries in 1837, paid directly by the Post Office. Seven inspectors were also employed at a fixed yearly salary and 15s. a day when travelling. They superintended the coachmen and guards, investigated complaints, delays, and accidents, and made preliminary agreements in contracting for coaches.[228] The majority of the Irish coaches had paid tolls ever since they had been introduced. Generally they were paid by the Post Office at stated intervals. The total distance travelled by mail-coaches in Ireland in 1829 was 2160 miles each day, by mail-carts 2533 miles. The number of guards employed was eighty-five, receiving £2935 a year. The Irish coaches were allowed to carry four outside passengers.[229]

The first railway in England over which mails were carried was operated between Manchester and Liverpool. In 1838 the Government paid the Grand Junction Railway 5-7/8d. a single mile for the conveyance of its mails. At the same time the average rate by the coaches was 2-1/8d. a single mile. On the London and Birmingham Railway when a special Post Office carriage was used, 7½d. was paid. When the ordinary mail-coach was carried on trucks the rate was 4-1/4d. When a regular railway carriage was used, the rate was ½d. a mile for one third of a carriage.[230] For the year ending 5th January, 1839, the Post Office paid £105,107 for the conveyance of mails by coaches and £9883 to the railways. For the next official year, the figures had risen to £109,246 and £39,724.[231]

The increased business of the Post Office made necessary a corresponding increase in the employees and better arrangements for dealing with the reception and despatch of letters. The number of persons employed in the General Office in 1804 was 486. In 1814 there were 576. There were 563 postmasters in England and over 3000 persons officially engaged in the receipt and delivery of letters. Additional offices had also been established. In 1813 a Returned Letter Office was organized for the purpose of returning undelivered letters to the writers and collecting the postage due. Previous to 1813, the practice had been to return only such letters as appeared to contain money or were supposed to be important enough to escape destruction. A Franking Department was organized to inspect such letters as were sent free. The increased use of private ships for conveying letters led to the establishment of a Ship Letter Office.[232]

The old Post Office building in Lombard Street was quite too small to provide for the new offices and employees. The Inland Department contained only 3140 superficial feet, half of which was occupied with sorting tables, leaving only 1500 feet for 130 persons. In the Foreign Department with thirty-five men, there were only 250 superficial feet where they must perform their duties. The accommodations for receiving letters were so inadequate that when a foreign mail was being made up, the windows were crowded with an impatient and seething mob waiting for their turn to post their letters. The condition of the Penny Post Department was no better. In 1814 a committee of the House of Commons reported that a new General Post Office building was absolutely necessary. Objections were raised on account of the necessary expenses involved and it was not until 1829 that the new Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand was formally opened.[233]

In 1784 Ireland was given much larger political powers than she had previously enjoyed, and her Parliament was freed from the direct tutelage of the English Privy Council. At the same time greater latitude in postal matters was also granted. An Irish Postmaster-General was appointed to reside in Dublin and to collect the postage on all letters which did not pass beyond Ireland. The postage between the two countries was to be collected on delivery, and then to be divided between the two according to the distance travelled in each. All net receipts from the Irish Office were ordered to be transmitted to London. The sailing packets remained in the charge of the English Postmasters-General, but £4000 a year was paid to the Irish Office for this privilege.[234]

After the separation of the Irish from the English Post Office, different postage rates had been established for the two countries. The division of authority thus established had caused endless difficulties. Complaints about the delay or loss of letters crossing the Channel at Kingstown, Howth, and Waterford were referred from one office to the other. The Commissioners who inquired into the condition of the Dublin Office found things in a deplorable condition. There were nearly as many postal officials employed in Dublin as in London, although the number of letters handled was not one fourth so great. In the secretary's office, employing six persons, the fees amounted to £2648 a year, largely on English and Irish newspapers. In the whole Dublin establishment they averaged over £15,000 a year. The contracts for the supply and horsing of the mail-coaches were supposed to be public but they were awarded by favour. The Postmasters-General did not attend to business and were very jealous of each other. The Commissioners recommended the amalgamation of the English and Irish offices, and this was accomplished in 1831, the Irish postage rates having been altered four years earlier to coincide with the English rates.[235]

Ireland was divided into eight postal divisions, according to the routes of the mail-coaches. Mails left Dublin at 7 A.M. with an additional mail for Cork at noon. They arrived in Dublin between 6 and 7 A.M. The most important postal centres in addition to Dublin were Belfast, Cork, Limerick, and the packet stations at Waterford and Donaghadee. The total number of post towns in Ireland was 414. At the same time there were in Great Britain 546 post towns.[236] A new post office building was completed in Dublin in 1821 at a cost of £107,000.[237]

The Scotch Post Office had been amalgamated with the English Office in 1711, and Scotland was constituted one of the eighteen postal divisions of Great Britain. The Scotch rates had been the same as the English rates since that date, although an additional half-penny was paid on Scotch letters to meet mail-coach tolls. In 1821 there were only eight towns for which mails were made up. At the same time that a new building for the use of the Post Office was being erected in Dublin, a contract was signed for a new General Office building for Edinburgh to cost £14,000.[238]

The rates established by the act of 1765 were still unchanged for the colonial possessions of the United Kingdom. The American dominions had been sadly depleted by the Revolutionary War but the postage revenue from the loyal remnants had steadily increased. In 1838 the amount of postage charged upon the colonial postmasters in America amounted to £79,000. At one time Jamaica had been the most important American colony from a postal point of view. Canada now took the lead, followed in order of importance by Jamaica, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. In 1834 it was provided that, as soon as the North American Provinces passed postal acts of their own and these acts were approved by the King, the colonial rates of 1765 should cease and the net postal revenue of the North American Provinces should be retained by them.[239]

The British Post Office was now to experience the most far reaching and vital change since 1635. Sir Rowland Hill was the representative of the movement, aided by Mr. Wallace, who, as a member of Parliament, was able to exercise an important effect upon the proposed reform. The history of the adoption of penny postage has been so well told by Hill himself that only a bare story of its acceptance by Parliament is necessary here. A committee was appointed to report upon the condition of the Post Office, the attitude of postal officials and of the public towards the proposed change, its effect upon the revenue, and finally to give their own opinion. This committee examined the Postmaster-General,[240] the Secretaries and Solicitors of the London, Dublin, and Edinburgh offices, other officials in the Post Office, the Chairman, Secretary, and Solicitor of the Board of Stamps and Taxes, Rowland Hill and eighty-three other witnesses from different classes of people, and obtained many reports from the Post Office. Hill presented his plan to the Committee as follows:—

That inland letters should pay postage according to weight at the rate of one penny for each half ounce.[241]

Such postage should be paid in advance by means of stamped papers or covers.[242]

An option might be allowed for a time to pay a penny in advance or 2d. on delivery.[243]

Day mails should be established on the important lines of communication.[244]

There should be a uniform rate of postage because the cost of distributing letters consisted chiefly in the expenses for collecting and delivering them.[245] The plan then in operation for letters not exceeding one ounce in weight was to charge according to the number of enclosures. This plan was uncertain because the number could not always be ascertained, necessitated a close examination, and was evaded by writing several letters on one sheet.[246]

Payment on delivery made it necessary to keep two separate accounts against each postmaster, one for unpaid letters posted in London, and one for paid letters posted in the country. The postmasters had also to keep accounts against each other. Payment in advance, if made compulsory, would do away with half of these accounts and the use of stamped covers or paper would do away with the other half.[247] In some small places where the penny charge would not cover the cost of delivery, Hill proposed that a small additional charge be made, either in advance or on delivery, but he withdrew this suggestion later.[248]

The witnesses summoned to give their evidence before the committee pointed out that a multitude of business transactions were not carried on at all, or were carried on clandestinely, or were hampered by the high postage rates. Bills for small amounts were not drawn,[249] commercial travellers did not write until several orders could be sent on one sheet of paper,[250] samples were not sent by post,[251] communication between banks and their branches was restricted,[252] statistical information was denied,[253] social correspondence restricted especially among the poor,[254] working men were ignorant of the rates of wages in other parts of the country,[255] and the high postage was a bad means of raising revenue.[256] In order to estimate the probable revenue after the change, it was necessary to know the number of letters carried. Hill had come to the conclusion that the total number was about 80,000,000 a year. The Secretary, Maberley, considered that there were about 58,000,000. A return was called for by the committee and Hill's estimate proved to be nearly correct.[257]

The committee reported that the Post Office "instead of being viewed as an institution of ready and universal access, distributing equally to all and with an open hand the blessings of commerce and civilization, is regarded as an establishment too expensive to be made use of" (by large classes of the community) "and as one with the employment of which they endeavour to dispense by every means in their power." They were on less solid ground when they proceeded to state that the idea of obtaining revenue had been until lately only a minor consideration and that the Post Office had primarily been established for the benefit of trade and commerce.[258] Finally Hill's plan was approved, though only by the casting vote of the chairman, Mr. Wallace.

The House of Commons received the proposed change with favour. Over 300 petitions with 38,000 signatures were presented praying for its adoption. The Duke of Richmond, a former Postmaster-General, thought that it would be beneficial and that it was the only means of stopping the illegal conveyance of letters.[259] Sir Robert Peel was of the opinion that, with the prevailing deficits, it was an unfortunate departure, and he feared that prepaid letters would not be delivered.[260] But the Treasury was given power to lower rates and in 1840 a treasury warrant was issued, imposing postage rates between the colonies and between foreign countries through Great Britain according to weight and distance.[261] Stamped covers were issued for the use of members of Parliament, and in 1840 an act was passed establishing penny postage for the United Kingdom, permitting the use of stamped paper or covers, and imposing rates on foreign and colonial letters according to weight and distance conveyed.[262]

The complete change thus produced in the policy of the Post Office is vividly set forth by the old Secretary, Sir Francis Freeling. "Cheap postage"—he writes, "What is this men are talking about? Can it be that all my life I have been in error? If I, then others—others whose behests I have been bound to obey. To make the Post Office revenue as productive as possible was long ago impressed upon me by successive ministers as a duty which I was under a solemn obligation to discharge. And not only long ago. Is it not within the last six months that the present Chancellor of the Exchequer[263] has charged me not to let the present revenue go down? What! You, Freeling, brought up and educated as you have been, are you going to lend yourself to these extravagant schemes? You with your four-horse mail coaches too! Where else in the world does the merchant or the manufacturer have the materials of his trade carried for him gratuitously or at so low a rate as to leave no margin of profit?"[264]

CHAPTER IV

THE POSTAL ESTABLISHMENT AN INSTRUMENT OF POPULAR COMMUNICATION

With the inauguration of inland penny postage the Postal Establishment ceased to exist primarily as a tax-collecting agency, and, although maintained as a whole upon a paying basis, certain of its recent experiments have, from a financial point of view, been far from successful. On the other hand, the simultaneous unification and reduction of rates, together with various other changes which have been adopted since 1840, have resulted in lessening appreciably the expenses of management.

The postage on inland letters was reduced in 1865, 1871, 1884, and again in 1897. In 1839, the last year of high postal rates, the total number of letters, including franks, delivered in the United Kingdom, was somewhat in excess of eighty-two millions. This number was rather more than doubled in the following year. During the ensuing ten years the figures were again doubled, the total in 1850 being 347 millions. For the five-year period 1866-70, following the reduction in postage of 1865, the average yearly number delivered was 800 millions. In 1875 this increased to a little over 1000 millions; in the postal year 1880-81 to 1176 millions, in 1890-91 to 1705 millions, and in 1900-01 to 2323 millions.[265] So far as colonial letters were concerned, a marked reduction in rates was granted soon after inland penny postage was obtained, the reduction being extended to the larger part of the Empire.[266] Further reductions followed until, in 1898, a penny half ounce rate was established for most of the colonies, and all were included in 1905. As on a previous occasion, the United States was the first foreign country with which an agreement was made to adopt this low rate, and its advantages have been enhanced still further by an increase in the initial weight from half an ounce to an ounce. During the sixties, treaties were entered into with the most important European countries for lower postage rates, and, in 1874, at the first meeting of the Postal Union, a uniform rate for prepaid letters of 2½d. a half ounce was agreed to. Reductions also followed for other postal matter. In 1891 a universal foreign letter rate of 2½d. was announced so far as the United Kingdom was concerned, with the exception of those countries where a lower rate already prevailed, and a further reduction followed in 1907 by increasing the initial weight from half an ounce to an ounce in the case of all foreign and colonial letters, the charge on foreign letters for each unit after the first being reduced at the same time from 2½d. to 1½d.

After 1840 the registration fee was reduced by a series of gradations from 1s. to 2d., and the compulsory registration of all letters containing coin was enforced. In 1891 the separate system of insurance was abolished, and registration was extended for the first time to inland parcels. The limit of compensation was increased at the same time to £25 and in the following year to £50 by the payment of 2d. for the first £5 and an additional penny for each additional £5 of insurance.[267] Seven years later the amount of compensation payable was increased to £120 and the fee payable was lowered for all sums over £15. Arrangements were also made by which letters addressed to certain colonies and foreign countries might be insured to the same maximum amount.[268] The limit of compensation is now £400 for inland registered correspondence as well as for correspondence to many foreign countries and a few of the colonies.

Among other postal reforms dear to Hill's heart had been the compulsory payment of postage by means of stamps. He pointed out that this would greatly simplify the keeping of accounts by the department and increase the net revenue. The proposition was, however, too unpopular to secure approval. Nevertheless in 1847 the Postmaster-General secured parliamentary authority to abolish or restrict payment in money and require stamps to be used, but the experiment proved so unpopular that it was eventually abandoned.[269] The use of perforated stamps, an invention of Mr. Archer, was in 1852 recommended by a committee appointed to report on the question.[270] Finally, in 1904, the law forbidding the use of embossed or impressed stamps cut out of envelopes, postcards, letter cards, wrappers, and telegraph forms was repealed.[271]

From 1808 to 1840 the rural districts as a rule obtained their postal matter by a special payment on their part to messengers for its conveyance from the nearest town, sometimes aided by a bonus from the revenue, or by means of the "fifth-clause" posts,[272] or by the penny posts which were constantly increasing in number and were occasionally established under guarantee. In 1838 there were fifty-two "fifth-clause" posts in England and Wales, and 1922 villages in the United Kingdom were served by penny posts. In 1843 the government of Sir Robert Peel laid down the following principle: "All places the letters for which exceed one hundred per week should be entitled to a receiving office and a free delivery of letters." A "delivery" here meant a daily delivery, and the boundary of the free delivery was to be determined by the Postmaster-General. The principle enunciated above was followed until 1850, and during that period the increase in the number of free and guaranteed rural deliveries was very great. At the close of this period it was decided that in future the determining rule should be based upon the probability of financial success. A post was held to pay its way whenever its cost was covered by a halfpenny on each letter delivered, but, since it was held that the number of letters would be doubled by free delivery, double the number arriving before its establishment might be assumed to arrive afterward. The post might be bi-weekly, tri-weekly, or weekly. This rule was to a certain extent made retroactive, but no post established under the rule of 1843 was stopped so long as the cost was covered by calculating delivered letters at a penny each. It was decided in 1853 that a post less frequent than once a day might be increased in frequency whenever the cost would be covered by a revenue estimated on the basis of three farthings for each letter, and in treating an application for a second daily post this amount was to be reduced to one farthing. The experiment was tried of delivering letters at every house in a few selected places but did not prove a success. It was stated that at the end of this revision, 93 per cent of all postal packets were delivered. In 1860 the rule was laid down that new posts should be set up only when the cost would be covered by half a penny on each letter actually arriving, the old rule having been found to be too liberal. Two years later it was stated by the Post Office that only 6 per cent of the total postal packages were undelivered. In 1882 the question of extending the rural posts was considered by Mr. Fawcett, the then Postmaster-General, who decided that credit should be given for revenue by increasing the halfpenny to 6/10d. for each letter, and in the next year the existing rule as to a second daily delivery was made more liberal. In 1890, for places hitherto unserved, the rate per letter for estimating revenue was increased to three farthings, for each parcel the rate was fixed at 1½d., and in the following year rural sanitary authorities in England and Wales were authorized to guarantee posts. In Scotland the district committee or the county council, where the counties were not divided, was given the same power in 1892. In the same year the rule was laid down that a second service in the day might be given provided that its cost did not exceed half a penny a letter and a penny a parcel and in addition that the total cost of night and day mail services should not exceed the revenue from the whole correspondence at half a penny per letter and a penny per parcel. It was estimated in 1892 that about thirty-two and a half millions of letters were undelivered, but the work of extending the rural posts went on gradually until in 1897 it was announced that provision would be made as soon as possible for delivery to every house in the United Kingdom. In 1900 the Postmaster-General was able to report that house to house delivery had been completed in England and almost completed in Scotland and Ireland.[273]

In addition to the ordinary delivery at regular intervals there was a growing demand for a more rapid service on extraordinary occasions as well as a desire for a special messenger service when the use of the Post Office as a medium meant an undesirable loss of time. In 1886 a private company started to supply messengers for postal services. After some trouble with the Post Office, a licence was granted them in 1891 in return for which they agreed to pay a percentage of their gross receipts to the department and observe certain conditions with reference to the delivery of letters.[274] An express delivery service was also established by the Post Office, the fee in addition to the ordinary postage being 2d. for the first mile, 3d. for the second and beyond that, and where no public conveyances existed, 1s. a mile or actual cab-fare. In the case of letters delivered locally the ordinary postage was abrogated soon after and a charge of 1½d. per pound for parcels exceeding one pound in weight was imposed, but this charge was later lowered to a penny per pound with a maximum payment of 1s. and the maximum limit of weight was increased from 15 to 20 pounds where the messenger could travel by public conveyance. The initial charge for the first mile of 2d., and 3d. for each succeeding mile, for each parcel was made a uniform charge of 3d. per mile, and the fixed charge of 2d. for each parcel beyond the first was reduced to a penny where several packets were tendered by the same sender for delivery by the same messenger. In the case of several packages delivered at the same address the charge was lowered to 3d. plus an additional penny for every ten packages or part thereof, later changed to a weight fee of 3d. on each packet or bundle of packets weighing more than one pound.[275] Rural postmen were also allowed to receive letters and parcels from the public at any point in their walks and deliver them without passing them through a post office, having first canceled the stamps.[276] An agreement was also made with the railways to carry single letters left in the booking office for 2d. each. These letters may be taken to the booking office by messenger and delivered by a messenger at the end of their journey or posted there.[277] The express delivery service was also extended to such foreign countries as would agree to it, including nearly all of Western Europe, part of South America, and the far East. In every case the primary fee in England is 3d., the foreign charges varying with local conditions. Express letters from abroad are delivered free within one mile from the Post Office. Beyond that the distance charge is 3d. a mile for one parcel, with a penny for each additional parcel delivered to the same person. The Postmaster-General reported that the establishment of this service was not only much appreciated by the people, but was self-supporting and even profitable to the state. During the ten year period ending March 31, 1901, the number of express delivery services in the United Kingdom increased from 108,000 to 804,000.[278]

The impressed stamp to which newspapers were subject until 1855 enabled them to pass free by post. After this stamp ceased to be compulsory, newspapers which bore it passed free from other postage until 1870—when the halfpenny rate was established—and were known as "free"[279] as distinguished from "chargeable" newspapers. Of the former there were carried by post in 1856 over 53 millions, of the latter, including book packets, 20 millions. In 1875 the number of newspapers delivered in the United Kingdom had increased to 121 millions. For the five year period ending March 31, 1881, the average yearly number had increased to a little over 129 millions, for the next five years to something over 142 millions. During the period ending March 31, 1891, they had increased to 155 millions, there being an actual decrease in one year. In the period following there was an average yearly increase of only three millions and the ensuing five years ending March 31, 1901, showed a decrease of about one million.[280]

The book post, instituted in 1848, had its rates reduced in 1855 and again in 1870 to a halfpenny for the initial two ounces and an additional ½d. for each succeeding two ounces. In 1892 its scope was greatly enlarged and the expression Halfpenny Post, which is now its official name, better illustrates its cosmopolitan character for it now includes all printed documents of a conventional, formal, or impersonal character. From 1872 to 1875 the number of articles carried by the Halfpenny or Book Post increased from 114 millions to 158 millions. The yearly average during the next five years was 204 millions; during the following five, 305 millions and for the five year period ending March 31, 1891, they had increased to 418 millions. During the next five years there was a still greater average increase to 596 millions and the average for the postal year ending in March, 1901, was 732 millions.[281] The rates for the Inland Pattern and Sample Post, established in 1863, were assimilated with those of the Book Post in 1870. It was abolished or rather incorporated with the Letter Post in the following year but was reëstablished in 1887, the rates being a penny for the first four ounces and ½d. for each succeeding two ounces, but, when the Jubilee letter rates were published, it lost its raison d'être and was abolished for inland purposes.[282]

Post cards were introduced in 1870, being carried for ½d. each prepaid, 2d. when payment was made on delivery.[283] In addition to the stamp a charge was made to cover the cost of the material in the card itself. Somewhat later reply post cards were issued for the inland service and arrangements were made for the use of international reply post cards. In 1894, private post cards, to which a halfpenny stamp was affixed, were allowed to pass by post. The resulting enormous growth[284] in their number showed that the privilege was appreciated. In less than five years they were estimated to form 5 per cent of the total number passing through the post.[285] Shortly after, the prohibition of any writing save the address on the face of a post card was withdrawn and it was provided that the address side of all mail matter might be used for purposes of correspondence provided that it did not obscure the address, encroach upon the stamp, or prove in any way inconvenient. Formerly, so far as mail matter other than post cards was concerned, the right half of the face side was reserved for the address.[286] During the four five-year periods from 1881 to the year ending 31st March, 1901, the average numbers of post cards delivered yearly in the United Kingdom were about 108 millions, 152 millions, 272 millions, and 379 millions.[287]

It had not been usual for England to lag behind the continent in the adoption of new postal ideas. Such was the case, however, with reference to the adoption of the convenient post card and the no less useful parcel post. In 1880 the question of the establishment of an international parcel post was discussed in Paris and an agreement was reached for the transmission throughout nearly the whole of Europe of parcels not exceeding three kilogrammes in weight. It was impossible for Great Britain to sign, as she had no inland parcel post at the time and found it difficult to establish one as an agreement with the railways was necessary. A movement was at once begun for one and it was started three years later. The first despatch of foreign and colonial parcels took place in 1885, and at the beginning of the following year arrangements were completed for the exchange of parcels with twenty-seven different countries, including some of the colonies, India, and Egypt. An agreement was concluded in 1904 with the United States for the interchange of parcels by post at the rate of 2s. for each and the maximum is two kilogrammes. These cannot be insured and customs' duties must be paid by the recipient. The previously existing agreement for parcels weighing as much as eleven pounds each, providing for insurance and the prepayment of customs' duties, continues to be carried on by the American Express Company.[288] Since the establishment of the inland parcel post the question of collecting the value of the parcels on delivery, if the sender and the recipient so desire, has often been raised. Owing to the opposition of retail dealers, it has not yet been adopted although in operation in India and nearly all important foreign countries. In the words of the Postmaster-General—"In these circumstances I am by no means satisfied, so far as my enquiries have gone, that the apprehensions expressed by retail traders in this country afford sufficient cause for withholding a convenience from the community at large."[289]

The various changes and improvements adopted by the Post Office since 1840, in addition to those already named, are so numerous that only the most important can be considered here. Among others the amalgamation of the London District Post with the General Post in 1854 deserves attention. In the following year it was ordered that letters should be sorted in each of the ten postal districts into which London was divided instead of being taken to the General Office at St. Martin's-le-Grand as had been customary, thus materially lessening the expenses of sorting and facilitating their delivery.[290]

In 1840 there were but 4028 post offices in the Kingdom; in 1854, 9973.[291] Road letter boxes were introduced in 1858 and the public receptacles for the receipt of letters numbered 13,370 in 1859 as compared with 4518 before the establishment of penny postage.[292] In 1829 the total number of persons in England employed in Post Office business numbered only 5000. Twenty-five years later for the United Kingdom over 21,000 were so employed; in 1880 over 47,000, of whom, however, more than 11,000 were engaged wholly in telegraph duties. By 1890 these had increased to nearly 118,000 and by 1900 to 173,000 of whom 35,000 were females.[293]

The money order business which originated as a private speculation in 1791 was the result of an attempt to check the frequent theft of letters containing money. In 1838, shortly after its acquisition from the proprietors, the rates were reduced and the number of money orders transmitted increased from 188,000 in 1839 to 587,000 in 1840 and to 1,500,000 in 1842. From the latter date until 1879 the increase both in the number and in the value of money orders transmitted was steady, aided by the increase in 1862 from £5 to £10 of the maximum transmissible sum and by the reduction in rates in 1871. The penny rate of that year for orders to the value of ten shillings was a mistake, for the actual cost to the state of issuing and paying a money order was about 3d. In order to meet this difficulty a simpler form of order was issued in 1881 with an initial rate as low as half a penny, the cost of which to the Post Office was much less than that of the old kind of order. These postal notes, as they were called, were issued for new denominations in 1884 and 1905 and the rates on some of them were diminished. The lowest rate for a money order was for a few months fixed at 3d. but, as this aroused considerable opposition, the present rate of 2d. was soon after substituted, and in 1903 the maximum sum transmissible was increased to £40 with a few accompanying changes in rates. In 1889 an opportunity was given in the case of a few towns for sending telegraphic money orders and during the ensuing three years the privileged area was greatly extended. In 1897 the expenses were considerably reduced. In 1858 arrangements were made for the exchange of money orders with Canada and by 1862 similar agreements were decided upon with most of the other colonies, but foreign countries were not included until somewhat later and in 1880 colonial and foreign rates were harmonized. Rates were reduced in 1883, 1896, and 1903, and in the last year the inland £40 limit was agreed upon with most foreign countries and some of the colonies.

Inland money orders which started to decrease in amount in 1878-79 steadily continued their downward course until 1891-92, when there was a slight recovery for a few years, but since 1903-04 the number has somewhat diminished. During the postal year ending in March, 1907, the number of inland money orders transmitted was nearly eleven millions as compared with nearly nineteen millions for the year ending March, 1879. This decrease in numbers is largely due to the lowering of the registration fee for letters, the introduction of postal notes, and the use of other means for transmitting small sums of money. The total value of inland money orders also began to diminish in 1879, but began to recover in 1886, and has since increased quite uniformly, being in 1907 nearly £38,000,000 as compared with £29,000,000 in 1879.[294] The increase in the number of postal notes has been enormous, although there was an apparent falling off in the years 1903 and 1904 due to the increased number of denominations offered for sale. For the first complete postal year after their authorization the number issued was nearly four and a half millions of the value of £2,000,000, and for the postal year 1906-07 the number was 102,000,000 of the value of nearly £41,000,000.[295] On the other hand, while inland money orders were decreasing in number, colonial and foreign orders increased in general both in number and value.[296]

The establishment of Post Office savings banks is naturally closely connected with the money order department since both of these departures from a purely postal character were adopted at about the same time, for much the same reasons, and were opposed on the ground of their infringement upon the banking prerogative. In 1859 the efforts of Mr. Sikes of Huddersfield to bring a Post Office Savings Bank into being were supported by Mr. Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Sir Rowland Hill, the then Secretary of the Post Office, and two years later it was established by Parliamentary sanction.[297] The main features of the system were that deposits could be withdrawn not later than ten days after demand; that accounts should be kept at London alone, all money being remitted to and from headquarters; that the total amount deposited should be handed over to the "Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt" for investment in government securities, and that interest on complete pounds at the rate of 2½ per cent should be allowed to depositors. As the interests of the poorer classes were made the primary object in establishing the banks, deposits were limited in the case of individuals to £30 a year and £150 in all, later increased to £50 a year and £200 in all, but Friendly Societies were allowed to deposit without limit and Provident and Charitable Societies might deposit within limits of £100 a year and £300 in all or, with the consent of the Commissioners, beyond these limits.[298]

In 1880 the savings banks were made a medium for investing in government stock at a trifling expense varying from 9d. to 2s. 3d. and with the privilege of having dividends collected free from further charge. These special advantages were confined to investments from £10 to £100 in value, the latter being the maximum sum in any one year, and the investments themselves might be sums especially deposited or transferred from a depositor's account. In 1887 the minimum amount of stock purchasable was reduced to 1s., and anyone who had purchased stock through a savings bank might have it transferred to his own name in the Bank of England. In 1893 the limits of investment were raised from £100 to £200 in one year, from £300 to £500 in all, and the Post Office was empowered to invest in stock any accumulations of ordinary deposits above the limit of £200, unless instructions were given by the depositor to the contrary.

An act was passed in 1864 enabling the Postmaster-General to insure the lives of individuals between the ages of fourteen and sixty for amounts varying from £20 to £100. He might also grant annuities, immediate or deferred, to any one of ten years of age or upward for sums between £4 and £50. The act came into operation in certain towns of England and Wales in the following year, and the system remained unaltered until 1884. During this period of nineteen years, 7064 policies of insurance were effected, representing a yearly average of 372 policies amounting to an average of £79 each. The contracts for immediate annuities numbered 13,402 or an average of 705 a year and there were 978 contracts for deferred annuities. The value of immediate annuities granted was £187,117 and of deferred £19,938, but a part of the latter never came into payment as the purchasers were relieved from their bargains upon their own representation.

A new system associated with Mr. Fawcett's name was prescribed in 1882. Its merit consisted in linking the annuity and insurance business with the Savings Bank Department so that payments for annuities and insurance are made through deposits in the savings banks. It was further provided that for persons between the ages of fourteen and sixty-five the limits of insurance should be from £5 to £100 and that sums of money might be insured payable at the age of sixty or at the expiration of a term of years. For annuities the minimum was reduced to £1, the maximum increased to £100, and the annuity and insurance privileges were extended to all places having savings banks. Owing to the necessary preparation of tables the new regulations did not actually come into operation until 1884. The growth of life insurance and annuity business was slow as compared with the rapid growth of the savings deposits. Intended, however, primarily for the poor, it has not been without success, especially as the premiums charged are lower than those of insurance companies or industrial societies.[299]

In addition to joining the insurance and annuity business with the savings banks operations, Mr. Fawcett was responsible for a rapid increase in the number of branch saving offices in villages, for the special attention paid to "navvies" and workmen at their places of employment, and above all for the arrangement for making small deposits by slips of postage stamps. In 1887 by act of Parliament the Postmaster-General was empowered to offer facilities for the transfer of money from one account to another and for the easier disposal of the funds of deceased depositors. In 1891 the maximum permissible deposits of one person were increased from £150 to £200 inclusive of interest. The annual limit remained at £30 but it was provided that, irrespective of that limit, depositors might replace the amount of any one withdrawal made in the same year. Where principal and interest together exceeded £200, the interest was henceforth to cease on the excess alone, whereas previously it had ceased entirely when it had brought an account to £200. The next development arose from the Free Education Act of 1891 in order to make it easier for children and parents to save the school pence which they no longer had to pay. Special stamp slips were prepared to be sold to children, and clerks attended the schools with these slips. About 1400 schools adopted the scheme at once and three years later the number had risen to 3000, but the movement seemed by 1895 to have spent its force.

In 1893 the annual limit of deposits was increased to £50 and, as we have already seen in another connection, any accumulations over £200 were to be invested in Government Stock unless the depositor gave instructions to the contrary. In the same year arrangements were made for the withdrawal of deposits by telegram. A depositor might telegraph for his money and have his warrant sent by return of post at a cost of about 9d. or the warrant also might be telegraphed to him at a total cost of about 1s. 3d. In 1905 a rule was introduced by which a depositor, on presentation of his pass-book at any post office doing savings bank business, may withdraw on demand not more than £1. This obviates the expense of telegraphing and, that it was appreciated, is shown by the fact that during the first six months after the privilege was extended there were nearly two millions of "withdrawals on demand," forming nearly one half of the total number. As a result the number of telegraphic withdrawals fell from 227,573 for the postal year 1904-05 to 180,996 for the year 1905-06.[300]

There has been a steady and pronounced growth in savings bank business since its establishment. This growth has shown itself in the increased number of banks, of deposits, and of the total amounts deposited. The average amount of each deposit has varied somewhat from £3 6s. in 1862 to £2 in 1881, but since this date it has increased slowly but steadily and in 1901 it stood at £2 14s. 2d., which is about the average yearly amount since 1862. At the end of the year 1900 over £135,000,000 were on deposit in the Post Office savings banks.[301] The increase in amounts invested in government stock has not been by any means so pronounced but there has been an increase. In 1881 we find that nearly £700,000 were so invested, in 1891 nearly £1,000,000, and in 1900 a little over £1,000,000.[302] So far as annuities are concerned, the immediate seem to be considerably more popular than the deferred. The purchase money receipts for the former were £184,000 in 1881, £296,000 in 1891, and have since increased more rapidly to £728,000 in 1900, with an actual decrease, however, for the four preceding years. The receipts for the purchase of deferred annuities amounted to £5243 in 1881, £12,578 in 1891 and £14,283 in 1900, also a decrease since 1896. The amounts received as premiums for life insurance policies have also been rather disappointing, having increased from £10,967 in 1881 to £15,073 in 1891 and to £22,185 in 1900.[303]

The increasing use of railway trains for the conveyance of the mails has presented new and difficult problems with reference to the authority of the Postmaster-General over mail trains and reasonable payments to the railway companies. So far as the method for ascertaining the rate of payment was concerned, a difficulty arose as to whether the Post Office should pay any part of the tolls as distinguished from operating expenses. Major Harness, a Post Office official, stated that in discussing this question with Robert Stephenson in the case of the London and Birmingham Railway it had been agreed that tollage should not be paid but only the out-of-pocket expenses, this being in conformity with the principles adopted in paying for mail coaches. The question of tollage was not mentioned by the Railway Mails Act (10 and 11 Vict., c. 85), but Major Harness, in his evidence before a parliamentary committee, stated that he, as an arbitrator, estimated the tollage payable by the Post Office by finding out how much each ton, if the road were fully occupied, should contribute to return 10 per cent upon the share capital and 5 per cent on the bonds, the Post Office to pay its proportion according to the weight of mail matter carried. The cost of locomotive power was also taken into count and the carriage accommodation was paid for on the basis of what the railways charged each other.[304] In addition to these items the committee recommended that the expenses for station accommodation, the additional cost of the working staff, and interference with ordinary traffic should also be taken into account.[305] In the event of a failure on the part of the Post Office and a railway company to come to an agreement as to the amount payable, each of the parties nominated an arbitrator whose first duty was to select an umpire. Each arbitrator was required to present his case in writing to the umpire and to attend in person if required. The umpire was supposed to give his decision within twenty-eight days after the receipt of the cases.[306] In 1893 it was provided by act of Parliament that when any dispute arose between the Post Office and a railway, the question should be taken to the Railway and Canal Commission for settlement instead of being left to arbitration.[307] The Postmaster-General has also been authorized to make use of tramways for transporting the mails, and in 1897 the experiment was made of using motor vans for the same purpose. A few years later the Postmaster-General expressed himself as "doubtful whether a thoroughly reliable motor vehicle suitable for Post Office work has yet been found." However, in 1906-07 about thirty-five mail services were performed by motors, the work being undertaken by contractors who provide the vans and employ the drivers. They have proved to be more economical than horse vans when the load is heavy, the distance considerable, and greater speed desirable.[308]

The expenditure for the conveyance of mails by the railways for the year ending 5th January, 1838, amounted to only £1743. In 1840 this had increased to £52,860, in 1850 to £230,079, in 1860 to £490,223, in 1870 to £587,296, in 1880 to £701,070 and in 1890 to £905,968. By 1896 the million mark had been reached and after that year all the expenses for the conveyance of the mails are grouped together. For the following year this total was £1,453,517, the payment for mail coaches in the preceding year, which are here included, being £365,000. In 1906 the total expenditure for the "conveyance of the mails" was £1,821,541.[309]

In common with the members of other branches of the civil service the postal employees, prior to 1855, were political appointees. The appointment of a patronage secretary had relieved members of Parliament from the odium incurred as a result of this reprehensible method of manning the service, but it is doubtful whether any improvement in the personnel of the force actually resulted or was even anticipated. With the adoption between 1855 and 1870 of the principle that fitness should be tested by competitive examinations, the vast majority of the members of the postal establishment came under its influence. At the same time the postmasters of small rural communities, where the postal revenue was insignificant,[310] still continued to be nominated by the local member. In 1896 this power was abridged, but members still continued to exercise a limited right of recommendation. Finally in 1907 the Postmaster-General announced that, though due weight should continue to be given to the opinions of members in the case of the appointment of these rural postmasters, such recommendations should be based on personal knowledge and should carry no more weight than the opinion of any other competent person.[311]

No question which has arisen in the internal management of the Post Office has presented more difficult problems for solution than that of the condition of the postal employees with reference to hours of labour, promotion, and remuneration. The first complaints which attract our attention during the period under discussion came rather from outside the service as a protest against Sunday labour in the Post Office, but the fact that many of the postal servants were deprived of their holiday and often needlessly so deprived was a real grievance advanced by the employees themselves. It had been the policy of the Post Office for some time not to grant any application for the withdrawal of a Sunday post if there were any dissentients to the application. In 1850 all Sunday delivery was abolished for a time, but this hardly met the approval even of the strict Sabbatarians, and the rule was promulgated the same year that no post should be withdrawn or curtailed except upon the application of the receivers of six sevenths of the letters so affected. Of the rural posts in the United Kingdom at that time more than half did no work on Sunday and about half of the remainder had their walks curtailed, while in certain cases a substitute was provided on alternate Sundays. A committee reporting on the question in 1871 advised that it should be made easier to discontinue a Sunday delivery by requiring that a Sunday rural post should be taken off if the receivers of two thirds of the letters desired it, that no delivery in the country should be granted except upon the demand of the receivers of the same proportion of letters, and that the principle of providing substitutes on alternate Sundays should be more generally adopted. This report was favourably received and its recommendations adopted in the early seventies. In London and many of the provincial towns there is no ordinary Sunday delivery, and so little advantage is taken of the opportunity for express delivery on Sundays that there is presumably no strong demand for a regular Sunday delivery. Various measures advocated for the relief of the town carriers were also adopted.[312]

In 1858 an attempt was made by the Post Office employees, led by the letter carriers, to secure higher wages and to obtain a remedy for certain other grievances advanced by them. Sir George Bower asked for a select committee of enquiry in their behalf but this was refused by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He agreed, however, to the appointment of a committee composed of Post Office and Treasury officials, but their personnel was so repugnant to the employees that they refused to give evidence, and as a result of this and other difficulties four of their leaders were suspended. The protest on the part of the men was not entirely unproductive, for in the end the Postmaster-General granted them a slight increase in their wages. At the same time he referred to the following rates of wages in support of his contention that there was no good ground for dissatisfaction among the servants of the Post Office: for carriers, 19s. a week advancing to 23s.; for sorters of the first class, 25s. to 30s.; of the second class, 32s. to 38s.; and of the third class, 40s. to 50s. "Carriers also obtain Christmas boxes averaging, so it is said, £8 a year. In addition these wages are exclusive of uniform, of pension in old age, and of assistance for assurance."[313]

The first thorough-going attempts to remedy the grievances of the Post Office employees were made in 1881 and 1882 by Mr. Fawcett in his capacity as Postmaster-General. His scheme for improving the pay and position of the sorters, sorting clerks, telegraphists, postmen, lobby officers, and porters resulted in a mean annual cost to the Post Office of £320,000. In 1888, 1890, and 1891, under the supervision of Mr. Raikes, improvements were made in the condition of the chief clerks and other supervising officers, the sorting clerks and telegraphists in the provinces, the telegraphists, counter-men and sorters in London, and the sorters in Dublin and Edinburgh at an additional yearly expense of £281,000. While the representatives of the London postmen were in process of examination, some of them went out on strike. They were severely punished, some 450 men being dismissed in one morning, and a committee was appointed to enquire into the complaints of the London and provincial postmen.[314] In the same month that the strike took place Mr. Raikes announced increases in the pay of the postmen involving an additional yearly payment of £125,000. The revisions so announced from 1881 to 1894 have been estimated to involve an increased annual expenditure of nearly £748,000.[315]

A committee was appointed in 1895 to deal with the discontent which was only lessened, not silenced, by the efforts of Messrs. Fawcett and Raikes. This was composed of Lord Tweedmouth, Sir F. Mowatt, Mr. Spencer Walpole, and Mr. Llewellyn Smith, and the compromise which they proposed was known as the "Tweedmouth Settlement" which apparently gave little satisfaction at the time and less thereafter. It resulted in a higher average rate of payment, but dissatisfaction was felt because the pay for some services was less than before. The basis of the report was "the abolition of classification whereby each man was allowed to proceed by annual increments to the maximum pay of a combined class, subject only to an efficiency-bar which he may not pass without a certificate of good conduct and ability, together with the abolition of allowances for special services." Differences in pay according to the volume of business in particular localities were left untouched, and this was the cause of much complaint. Special inducements in the shape of double increments were offered to the staff on the postal and telegraph sides to learn each other's work in order to lighten the strain which might otherwise fall on a particular branch. Overtime, Sunday and bank-holiday pay were assimilated throughout the service, and efforts were made to reduce the hardship resulting from "split" work, so called from the fact that the working day of many of the men was divided by an interval when there was nothing to do. The higher officials were acquitted of favouritism in the matter of promotion and of "unfairness and undue severity in awarding punishments and in enforcing discipline." The general charges of overcrowding the post offices and leaving them in an unsanitary condition were also rejected. The changes proposed were all adopted at an immediate estimated cost of £139,000 a year and an ultimate cost, also estimated, of £275,000.[316] The Tweedmouth Commission in its turn was soon followed by a departmental committee, composed of the Duke of Norfolk, then Postmaster-General, and Mr. Hanbury, the Secretary of the Treasury, then acting as the representative of the Post Office in the House of Commons. The postal employees demanded that their grievances should be laid before a select committee composed of members of the House of Commons, and motions to that effect were introduced year after year only to meet the Government's disapproval. The most important demands of the men turned upon the questions of full civil rights, complete recognition of their unions, the employment of men who were not members of the civil service, and the old difficulty of wages and hours. So far as the question of full civil rights was concerned, the Post Office employees had been granted the franchise in 1874, but were required not to take an active part in aiding or opposing candidates for election, by serving on committees or otherwise making themselves unduly conspicuous in elections. The men demanded that these restrictions should be withdrawn. In the second place, the Postmaster-General refused to receive deputations from those employees not directly interested in the question at stake, refused to recognize officials who were not also employees of the Department, and exercised more or less control over the meetings of employees. Finally, in addition to the general demand for higher wages due to the higher cost of living, the telegraphists contended that they had been deceived by the promise of a maximum salary of £190 a year, whereas they actually received only £160. Mr. A. Chamberlain opposed the appointment of a select committee of members of the House of Commons because of the pressure likely to be brought upon them and because of their unfitness to decide upon the question at issue. He agreed, however, after consultation with various members of Parliament and the men themselves, that a committee of enquiry might reasonably be granted, composed of business men not in the Civil Service and not members of the House of Commons.[317]

In accordance with this promise the so-called "Bradford Committee" was appointed to report on "the scales of pay received by the undermentioned classes of established civil servants and whether, having regard to the conditions of their employment and to the rates current in other occupations, ... the remuneration is adequate." In the meantime Mr. Chamberlain retired, but his successor, Lord Stanley, asked that the enquiry be continued. The members of this committee, interpreting their instructions very loosely, extended their report to include their own recommendations as to changes in pay, and refrained entirely from making any comparison between the wages of postal servants and those in other employments, on the ground that such information was easily accessible from the statistics published by the Board of Trade. They added that it was difficult to make any comparison between a national and a private service, for payment according to results and dismissal at the will of the employer are inapplicable under the state. There was also a pension fund in the service, the present value of which it is difficult to estimate. In their own words, "It appears to us that the adequacy of the terms now obtaining may be tested by the numbers and character of those who offer, by the capacity they show on trial, and finally by their contentment." They agreed that there was no lack of suitable candidates and no complaints as to capacity, but there was widespread discontent. Finally the committee recommended the grading of the service as a whole, taking into consideration the differences in cost of living as between London and other cities and between these cities and smaller towns and an increase in pay of the man at an age to marry, irrespective of years of service. "They" (the above recommendations) "obviously do not concede all that has been asked for, but they go as far as we think justifiable in meeting the demands of the staff and we trust it will do much to promote that contentment which is so essential to hearty service."[318] From an examination of the evidence presented by the Committee and a comparison of present scales of pay in the Post Office with those current in other employments, the Postmaster-General concluded that there was no reason for increasing the maximum wages payable, but there seemed to be ground for modifying and improving the scales in some respects. The special increase at the age of twenty-five was granted. The maximum was increased in London and the larger towns on account of the higher cost of living and at the same time wages in the smaller towns were advanced. The postmen also, both in London and the provinces, were granted higher wages, and all payments to the members of the force were in the future to be made weekly. The additional cost entailed by these changes was estimated at £224,400 for 1905-06, the average in later years at £372,300.[319]

The Post Office employees who had asked for the appointment of a select committee were greatly dissatisfied with the personnel of the "Bradford Committee." This dissatisfaction on their part was increased by the fact that the recommendations of the committee were to a great extent disregarded by Lord Stanley on the ground that the members had not reported upon the question laid before them, but had instead proposed a complete reorganization of the whole of the service. He was willing to grant some increase in pay but there were certain recommendations of the committee which he refused to accept. He himself was of the opinion that the average wages of the employees were in excess of those of men doing similar work under competitive conditions, but the postmen objected to a comparison of their wages with those of employees in the open labour market on the ground "that there is no other employer who fixes his own prices or makes an annual profit of £4,000,000 sterling." Delegates representing over 42,000 members of various postal associations protested strongly against Lord Stanley's refusal to adopt the findings of the "Bradford Committee" in toto and the men prepared to take an active part against the Government in the approaching election. Appeals were sent out by the men from which Lord Stanley quoted as follows in the House: "Two thirds at least of one political party are in great fear of losing their seats. The swing of the pendulum is against them and any member who receives forty or fifty of such letters will under present circumstances have to consider very seriously whether on this question he can afford to go into the wrong lobby. This is taking advantage of the political situation."[320] The Postmaster-General's unpopularity with his employees was not diminished by his reference to these appeals as "nothing more or less than blackmail." He himself was of the opinion that there should be some organization outside of politics to which such questions should be referred.[321]

Shortly after the Liberals had come into power, a Post Office circular was issued granting to the secretaries of the branches of the various postal organizations the right to make representations to the Postmaster-General relating to the service and affecting the class of which the branch of an association was representative. In matters solely affecting an individual the appeal had to come from the individual himself. This was followed by a full recognition of the postal unions by the new Postmaster-General, Mr. Buxton, with the rights of combination and representation through the representatives of different classes. These conclusions were commented upon most favourably at the annual meeting of the "Postmen's Federation."[322] The representatives present were glad to see that "the old martinet system was fast breaking down." [323] But the greatest triumph of the men was to follow in the appointment of a select committee composed of members of the House of Commons with full powers to investigate the conditions of employment of the postal employees and make such recommendations, based upon their investigation, as might seem suitable. Nine members were appointed for this purpose, two of their number being members of the Labour Party, and Mr. Hobhouse was chosen as chairman. Their report is very voluminous and treats minutely all the questions concerning which the postal employees had expressed so much dissatisfaction. The most important of these are connected with the civil rights of the men, their wages, hours of labour, and the conditions of their employment. The demand for full civil rights was supported by four members on the ground that the position of the postal employees is not in many respects "comparable to that of the Civil Service as a whole," but the point was lost for the men by the vote of the chairman. Some departments asked for a reduction in the age of voluntary retirement from sixty to fifty and of compulsory retirement from sixty-five to sixty, but these changes were not recommended by the committee. The question of extending part of their pensions to the widows and children of deceased employees was referred to a plebiscite of the employees themselves. So far as incapacitated officials were concerned, it was pointed out that the "Workmen's Compensation Act" of 1906 had been extended to them. Night work had been limited to the time from 10 P.M. to 6 A.M., seven hours of night work counting as eight hours of day work. The committee asked that night duty be from 8 P.M. to 6 A.M., the ratio of the relative value to remain unchanged. Some servants asked for a forty-two hour week, especially in the case of those who had "split" work to do, and for a half holiday each week. The committee thought that the forty-eight hour week should remain unchanged but that a half holiday might be granted where "the exigencies of the service demand." They also recommended that compensation should be allowed where free medical attendance was not granted. There was a general protest from postmen, telegraphists, and sorters against the employment of casual and auxiliary labour on the ground that it dealt a blow at thorough work and trade unionism. The Department replied that it was necessary in the case of especially busy holiday periods and where "split" attendance was unavoidable. The committee contented themselves by asking that casuals who have full work elsewhere should not be employed. The claim on the part of the employees that promotion should be contingent on "seniority, good conduct and ability," in the order named was not accepted by the committee, whose members contended that ability, as at present, should count for most. So far as wages themselves were concerned, a general increase was approved by the committee, and it also, commenting unfavourably on the complexity and number of existing classes, recommended a reduction in their number and greater regularity and simplicity in grading them. [324]

The recommendations of the "Hobhouse Committee" have proved, in many respects, unsatisfactory to the postal employees who have not hesitated to express their condemnation of what they consider the sins both of commission and omission of the members. In the words of the delegates from the branches of the "Postmen's Federation" meeting in London: "We express our deep disappointment with the report of the Select Committee for the following reasons": the "cowardice" of the committee in recommending the continuance of the system of Christmas boxes; the failure in many cases to increase the minimum and maximum rates of wages; the mistaken method of grading towns for wages; the failure to grant full civil rights and the granting of so much power to the permanent officials. The Conference of Postal Clerks in turn expressed their dissatisfaction with the findings of the committee. The "Irish Postal and Telegraph Guardian" considered that the "report had intensified discontent" and commented on the fact that large increases in salaries to highly paid classes had been recommended without any agitation on their part while the lower grades got practically nothing, this in direct opposition to opinions expressed both by Mr. Buxton and Mr. Ward, a member of the committee. Deputations were appointed to discuss with the Postmaster-General those findings of the committee which were unsatisfactory, but Mr. Buxton refused to grant a re-trial of the controverted points although he agreed to listen to the plea of those employees whose case had not been presented before the committee. [325]

Mr. Buxton explained his position with reference to the recommendations of the committee in a speech delivered in the House. He knew that in the case of the Tweedmouth and Bradford committees the men stated beforehand that they would not be bound by the decisions reached, but on the other hand had asked for a Parliamentary committee as the only solution of the difficulty. Broadly speaking, he was of the opinion that the findings of the committee should be binding, and he understood that the men would agree to accept them. There were, however, certain points of the report on which nearly every section of the staff asked for a re-trial, but this he was compelled to refuse. The most important recommendations of the committee which were adopted by Mr. Buxton are: an increase in the case of each employee to the minimum or "age pay" of his class; the extension of the "technical increment" beyond the ordinary maximum pay, after a searching examination; the reduction in London of the four "wage" zones to three; a reduction in the number of classes in the provinces, with wages based on volume of work and cost of living in the order named; a reduction after the first five years from five to four years in the period necessary to obtain good conduct stripes; an increase in the pay of women; a reduction in the amount of auxiliary labour employed; night labour to be reckoned from 8 instead of 10 P.M.; overtime to be watched and checked; unsanitary conditions in the Post Office buildings to be remedied; and wages increased in the engineering branch.[326]

CHAPTER V

THE TRAVELLERS' POST AND POST HORSES

The duty of providing horses for conveying letters and for the use of travellers on affairs of state was enforced from the beginning of the sixteenth century by orders and warrants issued by the Postmaster-General and the Privy Council to mayors, sheriffs, constables, and other officials.[327] Where ordinary posts were laid, the postmen themselves were supposed to have horses ready. Such at least was the understanding, not, however, invariably realized. In 1533 we find the Postmaster-General complaining that, except between London and Dover, there were never any horses provided over the whole kingdom.[328] A few years later when the London-Berwick posts became an established fact each postman had to provide one horse, always to be ready to carry either the mails or a chance traveller on affairs of state. In 1542, since, owing to trouble with Scotland, the number of letters and travellers between that country and London had become much more numerous, each postman was required to have in readiness three horses instead of one, and it was partly for this reason that their pay was increased at the same time.[329] The fee for the use of these horses was fixed at a penny a horse for every mile travelled. Generally this fee was named in the warrant empowering the traveller to take up horses.[330] When the sum was not definitely named, it was required that it should be reasonable.[331] It seems to have been the custom of the members of the Council to grant these warrants quite indiscriminately. To remedy this, it was provided in 1566 that in future no warrant should be granted to any person, who was not actually travelling upon state affairs.[332] Twelve years later we find the people of Grantham petitioning the Council against the taking-up of horses to ride post. They said that the practice had increased so much that it had become intolerable.[333] The demand for horses had become so great that 2d. a mile was asked for each horse and complaint was made that travellers and messengers refused to pay the increased charge.[334] It is improbable that the state was successful in preventing the use of the postmasters' horses by private individuals, and it is more improbable still that the postmasters themselves objected to hiring their horses to those who travelled on their own affairs. Warrants issued by the Council nearly always fixed the price which should be paid. Now such prices, like wages when fixed by employers, are likely to be lower than demand and supply warrant. On the other hand, as between the postmasters and the ordinary travellers, the question of charge was adjusted by agreement.

When the postmasters themselves were too poor to obtain horses at their own expense, they were sometimes aided by the town or county. In Norfolk, for instance, each one of three postmasters was provided with a certain sum out of the treasury of the city of Norwich to be lent without interest. They were also paid so much a year out of money levied on the people of Norwich, one half on the innkeepers and tipplers and one half on the other inhabitants. No man was to take up post horses in Norwich unless licensed by warrants from the Queen, the Council, the Duke of Norfolk, or the Mayor of Norwich. No one was to ride a horse farther than twelve or fourteen miles at a stretch, and he was to pay 2d. each mile and 6d. to his guide to lead back the horses. No horse was to carry any cloak bag over ten pounds in weight.[335]

If more horses were demanded from the postmaster than he himself had in his stable, he might seize them from his neighbours but the full amount paid was to go to the owners. The date of the commission empowering horses to be used, the name of the person using them, and the date when the horses were demanded were to be entered in a book, kept for the purpose.[336]

Complaints from the postmasters concerning the abuses of travellers were frequent. The London-Berwick posts in a petition to the Council stated that on account of the great number riding over that road many of their horses were injured or spoiled and were not paid for, while the constables, whose duty it was to see that horses were provided, were often ill-treated. Accordingly by a proclamation issued in 1578, it was provided that no commission to ride in post should be issued unless it was first moved at a council meeting or ordered by the Secretary for causes properly relating to Her Majesty's service.[337] This was followed in 1582 by a still more stringent proclamation, forbidding any person to use a commission more than once unless otherwise specified. The pay of 2d. a mile for each horse was to be in advance as was also the "guide's groat" and, if the payment was not so advanced, the postmaster might refuse to supply horses.[338] Occasionally we find people objecting to having their horses taken when the postmaster had not sufficient of his own. Complaints like these were generally followed by an order to the offending postmaster to provide himself with more horses.[339]

The travellers, however, were not the only people who were at fault. The owners of the horses were often offenders and can hardly be blamed for rendering as difficult as possible the enforcement of the obnoxious proclamations, which they were ordered to obey. If they had to supply horses, they must do so, but there was nothing to prevent them from offering clumsy plough horses or venerable specimens no longer capable of drawing a plough. The constables were more apt to sympathize with the owners, who were their neighbours, than with the travellers. Consequently it is not surprising that complaints were loud and deep over the pieces of horseflesh, whose angular outlines must have presented a sorry seat for the Queen's messengers.[340]

By a Privy Council proclamation issued in 1603, all posts receiving a daily fee were required to keep at least two horses apiece. So far as the letting of horses was concerned, they had up to this time been subject to competition from other people, who had horses to hire. They were now granted the prior right to provide horses for travellers and it was only in case of their supply being inadequate that horses might be procured elsewhere. The hire as usual was to be paid in advance and was fixed at 2½d. a mile, together with the guide's fee for those riding on commission and was to be settled by agreement for all others. No heavier burden than thirty pounds in excess of the rider's weight was to be carried by each horse.[341]

It is in connection with the monopolistic restriction of 1603 that Macaulay says that the state must have reaped a large reward from the prior right of the postmasters to hire horses to travellers.[342] Mr. Joyce has pointed out that the proceeds went to the postmasters and not to the state, but he has given no good reason for dissenting from Macaulay's opinion. Without doubt Joyce is correct, as is shown by a complaint from the postmasters on the Western Road that they had been injured by an interloper who supplied travellers with horses.[343] In 1779, the state made an attempt to obtain something from the postmasters by requiring them to take out a licence for the hiring of horses and to pay a percentage for their receipts to the government.[344] Indirectly, however, the state did reap some benefit from the revenue from post horses, for if the postmasters had received nothing from their horses or from the conveyance of private letters, it would have been necessary to pay their salaries much more promptly than was the custom. As early as the latter part of the sixteenth century, we find complaints from the London-Dover posts that they had received nothing on their salaries for a whole year.[345] This was nothing to later complaints and proves that an impecunious government was enabled to act the bad debtor by the fact that other forms of revenue were available for the postmasters.

In 1609 the rate for each horse was raised from 2½d. to 3d. a mile, and an attempt was made to enforce the postmasters' monopoly more strictly.[346] No horse was to be ridden beyond the initial stage unless with the consent of the postmaster concerned. The postmasters complained that they were held responsible for supplying horses, and yet, when it was necessary to obtain them from the surrounding country, they were resisted by the owners or were supplied with inefficient animals.[347] The complaints of the public were more to the purpose. According to them there were some who were being called upon constantly for horses while others escaped all demands. The postmasters often accepted bribes from owners of horses on condition that they should not be troubled.[348] At times the horses, after being seized, were not used but were kept in the stables of the postmasters, and their owners charged the expense of maintaining them.

At the establishment of Witherings' plan in 1635, the postmasters on all the roads in England were required to have as many horses ready as were necessary for the carriage of letters and the accommodation of travellers. The rate for each horse was lowered from 3d. to 2½d. or 5d. for two horses and a guide.[349] Before 1635, the post enjoyed no priority over the traveller in being provided with horses, and if all the horses happened to be in use when the mail arrived, it had to wait. Now it was provided that on the day when the mail was expected, enough horses should be kept in the stable to ensure its prompt transmission.[350] In 1637, after Witherings' dismissal, the fee for the hire of a horse was raised again to 3d. at which rate it continued until 1657, when it was lowered to 2½d. by the Commonwealth Government. So much trouble had been caused by the seizure of horses from owners unwilling to part with them that it was provided by the act of 1657 that no one might take or seize horses for service without the consent of the owner, but no one save the Postmaster-General and his deputies might hire horses to persons riding in post with or without commission.[351] At the Restoration in 1660, the old rate of 3d. a mile for each horse was re-imposed together with a 4d. fee to the guide for each stage. If the postmaster was unable to furnish horses within half an hour, they might be obtained elsewhere, but always with the consent of the owner.[352]

The sole right to supply horses was continued to the Postmasters-General and their deputies by the famous act of 1711. The rate per horse and the guide's fee remained at the figure imposed by the act of 1660. If the postmaster did not supply the horses demanded within half an hour, he was liable to a fine of £5 and the horses might be obtained from any one who would consent to hire them. The maximum burden for one horse over and above the rider's weight was eighty pounds.[353]

The postmasters enjoyed the monopoly of letting horses to travellers until the middle of the eighteenth century. But the industrial growth of England and the improvement in the roads had produced such an increase in the number of travellers that the postmasters were unable to supply the demand. The use of carriages had become more common, enabling people to travel who could not proceed on horseback, and this had still further increased the demand for horses. It was plain that something must be done and some more extensive source of supply drawn upon than that furnished under the old system. The postmen had heard some of the rumours in the air that a change was about to be made, and they forwarded a petition to the House of Commons, protesting against the contemplated change as an infringement upon their old monopoly. They said "that if the amendment should pass into a law as it is now drawn, it would not only tend to the great damage and loss of the petitioners, but also the prejudice of His Majesty's revenue."[354] The amendment did pass, however, declaring that in future any one might furnish chaises and calashes with horses and that people letting chaises might supply horses for them at the same time.[355]

In 1779, when the Treasury was sadly in need of money, an act was passed, requiring all persons letting horses to take out licences. In addition, duties were levied on all horses and carriages hired for the purpose of travelling post.[356] In the following year this act was superseded by a stricter and more comprehensive one. It was provided by the new act that every person letting horses to travel should pay five shillings a year for a licence. In addition one penny a mile should be paid for every horse, or, if the distance was not known, 1s. 6d. a day, such duties to be paid by the person hiring the horses to the postmaster or other person who provided them, to be by him handed over to the Treasury. At the time of payment the postmaster was to give the traveller a ticket, which must be shown to the toll keepers on the road. If he had no ticket to show, the toll keeper was ordered not to allow him to pass.[357] Five years later the duty to be collected was raised to 1½d. a mile for each horse or 1s. 9d. a day.[358] In 1787, permission was given to let these duties out to farm, because so many difficulties had been experienced in their collection.[359] The whole theory of these duties was illogical, for it was to every one's interest to evade them, and direct supervision was impossible. In 1808 another act for farming the post-horse duties was passed, modifying somewhat the provisions of the previous act. The tax was to extend to horses used in travelling, when hired by the mile or stage and when hired for a period of time less than twenty-eight days for drawing carriages used in travelling post. Persons licenced to let horses were required to have their names and places of abode painted on their post carriages if they provided these also. The carriages must have numbers painted on them so as to distinguish them easily.[360] In 1823 all previous acts relating to licences and fees for keeping horses for hire were repealed, and a complete system of rates was substituted. Every postmaster or other person keeping horses to hire for riding by post must pay an annual licence of five shillings and additional duties calculated according to distance or time. The Treasury was given authority to let these duties to farm.[361]

CHAPTER VI

ROADS AND SPEED

Sir Brian Tuke, writing in 1533, said that the only roads in the kingdom over which letters were regularly conveyed were from London to Dover and London to Berwick.[362] The road to Berwick had been in use in 1509[363] but had evidently been discontinued, for Sir Brian says in his letter that postmen were appointed to it in the year that he wrote. Regular posts were established between London and Portsmouth when the fleet was there and discontinued as soon as it left, so that it can hardly be included among the regular roads.[364] Between 1580 and the accession of James I, there was a distinct revival in postal affairs within and without the kingdom. The posts on the London-Holyhead road had been discharged for some time and Irish letters were conveyed to London by the postmaster at Chester.[365] In 1581 Gascoyne, the acting Postmaster-General, was ordered to appoint stages and postmen on this old route.[366] A letter patent was issued, calling upon all Her Majesty's officers to assist him in so doing, and a warrant was signed for the payment of £20 to defray his expenses. The Rye-Dieppe posts were also reorganized, principally for the conveyance of letters to and from France.[367] Bristol ranked next to London in size and importance, but it was not until 1580 that orders were given to horse and man the road between the two cities,[368] and only in the following decade were posts also laid from London to Exeter and somewhat later from Exeter to Plymouth.[369] This illustrates as well as anything the fact that the early English postal system was mainly political in its aims. The great post roads were important from a political rather than an economic standpoint. It was necessary to keep in close touch with Scotland because the Scotch would always stand watching. The wild Irish needed a strong hand and it was expedient that English statesmen should be well acquainted with things Irish. The post to and from the continent was quite as necessary to keep them informed of French and Spanish politics.

In conveying letters the postman who started with them did not, on the regular roads, proceed through to the place where they were directed, but carried them only over his stage to the next postman. By this method a fair rate of speed should have been maintained, for the horses' path in the middle of the road was as a rule not so bad as seriously to impede travelling.[370] Nevertheless complaints about the tardiness of the post are numerous. Lisle, the Warden of the Marches, said that letters from London were nearly five days in reaching him at Alnwick.[371] Nine days from London to Carlisle was considered too slow but it often took that long, notwithstanding that the letters were marked twice "for life, for life."[372] The Earl of Sussex complained to Cecil that they never arrived in York under three days. He expected too much, however, for three days from London to York was considered good speed.[373] According to a post label made out in 1589, the distance from Berwick to Huntingdon was accomplished in ninety-one hours. By the mileage tables then published, the distance was 203 miles, giving an average speed of only a little over two miles an hour. It is only fair to add that the real distance was 282 miles, and this would raise the speed to about three miles an hour.[374] The distance from Dover to London was covered in twelve hours, from Plymouth to Hartford Bridge in forty-four hours, from Portsmouth to Farnham in five hours, from Weymouth to Staines via Sherborne in five days, but this must have been exceptionally long.[375]

Orders were given to the postmen in 1603 that they should not delay the mails more than fifteen minutes at each stage and that they should travel at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five in winter.[376] This was an ideal but seldom realized. Complaints continued to come in pretty constantly during the first thirty-five years of the seventeenth century.[377] Secretary Conway wrote to Secretary Coke that the posts must be punished for their tardiness.[378] Even those from London to Dover were reprimanded and they had hitherto given the best satisfaction. The postmaster at Dover was threatened with imprisonment unless he mended his ways.[379] Letters were either not delivered at all or were needlessly delayed on the road. Some of the postmasters, who held lucrative positions, were themselves absentees and their work was performed by their agents, who were often incompetent, and this sort of thing was connived at by the Postmaster-General, from whom their positions were bought. The postmen themselves acknowledged their tardiness but said that they were able to do no better, since they had received no wages for several years.[380] One had been paid nothing for over two years, another had received no wages for seven years,[381] and finally in 1628 a petition was presented to the Privy Council from "all the posts in England, being in number ninety-nine poor men." This petition prays for their arrears, due since 1621, the amount unpaid being £22,626, "notwithstanding the great charge they are at in the keeping of many servants and horses to do His Majesty's service."[382] The Council did not grant their petition, for two years later £25,000 were still due them.[383]

The Council of State gave directions in 1652 for roads to be manned between Dover and Portsmouth, Portsmouth and Salisbury, London and Yarmouth, and London and Carlisle through Lancaster.[384] Hitherto, Carlisle had to depend upon a branch post from the great North Road. Dover and Portsmouth had no direct connection nor had Bristol and Exeter, but letters between these places passed through London. These orders formed part of the directions given to the farmer of the posts in the following year.[385] Cromwell seems to have recognized the impracticability of enforcing the speed limit ordered by Elizabeth in the case of the ordinary mails. He issued orders that in future only public despatches or letters from and to certain high officials should be sent by express, and such despatches and letters must be carried at a speed of seven miles an hour from the first of April to the thirtieth of September, and five miles an hour the rest of the year.[386]

Toward the close of the seventeenth century, more attention was directed to the slowness of the posts and the delays along the road. The average speed on the great roads varied from three to four miles an hour, anything below three miles generally calling for reproof. For instance, the posts on the Portsmouth road were reprimanded for travelling only twenty-two miles in ten hours.[387] It was said that it took the Yarmouth mail sixty-six hours to travel less than one hundred miles. The post labels were an important check upon the postmaster's carelessness. Each postmaster was supposed to mark the time that he received the mail on a label attached to it for that purpose. In this way no postmaster marked the speed that his own postboy made and each was a check upon his neighbour.[388] Lord Arlington gave orders in 1666 for this practice to be enforced more strictly. In addition to marking the time of arrival, the time of departure was also to be added.[389] A year later a further improvement was made by the use of printed labels, containing also directions as to speed. The names of the post towns through which the mail must pass were also added, and blanks were left for the postmasters to fill in the hours of arrival and departure.[390]

It was often difficult to tell the relative position of places in England from the post towns. The Post Office had for its own use a table of places along the great roads,[391] and from the middle of the seventeenth century, private individuals began to publish road maps. On these maps, the post towns are marked by a castle with a flag flying from it. Some of them are quite artistically done and represent on a large scale every important road in England with the places where branch roads leave them. One map has each road outlined on a long scroll, and it gives the rivers, brooks, bridges, elevations, villages, post towns, forests, and branch roads throughout the whole distance.[392] In 1668, Hicks, in writing to Arlington's secretary, advised him not to have a new map of the post roads printed, fearing the great changes that might thereby be produced in the Post Office. He says: "When Parliament sees how all the branches lie and most of them carried on at the charge of those in the country concerned, they will try to have them carried through by the Postmaster-General, which will be very chargeable."[393]

At the close of the seventeenth century, the five great roads to Edinburgh, Holyhead, Bristol, Plymouth, and Dover remained practically unchanged. The Plymouth road had been continued to Falmouth and the Northern Road now passed through York. The greatest changes noticeable are in the Southern and Eastern counties. In the South, nearly all the coast towns were now connected with the Falmouth road, and the post ran to the extreme southwest of Cornwall. Portsmouth had a direct service from London through Arundel and Chichester. There were branches from the Falmouth road to several towns in Dorset and Somerset, but as a rule the country between the two great roads to the West was poorly supplied. A new road of considerable importance ran from Maidenhead on the Bristol road through Abingdon, Gloucester, Cardiff, and Swansea to Milford, where there was a packet boat for Ireland. From this road there were a few unimportant branches to the North.

In the Northeast, the post road to Edinburgh now passed through York to Northallerton. From York there was a branch to Scarborough and Whitby. A new road left the Edinburgh road at Royston, about forty miles from London, and passed along the coast nearly parallel to the great road, through Newmarket, Lynn, Boston, and Hull to Bridlington. Another branch left Newmarket for Norwich and the seacoast towns of northern Norfolk. An important road left London for Yarmouth, with branches to the coast towns of Suffolk. One new road ran through the midland counties, leaving the Holyhead road about thirty miles from London and passing through Sheffield, Manchester, and Preston to Carlisle. Derby was supplied by an east and west road from Grimsby to Manchester. Liverpool had a post road to Manchester. In 1683, provision was made for an extension of the post roads by an order issued to the Postmaster-General to set up posts between the market towns and the nearest post towns. These were called bye-posts. It was to them that Hicks had objected as leading to increased expense. At the same time orders were given for a map to be printed, showing where all these bye-posts were situated so that people might know where to address their letters.[394]

In Ireland, there were three main post roads, running from Dublin through Ulster, Munster, and Connaught.[395] There were practically no post roads worthy of the name in Scotland. That part of the great North Road beyond the Tweed was English rather than Scotch. Between Edinburgh and Glasgow there was a foot-post. The mail was also carried between Glasgow and Portpatrick.[396] In 1699, the length of the roads in America over which the mails passed was 700 miles. These roads connected the principal towns along the Atlantic coast.[397]

In 1696, the Postmaster-General reported favourably on the establishment of a cross post road between Bristol and Exeter.[398] The report was approved, and two years later Bristol and Exeter had direct postal communication. Colonial and foreign letters for Bristol, after their arrival in Falmouth, still went via London.[399] Towns adjacent to Bristol and Exeter, which might have been connected with the cross post, remained separated. For example, the post went from London through Cirencester to Wotton-under-Edge, which was within fourteen miles of Bristol, yet letters from Cirencester to Exeter went via London.[400] The Exeter-Bristol cross post proved a success. After it had been in operation three years, it produced over £350 net profits a year. The use of cross posts was advocated as leading to the conveyance of a larger number of letters, and private individuals started to establish them.[401] In 1700, the post road from Exeter to Bristol was continued to Chester through Worcester and Shrewsbury.[402] Three years later, a direct road was ordered between Exeter and Truro, but it seems to have been discontinued after one year's trial.[403]

The post roads throughout the kingdom had not been measured correctly. A mile on the London-Edinburgh road was fully ten furlongs. This had resulted in a decreased revenue from post horses and often unjustifiable reprimands for slowness. By a provision in the act of 1711, it was ordered that all the post roads in the kingdom should be measured. This was to be done by officials appointed by the Postmaster-General and the measurements left in the general offices in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.[404]

As the seventeenth century had seen the extension of roads in the southern and eastern counties of England, so the eighteenth century was marked by the establishment of posts in those parts of the kingdom most affected by the industrial revolution. The country about Birmingham, Kidderminster, and Worcester was to share in the better postal facilities offered by the mail coaches. Lancashire and the West Riding of York were not debarred from the use of Palmer's innovation. This was especially the case in Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Halifax, and Leeds, for where industrial expansion paved the way, the coaches were sure to follow.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the roads in Ireland were attracting considerable attention, and it was the slow speed made by the mail carts there which was a primary cause in producing any improvement. The Postmasters-General were directed to cause surveys to be made and maps drawn of those roads in Ireland over which the mail passed. The roads were to be levelled so that the ascent or descent should be no more than one foot in thirty-five wherever this was practicable, the expense to be borne by the county or barony.[405] This was in 1805, and the next year the Grand Jury was given the power to call for another survey, and the surveyor whom they appointed was to decide as to the necessity for a change in the direction of the road. Copies of all Grand Jury presentments were to be made to the Postmasters-General.[406] In 1813 the Grand Juries were empowered to present for damages accruing to owners and occupiers of land, such damages to be raised by the county and advanced from the consolidated fund.[407]

After 1817, the Postmasters-General were able to report a considerable acceleration in the speed at which the mails were carried. This was owing largely to the introduction of a lighter and more improved type of mail coach, and after 1821 the use of steam packet boats in the case of the transportation of the Irish and continental mails. Letters leaving London at 8 P.M. on Tuesday for Ireland had not been delivered in Dublin until 10 A.M. on Friday. In 1817 they arrived on Thursday in time for delivery on that day.[408] In 1828, the coaches travelled from London to Holyhead, a distance of 261 miles, in twenty-nine hours and seventeen minutes. Four years later the time had been reduced to twenty-eight hours.[409] By the introduction of one of the patent mail coaches on the Yarmouth road, the inhabitants of that town were enabled to answer their letters a day earlier. The coach left London at the usual time (8 P.M.), arriving in Yarmouth at 11.40 A.M., returning at 3 P.M. on the same day.[410] The mails to Manchester and Liverpool travelled at the rate of nine miles an hour over the greater part of the road.[411] The average speed varied from eight to nine miles an hour. To give the exact figures, the highest speed attained in England was ten miles and five furlongs an hour, the slowest six miles, and the average eight miles and seven furlongs.[412] In Ireland the highest speed attained by the mail coaches was nine miles and one furlong an hour, the slowest speed six miles and seven furlongs, and the average eight miles and two furlongs.[413] Mail carts drawn by two horses were also used largely in Ireland for the conveyance of the mails, and by these the speed was not so great. The highest speed made by them was seven miles and five furlongs an hour, the slowest five miles and one furlong, and the average six miles and three furlongs.[414] In Scotland the highest speed was ten miles and four furlongs an hour, the slowest seven miles, and the average eight miles and two furlongs. [415]

The mails which left London at 8 P.M. arrived in Holyhead at 12.6 A.M. on the next day but one. The packet left Holyhead twenty-five minutes later for Howth. The packet left Howth at 4 P.M. for Holyhead, and the mails for London left Holyhead at 12.15 A.M. The passage across the Irish Sea took from five to eight hours. The London coach arrived in Milford at 5.27 A.M., travelling at a rate of eight miles an hour, and twenty-five minutes after its arrival, the packet left for Dunmore. Another left Dunmore with the mails at 12 P.M., and the coach left Milford for London at 7.30 P.M.[416] The London mail coach arrived at Portpatrick at 10.27 P.M., fifty hours and twenty-seven minutes from London. The packet did not leave Portpatrick until 6.10 A.M., after the arrival of the Glasgow mail, which left Glasgow at 4.45 P.M., arriving at 5.6 A.M. The packet left Donaghadee at noon, and the mail left Portpatrick at 4 P.M., arriving in Glasgow at 6 A.M. Ordinarily the passage across took four hours. The London mail coach arrived in Liverpool at 6 P.M., twenty-two hours from London, and left at 10.30 P.M. Packets sailed from Liverpool and Kingstown at 5 P.M. and 5.15 P.M., the time for crossing being about fourteen hours. No London letters went via Liverpool until 1841.[417]

The method used to ensure a rapid transmission of the mails by the coaches was as follows: Time bills were issued to the guards of the different coaches. On these bills were printed the speed that should be made from stage to stage, and it was the guard's duty to fill in the time made by the coach on which he rode. Penalties were inflicted for any mistakes which he might make or any failure on his part to leave the bill in the office at the end of his route. On some of the time bills it was set forth that a fine of one shilling was payable by the proprietor for each minute that the coach was late and he might recover it from the guard or coachman if the delay was due to the negligence of either of them. The coachmen were ordered to make up any time lost on the road and to report the horse keepers if they were at fault.[418]

The chief cause for delay was the lack of close connection between the mail coaches and the packets to and from Ireland. In 1837 the London mail arrived in Holyhead at 11 P.M., but the packet did not leave for Kingstown until 8 A.M., a change having been made in the time of sailing.[419] Letters from England were detained in Dublin eleven hours before their departure for the rest of the island.[420] More than one third of the Irish letters for England left Kingstown by the day packet at 9 A.M., remaining in Holyhead from 3 P.M. to 4 A.M., with the exception of the letters for Chester and Manchester, which were forwarded by a special coach.[421]

The packets from Liverpool started shortly before the arrival of the London mail. The Commissioners proposed that they should be detained until it had arrived, but this was not done until ten years later.[422] The packets at Portpatrick always waited for the mails from Glasgow, and as these were nearly always late, letters from Carlisle and Northern England were necessarily detained.[423] The station at Milford had always given the most trouble. From a financial point of view it was the least satisfactory, and English letters for the south of Ireland often went through Holyhead. The packet left Waterford[424] for Milford at 12 P.M., arriving in Milford about noon, but the mail did not leave for London until 7.30 P.M.[425] English letters for Ireland via Milford were detained from ten to thirteen hours in Waterford.[426]

Before the introduction of Penny Postage, the use of railways had only started. In 1837, it was objected that the railways could never be of much use in this respect because they could not travel at night for fear of accidents. In answer to this objection it was pointed out that trains between Liverpool and Manchester and Leeds and Selby found no difficulty in that respect.[427] In 1837, mails were carried between Manchester and Liverpool at a rate of twenty miles an hour, and these trains left both Liverpool and Manchester as late as 5 P.M.[428] The Postmaster-General was given authority by Parliament to require any railway to carry mails either by ordinary or special train and to regulate the speed to the maximum of the fastest passenger train, as well as to control places, times and duration of stoppage and the times of arrival, provided that such regulations were reasonable. He might require the exclusive use of a carriage, if necessary, provided either by the railway or himself as seemed better to himself. In 1844 he was allowed to order a speed not in excess of twenty-seven miles an hour but he complained that he was unable to enforce his regulations although the speed was increasing. In 1855 a parliamentary committee reported in favour of a deduction of payment for irregularity on the part of the railways and the fining of the Post Office for irregularity in dealing with mail to be entrusted to the railways, the amounts of such deductions and fines to be a matter of contract, and in addition it was advised that the Postmaster-General's demands with reference to speed should be certified by the Railway Department of the Board of Trade to be consistent with safety. In conformity with this resolution, the Postmaster-General proposed to pay a bonus to the railways when their trains were on time and to exact a penalty from either the railway or the Post Office whichever were the offender, but the proposition was, as a rule, not very favourably received by the railways.[429]

CHAPTER VII

SAILING PACKETS AND FOREIGN CONNECTIONS

The Irish mail service was the first to boast a regular sailing packet.[430] The postal expenditure for the year 1598 included £130 for a bark to carry letters and despatches between Holyhead and Dublin, and an additional vessel was hired occasionally for the same purpose.[431] At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Queen Elizabeth ordered packets to be established at Milford Haven and Falmouth to ply between England and Ireland. This order was probably temporary, being intended to furnish a means of communication only during Essex's expedition.[432] In 1649 the port of departure for the Irish packets was changed from Holyhead to Portinllain in Carnarvon and at the same time the land stages were altered to meet the new conditions.[433] Prideaux reported the same year that the cost of these packets averaged £600 a year.[434]

In 1653 the Council of State gave orders for the revival of the old packet service between Milford and Waterford. At the same time Chester was substituted for Portinllain as the point of departure on the English side, and mails were carried weekly between the two countries by the Milford and Chester Packets.[435] The establishment of these boats was made one of the conditions under which the post was farmed in the same year.[436] The situation of Holyhead, however, was so much in its favour that in 1693 a contract was signed for the conveyance of the mails between Holyhead and Dublin. Mr. Vickers, the contractor, agreed to maintain three packet boats for this purpose for £450 a year. He also undertook to provide two boats for the mail service between Portpatrick and Donaghadee. When the Scotch was separated from the English Post Office in 1695, three packet boats came under the control of Scotland.[437] Upon the separation of the British and Irish Posts in 1784, it was provided that each office should receive its own proportion of the inland postage collected on letters passing between the two countries. The packet service between the two countries continued to be managed by the English Postmaster-General, to whom all receipts were forwarded. In return for this they were required to pay to the Irish Office a sum not exceeding £4000 a year. This was to be the rule until Ireland had established packet boats of her own.[438]

The Irish Post Office, before the Act of Union, had employed boats called wherries for the despatch of special messengers and expresses to England. In the course of time they lost their special character and, after 1801, were used to carry passengers and goods in opposition to the Holyhead packets. In 1813, Lees, the Secretary of the Irish Office, informed the London Office that these wherries would henceforth be employed to carry the Irish mails to Holyhead. This was actually done for six weeks and the regular packets arrived on the English side without the mail, which was brought by boats that, as a rule, did not arrive until after the coach had left for London. Lees may have been obstinate and ill advised but there was no doubt that he was acting entirely within his rights. The question then arose, should the Irish Office receive that part of the £4000 due them while the Holyhead packets did not carry the mails? The Postmaster-General decided that they should, much to Freeling's disgust. Lees had obtained his object, for two years later Parliament passed an act increasing the amount payable to the Irish Office to £8000 a year.[439]

Shortly after the Restoration, two packet boats were employed between Deal and the Downs. They carried letters to and from the ships of the merchant marine and the Royal Navy lying there. They also collected letters from vessels arriving from foreign ports and brought them to the shore whence they were transmitted by the General Post.[440] By an act passed in 1767 the Isle of Man was for the first time supplied with a postal service. A packet boat was to run between Whitehaven and the Port of Douglas in the island.[441] In 1828 sixteen packet boats were employed in carrying mails between the coast towns and to and from the outlying islands of the United Kingdom. All of these boats were hired by the Post Office, except those from Weymouth to Jersey and Guernsey.[442]

Early in the sixteenth century Dover was the port of departure and arrival for letters to and from the continent, and Calais was the distributing point on the other side, although the royal mail was occasionally conveyed between Rye and Dieppe.[443] From Calais the letters were carried to their destination by the English messengers to whom they were entrusted. They took up post horses along the way, paying for them as they proceeded, and often grumbling at the excessive charges which were demanded.[444] Letters from abroad directed to England were usually carried as far as Calais by foreign messengers. The foreign Postmaster-General would then send his bill to the English Postmaster-General for expenses so incurred.[445] Regular sailing packets were not used to carry the mails between Dover and Calais during the sixteenth century, but merchant vessels were employed by the Post Office.

Witherings' appointment as Foreign Postmaster-General in 1632 was made the occasion for a report to Sir John Coke on the foreign postal service. The immediate cause of the report was the fact that mails had not arrived from Germany, the Hague and Brussels. The fault was laid upon the messengers, who were accused of "minding their own peddling traffic more than the service of the state or the merchants, omitting many packages, sometimes staying for the vending of their own commodities, many times through neglect or lying in tippling houses." The report goes on to express confidence in Witherings and in his plan for the reform of the foreign post.[446] In 1631, thirteen messengers were employed to carry letters to the continent: three for France; six for Germany, Italy and the Netherlands; and four, who travelled to Paris and other parts of France on special occasions.[447] The service which they gave was inadequate and slow, and in 1633 the foreign post, at Witherings' suggestion, was ordered to be conducted on the following principles. Packet posts were to be appointed at suitable stages to run day and night without stopping. This was the plan which was commented upon favourably in the report to Sir John Coke. The Foreign Postmaster-General was to take the oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, to have an office in London, and to give notice at what time the public were to bring in their letters for despatch to the continent. A register was also to be kept, in which should be enrolled the names of all persons bringing letters, together with the names of those to whom they were addressed. The letters themselves were placed in a packet and locked and sealed with the Foreign Postmaster-General's seal. Letters from abroad for ambassadors residing in England and for the Government were to be delivered at once, after which a table of all other letters was to be set up for every one to see and demand his own.[448]

Witherings attempted next to come to some agreement with the postal officials of foreign countries about the despatch of letters. In Calais he met the Countess Taxis, secretary of the Postmaster of Ghent, and she agreed to settle stages between Antwerp and Calais. Witherings himself established stages between London and Dover. There had always been trouble with the boatmen who conveyed the mail between Dover and Calais. Witherings reported that he had found a man, who for 40s. would wait for the packet and depart with it at once, carrying nothing else. The messengers hitherto employed between Antwerp and Calais were dismissed.[449] The arrangement in France for the carriage of letters to and from England was decidedly unique. Witherings obtained the permission of the French ambassador to settle stages in France himself.[450]

In 1644, King Charles, from his headquarters at Oxford, ordered sailing packets to be established at Weymouth to ply between that town and Cherbourg. This was done ostensibly for the accommodation of the merchants in the southwest of England. James Hicks was ordered to live in Weymouth for the purpose of exercising a general oversight over all letters going or coming by these packets. All dues must be paid before they were allowed to depart and the masters were accountable to him for passage money. Postage was charged on all letters going to or coming from any part of England except those on His Majesty's service. No letters were to be sent from those parts of England in the hands of the rebels.[451]

Until 1638, Flanders was the only country with which England had come to an agreement concerning the mutual exchange of the correspondence of each. In that year, a similar agreement was concluded with de Nouveau, the French Postmaster-General. All letters between England and France were henceforth to pass through Dover, Calais, Boulogne, Abbeville, and Amiens. Both the French and English kings ratified this agreement, and all others were prohibited by them from infringing upon the monopolies enjoyed by the two Postmasters-General.[452] On special occasions, of course, both the French and English kings sent special messengers but they were not used so often as before.[453] In 1640, the Governor of the Merchant Adventurers was asked to give his opinion upon the question of foreign correspondence concerning which there was considerable dissatisfaction, especially in the case of letters sent to Flanders and Holland. The Governor in his reply said that complaints had hitherto been restrained because of the connection of the state with the foreign post. He added that some time before a letter had come from the Court of their company at Rotterdam, complaining about the overcharging of the Company's letters. He did not care to investigate the question alone but proposed that it be entrusted to a committee composed of two members from each of the great companies, the Merchant Adventurers, the Turkish, the Eastland, and the French.[454] After the Restoration, matters were adjusted with de Nouveau and provision was made for the transmission of letters to England twice a week.[455] At the same time an attempt was made to reach an understanding with the burgomaster of Amsterdam and the Dutch ambassador for the conveyance of English letters to Germany, the East, and Italy through Holland. Bishop, the English Postmaster-General, was accused of accepting money for making this bargain and the proposed agreement did not materialize.[456] In 1665, Frizell was sent abroad to talk over postal connections with de Nouveau and the Flemish Postmaster-General, de Taxis, between whom difficulties had arisen. De Taxis was reminded that letters from Holland for England passing through Flanders were not treated in accordance with the agreement made between England and Flanders.[457] The old contract was continued, for in 1693 a bill was presented to the English Post Office by the next in order of the House of Thurn and Taxis, referring to the former agreement. £2711 was then due to the Flemish Postmaster-General and, as the bill was presented in the form of a petition signed by the Prince of the House and his brothers and sisters, there was probably some difficulty experienced in collecting it.[458] The Dutch were not satisfied with receiving letters through Flanders, and in 1667 we find the Postmaster-General of Holland in Harwich, arranging for a direct service with England, which was established in the following year.[459] Letters to and from Holland might go via Calais through France and Flanders, or by sailing packet to Nieuport and thence through Flanders, or directly from Harwich to Helvoetsluys. The mail for Holland left London every Tuesday and Thursday night. The route was along the Yarmouth road as far as Colchester and then directly to Harwich. The Harwich boats were stopped for a short time in 1672,[460] but after William's accession they were in such constant service that it was necessary to hire extra boats.[461] Orders were often given to delay them until the arrival of an express from the King and on other occasions they were hurried off before their regular time for departure.[462]

It was agreed by a contract signed by the French and English Postmasters-General in 1698 that the mails, as soon as they arrived in Dover from Calais or in Calais from Dover, should be forwarded by "express" to London and Paris respectively. This was done in England, but in France the foreign mail continued to be sent at the regular time of departure and, as there was only one mail a day, English letters might have to remain in Calais for nearly twenty-four hours, if the packet from Dover happened to be late. Cotton and Frankland remonstrated but Mr. Pajot, the French Postmaster-General, returned no answer. The English Postmasters-General had agreed to pay about £2500 a year to Mr. Pajot for the conveyance of English letters through France. One or two instalments were paid before the war broke out.[463] Nothing further was done until after the Treaty of Utrecht, when a commission was sent to France to negotiate a new postal agreement. Pajot refused to accept a lump sum and declared that each letter passing through France must pay the ordinary postage according to the French rates. Objection was taken to this as the French rates were higher than the English, but objections were of no avail. Pajot, who carried matters with a high hand, gained his point. By the act of 1711, the postage for a single letter through France to Italy was 15d., and by the terms of the new treaty with France, 21 sous would have to be paid by the English Postmasters-General for the conveyance of a letter through France.[464]

The withdrawal of the sailing packets between England and France in 1689 had interrupted postal communication between England and Spain, since the regular route lay through Calais. Accordingly, packet boats were hired to ply between Falmouth and the Groyne.[465] After the Methuen treaty had been signed and while England and France were struggling in the Spanish Netherlands, it was proposed to replace the old boats between Falmouth and Lisbon by new. In 1703 a weekly packet service, supplied by four boats, was established between England and Portugal.[466]

At the end of the war, Cotton and Frankland contracted with Mr. Macky to furnish five boats to carry the mails between England, France, and Flanders for three years. In 1701, the contract was extended to five years for £1400 a year. Macky was to provide boats and men but not provisions and equipment. In case war broke out, the contract would become void at once. War did break out the next year,[467] and during the war the packet boats from Harwich to Holland were kept very busy. They had been large boats, well manned and formidable enough to take care of themselves in an emergency. They seem even to have become the aggressors at times. William, himself, as was natural, felt a warm interest in them. A stranger in a strange land, misunderstood and personally unpopular, they were the link between him and his home. He thought that speedier boats should be built and that when pursued they should attempt to escape rather than stand up to their pursuers. The government had four narrow, low boats built for purposes of speed. The sailors complained that the new boats were so low in the water that they were constantly being swept by the waves and they themselves were drenched all the time. There is no doubt that William's move was in the right direction, and the men were placated by an increase in their wages. This could be done the more easily since the new boats were smaller than the old and carried fewer men.[468]

At the time of the War of the Austrian Succession, the Dover packets were supplied by a man named Pybus. He agreed to carry mails, passengers, and expresses from Dover to Calais and Ostend. If he could not reach the latter place by sea he was to land the mails and have them forwarded overland. He was to receive as pay the fares of all passengers, but so many officers and soldiers had to be transported free that he was paid what the Treasury considered that he lost by them.[469] A position in one of the packets was so dangerous in time of war that a fund was provided for the widows and children of the killed and for the support of the wounded. This was met by deducting 10d. a month from the pay of each seaman.[470]

In 1803, as a war measure, packets were established between Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta.[471] It was understood that the regular service to Portugal should be discontinued at the same time. In 1812 during Wellington's campaign in Portugal and Spain, the Post Office announced that sailing packets would be despatched to Corunna every fortnight.[472] From Corunna they proceeded to Lisbon before returning to Falmouth. There was some complaint from the mercantile interests on account of the stop at Corunna, since the merchants were more interested in the Lisbon markets than in keeping up communication with Wellington's army.[473]

By the end of 1813, Napoleon had lost control over Europe. The Dutch had freed themselves from French domination. On November 26th a Dutch mail was made up at the Post Office and despatched for Harwich. The regular packet boats were reëstablished and were ordered to land the mails at Scheveningen, a small fishing town three miles from the Hague.[474] Following Napoleon's expulsion to Elba, postal communications with France were resumed. Mails were despatched from Dover four times a week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, leaving London at 11 P.M. on Tuesday and Friday and at 7 P.M. on Wednesday and Thursday.[475] Thirteen sailing vessels were stationed at Harwich in 1828, all of them hired permanently. Nine sailed between Harwich and Helvoetsluys, four between Harwich and Gothenburg.[476]

The London merchants in 1837 complained that no mails were made up in Paris for London on Wednesday and Thursday. The mails from Spain, Italy, and Switzerland arrived in Paris on Tuesday and Friday, and Tuesday's mails were not despatched until Friday. An arrangement was asked for by which a daily post might be established between Paris and London. They pointed out that there was a daily post from Paris to Calais, a daily packet service and a daily post from Dover to London.[477] English letters for France arrived in Dover daily at 5 A.M., except on Wednesday and Saturday, were despatched to Calais at once and left Calais at noon for Boulogne and Paris. On post nights,[478] letters did not leave London until midnight, arrived in Dover at 10 A.M., and were often not in time for the Paris mail, which left Calais at noon.[479] The two packets between Dover and Ostend carried the mails four times a week.[480] By virtue of a treaty with Belgium, these packets conveyed letters both ways and the Belgium Government paid £1000 a year as its part of the expenses. The Dover-Calais boats on the other hand carried letters only to Calais, and not from Calais to Dover.[481] Letters from Belgium to Dover went first to London and this held true of any letters from Belgium to England via Dover.[482]

It was provided in 1835 that, after the Postmaster-General had entered into an agreement with any foreign state to collect and account for the British postage on letters sent from the United Kingdom to any such state, it should be optional for a person sending such a letter to pay the whole amount of postage in advance or to pay the British postage only, as had hitherto been the custom, or to pay neither. The entire postage on letters from abroad might also be paid in one sum and the part due the foreign state was then handed over by the English Postmaster-General.[483] In the following year such a treaty was concluded with France, the English colonies also being included in the arrangement. It was agreed that each country should account to the other according to the method of reckoning postage of the country to which the payment was made, a settlement to be concluded every three months.[484]

At the beginning of the eighteenth century William Dummer entered into a contract to supply packet boats for use between England and the West Indies. For this service Dummer provided five boats, each one of 150 tons and carrying 50 men. Each was to make three round trips a year, thus giving fifteen sailings every twelve months from both England and the West Indies.[485] These boats were to make Falmouth their home port, but they often kept on to Plymouth, probably because it was a better place to dispose of their smuggled goods.[486] Poor Dummer was exceedingly unfortunate with his West India boats. The first one to sail was captured on her maiden trip. The receipts did not come up to his expectations. He had supposed that to double the receipts he had only to double the rates, but like other men before and after him he had to learn the effect of higher rates on correspondence.[487] In 1706 he wrote that it was a losing contract,[488] and in the same year the Government released him from the agreement and paid him for two of his lost packets.[489] From a total of fourteen boats provided for the packet service, he had lost nine. The Postmasters-General recommended that for the future the packets should leave and arrive at Bideford, which was less exposed to the enemies' privateers than either Falmouth or Plymouth.[490]

After Dummer's failure, no attempt was made by the Post Office to revive the service until 1745. In that year the Postmasters-General reported to the Treasury in favour of regular packets between Falmouth and some port in the West Indies. The report was agreed to, and orders were given for two new boats to be supplied and for the two boats between Lisbon and Gibraltar to be transferred there.[491] The agent at Falmouth was ordered to see that each boat sailed with its full complement of men, as the captains were accustomed to discharge some of the crew just before sailing and pocket their wages. He was also to make sure that each of the boats sailing from Falmouth for Lisbon, the West Indies, or North America was British built and navigated by British seamen. He must keep a journal, in which should be entered the time that he received and delivered mails and expresses, how the wind and tide served, when the boats arrived and departed, and any delay in sailing which might occur. The captains were ordered to make returns after each voyage of the number of men on board. The crew while on shore should receive their accustomed wages and "victuals" and, if any were discharged, a return was to be made of such discharge, the money due them being turned over to the pension fund. It had become customary for the captains not to pay the men while they were on shore and to retain the money owing them. Finally the agent was to see that the packet boats proceeded to the Roads the day before the mail was expected from London.[492] Packets had already been employed to convey mails to and from Madeira and Brazil[493] and within the next few years others were hired to ply between Falmouth, Buenos Ayres,[494] Colombia, Mexico, San Domingo, and Cuba, and between the British West Indies, Colombia, and Mexico.[495]

In 1815, the Postmaster-General was given permission by Act of Parliament to establish sailing packets between the United Kingdom, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and that part of the East Indies embraced within the charter of the East India Company. Packet rates were also charged for letters carried by war vessels and by vessels of the company, but in the former case the consent of the Lords of the Admiralty for the use of their ships had first to be obtained. Letters to and from China must go by vessels of the company and no others. With the consent of the Commissioners of the Treasury or any three of them, the Postmaster-General might allow the regular sailing packets to import and export all goods, which might legally be imported or exported, but in the case of tea, only enough for the use of those on board should be carried.[496]

When Cotton and Frankland were appointed Postmasters-General in 1691, the following sailing packets were in commission.[497]

In 1689, the King had ordered the boats between Dover and Calais to be discontinued until further notice. This was done "on account of the late discovery of treasonable designs against the Government" and the war with France. His Majesty "preferred that all interchange of letters with France should cease."[499]

In 1744, the sailing packets of Great Britain and Ireland, excluding those employed in the domestic service, were as follows: four boats between Falmouth and Lisbon, four on the Harwich station, six between Dover and Calais or Ostend, two between Gibraltar and Lisbon, and two on the Minorca station. The use of sailing packets to Gibraltar and Minorca was made necessary by the war. From twenty to twenty-six additional men were added to each of the eighteen packets as a protection against the enemy, and the total additional yearly charge was £7045.[500] This is one of the items which made postal expenses run so high in time of war, to say nothing of the packets captured by the enemy. The three boats between Dover and Calais were sent to Harwich, Helvoetsluys, and Ostend for the time being.[501]

The practice of the Post Office until 1821 had been to contract for the supply of packet boats, paying only a nominal sum for their hire and allowing the contractors to have the receipts from passengers. In 1818 a private company established steamboats between Holyhead and Dublin, and the public preferred these to the sailing packets. The number of passengers by the government packets fell off nearly one half. Something had to be done at once, for, as the receipts from fares decreased, the contractors clamoured for higher pay. The steamboat company offered to carry the mails for £4 a trip and later for nothing, but the Post Office determined to have steam packets of its own.[502] Two, built by Boulton and Watt, under the inspection of the Navy Board, were placed on the Holyhead station in 1821, and these, as well as those introduced later on the other stations, were the property of the Crown.[503]

The fares by the steam packets at Holyhead were fixed at the same rates as those charged by the company's boats and these fares were somewhat higher than those formerly charged by the sailing packets. For instance, the fee for a cabin passenger had been one guinea, for a horse one guinea, and for a coach three guineas. These were now raised to £1 5s., £1 10s., and £3 5s. respectively. The new rates, which were so fixed in order not to expose the company to undue competition, had not been long enforced before the Select Committee on Irish Communications reported against them, and the Post Office reduced them to the old figures.[504]

In 1822 steam packets were placed on the Dover station, in 1824 they were introduced at Milford, in 1826 at Liverpool and Portpatrick, and in 1827 at Weymouth.[505] At Liverpool also a private company had offered to carry the mails but the offer was refused. This refusal, as well as the refusal to accept the Holyhead Company's offer, was condemned in a report of the Commissioners.[506] The new Liverpool packets ran from Liverpool to Kingstown, the Holyhead packets from Holyhead to Kingstown and Howth.[507] In 1828 the steam packets owned by the Crown numbered eighteen. They were distributed as follows: four at Liverpool, two of 300, one of 301 and one of 327 tons, all of 140 horse power; six at Holyhead, varying from 230 to 237 tons, all of 80 horse power; four at Milford, varying from 189 to 237 tons, all of 80 horse power; two at Portpatrick of 130 tons and 40 horse power; and two at Dover of 110 tons and 50 horse power.[508] Two years later, three steam packets were added to the Weymouth station.[509] In 1836, the Post Office had in use twenty-six steam packets, one having been added at Liverpool, three at Dover, and an extra one was kept for contingencies.[510]

With the exception of the Dover service for a few years, the steam packets were always a financial loss to the Post Office. The total disbursements for the Holyhead, Liverpool, Milford, and Portpatrick stations from 1821 to 1829 were £681,648, the receipts for the same period being only £250,999.[511] From 1832 to 1837 the disbursements for all the steam packets were £396,669, receipts £180,167.[512] The Milford boats were the least productive of any. From 1824 to 1836, the expenditure for that station was £220,986, the receipts only £26,592. The Commissioners had pointed out that not only was the practice of building and owning its own boats a mistake on the part of the Post Office, but they were very badly managed. For example, the stores for the Holyhead station were obtained from the postmaster at Liverpool, who invariably charged too much for them.[513] At Portpatrick the goods were supplied and the accounts checked in a very irregular manner.[514] At Dover the supplies were ordered by the mates, engineers, etc., as they were needed and the bills paid by the Post Office. There was no control over these officers, the accounts were not examined, and the bills were not certified by the commanders. There was no proof that the goods were even delivered. The agent, who forwarded the bills, was not a seaman nor had he any knowledge of ships' stores.[515] At Weymouth, where there were three steam packets for Jersey and Guernsey, conditions were better. The agent was a practical seaman, the demands for supplies were examined by him before being granted, and were signed by him, by the commander, and by the engineers or whoever needed them. The Commissioners also protested against sending the Weymouth boats so far for repairs as Holyhead, which was the regular repair station of the Post Office. Apart from the steam packets stationed at Holyhead, Liverpool, Milford, Portpatrick, Weymouth, and Dover, all the other packets employed by the Post Office were hired permanently or temporarily.[516]

The Post Office was at no time entirely dependent upon its regular sailing packets for the carriage of the mails. The merchant marine of England had been increasing with her growing commerce, and provision was made in the acts of 1657 and 1660 for the carriages of letters by private vessels. By the latter of these acts the conveyance of letters to foreign countries had been restricted to English ships under a penalty of £100 for every offence. It was decided in 1671, on the occasion of the wreck of one of the regular Irish packets, that it would be better to use a Dutch-built ship on account of its being much more seaworthy in the choppy swell of the Irish sea. Accordingly an order-in-council was issued, allowing a vessel built in Holland to be used, and providing for its naturalization.[517] By the act of 1660, letters arriving in private vessels were to be given to the postmaster at the port of arrival so that they might be forwarded to London to be despatched to their destination after being charged with the postage due. Masters of vessels were offered no inducement to deliver the letters to the postmaster nor was any liability incurred by neglecting to do so. The post farmers, however, agreed to pay a penny for every letter delivered by a captain on his arrival. This was the origin of ship letter money.[518]

No attempt had ever been made to collect postage on letters conveyed by private ships except for the distance which such letters might be carried by the regular posts within the kingdom.[519] In 1799 an act was passed under the following title: "An Act for the more sure conveyance of ship letters and for granting to His Majesty certain rates of postage thereon." The Postmasters-General were given authority by this act to forward letters and packages by other vessels than the sailing packets. On letters brought in by such vessels, 4d. was to be charged for a single letter and so in proportion. This was to be in addition to the inland postage and 2d. was to be paid to the master for every letter handed over by him to the Post Office. The net revenue so arising was to be paid into the Exchequer. No postage was charged on letters carried out of the kingdom by private vessels[520] until 1832, when permission was given to charge packet rates. It was forbidden to send letters by these ships except through the Post Office unless such letters concerned only the goods on board.[521] In 1835 that part of the act of 1711 forbidding letters to be sent out of the kingdom except in British ships was repealed.[522]

The sailing packets were ordinarily allowed to carry passengers and freight, for which fixed rates were charged. In case of trouble with any foreign power, the masters were generally forbidden to allow their packets to be used as passenger boats.[523] During King William's war, the Harwich-Helvoetsluys packets carried recruits free to the scene of activities.[524] They had also been guilty of bringing dutiable goods into the country and paying no duty on them. This made the customs officials indignant, especially as the Post Office authorities would not allow them to search the packets on their arrival. By an act passed in 1662, no ship, vessel, or boat ordinarily employed for the carriage of letters was allowed to import or export any goods, unless permission had been given by the customs officials, under a penalty of £100 to be paid by the master of the offending packet boat.[525] It had been agreed between Dummer and the Post Office that he should carry no more than five tons of merchandise outward bound nor more than ten tons when homeward bound. The Commissioners of the Customs in 1708 advised the Lord High Treasurer that if he gave licences to the packet boats to carry goods[526] it would be necessary to comply with the law and subject the boats to searchers, rules, and penalties as the merchantmen were. They proposed that the agreement made with Dummer be applied to all the packets. They pointed out that if this were done, all friction between the customs and Post Office might be avoided.[527] In 1732, the difficulty assumed a new form over the question as to the carriage of dutiable goods by mail. Diamonds had recently been discovered in Brazil and they were exported to England via Spain. It had also become customary to send fine laces by post. We, who have become used to intolerant customs' regulations, can hardly appreciate the indignation aroused by the desire of the customs' authorities to search the mails. It was the rule at that time for the Controller of the Foreign Office to lay a tax of 1 per cent upon packages which he thought had lace or diamonds in them. The customs officials seized twenty-one parcels of diamonds in a mail bag, coming from Lisbon in the packet Hanover. The Postmasters-General were very indignant and wrote to the Treasury that they "would not have it left to a customs' house officer to break open the King's mail, which has never been done before."[528] Evidently the customs officials had exceeded their authority and the matter was compromised by the appointment of a sub-controller of the Foreign Post Office to act under the authority of the Customs Commissioners and receive the duties on diamonds and other jewels and precious stones imported in the packet boats.[529] In a report of the Postmasters-General somewhat earlier, we are informed of a payment of £1087 made by them to the Receiver-General of the Customs. This amount covered four fifths of the gross duty on diamonds and laces, which had come by the sailing packets during four years, one fifth having been deducted for postage.[530]

By a section of the act of 1784, letters or packages from abroad suspected of containing dutiable articles were to be taken by the postmaster to a Justice of the Peace. He was to take an oath that he suspected that dutiable goods were contained in the letter or packet. In the presence of the justice he was then to cut a slit two inches long in the parcel to permit examination of the contents. If his suspicions seemed to be confirmed he might slit the cover entirely open and if anything dutiable were found it must be destroyed. The letter was then forwarded to the Commissioner of the Customs in order that proceedings might be taken against those implicated. If nothing was found, the letter was to be sent to the person to whom it was addressed, under the magistrate's cover, with no extra charge for postage.[531]

In one respect, the packet stations in England were conducted on divergent principles. The supplies for the Harwich packets were advanced directly by the Government through the Postmaster-General. When the War of the Austrian Succession broke out, a treasury warrant was issued for the supply of military stores and eight additional men for each of the Harwich boats.[532] At Falmouth, the agent supplied all necessaries. Neither plan was entirely free from objection. When the agent acted as victualler he naturally tried to make as much as possible out of his contract, and there were frequent complaints from the men on the Falmouth boats concerning the quality and quantity of the food. At Harwich, the drawbacks of the other method, under which the Post Office did its own victualling, were quite as marked. No bill for provisions represented what they had actually cost. A percentage was habitually added to the actual cost and this percentage went into the pockets of those by whom the goods had been ordered.[533]

The postal abuses which came to light in 1787 were more flagrant in connection with the packet service than in any other department of the Post Office. The Secretary himself was not only a large owner in the boats, but as agent he received 2½per cent of the gross total expenditure. From 1770 to 1787, this had amounted to £1,038,133, from which he had received over £25,000. Besides this, his salary amounted to £1000 a year and there was an annuity of £100 attached to his office. He had become too old to perform his duties, but instead of being superannuated another person was appointed to assist him.[534]

The Sailors' Pension Fund was grossly mismanaged. Each sailor's monthly contribution had been raised from 10d. to 2s. and then 3s. After twenty years' service, the man who had kept up his payments was entitled to receive £4 or £5 a year. The names of dead people were retained on the list of pensioners, fictitious names were added, and there seems no doubt that the agent retained the money ostensibly paid out in their names.[535] The agent at Falmouth had a salary of £230 a year and £160 in perquisites, £100 of which were paid to the former agent's widow. The late agent had received £430 a year in perquisites in addition to the regular £390 less £40 for a clerk and an assistant postmaster, making £780 in all, certainly a comfortable salary for a packet agent at that time. The £430 was made up by an involuntary contribution of five guineas from each of the captains of the twenty-two packet boats and the wages of one man from each boat. The latter sum was obtained by dismissing the men, whose wages still continued to be paid—to the agent. Smuggling had become by no means uncommon among the Falmouth boats, the carriage of the mails being considered of secondary importance. They often arrived when least expected, or they might not arrive for days at a time, although the wind and weather were favourable.[536]

Fares for passengers were not always collected, but a moderate payment to the captains would ensure a passage as they were allowed to carry their friends free and the payment readily secured the privilege desired. The agents also profited by the sale of passes.[537] There were more boats on the Falmouth station than necessary, and, although they ranged in size from 150 to 300 tons, the same number of men were employed on each. The Secretary of the Post Office, from whose report these facts about the packets are derived, proposed that three or four of the boats should be taken off, thus effecting a saving of £6000 or £8000. In case it should be considered expedient to employ regular packet boats to Quebec and Halifax, N. S., they might be placed on those stations. No deductions were made for the hire of boats when they were unemployed, either when being repaired or when under seizure for smuggling.[538]

The result of these exposures was a series of reforms started in 1793. By 1797 the Post Office was able to report that orders had been issued forbidding any official to own a sailing packet or have a share in any of them. Orders were given to pay the sailors regularly throughout the whole year. The 2½ per cent on all expenditure, formerly paid to the Secretary, was abolished. Finally all salaries were henceforth to be in lieu of every emolument.[539]

In 1793, the expenses for packet boats amounted to £45,666 a year. This was reduced in the following year to £36,940, but from 1795 expenses began to increase, owing to losses during the war and the necessity for placing the boats on a war footing.[540] In time of peace, a Falmouth packet of 179 tons carried twenty-one men, including officers, at a total expenditure for men, interest, insurance, and wear and tear, of £1681.[541] In time of war, she carried twenty-eight men, all of whom were paid higher wages, and other expenses were also higher, bringing the total expenses for each packet to £2112 a year.[542] For a packet of seventy tons the expenses during peace and war were respectively £536 and £862.[543] It is not surprising then that the cost for all the packet boats had risen in 1796 to £77,599. The Falmouth boats were responsible for £60,444 of this, the rest being divided amongst the Dover, Harwich, Donaghadee, Milford, Weymouth, and Holyhead packets and the West India schooners.[544] The salaries paid to the agents in 1796 amounted to £3412. They were stationed at Lisbon, Falmouth, Yarmouth (instead of Harwich and Dover), Weymouth, Jamaica, Halifax, N. S., and Quebec. In Lisbon and the colonial towns, the agents acted also as postmasters.[545]

In 1827, all the packets sailing out of Falmouth were transferred to the Admiralty, in spite of Freeling's protest. The question had been discussed again and again during the war with France but why it was decided upon at this particular time is not clear. At the time of transfer, thirty packets were employed at Falmouth, carrying mails to and from Lisbon, Brazil, Buenos Ayres, the Mediterranean, America, the Leeward Isles, Jamaica, Colombia, and Mexico. In 1828, the number of packets at Falmouth had increased to thirty-eight brigs of war and sailing vessels and in 1833 to forty-one.[546]