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Title: The History of the Post Office - From Its Establishment Down to 1836
Author: Joyce, Herbert
Language: English
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Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter
is superscripted (example: Y^e). If two or more
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THE HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE
From Its Establishment Down to 1836
by
HERBERT JOYCE, C.B.
Of the Post Office
[Illustration: Publisher Logo]
London
Richard Bentley & Son, New Burlington Street
Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen
1893
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Introduction--Master of the Posts--Posts centred in the Sovereign--
Instructions for their Regulation--Travelling Post--Object of the Post
Office Monopoly Page 1
CHAPTER II
The Post through the County of Kent--This Post put under the care of De
Quester--Stanhope of Harrington, as Master of the Posts, asserts his
Rights--Vacillating Decisions of the Privy Council--Sir John Coke--Thomas
Witherings 8
CHAPTER III
Decadence of the Posts--Witherings's Plan--Introduction of Postage--
Concessions to the common Carrier--Post-haste--Witherings appointed
Master of the Inland as well as the Foreign Posts--His Dismissal--Philip
Burlamachi--Dissensions between the Lords and Commons--Edmund
Prideaux appointed Witherings's Successor 15
CHAPTER IV
Prideaux's Activity--Unauthorised Post set up to Scotland--System of
Farming--Prideaux ceases to be Master of the Posts--Secretary Thurloe--
The Posts become the Subject of Parliamentary Enactment--Rates of
Postage--Letters circulate through London--The Travelling Post not a
Source of Revenue--Clement Oxenbridge 24
CHAPTER V
Frequent Change of Farmers--Tediousness of the Course of Post--Existence
of the Posts not a matter of common Knowledge--Dockwra's Penny
Post--Introduction of Postmarks--Penny Post incorporated into the
General Post--Dockwra's Dismissal 33
CHAPTER VI
Posts regarded as Vehicles for the Propagation of Treason--Wildman--
Cotton and Frankland--Post Office Establishment--Revenue--Building in
Lombard Street--Dispersion of Letters--Salaries and Wages--Newspapers--
Drink and Feast Money--Post-horses--Quartering of Soldiers--
Postmasters' Emoluments--Scotland--Ireland--Bye-letters--Illicit
Traffic--Treasury Control--Post Offices grouped together and let out to
farm--Stephen Bigg--Expresses--Flying Packets--State of the Roads--
Progress of the Penny Post--Appointment of Secretary and Solicitor--
Purchase of Premises in Lombard Street 43
CHAPTER VII
State of the Packet Service--Ship Letters--Special Boats built for the
Harwich Station--M. Pajot, Director of the French Posts--Establishment
of West India Packets--Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy--Regulations
for the Management of the Packet Stations--Conditions of Employment--
Smart and Bounty Money--Passes required for Passengers--and for Goods--
Regulations habitually infringed--Smuggling--Packets forbidden to give
Chase--Practice on Capture of a Prize--Packet Stations at Falmouth and
at Harwich conducted on different Principles--Packets employed to carry
Recruits--Letters not to be carried in Foreign Bottoms--Court-Post--
Restoration of Packet Service with Flanders--John Macky, Packet Agent at
Dover--The Postmasters-General act as Purveyors of News to the Court--
Their Interview with Godolphin--Posts set up for the Army in Flanders--
Packet Establishment placed on a Peace Footing--Dummer's Bankruptcy and
Death 72
CHAPTER VIII
American Posts--Thomas Neale--Andrew Hamilton--Ocean Penny Postage--Posts
transferred to the Crown--Become self-supporting 110
CHAPTER IX
Condition of the Post Office in Scotland at the time of the Union--
Inaction of the English Post Office--Charles Povey--William Lowndes--
Diversion of Postage from the Crown to the Public--Postage Rates
increased--Electoral Disabilities--Restrictions on the common Carrier--
Modification of the Penny Post--Post-horses--Franking--Illicit Traffic in
Letters--Treasury Inconsistency--Post Office Farmers converted into
Managers--Treaty with France--Matthew Prior--Single and Double Letters--
Change of Postmasters-General--Disagreements with Merchants--Twopenny
Post--Comparative Statement of Revenue--Gross and Net Revenue confounded
117
CHAPTER X
Allen's Contract--General Review--The Secretary's Dismissal--Earl of
Abercorn's Complaint--Sketch of Allen's Plan--His Qualifications for
carrying it into effect--His local Knowledge--His Difficulties with
Postmasters--Post-boys--Illegal Conveyance of Letters--Contrast between
Allen's Mode of Procedure and that of the Post Office--Posts increased
in Frequency--Opening of Letters--Falmouth Packets--Late Delivery of
Foreign Letters--Erection of Milestones--Letters containing Patterns
and Writs--Apertures to Letter-boxes--Expresses--Highwaymen--Bank Notes--
Decadence--Allen's 146
CHAPTER XI
Penny Post--Franking--Newspapers--Clerks of the Roads--Numbering of
Houses--Scotch and Irish Posts--Receiving Offices--Gratuities on
Delivery--Appeal to the Courts--Appointment of Letter-carriers--Attempt
to curtail the Limits of the Penny Post frustrated--Benjamin Franklin--
Post Office Monopoly in matter of Horses abolished--Disfranchising Act--
Causes of Disquietude 187
CHAPTER XII
Palmer's Plan--Objections--First Mail-coach--Post-coach--Increase in
Rates of Postage--Restrictions upon Franking--Obstruction alleged--
Anthony Todd--Transitional Period--Stages--Earlier Closing of the General
Post Office--Emoluments from Bell Ringing--Internal Dissensions--
Tankerville's Dismissal--Corruption--Surveyors--Conditions of Palmer's
Appointment--Abuses--Fees and Perquisites--Expresses--Registration--
Palmer's Improvements--Packet Service--Smuggling--Flagitious
Expenditure--Todd's Emoluments--Pitt's Indisposition to expose Abuses--
Lord Walsingham--Daniel Braithwaite--Essays in Cause of Economy--Milford
Haven and Waterford Packets--Pitiable Condition of the Clerks
of the Roads--The King's Coach--His Illness and Prayer for his Recovery--
Strange Treatment of Official Papers--George Chalmers--Palmer's
Jealousy--Mail Guards--Creation of a Newspaper Office--Walsingham
attempts to check Irregularities--His inveterate Habit of Scribbling--
Exposes an Attempt at Imposition--Curious Practice as regards the
Delivery of Foreign Letters--Earl of Chesterfield--Insubordination on
Palmer's Part--Appeal to Pitt--Charles Bonnor--Palmer's Suspension--
Chesterfield's Letter--Interview with Pitt--A Second Interview--Palmer's
Dismissal--Bonnor's Promotion 208
CHAPTER XIII
Model of Mail coach--Patent Coaches--Thomas Hasker--His pithy
Instructions--Roof-loading--The King's Interest in his Coach--General
Result of Palmer's Plan--Condition of the country Post Offices--Francis
Freeling--Enlargement of the General Post Office--Communication with
France--Bank Notes cut in half--Letter-carriers put into Uniform--Grant
to Post Office Servants--Development of the Penny Post--Edward
Johnson--Excessive Absence among the Letter-carriers--By the Penny
Post prepayment ceases to be compulsory--The Ten-mile Limit--Origin
of the Twopenny Post--Dead Letter Office--American and West Indian
Correspondence--Correspondence for the India House--Post with the
Channel Islands--Further Restrictions on Franking--Bankers' Franks--
Patterns and Samples--Metropolitan Cart Service--Horse and Cross
Posts--Rates of Postage increased--Mysterious doings of the Packets--
Brilliant Engagements--Post Office Usage--Counsels' Fees--New Years'
Gifts--Todd's Indifference to Censure--His Death 281
CHAPTER XIV
Ship-letter Office--Increase in Rates of Postage--Abolition of the Penny
Post--Invoices and Bills of Lading--Convention Posts--Prosecutions--
Auckland's Pleasantries--Repressive Powers--Guarding the Horse-mails--
Recovery of stolen Mail Bag--Troubles with Contractors--Surveyors
deprived of their Post Offices--Rates of Postage again increased--
Threepenny Post--Post Office Revenue--William Cobbett--Early or
Preferential Delivery--Treatment of Foreign Newspapers--Newspaper
Summaries--The _Times_--Olney Post---Death-blow to Convention Posts--
Turnpike Trusts--Exemption from Toll--Roads discoached--Yet further
Increase in Rates of Postage--Bewildering Complications--Want of
Publicity--Exemption from Toll abolished in Scotland--Returned-letter
Office--New Ship-letter Act--Mail Service to India and the Cape--
Generosity of the East India Company--Eulogistic Letter 328
CHAPTER XV
The Irish Post Office--British Mail Office--Earl of Clancarty--Edward
Smith Lees--Abuses--Express Clerks and Clerks of the Roads--Alphabet--
Provision for Soldiers' Wives--Thomas Whinnery, Postmaster of Belfast--
Charles Bianconi--Holyhead Packets--Opposition Packets started by
Lees--Steam Packets--Competition--Land Communication with Ireland--London
and Holyhead Coach--Sir Arthur Wellesley--State of the
Roads--Road between Holyhead and Shrewsbury--Thomas Telford--John
London Macadam--Road between Shrewsbury and London--Postage
over the Conway and Menai Bridges 366
CHAPTER XVI
Appointment of Second Postmaster-General abolished--Other Economies--
Transfer of the Falmouth Packets to the Admiralty--Speed of
Mail-coaches--Mail-coaches the Disseminators of News--Newspapers--Sir
Henry Parnell--Royal Commission--General Review--Gerrard Street--
Headquarters of the General Post Office removed to St.
Martin's-le-Grand--Branch Offices--Morning Delivery expedited--First
Mail sent by Railway--Duke of Richmond--Incorporation of the Irish
Post Office with the Post Office of Great Britain--Lord Althorp--
Limits of the General Post Delivery--Packet Service put up to public
Competition--Abolition of the Newspaper Privilege--Dissatisfaction
with the Post Office--Money Order Office--Unsatisfactory Returns to
the House of Commons--Indisposition to carry out Reforms--More
unsatisfactory Returns--New Contract for Mail-coaches--Freeling's
Despondency--and Death 396
APPENDIX 429
INDEX 439
ERRATA
[see Transcriber's note at the end of the book.]
Page 324, sixth line from bottom, _for_ 1713 _read_ 1703.
" 339, first line, _for_ 1892 _read_ 1802.
HISTORY OF THE POST OFFICE
CHAPTER I
EARLY POSTS
1533-1609
The early history of the posts is involved in some obscurity. What
little is known on the subject is touched upon in the first Annual
Report of the Post Office, the Report for 1854; but the historical
summary there given is, as it purports to be, a summary only. The object
of the following pages is nothing more than to fill up the gaps and to
supply some particulars for which, though not perhaps without interest,
an official report would be no fitting place. The origin and progress of
an institution which has so interwoven itself with the social life of
the people as to have become one of the most remarkable developments of
modern civilisation can hardly, we think, be considered a subject
unworthy of study.
It seems almost certain that until the reign of Henry the Eighth, or
perhaps a little earlier, no regular system of posts existed in England,
and that then and for some considerable time afterwards the few posts
that were established were for the exclusive use of the Sovereign.
"Sir," writes Sir Brian Tuke to Thomas Cromwell in 1533, "it may like
you to understonde the Kinges Grace hathe no moo ordinary postes, ne of
many days hathe had, but bitwene London and Calais ... and sens October
last, the postes northewarde.... For, Sir, ye knowe well that, except
the hakney horses bitwene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche
usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as is in the accustumed
places of France and other parties." Sir Brian Tuke held the appointment
of Master of the Posts, and he had received the King's commands to set
up posts "in al places most expedient."
Before Henry's reign the only letters of which any record exists,
letters to or from the Court and on affairs of State, were sent by
couriers employed for the particular occasion. These couriers, styled
"Nuncii" and "Cursores," appear to have answered to the Queen's
messengers of our own time, and, as is evident from records still extant
and dating back to the reign of Henry the Third, must have formed an
important branch of the royal establishment.
To establish posts and to control them when established was not all or
nearly all that Brian Tuke had to do. He had also to see, even where no
posts existed, that the royal couriers were not kept waiting for horses;
and this probably was his original function. The horses were provided by
the townships, and the townships were kept up to their duty by the
Master of the Posts. In some cases, indeed, special provision appears to
have been made. At Leicester,[1] for instance, the members of the
Corporation bound themselves under penalty to keep four post-horses in
constant readiness for their Sovereign's use; but this can hardly have
been a common practice. Where horses were not provided voluntarily, the
magistrates and constables had orders to seize them wherever they could
be found.
[1] 9 April, 17 Elizabeth.--Further att the same Common Hall [of the
town of Leicester] it was for dyuers cawses thought good and mete for
the service of the Prince to have at the chargies of the Towne certen
poste horses kepte, whearevppon theare was appoynted foure to be kepte,
which, thees persouns vnderwritten have vndertaken to kepe, and to serve
from tyme to tyme so oft as nede shalle requier, for and dureinge the
space of one wholle yeare nexte after the date hereof, viz. Mr. Roberte
Eyricke, one; Fraunces Norris, chamberlayn, twoe; Thomas Tyars, one. For
the which theyre is allowed vnto them of the towne for euerie horse
thurtie-three shillinges and foure pence, that is to say for foure
horses vili. xiiis. iiiid. Provyded always that if theye the said Robert
Eyricke, Frauncis Norrys, and Thomas Tyars doe not kepe good and able
horses for that purpose and to be readie vppon one half howres warnynge
to forfitt, lose, and paye for euerie tyme to the Chamber of the Towne
of Leycester the somme of fyve shillinges. For the payement of the said
xxli. nobles it is further agreed vppon, in the manner and forme
followinge, That is to saye, the Mayor and euerie of his bretherene
called the xxiiii. to paye iis. a pece, and euerie of the xlviii. xiid.
a pece, and the Resydue that shalbe then lackinge to be levied of the
commonaltie and inhabitantes of the said towne and the liberties
thereof.--Appendix to the Eighth Report of the Royal Commission on
Historical Manuscripts, p. 425.
The close connection between the posts and the Sovereign continued long
after the reign of Henry the Eighth. In 1572 Thomas Randolph, Master of
the posts to Queen Elizabeth, rendered an account of the charges to
which he had been put in the execution of his trust during the preceding
five years; and in this account, which is given in considerable detail,
not a single post is mentioned without some qualification identifying it
with the person of the Sovereign--a post daily serving Her Majesty, a
post for Her Majesty's service and affairs, a post during the time of
Her Majesty's progress, a post for the conveyance of Her Majesty's
letters and those of her Council. As late as 1621 all the posts of the
kingdom, which even then were only four in number, started from the
Court. I. "The Courte to Barwicke," _i.e._ the post to Scotland. II.
"The Courte to Beaumoris," _i.e._ the post to Ireland. III. "The Courte
to Dover," _i.e._ the post to the Continent. IV. "The Courte to
Plymouth," _i.e._ the post to the Royal Dockyard.
The setting up of a post for a particular purpose and letting it drop as
soon as the purpose had been answered was another peculiarity of these
early times. The post to Plymouth, ordained in 1621 to be one of the
standing posts of the kingdom, had been dropped since 1611, having then
been declared to be unnecessary except in time of war. Even the post to
Ireland had at one time been dropped and was not revived until 1598. In
the same year a second post to Ireland, Irish affairs being then
considered to require "oftner dispatches and more expedition," was set
up by way of Bristol, and this in its turn disappeared. Indeed, it would
probably not be too much to say that at the beginning of the seventeenth
century no post set up in England during a war had lasted longer than
the war itself. This practice of dropping a post as soon as it had
served its purpose, a practice which must almost necessarily have
existed from the earliest times, would seem to explain Brian Tuke's
meaning when, after stating that in 1533 except those he mentioned "the
Kinges Grace hathe no moo ordinary postes," he adds, "ne of many days
hathe had."
For the regulation of the posts the earliest instructions of which we
have any record were issued by Queen Elizabeth. Every "post" was to keep
and have constantly ready two horses at least, with suitable
"furniture." He was to have at least two bags of leather well lined with
baize or cotton, and a horn to blow "as oft as he meets company" or four
times in every mile. He was, after receiving a packet, to start within
fifteen minutes, and to run in summer at the rate of seven miles an hour
and in winter at the rate of five. The address of the packet and the day
and the hour at which he received it were to be carefully entered in a
book to be kept for the purpose. But the packets which were thus to be
treated were only such as should be on the Queen's affairs or the
affairs of State. "All others" are dismissed in a word. These, the
instructions state, are "to passe as by-letters." To pass as by-letters
probably means that the letters were to go when and as best they might,
but that the post was not to go for the purpose of taking them. This
view is confirmed by an order of the subsequent reign, that "no pacquets
or letters," except such as were on the King's affairs, should "binde
any poste to ride therewith in post." But be the meaning what it may,
the expression seems to shew that even in the reign of Elizabeth letters
other than State letters had begun to be sent to the post-houses, and
that such letters, if barely recognised, were yet not excluded.
But the conveyance of the Sovereign's letters was not the only purpose
which the posts as originally established were designed to serve.
Another and hardly less important purpose was that there should be
stationed and in constant readiness, at given distances along the chief
roads of the kingdom, a relay of horses by which persons travelling on
their Sovereign's concerns, even though not the bearers of letters,
might pass between one part of the country and another. Of this second
purpose a few words implanted in the English language, such as
post-horse, post-boy, and travelling-post, are all that we have now left
to remind us. But long after the public had been admitted to the free
use of the post, the two objects of providing for letters and providing
for travellers continued to be treated as inseparable. Hence the history
of the posts during the seventeenth century and far into the eighteenth
becomes complicated with the history of travelling.[2]
[2] The two posts were, at first, distinguished by different names. The
travellers' post was called "The thorough poste," and the letter post
was called "The Poste for the Pacquet."
Indeed, there can be little doubt that it was as a means of travelling
and not as a means of correspondence that the post first came to be used
by others than those employed on affairs of State. Writing, during the
sixteenth century, was an accomplishment possessed by comparatively few,
whereas any one might have occasion to travel; and the resources of
travelling, so far as these partook of an organised system, were in the
hands of the Sovereign. Wherever there were posts, it was at the
Sovereign's charge and for the Sovereign's use that horses were
maintained; and where there were no posts, it was only for the use of
the Sovereign that the townships were under obligation to supply horses.
The natural consequence followed. People pretended to be travelling on
their Sovereign's affairs who were really travelling on affairs of their
own, and so procured the use of horses which would otherwise have been
denied them. The horses, moreover, were overridden and overloaded, and
the persons by whom they were hired not rarely forgot to pay for
them.[3]
[3] Austria, in the infancy of her post office, appears to have had much
the same experience. "The postmasters," writes M. Læper, Director of
Posts at Markirch, "were in no way protected from the most outrageous
behaviour on the part of travellers, and were unable to prevent them
from overloading the horses and vehicles with unreasonably heavy things,
chests, boxes, and similar articles, by which the conveyance of the same
was delayed. They could not hinder many travellers from riding
heavily-laden horses at full speed over hill and dale without drawing
rein, so that the animals were crippled, disabled, or even ridden to
death, and in consequence the postmasters were frequently unable to
carry out the service for want of horses. The worst treatment, however,
which the postmasters experienced was at the hands of cavaliers and
couriers, who often demanded more horses than they needed, took them by
force, overloaded the coaches with two or three servants, and with an
immoderate quantity of luggage, and paid an arbitrary sum, just whatever
they pleased, often not half what was due."--L'Union Postale of October
1, 1885.
No sooner had James the First come to the throne than he issued a
proclamation having for its object to check these abuses. Only those
were to be deemed to be travelling on public affairs who held a special
commission signed by one or more of the principal officers of State. No
horse was to be ridden, in summer, above seven miles an hour, and in
winter above six; nor yet, without the knowledge and consent of the
owner, beyond the next stage. The load, besides the rider, was not to
exceed thirty pounds in weight. Persons riding with special commission
were to pay for each horse 2-1/2d. a mile, besides the guide's groats,
and "others riding poste with horse and guide about their private
businesses" were to make their own terms. In all cases payment was to be
made in advance. The proclamation contained another and most important
provision, the effects of which were felt far into the next century.
This was that, wherever posts existed, those who had the horsing of the
posts were also to have the exclusive letting of horses to travellers.
If the post-houses could not supply horses enough, the local constables
with the assistance of the magistrates were to make good the deficiency.
The proclamation of 1603 was soon followed by another, prohibiting all
persons not being duly authorised by the Master of the Posts from being
concerned in the collecting, carrying, or delivering of letters. The
effect, therefore, of the two proclamations together was that, except by
private hand, no letter and, except along the bye-roads where posts did
not exist, no traveller could pass between one part of the kingdom and
another without coming under the observation of the Government. It has
been suggested that the State monopoly of letters had its origin in a
desire on the part of the Sovereign to reserve to himself the revenue
which the letters brought; but in 1609, when the monopoly was created,
the posts were maintained at a clear loss to the crown of £3400 a year,
and this loss, as matters then stood, the erection of every fresh post
would serve to increase. However it may have been in after years, the
original object of the monopoly, the object avowed indeed and
proclaimed, was that the State might possess the means of detecting and
defeating conspiracies against itself. A system such as this object
implies is absolutely abhorrent to our present notions; and yet it is a
fact beyond all question that the posts in their infancy were regarded
and largely employed as an instrument of police. It was not until the
reign of William the Third that they began to assume their present shape
of a mere channel for the transmission of letters.
But we are anticipating. In 1609 the cloud which obscures the earlier
history of the posts begins to break, and from that year it is possible
to present a tolerably connected narrative of their progress.
CHAPTER II
THE BATTLE OF THE PATENTS
1609-1635
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the established posts were
only four in number,--the post to Scotland, the post to Ireland, the
post to Plymouth, and the post to Dover; and of these the most important
by far, because the most used, was the last, the post through the county
of Kent. It was through this county that the high-road to the Continent
lay, and, while commercial relations as between one town and another
within the kingdom were yet a thing of the future, the foreign trade of
the country had already reached very considerable proportions. The
persecutions in France and the Low Countries had driven a large number
of foreigners to London, and here the Flemings introduced the
manufacture of wool into cloth. In this commodity alone the exports from
England to the Netherlands in the time of Philip the Second amounted to
five millions of crowns annually.[4] In education no less than
manufactures the Flemings were far in advance of our own countrymen.
There was scarcely a peasant among them that could not both read and
write. While, therefore, the other three posts of the kingdom were still
being little used except for letters on affairs of State, the post to
the Continent had already become matter of public concern.
[4] An amusing illustration of the value which, at the end of the
sixteenth century, was set upon cloth made in London is afforded by a
letter from Frederick the Second of Denmark to Queen Elizabeth. This
letter, dated the 14th of June 1585, is thus summarised in the 46th
Annual Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, Appendix ii.,
page 28: "Has for some years past had cloth prepared in London of
different colours and after a particular pattern, for his use in hunting
both in summer and winter. Hears now that certain German merchants,
having found this out, have had similar cloth manufactured, which they
sell everywhere, outside his Court and family, to many inquisitive and
foolish imitators, at a very dear rate. It is no concern of his what
anybody may wear, but still, as this cloth was made of a special kind
and colour for himself, he takes it ill that it should be sold to
others, and begs her therefore (on the application of his agent, Thomas
Thenneker) strictly to prohibit the sale."
This post had long been jealously watched, the foreign merchants in
London claiming to send their letters by their own agents, and the Crown
insisting that they should be sent only through the established channel.
It was an old feud, extending far back into the sixteenth century. In
1591 a proclamation on the subject had been issued. This, in respect to
the post through the county of Kent, established that State monopoly of
letters which was not made general until eighteen years afterwards. It
was to the protection of the same post that the proclamation of 1603 had
been directed, the proclamation reserving to those who horsed the posts
the exclusive right of letting horses to travellers. But these measures
had been of little avail. The foreign merchants still employed their own
agents to carry their letters, and these agents, instead of resorting to
the post-houses, still procured horses where and as best they could.
Once more recourse was had to a proclamation, which differed little from
others that had gone before except in one important particular. This was
the open avowal that among the chief cares of the State it had been and
continued to be by no means the least "to meete with the dangerous and
secret intelligences of ill-affected persons, both at home and abroad,
by the overgreat liberty taken both in writing and riding in poste,
specially in and through our countie of Kent." The magistrates were
enjoined to take care that horses were procured at the post-houses
alone. No letters were to be sent except through the post, and notice to
this effect was to be served upon all the merchants of the city of
London, "both strangers and others." Unauthorised persons suspected of
having letters upon them were, before entering or leaving the kingdom,
to be searched. And any packets or letters found to be illicitly
conveyed were to be sent up to the Privy Council, and the bearers of
them to be apprehended and kept in safe custody pending the Council's
orders.
At this time the office of Master of the Posts was held by Lord Stanhope
of Harrington, and under Lord Stanhope, to superintend the foreign post,
was employed a foreigner of the name of De Quester. This man, with the
assistance of his son, appears to have discharged his duties
efficiently. He made communication with the Continent both cheaper and
more expeditious. His promptitude in forwarding the public despatches
had attracted the attention of his Sovereign. In 1619, in recognition of
these services, the King created the control of the foreign post into a
separate appointment, independent of Lord Stanhope, and conferred it
upon De Quester and his son, under the title of "Postmaster of England
for Foreign parts out of the King's Dominions."
It is possible that De Quester's appointment, though ostensibly a reward
for good service, was dictated in part by policy. But if designed to
appease the foreign merchants, it signally failed of its object. The
truth seems to be that they were animated by feelings of profound
distrust. Many years later, when De Quester had retired, the English
merchants, in a petition to the King, protested against the choice of a
successor being left to the "strangers." This, they said, would be to
their own great prejudice. Even the letters patent by which that
successor was appointed give as a reason for not letting the strangers
have a post of their own that thus the secrets of the realm would be
disclosed to foreign nations. Such being the feelings on one side, it
would be strange indeed if they had not also existed on the other.
De Quester's appointment, while displeasing to the foreign merchants,
gave dire offence to Lord Stanhope. The letters patent by which this
peer held his office had expressly declared that not only the internal
posts of the kingdom were to be under his direction, but also those
"beyond the seas within the King's dominions." This expression, repeated
from former patents, applied, no doubt, to Calais. And yet, could it in
reason be contended that his rights were not being infringed if the post
through which all letters between London and the Continent passed were
transferred to other hands? Except for the practice of granting offices
in remainder, Stanhope's death at this time would have settled the
difficulty. As a matter of fact, however, the difficulty had only begun.
By a deed granted thirteen years before, his son and successor in the
title succeeded also to the office of Master of the Posts, and it soon
became evident that the younger Stanhope had no intention, without a
struggle, of letting the grant to himself be whittled away by a
subsequent grant to another. The Council, not composed of laymen alone,
but comprising among its members Coventry, soon to become Lord Keeper,
and Heath, the Solicitor-General, advised the King that "both grants
might well stand together, being of distinct places." Stanhope rejoined
that his was "an ancient office tyme out of minde," and that by
prescription it carried with it the control of letters passing between
England and the Continent as well as others. Again the Council reported
against his claim. In support of it, they said, no patent or proofs had
been adduced before them more ancient than the time of Henry the Eighth.
Stanhope, who remained unconvinced, now proceeded to assert his rights,
or what he conceived to be his rights, with remarkable vigour. He caused
De Quester to be molested in the discharge of his duties; he placarded
the city of London, cautioning all persons against sending letters
except by his own agents; he instituted proceedings in the Court of
King's Bench; and he even stirred up the foreign merchants to make
common cause with himself against the intruder.
The probable explanation of Stanhope's conduct is that De Quester's
appointment touched him in that most sensitive part, the pocket. His
salary as Master of the Posts was £66:13:4 a year, and this he would of
course receive in any case; but on letters to the Continent there were
certain fees to be paid, a fee of 8d. on each letter to or from
Amsterdam, and a like sum between London and Antwerp or London and
Hamburgh, and these, as seems to have been admitted in the suit at law,
were the motive cause.
In vain the King proclaimed against Stanhope's proceedings. The Privy
Council met to consider the question as between him and De Quester, and
separated without coming to a conclusion. Four more meetings were held,
and with an equally unsatisfactory result. Clearly there was a conflict
of opinion at the Council Board. Meanwhile the decisions as regards the
merchants were marked by extraordinary vacillation. First, the Merchant
Adventurers were "to have a post of their owne choice" to the city of
Hamburgh and town of Delph, "where the staples of cloth are now fetched
or to such other place or places whither the same shall happen to be
removed"; then they were summoned before the Council to shew cause why
they also should not send their letters by De Quester; then the
concession was not only confirmed in the case of the Merchant
Adventurers, but extended to all other "Companies of Merchants"; and
then in the case of these other companies the concession was withdrawn,
but only, in the course of a few weeks, to be restored. Only few
restrictions were imposed. No one carrying the merchants' letters was to
"keepe any publick office," to "hange up any Tables," or to "weare any
Badge"; nor was he to be employed until his name had been submitted to
the Secretary of State for approval. It was also provided that in times
of war or danger the Secretary of State, if he required it, was to be
"made acquainted" with the letters and despatches which the messenger
carried.
The final decision of the Council, which left the merchants in
possession of a post of their own, practically superseded De Quester's
appointment, and this drew forth an indignant protest from Sir John
Coke. The two Secretaries of State, of whom Coke was one, had been
specially charged with the protection of De Quester's office, and the
decision had been arrived at in their absence. Meanwhile a broker, of
the name of Billingsley, was carrying the merchants' letters, and the
same man was being employed by Stanhope. Coke's indignation knew no
bounds. "I confess," he said, "it troubleth me to see the audacity of
men in these times, and that Billingsley, a broker by trade, should dare
to attempt thus often to question the King's service, and to derive that
power of foreign letters unto merchants which in all states is a branch
of regal authority." Can any place in Christendom be named where
merchants are allowed to send their letters except through the
authorised post? It is true that, as an act of grace, the Merchant
Adventurers here have been suffered to send and receive their letters by
private hand; but such letters have been only to and from their own mart
towns and concerning their private business. That this man of theirs
should be suffered to carry any letters he please--letters from
merchants in general, and even from ambassadors, is a thing that has
never been heard of nor durst any attempt it before. "Indeed the
merchants' purse hath swayed very much in other matters in former times,
but I never heard that it encroached upon the King's prerogative until
now." A pretty account will those who are charged with the peace of the
realm be able to give in their places "of that which passeth by letters
in or out of the land if every man may convey letters, under the covers
of merchants', to whom and what place he pleaseth." Coke went so far as
to suggest that advantage had been taken of a small attendance at the
Council Table to extort the concession from the King upon wrong or
imperfect information. Surely His Majesty cannot have been informed "how
unfit a time this is to give liberty to every man to write and send what
he list."
Nor did Coke's indignation confine itself to words, for it is impossible
not to conclude that he was at the bottom of the high-handed proceeding
that followed. Stanhope had gained his suit at law; yet the Council,
far from revoking De Quester's patent, granted him an order consigning
Billingsley to prison. It was not until he had been there for three
months that Parliament, which had recently passed a vote against
arbitrary imprisonments, petitioned the King for his release.
Of the final issue of the contest nothing is known. But it seems
probable that the foreign merchants were not deterred by the treatment
which Billingsley had received from keeping up a post of their own.
Other and more serious matters were beginning to occupy the attention of
the Court, and it may well be believed that irregularities which had
been challenged before might now be allowed to pass unnoticed. Be that
as it may, in 1632 De Quester, who had lost his son, and had become old
and infirm, associated with himself in the execution of his office two
men named Frizell and Witherings, and to these persons he shortly
afterwards assigned his patent. Frizell appears to have been little more
than a sleeping partner; but Witherings soon established a high
character for ability and powers of organisation. The foreign post had
not been under his charge for more than three years before the King
commissioned him to examine also into the inland posts, and to put them
on another and better footing.
CHAPTER III
THOMAS WITHERINGS
1635--1644
Armed with the King's commission, Witherings lost no time in applying
himself to his task. And, indeed, the state of things which he found
existing afforded ample scope for his energies. Except to Plymouth and
through the county of Kent, posts existed rather in name than in
reality. Nominally there was a post to Scotland, and this post James had
busied himself in improving, in anticipation of his progress to London;
but since then it had languished and died, or nearly died, of inanition.
Between the kingdoms of England and Scotland there had, up to the date
of Witherings's commission, as expressed in the commission itself, been
no certain or constant intercourse. The only remaining post, the post to
Ireland, was in an equally forlorn condition.
This decadence can only be attributed to two causes, the paucity of
travellers and the necessities of the King. Had travellers been
numerous, the posts would have been kept up for the sake of the profit
to be derived from the letting of horses. In the absence of travellers,
the keepers of the post-houses were dependent upon their established
wages, and these had long remained unpaid. As far back as 1628 a
petition on the subject had been presented to the Council. The "99 poore
men," as the petitioners styled themselves, had received no wages for
nearly seven years; the arrears then due to them amounted to £22,626;
some of them were already in prison, and many more were threatened with
arrest. In 1635, as a consequence, doubtless, of their necessitous
condition, they had ceased to keep horses, and letters were being
carried on foot. In this manner a distance of only sixteen to eighteen
miles was accomplished in a day, and to obtain from Scotland or from
Ireland a reply to a letter written in London took "full two monthes."
Witherings was not long in producing his plan. Within the city of London
was to be appointed an office or counting-house for the receipt and
despatch of letters, and thence were to be established trunk lines of
post to the principal towns of the kingdom, with corresponding branch
posts, either foot posts or horse posts, according to distance, to the
smaller towns. The branch posts were to be so fitted to the main posts
that there was to be no waiting on the part of either; and these latter
were to start and return at stated times, and to run night and day so as
to cover 120 miles in twenty-four hours. From London to Edinburgh the
course of post which had been full two months was to be only six days;
and to Holyhead or Plymouth and back the distance was to be accomplished
in the same time. Even Witherings himself appears to have been carried
away by the brilliancy of the prospect. "Anie fight at sea," he says,
"anie distress of His Majestie's ships (which God forbid), anie wrong
offered by anie other nation to anie of ye coastes of England or anie of
His Majestie's forts ... the newes will come sooner than thought."
An example has been left us of the process to be followed. The letters
for Scotland were to be put into a "portmantle" directed to Edinburgh,
into which were also to be put small bags containing letters for towns
on the same line of road. At Cambridge, for instance, as soon as the
Portmantle arrived, the bag for that town was to be taken out, and a
foot-post, "with a known badge of His Majestie's arms," was upon the
market days to go to all towns within six, eight or ten miles, and there
deliver the letters, at the same time receiving any that might be handed
to him. These he was to bring back to Cambridge in time for the
return-post from Scotland. The return was to be on a particular day,
and at a particular hour, and the letters were to be ready without fail,
"upon the verie instant comeing back of the portmantle." The same
process was to be adopted at Huntingdon and all other towns on the road.
It was an essential part of Witherings's plan that the posts should be
not only regular and certain but also self-supporting. During the
earlier part of the century they had been maintained at a cost to the
Crown of £3400 a year, and this was a burden which the Crown was no
longer in a position to bear. That they should be made to pay their own
way was, therefore, an indispensable condition. But how was this to be
accomplished? Witherings's sagacity left him at no loss for a reply. He
discerned that to carry a letter is to perform a service for which a
payment may fairly be demanded in return; and that the demand would meet
with a ready response must have been plain to him from what he saw going
on in the west of England. In 1633, or two years before he produced his
plan, the Mayor and Aldermen of Barnstaple had set up a post between
their town and Exeter. This post was to leave Barnstaple every Tuesday
at 7 o'clock in the morning, and to be in Exeter early on the following
day, in time to catch the King's post on its way from Plymouth to
London. The King's post was maintained at the expense of the King; but
for the local service, as a means of defraying the cost, the Corporation
imposed a small charge, a charge of 6d. for a single letter and of 8d.
for a double one. Other towns in Devonshire had adopted a similar
course. That Witherings was aware of the existence of these posts is
evident from the special allusion that is made to them in the
Proclamation which he prevailed upon the King to issue;[5] and it was
their success, probably, which suggested his own undertaking. Concluding
that what private enterprise was effecting on a small scale the State
would be able to effect on a large one, he proposed--and the proposal
received the royal sanction--that for every letter sent by post a "port"
or charge for carriage should be levied after the following rates:--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| |Single Letter.|Double letter.|"If bigger."|
+------------------------------+--------------+--------------+------------+
|Under 80 miles | 2d. | 4d. | 6d. an oz. |
|80 miles and not exceeding 140| 4d. | 8d. | 9d. " |
|Above 140 miles | 6d. | 12d. | 12d. " |
|To or from Scotland | 8d. | ? | ? |
|To or from Ireland | 9d. | After two ounces, 6d. the |
| | | ounce. |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
[5] The Proclamation enjoined that on letters "to Plymouth, Exeter, and
with the two other places in that road," Witherings should "take the
like port that now is paid, as near as possibly he can."
This was the introduction of postage. The object of the exceptional rate
in the case of Ireland was to avoid interference with a Proclamation
which had been recently issued by the Lord Deputy and Council there.
Henceforth the posts were to be equally open to all; all would be at
liberty to use them; all would be welcome. Important as this provision
was, it followed as a natural consequence from the imposition of
postage. The carriage of the subjects' letters was now to be a matter of
purchase, and, unless the purchasers were sufficiently numerous, the
posts would not be self-supporting. The custom of the public, therefore,
was a necessity of their very existence.
In other respects the regulations remained much as they had been, except
that now there would be the means of enforcing them. Every postmaster
was to have ready in his stable one or two horses, according as
Witherings might direct, the charge to be for one horse 2-1/2d. a mile
and for two horses 5d. This 5d., however, was to include the cost of a
guide who was always to accompany the horses when two were taken. On the
day the post was expected, the horses were not to be let out on any
pretext whatever, this being the first indication on record of letters
enjoying precedence over travellers. And finally, with certain specified
exceptions, no letters were to be carried or delivered in any part where
posts should be established except by such persons as Witherings might
appoint. The letters excepted were those sent by a friend, by a
particular messenger employed for the particular occasion, and by
common known carrier. On the common carrier, however, restrictions were
imposed. He was to confine himself to his ordinary known journey, and
was not, for the sake of collecting or delivering letters, to lag behind
or outstrip his cart or horse by more than eight hours.
The reason for this last exception is not far to seek. The established
posts were few in number, and even where they existed in name they had
fallen into disuse. The common carriers had thus become the chief
carriers of letters, and Witherings, in the furtherance of his project,
was anxious to disarm their opposition. This he had already attempted to
effect by argument; and now, as a practical step in the same direction,
he procured their exemption from the State monopoly. But what may have
appeared and was probably intended to appear as a valuable concession
was really no concession at all. The carrier took eight days to go 120
miles. By the posts the same distance was to be accomplished in a day
and a night. The carrier's charge for a letter from Cambridge to London,
a distance of about sixty miles, was 2d. A postage of 2d., according to
Witherings's plan, was to a carry a letter for eighty miles. If the
posts were to be both faster and cheaper than the common known carrier,
it might safely be predicted that as a carrier of letters he could not
long survive.
In October 1635 Witherings, having completed the necessary arrangements,
proceeded to carry his plan into effect. The results he anticipated from
it, as shewn in a memorandum which he delivered to the Secretary of
State, were promotion of trade and intercourse and the cultivation of
better relations with Scotland and Ireland. That the posts might one day
be more than self-supporting, that they would become a source of
revenue, does not appear to have entered into his calculations; or, if
it did, his silence on the point would seem to shew that, as compared
with the other advantages, he deemed it too insignificant to mention.
It was probably about this time that the practice of writing "Haste,
post, haste" on the outside of letters began to be discontinued. The
term "post," as here used, meant nothing more than the carrier or bearer
of the letter; and an injunction to make the best speed he could,
properly as it might be given to a messenger who had a particular letter
to carry, would be altogether out of place if addressed to a general
letter-carrier who was bound by his instructions not to exceed a given
distance within a given time. "For thy life, for thy life" had sometimes
been added, as in the case of Protector Somerset's letter to Lord Dacre.
"To our very good Lord, the Lord Dacre, Warden of the West Marches, in
haste; haste, post, haste, for thy life, for thy life, for thy life";[6]
and it seems probable, if the barbarity of the punishments in those days
is considered, that this was no empty threat. It was "on payn of lyfe"
that, according to Sir Brian Tuke, all townships were to have horses
ready for their Sovereign's service. Among the Ashburnham manuscripts is
a letter from Sir Edward Nicholas to Sir John Hippisley, Lieutenant of
Dover Castle, written in 1627 or eight years before the introduction of
postage. This letter is endorsed by George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
and the cover is inscribed "for His Majesty's special affairs; hast,
hast, hast, post, hast, hast, hast, hast, with all possible speede." The
absence of any threat in this instance may of course have been due to
the individual character of the writer, but it is more agreeable to
think of it as a sign of the advance of civilisation.
[6] _Her Majesty's Mails_, by William Lewins, p. 19.
In 1637, Lord Stanhope having surrendered his patent, Witherings was
appointed in his room, and thus became centred in one person the offices
of postmaster for inland and for foreign letters. In the same year a
letter office, the erection of which had formed an important part of
Witherings's plan, was opened in the city of London, and nothing
remained to hinder him from carrying his project into full effect. But,
fair as everything promised, hardly three years had elapsed before
Witherings met with the fate which has overtaken so many of his
distinguished successors. In 1640, on a charge of divers abuses and
misdemeanours in the execution of his office, this eminent man was
deprived of his appointment. Whether the charge was well or ill founded
we have no means of judging. Only the fact has come down to us that
after this miserable fashion ended the career of one who had the
sagacity to project and the energy to carry out a system, the main
features of which endure to the present day.
Among those who had lent money to the King was Philip Burlamachi, a
naturalised British subject, and one of the principal merchants of the
city of London. He had advanced, on the security of the sugar duties, no
less than £52,000, an immense sum in those days; and it was probably
this fact rather than any special qualification on his part that pointed
him out as Witherings's successor. Be that as it may, into Burlamachi's
hands the office of Master of the Posts was sequestered, subject to the
condition that he was to discharge the duties under the control of the
Secretary of State. The sequestration was announced to the public by
means of placards fixed up on the old Exchange, and Witherings lost no
time in fixing up counter-placards by way of protest.
And now began an unseemly contention which, arising ostensibly out of
the rights of individuals, went far to bring the two Houses of
Parliament into collision. In 1642, after struggling for the best part
of two years to maintain his position, Witherings assigned his patent to
the Earl of Warwick, and, under the influence of this peer, both Houses
declared the sequestration to be illegal and void. Meanwhile Burlamachi
had fallen into the power of one in whose hands he was the merest
puppet. This was Edmund Prideaux, afterwards one of the Commissioners of
the Great Seal and Attorney-General under the Commonwealth. At his
instigation Burlamachi still kept possession of the letter office. In
vain the Lords ordered him to give it up to Lord Warwick, and summoned
him before them to explain his contumacy. It was true, he replied, that
the office was still kept at his house, but this house and his servants
had been hired by Mr. Prideaux, and it was he that disposed of the
letters.
Incensed at such contempt of their orders, the Lords authorised Warwick
to seize the mails. After one or two half-hearted attempts to carry this
authority into effect, arrangements were made for a more strenuous
effort. On the 19th of December two of Warwick's agents lay in wait at
Barnet and there surprised the mail as it came from Chester. Seizing the
letters and the man that carried them, they made the best of their way
towards London, but had not proceeded further than the foot of the hill
beyond Highgate when they were themselves surprised by five troopers "on
great horses with pistols," who barred the road, and, in the name of the
House of Commons, captured the captors.
Meanwhile a still more exciting scene was enacting before Warwick's
office near the Royal Exchange. There two of his men kept watch for the
mail from Plymouth, and, as it passed on its way to Burlamachi's house
hard by, they dashed into the street and seized the letters. Their
success was but for the moment. Before they could regain the office,
Prideaux had swooped down upon them at the head of some half-dozen
adherents, and with his own hands had torn the letters away. "An order
of the House of Commons," cried one of the bystanders, "ought to be
obeyed before an order of the House of Lords."
On these occurrences being reported to the Lords, Burlamachi and all
others who had been concerned in them, Prideaux alone excepted, were
ordered to prison. Among these was the man who had been captured at
Barnet and afterwards rescued, one Hickes by name; and this fellow
proved to be Prideaux's own servant. On the part of that wily politician
one looks in vain for any effort to procure Burlamachi's release, or
even for the slightest indication of concern that he had been arrested;
but the arrest of his own servant, the servant of a member of the House
of Commons, excited his keenest resentment. This, in Prideaux's view,
was a clear breach of privilege, and the House was pleased to agree
with him. No sooner, therefore, had Hickes been imprisoned by the Lords
than he was released by the Commons, and no sooner had he been released
by the Commons than the Lords ordered him to be imprisoned again.
Matters having come to this pass, the two Houses held a conference. The
result might easily have been foreseen. The Lords yielded to the
Commons, and Burlamachi, on rendering an account which had long been
called for, was released from custody together with the others who had
been imprisoned at the same time. Concerning the next two years little
is known; but it seems probable that Burlamachi, who in his petition
praying for release had pleaded old age and infirmities, did not long
survive the indignity to which he had been exposed. At all events, in
1644, either by death or resignation, the office of Master of the Posts
had become vacant, and, as Burlamachi's successor, the House of Commons
appointed Prideaux.
Thus ended the battle of the patents, which had raged more or less
fiercely for more than twenty years. It was long indeed before Lords
Warwick and Stanhope ceased urging their claims, Warwick as Witherings's
assignee, and Stanhope on the allegation that at the Council Table the
Lord Keeper Coventry had cajoled him into surrendering his patent; but
after Prideaux's appointment there was no farther appeal to force.
CHAPTER IV
EDMUND PRIDEAUX AND CLEMENT OXENBRIDGE
1644--1660
Hardly had Prideaux assumed the direction of the letter office before he
gave public notice that there would be a weekly conveyance of letters
into all parts of the kingdom. There is reason to doubt, however,
whether under his rule as much or nearly as much as this was
accomplished. Next to Norwich, Yarmouth was then, as it is now, the
chief town in the eastern counties; and yet it is certain that a post to
Yarmouth was not established until after Prideaux's rule had ceased; and
more than fifty years later we find his successors lamenting that, while
Lincolnshire generally was ill provided with posts, there were several
towns in that county which had no post at all.
But to whatever extent Prideaux's professions exceeded his performance,
it is beyond question that he spared no effort to extend the posts, and
that he is justly entitled to the credit, not indeed of improving upon
Witherings's scheme, but of carrying that scheme into more general
effect. Despite his exertions, however, he failed to keep pace with the
wants of the time. Indeed, what facilities for intercourse had been
given already seem to have created a demand for more. In 1649 the Common
Council of the city of London, not content with a post only once a week
to Scotland, established a post of their own. Along the whole line of
road between London and Edinburgh they appointed their own postmasters
and settled their own postage, and the same plan they proceeded to
adopt in other parts. Prideaux, who to his office of Master of the Posts
had recently added that of Attorney-General, was highly incensed. Only a
few years before, the State monopoly of letters, when the State was
represented by the Crown, had been the object of his fiercest
denunciation, and now this same monopoly was a cherished possession to
be defended at all hazards. First he remonstrated. Then he threatened.
And neither threats nor remonstrances having any effect upon the city
authorities, he reported their proceedings to the Council of State, and
the Council of State reported them to Parliament. Parliament was in no
mood for concession. The city posts were promptly suppressed, and more
than thirty years elapsed before private enterprise again embarked upon
a similar venture.
The report which Prideaux made to the Council of State had another
result, which probably he little contemplated. In that report he had
taken credit to himself that, although the charges of management had
risen to £7000 a year, or about twice the amount they had been in
Witherings's time, he had relieved the State from the whole of this
burden. In other words, the posts had become self-supporting, but, so
far as appeared from the report, were nothing more. The House of Commons
was not satisfied. Accordingly the Council was instructed to examine and
report whether the terms on which the letter office was held were the
best that could be obtained. The investigation was soon made.
Heretofore, in consideration of his defraying the charges, Prideaux had
been allowed to receive the postage and make what he could out of it.
For the future, besides defraying the charges, he was to pay to the
State a fixed rent of £5000 a year. This was the introduction of the
system of farming, a system which, as regards the posts generally,
continued to nearly the end of the seventeenth and, as regards the
by-posts, beyond the middle of the eighteenth century.
In 1653 Prideaux ceased to be Master of the Posts. Two years before he
had been elected a member of the Council of State, and shortly after his
election, and probably as a consequence of it, the arrangements for
communicating with the army had reached a high state of perfection.
Between the Council and the forces in Scotland messengers, we are told,
were passing almost every hour. But, useful as he may have made himself,
Prideaux seems to have been altogether wanting in those qualities which
are calculated to inspire confidence. At the Treaty of Uxbridge, where
he was one of the commissioners, even his own colleagues had regarded
him as a spy. This feeling of distrust may possibly explain how it
happened that, after the expulsion of the Long Parliament, he was forced
to content himself with his appointment as Attorney-General. The Council
of State, as then reconstructed, did not include him among its members,
and one of the first acts of the new Council was to relieve him from the
responsibilities of the letter office. Grasping as he was, it is
impossible to suppose that this can have been done by his own wish, for
the appointment of Master of the Posts, though weighted with a rent of
£5000 a year, was still a very lucrative one. His successor paid a rent
of double that amount, and is reputed to have derived from his farm an
enormous profit.
After Prideaux's death in August 1659, it transpired that his interest
in the letter office had not ceased when he ceased to administer it.
What was the interest he retained we do not know; but the matter seems
to have been considered sufficiently serious to call for parliamentary
inquiry. In the following February the House of Commons ordered "that
the whole business concerning the Post Office, and what has been
received by Mr. Prideaux, late Attorney-General, out of the same, and
what account hath been made thereof he referred to a committee to
examine, and to state matter of fact and report it to the Parliament and
their opinion therein." To this order, however, no return appears to
have been made. It is probable that at the Restoration the committee had
not concluded its labours.
Oldmixon speaks of Prideaux as "a very fierce republican, who got a
great estate by his zeal against the Church and Churchmen"; and it is
certain that to that estate his zeal for the Post Office brought him no
inconsiderable addition. Of the destination of a part of his wealth we
are not left uninformed. Towards the close of the century a judge,
before whose ferocity even Prideaux's pales, set out on a circuit, the
infamy of which will endure to the end of time. Arrived in
Somersetshire, he found residing at Ford Abbey, in the neighbourhood of
Axminster, an inoffensive country squire, son of the former Master of
the Posts, and named after him, Edmund Prideaux. From this gentleman,
apparently because he was his father's son, and for no better reason,
Jeffreys under threat of the gallows extorted £15,000, and he bought
with the money an estate "to which," Lord Macaulay tells us, "the people
gave the name of Aceldama, from that accursed field which was purchased
with the price of innocent blood."
In 1653 the posts were farmed to Captain Manley at a rent of £10,000 a
year; and in 1655, Manley's contract having expired, Cromwell on the
advice of his Council placed them in the hands of Mr. Secretary Thurloe,
on his giving security to the same amount. The change of management was
followed two years later by an important step in advance. This was the
passing of an Act of Parliament intituled an Act for settling the
postage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Legislative sanction was now
given to what had hitherto rested on no better authority than
Proclamation or Order in Council. A general office, to be called the
Post Office of England, was to be established for the receipt and
despatch of letters; and under the title of Postmaster-General and
Comptroller of the Post Office an officer was to be appointed who was to
have the exclusive right of carrying letters and of furnishing
post-horses. At the Restoration the Act of 1657, the "pretended" Act as
it was now called, could not of course be recognised as possessing any
legal validity, and so it was replaced by another; but the later Act was
little more than a re-enactment of the earlier one. Virtually, it is to
the Act of 1657 that the General Post Office owes its origin, although
the Act of 1660, as being unimpeachable, has been commonly called its
charter.
Similar as the two Acts are in the main, there is one important
difference between them. The Act of 1657 gives as a reason for making
the posts the subject of parliamentary enactment that they are and have
been "the best means of discovering and preventing many dangerous and
wicked designs which have been and are daily contrived against the peace
and welfare of this Commonwealth, the intelligence whereof cannot well
be communicated but by letter of escript." To the odious practice here
implied no countenance is given in the Act of 1660. But, indeed, it
needed not this evidence to prove that during the Commonwealth the Post
Office was largely used as an instrument of police. Thurloe's
"intercepted" letters are matter of history; and the journals of the two
Houses of Parliament shew that the foreign mails, both inward and
outward, were stopped for whole weeks together, and committees appointed
to open and read the letters. On one occasion the Venetian ambassador,
whose letters had shared the same fate as the rest, entered an indignant
protest. "He could not persuade himself," he said, "that the Government
of England, so noble and generous, should have so inferior a mind as to
open the letters of an ambassador, and by this means to violate the
laws, and to give an example to the world so damnable, and of so little
respect towards the minister of the Serenissima Respublica." Nor was his
indignation appeased until four peers had waited upon him in the name of
the House of Lords, and tendered an ample apology.
The rates of postage prescribed by the Act of 1657 were only slightly
varied by the Act of 1660. As finally adjusted, they were as follows:--
+--------------------------------+--------------+--------------+----------+
| | On | On | |
| |Single Letter.|Double Letter.|Per Ounce.|
+--------------------------------+--------------+--------------+----------+
|80 miles and under | 2d. | 4d. | 8d. |
|Above 80 miles | 3d. | 6d. | 12d. |
|To or from Berwick | 3d. | 6d. | 18d. |
| From Berwick within Scotland--| | | |
| 40 miles and under | 2d. | 4d. | 8d. |
| Above 40 miles | 4d. | 8d. | 12d. |
|To or from Dublin | 6d. | 12d. | 24d. |
| From Dublin within Ireland-- | | | |
| 40 miles and under | 2d. | 4d. | 8d. |
| Above 40 miles | 4d. | 8d. | 12d. |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
How these rates compare with those which had gone before we have no
means of judging. We only know that during Prideaux's management the
postage on a single letter was 6d.; that at some time between 1655 and
1657 it was reduced to 3d.; and that the credit of this reduction was
due to Clement Oxenbridge. Oxenbridge, after acting as deputy first to
Prideaux and then to Manley, appears to have taken a farm under Thurloe;
and, rightly or wrongly, he affirmed that, as soon as he had improved
the posts at a cost to himself of more than £5000, and had made his farm
profitable, he was turned adrift by Cromwell.
If the comparison be carried forward instead of backward, and the rates
of 1660 be contrasted with those of later years, there is an important
consideration which cannot be too carefully borne in mind. It is this,
that in 1660 cross posts did not exist. Between two towns not being on
the same post road, however near the towns might be, letters could
circulate only through London; and the moment London was reached an
additional rate was imposed. Hence the apparent charges, the charges as
deduced from the table of rates, might be very different from the actual
charges. Bristol and Exeter, for instance, are less than eighty miles
apart; but in 1660 and for nearly forty years afterwards letters from
one to the other passed through London, and would be charged, if single,
not 2d. but 6d., and if double, not 4d. but 1s. That is to say, the
postage[7] or portage, as it was then called, would consist of two
rates, and each of these rates would be for a distance in excess of
eighty miles. David Hume, writing more than a hundred years later,
observes that before 1657 letters paid only about half as much postage
as they did in his own time. This, no doubt, is true if rate be compared
with rate according to the distance; but the fact we have mentioned very
materially qualifies the force of the remark.
[7] The term "postage," in the sense of a charge upon a letter, is
comparatively modern. The Act of 1764 is the first so to use it. The
term is indeed used in the Act of 1660, but there it signifies the hire
of a horse for travelling. "Each horse's hire or postage."
On foreign letters the rates ranged from 4d., the lowest rate for a
single letter, to 2s., the highest rate for a double letter, and from
1s. 6d. to 4s. an ounce for letters of greater bulk. No provision was
made for any charge except on letters from Europe. Letters came indeed
from other parts; but as the Post Office did not bring them and paid
nothing for their carriage, no postage was demanded. From India, for
instance, a letter brought to England and posted there would pay only
the home postage.
For post-horses the charge was fixed at 3d. a mile for each horse,
besides 4d. to the guide of every stage. Two concessions were made to
the public. Horses were no longer to be seized without the consent of
the owners; and a traveller if kept waiting half an hour without being
supplied might hire a horse wherever he could. That the seizure of
horses had been a source of intense annoyance seems beyond question. In
a Proclamation of 1603, as a reason for helping the postmasters to keep
horses in sufficient number for the service of the posts, the townships
are reminded of "the ease and quiet they reape thereby"; and long after
the immunity from seizure had been granted, the allusions to the former
practice leave no room for doubt that, though the sore was healed, the
recollection of it still rankled.
According to Lord Macaulay, a part of the Post Office revenue was
derived from post-horses.[8] With all deference to that eminent
authority, and with all modesty we venture to think that such was not
the case. The Proclamation of 1603, which was the origin of the
monopoly, while giving to those who horsed the posts "the benefit and
preheminence of letting horses" to all comers, expressly provided that,
except for the service of the posts or for the use of persons travelling
on affairs of State, no postmaster need keep horses unless he pleased,
and that, if he did so, he should be at liberty to make his own terms.
On this last point the words are, "But of all others riding Poste with
horne and guide about their private businesses, the hire and prices are
left to the parties discretions to agree and compound within
themselves." Again, an account is still extant, dated 1623, or twenty
years after the monopoly had been established, and giving in minute
detail the particulars of the expenses of the posts as they then were;
records also exist extending in almost unbroken succession over more
than eighty years of the period during which the monopoly lasted, and
dealing with every variety of Post Office question; and neither in the
records nor the account is there the remotest allusion to the receipt of
any sums on account of post-horses. Yet one reason more for the opinion
we hold. About the middle of the eighteenth century, as the result of
legislation which then took place, the roads were measured, and the
measured mile proved to be shorter than the computed mile. As a
consequence of this discovery the charge for post-horses was raised. A
distance which had hitherto been reckoned as eight miles proved to be
ten miles, and a charge as for ten instead of eight miles was made.
Travellers were up in arms, and complained that the Post Office had
raised its charges. The answer was that the Post Office had nothing to
do with the matter; that the postmasters were entitled by law to so much
a mile; and that the whole of the charge went into their own pockets.
For these reasons we think that no part of the Post Office revenue was
derived from the letting of post-horses. Indirectly, no doubt, the
monopoly was a source of profit because, except for it, those who horsed
the posts would not have been content with the wages they received.
These, according to the account of 1623, ranged from 3s. a day to 6d. a
day. To supplement the postmasters' pay without expense to the Crown
was, we make bold to suggest, the object with which the monopoly was
granted. And, of course, the better the object was secured, the more
carefully would the monopoly be guarded.
[8] Lord Macaulay's words are:--"The revenue of this establishment was
not derived solely from the charge for the transmission of letters. The
Post Office alone was entitled to furnish post-horses; and, from the
care with which this monopoly was guarded, we may infer that it was
found profitable."
In May 1660 Clement Oxenbridge, to whose exertions the Act of 1657 would
seem to have been largely due, petitioned the Council of State to
reimburse him the expenses to which he had been put in improving the
posts, and the Council of State, after investigating the claim, reported
the particulars to the House of Commons for directions. It was not,
however, until after William and Mary had ascended the throne that any
further step was taken. Oxenbridge, whose necessities had become greater
as his age advanced, was then by the King's direction given an
appointment under the Post Office of the annual value of £100; and this
salary he continued to draw, although too old to discharge the duties
for which it was paid, until his death in 1696.
CHAPTER V
WILLIAM DOCKWRA
1660-1685
At the Restoration the Post Office was leased to Henry Bishopp of
Henfield in Sussex, for the term of seven years at a rent of £21,500 a
year, or more than double the amount which had been paid by the previous
farmer. Before three years had elapsed, however, Bishopp surrendered his
lease, and was succeeded for the remainder of his term and at the same
rent by Daniel O'Neile, Groom of the King's Bedchamber. O'Neile had
loyally adhered to Charles during his exile, had attended his Sovereign
on his visit to Scotland, had been banished that kingdom, and in
connection with his banishment had achieved a singular distinction. He
had given a written undertaking consenting to his own death if he ever
returned.
Even at a rent of £21,500, as the Court had doubtless by this time
learned, the Post Office was not a bad investment. O'Neile, like
Bishopp, was to enjoy a monopoly of the carrying of letters, and to make
what he could out of it; but he was rigidly to adhere to the rates of
postage prescribed by the Act, charging neither more nor less. Old posts
were not to be altered nor new posts erected, without the sanction of
the Secretary of State; and the Secretary of State was to possess a veto
on appointments and, as occasion might require, to "have the survey and
inspection of all letters." To these conditions was afterwards added
another. This was that no postmaster or other officer was to remain in
the service who should not within six months obtain and forward to the
postmaster-general a certificate, under the hand and seal of the Bishop
of the diocese, to the effect that he was "conformable to the discipline
of the Church of England."
In 1667, O'Neile's lease having expired, Lord Arlington, Secretary of
State in the Cabinet known as the Cabal, was appointed postmaster-general;
and, after a while, the office was again let out to farm, this time at a
rent of £43,000 a year. Rapidly as the rent had grown, the public
demands had grown more rapidly still, and little, if any, effort had
been made to satisfy them. How inadequate the posts were, about this
time, to meet the public requirements may be judged from a circumstance
connected with Bishopp's appointment. The letters patent appointing him
were to take effect from the 25th of June 1660, but their validity was to
depend on an Act of Parliament, the Act reconstituting the General Post
Office, which did not pass until some months afterwards. Meanwhile a whole
crop of posts had sprung up between London and the country, which could
not be suppressed until the Act was passed. As compensation for the loss
he sustained by this encroachment on his monopoly between the 25th of June
and the 29th of September Bishopp claimed and received no less than £500.
There is preserved in the Guildhall Library a letter from the Duke of
Buckingham, to which the following note is appended:--"The great fire of
London broke out on the 2nd of September 1666. It is seen by the date of
this letter that the Duke of Buckingham, at that time in the highest
position at Court and in the zenith of his power, was at Worthing, and
did not receive intelligence of the awful calamity until after the city
had been burning for five days." We do not know by what means the Duke
was informed of the calamity, nor is it material to our present purpose
that we should do so. All we desire now to observe is that if, as is not
improbable, he was informed of it by letter, the letter--as we proceed
to shew--reached him in due course of post. The fire broke out at
midnight on the 2nd of September, and the 2nd of September was a
Saturday, after which, except to the Downs and to places abroad, there
was no post out of London until Tuesday the 5th, or rather, as the mails
started after midnight, until early in the morning of Wednesday the 6th.
Arundel was then the post-town for Worthing, and for the first part of
the distance the course of post was, as it continued to be until the day
of railways, through Tooting, Ewell, Epsom or Ebbesham as it was still
called, Leatherhead, and Dorking. Continuing thence, not, as in later
times, through Horsham, but through the hamlet of Coldharbour, the
post-road skirted the foot of Leith Hill and passed through Stone
Street, Billinghurst, and Amberley to Arundel, which would be reached
late in the afternoon of Wednesday. Between Arundel and Worthing the
distance is ten miles, and the postmaster would not, at the earliest,
take out the letter for delivery until the morning of Thursday the 7th,
or five days after the fire had broken out. Indeed, it may be permitted
to us to doubt whether the letter, if letter there was, would have been
delivered as early as the 7th, had it been for a less important
personage.
Meagre as the means of communication were in those days, even such means
as existed were not matter of common knowledge. The Post Office did not
advertise its wares; and no newspapers then existed to do for the Post
Office what the Post Office omitted to do for itself. What towns
possessed post-houses of their own, and how these towns stood in
relation to other towns which did not enjoy the same advantage, might
well be considered essential information; yet even of this no public
announcement was given. Blome, in his _Britannia_, printed in 1671,
remarks upon this defect, and for the benefit of his readers proceeds to
supply it. After commenting upon the convenience which the Post Office
affords, and lamenting that this convenience is not more generally
known, he gives a list of the post towns which each county possesses,
and supplements it with a series of county maps, so that, as he
explains, persons desirous of writing to any particular place may be
able to find out for themselves where the nearest post-house stands. As
late as the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth
centuries separate maps appear to have been published with the same
object, as a matter of private enterprise. In these maps the post towns
are indicated by a castle surmounted by the royal standard.
But it was within the metropolis itself that the public need was
greatest. Between London and the country posts went at unequal intervals
indeed, and at intervals in some cases unduly long, and yet with
regularity. To Kent and the Downs there was a post daily; to other parts
of England and to Scotland a post every other day; and to Wales and to
Ireland a post twice a week. But between one part of London and another
there was no post at all. A resident in London having a letter for
delivery within the metropolitan area had only one choice, to take the
letter himself or to send it by another. And let the bearer of a letter
be who he might, there was an inconvenience to which he was constantly
exposed. The houses were not numbered, and were mainly to be recognised
by the signs they bore. Later on, men who delivered letters over the
same ground day after day complained that it was not always easy to find
the address. Without local knowledge it must have been sometimes
impossible.
Happily, in England the spirit of enterprise is such that an
acknowledged want affecting any considerable section of the public is
seldom suffered to endure very long. And so it proved in the present
instance. The man who now undertook to relieve the capital from the
intolerable inconvenience under which it laboured was William Dockwra, a
merchant of the city of London. Dockwra had been a sub-searcher in the
Custom House, and through some little interest he possessed at Court had
been allowed to dispose of his place. The idea of the penny post is said
indeed to have originated with Robert Murray, an upholsterer in
Paternoster Row; but, be that as it may, to Dockwra belongs the credit
of giving it practical shape. A man of less resolution or less convinced
of the inherent merits of his undertaking might well have been daunted
by the difficulties he had to encounter. The undertaking had been
conceived in so bold a spirit that to carry it out would involve an
expense which Dockwra's unaided resources were altogether unable to
bear. A difficulty still greater than the want of funds was the
determined opposition of the Duke of York. In 1663 the profits of the
Post Office had been settled on the Duke for his support and
maintenance, and, with an eye ever intent on his own interests, he
discerned or thought he discerned in the new project an infringement of
his rights.
Undeterred by these difficulties, Dockwra persevered in the task he had
taken in hand. At length the appointed day arrived. On the 1st of April
1680,[9] London, which had hitherto had no post at all, suddenly found
itself in possession of one in comparison with which even the post of
our own time is cast into the shade. For the purposes of the undertaking
London and its suburbs were divided into seven districts with a sorting
office in each. From Hackney in the north to Lambeth in the south, from
Blackwall in the east to Westminster in the west, there was not a point
within the bills of mortality which the new post did not reach. Between
four and five hundred receiving offices were opened in a single morning.
Placards were distributed and advertisements inserted in the public
intelligences announcing where these offices were. Messengers called
there for letters every hour. These, if for the country, were carried to
the General Post Office, and if for the town, to the respective sorting
offices. From the sorting offices, after being sorted and entered in
books kept for the purpose, they were sent out for delivery, to the Inns
of Court or places of business ten or twelve times a day, and to other
places according to distance from four to eight times. Nor was the
service confined to letters. It extended also to parcels, the only
condition being that neither parcel nor letter should exceed one pound
in weight,[10] or ten pounds in value. Subject to these limitations the
charge between one part of London and another was one penny. An
exception indeed was made in the case of Hackney, Islington, Newington
Butts, and Lambeth, which were then separate towns. There one penny
carried only to the receiving office, and for delivery at a private
house the charge was one penny more. Delivery in the street was not
allowed.
[9] Curiously enough, the Post Office Report for 1854 gives the year as
1683; but this is an error.
[10] Here also the Post Office Report for 1854 is in error. It says that
at first there was no limit to the weight of a packet.
But it was not only in the matter of weight and frequency of delivery
that the new undertaking was conceived in the most liberal spirit.
Provided a letter or parcel was securely tied and sealed and its
contents endorsed on the outside, the charge of one penny covered not
only cost of conveyance but insurance as well, up to a limit of ten
pounds. That is to say, subject to this limit, if a parcel or a letter
or its contents were lost, Dockwra would, the conditions being observed,
make the value good.
There is yet another novelty which Dockwra introduced. As a check upon
his messengers he supplied the seven sorting offices with stamps bearing
their own initial letters and denoting the several hours of the day.
With one of these stamps all letters and parcels were impressed as they
passed through the post, and if in the busy parts of the capital they
were not delivered within little more than an hour from the time denoted
by the impression, the public were encouraged to complain. The following
are specimens of the stamps which Dockwra used:--
[Illustration: Three stamps]
This was the introduction of postmarks. In the first and last
impressions Mor. 8 signifies of course 8 o'clock in the morning, and Af.
4, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In the second or middle impression the
initial letter L signifies Lyme Street, where the principal office of
the penny post was held at Dockwra's private dwelling-house, formerly
the dwelling-house of Sir Robert Abdy.
The General Post Office, until lately in Bishopsgate Street, stood at
this time in Lombard Street, where it occupied a site on part of which
the branch office now stands. There the persons employed, all told,
numbered 77. In the country and dependent on the chief office were 227
postmasters, viz. 182 in England and Scotland and 45 in Ireland. Twelve
persons were also employed in the office in Dublin. Altogether and
throughout the whole of the kingdom the General Post Office, in 1680,
gave employment to 316 persons, a number very much less than that which
Dockwra employed in London alone.
On Saturday nights the penny post closed, in winter at six, and in
summer at seven. On other nights of the week, Sundays excepted, it must
have remained open to at least 9 o'clock, for at that hour the country
letters were collected from the receiving offices and carried to the
General Post Office. Besides Sundays, there were eight days in the year
on which the post did not go, viz. three days at Christmas, two days at
Easter, two days at Whitsuntide, and also the 30th of January, the
anniversary of the death of King Charles the First.
In spite of the enormous advantages it conferred, the penny post was not
at first received with unqualified satisfaction. Some fanatics denounced
it as a Popish contrivance; and Lord Macaulay tells us how the porters
complained that their interests were attacked, and tore down the
placards on which the scheme was announced to the public. Even
unprejudiced persons and persons who had no interests to protect
complained that a large number of things were posted and not delivered.
This Dockwra himself admitted, explaining that it was due to the
illegible writing of the address or to the omission of some important
particular by which the persons addressed might be identified, the
omission of their trade, or of the signs which their houses bore, or of
some well-known place or object in their vicinity. The manifest utility
of the enterprise, however, soon bore down all opposition; and in little
more than a year from its introduction the penny post, though weighted
with a scheme of insurance, was very nearly paying its own expenses.
The establishment of the penny post had one effect which had probably
not been contemplated. It increased largely the number of letters for
the country. Every man had now a post office at his own door. It is true
that Dockwra's four or five hundred receiving offices were intended
primarily for town letters; but country letters might be posted there,
and, as we have seen, were collected at a stated hour every evening.
Hitherto the case had been very different. Up to the 1st of April 1680,
incredible as it may appear, the General Post Office in Lombard Street
was the only receptacle for letters in the whole of London. There and
nowhere else could letters be posted. Little wonder if, before 1680,
persons whom the cost of postage might not deter from writing were yet
deterred by their distance from the Post Office.
Dockwra might reasonably now expect to reap some of the rewards of
success. A small band of citizens who had joined in the original venture
had afterwards deserted him, and for six months he had carried it on at
his sole charge. Others had then come to his aid, and a fresh
partnership had been formed. The undertaking prospered, became
self-supporting, and at length gave promise of large returns. This very
promise excited the greed of the Duke of York. So long as the outgoings
exceeded the receipts Dockwra remained unmolested; but no sooner had the
balance turned than the Duke complained of his monopoly being infringed,
and the Courts of Law decided in his favour. Not only was Dockwra cast
in damages, but the undertaking which he had impoverished himself to
establish was wrested out of his hands, and the penny post, in less than
five years from its introduction, was incorporated into the General Post
Office.[11]
[11] The exact date of incorporation is uncertain. The decision in the
Court of King's Bench was given in Michaelmas term 1682; but the first
public advertisement of the penny post does not appear to have been
issued by the Postmaster-General until the 11th of March 1684/5.
Generosity formed no part of James's character, and, so long as he sat
on the throne, Dockwra's services remained without the slightest
recognition. In 1690, however, upon an address from the House of
Commons, William and Mary granted him a pension of £500 for seven years,
and in 1697 the grant was renewed for three years longer. In the same
year as the renewal of the grant, but a little earlier, he was appointed
comptroller of the penny post at a salary of £200, and this appointment
he retained until 1700. Then, both appointment and grant came to an
abrupt termination together, for, on charges brought against him by his
own subordinates, Dockwra, like Witherings, was dismissed. Such was the
tribute paid to the man who had conferred on his country benefits which
he never tired of predicting would endure to all posterity.
Of the charges against Dockwra two deserve special notice, as shewing
that the penny post, after its acquisition by the State, continued to be
conducted on the same principles as before. These two charges were--1st,
that, contrary to his duty, he "forbids the taking in any band-boxes
(except very small) and all parcels above a pound"; and 2nd, that he
takes money out of letters and "makes the office pay for it," thereby
clearly indicating that at that time the State carried on a parcel post
and continued the practice of making losses good. A third charge, the
truth of which it is more easy to credit, imputed to Dockwra that he
spoke and acted as if his object were to get the penny post into his own
hands again. It is worthy of remark, as characteristic of the times in
which he lived, and may perhaps be regarded as affording some
presumption of his innocence, that Dockwra appears to have been at less
pains to refute the charges than to prove that he had taken the oath of
supremacy, or the oath which had been recently substituted for it, and
that he had received the Holy Sacrament.
We have said that to us who live at the end of the nineteenth century it
may appear incredible that up to April 1680 the General Post Office in
Lombard Street was the only receptacle for letters in the whole of
London. But it is by no means certain that our descendants may not think
it more incredible still that London, with all its boasted progress, has
only now recovered a post which, in point of convenience and cheapness,
at all approaches that which an enterprising citizen established more
than two hundred years ago. When and under what circumstances this post
lost its original features will have to be considered hereafter.
CHAPTER VI
COTTON AND FRANKLAND
_Inland Service_
1685-1705
In 1685, on the death of Charles the Second, the revenue of the Post
Office was settled on James, his heirs and successors. Rochester, the
High Treasurer, became postmaster-general; and for the actual discharge
of the duties a deputy was appointed under the title of Governor.
Two years before, the panic caused by the discovery of the Rye-House
Plot had led to the issue of a Proclamation which, if differing little
from others that had gone before, acquires importance from the
circumstances under which it appeared. Unauthorised posts had again
sprung up in all directions, simply, no doubt, because there was a
demand for the accommodation they afforded; but the Government, no less
than the persons who denounced Dockwra's undertaking as a Popish
contrivance, seem to have been possessed with the idea that these posts
were mere vehicles for the propagation of treason. To prevent
treasonable correspondence was the avowed object of the present
Proclamation, and the means by which the object was sought to be
attained was the suppression of private and irregular posts, for by
these, the Proclamation went on to declare, the conspirators had been
materially assisted in their designs. Mayors, sheriffs, justices of the
peace, constables and others were enjoined to make diligent search for
letters passing otherwise than through the regular post. Special
officers were to be appointed for the same purpose. All such letters,
wherever discovered, were to be deemed to be "of dangerous consequence";
and not only were they to be seized and carried to the Secretary of
State or the Privy Council for the purpose of being opened and
inspected, but both the bearers and senders of them were to be proceeded
against at law.
On James's accession to the throne the Proclamation of 1683 was
succeeded by another in almost identical terms; and it is certain that
during his reign the liberties taken with post letters were hardly less
than they had been in the worst days of the Commonwealth. Only a few
months before Rochester's dismissal, for no better reason than to
gratify curiosity, orders were given that the bags from Scotland should
be transmitted to Whitehall, and during a whole week not a single
private letter from beyond the Tweed was delivered in London. Happily,
however, this state of things was soon to cease. After the Revolution
the appointment of postmaster-general was conferred upon persons who
were otherwise unconnected with affairs of State, and the effect of this
change was, as William no doubt intended, at once to lift the Post
Office out of the region of politics. In the eyes of the Rochesters, the
Arlingtons, and the Thurloes, busied as they were in the detection of
conspiracies against the State, the Post Office had been little else
than an instrument which might be usefully employed as a means to that
end. With plain citizens unversed in the ways of government, the only
consideration was how best they could accomplish the object for which
they had been appointed; and this object was so to manage and improve
the posts of the country as to secure to their Sovereign the highest
possible revenue.
But, before William could give effect to his views, there was an
adherent to be provided for. This was Colonel John Wildman, who was
appointed postmaster-general in July 1689. Of Wildman's career at the
Post Office little is known, except that he was profuse in making
promises which he never performed. He might, perhaps, himself have
pleaded that he was not given time to perform them, for after eight
months' tenure of the appointment he was dismissed for some reason which
is, and will probably continue to be, a mystery. Far different is the
record left behind them by Wildman's immediate successors. These were
Sir Robert Cotton and Mr.--afterwards Sir Thomas--Frankland, who became
joint postmasters-general in March 1690, and served in that capacity for
nearly twenty years. They had sat in James's Parliament, the one for
Cambridgeshire, and the other for the borough of Thirsk, and these seats
they retained under William. From the writings they have left behind
them we are able to see these two men not as a biographer might dress
them up, but as they really were. Everything about them, their virtues,
their foibles, their habits, their ailments, their devotion to duty,
their unwillingness to believe evil of any one, their hatred of
injustice or oppression, their unbounded credulity, their anxiety about
their re-election, their gratitude for any little scrap of news which
they might carry to Court, their fondness for a glass of port wine,
their attacks of gout, their habit of taking snuff, even the hour of
their going to bed--all this and more is there revealed, and makes up a
record of simplicity and benevolence which it is a delight to read.
The establishment over which these two simple gentlemen were called upon
to preside had recently received a considerable addition. Out of London,
the Post Office servants remained much as they had been ten years
before, at about 239 in number, of whom all but twelve were postmasters;
but in London the force employed at the General Post Office had been
raised from 77 to 185. The Penny Post Office, which had now been wrested
out of Dockwra's hands, accounts for the greater part of the difference.
This gave employment, exclusive of receivers, to 74 persons--a
comptroller, an accomptant, and a collector, 14 sorters and 57
messengers--at a total charge for salaries of £2000 a year. Another part
of the establishment, and by no means the least important or the least
difficult to manage, consisted of the packet boats. These, in 1690,
were eleven in number, viz.--two for France, two for Flanders, two for
Holland, two for the Downs, and three for Ireland. Owing to the war,
however, the boat-service to France was now in abeyance.
Little more than half a century had elapsed since the introduction of
postage, and meanwhile the revenue had risen by strides which were for
those times prodigious. In 1635 the posts were maintained at a cost to
the Crown of £3400 a year. Within fifteen years not only had they become
self-supporting, but a rent was paid for the privilege of farming them.
This rent was, in 1650, £5000 a year; in 1653, £10,000; in 1660,
£21,500; and some time before 1680, £43,000. In 1690 the net revenue was
probably about £55,000. In 1694, according to a return made to the House
of Commons two years later, it was £59,972.
The headquarters of the Post Office were at this time in Lombard Street.
Here the postmasters-general resided; and here, far from shutting
themselves up, they were to be found at all hours by any one who might
wish to consult them on business connected with their office. Freedom of
communication with those among whom they lived, and not inaccessibility,
appears indeed to have been a part of their policy. With the foreign
merchants especially they maintained the most friendly intercourse, and
were wont to defer to their wishes and suggestions in the arrangement of
the packets. Besides giving constant attendance during the day, the
postmasters-general sat as a Board every morning and night. To these
Board-meetings they attached the highest importance, especially on the
nights of Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, when mails were despatched
into all parts of the country. These were known as the "Grand Post
Nights," and the others as "Bye-Nights."
The Post Office building appears to have been not ill adapted to its
purpose. A massive gate opened into a court of oblong shape. This court
was paved from end to end for the merchants to walk in while waiting to
receive their letters. On the right was the Board-room with the
residence of the postmasters-general attached; on the left the office
for foreign letters; and in front, immediately facing the entrance, was
the sorting office. The office for the letter-carriers was in the
basement. The rest of the building was devoted to the use of the Post
Office servants, who, owing to their unseasonable hours of attendance,
were required to live in the office itself or else in its immediate
vicinity.
The machinery for the dispersion of letters was very simple. For Post
Office purposes the kingdom was divided into six roads--the North Road,
the Chester or Holyhead Road, the Western Road, the Kent Road, and the
Roads to Bristol and to Yarmouth; and these roads were presided over by
a corresponding number of clerks in London whose duty it was to sort the
letters and to tax them with the proper amount of postage. At the
present time, when, owing to the system of prepayment, there is
comparatively little taxing to be done, no less than 2800 clerks and
sorters are engaged every evening in despatching the letters into the
country. Two hundred years ago the whole operation was performed, both
sorting and taxing together, by the six clerks of the roads, and they
had not even a sorter to assist them until 1697.
The letters, as soon as they had been sorted, were despatched into the
country, the usual hour of despatch being shortly after midnight; but,
of course, with a force to prepare them of only six persons, a rigid
punctuality such as that which now distinguishes the operations of the
Post Office could hardly be observed. An instance remains on record of
the disturbance caused by any unusual pressure. The 25th of February
1696, we are told, was a foreign post night, and it happened that the
letters for the country as well as abroad were more than ordinarily
numerous. On this occasion the mails which should have gone out before
three o'clock in the morning could not be despatched until between six
and seven.
Once clear of London, the letters passed into the hands of the
postmasters, who were alone concerned in their transmission and
distribution. At the present time, multifarious as the duties of a
postmaster are, it is not one of them to transport the mails from town
to town. But such was not the case in 1690. The post roads were then
divided into sections or, as they were commonly called, stages; and
these stages were presided over by a corresponding number of
postmasters, whose duty it was to carry the mails each over his own
stage. This had been the original object of their appointment, the
object for which they had been granted the monopoly of letting
post-horses, and it still remained their primary duty, to which every
other was subordinate. And yet traces of this original function were
already beginning to disappear. The posts settled on the six main roads
of the kingdom had not been long in extending themselves to other roads;
and on these branch roads one postmaster would be charged with the
carrying of the mails over two or more stages, leaving another without
any transport duty at all. Kendal, for instance, lay on a branch road
leaving the Holyhead Road at Chester; and from Wigan the letters for
Kendal were fetched by the postmaster of Preston, who passed not only
his own town but the town of Lancaster on his way.
In 1690 no provincial town had a letter-carrier of its own, as that term
is now understood. Even at Bristol and at Norwich, which ranked next to
the capital in size and importance, there was for all Post Office
purposes one single agent, and that was the postmaster. Upon him and him
alone devolved all the duties which now, at all but the smallest towns,
a body of sorters and letter-carriers is maintained to perform. Whether
out of London there was any settled mode of delivery is uncertain; but
there seems little doubt that, soon after the establishment of the Post
Office, to deliver letters in his own town had come to be a part, though
a secondary part, of a postmaster's duty. At Maidstone, indeed, the
delivery appears to have reached a high state of perfection. The
postmaster there fetched the mails from Rochester and carried them to
Ashford, dropping the letters for his own town as he passed through.
These were at once taken out by two men of his own and delivered, so
that, as he took pride in relating, a letter from London arriving by the
morning post at noon could he answered by the return post, which left
Maidstone at six o'clock in the evening.
But this must have been an exceptional case. Except perhaps at the
largest towns, letters were yet too few to make such an arrangement
necessary; and it seems probable that the hour at which the delivery was
made and the area over which it extended were very much in the
postmaster's discretion. One check there was, and, so far as appears,
one only. This was the letter bill which accompanied the letters, and in
which was inserted the postage which a postmaster had to collect and
bring to account; but it frequently happened that he advanced the amount
himself, and of course, where this was so, there was nothing to shew
that any particular letter had been delivered, still less that it had
been delivered within a particular time. Far more effective, it may well
be believed, than any official check was the desire, the natural desire,
to stand well with his neighbours; and the substantial marks of kindness
which they seldom failed to bestow upon him whenever he was so
unfortunate as to get into trouble, preclude the idea that, in the
matter of delivery or otherwise, remissness or inattention can have been
at all general.
In London, owing to recent malpractices there, attention had been
directed to the salaries, and these had been improved. The six clerks of
the roads received four of them £60 a year, one £50, and one as much as
£100. The sorters received £40 a year, and the general post
letter-carriers 11s. a week. The wages of the penny post letter-carriers
or messengers, as for distinction's sake they were called, were 8s. In
addition to their salaries the clerks of the roads enjoyed the privilege
of franking newspapers or, as they were then called, gazettes. This
privilege, which dated from the first establishment of the Post Office,
had arrested the attention of James when Duke of York, and he had
desired to take it away; but, on learning that compensation would have
to be given, he decided to let it continue. By post the gazettes would
have cost from 4d. to 6d. apiece. The clerks of the roads supplied them
for 2d. The emoluments from this source kept steadily growing during
William's reign. At first the longer and more frequent sessions of
Parliament, and, later on, the war in which England was engaged, excited
an appetite for news to which the two previous reigns afford no
parallel. A statement which the postmasters-general made to the Treasury
about this time, while evincing perhaps some little credulity, evinces
also how keen, in the judgment of two shrewd and intelligent men, was
the hunger after early intelligence. "In England," they say, "there are
many postmasters, who some of them serve without salary, others for less
than they would otherwise do, in consideration of their being allowed
gazets by the office ffrank."
Another curious custom prevailed in 1690, and continued indeed for
nearly a century afterwards. This was the distribution among the Post
Office servants in London of a certain sum annually as "drink and feast
money." The sum so distributed in 1685 had been no less than £60; and
this was in addition to two "feasts" which were given them at the
expense of the Crown, one at midsummer and the other at Christmas.
In the country, where there was no one to watch over the postmasters'
interests, the salaries were merely nominal. The postmaster of Sudbury
in Suffolk received a salary of £26 a year; and for this he had, three
times a week, to carry the letters to Braintree and back, a distance of
thirty-two miles, over a road that was barely passable. At Maidstone, in
order to keep the delivery up to his own standard of excellence, the
postmaster expended 2s. a day in what he called "horse-meate and
man's-meate," yet his salary was only £5. Many postmasters received no
salary at all. Even at Bristol, which stood next to London in population
and wealth, the salary was only £60, having been recently raised to that
amount from £50.
Nor was it only in the matter of salary that the postmasters were
objects of compassion. The disturbed state of the country during the
last few years had brought back old abuses. Officers of the army and
others who had not the officers' excuse of urgency would override the
post-horses, and when, as frequently happened, these were lamed or
killed, no compensation appears to have been given. Another class of
persons infested the roads, persons who, taking advantage of the general
confusion, would hire post-horses and not return them. During the last
twelve or thirteen years of the seventeenth century many postmasters
were languishing in prison through inability to pay what they owed for
postage; and among these there were few who did not trace their
misfortunes to the fact that immediately before and after William's
accession to the throne their horses had been killed or spoiled through
reckless riding or else run away with.
But neither the loss of their horses nor the inadequacy of their
remuneration was so galling to the postmasters as the liability to which
they now became subject, of having soldiers quartered upon them. A
standing army had been recently authorised, and there was little or no
barrack accommodation. Hence a liability, which in our own time might be
little more than nominal, was, in 1690, tantamount to a heavy tax. Under
Charles and James[12] the postmasters had been exempt from this
annoyance; but the exemption had been granted by virtue of the royal
prerogative, and William could not be induced to continue it. In vain it
was urged that, if a burden were cast upon them as novel as it was
oppressive, justice demanded that their salaries should be increased.
The King resolutely refused to make a distinction which the law did not
recognise, and, except in a few isolated cases, the salaries remained
unchanged.
[12] In the reigns of Charles II. and James II. the practice of
billeting, illegal as it then was, was necessarily resorted to in order
to provide quarters for the troops they maintained in time of peace; and
even billeting in private houses was not unknown. An Act of 1689, the
second Mutiny Act, as it is called, while forbidding billeting in
private houses, authorised it at "inns, livery stables, ale houses,
victualling houses, and all houses selling brandy, strong waters, cyder
or metheglin, by retaile, to be dranke in their houses."
Despite these drawbacks, there is no reason to think that the
appointment of postmaster was not eagerly sought for, or that when
obtained there was any general disposition to throw it up. The
explanation is obvious. In the first place the appointment carried with
it the exclusive right of letting post-horses. This monopoly, at all
events on the more frequented roads, must have been remunerative; and it
must have been especially remunerative where, as appears to have been
generally the case, the postmaster was also innkeeper. Travellers were
drawn to his house, for it was only there that they could procure horses
to pursue their journey. He was, in a word, assured of custom. Other
sources of emolument were--1st, gratuities, varying according to
distance, from 1d. to 3d., on every letter he collected or delivered;
and 2nd, what were technically called "Bye-letters." This term, whatever
may have been the case a century before, had now a distinctive meaning.
It meant letters which stopped short of London,[13] letters upon which
at that time there was no check. In 1690 the postage on these letters
was probably not large; but, large or small, the whole or all but the
whole of it found its way into the pockets of the postmasters, and it
was one of the first cares of the new postmasters-general to consider
how the diversion might be stopped.
[13] In the agreement with Ralph Allen, dated thirty years later,
bye-letters are defined to be "letters not going or coming from, to, or
through London."
Such, in England, was the condition of the Post Office when Cotton and
Frankland assumed the direction of it in the month of March 1690. In
Scotland the posts were under separate direction, the direction of the
Secretary of State for that part of the kingdom, and subject to the
control of the Scotch Parliament. For purposes of convenience, however,
an arrangement had been made between the two Post Offices. On letters
between London and Edinburgh in both directions the English Post Office
took not only its own share of the postage but the whole; and, in
return, it paid the salaries of all the postmasters and defrayed the
cost of all expresses between the Border town of Berwick-on-Tweed and
Edinburgh. The correspondence at this time passing between the two
capitals was of the slightest. It is true that for the three years
ending March 1693 the amount due to the London office for postage on
letters to Edinburgh was £1500, or at the rate of £500 a year; but the
correspondence of the Secretary of State for Scotland, or "Black-box" as
it was called, from the colour of the box in which it was carried, would
probably account for nearly the whole. In 1707, which no doubt was a
busy year in consequence of the Act of Union, the cost of carrying this
box to and fro averaged £66 a month.
In Ireland the Post Office was managed by a deputy-postmaster, who was
directly responsible to the postmasters-general in London. The method of
business was the same as in England. Instead, however, of six "roads,"
there were only three--the Munster Road, the Ulster Road, and the
Connaught Road. The Dublin establishment, clerks and letter-carriers
included, consisted of twelve persons, of whom five received £20 a year,
and no one, the deputy-postmaster excepted, more than £80. The
deputy-postmaster himself received £400. Such at least was the normal
establishment; but all was now confusion. The battle of the Boyne had
not yet been fought, and Tyrconnel was still Lord Deputy. By his
direction the Post Office servants in Dublin, down to the youngest
letter-carrier, had been turned out of their appointments; and the mails
from England, instead of being opened at the Post Office, were being
carried to the castle and opened there.
The new postmasters-general had not long taken up their quarters in
Lombard Street before they began to feel serious alarm for the revenue
committed to their charge. It was in the matter of bye-letters that
their apprehensions were first aroused. London, as the metropolis, sent
and received more letters than any other town, more probably than all
the other towns of the kingdom put together. Through London, too, as the
centre of the Post Office system, many letters passed in those days
which would not so pass now, because there were no cross-posts. Still
there was a residue, a residue considerable in the aggregate,
consisting of letters which did not touch London in any part of their
course; and of these comparatively few were accounted for. Some thirty
years later, after a check had been established, the revenue derived
from bye-letters was only a little over £3000 a year. At the end of the
seventeenth century it probably did not amount to as many hundreds.
It was, however, not the letters that fell into the post, but those that
were kept out of it, the illicit traffic in fact, that caused the
greatest concern. This traffic was assuming larger proportions every
day. Under Charles and James searchers had been appointed, men who
searched for letters as baggage is searched at the Custom House. No
suspected person, no suspected vehicle, was safe from inspection. But
there was no legal sanction for the practice, and it had ceased on
William's accession. Early in the present reign it had been mooted
whether a prosecution should not be undertaken, at all events against
the principal offenders; but the King refused to consent to a step which
he regarded as impolitic and calculated to excite discontent. License
waxed bolder with impunity. Along the road from Bristol to Worcester and
from Worcester to Shrewsbury men might be seen openly collecting and
delivering letters in defiance of the law. Openly or clandestinely the
same thing was being done in other parts. "Wherever," wrote the
postmasters-general, "there are any townes which have commerce one with
another so as to occasion a constant intercourse by carryer or
tradesman, there we do find it a general practice to convey at the same
time a considerable number of letters."
But the illicit traffic between one part of the country and another,
large as were the dimensions it had assumed, was insignificant as
compared with that which was taking place between the country and
London. This was the natural result of the establishment of the penny
post. At the first introduction of postage care had been taken so to fix
the rates that for single letters the post should be cheaper than the
common carrier. But the common carrier, in competition with the State,
had one enormous advantage. He could reduce his terms at will. So long,
therefore, as there was a profit to be made, the relative cheapness of
the post had proved only an imperfect check.
A far more efficient check, in the case of the metropolis at least, had
been the difficulty of dispersion. It was one thing to bring letters to
London and another to deliver them. In a maze of streets consisting of
houses which bore no numbers, a comparative stranger to the town
attempting anything in the shape of a general delivery would have been
simply bewildered. But all this was now altered. The penny post supplied
the very machinery, the want of which had hitherto kept the illicit
traffic within bounds. Once within the orbit of that post, a letter
consigned to any one of Dockwra's four or five hundred receiving offices
would be delivered in any part of what was then known as London for 1d.,
and in the suburbs for 2d. And these charges would carry up to one pound
in weight; whereas a quarter of one pound by the general post, even from
places no further distant from London than Croydon or Kingston, would be
charged 2s. 8d.
Of course, under such conditions, to carry letters across the
border-line, the line which separated the general post from the penny
post, had soon become a regular traffic; and this traffic, in
consequence of the impunity it enjoyed, was now being carried on with
little concealment. No stage-coach entered London without the driver's
pockets being stuffed with letters and packets, and he was moderate
indeed if he had not a bagful besides. The waggoner outstripped his
waggon and the carrier his pack-horse; and each brought his
contribution. The higgler's wares were the merest pretext. It was to the
letters and packets he carried that he looked for profit. So notorious
had the abuse become that two private persons, unconnected with the Post
Office, offered their services with a view to its correction. These
persons were gentlemen by birth, and yet it is difficult to conceive an
office more odious than the one which they were prepared to assume.
They proposed to erect stands or barriers in Westminster, Southwark, and
other places in the outskirts of London, and there to demand of
suspected persons as they passed any letters they might have about them
which did not concern their private business. They further proposed to
deliver these letters by messengers of their own, and to collect the
postage, and to proceed against the bearers of them for the recovery of
the penalties. It is significant of the extent to which the traffic had
grown, that in return for their services they asked no more than
two-thirds of the postage they should collect, and even pleaded the
heavy expenses to which they would be put as an apology for asking so
much. The remaining third they would undertake to make over to the
postmasters-general. They did not explain, however, how it was proposed
to distinguish letters which concerned the private business of the
bearers from those which did not, or how, while checking others, they
were to be checked themselves. Nor indeed was any such explanation
needed, for the postmasters-general very clearly discerned that the
proposed remedy would be worse, far worse, than the disease.
Cotton and Frankland were sorely perplexed. They knew perfectly well
that the true policy was to supplant and not to suppress; and experience
had taught them that to facilitate correspondence was to increase it.
These views they never ceased to inculcate; but their power of giving
effect to them was extremely limited. They could not lower the rates of
postage, for these were fixed by Act of Parliament. They could not set
up a new post nor alter an old one without the King's permission.
Neither was this permission so easy to obtain as it had been. The Post
Office revenue was settled upon William just as it had been settled upon
James; but while James kept the control in his own hands William left it
to his ministers.[14] Constitutionally sound as the change of practice
was, it had its drawback. James might care little for the convenience of
trade and commerce; but self-interest would prompt him not to withhold
facilities where these might be given at small cost and with the
prospect of comparatively large returns. Ministers, on the contrary,
even the most enlightened, concerned themselves mainly with the
balance-sheet of the year, and no promise of future and remote profit
would easily reconcile them to a diminution of present receipts. That
the Post Office must sow before it can reap is a truism which those who
hold the purse-strings have, at all times, found it hard to accept.
[14] Occasionally, even after William's accession, the
postmasters-general addressed the King direct. The remonstrance against
quartering soldiers upon postmasters was so addressed. This document is
dated the 1st of February 1692/3.
The ministers charged with the control of the Post Office were the Lords
of the Treasury. How little the postmasters-general were left to act on
their own responsibility will best be shewn by examples. Warwick,
according to the computation of those days, was sixty-seven miles from
London; but letters for that town passed through Coventry, thus
traversing a distance of eighty miles. And not only was the route a
circuitous one but it involved an additional charge for postage, the
rates for a single letter being, for eighty miles, 3d., and for less
than eighty, 2d. The postmasters-general desired to send the letters
direct; but even so simple a matter as this they were not competent to
decide for themselves. A change of route involved a reduction of charge;
and a reduction of charge might affect the King's receipts. Before,
therefore, the route could be altered, the King's assent had to be
signified through his appointed ministers. In 1696 a post was
established between Exeter and Bristol. This was the first cross-post
set up by authority in the British Isles. It ran twice a week, leaving
Exeter on Wednesdays and Saturdays at four in the afternoon, and
arriving at Bristol at the same hour on the following days. From Bristol
the return post, which went on Mondays and Fridays, started at ten in
the morning. But in this case as in the other, the postmasters-general
had not the power to act of their own motion. Hitherto letters between
the two towns had passed through London, and so had been liable to a
double rate of postage, to one rate of 3d. from Exeter to London, and to
another rate of equal amount from London to Bristol, or 6d. altogether.
For the future, the towns being less than eighty miles apart, the charge
would be 2d. Large as this reduction was, the postmasters-general
strongly advocated it. The existing post, they said, was both tedious
and costly, and had been little used in consequence. A direct post, it
was true, would require a small outlay to start it; but, this outlay
notwithstanding, the post was certain to prove remunerative. Increase
facilities for correspondence, and correspondence would assuredly
follow. Besides, it would promote trade and be an inestimable boon to
the public generally. To these representations the Treasury yielded; and
before three years were over, the postmasters-general had the
satisfaction of reporting that the new post was producing a clear profit
of more than £250 a year. But complaisant as the Treasury had been on
this occasion, their co-operation was fitful and uncertain. The Post
Office could not advance a step without incurring some trifling expense;
and the Treasury only too often acted as if to save expense, however
trifling, were the highest proof of statesmanship.
The postmasters-general were indeed heavily handicapped. Even with a
free hand their position would have been one of great embarrassment. But
bound hand and foot as they were, what could they do? They did what was
perhaps the very best thing that could have been done in the
circumstances. They grouped large numbers of post offices together and
let them out to farm. These groups, or branches as they were called,
spread over a wide area. The Buckingham branch, for instance, not only
included the county of Bucks but extended as far as Warwick. The
Hungerford branch comprised sixteen post offices in the counties of
Berks, Wilts, and Somerset. The Chichester branch covered a large part
of Surrey as well as Sussex; and the six remaining branches, for
eventually there were nine altogether, were equally extensive.
This, though by no means a perfect remedy for the existing evils, went
far to mitigate them. The farmer, of course, could not alter the rates
of postage; but with this single exception he was free from the
restraints which hampered the postmasters-general. Within the area over
which his farm extended he had only to consult his own interests; and,
happily, his own interests and the interests of the public were
identical. He improved and extended the posts, because to improve and
extend the posts added to the number of letters and made his farm more
profitable. He stopped the practice of levying gratuities on the
delivery of letters, because this practice, by adding to the cost of the
post, and so deterring persons from using it, diminished his own
receipts. For the same reason he took good care that no agent of his own
should omit to account for bye-letters, and, if other than his own
agents continued to send letters by irregular means, that it should not
be for want of facilities which he could himself supply.
To this community of interest as between himself and the public may be
ascribed the exceptional feelings with which, at the close of the
seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, the Post Office
farmer was regarded. The very name of farmer in connection with other
branches of the revenue had become a by-word for all that was rapacious
and extortionate. Only recently the farmer of the customs and the farmer
of the hearth money had been stamped out as moral pests. The Post Office
farmer, on the contrary, was welcomed wherever he came as a public
benefactor. In his case outrages and exactions such as had disgraced the
others were impossible. Before he could collect a single penny he had a
service to perform; and according as this service was performed well or
ill, he repelled or attracted custom.
The real secret of his welcome, however, was that he supplied an urgent
demand; and how urgent this demand was may best be judged by the
conditions on which he was glad to accept his farm. These conditions
were a lease of no more than three years, and a rent equivalent to the
highest amount which the post offices included in his farm had in any
one year produced. For his profits he had nothing to look to but the
increase of revenue resulting from his own management; and even of this
he received the whole only in the first year, when he would, presumably,
be establishing his plant. In subsequent years he received two-thirds,
the remaining third going to the Post Office. If under such conditions
as these it were possible to toil and grow rich, great indeed must have
been the field of operation.
Among those who were commissioned to supply the accommodation which the
postmasters-general were precluded from supplying themselves was one who
deserves to be specially mentioned. This was Stephen Bigg of Winslow, in
Buckinghamshire. Bigg farmed the Buckingham branch. He appears to have
possessed and to have deserved the confidence of the postmasters-general.
Of ample means, and endowed with no ordinary powers of organisation,
he had probably embarked on his undertaking less with a view to
profit than from a desire to improve the posts. Be that as itmay,
the same means which conduced to the one end conduced also to the
other; and when the time arrived for him to render an account of his
proceedings, he not only made over to the Post Office a handsome sum as
one-third share of the profits, but had earned for himself the gratitude
of the large district over which his farm extended.
His success in his own county encouraged him to enlarge the sphere of
his operations. Passing through Lancashire in the last year of the
century, he was struck with the wretched accommodation which the posts
afforded. As compared with those under his own control, they were slow,
irregular, and, owing to the system of gratuities, costly. On his return
to London he offered to take in farm the post offices of the whole
county. The offer was accepted, and a lease was signed fixing the rent,
as ascertained in the usual manner, at £2826. The history of this farm
is curious. Bigg had not long been engaged in his new undertaking before
the cross-post which had some few years before been set up between
Exeter and Bristol was extended to Chester. It is not very clear how
this interfered with Bigg's proceedings; but, as a matter of fact, it
appears to have tapped an important source of supply. On this being
pointed out to the postmasters-general, they at once, with that high
sense of justice which distinguished all their proceedings, released him
from his engagement and cancelled the lease.
The next county to which Bigg turned his attention was Lincolnshire. If
Lancashire had bad posts, Lincolnshire had next to none. Five post towns
were all of which Lincolnshire could boast--Stamford and Witham and
Grantham, Lincoln and Boston; and of these only two were off the great
north road which ran through the extreme west of the county. It is true
that other towns received letters; but they received them only by virtue
of a private arrangement, and heavily had they to pay for the luxury.
From Lincoln, for instance, the postmaster went twice a week to
Gainsborough and to Brigg, to Horncastle, Louth, and Grimsby, charging
as his own perquisite on each letter he collected or delivered the sum
of 3d. over and above the postage; but, so far as depended on any
official post, these and all the intervening towns were absolutely cut
off from the rest of the world.[15] Bigg procured a farm of the district
in favour of his son, and the lease was signed on the 4th of August
1705. On the 1st of October in the same year posts began to run, and
gratuities on the delivery of letters had become a thing of the past.
One penny on each letter collected was the only charge that remained
over and above the postage.
[15] In the case of Grimsby it is the more surprising that this should
have been so, because out of the only five towns in the kingdom which
the Act of 1660 mentions by name Grimsby is one. According to this Act
the post was to go there once a week.
It would be less than justice not to recognise the important part which
about this period the farmer played in the history of the Post Office;
nor is it possible not to admire the sagacity of those who, when they
found the posts to be slipping through their fingers, summoned this
extraneous agency to their aid. It was no mere venture which by a happy
accident happened to turn out well. The postmasters-general had foreseen
and foretold exactly what would be the result--that under a system of
farming the public would be better served, letters would become more
numerous, and the revenue, when it should revert to the Crown at the
termination of the lease, would be higher than when the lease began.
Next to Lincolnshire in poverty of the means of correspondence stood
Cornwall. Until 1704 the post to Falmouth, after leaving Exeter, ran
through Ashburton to Plymouth and thence along the south coast. Of the
towns in Mid Cornwall Launceston alone possessed a post office. At
others, indeed, letters were delivered, but only by virtue of a private
arrangement and on payment of a gratuity of 2d. apiece. No farmer,
unfortunately, offered his services here. But, what was perhaps the next
best thing, the gentry of the county, headed by Lord Granville, took the
matter up. Thus supported, the postmasters-general proceeded to concert
their arrangements. They desired the postmasters of Exeter, Plymouth,
and Launceston to meet together and prepare some scheme for facilitating
the correspondence of the midland towns. Such a scheme was soon
submitted, and, although it involved a cost of £260 a year, authority
for its adoption was not withheld. Henceforth the post for the extreme
west of England was to go, not by way of Plymouth, but direct from
Exeter to St. Columb, and thence through Truro to Falmouth. A single
post through a wide extent of country might ill accord with our present
views of what the public convenience requires; and yet at the beginning
of the eighteenth century Mid Cornwall, by the mere alteration of the
route for the Falmouth mails, obtained facilities for correspondence not
inferior to those enjoyed by other parts of the country.
The speed at which the post travelled at the end of the seventeenth
century only slightly exceeded four miles an hour. This slow rate of
progress, added to the fact that, except to the Downs, the post left
London only on alternate days, gave occasion for the not infrequent use
of expresses. These were mounted messengers sent specially for the
occasion. Whether for expresses there was any prescribed rate of speed
is not known; but it seems probable that their instructions were to go
as fast as they could. The charge for an express was 3d. a mile and 6d.
a stage, a stage being on the average about twelve miles. The total sum
which the Post Office received on this account during the half-year
which ended the 29th of September 1685 was £337.
Occasionally several expresses would be required at one time. In 1696,
on the discovery of Barclay's plot to assassinate the King, orders were
given to close the ports; and these orders the postmasters-general sent,
as they were instructed to do, by express. Some twenty years afterwards
similar orders were given, and an account is still extant shewing how on
the later, and probably the earlier, occasion they were carried into
effect. The English ports were sixty-two in number; and to only ten of
these were expresses sent direct from Lombard Street, the others being
either taken by the way or reached by branch expresses furnished by the
towns through which the expresses from London passed. Altogether the
distance traversed was 2526 miles, the number of stages 202, and the sum
which the Post Office received for the service from the Commissioners of
Customs £36:12:6.
From expresses it seems almost natural to pass to flying packets,
although between the two there is, so far as we are aware, no necessary
connection. What was a flying packet? The term "flying," at the end of
the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, was, no
doubt, used in the sense of running. For this season, writes Lord
Compton's private tutor to Lady Northampton, under date September 1734,
"the coach has done flying." In like manner "flying post," a term as old
as the Post Office itself,[16] meant nothing more than what in Scotland
was called a runner. Possibly because the idea of expedition was
conveyed by the term "flying," flying packet came to be regarded as
synonymous with express. "I despatch this by a flying pacquett," writes
Lord Townshend to the Duke of Argyll in 1715; and again, "My lord, after
writing what is above, a flying packet brings letters from Edinburgh of
the 12th." "By the flying pacquett which arrived last night," writes
Secretary Stanhope about the same date, "I received the honour of your
Grace's of the 21st inst." Here, by flying packet is obviously meant
express. And yet, curiously enough, this is a sense in which the
postmasters-general never employed the term. By them it was always
designed to signify the thing transmitted, and not the means of
transmission. What they called a flying packet might be sent by ordinary
post no less than by express; and when sending one by express they never
failed to state that it was being so sent. "You are therefore," they
write in 1706, "on the receipt of the bag so delivered to your care
[_i.e._ a small bag containing letters for the Court], to dispatch the
same imediately by a flying packet from Harwich to this office, and to
send a labil therewith expressing the precise time of the arrival and
your having dispatched the same per express." On receipt of the Holland
mail, they write again in the following year, "You are to take out the
Court letters, and to forward the same express by a flying packet
directed to Mr. Frankland at the Post Office at Newmarket." "The
inclosed box being recommended to our care by His Grace the Duke of
Queensberry, one of Her Majesty's principall Secretarys of State, we do
send the same by a flying pacquet.... You are to send us advice by the
first post of the safe comeing of this pacquet to your hands." In
short, flying packet, in its original sense, appears to have meant
simply a packet of which the enclosures were designed for some other
person than the one whose address the packet bore. Within the Post
Office it is occasionally necessary to employ technical terms which
would not be intelligible to persons without; but this, so far as we are
aware, is the only instance of the same term being used within and
without in two totally different senses.
[16] 1661. Feb. 3rd. Robert Reade to Charles Spellman. "Att the right
honourable my Lord Townshend's in the Old Palace Yard, Westminster." The
writer says that he has as yet received no command from Mr. Spellman or
from Lord Townshend, "nor do I wonder at it, because the flying post lay
drunke last Friday at Fakenham (being the day that he should have binn
at Thetford to take those letters then there which he should bring
hether on Saterday), and had not changed his quarter yesterday as I am
informed by one of Scott's men who saw him pittyfully drunke. The cuntry
complaines of him."--Historical Manuscripts Commission, Eleventh Report,
Appendix, Part iv. p. 25.
Of the state of the roads about this period the Highway Act 1691
affords, perhaps, not the least trustworthy evidence. To incidents which
have resulted in nothing more than temporary inconvenience travellers
are apt to give a touch of humorous exaggeration. An Act of Parliament,
on the contrary, deals with facts as they are, and concerns itself not
with imaginary ills. What, then, is to be thought of the condition of
the roads when provisions such as these were necessary?--No causeway for
horses was to be less than three feet in breadth, nor was the breadth of
any cartway leading to a market town to be less than eight feet. In
highways of less breadth than twenty feet no tree was to be permitted to
grow, or stone, timber, or manure to be heaped up so as to obstruct
progress; and hedges were to be kept trimmed, and boughs to be lopped
off, so as to allow a free passage to travellers, and not to intercept
the action of the sun and wind. Of any breach of these and other
provisions the road-surveyor was, on the Sunday next after it became
known to him, to give public notice in the parish church immediately
after the conclusion of the sermon.
Long after the passing of the Act of 1691, and perhaps in consequence of
it, the causeway formed an important feature of the roads. This
causeway, or bridle-track, ran down the middle; while the margin on
either side was little better than a ditch, and being lower than the
adjoining soil, and at the same time soft and unmade, received and
retained the sludge. But, in truth, the state of the roads concerned the
Post Office far less at the close of the seventeenth century than it
did at the close of the eighteenth. The mails were carried on horseback;
and, even so, they were carried mainly over the six great roads of the
kingdom. These roads, as compared with others, were good; and execrably
bad as we might now think them, they were probably not altogether ill
adapted to riding. The disasters which history refers to this period, as
illustrating the difficulties of travelling, occurred generally on the
cross-roads, and always with wheel traffic. For both wheel traffic and
horse traffic the six great roads had, probably from the earliest times,
been kept in some sort of repair. On the great Kent Road, nearly a
hundred years before, a young Dane, with his attendants, had on
horseback accomplished the distance between Dover and London in a single
day.[17] In 1642 couriers had ridden from London to York and back, a
distance of about 400 miles, in thirty-four hours,[18] a feat barely
possible except on the assumption that the road was in tolerable order.
Now and again, indeed, some postmaster, pleading for the remission of
his debt to the Crown, would urge the losses he had sustained in
horse-flesh by reason of the badness of the roads; but these roads were
always cross-roads--roads along which, if he had delivered letters, he
had delivered them on his own account. Of the six great roads as a means
of transit for the mails there were no complaints.
[17] The Forty-Sixth Annual Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public
Records, Appendix ii. p. 69.
[18] _Clarendon's Life_, vol. i. p. 135.
It was when the Post Office required something to be done which involved
transmission from place to place otherwise than on horseback that its
troubles began. Such an event occurred in 1696. Sir Isaac Newton was
then busy at the mint, devoting to the coinage those powers of intellect
which were soon to astonish the world. The clipping of the coin had gone
to such lengths that within the space of one year no less than four Acts
of Parliament were passed with a view to abate the evil. Milled money
was to take the place of hammered money. The clipped pieces had already
been withdrawn from circulation, and now a date was fixed after which no
broad pieces were to be received in payment of taxes except by weight.
This date was the 18th of November, and collectors of the public revenue
were allowed until the 18th of the following month to pay them over to
the Exchequer. If not paid over by the 18th of December they were to be
taken by weight and not by tale, and the collectors were to lose the
difference.
Here was a clear month's grace, and the postmasters were under a strong
inducement to see that the period was not exceeded. From Oxford the
hammered money was sent by barge. No sooner had it started than a severe
frost set in, and lasted for six weeks, the consequence being to delay
the arrival in London until the 7th of January. To take the money by
weight and not by tale would have been equivalent to a fine of about
£23. From this, however, the postmaster was excused on the ground that
the barge was the safest means of conveyance he could have employed. As
a "flying coach"--a coach which travelled at the speed of about four
miles an hour--had for many years been running between Oxford and
London, it must be assumed either that it had stopped for the winter or
else that for some cause or other, possibly on account of highwaymen, it
was not considered safe. From Sandwich, in Kent, the hammered money was
sent by hoy, which did not reach the Thames until the 20th of January.
Again the postmasters-general urged that the delay might be overlooked
on the ground that no earlier means of conveyance would have been safe.
Altogether, when the 18th of December arrived, more than £1000 of
hammered money was still outstanding in the postmasters' hands; and in
every case the want of conveyance or the badness of the roads was
assigned as the cause.
The penny post office, since it had passed into the hands of the
Government, had undergone but little change. Its headquarters had been
removed from Dockwra's house to seven rooms prepared for the purpose,
not, indeed, at the Post Office in Lombard Street, where want of space
was already beginning to be felt, but probably in the immediate
neighbourhood. It had also, in the language of the time, been eased from
a multitude of desperate debts. But the conditions on which it was
conducted remained as they had been,--the same limit of weight, the same
frequency of delivery, and the same rule as to compensation in case of
loss. Dockwra, with the view, no doubt, of propitiating the authorities,
had provided for the conveyance to Lombard Street of all general post
letters left at his receiving offices; and this duty, when he was
dispossessed, passed to the persons by whom those offices were kept. The
result was not satisfactory. The receivers, in their desire to get the
work done as cheaply as possible, employed to do it the most needy and
most worthless persons, persons who could not get employment elsewhere.
At length the miscarriages and losses became so frequent that the Post
Office appointed its own messengers to go round and collect the letters.
Nor is it by any means certain that the character of the receivers
themselves was above suspicion. The plain truth is that they were, with
few exceptions, keepers of public-houses. The collector who called there
periodically to adjust accounts complained that often four and even five
visits were necessary before he could obtain payment, and that the
opportunity was taken to pass upon him bad money.
Times have changed indeed. With public-houses for receiving offices,
with inn-keepers for postmasters, and with a considerable sum expended
annually on drink and feast money, it can hardly be denied that the Post
Office at the end of the seventeenth century was a good friend to the
licensed victualler. At the present time no postmaster may keep an inn;
no receiving office may be at a public-house; and not many years ago,
when a hotel with its stock-in-trade was purchased with a view to the
extension of the Post Office buildings in St. Martin's-le-Grand, some
excellent persons were shocked because, under the sanction of the
postmaster-general, were exposed for sale by auction some few dozen
bottles of port.
Of the extent to which the penny post was used at this period we are
not, so far as the suburbs are concerned, without some means of judging.
According to the original plan, which had been adhered to in its
integrity, one penny was to carry a letter within such parts of London
as lay within the bills of mortality. Beyond these limits one penny more
was charged; and this penny, which was technically called the second or
deliver penny, constituted the messengers' remuneration. As this soon
proved to be more than enough for its purpose, the messengers were put
on fixed wages, and the second pennies were carried to the credit of the
Post Office. Of the amounts derived from this source during the sixteen
years from 1686 to 1702 a record is still extant. The lowest amount for
any one year was £310, and the highest £377, the average being £336. It
would hence appear that for such parts of London as lay outside the
bills of mortality, for what in fact were at that time the suburbs, the
number of letters at the end of the seventeenth century was about 80,640
a year, or, counting 306 working days to the year, about 263 a day.
On one point the postmasters-general were determined, that the penny
post office should not be let out to farm. All overtures to this effect
they resolutely declined. The penny post and the general post had become
so interwoven, and, outside London, so short a distance separated the
limits within which the one ceased and the other began to operate, that
it was considered of the highest importance, both on the score of
convenience and as a protection against fraud, that the two posts should
not be under different management. The same considerations were not held
to apply to Dublin. In Dublin, rapidly as that city was now growing in
size[19] and population, a penny post, it was thought, could not
possibly answer. Yet in 1703 a spirited lady sought permission to set
one up. This was Elizabeth, Countess-Dowager of Thanet. A desire to
supplement a jointure, originally slender and now reduced by the
taxation consequent on the war, was the simple reason assigned for the
enterprise, and yet with the highest professions of public spirit it
might have been difficult to render to the community a more signal
service. The Duke of Ormonde, who was then Lord Lieutenant, approved the
proposal, and the postmasters-general had made preparations for carrying
it into effect. The new post was to extend for ten or twelve miles in
and around Dublin; no receiving office was to be within two miles of the
first stage of the general post; the lease was to be for fourteen years;
and one-tenth part of the clear profits was to go to the Crown. At the
last moment, however, the Treasury withheld their assent, and for no
less than seventy years from this time Dublin remained without a penny
post.
[19] Writing in 1709, Mr. Manley, the postmaster-general's deputy in
Dublin, says, "There are not less than a thousand more houses now than
there were at my first coming here [_i.e._ in 1703]. Besides, there are
many new streets now laid out and buildings erecting every day."
Of the internal affairs of the Post Office during the first fifteen
years of Cotton and Frankland's administration of it little need be
said. At first their only assistant was a clerk at £40 a year to copy
their letters. In 1694 they procured a new appointment to be created,
the appointment of Secretary to the Post Office. The Secretary to the
Post Office at the present time has duties to discharge, of the variety
and importance of which his mere title gives a very inadequate idea. In
1694 he was little more than a private secretary. One thing indeed he
had to do, to which a private secretary of our own time might perhaps
demur. During the night, if an express were wanted, he had to rise from
his bed and prepare the necessary instructions. The salary of the
appointment, originally £100, was raised to £200 in 1703. In this year a
solicitor was appointed, also at a salary of £200.
Two years later a transaction was completed on which the
postmasters-general had long set their hearts. This was the purchase of
a part of the Post Office premises in Lombard Street. As far back as
1688 Sir Robert Viner, the owner, had offered the freehold for sale, but
the Revolution had put a stop to further proceedings. In 1694, after
Sir Robert's death, his nephew and executor again proposed to sell, and
Sir Christopher Wren, on behalf of the Crown, surveyed the property with
a view to its purchase. On examination, however, the title proved to be
defective, and it was not until 1705, after the defect had been remedied
by Act of Parliament, that the Crown secured the freehold for the sum of
£6500. At the present time it matters not where Post Office servants
reside, so long as they attend punctually. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century it was considered important on account of the
unseasonable hours of attendance that they should reside "in and about"
the Post Office. The Post Office was, in effect, a barrack, and, except
the premises in Lombard Street, there were none in the immediate
neighbourhood that would well answer the purpose. Hence the anxiety to
purchase the freehold; and the anxiety was all the greater because it
had been threatened that if not purchased by the Crown the property
would be sold to the speculative builder or, as he was then called, the
projector.
CHAPTER VII
COTTON AND FRANKLAND
_Packet Service_
1686-1713
Of the packet service prior to 1686 we have no particulars; but that
some such service had long existed, though probably on a very limited
scale, hardly admits of a doubt. To Ireland, as to other parts of the
kingdom, a regular post had been established in 1635; and it is
difficult to suppose that a mail on arriving at Holyhead would be left
to a chance vessel to carry it across the Channel. The probability of
some organised means of transport is still stronger in the case of
Dover. Dover was the town through which all letters for the Continent
passed; and our trade with the Continent had for a century and more been
considerable. Hence it was that the post through the county of Kent had
been carefully nursed while as yet no other part of the country had any
post at all. But if, as seems certain, both Dover and Holyhead were
packet stations long prior to 1686, it is almost equally certain that
these were the only two in the kingdom.
In that year the arrangements, whatever they were, for carrying the
mails between England and France came to an end, and a new service was
established between Dover and Calais and between Dover and Ostend or
Nieuport. This was succeeded in the following year by a similar service
between England and Holland. Both services were to be carried on by
contract. In the one case the contractor was to receive £1170 a year,
and also to have the management of the letter office at Dover. In the
other the payment was to be £900 a year, for which sum three hoys were
to be maintained, two of sixty and one of forty tons, and carrying six
men each. For the service to Holland the packet stations were, on this
side of the water, Harwich, and, on the other, the Brill.
To the letters which came to this country by regular packet must be
added those that were technically termed ship letters--letters which
were brought by ships arriving at uncertain times from any part of the
world. These letters, according to the provisions of the Act of 1660,
were to be given up to the postmaster at the port of arrival, so that
they might be forwarded to London, and thence despatched to their
destination after being charged with the proper amount of postage. In
this particular, however, the Act proved of little effect. Masters of
ships were offered no inducement to deliver the letters to the
postmaster, and incurred no penalty for omitting to do so. The Post
Office was then in farm; and desirous as the farmers were to make what
they could out of their undertaking, they soon found that it would be
well worth their while to incur some expense which should secure
obedience to the law. Accordingly they undertook that for every letter
which a shipmaster should bring to this country, and deliver to the
postmaster at the port of arrival, he should receive the sum of one
penny. This was the origin of ship letter money--a form of payment which
has since received legal sanction, and exists at the present day.
It was into the port of London that ship letters chiefly came, and here
the number which found their way to the Post Office in Lombard Street
was seriously affected by the establishment of the penny post. That this
was only natural will appear from a simple illustration. From Marseilles
to London the postage was 1s. for a single letter. On one hundred such
letters, therefore, the charge would be £5. But if, instead of taking
these hundred letters to the General Post Office, a shipmaster on his
arrival in the Pool dropped them into the penny post, they would all be
delivered for 8s. 4d. It is true that he would thus lose his gratuity of
one penny a letter; but the difference between the two rates of postage
was such as to leave an ample margin of profit, even after making him
full--and more than full--compensation for his loss. Indeed, if he had
been bent on cheating his employer as well as the Post Office, he might
with very little risk of detection have put the whole of the difference
into his own pocket. In 1686 the number of ship letters accounted for to
the Post Office was 60,447,[20] a number which, forming as it did the
basis of a payment, may be taken as absolutely correct, because the Post
Office would take good care not to pay more, and shipmasters not to
receive less, than was absolutely due. It is to be regretted that no
similar account is forthcoming for previous years, so that it might be
seen what was the extent of the influence which the penny post
exercised; but that this influence was considerable is certain from the
continual references made to it by successive postmasters-general during
a long series of years. It is to be observed, however, that they always
speak of it as a thing that was past and gone, a thing baneful enough
while it lasted, but as having been of only short duration. The
explanation is no doubt to be found in the fact that in 1696 two
officers were appointed, whose duty it was to collect letters from all
vessels arriving in the port of London. The boat employed in this
service had assigned to it special colours of its own, on which was
depicted a man on horseback blowing a post horn.[21]
[20] "To divers Masters of Shipps for 60447 letters by them brought from
forreigne parts this year at one penny each according to the
usage--£251:17:3."--Extract from writ of Privy Seal for passing the
accounts of "our Right Trusty and Right well-beloved Couzen and
Councellor Lawrence Earle of Rochester, Late our High Treasurer of
England."
[21] "This is to give notice that Lancellot Plumer and William Barret
are appointed by the Postmaster-General of England to receive all such
letters and pacquets from masters of ships and vessels, mariners and
passengers as shall be by them hereafter brought in any ships or vessels
into the Port of London, to the end the same may be delivered with speed
and safety according to their respective directions and the laws of this
kingdom; and that all masters of ships or vessels and all mariners and
passengers may the better take notice thereof, the Right Honourable the
Lords of the Admiralty have directed that the boat employed in this
service do carry colours, in which there is to be represented a man on
horseback blowing a post horn."--_London Gazette_, No. 3247, from Monday
21st December to Thursday 24th December 1696.
In 1689, on the breaking out of the war with France, the Dover boats
ceased to run, and, in order to provide for the letters to Spain which
had hitherto passed through that country, a service was established
between Falmouth and the Groyne. On this service two boats were employed
of two or three hundred tons each. They carried from eighty to ninety
men besides twenty guns, and ran once a fortnight.
The Harwich boats were at the same time increased both in number and in
strength. The three hoys were replaced by four boats--boats of force as
they were called, carrying fifty men each. It may well be believed that,
with so large a crew under his command, the captain of a well-armed
vessel was loth to confine himself to the monotonous task of carrying
the mails to and fro, and went in quest of adventure. But be that as it
may, William, who since his accession to the throne had taken an
extraordinary interest in the Harwich service, was not satisfied with
the performances of these boats. It was his opinion that the first
requisite in a mail packet was speed and not strength. Strength might
indeed enable it to engage an enemy, but speed would enable it to avoid
one. Accordingly, by the King's direction, the Post Office with the
assistance of Edmund Dummer, the Surveyor of the Navy, built four small
boats of its own--boats "of no force," but remarkable for their speed.
The change was not carried out without much grumbling. The boats were
low built, and, except in the calmest weather, shipped a good deal of
water. The sailors complained that they seldom, from one end of the
voyage to the other, had a dry coat to their backs. The absence of any
armament was still more unpalatable to them. They dared not leave the
harbour, at least so they said, when the enemy was to windward; and, as
though to confirm their words, they sometimes after leaving returned. We
shall probably do them no wrong if we distrust these excuses. No
British sailor, or soldier either, cares to turn his back on the foe,
and that this was expected of them, that they were required to run and
not to fight, we suspect to have been the real grievance. Eventually,
but not until some had refused to serve and others had deserted, matters
quieted down. An increase of wages was given all round, raising the pay
above that given in the Royal Navy, and, in order to compensate for the
additional cost, the complement of the crew was reduced from thirty to
twenty-one. It is a striking confirmation of the soundness of William's
view that during the next twenty-four years, although no less than
nineteen of them were years of war, only two of these boats were taken.
Until 1689 the Harwich packets had been self-supporting, the receipts
from freight and passengers being enough to cover the cost. In that
year, as a consequence of the war, the fares were raised. Passengers to
Holland who had hitherto paid 12s. were now to pay 20s., and those who
had paid 6s. were to pay 10s. Recruits and indigent persons passed free.
In 1695 the carriage of goods and merchandise was prohibited. This
prohibition afterwards became common in times of war, but in the present
instance it was imposed in the vain hope of stopping the exportation of
silver. In exchange for silver, gold had long been pouring into the
country, as much as 200 ounces coming by a single packet; and advices
had been received from Amsterdam and Rotterdam that future consignments
would not be restricted even to that quantity. The reform of the
currency, which alone could check this movement of the precious metals,
was expeditiously accomplished; but the prohibition against the carriage
of merchandise remained.
On the conclusion of peace in 1697 the service between Dover and Calais
and between Dover and Ostend recommenced, but only to be discontinued
again on the resumption of hostilities in 1702. During these five years
the relations between the English and French Post Offices had at no time
been friendly, and latterly had become very highly strained. Under the
terms of a Treaty concluded with France in 1698, the mails, as soon as
they arrived on this side at Dover and on the other at Calais, were to
be forwarded to the respective capitals by express. England faithfully
fulfilled her part of the engagement. By France the engagement was
treated as a dead letter. The mails from England, on their arrival at
Calais, instead of being forwarded to Paris by express, were kept back
for the ordinary post; and this post went only once a day, leaving at
three in the afternoon. If, therefore, the packet arrived at four or
five o'clock, the letters were detained for the best part of twenty-four
hours. At Lyons the letters between England and Italy were being treated
after much the same fashion. On arrival in that town--such at least was
the complaint in the city--instead of being forwarded with all despatch,
they were forwarded seldom in due course and sometimes not at all.
M. Pajot was then director of the French posts; and in this capacity he
had signed the Treaty. In vain Cotton and Frankland called his attention
to the breach of its provisions. Their letter was not even acknowledged.
For the transit of British mails across French territory England had
agreed to pay to France the sum of 36,000 livres[22] a year, and a
remittance in payment of the instalment due was sent to Paris; but not
even of this could an acknowledgment be obtained. Let the nature of the
communication to him be what it would, Pajot maintained an obstinate
silence. When war broke out afresh, all intercourse between the two Post
Offices had ceased for nearly three years, and the debt due to France
had accumulated to the amount of 105,600 livres.
[22] Equal, at the then rate of exchange, to £2437:10s.
The cessation of the Dover packets in 1702 was soon followed by that of
the packets between Falmouth and the Groyne, but the want of any regular
means of communication with the Peninsular proved so inconvenient that,
before many months had passed, the service was re-established in a
slightly altered form. The boats, instead of stopping short at the
Groyne, were to run on to Lisbon; and two years later their number was
increased from two to five. This increase was due to political rather
than commercial reasons. It is true that an important commercial treaty
was about this time concluded with Portugal; but, what was considered of
far greater moment, the Archduke Charles after passing through London
had recently proceeded to that country in furtherance of his pretensions
to the throne of Spain. It was at once resolved that communication with
Lisbon should henceforth be weekly instead of only once a fortnight, and
for this purpose less than five boats were deemed insufficient.
But of all the packet services in existence at the beginning of the
eighteenth century none perhaps possesses more features of interest than
the service to the West Indies. In James the Second's reign a Post
Office had been established in Jamaica, and rates of postage had been
settled not only within the island itself but between the island and the
mother country. This was a new departure. In the original scheme of
postage as propounded by Witherings no charge had been imposed except in
return for some service. The same principle had been scrupulously
adhered to in the Acts of 1657 and 1660. Under these Acts, except where
a service was rendered or where payment for a service was made to
another country, no charge was provided for. Yet between England and
Jamaica, although the Crown was not at the cost of maintaining means of
transport, postage rates were fixed of 6d. a single letter, 1s. a double
letter, and 2s. an ounce. This was a pure tax, and the precedent, bad as
it was and of questionable legality, was soon extended to the case of
letters to America.
The war of 1702, while deranging other services, called the service to
the West Indies into being. The West India merchants, a designation even
then in vogue, were a large and important body, and, as opportunities of
intercourse by private ship became rare and uncertain, a demand arose
for some established means of communication. With the assistance of
Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy, sloops were provided to carry mails to
the Plantation Islands, and by way of helping to defray the cost, the
postage rates were increased by about one-half. The vessels sailed at
uncertain intervals, but otherwise the service was performed with
regularity, the voyage out and home occupying from 90 to 116 days.
Dummer was so well satisfied with the result of his management that,
rather than continue as mere agent for the postmasters-general, he
desired to perform the service on his own account. For the sum of
£12,500 a year he undertook to provide a monthly communication, and for
this purpose to build and equip five boats of 140 tons each, and
carrying twenty-six men and ten guns. These boats were to have two
decks, and any of them that should be lost or taken by the enemy were to
be replaced at his own cost. Of the £12,500 no more than £4500 was to be
paid down. Freight, which was limited to five tons out and ten tons
home, passenger fares, and postage were to go in part payment, and from
these Dummer expected to make up the difference. Postage alone he set
down at £6000; and that it might produce this sum he made it an express
stipulation that the rates to the West Indies should be raised to the
same level as those to Portugal, namely 1s. 3d. a single letter, 2s. 6d.
a double letter, and 6s. an ounce. To double the postage, he took for
granted, was to double the returns. Abler men than he and men living
nearer to our own times have fallen into the same error; but seldom,
probably, has it been sooner or more strikingly exposed.
The new rates came into operation in England in March, and in the West
Indies in April. The effect of the alteration, as would now be predicted
with confidence, was only slightly to increase the amount of postage and
largely to reduce the number of letters. It is so seldom that in matters
of this kind cause and effect are brought into such close approximation,
that we offer no apology for giving the postage which the correspondence
produced immediately before and immediately after the change:--
_To the West Indies._
Date on which the Packet
sailed from England. Amount of Postage.
Jan. 25, 1705 £44 1 4
Feb. 22 " 59 10 7
Mar. 29 " 100 5 3 (New rates)
Apr. 26 " 129 2 6
May 31 " 93 7 9
June 28 " 75 19 3
July 26 " 62 2 0
_From the West Indies._
Date on which the Packet
arrived in England. Amount of Postage.
Feb. 10, 1705 £316 19 0
Apr. 18 " 622 11 6 (New rates)
Aug. 6 " 629 15 6
Sept. 3 " 384 19 6
Oct. 1 " 369 6 6
Of course, the mails immediately after the change would carry what may
be called surprised letters, letters which had been posted before the
issue of the new regulations or before these regulations had become
generally known; and the mail arriving in August would bring also the
letters which had accumulated since the preceding April.
What at the present time is calculated to excite surprise is not that
the aggregate amounts of postage should not have increased in proportion
to the rates, but that these amounts should have been as high as they
were. Trade with the West Indies was, no doubt, considerable. And yet,
after making ample allowance on that score, of what sort can the
correspondence have been to produce postage of between £300 and £400 by
a single mail; and why should the amount in one direction have been
nearly five times as heavy as the amount in the other? The answer, we
think, is to be found in a letter which the postmasters-general wrote
about this time. A small box for the Commissioners for the Sick and
Wounded had come from Lisbon charged with postage of £26:2s. From this
charge the Commissioners sought to be relieved on the ground that the
box contained nothing but office accounts, which, besides being of no
intrinsic value, were on Her Majesty's business. To such arguments,
however, the postmasters-general turned a deaf ear. With the contents of
the box they were not concerned. All they knew or cared to know was that
it weighed eighty-seven ounces, and this weight, at the rate of 6s. an
ounce, gave £26:2s. Forego the charge in the present instance, and how,
they asked, could charges be any longer maintained on other packets not
less on Her Majesty's business than this box, packets from the Prize
Office, the Salt Office, the Customs and the Navy, and also, they added,
on the large bundles of muster-rolls from the regiments stationed in the
West Indies? In short, we entertain little doubt that the postage by the
homeward mails was largely derived from official correspondence,
correspondence which at the present time bears no postage at all.
The good fortune which had attended Dummer while acting as manager for
the postmasters-general entirely deserted him as soon as the service
came into his own hands. During the first twelve months the postage fell
short of his expectations by about one-third; and freight and
passengers, which he had estimated to produce £2000, produced little
more than one-sixth of that amount. Nor was this the worst. The very
first packet that sailed under his contract was taken by the enemy.
Another, not many months later, was cast away on the rocks off the
Island of Inagua; and a third fell into the hands of a privateer in the
Channel. A series of disasters which would have daunted most men seems
only to have inspired Dummer with fresh energy. Of the ultimate success
of his undertaking he entertained no doubt. He held as strongly as we
can hold at the present day, that trade and correspondence act and react
upon each other; and that these should thrive he considered nothing more
to be necessary than speed and regularity of communication.[23] With
good heart, therefore, he applied himself to replace the boats which
had been lost, fully determined that on his part no efforts should be
wanting to supply the conditions on which alone he conceived success to
depend.
[23] "It being a certain maxim," he wrote to the postmasters-general on
the 15th of February 1707, "that as Trade is the producer of
correspondence, so trade is governed and influenced by the certainty and
quickness of correspondence."
The packet stations at this time were four in number. Dover was closed.
Harwich and Falmouth were in full activity. Holyhead was a mere home
station for the transmission of the Irish correspondence; and, the
service being under contract, suffice it to say that the mails to Dublin
went twice a week and were transported with marked regularity. Of the
Harwich and Falmouth stations, managed as they were by the
postmasters-general, we propose to give some account.
Each station was presided over by an agent, whose province it was to see
that the packets were properly equipped and victualled, to arrange the
order of sailing, to keep the captains to their duty, and generally to
maintain order and regularity among the unruly spirits of which the
establishment was composed. The outward mails, on their arrival from
London, were to be despatched, if for Holland or for Portugal,
immediately, and if for the West Indies, within two days; and, as soon
as they were put on board, weights were to be attached to them so that
they might be sunk at once if in danger of being taken by the enemy. So
important was this precaution held to be that, although enjoined in the
general instructions, it was continually insisted upon in particular
cases. "Be sure," write the postmasters-general to one of their agents,
"that before the captain sails, he prepares everything to sink the mail
in case he shall be attacked by the enemy that he can't avoid being
taken"; and to another, "We would have you take care to affix a
sufficient weight to the mail so soon as 'tis on board"; and to a third,
"We do not doubt but the mails will be ready slung with weights
sufficient to sink them in case of danger of falling into the enemy's
hands." Another rule to which the postmasters-general attached great
importance was that more than two mails were not to go by the same boat.
This rule, however, could not always be observed, for the boats had an
awkward habit of finding themselves on the wrong side, and, by the time
one had arrived, there was an accumulation of mails to be disposed of.
The inward mails, as soon as they reached the port of arrival, were
forwarded to London by express. From Harwich the letters for the Court,
or State letters,[24] as they were now beginning to be called, were sent
in advance of the ordinary mail, arrangements having been made at the
Brill to put these letters into a special bag by themselves. From
Falmouth, where no provision had been made for distinguishing one class
of correspondence from another, the same express carried the whole.
When, as was sometimes the case, packets of documents reached the port
unenclosed with the rest of the letters, these were to be chained to the
"grand mail"; and on the label was always to be inserted the number of
passengers that had arrived by the boat, so that the postmasters along
the line of road might know for how many persons they had to provide
horses. Between Falmouth and London the mails when sent express
travelled at the rate of about five miles an hour; and this speed
appears to have been regularly maintained. Expresses to carry a single
letter or a message, or to overtake the Lisbon mail, were continually
passing to and fro, and these of course went faster. From Harwich the
mails would sometimes reach London in eleven hours, being at the rate of
six and a half miles an hour; but on this line of road there was so much
irregularity that the time ordinarily occupied in the journey cannot be
stated with certainty.[25]
[24] In 1706, Court or State letters, for at this time the terms were
used indiscriminately, were defined to be letters directed to "the
Queen, His Royal Highness the Prince, the Lord High Treasurer, and the
two principal Secretarys of State and their clarks." Sometimes, but more
rarely, they were called "Queen's letters."
[25] Here is one among many similar complaints addressed by the
postmasters-general to the packet agent at Harwich: "We admire to find
the two Bags with the States letters brought over by the Prince and
Dispatch which arrived at Harwich June 21st at 7 in the morning should
not be dispatcht till 10 the same day; as also at the comeing in of the
Mayls, one of which being dispatcht at 12 arrived here at 11 at night,
yet the other came not till 7 next morning."
The seamen on board the packets were paid in no case more than 30s. a
month and generally less; but the employment carried with it one great
advantage. This was exemption from impressment. Even the carpenters
hired to do odd jobs when the boats were in harbour were furnished with
protection orders.[26] Partly on this ground, and partly, no doubt, on
account of the gains to be derived from contraband traffic, admission to
the packet service appears to have been eagerly sought. At one time,
indeed, it threatened to become a matter of patronage; but the
consequences of a first step in that direction effectually prevented
another. The _Godolphin_ packet had been taken and carried by the enemy
into St. Malo. Her captain, a brave and experienced officer, did not
hesitate to attribute the loss of his vessel to sheer cowardice on the
part of the crew. One, at the first shot that was fired, had run down to
the doctor and declared that he was wounded, whereas no sign of a wound
was to be found upon him; another had taken shelter behind the mainmast;
a third had been heard to declare that he would not hazard the loss of
his little finger to save the packet. This conduct, as unprecedented as
it was scandalous, led to a searching investigation, when it transpired
that the so-called sailors were, many of them, no sailors at all, but
mere landlubbers who had been taken on out of complaisance to the local
gentry.
[26] The following is a specimen of the protection order given:--
To all Commanders and Officers of our Shipps, Pressmasters and others
whome it may concerne.
JAMES R.
You are not to imprest into our service any of the six persons hereunder
named belonging to the Jane of Dover, whereof Richard Moone is master,
the said vessell being employed in our service as a pacquett boate at
Dover. Given at our Court at Whitehall the 6th of October 1688.
By His Majesty's Command.
PEPYS
1. Anth. Deleau.
2. Jasper Moore.
3. David Williams.
4. Pet. Foster.
5. Dennis Matthew.
6. Wm. Ambross.
Each packet boat carried its own surgeon. A surgeon was also provided
for the care of the sick on shore. This medical supervision was
remunerated by means of a capitation allowance, an allowance of so much
per head; but whereas it would now be in respect to all persons under
the surgeon's charge, whether well or ill, it was then only in respect
to those that were ill--1s. a day for each sick person and 6s. 8d. for
each cure--a mode of payment which did not perhaps conduce to a speedy
recovery. To provide for casualties, a fund was established, towards the
support of which each seaman contributed 10d. a month out of his pay. If
he were killed in action, provision was made for his widow, and, if he
were wounded, he received a small annuity or, as it was called, Smart
and Bounty money, the amount of which was nicely apportioned to the
nature of his injury. Thus--
For each arm or leg amputated above the elbow
or knee he would receive £8 0 0 a year.
For each arm or leg amputated below the elbow
or knee 6 13 4 "
For the loss of the sight of one eye 4 0 0 "
For the loss of the pupil of the eye 5 0 0 "
For the loss of the sight of both eyes 12 0 0 "
For the loss of the pupils of both eyes 14 0 0 "
It is a ghastly bill of fare; and yet the sailors laid great store by
it. On one occasion, indeed, until assured that the transfer of a boat
to Dummer's management would not affect their claim to these annuities,
they absolutely refused to go to sea.
With few exceptions, no passenger was allowed on board a packet boat
without a pass from the Secretary of State. The exceptions were
shipwrecked seamen, recruits, and officers in charge of recruits.
Shipwrecked seamen went free, free from any charge for passage-money or
for maintenance. Recruits and officers in charge of recruits not being
above the rank of lieutenant were charged for maintenance but not for
passage-money. All others, though furnished with a passport, paid or
were expected to pay for both.
Of these rules, however, there would seem to have been no public
announcement, and this led to constant dispute and bickerings. An
interesting event was expected in one of the many English families
which at this time flocked to the Court of Portugal, and Dr. Crichton
was despatched to Lisbon with a cow. Furnished with a pass by the
Secretary of State he stoutly maintained his right to a free passage;
and this right the postmaster-general as stoutly disputed. Nor, assuming
the right to exist, could they conceal their surprise that under the
circumstances it should have been claimed. To demur to a paltry charge
of £4 indeed! Was it not notorious that for his mission to Portugal he
was to receive £1000? Lord Charlemont with a number of attendants had
crossed from Lisbon to Falmouth. The passage-money had been paid, and,
pleased with his entertainment, he desired to gratify the captain. The
captain's answer was to present a bill shewing what the entertainment
had cost, and, on payment being refused, he detained some valuable silks
which Lord Charlemont had consigned to his care. Lord Charlemont, on his
arrival in London, at once proceeded to Lombard Street and complained of
this treatment, when he learned for the first time that the
passage-money, which he had supposed to cover everything, was simply the
Queen's due, and that his entertainment had been provided at the
captain's own cost.
Even the packet agents themselves appear to have been insufficiently
instructed. On one occasion the Queen's domestic servants on their
return from Lisbon, whither they had been despatched in attendance on
the Archduke Charles, were allowed to pass free. On another,
passage-money was omitted to be collected from some workmen who had been
sent to Portugal by the Board of Ordnance. In both cases the act of
their subordinate was repudiated by the postmasters-general. Proper as
it might be that the Queen's domestic servants should have their passage
provided--was this to be done at the expense of the Post Office? Forego
payment in this instance, and where were they to stop? They must press
their demand; and the demand was eventually satisfied. From the Board of
Ordnance they did not even attempt to recover, aware probably of the
futility of any such step; but the act of their agent in letting the
workmen pass free evoked an earnest remonstrance. Does not the Board of
Ordnance, they asked, charge us for the very powder we use; and yet,
forsooth, you take upon yourself to give to their workmen a free
passage. "Every office," they added--and the maxim might still, perhaps,
be observed with advantage--"ought to keep its own accompt distinct."
But it was with officers of the army who were continually passing to and
fro that the most frequent disputes arose. They apparently did not
understand, and possibly the Post Office might have had some difficulty
in explaining, why lieutenants in charge of recruits should be exempt
from payment of fare and not officers of higher rank when employed on
similar business; or why indeed officers engaged in fighting their
country's battles should not have a free passage on board Her Majesty's
packets. It had been the custom not to collect the fares until the end
of the voyage; but it was found that, the voyage once accomplished,
payment of the fares was not uncommonly refused. Accordingly it was
determined that they should be collected beforehand, and that no officer
not being a recruiting officer and producing a certificate to that
effect should be received on board on trust. Recourse was thereupon had
to every sort of artifice in order to evade payment. Officers above the
rank of lieutenant would represent themselves as being of that rank, and
they would even enrol their own servants as recruits to make it appear
that they were engaged in recruiting business.
Through Harwich, now that Dover was closed, lay the only route to the
Continent; and among the passengers frequenting this route were some to
whom, for one reason or another, special attention was given. Baron
Hompesch and Brigadier-General Cadogan are on their way to Holland. The
packet is to be detained "till Thursday noon, at which time they think
to reach Harwich." M. Rosenerantz, the Danish envoy, is returning to his
own country. No passengers are to be admitted on board until he and his
suite have been accommodated. A Queen's messenger is coming with "one
Castello," who is in custody. This person is to be made over to the
captain of the packet that sails next, and on arrival at the Brill is to
be set on shore. Dirick Wolters is expected from Holland, if indeed he
be not already arrived and secreted in Harwich. No pains are to be
spared to discover and apprehend him, and to secure the sealed box he
carries "directed to a person of note in London."
Goods, like passengers, were not allowed to be carried by the packets
without the express permission of the Secretary of State; and this
permission was seldom given except in the case of presents to royal
personages and of articles for the use of persons of note residing
abroad. Hence, such things as the following were being continually
consigned to the care of the postmasters-general, with a request that
they might be forwarded by the next boat:--
Fifteen couple of dogs for the King of the Romans.
Necessaries for Her Majesty the Queen-Dowager's service at Lisbon.
Three pounds of tea from Lady Arlington for the use of Her Majesty
the Queen-Dowager of England.
Two cases of trimming for the King of Spain's liveries.
Two bales of stockings for the use of the Portuguese Ambassador.
Three suits of clothes for some nobleman's ladies at the Court of
Portugal.
A box of medicines for the use of the Earl of Galway.
As the packets and everything on board of them were exempt from
examination by the Customs authorities, there are no means of knowing
how far a pass, where a pass had been obtained, was confined to its
ostensible object. But it is impossible not to entertain suspicions on
the subject. On one occasion the Portuguese envoy obtained permission to
send by the packet six cases, which he certified to contain arms for the
use of his Sovereign. The lightness of the packages when brought to the
scale excited suspicion, and on examination they were found to contain
not arms but dutiable goods. To a tradesman at Truro, in exception to
rule, a pass had been granted which authorised him to send by the Lisbon
packet ten tons of hats. Ten tons weight of hats, or what purported to
be hats, had long been exported, and yet more and more hats were being
regularly despatched by every packet.
But although without passes goods and passengers were prohibited on
board the packets, it is certain that the prohibition was habitually
infringed. The packet agents' instructions were to keep a record of the
names and quality of all passengers, and to transmit a copy to London.
Even if this were a complete and faithful record, the postmasters-general
could not know that each passenger had produced his pass. The
Secretaries of State, however, appear to have possessed some means
of information unknown to the Post Office, and, in the matter of
passengers, they were continually complaining of the regulations being
broken. At one time it is Mr. Joseph Percival, a merchant of Lisbon, who
comes over without a passport--which, from the tenor of Lord
Sunderland's letter, the postmasters-general apprehend to be "an affair
of moment." At another it is a Mr. Jackson who, also without a passport,
crosses from Harwich to Holland. In this case Mr. Secretary Boyle
affirms that the packet agent received a bribe of two guineas. To let
passengers come by the Harwich packets without passports, he declares
later on, has become a common practice.
In the matter of goods the evidence of irregularity is still stronger.
Captain Culverden of the _Queen_ packet boat brings into Falmouth
thirty-six bags and seven baskets of salt, and there lands it
clandestinely. Captain Rogers smuggles over twenty bags and one cask of
the same material. Captain Urin from the West Indies makes Plymouth
instead of Falmouth. Stress of weather is pleaded in excuse; but the
postmasters-general feel sure that he might have made Falmouth, had he
not "had private instructions otherwise." "We are uneasie," they say,
"thus to find the West India boats for the most part driven to Plymouth,
or to Liverpool or some port contrary to what is prescribed by our
instructions."
But of all the captains there was none who in the audacity of his
proceedings equalled Francis Clies. Clies had recently succeeded his
father in the command of the _Expedition_ packet boat. On his very first
voyage home from Lisbon he was much behind time, having according to his
own account been driven upon the coast of Ireland. On his second voyage
he was later still. The time of his arrival at Falmouth had long passed,
and serious apprehensions began to be entertained for his safety. At
length a letter came from him dated at Kinsale, explaining that want of
provisions had obliged him to put in there. "We have," wrote the
postmasters-general, "very impatiently expected the arrival of the
_Expedition_, which has been very long wanting, and are much concerned
to find the second voyage even more tedious than the first; but are glad
to find her at last safe arrived." "We would know," they added, "for how
many days provisions had been put on board, and whether the _Expedition_
sails not as well as formerly." Before a reply could be received to this
pertinent inquiry, the Commissioners of Customs had lodged at the Post
Office a formal complaint, in which Captain Clies was charged with
bringing over from Ireland several bales of friezes and other woollen
manufactures. The postmasters-general were deeply shocked. Not only was
this a breach of the packet boat regulations, but to transport goods
from what would now be one part of the United Kingdom to another was at
that time prohibited by law under heavy penalties. If this charge be
proved, they wrote to their packet agent at Falmouth, "we shall not be
much to seek why the captain should be two succeeding voyages forced
upon the coast of Ireland, when we have not had above one instance of
that kind besides himself during this war." Narrow as was Clies's escape
on this occasion, not four months elapsed before the postmasters-general
were again condoling with him on another "very tedious voyage."
It may here be mentioned, as an instance of the inconsistency of human
nature, that, although the packets were not provided with chaplains,
there were two boats on board of which prayers were regularly said
every morning and evening, and that of these two boats the _Expedition_
was one.
Outwards as well as inwards the packet boats were, at the beginning of
the eighteenth century, carrying goods in defiance of regulation and of
law. Sir Paul Methuen, the author of the famous Commercial Treaty which
bears his name, was at that time our ambassador to Portugal. His
attention had been arrested by the large quantities of merchandise which
the packet boats were continually bringing over from England, and in
1705 he made to the postmasters-general a formal representation on the
subject. "In Lisbon," he stated, "there is a public market for English
goods as often as the boats come in." Nor was the allegation denied by
the persons implicated. They must, they said, live somehow. And this
plea, generally the refuge of the idle and worthless, had in it in the
present instance more force than might at first be supposed. The crews
of the packets were paid only once in six months, and, as a check upon
their conduct, six months' pay was always kept in arrear. Thus, before
receiving any pay at all they had to work twelve months, and even at the
expiration of twelve months there was not always money at hand with
which to pay them.
At Harwich, there can be no doubt, the same malpractices were going on
as at Falmouth; but, owing to the almost unequalled facilities which the
east coast affords for clandestine traffic, detection less speedily
followed. In the movements of the packet boats there was much that was
mysterious. Their frequent disappearance for long periods together when
the wind was blowing from the quarter most favourable to their return,
and their occasional punctuality when the wind was contrary and they
were least expected, involved a contradiction which the
postmasters-general found it hard to reconcile. "In our whole
experience," they wrote to the packet agent on the 3rd of October 1704,
"the passage of the mails was never so unconstant as it has been this
last year." "You must be very sensible what reproach we have been
brought under" in consequence. The ink was hardly dry on their pen
before information reached them that on the 2nd of the month two packet
boats had returned to Harwich, of which one had been gone since the 10th
and the other since the 19th of September. Meanwhile the winds had been
fair, and had carried out the men-of-war and transports from Spithead.
"We have writ you so often," wrote the postmasters-general to the
laggard captains, "upon these neglects of yours," and you have paid so
little regard to our admonitions, that "you may expect to find when too
late that we are not to be trifled with." The effect of this caution, if
effect it had, was of short duration. "We are," they wrote only a few
months later, "under a perpetual uneasiness and distrust," on account of
the irregularity of the Harwich boats. "Our reputation has very much
suffered in consequence, and we are looked upon at Court as remiss in
our duty." Hitherto we have ever been ready to "take any appearance of
reason or probability to excuse the commanders, but do now, having had
these frequent provocations so often repeated, resolve to do justice to
ourselves, and to have no other regard than the merit of the service."
"Pray make inquiries," they say on another occasion, when no less than
three boats are unaccountably behind time. It is of no use writing to
Mr. Vanderpoel, "for he always favours the captains' pretences." Mr.
Vanderpoel was packet agent at the Brill. He had stood high in William's
favour, and was still drawing an allowance of £100 a year which, as an
act of grace, that King had bestowed upon him in addition to his salary.
"When we last waited on the Lord High Treasurer and Secretary of State,"
wrote the postmasters-general again on the 14th of June 1705, "we found
them in their former opinion that there must be some secret more than
ordinary that the boats should so frequently when least expected make
their passage, and when the winds have in all appearance been most
favourable, the mails then most delayed." A secret no doubt there was;
but, profoundly dissatisfied as the postmasters-general were, no
suspicion appears to have crossed their minds that the packet boats were
engaged in other and more exciting pursuits than the transport of
mails.
The captains of the packet boats were strictly forbidden to give chase.
Their instructions were to fight, if fight they must, to avoid fighting
wherever possible, and in no case to go in quest of adventure. In the
case of the Falmouth boats, carrying as they did a considerable number
of men and of guns, there can be little doubt that the prohibition was
habitually infringed. Even Cotton and Frankland, with all their
credulity, would seem to have entertained suspicions on the point; and
yet when notice was given them that a fat prize had been captured, their
instincts as Englishmen prevailed, and with a chuckle of satisfaction
they would accept the result of their servants' prowess without too
minutely inquiring into the circumstances under which that result had
been achieved. "Well done," they would say in effect. "We heartily
congratulate you. It has indeed been a tedious voyage; but of course you
did not pursue. This, as you are aware, would be contrary to our
instructions, which are to do nothing that might retard or endanger Her
Majesty's mails. We shall make known your gallantry to the Lord High
Treasurer, and move His Royal Highness the Prince to bestow on you some
signal mark of favour." The Prince was at this time Lord High Admiral,
and the captains of the packet boats having only sailing commissions,
were not, like the captains in the Royal Navy and the commanders of
letters of marque, entitled as of right to the prizes they took. These
were the perquisites of the Lord High Admiral, and were by him resigned
to the Queen.
When a prize was captured, it was seldom taken in tow. This would have
retarded the progress of the mails. The practice was for the two
captains, the victor and the vanquished, to agree upon the amount of
ransom, and to give and receive bills for the amount, one or more
hostages being taken as security for payment. The agreement was reduced
to writing and made out in duplicate, so that each captain might have a
copy, and it set forth where and to whom the money was to be paid. As a
rule, the conditions appear to have been honourably observed. Some few
exceptions, no doubt, there were. In 1708 the _James_ packet was
captured, and, after the amount of ransom had been inserted in the
agreement, the French captain fraudulently altered the figures. A still
worse case occurred on the English side. The _Prince_ packet boat
captured a vessel which was ransomed for 2500 pieces of eight.[27] This
vessel, as it afterwards transpired, was plundered both before and after
the ransom was agreed upon; and, more than this, the English captain
refused or neglected to give her a protection order, the consequence
being that, subsequently falling in with some merchant ships, she was
taken and plundered again. But these were exceptions, and it is some
satisfaction to know that the last-mentioned captain was soon driven out
of the service.[28]
[27] Equal to £562:10s.
[28] This captain had long been noted for his truculent conduct. Here is
a letter which the postmasters-general had written to him two or three
years before:--
GENERAL POST OFFICE, _May 13, 1704_.
CAPTAIN CHENAL--We received the mail from Portugal brought over by you
in the _Mansbridge_ packet boat which arriv'd here on Wednesday last. We
yesterday received your letter and journal of the said voyage, with the
certificate from the sailors who remained in the service the last
voyage. We are concern'd to find such differences among persons imploy'd
under us, but do think the best way to compose them is to advise every
one to mind their proper business and duty. We do think you may keep all
your officers and sailors to strict duty without so rugged a treatment
as is complain'd of. As we are desirous of good discipline, so are we of
good agreement, to which we would have our agent and yourself to
contribute your endeavours.
We herewith send you a specimen of a method to keep an abstract of your
journal by which you would save yourself and us much trouble by
observing.--We are, your loving friends,
R. COTTON.
T. FRANKLAND.
Pending payment of the ransom, the hostages were kept in prison.
Ordinarily, their confinement was not of long duration; and if we cite
an instance to the contrary, it is because it aptly illustrates the
rough-and-ready sort of justice which was administered in those days.
Clies, the captain of the _Expedition_, after many desperate
engagements in which he had come off victorious, had been forced at last
to strike his colours. Four French men-of-war had surrounded him, and
having lost his masts, he had no choice but to yield. The ransom agreed
upon was £550, and as security for payment of this amount the master of
the _Expedition_ and Clies's son, who was a midshipman on board the same
vessel, were taken as hostages. This was in February, and they did not
return to England until November. Meanwhile they had been imprisoned at
Cadiz, where they endured the severest privations. Cold and damp and the
want of the common necessaries of life, while affecting the health of
both, had permanently disabled the master and brought him to the point
of death. This appeared to the postmasters-general to be a case for
compensation. And yet whence was compensation to come? They were not
long in solving the question. It was a mere accident, they argued, that
these particular hostages had been selected. The selection might have
fallen upon any others of the ship's company. Yet these others had been
receiving their pay and enjoying their liberty. Surely it was for them
to compensate those at whose cost they had themselves escaped captivity
and its attendant horrors. Accordingly the ship's company were mulcted
in a whole month's pay, amounting to £118, of which sum the midshipman
received £20 and the master £98; and the decision appears to have evoked
neither murmur nor remonstrance.
In one respect the two packet stations were conducted on different
principles. At Falmouth the agent was also victualler. At Harwich
victuals and all other necessaries were provided by the Post Office.
Neither plan was entirely free from objection. Where the agent was
victualler, he naturally desired to make what he could out of his
contract; and hence arose frequent complaints from the seamen as to both
the quantity and quality of their food. Nor were such undertakings well
adapted to those days of violent fluctuations of prices. The years 1709
and 1710 were years of scarcity, during which the cost of all
provisions was nearly doubled. Fortunately, when the first of these
years arrived, the packet agent's contract to victual for a daily
allowance of 7d. a head had just expired, or the consequences to him or
to the seamen must have been disastrous. But, from a public point of
view, the chief drawback to the union of the offices of agent and
victualler was that the victualling arrangements were apt to interfere
with the movements of the boats. The _Prince_ packet boat was due to
start on a particular day, and to an inquiry whether she would not be
ready, the answer which the postmasters-general received was, "No; our
beer is not yet brewed."
At Harwich the inconvenience of a contrary system, a system under which
the Post Office undertook its own victualling, was illustrated in a
striking manner. There no bill for provisions represented what the
provisions had really cost. To the actual cost was habitually added a
further sum, which, under the name of percentages, went into the pockets
of those by whom the order had been given. Of the extent to which these
overcharges were carried we are not informed in the particular case of
victuals; but other cases in which information is given will perhaps
serve as a guide. Holland-duck for the use of the packet boats was
brought over from Holland freight-free. Yet in Harwich the Post Office
was charged for it 2s. 2d. a yard. In London a yard of the same
material, freight included, cost 2s. In London the price of 1 cwt. of
cordage was 30s.; in Harwich it was 40s. For piloting a packet boat from
Harwich to the Downs the Post Office was charged £7. Inquiry at the
Admiralty elicited that for ships of the same size belonging to the
Royal Navy the charge never exceeded £3:15s. The plain truth seems to be
that both at Harwich and at Falmouth the packet agents were in the power
of the captains, and the captains in the power of the packet agents, and
that they all combined to impose upon the postmasters-general.
Of the number of letters which the Harwich and Falmouth packets carried
we know little or nothing. In the one case we have absolutely no
information. In the other there remains on record a single letter-bill
applicable to a particular voyage. Of this letter-bill we will only
observe that, for reasons immaterial to the present purpose, it became
the subject of a good deal of correspondence, and it is not unreasonable
to suppose that, had the number of letters entered in it been much above
or much below the average, the point could hardly have escaped remark.
The document is as follows:--
28 April 1705.
Received on board the _Prince_ Packet Boat the following Packets
and letters.
Zech: Rogers ... Commander.
From my Lord Ambassador ... a Bag of Letters directed to Mr.
Jones.[29]
Sixteen Packetts and letters for Her Majestie's Service.
From the King of Spain ... a very large Packett.
For London and Holland ... Double and Single letters ... Two
hundred and ninety six.
Thirteen Packetts Do.
Devonshire letters ... Double and Single ... Twenty nine ... and
three Packetts.
For Falmouth ... Double and Single letters ... six.
Two mails for London.
Outward-bound.
No Passengers.
Homeward-bound.
One English Merchant.
Three Dutch Gentlemen.
Four poor sailors discharged from Her Majestie's Ship _Antelope_
being incapable for the Service.
[29] The packet agent at Falmouth.
There were persons who thought that the packet boats might well be
employed to do something more than carry to and fro a mere handful of
letters. Among those who held this opinion was Colonel Stanwix. He
contended that the Lisbon packets should be required to carry not only
the mails, but recruits for the English forces in Portugal. By transport
the fixed charge for each recruit was £4. This expense would be saved to
the public, and the regiments would receive additions to their strength
not fitfully, but at regular intervals. Subject to certain conditions,
the postmasters-general resolved to give the plan a trial. The
conditions were that not more than fifty recruits should go in one boat,
and that, instead of passing free, as Colonel Stanwix had proposed, they
should be charged £1 apiece--that is, 10s. for victualling, and 10s. for
freight. The experiment was attended with deplorable results. It was
midwinter. The recruits had been huddled together in Pendennis Castle,
under a strong guard, to prevent desertion. Half-naked and only half-fed
they were led or driven to the boat, and hardly were they on board
before the distemper broke out among them. Many fell victims to it; many
others, on arrival at Lisbon, were carried to the hospital, and even the
strongest among them were barely able to stagger ashore. The return
voyage was hardly less disastrous. The crew now took the disease, and as
they lay dying and dead upon the deck, a vessel of French build was to
be seen bearing down upon them. Resistance in the circumstances was out
of the question, and nothing remained but to save the guns. These, ten
in number, were with difficulty thrown overboard, and no sooner was the
task accomplished than the vessel, which had by this time come within
speaking distance, proved to be Her Majesty's ship _Assurance_.
The liberty allowed to the Royal Navy to employ for its own purposes
prizes taken at sea did not extend to the packet service. The Post
Office was forbidden, under severe penalties, to use foreign bottoms.
Often had convenience and economy to yield to the stern dictates of the
law. Now it is a French shallop, admirably adapted for a packet boat,
which has to be discarded simply because it is French; and now an
express to Lisbon is on the point of being delayed because the regular
packets are on the wrong side, and the only boat to be hired in Falmouth
is not English built.
On the 20th of September 1707 the Queen, attended by her Court, set out
for Newmarket. In this visit there was nothing unusual, but it will
serve as well as any other to demonstrate that the close connection
which had once subsisted between the posts and the Crown was not yet
completely severed. In attendance upon his royal mistress was
Court-post. This office, to which appointment was made by patent, had
until lately been held by Sir Thomas Dereham. Court-post's duty was to
carry letters between the Court and the nearest stage or post-town, a
duty deemed so arduous that his stipend had been recently doubled, and
now stood at £365 a year. At Newmarket and at Windsor, indeed, he had no
long distance to traverse, these towns being post-towns; but when the
Court was in London or at Hampton his journey was longer. In London he
had to carry the letters between Kensington or Whitehall and Lombard
Street; and when at Hampton, Hampton not being a post-town, he had to
carry them to and from Kingston.
Besides Court-post there was now in the royal train the comptroller of
the London sorting office, William Frankland, son of one of the
postmasters-general. What Frankland's precise functions were we are not
informed, but he was, in the language of the time, "in attendance on Her
Majesty in the care of her letters." At Harwich, as soon as the mail
arrived from Holland, the seals of the bags were to be broken, and the
letters for the Court to be picked out and sent to Newmarket by express.
This was, in effect, to establish a cross-post at a time when
cross-posts did not exist. Moments, which would now be judged precious,
appear to have been then of little account. Of the letters before they
left Harwich the addresses were to be copied; and on arrival at
Newmarket the express was to take them, not to the Palace, but to the
Post Office, whither they were to be addressed under cover to Frankland.
The Post Office once reached, how Frankland and Court-post were to
adjust their respective duties is a point as obscure as it is, perhaps,
unimportant. At the present day, when the palace possesses no postal
facilities which are not enjoyed by the cottage, a single provision in
the Statute-book is all that is left to remind us that at one time the
posts were centred in the Sovereign. This provision, in exception to the
practice which jealously excludes the Sovereign's name from all parts
of an Act of Parliament except, indeed, the preamble, prescribes that
the posts shall be settled, not as the Secretary of State or the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury may direct, but according to the
directions of Her Majesty. To Her Majesty alone the law still leaves the
supreme control over the posts, although it may well be believed that
the ministers would claim to act on her behalf.[30]
[30] The provision is as follows: "And for the better management of the
Post Office, be it enacted that the postmaster-general shall observe
such orders and instructions concerning the settlement of Posts and
stages upon the several roads, Cross roads, and Byeways within the
United Kingdom and other Her Majesty's Dominions, as Her Majesty shall
from time to time give in that behalf."--1 Vic. cap. xxxiii. sec. 8.
After the battle of Ramillies, which put the Confederates in possession
of Ostend, the packet service between England and Flanders, which had
been suspended four years before, was re-established. The result
disappointed expectations. The Government appear to have thought that it
was only necessary to revive the service and the correspondence would at
once resume its old proportions. But meanwhile the letters from Flanders
to England had found a new channel. No sooner had Ostend been closed
than they were diverted through Holland. To reverse this arrangement,
involving as it would a readjustment of the internal posts, must, in any
case, have been a work of time; and it was a work on which the Flemish
authorities were little likely to embark so long as the neighbourhood of
Ostend or any considerable portion of it remained in the enemy's hands.
Of all this the postmasters-general were perfectly well aware, and they
can have felt no disappointment that, on the first reopening of the
Ostend route, the letters passing that way were extremely few; but the
ministers, who had not the postmaster-generals' experience to guide
them, grew impatient with a service which was maintained at heavy cost,
and produced little or no return. Accordingly, having restored the
service in June, they discontinued it in August; and no sooner were the
boats dispersed than orders were given to restore it again.
This sudden change of purpose, we think there can be little doubt, was
due to the influence of the Duke of Marlborough, who began about this
time to take a lively interest in the postal communication with
Flanders. Though not surprised at the meagreness of the correspondence,
the postmasters-general were little prepared to find that, after the
Confederates became masters of Ostend, the passage between that port and
Dover would be even less safe than it had been before. Yet such was the
case. The Flemish seamen, no longer able to obtain employment at home,
flocked across the French border and joined with their foes of yesterday
in preying upon the English shipping. As a consequence the Channel now
swarmed with privateers. On the 25th of January a Dover packet, named
_Ostend_ after the port to which she ran, was taken by a Nieuport
privateer of ten guns and eighty men. The captain who brought this
intelligence had himself had a narrow escape. Five privateers had
extended themselves from Nieuport to Ostend in order to intercept him,
and, after a sharp engagement, in which he was nearly captured, had
forced him to make Harwich.
In this conjuncture the postmasters-general acted with remarkable
energy, but with little regard to what would now be considered official
propriety. Not content with making representations to the Secretary of
State, they wrote direct to the English ambassador at the Hague,
desiring him to urge upon the States of Flanders and Brabant the
necessity of at once fitting out three or four ships of the Ostend
squadron, with the twofold object of recalling the seamen to their duty
and of clearing the coast. They at the same time waited upon M. Van
Vrybergh, the envoy extraordinary from the States-General to the Court
of St. James', and exacted from him a promise that he would exercise his
influence in the same direction. But relief was soon to come, and from
an unexpected quarter. Lewis the Fourteenth, by way of creating a
diversion in the Netherlands, resolved to assist the Pretender in making
a descent upon Scotland, and with this view he assembled a squadron
before Dunkirk. England had no choice but to follow suit. Within an
incredibly short space of time she equipped a fleet, and this fleet,
under the command of Sir George Byng, left Deal for Dunkirk in the
spring of 1708. How the Pretender evaded Byng, and how Byng pursued the
Pretender and frustrated his object, are matters of history; but what
concerns us at the present moment is that, before starting in pursuit,
Byng detached a squadron for the purpose of bringing over some of the
English troops which were about to be embarked at Ostend. It is probable
that this squadron, after its immediate object had been accomplished,
remained in or about the Channel, for after this time we hear no more of
depredations on the Post Office packets.
Experience shews that there is a class, and not an inconsiderable class,
of persons who, in time of war, find it hard to reconcile themselves to
the pursuits of peace. John Macky, the packet agent at Dover, was one of
these. The proximity of the battle-field, its easy access from Dover,
and the stirring accounts arriving by every packet fired his imagination
and filled him with martial ardour. Under the influence of this
excitement he addressed a memorial to the postmasters-general, praying
that he might be commissioned to go over to Flanders and settle posts
for the army. This application he appears to have supported by the most
unfortunate arguments. He urged not that it was a thing in itself
reasonable and proper that the army should have posts of its own, and
that his experience might be useful in establishing them, but that at
Dover, though his salary was comparatively high, he had little or
nothing to do, and that the commission for which he asked would give him
employment more congenial to his tastes. The postmasters-general could
not conceal their astonishment at the audacity of the proposal and the
grounds on which it was based. "We were never before made sensible,"
they wrote, "that the business of the agent to the packet boats at Dover
was so very inconsiderable as you have represented it to be, nor do we
think that for so inconsiderable a business so high a salary can be
needed." "We can only say," they added, "that if the present allowance
be too much for the work, or if the employ be too mean for your
expectations, we doubt not but that we shall be able to find those who
will thankfully accept the post with an allowance that is much less."
But Macky's restlessness was not to be subdued by a mere admonition. As
he could not prevail on the postmasters-general to send him to Flanders
on official business, he asked to be allowed to go on his own account.
This permission they readily gave, accompanying it, however, with a
remarkable caution. "We must expect," they said, "that you do not
intermeddle in any ways upon the business of the Flanders
correspondence, or enter into any sort of treaty for the port of letters
or jobbing of places which may bring us under any inconveniencys or our
authority under any disreputation. We expect you take particular caution
of these matters and wish you a good journey."
Within four months from the date of this caution Macky's relations to
the Post Office had greatly altered. To the position of packet agent he
now added that of contractor, having undertaken himself to provide for
the Dover and Ostend service. For the sum of £2000 a year he was to
supply four boats between twenty and thirty tons each, and to be at all
risks from sea and enemy. One effect of this arrangement, by which Macky
the contractor was to be controlled by Macky the packet agent, was to
prolong his visit to Flanders. Under the pretext of keeping the captains
to their duty he remained there until March or April 1708, when he
returned to England, after an absence of eight or nine months. Meanwhile
the packets to Ostend, like those to Holland and to Portugal, had been
engaged in illicit practices. According to a complaint received from the
Commissioners of Customs immediately before Macky's return, clandestine
traffic was being systematically carried on, and the very last boat that
had arrived had brought parcels of lace concealed in the flap of the
mail. The postmasters-general were deeply annoyed. "Let this go on,"
they exclaimed, "and the mails themselves will be searched, to the great
scandal of the office and of our management."
We have been thus particular in recording Macky's movements, because in
connection with the service under his control an incident now occurred
which brought the Post Office into serious discredit. The
postmasters-general, in virtue of their office, which gave them control
over the communications of the country, were in the habit of receiving
priority of intelligence; and this at a time when intelligence travelled
slowly and the means of disseminating it did not exist or existed only
in the rudest form. Hence they acquired an importance which the mere
office of postmaster-general, as that office is now understood, would
not have conferred. An interest attached to them as to men who were
reputed to possess exclusive information. They were welcome at Court,
and not only welcome but often anxiously expected. Indeed, to act as
purveyor of news to the Court had come to be regarded as one and by no
means the least important of their duties; and with a view to its more
effectual discharge their agents throughout the country had standing
orders to send to headquarters the earliest intimation of any remarkable
event that might happen in their locality. When any one of these persons
was venturesome enough to send to his chiefs a present, the thanks he
received were of the coldest,--"We thank you for the snuff," or, "We
thank you for the port wine," and then was pretty sure to follow a sharp
rebuke for some trifling irregularity, which, except for the present,
would probably have passed unnoticed. But when a piece of news was sent,
the thanks were warm and hearty; and woe betide the unfortunate agent
who had news to send and omitted to send it. "We observe you give us no
advice of the fleet under Sir George Byng being seen off Falmouth the
28th, tho' we saw letters from Falmouth which advised thereof. We are
desirous to have the first advice of any remarkable news." "We received
two Flanders mails on Sunday morning, and therewith your letter of the
5th advising of the Duke of Marlborough's being arrived at Flushing, for
which account we thank you." "We do heartily congratulate your safe
return, and do thank you for being so full and particular in the
advices you have given us of what occurrences have come to your
knowledge." "We are obliged to you for the news of the Nassau and
Burford's prizes of which we had received advice before by some galleys
from Gibraltar, and for your kind promise of communicating to us any
considerable occurrences that may happen in your parts." "We thank you
for sending us an account of all news and remarkable occurrences in your
letters which we desire may be sent in the mails or annext to the
labels." "We cannot but take very ill the captain's conduct on this
occasion, for Mr. Bowen's intentions in sending his son over to bring so
great a piece of news as that of the victory[31] to us ought to be
esteemed as a great piece of civility, and, if the captain had not
refused to sail when Mr. Bowen pressed him, we might have had the
satisfaction of carrying the first account of that victory."
[31] The victory at Oudenarde. Who Mr. Bowen was we are not informed.
It was in the early summer of 1709, when this greed after news was at
its height, that intelligence of vast import to the country was expected
to arrive in London. Preliminaries of peace, after being arranged in
Flanders, had been forwarded to Paris for confirmation. Would the King
sign them? Or must the war which had already lasted more than six years
be continued? A period of anxious suspense followed. The exhaustion of
France, and the humiliating terms which were sought to be imposed upon
her, made it certain that there would be neither ready acceptance nor
ready rejection; and yet the latest date had passed on which a decision
was expected and none had arrived. London was in a fever of expectation.
Each mail from Ostend, as it reached the Post Office in Lombard Street,
was eagerly seized and opened. The month of May was drawing to a close.
On Saturday the 28th there was not only no news but no mail. Sunday came
and, to the consternation of the postmasters-general, there was still no
mail. The wind was in the right quarter. At Harwich the packets from
Holland were arriving regularly. What could hinder the passage from
Ostend? At length on Monday the 30th a mail arrived, and with it the
news. The King had refused to sign the preliminaries of peace. Frankland
and Evelyn[32] hurried off to the Lord Treasurer. Little were they
prepared for the reception that awaited them. Godolphin's words have
unfortunately not been preserved, but we know the substance of them. The
news, he said, had reached the city the day before, having been conveyed
there clandestinely. The packet agent or sub-agent at Ostend had sent
it. Of this he held in his hand conclusive evidence. What means had been
employed, and whether others were concerned in the nefarious
transaction, it was for his hearers to ascertain; and the sooner they
addressed themselves to the task the better. In short, the power of the
purse had again prevailed, and the Post Office had been outwitted by the
Stock Exchange.
[32] Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Evelyn had recently succeeded Sir Robert
Cotton as postmaster-general.
It is difficult to suppose that the intelligence can have been conveyed
from Ostend to London without Macky's connivance. And yet Frankland and
Evelyn believed or affected to believe that he had had no hand in the
business. Their position was, no doubt, one of embarrassment. Organised
as the Post Office then was, they possessed no means of making an
independent investigation. They contented themselves, therefore, with
calling upon Macky to ascertain and report how it was that a letter from
Ostend had reached London on Sunday, although on that day there had been
no mail. The result might easily have been foreseen. Brown, the
sub-agent at Ostend, whose letter it was, stood self-condemned, and
Macky was required to dismiss him. And here the scandal ended. Macky's
own character, with himself as reporter, may be presumed to have been
cleared. At all events he appears to have been taken back into
confidence, and, before many weeks were over, the postmasters-general
had despatched him on an important mission.
This mission was no other than to lay down posts for the army in
Flanders. The tardiness with which intelligence arrived from the seat of
war had long been matter of complaint. In the city especially the
dissatisfaction had been intense, and the recent scandal had not been
calculated to allay it. With a view to remedy this state of things,
Godolphin called upon the postmasters-general to devise some means for
securing more rapid communication. The army was now in the neighbourhood
of Lisle, and operations were about to begin anew. There was, therefore,
no time to be lost. The postmasters-general had recourse to Macky, and
in a few days he produced a plan with which Godolphin expressed himself
highly pleased. Between Lisle and Ostend, and between Ostend and other
places where the army might be, stages were to be settled; at each stage
were to be relays of horses with postilions ready to start at any
moment; responsible persons were to be appointed to collect and deliver
the letters and to receive the postage; and the postage was to be
regulated by distance and to be at the same rates as in England, and to
go to the English Post Office.
Macky, to his extreme gratification, was commissioned to carry out his
own plan. He was to repair at once to Flanders, to report himself to the
Duke of Marlborough, and, having obtained his sanction, to proceed with
the arrangement of details. Above all, he was to keep a close watch upon
the sailing of the packets from Ostend, and to insist upon a rigid
punctuality. From this time no more complaints were heard of the tardy
arrival of intelligence from the seat of war. As postilions were
employed on one side of the water, so expresses were employed on the
other; and these, with punctual sailings between port and port,
constituted a service which for those days might be considered
excellent.
At first, indeed, the employment of expresses from Dover to London
appears to have been a little overdone, and the postmasters-general,
eager as they were to obtain early intelligence, found it necessary to
regulate the practice. An express had arrived bringing a letter from
Macky in Flanders. "Altho' we should be very well satisfied," they wrote
to his deputy at Dover, "to receive an extraordinary piece of good news
by a messenger hired for greater dispatch' sake, yet on ordinary
occasions it might be more warrantable and make less noise and
expectation to have the same sent by a flying pacquet under cover to us
annext to the labell." This was written in August 1709, within six weeks
of Macky's arrival in Flanders; and we know of no passage in the whole
of the Post Office records which more forcibly brings home to us the
difference between the London of to-day and the London of 180 years ago.
Crowds no longer congregate at the doors of the Post Office eagerly
waiting for news; nor is the neighbourhood of St. Martin's-le-Grand
transported with excitement at the approach of a man on horseback.
On the cessation of hostilities at sea, which took place in the summer
of 1712, although the Treaty of Utrecht was not signed until the
following year, the postmasters-general proceeded to put the packets on
a peace footing. The boats from Harwich to the Brill and from Dover to
Ostend were reduced in number. The routes between Dover and Calais and
between Dover and Dunkirk were reopened. The service between Falmouth
and Lisbon, which during the war had been once a week, was now to be
only once a fortnight; and the five boats engaged on this service, as
carrying more hands than would any longer be necessary, were to be
disposed of by public sale and their place to be taken by three of the
largest from Harwich. The result of these several changes was to reduce
the establishment, in point of numbers, by rather more than 120 men,
and, in point of cost, from £21,960 to £15,632. As affecting the cost,
hardly less important than the reduction of numbers was the permission
now given to the packet boats to resume the carriage of merchandise.
This was a source of profit to which the postmasters-general had long
been looking as some set-off against the heavy expense.
Meanwhile Dummer's contract for the West India service had come to an
abrupt termination. That contract had not been long in force before he
began to realise how onerous was the condition that, out of a total sum
of £12,500, he should receive only £4500 in money, and depend, for the
difference on fares, freight, and postage. The postage, which from the
first had fallen short of his expectations, did not increase; and the
fact of his having, within a few months from the commencement of his
undertaking, lost three of his boats, procured for him--what in the
world of commerce is almost incompatible with success--the reputation of
an unlucky man. The West India merchants enjoined their correspondents
on no account to send goods by Dummer's boats. Thus the profits which he
had expected to derive from freight had no more existence in fact than
the profits from postage. Hoping against hope, Dummer struggled on; but
ill-luck continued to pursue him. In little more than five years he lost
no less than nine boats. In order to replace them he mortgaged his
property to the full extent of its value and obtained advances on his
quarterly allowance. This, of course, could not go on, and at length the
crash came. The day had arrived for the West India mail to be
despatched, and there was no boat to carry it. The whole of Dummer's
property, boats included, had been seized for debt. The rest is soon
told. The mortgagees, believing that they had the postmasters-general in
a corner, refused to continue the service except at a preposterous
charge, which Frankland and Evelyn declined to pay. Fortunately three
private ships with consignments for the West Indies were then loading at
Teignmouth and other ports in the south-west of England, and these
relieved the Post Office from what might otherwise have been a serious
dilemma.
Bankrupt and broken-hearted, Edmund Dummer died in April 1713, within
eighteen months of the termination of his contract. It is his honourable
distinction that he succeeded in all that he undertook for others, and
that it was only in what he undertook for himself that he failed.
CHAPTER VIII
AMERICAN POSTS
1692-1707
American progress has long been the wonder of the world, and in nothing
perhaps has it displayed itself more remarkably than in the matter of
the posts. The figures which the United States Post Office presents to
us year after year--figures as compared with which even those of the
Post Office of Great Britain fall into insignificance--make it difficult
to believe that only two hundred years ago an enterprising Englishman
was struggling to erect a post between New York and Boston.
An Order in Council dated the 22nd of July 1688, after prescribing the
rates of postage to be charged not only between England and the island
of Jamaica, but within the island itself, ended with these words: "And
His Majesty is also pleased to order that letter offices be settled in
such other of His Majesty's plantations in America as shall by the said
Earle of Rochester be found convenient for His Majesty's service, and
the ease and benefitt of his subjects, according to the method and rates
herein settled for His Majesty's island of Jamaica."
Nearly four years later, namely, in February 1692, Thomas Neale obtained
a grant from the Crown authorising him to set up posts in North America.
The grant was secured by letters patent, which were to hold good for
twenty-one years. Neale, who appears never to have set foot out of
England, appointed as his representative in America Andrew Hamilton; or
rather, as the patent required, Neale nominated and the
postmasters-general appointed him. The patent also required that at the
expiration of three years Neale should render an account showing his
receipts and expenditure; but it was not until the year 1698 that this
condition was fulfilled, and in the same year Hamilton came to England
to report progress.
By this time a post, to run once a week, had been established along
seven hundred miles of road, from Boston to New York, and from New York
to Newcastle in Pennsylvania. What the postage rates were we do not
know, except indeed that the charge on a letter between New York and
Boston was 1s. On other points the account which Hamilton furnished on
Neale's behalf gives full information. A salary of £20 a year is paid to
"Mr. Sharpus that keeps the letter office at New York." Mr. Sharpus also
receives two allowances, one of £110 a year "for carrying the mail
half-way to Boston," and another of £60 "for carrying the mail from New
York to Philadelphia." Of the former allowance, Hamilton states that
after the 4th of November 1696 he "retrenched" it from £110 to £90.
There is also a salary of £10 "allowed to him that keeps the letter
office at Philadelphia"; and "an allowance of £100 sterling per annum
given by Mr. Neale himself to Peter Hayman, deputy-postmaster of
Virginia and Maryland." Hamilton's own salary was £200, and his
travelling expenses are thus stated in his account:--
To my expense of a journey from New York to Road
Island, Boston, and eastward of it and back again,
when I settled the Post Office there £50 0 0
To my expense of a journey from New York to Maryland
and Virginia and back again to settle the
office there 50 0 0
To several other journeys and incident charges relating
to the Post Office 16 18 0
In America as in England, from the first erection of the posts, the
correspondence went on steadily increasing year after year. Thus, in the
first year beginning the 1st of May 1693 the "New York Post" produced
£61; in the second, £82; in the third, £93; and in the fourth year,
ending the 1st of May 1697, it produced £122. The same progress is to be
seen in what were called the "Boston, Road Island, Connecticut and
Piscataway Posts." In the first two years beginning also in May 1693
these produced £296 or at the rate of £148 a year; in the third year
they produced £227; and in the fourth, £298. The returns of the
Philadelphia post also kept improving; but here Hamilton encountered
difficulties of management, as will be seen by his own entries:--
By the produce of the Philadelphia post from the 22nd
of August 1693 to the 23rd of April 1694, at
which time I was forced to change the Postmaster £10 9 6
By the produce of the same post from the 23rd of April
1694 to the 13th of February 1697, at which time
I was forced to change the Postmaster again 105 3 7
The Virginia and Maryland posts were the single exception. Of these
Hamilton records "The Virginia and Maryland posts never yielded
anything, but cost Mr. Neale near £600." However much these posts might
be improved, he dared not reckon upon the correspondence exceeding one
hundred letters a year.
There is only one more entry which we will quote from Hamilton's
account. It is this:--
By cash which the Postmaster of New York gathered
up upon the road in Connecticut for letters £6 16 0
Promising as the prospect was on the whole, Neale's receipts from the
posts fell far short of his expenses in erecting and maintaining them.
His expenses up to May 1697 were £3817, and his receipts £1457, leaving
him not only out of pocket to the amount of £2360, but with his means
and his credit exhausted. It was admitted on all hands that the posts
must before long become self-supporting, even if they should not prove
remunerative. But meanwhile how were they to be carried on? Hamilton had
his own plan to propose. This was first that within America the postage
rates should be raised, and "that the post and his horse should go
fferry-free"; and second, that between England and America rates should
be settled, and that shipmasters should be required on the other as on
this side of the Atlantic to take their letters at once to the Post
Office of the port at which they first touched, and hand them to the
postmaster, receiving as remuneration one penny a letter.
For inland letters the increased rates which Hamilton proposed were as
follows, all but the first two entries being in his own words:--
Pence.
Where the distance from New York does not exceed 80 miles 6
Where it exceeds 80, and does not exceed 150 miles 9
To and from Boston and New York, 300 miles 12
To and from Boston and Jersey, 370 miles 18
To and from Boston and Philadelphia, 390 miles 20
To and from Boston and Annapolis in Maryland, 550 miles 36
To and from Boston and James Towne in Virginia, 680 miles 42
To and from New York and Annapolis, 250 miles 24
To and from New York and James Towne, 380 miles, and many
broad and dangerous bays and rivers to be ferryed over 30
It may surprise our readers to learn that between England and America
there actually existed, 200 years ago, what now is little more than the
dream of the postal reformer,--an ocean penny postage. Yet such is the
fact. In 1698 it was the custom of the masters of ships bound for
America to hang up bags in coffee-houses, and any letters that might be
dropped into these bags they carried, and were glad to carry, over for
one penny or twopence a letter, according as it was a single or a double
one. This custom, as Hamilton pointed out, was liable to abuse. In the
first place, any one who had put a letter into a coffee-house bag might,
under pretence of wanting his own letter back, possess himself of the
letter of somebody else. And secondly, on arrival in America, the
shipmasters being under no obligation to make a prompt delivery, were
apt to deliver the letters, not when they reached a port, but when they
were on the point of leaving it, and after they had disposed of their
lading. All this would be remedied if rates of postage were settled
between England and America. The letters would then be in the custody of
the Post Office until delivered to the shipmaster, and the shipmaster
would be bound to restore them to the same custody as soon as he
arrived at his destination.
But Hamilton's main argument in favour of establishing sea-rates of
postage was the impossibility of things remaining as they were. Neale
was without resources, and the posts were not self-supporting. Unless,
therefore, some means should be devised for increasing the receipts, the
posts must be given up. Let sea-rates be imposed, and the receipts would
be increased at once, for all letters from Europe, which on arrival in
America were now being delivered by private hand, would then fall into
the post, and be forced to pay American postage. It was true that
between the mother country and her colonies a packet service did not
exist, and that to impose a charge where no service was rendered in
return would be contrary to Post Office usage; but the object to be
gained was too important to allow this consideration to prevail. Such
were the arguments by which Hamilton supported his proposal that on
letters between England and America postage should be charged--of 6d.
for a single letter, 1s. for a double letter, and 1s. 6d. for "a
packet."
There were one or two points on which Cotton and Frankland did not agree
with Hamilton. Experience had taught them, as they stated on another
occasion, that the way to improve the Post Office revenue was to "make
the intercourse of letters easy to people." So now, in their
representation to the Treasury, they condemned the inland rates which
Hamilton proposed as altogether too high. They had been long enough at
the Post Office, they said, to know that "the easy and cheap
corresponding doth encourage people to write letters, and that this
revenue was but little in proportion to what it is now till the postage
of letters was reduced from 6d.[33] to 3d."
[33] This is an allusion to the period antecedent to 1657.
Hamilton had contemplated the passing of a fresh Act of Parliament in
order to impose sea-rates and to oblige shipmasters to give up their
letters as soon as they reached port. Cotton and Frankland were not
satisfied that a fresh Act of Parliament was necessary; nor did they
express any opinion as to the particular rates which should be imposed.
They recommended, however, the appointment of an officer whose duty it
should be "to take care of" all letters for America, and to put them
into a special bag to be sealed with the office seal. Public notice
should at the same time be given prohibiting the collection of such
letters by other persons. To the shipmaster to whom the bag might be
delivered the inducement to take it without delay to the Post Office of
the port at which he should first arrive would be that he would there
receive one penny for each letter the bag might contain. Hitherto, under
the coffee-house arrangement, the penny had been paid in England; for
the future, it would be paid in America. In other words, the shipmaster,
instead of receiving his recompense in advance, would receive it after
his work was done and only provided it was done properly.
On one point the postmasters-general held a decided opinion. Towards the
support of the posts the Government of New York had made an annual
contribution of £50, in consideration of which the Government letters
appear to have been carried free; but otherwise Neale's undertaking had
not received from the authorities that countenance and support which, in
Cotton and Frankland's opinion, were essential to its success. They
expressed themselves convinced that, for want of due encouragement, the
posts would never prosper in private hands, and recommended that they
should be transferred to the Crown.
Whether any, and if so, what action was taken upon the
postmaster-general's representation we do not know. There is some reason
to think that between England and America sea-rates of postage were
settled, as had been done a few years before in the case of Jamaica; but
we possess no certain information on the point. All we know is that,
upon Neale being informed of the postmaster-general's opinion that the
inland posts should be transferred to the Crown, he immediately offered
to surrender his patent, and that the offer was not accepted. The
payment he demanded was either a capital sum of £5000 or else £1000 a
year for life or for the unexpired term of his grant.
Hamilton returned to America. The next we hear of him is in 1700. Neale
was then dead, having shortly before his death assigned his interest in
the posts as security for his debts. To Hamilton he owed £1100, and to
an Englishman of the name of West he owed for money advanced £200; and
into the hands of these two persons, in default of any one willing to
act as Neale's executor or administrator, the posts now came. In April
1703 Hamilton also died; and for three or four years his widow carried
on the posts at her own charge.
In 1706 Mrs. Hamilton and West urged that their patent, which had seven
and a half years yet to run, might be enlarged for a further term of
twenty-one years, and that they might have permission to set up packet
boats between England and America. To this Cotton and Frankland were
opposed, being still of opinion that the posts should not remain in
private hands; and they recommended, as a more politic measure, that the
patent should be purchased for £1664, a sum which the patentees had
expressed themselves willing to accept. Whether this was the sum
actually given we know not; but in the following year the patent was
surrendered and the posts of America became vested in the Crown.
In connection with the transfer John Hamilton, Andrew's son, was
appointed to his father's place of deputy postmaster-general, and this
appointment he retained until 1722, when he resigned. It was then and
not until then that the posts became self-supporting. "We have now,"
write the postmasters-general on the 10th of August in that year, "put
the Post Office in North America and the West Indies upon such a foot
that for the future, if it produce no profit to the revenue, it will no
longer be a charge to it, but we have good reason to hope there will be
some return rather from thence."
Such, hardly 200 years ago, were the humble beginnings of a Post Office
with which, in the magnitude and diversity of its operations, no other
in the world can now compare.
CHAPTER IX
THE POST OFFICE ACT OF 1711
In 1707, on the passing of the Act of Union between England and
Scotland, the first step taken by the postmasters-general was to alter
the colours of the packets. The cross of St. Andrew, with its blue
ground, united with the red cross of St. George, now became the national
ensign; and the packets no less than the ships of the Royal Navy were
under obligation to carry it.
The Post Office in Scotland was at this time held in farm at a rent of
£1194 a year. The lease expired on the 11th of November, and from that
date the postmasters-general held themselves responsible for the Scotch
no less than the English posts. They at once proceeded to frame an
establishment. George Main, the farmer, was appointed deputy-postmaster
of Edinburgh at a salary of £200, this being the amount which one year
with another he had made out of his contract. Three persons were
appointed to assist him, an accomptant and two clerks. These, with three
letter-carriers at a crown a week each, and a postmaster at the foot of
the Canongate, constituted the Edinburgh establishment.
In the country there were thirty-four postmasters, of whom only twelve
were paid by salary, the remaining twenty-two receiving as their
remuneration a certain proportion of the postage on inland letters.
Thus, three had one-half of this postage, one had one-third, and
eighteen had one-fourth. The highest salaries were given to the
postmasters of Haddington and Cockburnspath, who received £50 apiece,
the reason being no doubt that these two towns were on the direct line
of road between Edinburgh and London. At Aberdeen, the postmaster's
salary was £28; at Glasgow, £25; at Dundee, Montrose, and Inverness,
£15; and at Dumfries and Ayr, £12. Runners[34] at a fixed charge were
maintained between town and town--as, for instance, between Edinburgh
and Aberdeen at £60 a year, between Aberdeen and Inverness at £30 a
year, and between Inverness and Thurso at £18 a year: but except at
Edinburgh there was no letter-carrier, and except between Edinburgh and
Berwick there was no horse-post north of the Tweed. The establishment
charges for the whole of Scotland, Edinburgh included, were less than
£1000 a year.
[34] These runners or post-boys carried the mail through the whole
journey, resting by the way. It was not, according to common repute,
until about the year 1750 that the mail began to be carried from stage
to stage by different post-boys.
But something more was necessary than to frame an establishment and to
alter the colours of the packets. Serious doubts had arisen whether, as
the law stood, the postmasters-general of England were competent to deal
with the posts of Scotland; and, this vital consideration apart, between
the two divisions of the kingdom certain inequalities existed which only
fresh legislation could redress. Under the Scotch Act of 1695 the
postage on a single letter between Edinburgh and Berwick was 2d. Under
the English Act of 1660, 2d. would carry a single letter from Berwick
northwards for only forty miles, and considerably more than forty miles
separated Berwick from Edinburgh. This difference arose no doubt from
mere inaccuracy of reckoning on the English side; and yet it was one
which nothing less than a new Act, an Act by the united Parliament,
would adjust.
It is the more singular that at this time the postmasters-general should
not have taken steps to promote legislation, because, in connection with
the English no less than the Scotch Post Office, there were several
matters on which fresh legislation had become necessary. The statute on
which the very existence of the Post Office itself depended had been
found difficult to deal with, on account of its loose and ambiguous
wording. The postage to America and the West Indies rested on no legal
sanction. For the pence paid upon ship-letters the postmasters-general
had no authority to produce, and the auditors had threatened to
disallow, the payment. Even the penny post was of doubtful legality. The
Courts had indeed decided that Dockwra's undertaking was an infraction
of the rights of the Crown; but they had not decided, nor had they been
called upon to decide, whether in the hands of the Crown the same
undertaking would be legal. The law, as it stood, prescribed no postage
lower than twopence. By the penny post the postage was one half of that
amount.
With these and other matters requiring adjustment, it might well be
supposed that the postmasters-general would have been glad of the
opportunity which the Act of Union afforded to set their house in order.
Yet, so far from taking any steps in that direction, they now remained
perfectly passive. Of the reason for this inaction we are not informed;
but we venture to suggest an explanation. Cotton and Frankland were
advocates of cheap postage. Should fresh legislation be entered upon,
what guarantee had they that postage would not be made dearer? So far,
indeed, as they could judge, such was much more likely than not to be
the case. As early as William's reign they had been asked to estimate
how much an additional penny of postage would produce; and the
necessities of the Civil List which had prompted the inquiry had since
become more and more pressing.
It is not impossible that there was another, though subordinate, reason.
Between Whitehall and Lombard Street communications had been passing
from time to time, which might fairly raise the presumption that
advantage would be taken of any fresh Act to insert a clause under which
all Post Office servants, the postmasters-general included, would be
disfranchised. Cotton and Frankland, who still retained their seats, the
one for Cambridgeshire, and the other for the borough of Thirsk, were
not the men to be deterred by personal considerations from doing what
they conceived to be their duty; but if on principle they objected to an
increase in the rates of postage, it was little calculated to reconcile
them to a measure which they regarded as mischievous that, as a probable
consequence of its introduction, they would lose their seats. But be the
reason what it might, the fact remains that, whereas at one time they
were continually suggesting the propriety of fresh legislation in order
to clear up ambiguities in the existing statute, no such suggestion had
been recently made, and they now remained perfectly silent.
Thus matters stood when, in October 1708, or a year and a half after the
Act of Union had passed, an incident occurred which made silence no
longer possible. Letters of Privy Seal had been issued granting salaries
payable out of the revenue of the Scotch Post Office to certain
professors of the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and warrants
for payment of these salaries were sent to Lombard Street to be signed.
The postmasters-general, being in doubt whether their signature would be
valid, took the precaution of consulting the law officers. The law
officers' opinion, which was not given until the end of December, must
have struck dismay into the hearts of those who sought it. It was to the
effect that the postmasters-general of England could not act as
postmasters-general of Scotland until they had been to Edinburgh and
taken the oaths prescribed by the Scotch law. A journey to Edinburgh in
those days, especially in the depth of winter, was no light undertaking.
But this was not all. And as soon--the opinion proceeded--as they have
taken the oaths and qualified as postmasters-general of Scotland, they
will cease to be postmasters-general of England.
The warrants were returned to the Treasury unsigned. And now that
silence had once been broken, the postmasters-general offered suggestion
after suggestion, each having for its object to remove the difficulty.
Might not a clause be inserted in some bill now before Parliament, a
clause under which they should be constituted postmasters-general of
Great Britain, and be given jurisdiction over the Scotch as over the
English Post Office? Would not the Scotch bill for drawbacks answer the
purpose, or if that were likely to be displeasing to the North British
members, some one of the many money-bills that were then pending? Would
not the requirements of the law be satisfied if for the management of
the Scotch Post Office some one were appointed by letters patent under
the Privy Seal of Scotland, and placed under the orders of the
postmasters-general of England? Or in view of a recent Act passed by the
united Parliament, might not the English postmasters-general themselves
be so appointed? To these suggestions, of which the first was made in
December 1708, and the last in April 1710, the Lord Treasurer returned
no reply. It was clear that Godolphin had other intentions.
Meanwhile events had taken place in London which must have gone far to
convince the postmasters-general that, impolitic as an increase in the
rates of postage might be, the need for fresh legislation was urgent.
Charles Povey had set up a halfpenny post or, as he called it himself, a
"half-penny carriage." For the sum of one halfpenny he undertook to do
what Dockwra had done, and what the postmasters-general were now doing,
for the sum of one penny. There were indeed points of difference. The
penny post extended not only over the whole of London proper, but to the
remote suburbs; the halfpenny post was confined to the busy parts of the
metropolis, to the cities of London and Westminster and to the borough
of Southwark. For the halfpenny post, again, letters were collected by
the sound of bell. That is to say, Povey's men carried bells, which they
rang as they passed along the streets, and so gave notice of their
approach. This, though no doubt intended merely as an advertisement,
possessed the merit of convenience. People had only to await the coming
of one of these bell-ringers, and letters and parcels which they must
otherwise have carried to the post themselves were carried for them.
Povey fancied himself a second Dockwra; but the two men were as unlike
as the circumstances under which their undertakings were launched.
Dockwra was gentle and conciliatory. Povey was violent and aggressive.
Dockwra disclaimed all intention of transgressing the law. It was only
necessary that his undertaking should become better known, and His Royal
Highness, he felt sure, would withdraw his opposition. Povey expressed
the utmost indifference whether his undertaking was legal or illegal,
and defied the law to do its worst. Dockwra was a pioneer. When he
established his penny post, there was nothing in existence at all
resembling it, nothing with which it competed, and by supplying an
acknowledged want he conferred an inestimable boon upon the community.
Povey, on the contrary, was a mere adventurer. His halfpenny carriage
was in direct opposition to an institution already existing and in full
activity, an institution which supplied every reasonable want, and which
it was the sole purpose of his enterprise to supplant for his own
advantage.
So impudent an infringement of the rights of the Crown could not, of
course, be tolerated, and the postmasters-general called upon Povey to
desist from his undertaking. Povey's reply must have extinguished any
hope they may have entertained of avoiding an appeal to the Courts. He
should certainly not, he said, be so unjust to himself as to lay down
his undertaking at their demand. If they were resolved on trying the
matter at law, he was quite content. And happily, he added, we live not
under such a constitution as Dockwra lived, a constitution made up of an
arbitrary government and bribed judges. Thus defied, the
postmasters-general had only one course to pursue, and that was to bring
an action. As a preliminary step Povey and the keepers of the shops at
which he had opened offices were served with notices setting forth the
illegality of their proceedings. The shopkeepers closed their offices at
once, and Povey was left alone with his bell-ringers.
The man now revealed himself in his true character. When first informed
that an information would be filed against him, he published a pamphlet
in which, after loading the postmasters-general with ridicule and abuse,
he dared them to proceed to trial, declaring that a trial in the Court
of Exchequer was the very thing he desired; but as time drew on and he
found them to be in earnest, he became alarmed and desired to effect a
compromise. With this object he attended at the Post Office and pleaded
his cause in person. If only his bell-ringers might continue to collect
letters for the general post and "such as pass between man and man," he
would pay to the Crown one-tenth more than had yet been received from
the penny post. Or let him take the penny post to farm, and he would pay
double what that post had ever produced. Or was it to his bells that
exception was taken? If so, and if only proceedings were stayed, his
bells should cease to-morrow. But even if at one time such overtures
could have been listened to, it was now too late, and the
postmasters-general so informed him. At this announcement, and while
they were still speaking, Povey bounced from his chair and flung himself
out of the room. The case came on for hearing in Easter term 1710, and
Povey was fined £100.
It may here be mentioned that the practice of collecting letters by the
sound of bell did not cease with the halfpenny carriage. It was adopted
by the Post Office, became general throughout the kingdom, and continued
down to a time well within the recollection of persons still living.[35]
[35] In London the practice continued until the end of 1846; and in
Dublin, which was the last town in the United Kingdom to give it up,
until September 1859.
Although the postmasters-general had won their suit, they were not
altogether satisfied. What Povey had done might be done by others, and
his proceedings, they did not attempt to conceal, had caused them great
annoyance. As soon as he found them bent on suppressing his undertaking,
he had had recourse to artifice. In order that his bell-ringers might
escape molestation, he had changed them about from place to place and
made them assume fictitious names, so that the man who appeared in
Holborn to-day under one name might appear in Westminster to-morrow
under another. The task of fixing evidence had thus been made extremely
difficult, and the postmasters-general had at one time almost given it
up in despair. They also bitterly complained of the law's delays. For no
less than seven months--from the 4th of October 1709 to the 4th of May
1710--the halfpenny post had been in full activity, to the serious
injury of the penny post. Must the institution which had been committed
to their charge remain, for periods of longer or shorter duration, at
the mercy of any unscrupulous person who might choose to follow Povey's
example? Or against future assaults of the same kind was it not possible
to provide themselves with some less cumbrous weapon than they had now
to their hands?
Whether the Act which subsequently passed conferred upon the
postmasters-general all the powers they desired may be open to question,
but there can be no doubt that, after the experience of the past few
months, the prospect of fresh legislation, if not actually welcome, had
lost half its terrors. For fresh legislation, however, the time had not
even yet arrived. It is true that Povey's case, pending the
consideration of which nothing of course could be done, had been heard
and determined; but now political difficulties arose. Godolphin, the
Lord Treasurer, gave way to Harley; and Harley's advent to power was
followed by a general election. It was not until the beginning of
November, or three weeks before the Houses met, that a decision was at
last announced. Subject to the consent of Parliament, the rates of
postage were to be increased, and a bill to carry out the object was to
be prepared at once.
The office of Secretary to the Treasury was at this time held by William
Lowndes, member of Parliament for the borough of Seaford. Lowndes had
written a silly book on the currency, a book in which he endeavoured to
prove that an Act of Parliament, by calling a sixpence a shilling, can
double its purchasing power. He had seriously believed, when the
postmasters-general recommended that the course of post to Warwick
should be direct instead of by way of Coventry, that the recommendation
was due to a bribe. When the postmasters-general were at their wits' end
to put a stop to the illicit traffic in letters, he had suggested--and
it was the only consolation which he had had to offer them--that in
order to defray the expenses of the Civil List every letter passing
through the post should be charged with an additional rate of 1d. Such
was the man to whom was now entrusted the oversight of the Post Office
bill. If confidence in the merits of the measure which the bill was
designed to promote were any recommendation, a better selection could
not have been made. Lowndes had long advocated an increase in the rates
of postage. He had, there can be little doubt, brought Godolphin over to
his views, and now, under Godolphin's successor, he obtained permission
to carry them into effect.
At the Post Office, unfortunately, there was at this time no one to
sound a note of alarm. Cotton was no more. Evelyn, Cotton's successor,
was new to his duties. Frankland was old and gouty. Between Frankland
and Lowndes, moreover, relations we suspect were somewhat strained. At
all events, the fact remains that the postmasters-general, who never
tired of inculcating as the result of experience that low postage
attracts correspondence and high postage repels it, received notice of
the intention to raise the rates without even an attempt to avert the
mischief.
By the middle of December, or little more than six weeks from the time
of the Post Office receiving notice to prepare for fresh legislation,
the bill was in Lowndes's hands. Containing as it did some fifty
clauses, and dealing with a matter of no little complexity, such
despatch might do no discredit even to our own days of high pressure. At
the beginning of the eighteenth century it was out of the common. But
the explanation is simple. Swift, the solicitor to the Post Office, who
was profoundly dissatisfied with the law as it stood, had for years past
employed his leisure moments in framing clauses founded upon his
conception of what the law ought to be, less probably in the hope of
seeing them passed than with the view of giving relief to his feelings.
These clauses he now collected, arranged, and added to, producing what
he conceived to be a model measure. But while the bill had taken only
six weeks to prepare, nearly double that period was occupied in revising
it. Whatever may be thought of Lowndes's understanding, there can be no
question about his industry. Day after day during the next three months
he devoted to the task he had undertaken every moment he could snatch
from his numerous other engagements. In conjunction with Swift, who now
passed most of his time at Whitehall, he went through the bill clause by
clause, discussing and arguing every point, and not seldom making
alterations. Swift, as the representative of the Post Office, knew well
what the Post Office wanted; but Lowndes knew, or thought that he knew,
better, and in this as in other instances superior authority passed
current for superior knowledge. It was not, however, to what for
distinction's sake may be called the Post Office clauses of the bill
that the chief interest attached. To these Lowndes added others, of
which one, while dealing with a matter of the most delicate character,
revealed an intention of which the Post Office had had no previous
notice. The preparation of this clause severely taxed the abilities of
its framers.
As the Post Office revenue was at this time vested in the Crown, the
Crown would, of course, in the absence of express provision to the
contrary, reap the benefit of any increase which additions to the rates
of postage might produce. To divert the increase, or part of the
increase, from the Crown to the public was the object of the clause on
which Lowndes and Swift were now engaged. This clause having at length
been settled to their satisfaction, the bill came before Parliament, and
was with some modifications passed. The new rates as compared with the
old were as follows:--
+------------------+--------------------------+------------------------+
| | 1660. | 1711. |
|FROM LONDON. +---------+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+
| | Single. |Double. |Ounce. |Single. |Double. |Ounce.|
+------------------+---------+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+
|80 miles and under| 2d. | 4d. | 8d. | 3d. | 6d. | 12d. |
|Above 80 miles | 3d. | 6d. | 12d. | 4d. | 8d. | 16d. |
|To Edinburgh | 5d. | 10d. | 20d. | 6d. | 12d. | 24d. |
|To Dublin | 6d. | 12d. | 24d. | 6d. | 12d. | 24d. |
+------------------+---------+--------+-------+--------+--------+------+
+-----------------------------------+--------------------------+
| | 1711. |
|FROM EDINBURGH, within Scotland. +---------+--------+-------+
| | Single. |Double. |Ounce. |
+-----------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
|50 miles and under | 2d. | 4d. | 8d. |
|Above 50 and not exceeding 80 miles| 3d. | 6d. | 12d. |
|Above 80 miles | 4d. | 8d. | 16d. |
| | | | |
| FROM DUBLIN, within Ireland. | | | |
|40 miles and under | 2d. | 4d. | 8d. |
|Above 40 miles | 4d. | 8d. | 16d. |
+-----------------------------------+---------+--------+-------+
The old rates during the year ending the 29th of September 1710 had
produced £111,461, and the new rates were estimated to produce £36,400
more. Of this increase the whole was to be paid into the Exchequer by
weekly instalments of £700, so that a fund might be established for the
purpose of carrying on the war; and of the surplus, if any, over and
above £147,861, one-third was to be reserved to the disposal of
Parliament for the use of the public. These provisions were to hold good
for thirty-two years, after which the old rates were to be reverted to.
We have already seen how difficult the postmasters-general had found it,
even with the lower rates of postage, to prevent the smuggling of
letters; and of course, in exact proportion as the rates should be
increased, the temptation to smuggle would become greater. This
consequence had been foreseen and provided for. After declaring in the
preamble that, as a condition of the new rates, provision must be made
"for preventing the undue collecting and delivering of letters by
private posts, carriers, higglers, watermen, drivers of stage-coaches,
and other persons," the bill went on to give to the postmasters-general
large powers of search. This clause was regarded as of the highest
importance. Without it, indeed, even Lowndes would hardly have ventured
to suggest that the rates should be increased. To his dismay, however,
and, truth compels us to add, to the dismay also of the Post Office, the
House of Commons, while passing the rates, rejected the searching
clause. Only the declaration in the preamble remained, an enduring
monument of a foolish intention.
Another clause must also be regarded as peculiarly Lowndes's own. This
clause--which, unlike the foregoing, was not rejected--prohibited the
postmasters-general and all persons serving under them from
intermeddling in elections. They were forbidden under heavy penalties
"to persuade any one to give or to dissuade any one from giving his vote
for the choice" of a member of Parliament. Lowndes can hardly have
believed it possible thus to padlock men's mouths. It is still more
difficult to suppose that the clause can have been aimed at Frankland;
and yet assuredly Frankland was the only person whom it affected.
Postmasters and others, it may well be believed, continued to talk and
to argue exactly as they had argued and talked before; but Frankland had
to give up his seat. At the general election in October he had, there
can be little doubt, received a hint of what was coming, for after
sitting for his pocket borough of Thirsk for more than twelve years he
retired from the representation.
So much of the new Act as originated with the Post Office was mainly
directed to clearing up doubts, to supplying omissions, and to making
that legal for which the law had not yet provided. Thus, legal sanction
was given to the penny post, and competition with it was forbidden under
severe penalties. Pence upon ship-letters were not only authorised but
directed to be paid. The rates of postage to America and to the West
Indies were confirmed; and power was given to impose rates upon letters
to other places with which communication might be opened. The Act of
1660 had conferred upon the postmasters-general the exclusive right of
"receiving, taking up, ordering, despatching, sending post or with
speed, and delivering of all letters and packets whatsoever"; but it was
silent on the subject of carrying. This omission the Act of 1711
supplied. The later Act also imposed restrictions on the common carrier.
Hitherto it had been left in doubt what letters he might carry. These
were now defined to be letters which concerned the goods in his waggon
or cart; and they were to be delivered at the same time as the goods and
without hire or reward.
It was not enough that the penny post should receive legal sanction. By
this post, from its first establishment, a single penny had carried only
within London proper. For delivery in the outskirts--as, for instance,
at Islington, Lambeth, Newington, and Hackney, all of which were at this
time separate towns--the Post Office received one penny more. So long,
therefore, as the charge by the general post for a distance not
exceeding eighty miles stood at 2d., it was a mere question of
convenience whether towns in the neighbourhood of London should be
served by that post or by the penny post. In either case the postage on
a single letter was the same, namely 2d. But now that the initial charge
by the general post was raised from 2d. to 3d., it became necessary to
assign a limit beyond which the penny post should not extend; and this
limit was fixed at ten miles, measured from the General Post Office in
Lombard Street.
How little the Post Office had at this time entered into the inner life
of the people may be judged by the fact that such restriction was
possible. In 1711 there were towns distant nearly twenty miles from
London--for instance, Walton-on-Thames, Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, and
Tilbury in Essex--which had long been served by the penny post; and the
penny post carried up to one pound of weight for the same charge for
which the general post carried a single letter. Yet these towns were now
deprived of the facilities which the penny post afforded without, so
far as appears, exciting a murmur.[36]
[36] Even the notice to the public announcing the change was as
unapologetic as it well could be:--"These are to give notice that by the
Act of Parliament for establishing a General Post Office all letters and
packets directed to and sent from places distant ten miles or above from
the said office in London, which before the second of this instant June
were received and delivered by the officers of the penny post, are now
subjected to the same rates of postage as general post letters; and that
for the accommodation of the inhabitants of such places their letters
will be conveyed with the same regularity and dispatch as formerly,
being first taxed with the rates and stamped with the mark of the
General Post Office; and that all parcels will likewise be taxed at the
rate of 2s. per ounce, as the said Act directs."
Under the new Act the Post Office retained the monopoly of furnishing
post-horses. It is to be observed, however, that the charge for each
horse, although remaining the same as before--namely, 3d. a mile, with
4d. a stage for the guide--was now re-enacted apologetically, as though
some compunction had begun to be felt at the interference with the
freedom of contract. The explanation is perhaps to be found in the
recent introduction of stage-coaches and the low prices at which these
vehicles carried passengers. "There is of late," writes an author of the
period, "an admirable commodiousness, both for men and women of better
quality, to travel from London to almost any town of England and to
almost all the villages near this great city, and that is by
stage-coaches, wherein one may be transported to any place, sheltered
from foul weather and foul ways; and this is not only at a low price, as
about 1s. for every five miles, but with such speed, as that the posts
in some foreign countries make not more miles in a day."[37] If a mode
of travelling so luxurious as this appears to have been thought could be
secured for less than 2-1/2d. a mile, a charge of 3d. a mile for a horse
besides a guerdon to the guide may well have appeared to require
justification.
[37] Chamberlayne's _State of England_, 1710.
It may here be noticed that, although the postmasters-general were under
obligation to supply horses on demand, and, failing to do so, became
liable to a penalty, the control which they exercised over the
travelling post appears to have been of the slightest. It is true that
they would now and again complain of a postmaster for keeping bad
horses; but the badness would always be with reference to the horses'
capacity to carry the mails. Whether they were fit or unfit for the use
of travellers appears never to have troubled headquarters. Except,
indeed, for some little exertion of authority on rare occasions and in
circumstances out of the common,[38] it would almost seem that the
postmasters-general had ceased to regard the travelling post as a matter
in which they had any concern. It is not very clear why this should have
been so. But perhaps the explanation is that in the case of the
travelling post, unlike that of the letter post, a postmaster's interest
and duty were identical; if horses were wanted, he was under the
strongest inducement to supply them; and the danger to be apprehended
was not that travellers would be neglected, but that they might be
accommodated at the expense of the mails.
[38] The following letter affords an instance of the exertion of
authority referred to in the text:--
To the DEPUTIES between LONDON and TINMOUTH.
GENERAL POST OFFICE,
_April 6, 1708_.
GENTLEMEN--The bearer hereof, Mr. John Farra, being directed by order of
the Lord High Treasurer to proceed to Tinmouth on the publick affairs of
the Government, I am ordered by the postmasters-general to require you
to furnish the said gentleman with a single horse [_i.e._ a horse
without a guide] if required through your several stages, he being well
acquainted with the roads and coming recommended by such authority,
which by their order is signified by, Gentlemen, your most humble
servant,
B. WATERHOUSE,
_Secretary_.
On one point, no doubt because it involved a question of prerogative
rather than law, the new Act was silent; and yet it was a point of high
importance and, as it afterwards became the subject of legal enactment,
this may be a convenient time to mention it. We refer to the privilege
conceded to certain persons to send and receive their letters free of
postage, or, to use the term by which it was commonly known, the
franking system. The persons who enjoyed this privilege were the Chief
Officers of State and the members of the two Houses of Parliament. The
Chief Officers of State, or ministers as they had now begun to be
called, were entitled to send and receive their letters free at all
times and without limit in point of weight. The members of the two
Houses were so entitled only during the session of Parliament and for
forty days before and after, and in their case the weight was limited to
two ounces.
The privilege had already been greatly abused. Secretaries of State
would not scruple to send under their frank the letters of their friends
and their friends' friends as well as their own. In 1695 Blaithwaite,
who was then Secretary of War, carried the practice to such an extent as
to evoke from the postmasters-general a vigorous remonstrance. "We
cannot deny," they said, "but this has been too much a practice in all
tymes, and we are sure you will not blame us for wishing itt were
amended, being soe very prejudicial to His Majestye's revenue under our
management." The practice extended, and in 1705 a warrant under the
sign-manual, after enumerating afresh the Officers of State who were
entitled to frank, expressly charged them not "to cover any man's
letters whatsoever other than their own," and, as regards any letters
which might come addressed to their care for private persons, to send
them to the Post Office to be taxed and delivered.
The abuses identified with the letters of members of Parliament were of
wider scope. Lavishly as members might use their names as a means of
franking, the use was not confined to themselves and their friends. On
the part of the London booksellers and other persons who might hesitate
to incur the risk of imitating another man's signature it had become a
common practice to assume the name of some member of Parliament, and
under that name to have their letters addressed to them at particular
coffee-houses; and as their correspondents in the country adopted a
similar device, the letters passing to and fro escaped postage. Cotton
and Frankland had not been long at the Post Office before this practice
arrested their attention, and in 1698 the warrant which granted to the
members of the new Parliament the usual exemption from postage was
expressly designed to check the abuse. "To prevent abuses," thus the
warrant ran, "that were formerly practised[39] to the prejudice of our
revenue by divers persons who, though they were not members, yet
presumed to indorse the names of members of Parliament on their letters
and direct their letters to members of Parliament which really did not
belong to them," our will and pleasure is that members "will constantly
with their owne hands indorse their names upon their owne letters, and
not suffer any other letters to pass under their ffrank, cover, or
direction but such as shall concerne themselves." Successive warrants
issued between 1698 and 1711 were expressed in the same or nearly the
same terms, what little variations there were only serving to shew that
the practice against which the warrants were directed had become more
general.
[39] In documents intended for the public eye it was the practice of the
postmasters-general--and it was by them that these warrants were
prepared--to speak of an existing abuse as an abuse that was past. This
was, of course, to avoid giving offence.
But now the postmasters-general could no longer conceal from themselves
that, unwarrantable as might be the liberties taken with members' names,
the members themselves were by no means blameless. That they were
scattering their franks with boundless profusion was beyond doubt; and
the question which the postmasters-general set themselves to solve was,
How was this profusion to be checked? As the best expedient they could
devise, they prepared for the Queen's signature a fresh warrant which,
as a hint to members for the regulation of their own conduct, referred
to Her Majesty's condescension in allocating a portion of the Post
Office revenue towards defraying the expenses of the war. Of previous
warrants copies had been posted up in the lobby of the House and in the
Speaker's chamber. Of the present warrant copies were to be distributed
with the votes so as to secure that every member should have a copy.
The immediate effect of the Act of 1711 was, as might have been
foreseen, enormously to stimulate clandestine traffic. The Post Office
could do little to check it. In London officers were appointed whose
duty it was to frequent the roads leading into the capital and keep a
watch on all higglers and drivers of coaches who were notoriously
carrying letters in defiance of the law. In the country the
postmasters-general could get nothing done. In vain they urged upon the
Treasury the paramount importance of appointing officers who should
travel about the country and be authorised to open the mail bags at odd
times and unexpectedly. By no other means, they declared, was it
possible to keep any check upon either the London or the country
letters. The London letters might not be charged correctly by the clerks
of the roads; and of the country letters, it was perfectly well known,
only a very small proportion was charged at all. But all to no purpose.
The officers whom the postmasters-general proposed to appoint were to
receive for remuneration and travelling expenses together £1 a day, and
the Treasury declined to sanction the expense.
This, even for the Treasury, has always appeared to us a masterpiece of
perversity. That large sums were being diverted into the pockets of the
postmasters had been admitted in the Act itself;[40] nor could it be
denied that the tendency of the Act was to make these sums larger. And
yet the abuse was to be allowed to go on unchecked because its
correction would involve a small outlay. For four years this penny-wise
and pound-foolish policy continued, and it was not until 1715, as the
consequence of a strong representation from Frankland and Evelyn's
successors, that the officers whose appointment these two
postmasters-general had consistently advocated were added to the
establishment under the title of surveyors. To surprise the mail bags in
course of transit and to check their contents--such was the humble
function originally assigned to officers who have since become as
indispensable to the Post Office as the mainspring is to a watch or the
driving wheel to a steam engine.
[40] "And whereas divers deputy postmasters do collect great quantities
of post letters called by or way letters and, by clandestine and private
agreements amongst themselves, do convey the same post in their
respective mails, or by bags, according to their several directions,
without accounting for the same or endorsing the same on their bills, to
the great detriment of Her Majesty's revenues."--9 Anne, cap. x. sec.
18.
It may here be noticed that the decisions which the postmasters-general
received were not all of them conceived in the same spirit. So different
indeed was the treatment of questions relating to home communications
and communications with foreign parts as almost to suggest that they had
been referred to different tribunals. Was the packet service which had
come to an end through Dummer's misfortunes to be re-established or not?
The cost was far, very far, in excess of the receipts; and yet the
direction to the Post Office was to consult the West India merchants,
and to be guided by their wishes. The two packets between Falmouth and
the Groyne, which had been left running at the close of the war, were
after a time discontinued. They cost £1600 a year to maintain, and the
annual receipts from the letters and passengers they carried were less
than £450. Yet upon a representation from the merchants trading with
Spain pointing out the inconvenience which the stoppage had caused them,
the boats were restored at once. But all such questions were decided by
the Lord Treasurer himself, and his decisions were communicated under
his own signature, or else under the sign-manual.
Very different was it with questions affecting intercourse within the
kingdom. These, urgently as the postmasters-general might press them,
received little or no attention. They would seem indeed to have been
relegated to subordinates, who having been instructed to keep down
expense proceeded to obey their orders without discrimination. Whether
the packet agent at Dover had in his cups refused to drink to the health
of the ministers, or whether the postmaster of Chester had said that
Queen Anne, had she pursued the same course as was pursued by Charles
the First, would have met with the same fate--these were questions of
vital importance which must be investigated with all convenient speed;
but when the question was merely one of improving the internal posts of
the country, it was treated at leisure, and no considerations of public
convenience, or even of prospective gain, were allowed to weigh against
the bugbear of present expense. In 1710, for instance, the Lord Provost
and magistrates of Glasgow had petitioned that the foot-post to
Edinburgh might be converted into a horse-post. The mail would thus
arrive sooner and leave later, and, as the petitioners pointed out,
letters would fall into it which had heretofore been sent by private
hand. Between a horse-post and a foot-post the difference in point of
cost was £20 a year; and for the sake of this small sum the Treasury had
refused the request, just as they now refused to sanction the
appointment of surveyors, although the postmasters-general clearly
demonstrated that by no other means could the misappropriation of
postage be checked, and that within a few months the cost would be
covered many times over.
But the addition to the establishment of a few appointments more or less
was not the most serious charge which the Act of 1711 entailed. The Post
Offices over a great part of England were then in farm. How, within the
area over which these Post Offices extended, was the State to derive any
benefit from the higher postage? The postage, whatever it might be, was
under their leases secured to the farmers; and the farmers were under no
obligation to pay any higher rent than that for which they had
stipulated. This difficulty, which had without doubt been overlooked,
took a most unexpected turn. The farmers had had only a short experience
of the new rates before they found that these rates, far from bringing
them a golden harvest, were fast contributing to their ruin; that they
were in effect prohibitive rates; that the letters passing to and fro
were getting fewer and fewer; and that the increase of charge by no
means made up for the decrease in number. In short, the Crown or those
who represented the Crown had taken for granted that under the new
rates the returns would be relatively higher than under the old, whereas
the farmers found to their cost that the returns were actually lower.
Never, perhaps, has there been a more striking demonstration of the
unwisdom of high rates of postage. In this dilemma the postmasters-general
had recourse to an expedient which appears to have been considered
satisfactory on both sides. They cancelled all the leases, nine
in number,[41] and under the title of managers, appointed the
farmers to superintend the Post Offices embraced within the area
over which their farms extended. The managers who had heretofore been at
the cost of the postmasters' salaries were to be relieved from this and
all other payments; and as remuneration for their services they were to
receive one-tenth part of the net produce derived from the postage.
[41] The leases of seven out of the nine branches were cancelled in
1716; and those of the other two the postmasters-general expressed their
intention of cancelling with as little delay as possible. And yet as
regards one of the number, viz. the Chichester branch, there is reason
to doubt whether it did not survive until the year 1769.
Two questions may here be asked, to neither of which is it easy to give
even a plausible reply. Of these the first is, How did it happen that
the postmasters-general, who without authority from Whitehall could not
even convert a foot-post into a horse-post, were able on their own
motion to sanction an arrangement, the practical effect of which was to
add to the establishment not only a large number of small salaries,
amounting in the aggregate to a formidable total, but also a dead-weight
annuity of nearly £2000 a year? This is an obscurity which we confess
ourselves unable to penetrate. We can only record the fact, a fact the
more surprising because only recently Godolphin had laid it down under
his own hand that in the Post Office "all extraordinary payments or
allowances are to be vouched by warrant from Her Majesty or myself, or
from the Lord High Treasurer or the Commissioners of the Treasury for
the time being." The second question is hardly less perplexing. How,
except in name, did managers differ from surveyors, whose appointment
the postmasters-general were urging, and urging in vain? Or what could
surveyors have done which it was not equally competent to managers to
do? This question also we cannot answer. We only know that the very men
who as farmers had rendered signal service to the Post Office, and
earned the gratitude of the districts over which their farms extended,
were found as managers to be of little use, even if they did not league
themselves with the postmasters to intercept the postage.
Difficulties from an unexpected quarter added to the confusion into
which, as the result of the Act of 1711, the Post Office was drifting.
As soon as peace was declared, it became necessary to arrive at an
agreement with France as to the conditions on which the British mails
should pass through French territory. M. Pajot was still comptroller of
the posts in Paris; and he proved to be hardly less untractable than
before the war. Frankland and Evelyn committed their case to the care of
Matthew Prior, who was at that time minister plenipotentiary to the
Court of France. Prior, who had hated his commissionership of customs
because, as Swift tells us, he was ever dreaming of cockets and dockets
and other jargon, could hardly be expected to give his mind to anything
so prosaic as postage and letter bills. The matter, moreover, was one of
a highly technical character, and, without fuller information than could
be contained in the most precise instructions, a far abler negotiator
than Prior could claim to be might easily have found himself
overmatched. Pajot, presuming on his superior knowledge, put forward the
most extravagant demands; and it was not until an expert had been sent
from London, upon whom it would have been useless to attempt to impose,
that he abated his pretensions. Extravagant demands were now followed by
frivolous objections, and at the last moment, when the conditions were
practically settled, he actually refused to proceed further unless "Her
Britannic Majesty," an expression employed in the Post Office treaty,
were altered to "The Queen of Great Britain."
Vexatious as these proceedings were, the result was more vexatious
still. Before the war a lump sum of 36,000 livres a year had been paid
for the transit of the British mails across French territory. Pajot now
refused to accept any lump sum at all. He insisted that each letter
passing through France should be charged for separately, according to
the French postage; and high as the English postage was, the French
postage was higher still. In vain the postmasters-general pointed out
that by virtue of such an arrangement they would on many letters have to
pay more than Act of Parliament permitted them to receive. Pajot replied
in effect that this was their affair and not his; and no better terms
could they get. The treaty was eventually signed, and its onerous
provisions will best be shewn by an example. On a single letter from
Italy the postage prescribed by the Act of 1711 was fifteenpence, and on
a letter weighing one ounce sixty pence. This was all which the Act
permitted the postmasters-general to collect; and yet, under the terms
of the treaty, the postage for which they had to account to the French
Post Office was in the one case twenty-one sous and in the other
eighty-four.
To this treaty we are indeed indebted for one piece of information. It
gives us--what is not to be found elsewhere--a definition of the terms
single and double as applied to letters. It is strange that the Acts of
1660 and 1711, while imposing distinctive rates on single and double
letters, nowhere define what single and double letters are. This
omission the treaty of 1713 supplies. "That piece," the treaty provides,
"is to be esteemed a single letter which hath no sealed letter inclosed,
and that to be esteemed a double letter which hath inclosures and is
under the weight of an ounce." It will be interesting to note how far
the Post Office adhered to its own definition.
On the accession of George the First, when almost every place of honour
and profit under the Crown changed hands, the Post Office did not
escape; and Frankland and Evelyn were succeeded by Cornwallis and
Craggs. The natural tendency of the provision which had made members of
the House of Commons ineligible for the office of postmasters-general
was to throw the office into the hands of peers; and although this
tendency did not fully develop itself until later in the century, the
appointment of Lord Cornwallis was a first move in that direction. Peers
have in our own time been among the ablest of the many able
administrators who have presided over the Post Office; but at the
beginning of the eighteenth century the conditions attaching to the
appointment were in some respects different from what they are to-day.
The postmasters-general had to write their own letters; their attendance
was both early and late and during fixed hours; and they were expected
to reside at the Post Office. Whether from a disinclination to satisfy
these conditions, or on the score of health, which he was constantly
pleading, Cornwallis had not been long in Lombard Street before he
retired into the country, and left the conduct of affairs pretty much to
his colleague. Craggs--or Craggs senior as he was commonly called, to
distinguish him from his son, the Secretary of State--was an
industrious, plain-spoken man; and deeply as he afterwards became
implicated in the South Sea Scheme, there is no reason to suppose that
his proceedings as postmaster-general would not bear inspection.
Cornwallis and Craggs had been only a short time at the Post Office
before they became profoundly impressed with what they found there. The
managers withholding the postmasters' salaries, the postmasters
recouping and a good deal more than recouping themselves out of the
postage, the post-boys--for so they had begun to be called--clandestinely
carrying letters for what they could get, the inordinate number
of franked letters--these were among the abuses which arrested
the new postmaster-generals' attention; but what excited their
most lively surprise was that there should exist a branch of the King's
revenue upon the subordinate agents of which there was absolutely no
check. At length, on a representation from them as to the scandal of
allowing such a state of things to continue, consent was obtained to the
appointment of surveyors; and the dismissal of the managers speedily
followed.
These remedial measures, though good as far as they went, affected only
the internal administration of the Post Office. Of its troubles from
without, and how they had been increased by recent legislation,
Cornwallis and Craggs were no less sensible than their predecessors; but
here they had no remedy to apply. "The additional penny," they wrote in
March 1716, within eighteen months of their appointment, "has never
answered in proportion, and we find by every day's experience that it
occasions the people to endeavour to find out other conveyances for
their letters." "The additional tax," they wrote again two years later,
"has never answered in proportion to the produce of the revenue at the
time it took place, the people having found private conveyances for
their letters, which they are daily endeavouring to increase,
notwithstanding all the endeavours that can be used to prevent them."
As with the clandestine traffic, so with the abuse of the franking
privilege. In isolated cases, where the abuse was more than usually
glaring, the postmasters-general would write to the erring member a
letter of mild expostulation, affecting to believe him more sinned
against than sinning;[42] but even if this had any effect in the
particular instance, to stem the torrent was beyond their power. In
Great Britain alone the postage represented by the franked letters,
excluding those which were or which purported to be on His Majesty's
service, amounted in 1716 to what was for that time, relatively to the
total Post Office revenue, the enormous sum of £17,500 a year. In
Ireland the members followed the example of their English colleagues, if
indeed they did not improve upon it. In 1718 the Irish Parliament sat
for three months, and in 1719 it sat for nine months; and it was only
during the session, and for forty days before and after, that letters
could be franked. Cornwallis and Craggs had now been some years at the
Post Office; and yet, with all their experience of the extent to which
the abuse of franking was carried, they were startled to see the effect
which the duration of Parliament had upon the receipts. In 1718 the
gross revenue of the Irish Post Office--and in the gross revenue was
reckoned the postage on members' letters, the postage which these
letters would have paid if they had not been franked--amounted to
£14,592, and the net revenue to £3066. In 1719, although the gross
revenue rose to £19,522, an amount higher by £4930 than in the preceding
year, the net revenue fell from £3066 to £753. Such was the effect upon
the revenue of a difference of six months in the duration of the two
Parliaments.
[42] Here are two letters they wrote:--
To Mr. CULVERT.
_Nov. 1, 1714._
SIR--As the three inclosed letters are directed to you in several places
we have reason to think that some persons have presumed to take the
liberty of your name. This practice is so great an abuse upon this
office, and so very prejudicial to His Majesty's revenue, that we must
desire you'll be pleased to send such letters inclosed that don't belong
to you to the office to be charged; and we are very well assured you'll
discourage the like practice for the future.
--We are, sir, your most humble servants,
T. FRANKLAND
J. EVELYN.
To Sir RICHARD GROSVENOR, Bart.
_April 29, 1715._
SIR--Having observed a letter directed to the Rev. Mr. Harwood at
Billingsgate that arrived here yesterday in an Irish mail frank't with
your name in Ireland, and knowing that you are in England, we have
reason to think that somebody in that kingdom has taken the liberty of
signing your name to the prejudice of His Majesty's revenue, which is a
practice that we are convinced you will discourage, and it is in order
thereunto that you have this trouble from your most humble servants,
CORNWALLIS.
JAMES CRAGGS.
To add to the postmaster-generals' troubles, the merchants of London,
groaning under the onerous rates of postage, had recourse to an
expedient in order to evade them. They associated themselves together,
and all those who had occasion to write to a particular place, though to
different persons, would write on the same piece of paper and under the
same cover. The postmasters-general contended that these several
writings should be charged as separate letters; the merchants contended
that there was but one letter, and that it should pass for a single rate
of postage.
Their next step was to dispute the postmaster-generals' reading of the
statute. Under the law as passed in 1660, and re-enacted in 1711,
merchants' accounts not exceeding one sheet of paper, and all bills of
exchange, invoices, and bills of lading, were "to be allowed without
rate in the price of letters"; in other words, the weight of these
documents was not to be reckoned in the weight of a letter for the
purpose of charging it with postage. This exemption, however, had
hitherto been allowed only in the case of foreign letters; and the
postmasters-general held that such was the intention of the statute. The
merchants retorted that no such intention was expressed, and that to act
as though it had been brought about this anomaly--that on a letter
containing any one of the documents in question the charge from
Constantinople was actually less than from Bristol. Was it possible that
the Legislature could ever have enacted such an absurdity? It was an old
contention, as old as the Post Office itself,[43] and the merchants took
the present opportunity to revive it. On both questions Northey, the
Attorney-General, advised that the Post Office should adhere to its
ancient practice as the best expositor of the meaning of the new law;
but excellent as this advice may have been, its adoption failed to
satisfy the merchants and it was not until a declaratory Act had been
passed that they ceased to contest the points.
[43] A strongly-worded petition on the subject was presented to
Parliament only a year or two after the Restoration. This petition,
after calling the charge an "abuse and extortion," goes on to say that
"it cannot be imagined the Parliament should either so far forget
themselves, or the countrey for which they served, or the necessary and
convenient correspondence, as well as the trade of His Majesties
dominions, as to put them upon worse and harder tearms than foreigners,
or foreign trade, to the prejudice of the kingdom...."
Much the same sort of thing occurred a few years later in connection
with the penny post. From the first establishment of this undertaking
1d. had carried only within the bills of mortality; for delivery beyond
those limits had been charged 1d. more. Some persons now refused to pay
the additional penny, on the ground that it was not prescribed by law.
This was perfectly true. The penny post owed its legal sanction to the
Act of 1711; and this Act merely provided that "for the post of all and
every the letters and packets passing or repassing by the carriage
called the penny post, established and settled within the cities of
London and Westminster and borough of Southwark and parts adjacent, and
to be received and delivered within ten English miles distant from the
General Letter Office in London [shall be demanded and received the sum
of] 1d." Again an Act of Parliament had to be passed in order to
assimilate law and practice. This Act, which was not obtained until
1730, made legal the twopenny post, just as the penny post was made
legal by the Act of 1711; although, as a matter of fact, both posts had
been in existence since April 1680.
In 1721 Lowndes, who was still at the Treasury, called for a return of
the Post Office income and expenditure. Ten years had now elapsed since
the imposition of the new rates. Of these ten years eight, as compared
with the eight which preceded them, had been years of prosperity and
peace; the population had increased, and the reductions in the packet
service had effected a saving of many thousand pounds a year. Certainly
the circumstances had not on the whole been unfavourable for testing the
results of the new policy. The return was rendered. During the year
ending the 29th of September the gross Post Office revenue was, in 1721,
£168,968, and in 1710, £111,461, being an increase of £57,507; in 1721
the cost of management was £69,184, as against £44,639 in 1710; and the
net revenue, which in 1710 had been £66,822, was in 1721 £99,784, an
increase of £32,962. But the case does not end here. Under the terms of
the Act the sum of £700 a week, or £36,400 a year, was to be allocated
to a specific object. This sum had been regularly paid into the
Exchequer, and, after deducting it from the net revenue, there remained
for the use of the Sovereign a balance of £63,384, or less than in 1710
by £3438.
While the contingency of a loss to the Civil List had not been either
foreseen or provided against, elaborate precautions had been taken for
the disposal of a surplus. If the gross Post Office revenue should
exceed the sum of £147,861, the excess was to be divided between the
Sovereign and the public in the proportion of one-third to the public
and two-thirds to the Sovereign. As a matter of fact, the gross Post
Office revenue in 1721 had exceeded, and exceeded by a considerable
amount, the sum of £147,861; and yet there was no excess to divide. The
plain truth is that, in preparing the Act of 1711, Lowndes had forgotten
the cost of management. It must have sounded strange in the ears of an
assistant Chancellor of the Exchequer to be told, as Cornwallis and
Craggs did not scruple to tell him, that he had confounded gross and net
revenue, and that by this blunder Parliament had been misled.
The Act of 1711, disastrous as it proved in its effects on the wellbeing
and morality of the nation, is only one more instance of the mischief
which may be done with the best intentions; and it was perhaps meet that
its author should have remained long enough at his post to witness the
results of his own handiwork.
CHAPTER X
RALPH ALLEN
1720-1764
There was one who realised not less fully than the postmasters-general
themselves the difficulties by which they were beset. He knew well, even
better than they, how letters were being kept out of the post and
transmitted clandestinely, and how even on letters which fell into the
post the postage was being intercepted. But while the postmasters-general
regarded the evil as incurable, he thought that it might at all
events be mitigated. This was Ralph Allen, the postmaster of
Bath. Allen's experience in postal matters was probably unrivalled.
He had, it might almost be said, been cradled and nursed in the Post
Office. The son of an innkeeper at St. Blaise, he had, at eleven years
of age, been placed under the care of his grandmother, who, on the post
road being diverted from South to Mid-Cornwall, was appointed
postmistress of St. Columb. Here the regularity and neatness with which
the lad kept the accounts gained for him the approval of the district
surveyor when on a tour of inspection; and shortly afterwards, probably
through the surveyor's influence, he obtained a situation in the Post
Office at Bath. It is said that while in this situation, intelligence
having reached him that a waggon-load of arms was on its way from the
West for the use of the disaffected, he placed himself in communication
with General Wade, who was then quartered at Bath with his troops, and
that it was by this service that he first brought himself into notice;
but be that as it may, it is certain that when Quash the old postmaster
died, Allen was appointed in Quash's room.
In 1719 Allen offered to take in farm the bye and cross-post letters,
giving as rent half as much again as these letters had ever produced. It
was a bold offer, and, coming as it did from a young man only twenty-six
years of age, and presumably without capital, not one to be accepted
precipitately. Allen proceeded to London and had frequent interviews
with the postmasters-general. The earnestness of his convictions and the
modest assurance with which he expressed them invited confidence, and on
the 12th of April 1720 a contract was signed, the conditions of which
were to come into operation on the Midsummer Day following.
Much as we desire to avoid the employment of technical terms, it is
necessary here to explain that letters, exclusive of those passing
through the penny post, were technically divided into four
classes--London letters, country letters, bye or way letters, and
cross-post letters. For purposes of illustration we will take Bath, the
city in which Allen resided. A letter between Bath and London would be a
London letter, and a letter from one part of the country to another
which in course of transit passed through London would be a country
letter. A bye or way letter would be a letter passing between any two
towns on the Bath road and stopping short of London--as, for instance,
between Bath and Hungerford, between Hungerford and Newbury, between
Newbury and Reading, and so on; while a cross-post letter would be a
letter crossing from the Bath road to some other--as, for instance, a
letter between Bath and Oxford. It was only with the last two classes of
letters that Allen had to do. The London and country letters were
outside the sphere of his operations.
On the bye and cross-post letters the postage for the year 1719 had
amounted to £4000. Allen was to give £6000 a year; and in consideration
of this rent he was for a period of seven years to receive the whole of
the revenue which these letters should produce. Some letters indeed
were excepted, namely Scotch letters, Irish letters, packet letters,
"all Parliament men's letters during the privilege of Parliament," and
such letters as "usually goe free," that is, letters for the High
Officers of State or, as we should now say, letters on His Majesty's
service. No post under Allen's control, whether a new or an old one, was
to go less than three times a week; and the mails were to be carried at
a speed of not less than five miles an hour. He was also to keep in
readiness "a sufficient number of good and able horses with convenient
furniture," not only for the mails but for expresses and for the use of
travellers. One condition of the contract may seem a little hard.
Allen's own officers were to be appointed and their salaries to be fixed
by the postmasters-general, and to these officers he was to give no
instructions which had not first been submitted for the
postmaster-generals' approval.
Allen by his sterling qualities had won the confidence of his
fellow-townsmen at Bath, and there can be little doubt that they now
gave him practical proof of the estimation in which he was held. It is
difficult to understand how else he can have raised the funds necessary
for the purposes of his undertaking. In the very first quarter, between
the 24th of June and the 29th of September 1720, he expended in what may
be called his plant as much as £1500, and made himself responsible for
salaries to the amount of £3000 a year. But heavy as the expenses were,
the receipts bore a most gratifying proportion. From the bye and
cross-post letters the postmasters-general had received, at the highest,
£4000 a year. Allen in his first quarter received £2946. These
first-fruits, while viewed by Allen with equanimity, threw the
postmasters-general into transports of delight, such delight as men feel
when they find themselves to have been true prophets. "See," they said
in a letter to the Treasury dated the 10th of November, "how right we
were. We told you that the greater part of the postage on these letters
was going into the pockets of the postmasters, and that to accept Mr.
Allen's proposal was the only way to check the malversation." But the
promise of the first quarter was not fulfilled. The system of check and
countercheck on which Allen relied for the success of his plan depended
largely, as the postmasters were not slow to discover, on their own
co-operation; and this they refused to give.
Nor can we feel surprise that it should have been so. Of the postmasters
some received no salary at all, while others received the merest
pittance. It could not in reason be expected that they would give their
services gratuitously or, as the postmasters-general were pleased to
think, in return for the copy of a newspaper once a week. Postmasters,
like other men, must live, and they no doubt reasoned that, as the State
did not pay them, they were forced to pay themselves. It must also be
remembered that the offence of intercepting postage, heinous as it would
now be considered, may in those days have been regarded in a somewhat
different light. Some postmasters, as remuneration for their services,
were authorised to withhold a certain proportion of the postage; and
numerous were the complaints that in this particular the liberty
accorded to some was not extended to others. It is probable, therefore,
that many a postmaster, when accounting for less postage than he had
actually received, excused himself on the plea that he was only doing
without authority that for which authority had been given to others, and
which should not in his judgment have been denied to himself.
But whatever apologies they may have found for their conduct, the fact
remains that Allen's contract had been only a few months in operation
before the postmasters resumed their old practices, and, seeing clearly
enough that his plan when once fairly floated would deprive them of a
profitable source of income, they not only withheld all co-operation but
obstructed him by every means in their power. To such an extent indeed
was this obstruction carried that at the end of three years Allen, far
from realising the promise of the first quarter, found himself a loser
to the amount of £270. Although things now began to improve, the
improvement was slow, and in June 1727, when the contract expired,
Allen had established his plan completely on only four out of the six
main roads of the kingdom. On the Yarmouth road he had established it
only partially, and on the Kent road not at all.
Circumstances so far favoured Allen that the demise of the Crown, which
must in any case have terminated his contract, took place within a
fortnight of the date on which the contract would have expired in the
ordinary course. The period of seven years for which it was made expired
on the 24th of June 1727, and the King died on the 11th. A renewal of
the contract could not in justice be refused. Not only had Allen been
obstructed in the execution of his plan and put to heavy expenses which,
except for such obstruction, would not have been necessary, but in
fixing the amount of his rent a mistake had been made to his prejudice.
He had agreed to pay half as much again as the bye and cross-road
letters had ever produced, and it is true that the postage represented
by these letters had amounted to £4000 a year; but it had been
overlooked that the whole of this amount had not been collected, and
that for the purpose of fixing the rent the sum of £300 should have been
deducted on account of letters which could not be delivered, and on
which, therefore, no postage had been received. Allen, while making no
claim for the return of the amount overpaid, pleaded the fact of
overpayment as an additional reason for enlarging his term. The
postmasters-general were not less solicitous than Allen himself that his
services should be continued. They had, during the last seven years,
received on account of bye and cross-post letters £6000 a year, where
before they had received only £4000, or, allowing for the sum not
collected, £3700; and during the same period the country letters, far
from falling off as had been predicted, had improved to the extent of
£735 a year, a result which was attributed to the vigilance of Allen's
surveyors. These reasons were regarded as conclusive, and, subject to
the condition that he should appoint an additional surveyor and lose no
time in completing his plan, Allen's contract was extended for a further
period of seven years.
While Allen is perfecting his arrangements, it may not be amiss to
glance at the condition of affairs as he found them. Houses were still
unnumbered. On letters even to persons of position the addresses could
be indicated only by their proximity to some shop or place of public
resort. "For the R^{t.} Hon^{able.} the Lady Compton next door to Mr.
Massy's Wachmaker in Charles Street near S^{t.} James's Square, London."
"To the Right Hon^{ble.} Lady Compton next door to the Dyall in Charles
Street near S^{t.} James Squir--London." "Pray derickt for me att my
Lady norrise near the Theater in Oxford."[44] To the Court and the Downs
the post went every day; but to no town, however large, did it go more
than thrice a week. Of cross-posts there were only two in the kingdom,
the post from Exeter to Chester and the post from Bath to Oxford.
Outside London, Chester was the only town in England which could boast
of two Post Offices; and these two Post Offices were not for letters in
the same direction. One was for general post letters, and the other for
letters by the Exeter cross-road, an arrangement which presupposed a
knowledge of topography not probably possessed even in the present day.
The cathedral town of Ripon had no Post Office at all. Not many years
before, the inhabitants had asked for one and the request had been
regarded as little less than audacious. "We could not think it
reasonable," wrote the postmasters-general, "to put Her Majesty to the
expense of a salary to a Deputy att Ripon." The utmost concession that
could be obtained was that the letters for that town should be made up
into a packet by themselves and put into the mouth of the Boroughbridge
bag, and, on arrival at Boroughbridge, be despatched to Ripon at once by
a messenger on horseback. This messenger was to deliver them with all
expedition, and to remain at Ripon for replies, leaving only in time to
catch the return-mail from the North. Charges on letters over and above
the legal postage were general. Not a single letter passed between
Yarmouth and the Great North Road without a charge of 3d. as the
postmaster's perquisite. At Gosport a perquisite of similar amount was
claimed on every bye-letter. In the neighbourhood of Chesterfield the
inhabitants paid for every letter they received in no case less than 2d.
in addition to the postage, and in some cases as much as 4d.; and so it
was, with variations as to the amount, in every part of the kingdom.
Only the wealthy could afford to use the post, and even they, on account
of the want of facilities, used it sparingly. How far the post was at
this time removed from being a matter of common concern might, if other
evidence were wanting, be inferred from one solitary fact. In 1728 a
book was published,[45] one chapter of which professed to give a
detailed account of the posts of the period, and assuredly the account
it gave was detailed enough; but of the posts as we understand them,
that is to say, as a vehicle for the transmission of letters, there was
from the beginning to the end of the chapter not a single word. By the
term posts nothing more was meant than the post for travellers, and, for
anything that appeared to the contrary, the letter post might have had
no existence.
[44] Historical Manuscripts Commission, Appendix to Eleventh Report,
Part iv. pp. 233, 234.
[45] _British Curiosities in Art and Nature, likewise an Account of the
Posts, Markets, and Fair-Towns_, 1728.
And perhaps this may be a convenient place to say a few words about
those who had presided over the Post Office during the first five or six
years of Allen's connection with it. Edward Carteret and Galfridus
Walpole, who had succeeded Cornwallis and Craggs in 1721, possessed in a
high degree the qualities which endear men to their subordinates,--a
sense of justice, consideration for others, and a rooted dislike to
high-handed proceedings. In these respects they bore a striking contrast
to their immediate predecessors. We will give instances.
When Cornwallis and Craggs assumed the direction of the Post Office,
their first step was to dismiss the secretary, Henry Weston. The
circumstances were peculiarly hard. Weston's father had been
receiver-general for the county of Surrey, and in this capacity he had
contracted a heavy debt to the Crown. It was the son's ambition to pay
off this debt and to provide a home for his mother and sisters. By force
of industry and self-denial he had just succeeded in securing both
objects when a change of postmasters-general resulted in his summary
dismissal. Weston naturally appealed against so arbitrary an act.
Cornwallis and Craggs, to whom his antecedents were well known, while
commending the young man as an object worthy of the royal benevolence,
resented as unreasonable and little short of impertinent his reluctance
to give up a situation which they desired for a nominee of their own.
Far different was the treatment accorded by Carteret and Walpole to
those who were committed to their charge. Mary Lovell had for more than
thirty years kept the receiving office in St. James's Street. On the
11th of March 1725 the Earl of Abercorn entered this office, holding in
his hand a letter addressed to his son at Cambray, and inquired what
postage had to be paid upon it. The woman replied that there was only
1d. to pay, this being the charge by the penny post, and that the
remaining postage of 3s. would be payable on delivery. Abercorn
questioned the accuracy of this information, and insisted on paying the
entire sum at once. Lovell, feeling sure that a mistake had been
committed, and anxious about the consequences, hurried to the Post
Office, and having there ascertained that she should have received only
1d., called at Abercorn's residence, and with a humble apology refunded
the difference.
Nothing more was heard of the matter until the following July, when a
second very similar mistake appears to have revived the recollection of
the first. Abercorn, who was then at Tunbridge Wells, took to the Post
Office there a letter addressed to his son at Luneville and handed it to
Comer, the postmaster, impressing upon him the importance of its prompt
despatch, and desiring him to pay whatever postage might be required. It
should be explained that at that time letters for Germany had to be
prepaid, or else they were returned to the writers, whereas letters for
France could not be paid except on delivery. Comer, jumping to the
conclusion that Luneville was in France, paid no more than the inland
postage of 6d., the consequence being that three or four days afterwards
the letter, after being opened in London, was returned as insufficiently
paid. Abercorn, naturally enough, was very angry, and, as is apt to be
the case with angry persons, was not altogether reasonable. Luneville,
without the addition of Lorraine or Germany, was an incomplete address.
For this he would make no allowance; neither would he admit that it was
necessary to open the letter in order to return it, and that the
impression on the seal, a coronet and coat of arms, was not sufficient
indication of the writer.
All this was natural enough; but it was strange that he should have
reverted to the earlier of the two mistakes, and directed his resentment
less against Comer than against Mary Lovell. He now charged her with
insolence and an attempt at imposition, and declared that nothing would
satisfy him except her dismissal. In pursuance of this object Abercorn
proceeded to the Post Office, where he was received by Carteret and
Walpole. Walpole said little, and what little he said was said
courteously. Carteret spoke in both their names. He expressed surprise
that the return of the amount overcharged on the letter to Cambray,
accompanied as it had been by Lovell's humble apology, had not been
considered satisfactory, and inquired what further satisfaction could be
expected. Abercorn replied that he expected her to be turned out of her
office as a person unfit to retain it. Carteret expostulated. Such a
step, he said, would not be in accordance with Post Office usage; she
was a poor and unprotected woman, no previous complaint had been made
against her during the thirty years she had held the office; he had seen
her himself, and felt sure that her professions of regret that she had
given offence to his lordship were sincere. Impatient of what he
afterwards described as an irksome expostulation, Abercorn rose to
leave. Carteret and Walpole rose also, and accompanied him to the door.
"I owe it to the North British peers," said Abercorn, turning on the
threshold, "to acquaint some of their representatives with the treatment
that I, their peer, have met with." "And I," haughtily retorted
Carteret, "should care not if all the sixteen North British representing
peers were present at this moment."
Allen's plan consisted in a system of vouchers and what he called
post-bills, by means of which the postmasters might act as a check upon
each other. The post-bill which accompanied the letters throughout their
course was designed to distinguish the bye-letters from others, and to
shew the total amount of postage to be collected; the voucher appears to
have been nothing more than the acknowledgment which each postmaster
gave of the amount to be collected by himself; and these two documents
were sent periodically, once a month or once a quarter, to Allen's
office in Bath, where they underwent a rigid scrutiny. Simple as this
check was, it was only by ceaseless vigilance on Allen's part that he
could get it carried out. To make in the post-bills entries which should
have been made in the vouchers, to omit to send the vouchers to
headquarters, to confound the bye-letters with the London and country
letters--these were only some of the devices to which recourse was had
in order to defeat the check.
Allen was better qualified probably than any other man living for the
task he had set himself to perform. Of a temper which nothing could
ruffle, with ample means at his command, and accountable to no one but
himself for their disposal, and possessed of an amount of local
knowledge which even at the present day is perhaps unrivalled, he
enjoyed a combination of advantages which might have been sought
elsewhere in vain. His patience indeed was inexhaustible. No subterfuge,
not even a transparent attempt at imposition, would call forth more than
a passing rebuke. "'Tis faulty," he would write, "'tis blameable"; and
then, perhaps, from the following words would peep out, in spite of
himself, a gleam of merriment at the clumsiness of the contrivance.
To a man of less easy temperament even the conditions under which he
worked would have been intolerable. Under the terms of his contract
Allen's surveyors were to be the officers of the postmasters-general,
and to do as the postmasters-general bid them. This was no mere nominal
condition. When Allen wanted something done, it may be in the extreme
north or the extreme west of England, he might find that the surveyor
whose business it would have been to do it had been summoned to London
to wait upon the postmasters-general in Lombard Street. Hardly less
provoking must have been the condition that the surveyors, though
Allen's servants, were not to receive from him any instructions which
the postmasters-general had not first approved. Ordinarily Allen was at
Bath, and it was there that the instructions were prepared; yet they had
to be sent to London for approval, and were seldom despatched thence to
their destination until seven or eight days after the dates they bore.
But to any one of less modest and retiring disposition the severest
trial would have been the manner in which the postmasters-general took
credit to themselves for improvements which were exclusively his own. It
was always "our" surveyors who had been instructed to do this, that, and
the other, without the slightest acknowledgment that the instruction had
come from Allen, and that it was he who supplied the money to pay and
the wit to direct them. Only when the cost of some new arrangement had
to be stated to the Treasury did his name appear, and then it was put
prominently forward. "Your Lordships," the postmasters-general would
write, with a confidence which must have possessed all the pleasure of a
new sensation, "will of course approve our proposals. It is true that
the cost they involve is considerable, but the whole of this will fall
upon Mr. Allen, the farmer." But so placid was Allen's temper that these
petty annoyances, irritating as they might have been to some men, passed
unheeded.
As a qualification for the task he had undertaken, hardly less important
than placidity of temper was the possession of ample means and his
unaccountability to others for their disposal. With no one to please
but himself, he enjoyed facilities in dealing with postmasters which the
Post Office, under the most favourable circumstances, could never hope
to possess. To one he would give what he called a complimentary salary;
to another he would give, over and above his salary, a certain
proportion of the postage; and a third would receive a substantial
increase, not for what he had done or was doing, but for what he might
do in the future. All, in short, who could control the actions of others
Allen bound to himself by a community of interest.
But it was the extent of his local knowledge that constituted Allen's
chief qualification for the task he had set himself to perform. This
knowledge, acquired probably during the struggle to introduce his plan,
may appear almost marvellous. There was hardly a town in England, and
certainly no town of importance, with the trade and manufactures of
which, and even with the character and disposition of its postmaster, he
was not acquainted. At the present day it is the district surveyor who
in Post Office matters affecting the provinces takes the initiative. In
Allen's time the initiative came from Bath. In a single letter he would
treat of some thirty or forty towns, and not only prescribe the order in
which they were to be taken and the roads by which they were to be
reached, but give the minutest instructions as to what was to be said
and done on arrival there. In respect to only one town, a town without a
Post Office, does Allen appear to have been uninformed, and that was
Stowmarket. "When in that neighbourhood," he wrote to one of his
surveyors, as though half ashamed of his own ignorance, "go over to
Stowmarket and ascertain and let me know the distance of that town from
Ipswich and from Eye, and also the nature and extent of its trade."
Lest we should be thought to exaggerate the difficulties with which
Allen had to contend, Allen himself shall be our witness. The
postmasters were strictly enjoined to stamp the bye and cross-post
letters. This was their first duty, for without stamping no check was
possible. "I need not tell you," Allen writes to one of his surveyors,
"the mischief which has already attended the omission of this necessary
part of their duty, nor the difficulty which I have hitherto met with to
get this order observed; but when they find that their neglect will for
the future hurt themselves, this evil will be stopped."
Hardly less difficult did he find it to make the postmasters send in
their vouchers with even decent regularity. We will give a few instances
out of many. Of Bodmin and St. Columb he writes, "Both these deputies
are exceeding backward in transmitting their vouchers. Order them
strictly to send them hither for the future within a week after every
quarter." Richmond, Yorkshire, "instead of sending me his vouchers at
the end of every month sends them considerably over the quarter and then
in so great disorder as to be of little use to me in fixing my cheque
account." Gosport, again, "persistently neglects to send his vouchers,
without which, as you know, it is not in my power to state an exact
account nor to fix the cheques which are necessary to prevent abuses."
Grantham is little better, and as for Wolverhampton, Allen writing in
April says, "He has sent me no vouchers since last Michaelmas, and by
this obstinacy destroys my cheque and puts my affairs into great
disorder."
The dead and missent letters were a source of continual trouble. How to
dispose of dead letters and how to get back into their proper channel
letters that had been missent were questions which not seldom perplexed
even Allen himself. But it is not of this particular difficulty that we
propose now to speak. Our present concern is with these two classes of
letters only so far as they affected the relations between Allen and the
postmasters. According to his instructions a postmaster who should find
himself in possession of a dead or missent letter was to send it to Bath
in order that allowance might be made for the postage with which,
otherwise, he would stand charged. Hence arose various attempts at
imposition, attempts to palm off, as though they were dead or missent,
letters which were neither the one nor the other. But let Allen again
speak for himself. "From Lancaster," he writes, "go through Kendal and
Penrith to Carlisle, where I believe you will meet with a very great
abuse. 'Tis thus: His dead letters for a good while since much exceed
what can be rationally accounted for at that stage, and upon enquiry the
greatest number of those letters appear to be sham letters all written
by one hand and sent from different parts of the kingdom, which plainly
shews it to be only a blameable contrivance by some people in that
office to expect money from me for bits of paper never sent by the post
but made by themselves. Some instances you will receive with these
instructions. Be sure to suppress this dangerous abuse. Cause me a
redress for the injury I have received and leave with Mr. Pattison a
copy of my letter relating to stamps, which is the only method I can
think of for an effectual cure of this evil."
The method to which Allen here refers afterwards became a rule of the
office. It was to the effect that no allowance would be made in respect
to any dead or missent letters which should not bear on their covers the
name of the office whence the postmaster by whom the allowance was
claimed had received them. If at that office they had been stamped, that
was enough; but if they had been forwarded unstamped--and the stamping
was as often omitted as not--the postmaster who received the letters was
to write the name upon them. Allen's first experience of the working of
this rule was a little singular. Mrs. Wainwright, the old postmistress
of Ferrybridge, had sent up for allowance a number of unstamped letters
without shewing whence she had received them. Allen returned the
letters, explaining that as such information had not been given no
allowance could be made. If Mrs. Wainwright felt any impatience at what
she no doubt regarded as new-fangled ways, no evidence of it was allowed
to appear. She simply sent the letters back with the name of the office
whence they had reached her neatly written upon each. To Allen's dismay,
the letters had all been opened and the information obtained from the
inside.
The new rule, though good as far as it went, proved insufficient to
check imposition; and Allen felt constrained to add an additional
safeguard. For the future no postmaster was to have his claim allowed
unless he should verify it on oath. This obligation brought its own
troubles. By one the oath was omitted, by another it was objected to on
conscientious grounds, a third would treat it as of small account, and
all this meant additional work for Allen. "This officer," he writes of
the postmaster of Salisbury, "constantly makes large deductions for
missent letters" and on other grounds "without sending me the
particulars of his demand or the office oath to the truth of his claim."
The postmaster of Newark had conscientious scruples and objected to the
oath in any form. "You have already," writes Allen, "been fully
acquainted how tender I am in this respect; but if he still refuses to
claim his demand for allowances by an oath framed in any shape, 'tis
directly necessary to appoint an officer in that place who will obey
their Honours' commands, for if his obstinacy should be suffered the
rest of the kingdom who have readily complyed may raise new objections."
No such scruples afflicted the postmaster of Stone in Staffordshire.
Until lately "the errors made to my injury considerably exceeded those
made to the hurt of that deputy"; but now "the articles to my hurt are
dwindled to a trifle and the others much augmented, which causes Mr.
Barbor to make constant and large claims on me for the difference. Only
lately I received from him a statement of his demands on this head, with
an oath at the bottom of it that the several articles to his prejudice
were all true. But if it be the case, as I have always understood, that
he never concerns himself with the bye-letters but leaves this business
to his uncle, pray enquire of him how he came to send me such an oath."
The postmasters had been allowed to receive their correspondence free of
postage; but Allen soon found that the privilege was being abused. The
covers addressed to them would contain letters not for themselves alone
but also for their neighbours in trade. Indeed the neighbours' letters
would predominate, and, ordinarily, the address was a mere subterfuge.
To check this abuse Allen established a rule that when addressed to
postmasters none but single letters--letters without enclosures, were to
pass free, and that all others were to be charged with full postage. The
postage, however, was to be afterwards remitted in the case of any
postmaster who should make oath that the letters in respect to which he
claimed remission were on his private business. Here again Allen's
belief in the efficacy of an oath was rudely shaken. The number and
magnitude of the claims made upon him from Lancaster had arrested his
attention, and he had laid them aside to be examined at leisure.
Meanwhile the explanation came in a curious manner. He received a
circular from a man of the name of Bracken asking him to subscribe
towards the publication of a book relating to the treatment of
horses.[46] This circular, as announced in the document itself, was
being issued to all the postmasters in the kingdom; and it was in his
capacity of postmaster of Bath that Allen received it. It further
announced that answers should be sent under cover to the postmistress of
Lancaster, the reason given being that they would thus escape postage.
[46] The book was afterwards published--_The Gentleman's
Pocket-Farrier_, by Doctor Henry Bracken of Lancaster, 1735.
Other malpractices were less easy of detection. All the claims, before
they were passed, came under Allen's personal inspection; and to
determine whether these were fraudulent or not needed no special
aptitude. But whether at some distant part of the country two or more
postmasters were in collusion, or whether without collusion they were
bringing to account less postage than they collected, were questions the
solution of which demanded qualifications of a different order. As the
result of reflection or observation, or more probably of both combined,
Allen laid down for his own guidance certain propositions as simple as
they were no doubt sound. Of these one was that the correspondence
passing between two given places, far from being liable to violent
fluctuations, might be relied on to maintain a nearly uniform level. It
is certain that in our own days, when locomotion is easy and the
movements of large parts of the population are influenced by the weather
and other considerations, the principle which this proposition embodies
would not hold good; but in the earlier half of the eighteenth century
Allen regarded it, and probably not without reason, as a safe guide.
When, therefore, the correspondence passing between two places during a
certain period had once been ascertained, he adopted this as a standard,
and any variation of the amount immediately excited his suspicions. "At
Christchurch and Ringwood," he writes, "fully inform yourself why the
letters which formerly were sent between those places and Salisbury are
now almost entirely sunk." At York, during the quarter ending Midsummer
1734, the postage on bye-letters amounted to £165, as against £176
during the corresponding quarter of the previous year. This he affirms
must proceed, not from "deadness in trade," but from "some mismanagement
in the office." Between Appleby and Brough the letters passing in
December were fifteen, whereas in the two preceding months they had been
only three. "Let me know at once," he writes, "the cause of the
difference."
Another proposition which Allen established as a rule of conduct was
that between two trading towns in the same neighbourhood there must
almost of necessity be correspondence. He noticed with surprise that
between Stone and Coventry, according to the vouchers sent him, not a
single letter had passed during a whole quarter. "I will not say it is
impossible," he writes to the surveyor, "that no letters should during
this time pass between such trading places, but during your stay at
Stone I must in a particular manner desire you will examine whether you
receive none."
A third proposition was that there could not be what, if it be not a
contradiction in terms, we will call a one-sided correspondence. He
regarded it as an absolute certainty, amounting almost to an axiom, that
whatever number of letters a town might receive, it would send the same
or nearly the same number in reply. If, therefore, as between two towns,
he found from his vouchers that one was sending to the other more
letters than the other sent in return, he immediately concluded that
something was wrong. It is interesting to note how his views on this
point were confirmed by experience. During the year 1732 the postage on
letters sent from Nottingham to Newark amounted to £25, whereas on those
sent from Newark to Nottingham it amounted to only £13. Surely, writes
Allen, the amounts should be nearly equal. Ascertain whether this comes
"from faults, errors, or a real deadness in the correspondence," and to
enable him to do this the surveyor was to take the Newark office under
his care for a week or a fortnight. Here Allen speaks with confidence
indeed, and yet as though some doubt might exist; but a few years later
there is no doubt at all. "In the Chipping Norton vouchers," he writes,
"another remarkable oddness is that the letters received by that deputy
appear to be double the number sent from that office, which is not only
different from any other well-managed office, but 'tis out of all rules
of proportion with respect to correspondence." And again, "The receipt
of Chipping Norton's letters are still double the number of what Mr.
Mackerness in his vouchers enters as sent from his stage. I can't
conceive how 'tis possible for this difference to arise where an office
is justly managed. Fully examine into the cause of it."
But there were other irregularities which, as being further removed from
observation, were still more difficult to check. Between Worcester and
Bewdley there had been great delay. "The account sent me," writes Allen,
"is that, tho' both these deputys are paid for riding their whole
stages, by a private arrangement between themselves they exchange the
mails at an alehouse on the road, and neither of them will ride beyond
that place, tho' one of them should happen to arrive there several hours
before the other can reach it." The postmaster of Lynn, in Norfolk, who
was paid by Allen to keep a check upon other postmasters in the
neighbourhood, calls his attention to their remissness in delivering
letters. Sometimes, he states, they keep letters several days. On this
account letters that would otherwise go by post are sent by friend or
carrier. "I am perfectly ashamed," he adds, and when I remonstrate and
"set forth the complaints of our gentlemen," the postmasters plead that
they are not paid for delivery, "and therefore think themselves not
obliged to send out their letters even to persons inhabiting within
their own towns."
The post-boys were a constant source of trouble. "By the enclosed letter
from Mr. Floyer of Worcester," Allen writes to his surveyor, "you will
find that the post-boys on the cross-road convey letters between that
city and Bristol by exchanging them from one hand to another without
ever suffering them to be put into the mayl or baggs. Pray thank Mr.
Floyer for his letter, diligently search the boys, and make whatever
other inspection you find to be necessary. Mr. Lumley by the last post
writ me that at Exeter he had made another new and great discovery of
this kind, having found nineteen letters on the Oakhampton rider." "At
Plymouth," he writes on another occasion, "formerly there was a
particular house where the post-boys frequently met to exchange their
letters, which they collected throughout the country from Exon to Truro.
Inquire if this is still going on, and, if so, endeavour to detect
them." On the cross-road between Bristol and Tiverton "several of the
letters have been actually taken out of the baggs and delivered in some
of the trading towns by the post-boys instead of the proper officers.
This could not be if, according to instructions, these bags were always
chained and sealed." At Wells, in Somersetshire, the postmaster has
deprived the Bristol riding-boys of their perquisite of 1d. a letter
"for dropping of letters" at the towns and villages through which they
pass; and as to his own boys, he allows them no wages. This "must drive
those unhappy boys to almost a necessity to rob the mails for their
subsistence." "Then proceed to Rawcliff, in Yorkshire, where Mr.
Carrack, the deputy of that place, will tell you that the riders of the
branch between Doncaster and Hull embezzle great numbers of the
bye-letters. Take his assistance to detect and then punish those
fellows."
Heretofore we have spoken only of the difficulties with which Allen had
to contend in dealing with persons more or less under his own control.
But he had troubles from without as well as within. "Everywhere," he
writes, "endeavour to inform yourself of and suppress all illegal
conveyance of letters." "At Birmingham," he writes again, "endeavour to
detect the carriers who, I am told, in the most open manner convey
letters from that place to all the trading towns in that country." "Use
your utmost vigilance to suppress the illegal collection of letters
which, I am informed, is now carried on by one Twopotts and other
persons, to the injury of the revenue, between Derby and Nottingham."
Between Cowes and Southampton the illegal conveyance of letters "is now
such a custom that we have seldom any go in the bag." "At every stage
which you pass through cause to be fixed to the most public places some
of the printed advertizements against the carriers and wherrymen, and
take every other reasonable methode to surprize all private, illegal,
conveyances of letters, and always have a particular regard of the
followers employed in the dispersing of news from the country presses."
This last injunction is best explained by another given a year or two
later. A printer at Northampton was employing a large number of persons
ostensibly to disperse newspapers, but really, as Allen affirmed, to
collect letters. These persons, he wrote, no longer confine their
operations to short distances, but "by meeting at the extremity of their
divisions the servants of other printers exchange their letters." "Pray,
therefore," he adds, "wherever country presses are erected, do your best
to suppress this evil."
Allen when dealing with the posts displayed a degree of self-reliance
which was hardly to be expected from one of his modest and retiring
disposition. We will give an instance, and with the less hesitation
because it will serve to shew his general way of transacting business.
In 1736 the Duke of Devonshire, who had been spending the summer at
Chatsworth, was much struck with the length of time which letters took
to pass between Chesterfield and Manchester, and he begged the
postmasters-general to apply a remedy. These two towns are about
forty-six miles apart, and in 1736 there was no post between them. Not
very long before, indeed, letters from one to the other would have had
to pass through London, and even now they were taking a circuitous
course by Ferribridge, Doncaster, and Rotherham. The Duke's application
was referred to Allen; and Allen, without waiting to consult the local
surveyor, proceeded at once to give his instructions. Between Manchester
and Chesterfield there should certainly be a post; but this would not be
enough. Derby must also share the benefit; and this could not be
compassed without erecting a stage between that town and Nottingham,
Nottingham being already in direct communication with Chesterfield.
Lincolnshire must also be considered. True, there was a post from
Nottingham to Newark; but between Newark and Lincoln, though only about
seventeen miles apart, there was no communication except through
Grantham, nor between Newark and Horncastle and Boston except through
Stilton. The letters, moreover, on reaching the Great North Road had to
await the arrival of the London mail. Not only did Allen determine that
all this must be altered, but he sketched out the particular alterations
that were to be made, and merely referred to the district surveyor with
a view to ascertain what their effect upon the correspondence was likely
to be.
The particulars which this officer furnished were curious. At
Chesterfield, he reported, not a letter was delivered except on payment
of a fee of 2d. or 3d., and sometimes even of 4d., over and above the
postage. On each letter sent to the post it was the custom to pay 1d.
The entire district, including not Chesterfield alone, but Sheffield,
Nottingham, and Mansfield, was doing a very considerable trade in
Manchester wares; but the letters which passed between these towns and
Manchester were chiefly sent with the goods by carrier. Of post letters
there were few, the postage for a whole year amounting to only £23. The
correspondence might possibly increase by as much as one-third or
£7:13:4 a year, if a post were put on between Manchester and
Chesterfield; but this was doubtful, and the annual cost, owing partly
to the badness of the road, would be £80. Between Derby and Nottingham a
new stage could not be erected for less than £26. Nor could the
Lincolnshire posts be improved as desired for less than £102, making
altogether an increased annual charge of £208; and there was no
probability of this increase of cost being covered, or nearly covered,
by increase of correspondence. Allen was not to be deterred by any such
consideration. The whole of the alterations were carried into effect;
the postmasters-general received from the Duke a warm expression of
thanks for their admirable arrangements; and Allen, who had devised
them, and at whose expense they were made, did not so much as appear in
the transaction.
In striking contrast with Allen's proceedings were those of the Post
Office in the few instances in which it acted independently. Allen's
energy, far from communicating itself to Lombard Street, appears to have
extinguished what little energy had existed there before. Why should the
postmasters-general exert themselves to do that which was done better
and without expense to the Crown by another? And yet there were some,
though rare, occasions on which independent action was called for. One
such occasion presented itself in 1733, and it serves to shew how
wanting the Post Office was in the local knowledge which Allen possessed
in so remarkable a degree. Application had been made for a post to
Aylsham in Norfolk. Among those who had lent their influence in support
of the application was Lord Lovell, who had just been appointed
postmaster-general in conjunction with Carteret, but who had not yet
entered upon his duties; and Carteret, to oblige his new colleague, sent
an officer specially from London with a view to facilitate arrangements.
This officer, John Day by name, was furnished with written
instructions. He was to proceed to Norwich, and there ascertain certain
facts, any one of which could have been supplied by Allen at Bath
without rising from his chair in Lilliput Alley. These were--how far
Aylsham was from Norwich; whether the road between the two towns was a
good or a bad one; whether under existing arrangements Aylsham ever
received any letters, and, if so, how and whence; and particularly--an
instruction which could hardly have been given except under the belief
that Aylsham was south and not north of Norwich--whether the setting up
of a post between the two towns would be a "hindrance to the grand mail
betwixt Norwich and London." Day, having described the position of
Aylsham, appears to have considered it unnecessary to give this last
piece of information; but he told as news, which perhaps it was, that
the London mail left Norwich on Mondays and Wednesdays at midnight, and
on Saturdays at four in the afternoon.
Even where local knowledge was not wanting, the lack of funds which they
could dispense at discretion placed the postmasters-general as compared
with Allen at a serious disadvantage. We have seen how Allen dealt with
the application from Chatsworth. Not many years later it devolved upon
the postmasters-general to deal with a somewhat similar one from
Kimbolton; and it is interesting to note the difference of procedure.
From Kimbolton and St. Neots the course of post had been through
Biggleswade and Hitchin, and in 1758 the inhabitants of the counties of
Huntingdon and Cambridgeshire petitioned that it should be through
Caxton. The effect of the alteration would be that letters for the two
first-mentioned towns coming from the north or from Norfolk and Suffolk
would, regularly three times a week, be brought to the towns themselves,
and not, as had hitherto been the case, be left at Huntingdon, to be
forwarded thence as opportunity offered by carriers and market people.
St. Neots had a further interest in the matter. A considerable
corn-market was held there on Thursdays; and the dealers complained
that, leaving as the post did at twelve mid-day, they had no time to
write their letters, whereas, by way of Caxton, it need not leave until
five in the afternoon. On the score of convenience the change had
everything to recommend it; but there was one drawback. To carry it into
effect would involve a cost of £25; and this, the postmasters-general
expressed their apprehension, the Treasury would not feel justified in
incurring, as the increase of expense might be only partially covered by
the increase of correspondence. Whether the Treasury consent was given
or withheld we know not; but the mere fact that such an apprehension
should have been expressed, and that the convenience of towns and
extensive districts should have been made to depend upon the paltry
consideration of a few pounds, goes far to shew that the Post Office,
without the aid of private enterprise, would have made but little
progress.
Allen's contract expired every seven years. In order to obtain a renewal
of it he did not, according to a practice not uncommon with reformers,
stoop to the pretence that he was on the point of introducing some
important measure, which would be lost to the country unless his
services were retained. On the contrary, he treated it as a pure
business matter, and each time offered higher terms. Thus, in 1741,
which was the first year of a new septennial period, he guaranteed the
country letters to produce £17,500; in 1748 he guaranteed them to
produce £18,000; and in 1755, £18,500. This being the class of letters of
which it had been and continued to be predicted that with the extension
of cross-posts the number must diminish, the postmasters-general
regarded the advance as not unhandsome.
But, in consideration of his contract being renewed, there was another
and far more important condition, which Allen undertook to perform. This
was to convert tri-weekly posts into posts six days a week, and to take
the whole expense upon himself. Accordingly, in 1741, the post began to
run every day of the week except Sunday between London and Bristol,
between London and Norwich, and between London and Yarmouth; and of
course all the intervening towns participated in the benefit. In 1748 a
further instalment followed. This time it was the Midlands and the west
of England that were to be benefited; and on and after Monday the 26th
of December the post went on the three days on which it had not gone
hitherto to Birmingham, through Oxford, and to Exeter through Bristol.
In 1755, the beginning of another septennial period, the six-day service
was widely extended. Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham, Shrewsbury and
Chester, Warrington, Liverpool, and Manchester were among the towns
which were now to receive letters from London on every day of the week
except Sunday. From Liverpool and Manchester the cross-post service to
almost every part of the kingdom was at the same time improved. At the
close of the nineteenth century, postridden as some of us think
ourselves to be, we may find it sometimes difficult to believe that less
than 150 years ago there was not a town in the kingdom which received a
post from London on more than alternate days.
And yet Allen's activity, untiring as it was, went only a short way to
regain for the Post Office the popularity it had lost. Various causes
had contributed to this result. The chief of them, however, as it was
the earliest in point of time, was of itself enough and more than enough
to account for the distrust and hostility with which the Post Office
appears to have been regarded towards the middle of the last century. As
early as 1735 members of Parliament had begun to complain that their
letters bore evident signs of having been opened at the Post Office,
alleging that such opening had been frequent and was become matter of
common notoriety; but it was not until six years later, in the course of
inquiries which were being made into the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole
during the last ten years of his administration, that the state of the
case became fully known. It then transpired that in the Post Office
there was a private office, an office independent of the
postmasters-general and under the immediate direction of the Secretary
of State, which was expressly maintained for the purpose of opening and
inspecting letters. It was pretended, indeed, that these operations were
confined to foreign letters, but, as a matter of fact, there was no
such restriction. The office appears to have been established in 1718,
and its cost, which was defrayed out of the secret service money, had
since increased more than tenfold, and now reached the prodigious sum of
£4700 a year. The establishment, exclusive of a door-keeper, consisted
of nine persons, with salaries ranging from £200 to £1000; the head of
the office or "Chief Decypherer," as he was called, being Dr. Willes,
Dean of Lincoln. It was in June 1742 that these shameful facts became
known, through the report of a committee of the House of Commons; and,
in the August following, Willes was gazetted Bishop of St. Davids.
To ourselves it may seem strange that the State monopoly of letters
should have survived so terrible a revelation. It must be remembered,
however, that in the middle of the last century the Post Office, owing
mainly to the heavy charges it levied, had hardly become matter of
general concern; that public opinion, as we now understand it, was only
beginning to exist; and, above all, that the very conditions under which
Post Office work was done precluded the idea of privacy. These
conditions were absolutely inconsistent with the sanctity which now
surrounds a letter. Letters were divided into two classes,--single and
double; and to determine whether a letter was the one or the other
demanded a close scrutiny, a scrutiny such as could not be exercised
except by the strongest light that candles could give. In 1719 it had
been laid down that a letter, however small, was to be charged as a
double one if two or more persons joined in writing it. How could it be
ascertained that the whole of a letter was in one and the same
handwriting except by prying? Even the law itself, by the meagre
protection it vouchsafed to letters, discouraged the idea of sanctity.
For an offence of the pettiest kind, as for instance for stealing a
pocket-handkerchief in a dwelling-house, the penalty was death. For
opening or embezzling a letter the highest penalty which the law allowed
was a fine of £20. It is significant of the change which has since taken
place in the public sentiment that while in the case of almost every
other description of offence the penalty has been enormously reduced, in
the case of opening and embezzling letters it has been enormously
increased.
Horace Walpole, writing more than twenty-five years later, never tired
of mentioning the elaborate precautions he had taken to secure his
correspondence against inspection. "I shall send this letter by the
coach," he says, "as it is rather free-spoken and Sandwich[47] may be
prying." "I always say less than I could, because I consider how many
post-house ordeals a letter must pass"; and similar observations occur
in a hundred different places. All this was sheer nonsense. It tickled
the exquisite vanity of the man to affect to believe that his
correspondence was of sufficient importance to attract the attention of
the State. And yet truth compels us to admit that the infamous practice
which the committee exposed did not cease with the exposure. The
Treasury, while grudging every 6d. expended on the posts, continued
regularly to remit more than £4000 a year for the maintenance of their
inquisitors in Lombard Street; and it was not until George the Third had
sat some years on the throne, probably under the Rockingham
administration, that the corps was finally disbanded.
[47] Lord Sandwich was postmaster-general in 1768.
Apart from the grave cause of offence we have mentioned, it is a curious
fact that during the last eighteen or twenty years of George the
Second's reign hardly anything occurred in which the Post Office was
concerned that did not in one way or another cause dissatisfaction to
some section of the community. The Post Office, no doubt, was often to
blame, sometimes deeply so; but even where this was not the case, where
no blame attached either to itself or to any other office or person, it
in no single instance, so far as we are aware, escaped a certain amount
of obloquy.
This unfortunate result first shews itself in the case of the Falmouth
and Lisbon packets. During the war with Spain it had only been
necessary, as a defence against some Spanish privateers which infested
the Channel, to provide the Dover and Harwich packets with arms and to
make a small addition to their complement of men; but in 1744, when
Spain was joined by France, a good deal more had to be done. The Dover
and Calais packets, after the six months' grace allowed by the treaty of
Utrecht, were taken off; the packets to the West Indies which had been
discontinued since 1711 were revived; and the Falmouth and Lisbon
packets were put on the same footing as during the last war. This the
merchants trading with Portugal, an important body representing
forty-eight firms, protested was not enough. The packets, they argued,
afforded the only available means for remitting gold to Lisbon in
exchange for commodities, and should, therefore, be of at least 300 tons
and carry 100 men. It was true that this would be in excess by about
seventy tons and forty men of what was provided during the last war; but
the fact that during the last war some of the packets fell into the
hands of privateers was of itself a proof that they were not of force
and burthen sufficient. Besides, we had then an army in Spain, and the
number of soldiers and passengers passing to and fro made fewer sailors
necessary. Moved by these arguments, the Duke of Newcastle decided to
comply with the merchants' request; but Pelham, on learning that the
building and equipment alone would cost £34,800, revoked the Duke's
decision. His Majesty's opinion he declared to be that the main object
of a packet was to carry letters, and that for the carriage of letters
light and swift vessels were the fittest. This, it will be remembered,
was the opinion which had been expressed by William the Third more than
fifty years before, and events had proved its soundness. Nevertheless,
the merchants were highly displeased; and, of course, at that time they
were no more able than they are now to distinguish between a refusal
which originated with the Post Office and one that was imposed upon it
by superior authority.
But the merchants--and here we speak not of those alone who traded with
Portugal--had other and more serious cause of complaint. Their foreign
letters were not delivered until twelve o'clock in the day, and, if a
mail arrived by as much as a few minutes after twelve, it was not at the
earliest delivered until the same hour on the following day. And if on
this day a second mail chanced to arrive shortly before noon, the
letters by the first mail were kept back so as to be delivered with
those of the second in the evening. Thus, foreign letters received at
the Post Office in Lombard Street a few minutes after mid-day on
Saturday might not be delivered even in Lombard Street itself until the
evening of Monday. To make matters worse, the foreign ministers residing
in London had their letters delivered soon after the mail arrived, so
that any persons whom these ministers might please to favour enjoyed an
undue advantage.
The merchants now urged that this might be altered. Did not Sir Harry
Furness, they asked, during the last war obtain permission to have his
letters delivered immediately after the arrival of a mail? And was not
this permission afterwards revoked on the ground that it had led to
abuse? Matters were better managed abroad. At Amsterdam, for instance,
if a mail arrived as late as nine o'clock in the evening, the letters
were delivered to those who might call for them at any time before
midnight, or else sent out for delivery early the next morning. At
Rotterdam--this also was urged as an instance of better management--the
English letters were never delivered till twelve hours after the mail
had arrived, about which time those which had come by the same mail
would be in course of delivery at Amsterdam. Equality of treatment was
thus secured, and neither city had priority of intelligence. At Hamburg,
again, as soon as a mail arrived--if in the day, a notice to that effect
was fixed up at the Post Office and at the Exchange, the letters being
delivered about three hours later; and if at night, the clerks were
called out of bed, so that the letters might be sorted and ready for
delivery the first thing in the morning. Sundays, moreover, were not
excepted. As regards foreign gazettes, too, these all over Europe were
delivered within a quarter of an hour after their arrival; yet in
London the merchants had to wait for them many hours. And this was all
the more hard to bear because the clerks in the Post Office, to whom
gazettes were addressed, received them at once and communicated the
contents to their friends. What could be more calculated to promote
fraudulent insurance, one-sided bargains, and a system of overreaching
generally? Such was the representation made by the merchants; and they
concluded by asking that henceforth, except on Sundays, no longer
interval should be allowed to elapse between the arrival and delivery of
a foreign mail than was absolutely necessary for the purpose of sorting.
The postmasters-general had no choice but to refuse the request. To have
granted it would have defeated the object with which the Treasury were
maintaining an office of their own within the Post Office building.
About this time, three or four years short of the middle of the century,
the Post Office got into disgrace with travellers. Under the provisions
of the numerous Turnpike Acts which had recently passed, the trustees of
the roads were to measure distances and to erect milestones; and on
these provisions being carried into effect the statute mile proved to be
shorter, much shorter, than the reputed or Post Office mile.[48] So
great indeed was the difference that the Post Office may be said to have
been almost ridiculously out of its reckoning. Thus, from London to
Berwick-upon-Tweed the distance, according to Post Office computation,
was 262 miles; according to measurement, it proved to be 339 miles. To
Holyhead the actual distance proved to be 269 miles; the Post Office had
computed it at 208 miles. To Manchester the distance, according to the
Post Office, was 137 miles; the actual distance was 165. Bristol, which
proved to be 115 miles from London, had been reckoned as 94; Birmingham
as 89 instead of 116; Warwick as 67 instead of 84; and so it had been
throughout the kingdom. In every case the Post Office mile proved to be
an unduly long one; and of course, as soon as milestones were erected
authoritatively recording the statute miles, the postmasters charged
accordingly. This change excited many murmurs. The traveller to Warwick
who, at the rate of 3d. a mile, exclusive of a guide, had hitherto paid
for the use of a horse 16s. 9d., had now to pay 21s. To Birmingham he
had now to pay 29s. instead of 22s. 3d.; to Bristol, 28s. 9d. instead of
23s. 6d.; and so on.
[48] This, although unknown probably to the postmasters until now, was
no new discovery. As far back as 1674 John Ogilby had called attention
to the erroneous reckonings in vogue. Ogilby had been commissioned by
Charles the Second to survey and measure the principal roads of England,
and having performed his task he published the result of his labours in
a large folio volume. In the preface to an abridgment of this work,
published in 1711, he thus wrote: "The distances are all along reckoned
in measur'd miles and furlongs, beginning from the Standard in Cornhil,
so that the reader must not be surprized when he finds the number of
miles set down here exceed the common computation. For example, from
London to York are computed but 150 miles, whereas by measure the
distance is 192 miles. And computation being very uncertain, it must be
granted that no exactness could be observed but [by] adhering constantly
to the standard-mile of 1760 yards, which contains eight furlongs."
The King's messengers fought hardest against the innovation, but without
success. Finding the expense of their journeys to Berwick and Holyhead
appreciably increased, they appealed to the Treasury for redress, and
the Treasury invited the postmasters-general to explain under what
authority they had raised their charges. The postmasters-general
replied, as they had replied scores of times before on occasions of
complaint from the public, that they had really nothing to do with the
matter; that it was the postmasters who made the charges; and that in
the opinion of the Attorney-General these officers were clearly entitled
to be paid according to the new measurements. It had been expressly
provided by Act of Parliament that all persons riding post should pay
after the rate of 3d. for every British mile, and the British mile was a
known statute measure common to all His Majesty's dominions. The
Treasury were not satisfied, and insisted that the King's messengers
should be charged according to the old scale. But this, as the
postmasters-general pointed out, was not feasible, the Act of Parliament
by which they were governed making no exception in favour of particular
persons, but on the contrary enacting that all persons without
distinction should pay at the rate of 3d. a mile.
At the headquarters in Lombard Street it was long feared that, on
finding that the reputed mile exceeded the statute mile, those
postmasters whose remuneration had been fixed according to the distance
over which they carried the mails would claim an increased mileage
allowance; but this, to their credit be it said, they never did. Such
forbearance, however, had one ill effect. It tended to perpetuate error.
For many years afterwards two sets of distances remained in vogue, the
one right and the other wrong; the new set applicable to travellers, and
the old set to mails and to expresses sent on the service of the
State.[49]
[49] This explains why in the Road Books of the time the distance
between two places is stated differently in two parallel columns under
the initials C and M, the one being the computed and the other the
measured distance.
The feeling against the Post Office, which had long been gathering
force, now displayed itself in a remarkable manner. It had been the
constant and uniform practice ever since the Post Office was established
to charge letters containing patterns or samples with double postage. To
this the merchants now demurred. They did not deny that such letters if
weighing as much as an ounce should be charged as for an ounce weight;
but they contended that if weighing less than an ounce they should be
charged as single and not double letters. This contention was founded on
the wording of the Act of Anne, which, after prescribing the postage
which "every single letter or piece of paper" not being of the weight of
one ounce was to pay, enacted that "a double letter" should pay twice
that amount. Was a letter to be charged double because it had in it any
enclosure--a sample of grain, for instance, or a pattern of cloth or of
silk? or to constitute a double letter must not the enclosure be of
paper?
This question the merchants now resolved to try; and accordingly at
Bristol, at Manchester, and at Cirencester proceedings were commenced
against the local postmasters for demanding and receiving more than the
legal postage. It affords striking evidence of the widespread
dissatisfaction then existing that in 1753 a practice as old as the Post
Office itself should have been challenged for the first time, still more
that it should have been challenged at three separate places, distant
from one another, simultaneously. The action against the postmaster of
Cirencester came on first. It was tried at the Gloucester Assizes before
a special jury, when a special verdict was found upon the words of the
statute, whether a letter containing a pattern or sample and not being
of the weight of one ounce ought to pay double or single postage. The
postmasters-general, anxious to avoid a multiplicity of suits, now
opened communications with the merchants of Bristol and Manchester.
Would it not be well that their suits should be abandoned? One special
verdict would serve as well as a hundred such verdicts would do to
settle the point of law between the Crown and the subject. Having
succeeded in one county, what more could they expect in another? Or what
advantage would follow that had not been already secured? These
overtures came too late. The merchants were determined to fight to the
bitter end. The suits came on both at Bristol and at Manchester; and at
each of those places a special verdict was given in almost identical
terms with that which had been returned at Gloucester.
Meanwhile the attorneys both in London and the country had passed
resolutions to the effect that, if the point of law were decided in the
merchants' favour, they would refuse to pay double postage on letters
containing writs. The postmasters-general became alarmed. Single instead
of double postage on letters containing writs as well as patterns and
samples meant, according to the most moderate computation, a reduction
of the Post Office revenue by £10,000 or £12,000 a year. This was a
serious reduction, and how to prevent it was the question to which the
postmasters-general now addressed themselves. It is characteristic of
the time that the first expedient they devised with this object was
simply to refuse to carry any more letters containing patterns and
samples unless the senders of them should agree beforehand to pay double
postage. They argued that, in view of the importance to the merchant to
have his letters carried, any unwillingness on his part to enter into
such an agreement would be easily overcome. A notice to give effect to
their intention was already prepared; but before issuing it they took
the precaution to consult the Attorney-General. His advice to them was
that, admirable as the expedient might be, it was distinctly illegal.
Should they, then, bring one of the special verdicts on to be argued in
Westminster Hall and abide by the judicial decision? To this the
Attorney-General could raise no objection, but he warned them that the
decision was pretty sure to be against the Crown. Driven thus into a
corner, the postmasters-general adopted a most questionable course. They
advocated the passing of an Act which should declare a letter containing
any enclosure, even though not of paper and not weighing as much as an
ounce, to be a double letter; and this advice was followed. In a bill
then before Parliament, having for its object to prevent the fraudulent
removal of tobacco, a clause was inserted which effectually prevented
the merchants from sending their patterns or samples and the lawyers
their writs for single postage.[50]
[50] 26 Geo. II. cap. xiii. sec. 7.
It would be difficult to conceive a more irritating course. No doubt
there was precedent for it. Early in the reign of George the First an
Act had been passed enacting that bills of exchange written on the same
piece of paper as a letter, and also letters written on the same piece
of paper and addressed to different persons, should be charged as
distinct letters: and, possibly enough, it might have been difficult to
explain why a bill of exchange should pay double postage and not a
pattern or a writ. It is also true that the fact of three several judges
and three several juries in distant parts of the kingdom having been
unable to agree as to the intent and meaning of a statute implied a
real doubt. And yet it can hardly be denied that to solve that doubt by
the brute force of an Act of Parliament, instead of bringing one of the
special verdicts before the Courts to be argued, was a most provoking
step. Nor would it have been calculated to appease the merchants if they
had known, as the postmasters-general knew, that the entire rates of
postage, as they then existed, rested on no legal sanction. The existing
rates were imposed by the Act of Anne; and that Act imposed them for a
period of thirty-two years, a period which had now expired, and after
which it was expressly provided that the former and lower rates were to
revive. It is true that early in the reign of George the First a further
Act had passed, making perpetual the Post Office contribution of £700 a
week to the Exchequer; but by a clumsiness of legislation, which is not
unknown even in our own day, the latter Act, while making perpetual both
the contribution and the power to levy it, had omitted to re-enact the
rates out of which the contribution was to be paid. Virtually,
therefore, these rates had lapsed through effluxion of time.
And what during the last forty or fifty years had the Post Office
done--done, that is, independently of Allen--to promote the public
convenience or to make amends for so much that had given offence? It had
done four things, and, so far as we are aware, four things only. It had
introduced the contrivance, with which we are all familiar, of external
apertures in Post Offices, so that letters could be posted from the
outside. It had brought the system of expresses up to a standard which,
compared with what it was at the beginning of the century, might perhaps
be considered high. It had, indirectly, been the means of eliciting from
the Courts of Law an important decision. And it had accelerated the
course of post between London and Edinburgh. In 1758 the time which the
mail took to accomplish the distance was, at the instance of the royal
boroughs, reduced between London and Edinburgh from 87 hours to 82, and
between Edinburgh and London from 131 hours to 85.
The date at which apertures on the outside of Post Offices were first
introduced is unknown to us even approximately. All we can do is to fix
two distant dates at one of which the contrivance existed, and at the
other it existed not. On the 3rd of November 1712 Oxford, the Lord
Treasurer, received an anonymous letter, and, being anxious to discover
the writer, he invoked the assistance of the postmasters-general with a
view to ascertain where and by whom it had been posted. Any such inquiry
at the present time would be absolutely futile. One hundred and eighty
years ago the postmasters-general, after an interval of twenty-four
hours, were able to reply not only that the letter had been posted "at
the receiving office of Mrs. Sandys, a threadshop two doors within
Blackfryars Gateway," but that it had been posted "by a youth of about
seventeen years old, in a whitish suit of cloathes, who was without a
hat." It is difficult to believe that apertures can have existed then,
and that the letter was not posted inside the office. That in 1757 the
contrivance had come into existence, though possibly in a rude form, is
beyond question. In that year an unfortunate woman was put on her trial
for stealing a letter, and the sender was called upon to prove the
posting. "On Tuesday the 7th of December 1756," he said, "I put this
letter into the Post Office at the house of Mrs. Jeffreys at Bloomsbury,
at about nine o'clock at night.... There is a window and a slip to put
it into a little box from out of the street. I was not in the house. It
is a very narrow box, and I was afraid my letter was gone down to the
ground.[51] I asked Mrs. Jeffreys if my letter was safe after I had
dropped it into the slip. She said your letter is safe and gone into the
box." If the value of a contrivance depended upon the amount of
ingenuity displayed in devising it, these apertures would be hardly
deserving of mention; but in view of the convenience they afford, this
short notice of them may not perhaps be considered out of place.
[51] The box into which the letters fell was at this time an open one,
_i.e._ without a cover and movable. It was not until 1792 that the
letter-box was closed, fixed, and locked.
The Rebellion of 1745, while disarranging the posts, brought into vogue
the system of expresses; and this system once established was not long
in extending itself. An express cost 3d. a mile, and, no doubt,
travelled faster than at the beginning of the century. The roads had
since been improved; and it may well be believed that the postmasters,
as their custom increased, kept better horses. It was probably the speed
of the express as compared with the tardiness of the post which induced
the wealthy, about the middle of the last century, largely to employ
this mode of conveyance for their letters. It had indeed one drawback, a
drawback such as in our own time has attended the use of telegrams. It
was apt to excite alarm. "Let me," writes the good-natured Charles
Townshend to his sister-in-law, Lady Ferrers, under date September
1759--"Let me now desire you to conclude whenever you receive an express
that it brings you good news, for otherwise I shall be obliged to defer
one day sending you any such account if it should not come to me on a
post day, least the express should alarm you. I should not chuse to
detain you one minute from the news I know your heart beats for, and yet
I should not chuse to frighten you by the sudden manner of its arrival,
for which reason I desire you will remember to receive whatsoever
express I send with confidence and as a friend."
But the purpose for which an express might be employed was jealously
restricted. A man might employ an express to carry a letter; but woe
betide him if he employed the same agency for the purpose of
disseminating news. The licensed carriers at Cambridge had recently been
prosecuted and the postmasters on the Great West Road taken severely to
task for doing this very thing. What are we to think of the intolerable
state of bondage in which men were content to live when even the gentle
Allen could give the following instruction? "At every stage," he writes
to one of his surveyors, "you must forbid the deputies to send any
express except to the General Post Office in London, unless it be for
His Majesty's immediate service; and all other intelligence must be
conveyed either by the common post or particular messenger."
In the middle of the last century, and for about thirty years before and
after, the mails were being continually stopped and robbed by
highwaymen. The reward which the Post Office offered on these occasions
for the apprehension of the robber was invariably £200, this being in
addition to the reward of £40 prescribed by Act of Parliament; and if
the robbery took place within five miles of London, there was a third
reward of £100 by proclamation. Numerous and diverse as the
robberies[52] were, there is only one of which we propose to speak; and
in this case an exception may well be made on account of the important
decision which it was the means of evoking from the Courts. A highwayman
had stopped the Worcester mail at Shepherd's Bush and rifled it of its
contents. Finding himself in possession of a large number of Bank of
England notes he adopted a novel expedient for disposing of them. He
hired a chaise and four and proceeded along the Great North Road as far
as Caxton, passing the notes as he went; and in order to give himself a
wider field of operations he took the precaution of going one way and
returning another. To Caxton he went through Barnet, Hatfield,
Stevenage, and Bugden, and he returned by way of Royston, Ware, and
Enfield. Except at Barnet, which was probably thought to be dangerously
near to London, there was hardly a postmaster along the whole line of
road who had not one or more of the notes passed upon him. The question
now arose who was to bear the loss,--the person by whom the notes had
been sent by post or the postmasters who had changed them into cash. At
the present time the law on the subject is so well ascertained that no
doubt could exist as to the answer; but such was not then the case. In
order to try the point, it was arranged that the notes should be
stopped, and that the sender of them should bring an action against the
Bank of England to recover their value. The trial came on before the
King's Bench in 1758, and, after learned pleadings on both sides, the
Lord Chief Justice pronounced the decision of the Court. This was that
any person paying a valuable consideration for a bank note to bearer in
a fair course of business is unquestionably entitled to recover the
money from the Bank.
[52] Among these robberies there was, so far as we are aware, only one
which possessed any feature of interest; and in this case the interest
was of a psychological nature. Gardner, a postman, was stopped by three
highwaymen on Winchmore Hill, and, on his refusing to give up his
letters, they murdered him. Atrocities of this kind had been frequent,
and executions had failed to check them. But the resources of
civilisation were not exhausted. Lord Lovell--or the Earl of Leicester,
as he had now become--waited upon the King and procured His Majesty's
assent that, after execution, the highwaymen's bodies should be hung in
chains. To be hanged was one thing; after hanging, to have one's body
suspended in chains was another. This was an indignity to which no
respectable criminal should be called upon to submit. Such would seem to
be the idea conveyed in the following letter which Leicester received:--
To the Right Hon. the EARL OF LEICESTER, at HOLKHAM, NORFOLK.
THURSDAY, _Oct. 1753_.
MY LORD--I find that it was by your orders that Mr. Stockdale was hung
in chains. Now, if you don't order him to be taken down, I will set fire
to your house and blow your brains out the first opportunity.
Stockdale was clerk to a proctor in Doctors Commons.
An important legal decision, with which the Post Office had only the
remotest concern, an improved system of expresses following as a natural
consequence from circumstances over which the Post Office had no
control, a simple contrivance to facilitate the posting of letters, and
an acceleration of the mail between London and Edinburgh--this as the
record of forty or fifty years' progress is assuredly meagre enough; and
yet we are not aware of any omission. The plain truth is that during
these years, except in the matter of bye and cross-post letters, the
Post Office had retrograded rather than advanced. The rates of postage
were higher now than at the beginning of the century. More, probably,
than one-half of the public Acts of Parliament which passed during the
reigns of the first two Georges were Acts for repairing and widening the
roads. The roads had kept steadily improving; and the posts had failed
to keep pace with them. While travellers travelled faster than in the
reign of Queen Anne, letters were still being conveyed at a speed not
exceeding five miles an hour. The friendly relations which had existed
between the postmasters-general and the merchants existed no longer.
These had been replaced by feelings of estrangement and animosity. Under
Cotton and Frankland and under Frankland and Evelyn the Post Office
enjoyed a reputation for personal integrity; but even this claim to
distinction had now disappeared. Barbutt, the secretary, had recently
retired under a cloud. Bell, the comptroller of the inland office, had
been arrested on a charge of fraud.[53] Denzil Onslow, the
receiver-general, had been declared a defaulter to the amount of
£10,000; and Stone, Onslow's successor, after two or three years' tenure
of the appointment, had died in debt to the Crown. The Post Office, when
George the Third ascended the throne, was thoroughly discredited, and,
despite Allen's exertions, men were beginning to ask themselves, Why
cumbereth it the ground?
[53] Elsewhere we have expressed a desire to avoid, as far as possible,
the use of technical terms, and the propriety of this course will
probably not be disputed when we state that the charge against Bell was
that having "crowned the advanced letters" he failed to account for the
proceeds. An "advanced" letter was one on which the postage had been
advanced, a letter which, having been undercharged in the country, was
surcharged in London. To "crown" a letter was to impress it with the
stamp of the Crown, denoting that the surcharge had been made.
Virtually, therefore, the charge against Bell was that he had embezzled
the surcharges.
Allen died in 1764, leaving behind him a name which is still venerated,
and justly venerated, in the city of Bath. For many years before his
death he is reputed to have made out of his contract with the Post
Office not less than £12,000 a year; and the greater part of this noble
fortune he spent in acts of benevolence. As early as 1735 riches must
have come pouring in upon him, for in that year he built for himself the
stately house of Prior Park, not indeed for ostentation's sake, but in
order to prove that the stone dug from his quarries on Combe Down was
not the sorry stuff which interested persons in London had represented
it to be. That house still stands; but, as was said at the time--and the
statement holds good to this day--"his charity is seen further than his
house, though it stands on a hill, aye, and brings him more honour too."
In 1742 Allen served as Mayor of Bath; and in 1745, the year of the
Rebellion, he raised a company of volunteers, which he clothed at his
own cost. At Prior Park he dispensed a more than decent hospitality,
numbering among his guests Pitt, Pope, and Fielding, Charles Yorke, and
Warburton. Fielding has immortalised Allen's character but not his name
in the person of Squire Allworthy; and Pope has immortalised both his
name and his character in the lines--
Let humble Allen, with an awkward shame,
Do good by stealth and blush to find it fame.
Among Post Office reformers Allen stands absolutely alone in one
particular. His connection with the Post Office, long as it endured, was
not abruptly terminated. This we attribute partly to a natural sweetness
of disposition, which provoked no enemies, and still more to that which
on the part of reformers is the rarest of virtues, an entire abnegation
of self. So long as a thing which he thought desirable was done, he
cared not that others received the credit.[54]
[54] Of Allen's personal appearance the only account, so far as we are
aware, is to be found in the correspondence of Samuel Derrick, Master of
the Ceremonies at Bath. Derrick writes, under date May 10, 1763: "I have
had an opportunity of visiting Mr. Allen in the train of the French
Ambassador. He is a very grave, well-looking old man, plain in his
dress, resembling that of a Quaker, and courteous in his behaviour. I
suppose he cannot be much under seventy."--Vol. ii. p. 94.
CHAPTER XI
LEGISLATION AND LITIGATION
1764-1782
Brighter days were in store for the Post Office, but not yet. Meanwhile
the clouds grew darker and darker. During the twenty years that followed
Allen's death, partly as the result of ill-considered legislation and
still more through the incompetence and helplessness of its rulers, the
Post Office sank to a depth which, in England, probably no other public
institution, or at all events none that still exists, has ever reached.
In 1764 and 1765 two Acts of Parliament were passed, one having for its
object to prevent the abuses of franking, and the other to improve the
posts. It would be hardly too much to say that both of these Acts had an
exactly opposite effect to that which was intended. The first, far from
preventing the abuses of franking, largely extended them; and the second
imposed a deplorable restriction, a restriction for which any little
advantages conferred at the same time afforded very inadequate
compensation.
Under the Act of 1765, to take the later one first, the postage rates
were reduced for short distances. Since 1711 the charge for carrying a
single letter had been 3d. for eighty miles or under. Now it was to be
1d. for one stage and 2d. for two stages. For longer distances the
charge was to remain unaltered. The speed of the post was raised from
five to six miles an hour. Power was given to the postmasters-general to
erect penny Post Offices in country towns; and--a provision which we
have pronounced deplorable--the weight to be carried by the penny post
was restricted to four ounces. Compensation for losses by the penny post
had long ceased to be given.[55]
[55] _The Present State of Great Britain and Ireland_, published in
1742, states that at that time compensation was still given for losses
sustained in the penny post. The words are: "If a parcel happen to
miscarry, the value thereof is to be made good by the office, provided
the things were securely inclosed and fast sealed up under the
impression of some remarkable seal." This is an error; and that an error
should be made on the point serves to confirm the view that little was
known of the Post Office and its doings even 150 years ago. That
compensation was not at that time given for losses is beyond all
question. It happens that in that very year, 1742, a Mr. Vavasour
appealed to Whitehall to grant him compensation for the loss of bank
notes to the amount of £20 which had been stolen from a letter in its
transit through the post; and the postmasters-general, after stating
that no precedent existed for granting compensation, implored the
Treasury not to create one. "All persons," they write under date the 4th
of August 1742, "that for their own convenience send notes or bills of
value by the post inclosed in letters do so at their own risque without
any foundation that we know of for recovery of this office in case they
should be stolen or lost by robbery or other accidents. And this we take
to be not only reasonable but just in all construction of law." Again,
in 1778 an action for compensation was brought against the Post Office,
and Lord Mansfield, after delivering the unanimous opinion of the Court
of King's Bench that the postmasters-general were not responsible for
losses sustained in their department, proceeded to observe that no
similar action had been brought since the year 1699. Giles Jacob, in his
_Law Dictionary_, published in the last century, gives this account of
the matter: "It was determined so long ago as 13 Will. III., in the case
of _Lane_ v. _Cotton_, by three judges of the Court of King's Bench,
though contrary to Lord Chief Justice Holt's opinion, that no action
could be maintained against the postmasters-general for the loss of
bills or articles sent in letters by the post."
Such was the end of Dockwra's post as Dockwra had established it. With
that eminent man it had been an object of the first importance that the
penny post should carry up to one pound in weight; and now the weight
was to be reduced to four ounces. And why? Because the penny post was
little used for packets and parcels above four ounces? Exactly the
contrary. It was because packets and parcels above four ounces were
being largely sent by the penny post that the limit of weight was to be
reduced.[56] These missives had been found a little inconvenient to
manipulate and it was resolved, therefore, to exclude them. Such was the
wretched policy of the time. Even in matters vitally affecting their own
interests the public had as yet no voice and their wishes were not
considered. On account of some trifling inconvenience, which a very
little amount of ingenuity would have sufficed to overcome, the
inhabitants of London and its suburbs were now deprived of accommodation
which they had enjoyed uninterruptedly for eighty-five years.
[56] The reason for the provision was thus given in the preamble:
"Whereas many heavy and bulky packets and parcels are now sent and
conveyed by such carriage which by their bulk and weight greatly retard
the speedy delivery thereof...."--5 Geo. III. cap. xxv. sec. 14.
In 1764 franking became for the first time the subject of Parliamentary
enactment. To send and receive letters free of postage had been a
privilege enjoyed by members of the two Houses of Parliament from the
first establishment of the Post Office; but whereas it had hitherto been
a concession granted by the Crown, it was now to be a right conferred by
statute. The reason will be obvious. The revenue of the Post Office had
recently been surrendered to the public during the life of the
Sovereign, in exchange for a Civil List charged upon the Consolidated,
or, as it was then called, the Aggregate Fund; and the Crown, having
dispossessed itself of all property in the Post Office, was no longer
competent to remit postage without the authority of Parliament. The Act
which was now passed was designed to correct the abuses which experience
had shewn to exist. The limits of weight and of time remained as before;
that is to say, only letters not exceeding the weight of two ounces were
to be franked, and these only during the session of Parliament and for
forty days before and after. In other respects the conditions were
slightly altered. Hitherto it had been enough, in the case of letters
sent by a member, that he should sign his name on the outside; for the
future not only was the outside to bear his signature, but the whole of
the address was to be in his own handwriting. In the case of letters
addressed to a member, none were to be exempt from postage unless
directed to the place of his usual residence or to the place where he
was actually residing, or, of course, to the House of Parliament. It had
been hoped that these alterations of practice would check the abuses of
franking. Vain expectation! No sooner had the concession been converted
into a right than what little scruples existed before appear to have
vanished, and franks were scattered broadcast over the country. Before
eight years were over, the number of franks passing through the London
office alone had nearly doubled, the postage from which they carried
exemption being in 1765, the first year after the change, £34,734, and
in 1772, £65,053; and this, be it observed, was no mere estimate, but
the actual result as ascertained by the careful examination of each
letter.
Another effect of the change of practice was to embroil the Post Office.
The Post Office, in its efforts to protect itself against imposition,
would charge letters when addressed to a member at a place where he was
supposed not to be; and hence constant disputes and altercations.
Members, again, who were bankers or were engaged in trade insisted that
letters addressed to them at their counting-houses, even though they did
not reside there, should pass free. On these the Post Office claimed
postage, and the members refused to pay it.
But it was in Ireland that the rage for franking broke out into the
wildest excesses. In 1773 an inspector of franks was sent to several
towns on the cross and bye roads, in order that he might ascertain and
report to the postmasters-general the extent to which the abuse had
grown. This officer visited nine towns altogether, and was absent from
Dublin for sixty-three days, being at the rate of seven days at each
town. At Waterford, during his stay there, 588 letters passed through
the local Post Office purporting to be franked. The franks on only 354
of these were genuine; the rest were counterfeit. At Kilkenny there were
425 counterfeit franks to 510 that were genuine. At Clonmel, 526
counterfeit and 509 genuine. At Gowran, 212 counterfeit and 195
genuine; and so with the remaining towns. Altogether the number of
letters with counterfeit franks was nearly as large as the number with
genuine franks, and far exceeded all the other letters combined. However
clear might be the evidence of fraud, and however conclusively it might
be brought home to particular persons, it was of no use attempting to
prosecute. Hear what Mr. Lees says on this point. Mr. Lees was Secretary
to the Post Office in Ireland, and he had, under direction from Lord
North, received instructions to take proceedings against a firm of
solicitors in Londonderry who had been sending letters under forged
franks. "A prosecution," wrote Mr. Lees, "will not be of the slightest
avail. It has been tried over and over again, and, in the face of the
clearest evidence, without success." "There is scarcely a magistrate to
be found in Ireland who will take examinations on the Post Office laws;
and certainly in no instance has this office prevailed in getting the
bills of indictment found by a Grand Jury. This being so universally
known, counterfeiting franks is drawn into such general practice that I
believe there are very few merchants or attorneys' clerks throughout the
kingdom who do not counterfeit in the name of one member or other. Nay,
if I classed with them almost every little pretty Miss capable of
joining her letters, I should not exaggerate the abuse." "As I have
observed," he wrote further on in the same letter, "in every town of
consequence throughout the kingdom the members resident, under their
address, cover the correspondence of the principal merchants.... The
postage arising on counterfeit covers alone amounts to more than a third
of the revenue of this office."
Under the terms of the Franking Act newspapers were to go free which
should bear a member's signature on the outside or which should be
directed to a member at any place of which he had given notice in
writing to the postmasters-general. This provision seriously affected
the Post Office, though in a different way from the liberties which were
being taken with letters. From the first establishment of the Post
Office the six clerks of the roads had enjoyed the privilege of
franking newspapers, and the emoluments derived from this source,
originally insignificant, had been continually increasing. In 1764 they
were certainly not less than £8000 a year, and may have been more. The
Franking Act sapped this source of emolument. No sooner had that Act
passed than the members served the Post Office with notice of the places
to which they wished newspapers to be directed. These places did not in
the first instance extend beyond the member's own residence and the
residences of his constituents and friends; but after a while no such
moderation was observed. The booksellers and printers, or news-agents as
they would now be called, soon recognised the advantage it would be to
them if they could get their customers' addresses put on the Post Office
Register, and they experienced little difficulty in finding members who
were ready to do them this service. There were four who were noted for
their complaisance. These were Sir Robert Bernard, member for
Westminster; Brass Crosby, member for Honiton and alderman for the City
of London; Richard Whitworth, member for Stafford; and Richard
Hiver.[57] These four members in little more than eighteen months served
upon the Post Office no less than 744 separate notices. Altogether, at
the close of the year 1772, there were 2024 such notices registered in
Lombard Street, of which 765 were on behalf of constituents and friends,
and 1259 on behalf of printers and booksellers.
[57] For what constituency Richard Hiver sat we have been unable to
discover. His name does not appear in the return of members of
Parliament presented to the House of Commons in 1878.
As the natural result the clerks of the roads found their emoluments
rapidly dwindling. Heretofore they had been, virtually, the great
news-agents of the kingdom. Enjoying, in common with a few clerks at
Whitehall, the exclusive privilege of sending newspapers through the
post free, they had been exposed to little, if any, competition; but now
that in the matter of postage the terms were equal, the advantage was
all on the side of the private dealer. The private dealer procured his
newspapers in the open market, whereas the clerks of the roads were
required to procure them from a particular officer designated by the
postmasters-general; and this officer was authorised not only to charge
for the newspapers he supplied 1-1/2d. a dozen more than he gave for
them, but to retain as his own perquisite one out of every twenty-five
copies.
It may seem of little moment that, as the result of legislation, six
persons more or less should find themselves in reduced circumstances.
Such an event, unhappily, is not so rare as to call for special remark.
But there was a good deal more than this in the present case. The
profits which the clerks of the roads derived from the sale of
newspapers had never been devoted to the exclusive use of the
recipients. On the contrary, they were to a large extent common
property. Out of these profits pensions were provided for Post Office
servants who were past work; and from the same source inadequate
salaries were raised to something like a decent maintenance. In
additional salaries to brother officers and in pensions to officers who
had retired, the clerks of the roads had in 1764 contributed as much as
£6600; and even now, reduced as their profits were, they were
contributing a little over £2000. They were, in effect, the mainstay of
the establishment, and the falling off of their emoluments was being
watched by the postmasters-general, hardly less than by those who were
more immediately interested, with the gravest concern.
Nor was it calculated to reconcile the Post Office servants to the
deprivations which they were already beginning to suffer that the
members of other public offices, who had lost from the same cause as the
clerks of the roads, but to a much less extent, had received
compensation in full. The clerks in the offices of the Principal
Secretaries of State, like the clerks of the roads, had been privileged
to frank both letters and newspapers. By the Act of 1764 the privilege
had, as regards letters, been taken away in both cases; and in both
cases, as regards newspapers, it remained. Yet to the clerks in the
offices of the Principal Secretaries of State was secured, by special
Act of Parliament, compensation to the amount of £1500 a year, while the
clerks of the roads received nothing; and, as though to add to the
aggravation, this sum of £1500 a year was to be paid by the Post Office.
In Dublin the same difficulties were being experienced as in London and
from the same cause. Emoluments were falling off and obligations could
not be met. Among these obligations, however, there was one which was
peculiar to Dublin. Before 1764 the clerks at the castle, like the
clerks of the roads, had enjoyed the privilege of franking newspapers,
and the exercise of this privilege by the two bodies simultaneously had
been attended with so much friction that advantage had been taken of the
passing of the Franking Act to effect a compromise. In consideration of
the sum of £350 a year to be paid by the clerks of the roads the clerks
at the castle undertook to abandon their privilege absolutely. A deed to
this effect was prepared, and, in order that nothing might be wanting to
give it formality, it was signed by the Earl of Northumberland, the Lord
Lieutenant, on behalf of the castle, and by Lord Clermont, the Deputy
Postmaster-General of Ireland, on behalf of the Post Office. Whence was
the sum of £350 to come when the emoluments should be gone? Was a price
to continue to be paid for the surrender of a privilege which had ceased
to be of value? The Attorney-General for Ireland advised that the clerks
of the roads were still liable to the last farthing of their salaries;
and the clerks at the castle refused to abate one jot of their claim.
But we are anticipating. In 1767 the statute-book received an addition
which, though differing widely both in intention and effect from the
Franking Act and the Postage Act, cannot be allowed to pass unnoticed.
This was an Act for the better paving, lighting, and regulating the
streets of London, a first step in fact towards converting the London
of Hogarth into the London of to-day. The mere preamble[58] of the Act
brings home to us, hardly less vividly than Hogarth's pencil, the
intolerable inconveniences under which our forefathers were content to
live; but what concerns us at the present moment is that one section
provided not only that the names of the streets should be put up but
that the houses should be numbered. This numbering of houses quickly
spread, and, although unnoticed by the Post Office at the time, was
destined very materially to assist its future operations. As a
consequence, too, and at no long interval, arose a new industry, namely
the compilation of Directories--a thing that was impossible before--and
hence the Post Office derived still further assistance.
[58] "Whereas the several streets, lanes, squares, yards, courts,
alleys, passages and places within the city of London and the liberties
thereof are in general ill-paved and cleansed and not duly enlightened,
and are also greatly obstructed by posts and annoyed by signs, spouts,
and gutters projecting into and over the same, whereby and by sundry
other encroachments and annoyances they are rendered incommodious and in
some parts dangerous not only to the inhabitants but to all others
passing through the same or resorting thereto...."
About this time considerable improvements took place both in the Scotch
and Irish posts. Between London and Edinburgh communication had been
only thrice a week. In 1765 it was increased in frequency to five days a
week, and posts on six days a week were at the same time established
between Edinburgh and the chief towns of Scotland. The result was an
immediate increase of revenue which much more than covered the increase
of expense. Two or three years later the course of post between London
and Dublin came under review. By virtue of an arrangement, which the
fact of the communication being only thrice a week goes but a short way
to explain, letters from England to Ireland were kept lying two whole
days in the London Office and, similarly, letters from Ireland to
England were kept lying two whole days in the Dublin Office. The packet
which was due in Dublin on Saturday night rarely arrived before Sunday,
and, unless it did so, the letters from England for the interior of
Ireland did not leave Dublin until Wednesday morning. Nor was this all.
The number of packets was extremely limited, and, owing to their
constant employment by Government as express boats, it frequently
happened that two and sometimes three and even four mails were sent by
the same packet. In 1767 this was altered. Additional packet boats were
placed on the station, and the post between London and Dublin and
between Dublin and Belfast in one direction and Cork in another was
increased in frequency from three to six days a week.
Between London and the chief provincial towns in England Allen had, as
we have seen, established posts six days a week instead of three; but it
was not until 1769, or nearly five years after Allen's death, that
within the metropolis arrangements were made to correspond. Meanwhile
the offices for the receipt of general post letters were kept open and
the bellmen went about ringing their bells on only three nights of the
week, namely Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and on the other three
nights, except at the General Post Office, letters could not be posted
gratuitously. On the nights of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a receiver
if called upon to take in letters was entitled to charge a fee of 1d.
apiece, and this fee he retained as his own perquisite. Beginning with
1769 the receiving offices were kept open and the bellmen rang their
bells on every night of the week, Sundays excepted.
An event or rather a series of events now took place, the result of
which was largely to alter the character of the Post Office and to
extend its usefulness. Recent legislation had done little for the public
convenience. It had indeed provided that Penny Post Offices might be
established out of London, and advantage had been taken of the provision
in one single instance. In Dublin a Penny Post Office had been opened on
the 10th of October 1773, or seventy years after the Countess of Thanet
desired to open one and was refused permission at the last moment. But
in other respects legislation had accomplished little beyond promoting
the very abuses it was designed to prevent, and impairing the utility
of Dockwra's post. Litigation was now to have its turn; and it is
interesting to note the result.
The machinery for the dispersion of letters remained much as it had been
since the first establishment of the Post Office. In London, in
Edinburgh, and in Dublin there was, as there is now, a body of men whose
duty it was to deliver from house to house; but with these three
exceptions there was not, 120 years ago, a single town in the kingdom
which could boast of its own letter-carrier. The postmaster was the sole
Post Office agent in the place; it was he who delivered the letters if
they were delivered at all; and for this service he was left to charge
pretty much as he pleased. The public had grown tired of this state of
things and strenuous efforts were now made to alter it.
The crusade began in the little town of Sandwich in Kent. It had been
the practice of the postmaster there, at some former time, to deliver
free the letters arriving by the bye and cross posts, and on the
delivery of the London letters to charge a fee as his own perquisite. In
1772 a fee was being charged on the delivery of all letters. This charge
the inhabitants now determined to contest. The case came on for trial in
the Court of King's Bench and was decided against the postmaster, the
Court being of opinion that wherever the usage had been to deliver free,
there the usage should be adhered to. The postmasters-general were very
uneasy. Out of the 440 post towns of the kingdom there were known to be
not less than seventy-six which were in the same case as Sandwich and to
which the decision of the Court must apply, towns where letters had at
one time been delivered free and where they were so no longer; and not a
day passed without bringing fresh and unexpected additions to the list.
At Birmingham and at Ipswich, for instance, where a charge was now being
made for delivery, old inhabitants could remember how forty or fifty
years before letters had been delivered free. Was the Crown to be at the
expense of letter-carriers at all of these towns, or were the
postmasters, who were already complaining of the inadequacy of their
remuneration, to forego their perquisites and make a house-to-house
delivery as part of their duty?
The question was still under consideration when the town of Ipswich
commenced an action. The point raised in this case was whether on the
delivery of letters addressed to the inhabitants of the town the
postmaster could legally demand any sum over and above the postage, and,
if so, whether in the event of the demand being refused he could oblige
the inhabitants to fetch their letters. Again the decision, this time by
the Court of Common Pleas, was in favour of the public and against the
Post Office. The postmasters-general were more than uneasy now. No
sooner had the decision in the Ipswich case become known than town after
town where letters had never yet been delivered free demanded a free
delivery and threatened the postmasters-general with actions in the
event of their demand being refused. Bath and Gloucester did more than
threaten. They, like Ipswich, proceeded to trial; and again, for the
third and fourth time, the decision was against the Post Office.
Thurlow was at this time Attorney-General. He held a strong opinion that
in order to comply with the statute it was enough to deliver letters at
the Post Office of the town to which they were addressed, and that there
was no obligation to deliver them at the houses of the inhabitants.
Still clinging to the belief that the decisions of the Courts must have
proceeded more or less on the usage of delivery, he now determined to
try the question in the case of a town where the usage had been for no
delivery to be made without payment. The town of Hungerford in Berkshire
was selected for the purpose. There, it could be proved, ever since the
beginning of the century, letters had not been delivered except on
payment of a fee of 1d. apiece.
The case came on before the Court of King's Bench in Michaelmas term
1774. Lord Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice, was the first to deliver
judgment. He was surprised, he said, the several Acts being so ambiguous
and the usage so contradictory, that the Post Office had not applied to
Parliament to explain the matter. That was the view of the Court when,
in the other cases, it avoided the general question. He never liked to
avoid general questions, for to decide them tended to prevent further
litigation; but an important question of this kind, arising out of Acts
that had "not yet spoke," and, whichever way it might be decided,
involving more or less inconvenience, was essentially one for
Parliament. And in the Bath case there were grounds on which the general
question could, without impropriety, be avoided. There the postmaster
when delivering a letter had demanded a certain sum as a duty. Now, a
duty it certainly was not. If on the delivery of a letter Parliament had
intended to impose a duty, it would have fixed the amount and made it
part of the Post Office revenue; and not have left every postmaster free
to fix what amount he pleased or might prevail upon people to give. And
what a monstrous inconvenience it would be if every one had to go to the
Post Office to fetch his own letters! How could the Court have laid down
such a proposition as that? The thing was impossible. And it must be
remembered that there could be no middlemen--men between the inhabitants
and the postmaster--who for gain could set up an office to distribute
the letters, because by law the postmaster could not deliver them except
to the persons to whom they were addressed. These were the
considerations which in the Bath ease induced him to avoid the general
question, and he had been glad to feel able to do so, never doubting
that the postmasters-general would apply to Parliament for a
determination; but this, unfortunately, they had not done. Then there
was the Gloucester case. He remembered it well. There the question was
not whether there should be a free delivery, for at Gloucester letters
had always been delivered free, but whether certain houses should fall
within the limits of that delivery. All that the Court then decided was
that in the case of these houses, forming as they unquestionably did a
part of what was known as the town of Gloucester, the Post Office could
not depart from its own practice. But the present case was different.
Here the contention was that in the town of Hungerford there was not a
single house at which the Post Office was required to deliver letters
without being paid for it. Practically, no doubt, it was the Bath case
over again; but the Court could not well avoid the general question a
second time. The Post Office, in effect, sought to impose a duty; and
this, he said it emphatically, the Post Office had not the power to do
without the authority of Parliament, which authority had not been given.
His mind was perfectly clear that within the limits of a post-town the
Post Office was bound to deliver free; but how far these limits should
extend was a question upon which he did not feel called upon to express
an opinion.
The other judges were equally emphatic. The Post Office had urged in
support of its contention that it sometimes happened--as, for instance,
at Hartford Bridge---that the stage or post-house was a single house
with no other houses near. There, at all events, as soon as it had
deposited the letters at the post house, the Post Office had discharged
its duty. And if there, it was asked, why not elsewhere? If, said Mr.
Justice Aston, the post house was a single house with no other houses
near, the question did not arise; but, in the case, of towns, surely it
would not be contended that each individual inhabitant was to resort to
the post house every day in order to inquire whether there was a letter
for him or not. To demand this penny within the limits of a post town,
said Mr. Justice Willes, was contrary to the whole tenor and spirit of
the Acts of Parliament; and where the post town was a small one like
Hungerford, the demand was far more unreasonable than it would be in the
case of London and Westminster. Yet in London and Westminster letters
were delivered free. He should pay more regard to the usage of the city
of London than to that of fifty such towns as Hungerford. Mr. Justice
Ashurst was of opinion that even to usage too much importance might be
attached. If it were really the case that at Hungerford, ever since the
passing of the Act of Anne, a man living next door to the Post Office
had had to pay over and above the postage 1d. for every letter he
received, this in his opinion was a bad usage, an usage for which the
Act afforded no justification, and the sooner it was laid aside the
better.
The decision of the Court burst upon the postmasters-general like a
thunderbolt. They had been assured that it would certainly be in the
opposite direction; and now, to their dismay, they found themselves face
to face with the prospect of, what they called, an universal delivery.
What was to be done? The Post Office would be ruined. Of course the
Attorney-General would advise an appeal to the House of Lords. As a
matter of fact the Attorney-General advised nothing of the sort.
Thurlow's private opinion continued to be what it had always been, that
the Post Office was not bound to deliver letters beyond the stage or
post house. He even went so far as to admit that, if once the Act were
construed to require more than that, he knew of no manner of
construction that would entitle the postmasters-general to refuse to
carry letters into every hole and corner of the kingdom. Still, as two
Courts had decided against the Post Office, he regarded it as useless to
appeal to the House of Lords, where, no doubt, the opinion of the same
judges would be taken and acted on. Then, inquired the postmasters-general,
might not a writ of error be brought with a view to hang up the judgment
of the Court of King's Bench until the matter should be settled by
Parliament. "No," replied Thurlow, "I do not approve a writ of error
being brought by an office of revenue avowedly to suspend a question."
Thus ended a controversy which in one form or another had extended over
a period of more than two years. The postmasters-general urged indeed
that Parliament should be asked to avert what they regarded as little
short of a catastrophe; but the recommendation was not adopted, and the
decision of the Court was left to take effect.
We have dwelt upon this matter at some length, because it was, in
effect, a turning-point in the history of the Post Office. The
enterprising spirit of the small towns, the independence of the judges,
and the conspicuous fairness of the Attorney-General, make up no doubt a
combination which it is pleasing to contemplate; and yet, if this were
all, a shorter notice would have sufficed. It is because the Post Office
was now to assume a new character, the character in which it is known to
us at the present time, that we have thought it best not to omit any
important particular. And how great the change was to be a moment's
consideration will shew. Cotton and Frankland had, early in the century,
done what little they could to make the Post Office popular. They had
lost no opportunity of advocating cheap postage; they had lived among
the merchants, and, as far as duty would allow, had consulted their
wishes; and within the limits assigned to them had spared no efforts to
promote the public convenience. But since then a different spirit had
prevailed. By Cotton and Frankland's successors much had been done in
restraint of correspondence and nothing, or next to nothing, in
promotion of it. The Post Office had become, insensibly perhaps, but
none the less surely, a mere tax-gatherer, and, like other
tax-gatherers, its policy had been to exact as much and to give as
little as possible. All this was now to be altered. An appeal had been
made to the Courts; and the Courts in the most deliberate and solemn
manner had affirmed this principle--a principle now so universally
recognised and acted on as to excite our wonder that it should ever have
been otherwise--that the Post Office was to wait upon the people, and
not the people upon the Post Office.
It might be supposed that the decision of the Courts would have been
immediately followed by the appointment of letter-carriers throughout
the country, or else by additions to the salaries of the postmasters in
consideration of their undertaking to make a house-to-house delivery
gratuitously. Such, however, was not the case. At the towns which had
taken a foremost part in the fray--at Hungerford and Sandwich, at Bath,
Ipswich, and Birmingham--as well indeed as at other towns which were
spirited enough to assert their rights, letter-carriers were no doubt
appointed; but there was no sudden and general alteration of practice.
On the contrary, the obedience which the Post Office yielded to the law
as laid down by the Courts was a tardy and grudging obedience. As much
as ten or eleven years later we find the postmasters-general
acknowledging indeed the obligation under which they lay to appoint
letter-carriers at any towns that might demand it, and yet taking credit
to themselves that, as a matter of fact, no such appointments had been
made except where the inhabitants had refused to continue the accustomed
recompense for delivery.
The Courts of Law were at this time the best friends of the people. No
sooner had they decided that every town which possessed a Post Office of
its own was entitled to a gratuitous delivery at the door than a
somewhat similar question came before them in connection with the penny
post. For every letter delivered by the penny post the inhabitants of
Old Street, St. Luke's, of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, of Bethnal Green,
and Spitalfields were required to pay an additional penny, that is a
penny over and above the one which had been paid on posting; and this
they had long regarded as an imposition. According to Dockwra's plan the
second or delivery penny was to be confined to Islington, Hackney,
Newington Butts, and South Lambeth, which in his day formed separate
towns; but in course of time, as buildings extended, the Post Office
appears to have exacted the same charge at intermediate places. Jones, a
wealthy distiller of Old Street, now determined to try the question.
Again the decision of the Courts was against the Post Office, and not
only in Old Street, but in Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, and Spitalfields
the additional penny had to be abandoned.
While these proceedings were taking place before the Courts, the Post
Office had forced upon it a step which, even in those days of
indifference, cannot have been taken without a pang. This was the
dismissal of its most distinguished servant or rather of its only
servant with any claim to distinction, and that of the highest. We refer
to Benjamin Franklin. This eminent man had been appointed postmaster of
Philadelphia in 1737, and after being employed in several positions of
trust, had been promoted to be one of the joint postmasters-general of
America in 1753. He had recently been sent to England with the object of
averting war between the mother country and her transatlantic colonies,
and, his mission having failed, he was now dismissed. The letter in
which the decision was announced was as follows:--
To DOCTOR FRANKLIN.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, _Jan. 31, 1774_.
SIR--I have received the commands of His Majesty's
postmasters-general to signify to you that they find it necessary
to dismiss you from being any longer their deputy for America. You
will therefore cause your accounts to be made up as soon as you can
conveniently.--I am, sir, your most humble servant,
ANTHONY TODD,
_Secretary_.
Curt as this communication was, it was perhaps the best of which the
circumstances admitted. Indeed, we are by no means sure that the terms
of it were not arranged with Franklin himself. He was in London at the
time. His relations with the Post Office had always been of the most
cordial character. He did not, after receiving the letter, cease to
visit Lombard Street; and before his return to America he wrote to the
Post Office intimating that he would cheerfully become security for his
colleague, who, as a consequence of his own dismissal, had to enter into
fresh bond. At all events, whether Franklin had any hand in the
preparation of the letter or not, the less said the better would seem to
have been the opinion of the writer; just as a desire to let bygones be
bygones is plainly shewn in the first letter which passed after
correspondence was resumed. This letter is a curiosity in its way. It is
dated the 25th of June 1783, and, ignoring all that had happened during
the preceding seven years, begins as follows:--
To DOCTOR FRANKLIN at PARIS.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, _June 25, 1783_.
DEAR SIR--I must confess I have taken a long time to acknowledge
the last letter you were pleased to write me the 24th of March 1776
from New York. I am happy, however, to learn from my nephew, Mr.
George Maddison, that you enjoy good health, and that as the French
were about to establish five packet boats at L'Orient, Port Louis,
for the purpose of a monthly correspondence between that port and
New York, you were desirous of knowing the intentions of England on
that subject....--I am, dear sir, with the greatest truth and
respect, your most obedient and most humble servant,
ANTHONY TODD.
In 1780, as part of a Licensing Act, the monopoly of letting post-horses
which the Post Office had enjoyed uninterruptedly since 1603 was taken
away. It is curious to note that a measure which 177 years before had
been deemed essential to the maintenance of the posts was now withdrawn
without, so far as we are aware, exciting a murmur; and, by a strange
coincidence, at the very time the measure was being withdrawn in the
United Kingdom, the deputy postmaster-general of Canada, who had
recently arrived in London, was urging upon the Government a similar
expedient as an indispensable condition without which the "maîtres de
poste" between Quebec and Montreal would be constrained to throw up
their appointments. Such is the difference between a new institution and
an institution that is well established.
It should here be remarked that with the extinction of this monopoly
passed away one of the original functions of the postmasters-general.
Hitherto, lightly as the responsibility had rested upon them for the
last hundred years or more, they had been masters of the travelling-post
as well as the letter-post. For the future they were to be masters of
the letter-post alone.
Little remains to be told of the eighteen years of which this chapter
treats. In 1782, in consequence of a hint dropped by the Lord Chief
Justice in the course of a trial, the Post Office did an eminently
useful thing. It issued an advertisement counselling the public when
sending bank notes by post to cut them into two parts and to send one
part by one post and another by another. The counsel was adopted, and in
an incredibly short space of time the practice became general. In the
same year the Post Office servants were disfranchised. By an Act passed
in the reign of Queen Anne they were forbidden either to persuade or to
dissuade others in the matter of voting; and now they were forbidden to
vote themselves. The only point of interest connected with the two Acts
is perhaps their termination. While the later Act was repealed in 1868,
the earlier one was not repealed until 1874; and meanwhile the
postmaster-general sat in the House of Commons and offered himself for
election. Little, probably, did he think that for every vote he
solicited he rendered himself not only liable to a penalty of £100 but
"incapable of ever bearing or executing any office or place of trust
whatsoever under Her Majesty, her heirs, or successors."
The internal condition of the Post Office during the last few years of
Lord North's administration was simply deplorable. The profits from the
sale of newspapers kept growing less and less. The clerks of the roads,
after paying the salaries and pensions which formed the first charge on
their receipts, had left for themselves the merest pittance. These men,
to whom an appeal for help had never been made in vain, were now in sore
need of help themselves. The prospect was alarming, for if the clerks of
the roads should fail to meet their engagements they would drag down
with them a not inconsiderable part of the establishment. It was in
1778, when apprehension was highest, that the Commissioners of Land Tax
for the city of London made a new assessment, and suddenly, without a
note of warning, every Post Office servant in the metropolis found
himself assessed to the land tax to the amount of 4s. in the pound. Not
even the letter-carriers or maid-servants were excepted. At this time
and during the two or three following years a general bankruptcy was
imminent. Eventually the abatements were remitted and the salaries and
pensions which had been charged to the clerks of the roads were in part
transferred to the State; but not before many of the Post Office
servants had compounded with their creditors and all had endured the
severest privations.
Meanwhile the postmasters from America, ejected from their offices, had
been flocking to this country and pleading for pensions on the English
establishment. The packets were meeting with a series of disasters so
far beyond the experience of former wars as to excite the most hostile
comment. During the seven years ending August 1782 no less than
thirty-seven were captured by the enemy. Of these four belonged to the
Post Office, and sums for that time prodigious were expended to replace
them. The others were owned by the captains who commanded them, and the
owners received as compensation for their loss the sum of £85,000. Even
the fabric of the buildings partook of the general decay. In Edinburgh
the Post Office had had to be abandoned at a moment's notice, the arch
which supported the main part of the structure having given way. In
Dublin the roof had fallen in. In both Dublin and Edinburgh new Post
Offices were being erected at heavy expense; while in London search was
being made for new premises on the plea that those in Lombard Street
were insufficient for present requirements.
To crown all, ugly rumours were afloat, rumours imputing corruption in
the highest quarters. The postmasters-general were indeed to be pitied.
The Post Office in more senses than one was falling about their ears.
CHAPTER XII
JOHN PALMER
1782-1792
The apathy of the Post Office about this time is incomprehensible. More
than twenty years before, the General Convention of the Royal Boroughs
of Scotland had called the attention of the postmasters-general to the
intolerable slowness of the post on the Great North Road. "Every common
traveller," they wrote, "passes the King's mail on the first road in the
kingdom." At the present time the clerks of the roads were giving as one
of the reasons why they were undersold in the matter of newspapers that,
whereas they sent their wares by post, the booksellers and printers
availed themselves of the more expeditious conveyance by stage-coach.
Yet it seems never to have occurred to the postmasters-general that what
was being done by others they might do themselves. The lesson that was
lost upon the postmasters-general was to be learnt and applied by John
Palmer, proprietor of the theatre at Bath.
Palmer had, while yet at school, been distinguished for a love of
enterprise, an indomitable perseverance, and an activity of body which
knew no fatigue and set distance at defiance. He had, through sheer
persistency, obtained a patent for his theatre at Bath, which thus
became the first Theatre-Royal out of the metropolis. At a time when the
mail leaving London on Monday night did not arrive at Bath until
Wednesday afternoon, he had been in the habit of accomplishing the
distance between the two cities in a single day. He had made journeys
equally long and equally rapid in other directions; and, as the result
of observation, he had come to the conclusion that of the horses kept at
the post-houses it was always the worst that were set aside to carry the
mail, and that the post was the slowest mode of conveyance in the
kingdom. He had also observed that, where security or despatch was
required, his neighbours at Bath who might desire to correspond with
London would make a letter up into a parcel and send it by
stage-coach,[59] although the cost by stage-coach was, porterage
included, 2s. and by post 4d. Not seldom, indeed, the difference would
be more than 1s. 8d., for to prevent delay on the part of the porters in
London one of these clandestine letters would as often as not have
written on the back, "An extra sum will be given the porter if he
delivers this letter immediately."
[59] Thus, Mrs. Thrale to Doctor Johnson. Writing from Bath on the 4th
of July 1784, she says: "I write by the coach the more speedily and
effectually to prevent your coming hither."--Hayward's _Autobiography of
Mrs. Piozzi_, vol. i. p. 241.
Starting from these premises Palmer, with characteristic energy, set
himself to devise a plan for the reform of the Post Office. This plan
was simply that the mails--which, to use his own words, had heretofore
been trusted to some idle boy without character, mounted on a worn-out
hack, who, so far from being able to defend himself against a robber,
was more likely to be in league with one--should for the future be
carried by coach. The coach should be guarded, and should carry no
outside passenger. For guard no one could be better than a soldier, who
would be skilled in the use of firearms. He should carry two short guns
or blunderbusses, and sit on the top of the coach with the mail behind
him. From this position he could command the road and observe suspicious
persons. The coachman also should carry arms; but in his case they
should be pistols. A speed should be maintained of eight or nine miles
an hour. Thus, the distance between London and Bath would, stoppages
included, be accomplished in sixteen hours instead of thirty-eight; and
these stoppages should, in point of time, be largely reduced. As the
coach arrived at the end of each stage there would be little more for
the postmaster to do than to put into the mail bag the outgoing letters
and to take out of the bag the letters that were coming in. Surely a
quarter of an hour would be ample for the purpose. He must indeed be an
inexpert postmaster who could not change his letters as soon as the
ostler changes his horses. Strict punctuality should be observed. Each
postmaster should be on the spot and to the moment to receive the mail
when it arrived; and if it did not arrive to time, a man on horseback
should be despatched to ascertain the cause of delay. This, in the event
of the coach having been stopped by highwaymen, would secure immediate
pursuit.
And how little would be the cost of the proposed reform. It was doubtful
indeed whether there would be any additional cost at all. The mails were
now being conveyed at a charge for boy and horse of 3d. a mile. It was
certain that men might be found who for this rate of payment would be
glad to convey them by coach. Especially would this be the case if the
coaches which carried the mails were exempt, as they ought to be, from
toll. Between London and Bath, for instance, the toll was, for a
carriage and pair, 9s., and for a carriage and four, 18s. Exemption from
this impost would of itself be no inconsiderable boon to the
contractors. Besides, the speed and security of a mail coach would
attract passengers. At all events something, it was clear, must be done.
As matters stood it was an intolerable hardship that persons sending
letters by coach should be subject to penalties. A coach might go at a
time when there was no post; and a letter might require immediate
despatch. Yet, rather than make use of the coach and pay half a crown,
one was obliged to hire an express, which was less expeditious, at a
cost of two or three guineas. Surely, if no other change were made, this
at least should be conceded--that any one taking a letter to the Post
Office and paying the proper amount of postage upon it according to its
address should, after the letter had been impressed with the postmark
and signed by the postmaster, be at liberty to send it by what channel
he pleased.
Such were the main features of Palmer's plan. As a subsidiary, though by
no means a necessary, part of it he made two suggestions which it may be
well to mention, if only because they were afterwards adopted. These
were--1st, that the mails, which from the first establishment of the
Post Office had not left London until between midnight and three o'clock
in the morning, should start at eight in the evening; and 2nd, that they
should not be kept waiting for the Government letters when these
happened to be late. This keeping the mails waiting for the Government
letters had, at the beginning of the century, been a constant source of
complaint. "We take this occasion of representing to your Lordship,"
wrote the postmasters-general to Lord Dartmouth on the 16th of March
1710, "the great inconvenience which happened to the business of this
office on Tuesday's night's post by the inland mails having all been
detained here till the receipt of the Court letters, which were not
brought by the messenger from Whitehall before half-past six on
Wednesday morning." A similar letter of remonstrance was at the same
time addressed to Mr. Secretary St. John. But, of late years, so
profound had been the supineness which reigned at the Post Office that
it may, probably enough, have been considered of little consequence
whether the mails were delayed or not. Palmer was unable to take this
view. To him it appeared in the highest degree improper that, for the
sake of a few letters which after all might be of no great importance,
the Post Office business of the whole country should be thrown out of
gear. Far better, he urged, that the mail should leave at the proper
hour, and that these letters, if behind time, should be sent after it by
express. A third suggestion he made, a suggestion admirable in itself,
and yet one that at that time was little likely to be adopted. This was
that the Post Office should take the public into its confidence, and
invite them to make known their wants and suggest how best these wants
might be supplied.
In October 1782, through the intervention of his friend John Pratt,
afterwards Lord Camden, Palmer's plan was brought under the notice of
Pitt; and Pitt, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer in the
administration of Lord Shelburne, at once discerned its merits. Nothing,
however, could be done until the Post Office had had an opportunity of
offering its opinion on the matter, and when this opinion was
given--which was not until July 1783--Pitt was out of office; and,
although he returned to power as minister in the following December, the
struggle in which he then became engaged with an unruly Parliament, and
afterwards a general election, effectually precluded him from giving
attention to the posts until the summer of 1784.
Meanwhile Palmer devoted himself to the perfection of his plan. He
traversed the whole of the kingdom by stage-coaches, noting down the
time they occupied in accomplishing their journeys, the time they
unnecessarily lost, and how they might be better regulated and made
serviceable for the transport of the mails. He took the same opportunity
of acquainting himself with the course of the post and carefully
observed its defects and delays. Nor did he trust to his own exertions
alone. In order to test the extent of clandestine traffic, he employed
persons to watch the Bath and Bristol coaches as they started for
London, and to count the number of parcels which appeared to contain
letters. These persons assured him that the number was never less than
several hundreds in the week, and in some weeks was as high as 1000.
The office of postmaster-general was at this time held by Lords Carteret
and Tankerville. Carteret had only recently been raised to the peerage.
Appointed thirteen years before as Henry Frederick Thynne in conjunction
with Lord le Despencer, he had, amid the conflict of parties and the
fall of successive ministries, contrived to retain his post.
Tankerville, on the contrary, had come in and gone out with a change of
Government. Called upon to preside over the Post Office in 1782, he had
left it in 1783 and had returned in January of the following year. The
part which these two peers took in connection with Palmer's plan appears
to have been not injudicious. Without expressing any opinion of their
own as to its feasibility or otherwise, they contented themselves with
collecting and forwarding to Pitt the opinions of such of their
subordinates as were presumably qualified to judge. These were the
district surveyors, and their verdict was unanimously against the plan.
Of the reasons for this judgment a specimen or two will suffice. By one
it was objected that there could be no need for the post to be the
swiftest conveyance in the kingdom; by another, that to employ firearms
for the protection of the mail would encourage their use on the other
side, and thus murder might be added to robbery; by a third, that not
only did the posts as they stood afford all reasonable accommodation,
but it was beyond the power of human ingenuity to devise a better
system.
Of these and other objections Pitt made short work. He summoned a
conference at the Treasury, at which were present the postmasters-general,
Palmer, and the objectors; and having patiently listened to all that
could be urged against the plan, he desired that it should be tried
on what was commonly called the Bath road, the road between Bristol
and London. This conference was held on the 21st of June 1784. On
Saturday the 31st of July an agreement was signed under which,
in consideration of a payment of 3d. a mile, five innholders--one
belonging to London, one to Thatcham, one to Marlborough, and two to
Bath--undertook to provide the horses; and on Monday the 2nd of August
the first mail-coach began to run.
It is unfortunate that of the early performances of this coach no record
remains. We only know that on the first journey it started from Bristol
and not from London, and that Palmer was present to see it off; that,
ordinarily, the distance was accomplished in seventeen hours, being at
the rate of about seven miles an hour; and that, as a result, the
expresses to Bristol, which before 1784 had been as many as 200 in the
year, ceased altogether. Ten or twelve years later, indeed, the
expresses for the whole of the kingdom were not one-fifth of what,
before 1784, was the number for the city of Bristol alone.
Palmer's plan, once introduced, made rapid progress. Mail-coaches began
to run through Norfolk and Suffolk in March 1785; and on the cross-road
between Bristol and Portsmouth in the following May. On the 25th of July
the plan was extended to Leeds, Manchester, and Liverpool, and during
the next two months to Gloucester and Swansea; to Hereford, Carmarthen,
and Milford Haven; to Worcester and Ludlow; to Birmingham and
Shrewsbury; to Chester and Holyhead; to Exeter; to Portsmouth; to Dover
and other places. The Great North Road was reserved to the last, and
here the plan was carried into effect in the summer of 1786.
It may be convenient here to say a few words on the subject of
nomenclature. Post-coach, a term in vogue about this time,[60] might not
unnaturally be supposed to denote a coach in use by the Post Office.
Such, however, was not the case. The term post-coach, like the kindred
term post-chaise, was introduced probably early in the last century,
and, so far as we are aware, was never employed in the sense of
mail-coach. It should further be noticed that the term mail-coach,
although we have employed it to make our meaning clear, did not come
into use until after 1784. In that year, and for some little time
afterwards, coaches which carried the mails were called diligences or
machines, and the coachmen were called machine-drivers.
[60] Thus, the Act 20 Geo. III. cap. li. sec. 2--an Act passed four
years before the mails were carried by coach:--
"That every person who shall keep any four-wheeled chaise or other
machine commonly called a diligence or post-coach, or by what name
soever such carriages now are or hereafter shall be called or known...."
That the term post-coach, as distinguished from mail-coach, was in vogue
as late as 1827 appears from evidence taken in that year before the
Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry--"(Q.) Are you acquainted with the
post-coaches? (A.) Not any very great deal. (Q.) Comparing them with
mail-coaches, which do you think are the best formed? (A.) Decidedly the
mail-coaches, I think."--Appendix to Eighteenth Report, p. 443.
The plan of carrying letters by mail-coach was, on its introduction,
sadly marred by a simultaneous or almost simultaneous increase in the
rates of postage. Pitt had brought forward his budget on the 30th of
June; and among the measures he proposed with a view to replenish an
exhausted Exchequer was a tax upon coals. The proposal was not well
received by the House, and it was afterwards withdrawn in favour of an
increase of postage. Palmer took credit to himself that he had proposed
the substitution. If, as would appear to be the case, the claim is well
founded, one can only regret that he should thus wantonly have
handicapped his own proceedings. It is true, no doubt, that he was about
to make the post both quicker and more secure; that he would have a
better article to dispose of, an article that would fetch a higher
price. It is also true that his plan, weighted as it was, proved an
unqualified success. And yet it is impossible to deny that his
reputation as a Post Office reformer, high as it stands, would have
stood still higher if his counsel had been on the side of reduction.
The rates prescribed by the Act of 1784, as compared with those of 1765,
were as follows:--
+-----------------------------+-------------------++-------------------+
| | 1765. || 1784. |
| +----+----+----+----++----+----+----+----+
| DISTANCE. | S | D | T | O || S | D | T | O |
| | i | o | r | u || i | o | r | u |
| | n | u | e | n || n | u | e | n |
| | g | b | b | c || g | b | b | c |
| | l | l | l | e || l | l | l | e |
| | e | e | e | . || e | e | e | . |
| | . | . | . | || . | . | . | |
+-----------------------------+----+----+----+----++----+----+----+----+
| |_d._|_d._|_d._|_d._||_d._|_d._|_d._|_d._|
|Not exceeding one post stage | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 || 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
|Exceeding one and not | | | | || | | | |
| exceeding two post stages | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 || 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
|Exceeding two post stages | | | | || | | | |
| and not exceeding 80 miles | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 || 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
|Exceeding 80 and not | | | | || | | | |
| exceeding 150 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 || 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
|Exceeding 150 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 || 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |
|To and from Edinburgh | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 || 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |
| | | | | || | | | |
| |
| { The Irish Post Office had only |
| { recently been placed under the |
| { authority of the Irish Parliament; |
|To and from Dublin { and the rates of postage, not only |
| { within Ireland, but between Ireland |
| { and Great Britain, were awaiting |
| { revision. |
| |
| Within Scotland. | | | | || | | | |
| (Measured from Edinburgh.) | | | | || | | | |
|Not exceeding one post stage | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 || 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
|Exceeding one post stage and | | | | || | | | |
| not exceeding 50 miles | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 || 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
|Exceeding 50 miles and not | | | | || | | | |
| exceeding 80 miles | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 || 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
|Exceeding 80 and not | | | | || | | | |
| exceeding 150 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 || 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
|Exceeding 150 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 || 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |
+-----------------------------+----+----+----+----++----+----+----+----+
The same Act which increased the rates of postage imposed, or sought to
impose, additional restrictions upon franking. Some concessions indeed
were made. Letters from members of Parliament, in order to secure
exemption, need no longer be limited, in point of weight, to two ounces
and, in point of time, to the session of Parliament and forty days
before and after. As part of the superscription, however, were now to be
given the full date of the letter, the day, the month, and the year, all
in the member's handwriting; and the letter was to be posted on the date
which the superscription bore. These restrictions, it was confidently
expected, would correct the worst abuses and render the concessions
harmless. But, curiously enough, like the restrictions of 1764, they had
an exactly contrary effect to that which was intended. The members sent
to their constituents and friends, for use as occasion should serve,
franks that were post-dated. These the Post Office charged, as coming
from places where the members were known not to be. The members
remonstrated, demanding to be informed in what respects the conditions
of the Act had not been satisfied. The dispute waxing warm, the matter
was referred to Pitt; and Pitt, after testing the opinion of the House,
decided that pending fresh legislation the charges should be abandoned.
Practically, therefore, the abuses which the Act was designed to prevent
were not only not prevented but were given wider scope.
Palmer maintained to the end of his life that during the two years which
followed the starting of the first mail-coach he was thwarted and
opposed by the Post Office. This charge, so far as it refers to those by
whom the Post Office was managed and controlled, we believe to be
groundless. That he had difficulties with contractors and postmasters is
beyond question. Contractors were at all times troublesome persons to
deal with, but they were not Post Office servants; and postmasters might
well be excused if they looked askance at the new plan. Their salaries,
low as they were, had long been shamefully reduced by exactions at
headquarters under the name of fees; and what little they had been able
to make out of their allowances for riding-work was now threatened by a
system under which that work was to be done by contract. But the charge
was not confined to contractors and postmasters. It extended to those
who controlled and directed the Post Office, to Carteret and Tankerville
and to their confidential adviser, the secretary; and, as we believe,
with very insufficient reason. Carteret was indifferent. Tankerville was
sincerely desirous of a reform of the posts, from whatever quarter it
might come. Anthony Todd, the secretary, was eminently a man of peace.
Appointed to the Post Office in 1738, he had arrived at a time of life
when to most men ease and quiet are essential; and not only was he well
advanced in years but it was not in his nature to thwart or oppose any
one. All he wanted was to be left alone; and he was shrewd enough to
know that the best way to secure this object was not to molest others.
Between Todd and Palmer, indeed, there was little in common. Palmer, in
everything he undertook, was intensely in earnest. Todd, on the
contrary, could with difficulty get up even an appearance of earnestness
about anything which did not concern himself. Even of his duty Todd took
a view which must have been absolutely repugnant to Palmer. Lloyds's
coffee-house was supplied by the Post Office with the arrivals and
sailings of British ships, and it paid for the information no less than
£200 a year. One-half of this amount went into Todd's own pocket; and
yet, according to him, the giving of the information was a concession,
an indulgence. "The merchants," he would write, "are indulged with ship
news." To the Mayor of Shrewsbury, who had asked on behalf of the
inhabitants for an earlier post, he deliberately wrote, "The arrival of
the mail a few hours sooner or later can be of no great consequence."
Not many years before, a despatch sent by express from Lord North to the
Duke of Newcastle had been lost. Even to the minister Todd was not
ashamed to write, "I dare to say there is no roguery in the case, but
[that the letter has been] lost and trampled under foot in the dirty
roads." Between a man who could take this view of his duty and Palmer,
who was burning to perfect his plan, there could be little sympathy; but
there was certainly no active antagonism. That, as Palmer extended his
plan, doubts as to its merits arose at headquarters is perfectly true;
but they were honest doubts, doubts which might excusably be entertained
and which, if entertained, the Post Office was bound to express. Palmer,
who regarded every one who was not for him as being against him,
construed the expression of a doubt into an act of hostility.
Let us see what some of these doubts were, and whence they originated.
In London, before the introduction of Palmer's plan, it had been the
practice to wait for the arrival of all the mails before any one of them
was delivered, so that in the event of a single mail being behind time,
no delivery at all might take place until three or four o'clock in the
afternoon or even later. Palmer, of course, altered this. But now his
interest in the Bristol coach led him to an opposite extreme. The
Bristol mail was delivered the moment it arrived; and all other mails,
by how little soever they might be later, were kept waiting. Again,
before 1784 the post was frequently diverted from the high road in order
that adjacent villages might be served. On the Bath road, for instance,
although on this road there were fewer diversions than on any other in
the kingdom, the post left the turnpike road between Hungerford and
Marlborough in order to go through Ramsbury. Under the new arrangement
it would have defeated Palmer's object to leave the direct track, if
indeed the state of the roads would have admitted of it; and as the
coaches could not go to the villages, the villages had to send to the
coaches. Not in these cases alone was there, at first, a very general
failure to effect a junction. Along every road on which a mail-coach was
started the bye and cross posts were deranged and thrown into confusion;
and, as a consequence, the Post Office was swamped with complaints from
those whose letters had been delayed.
Had this been all, it would have been little more than might be expected
in the course of transition from one system to another; but other causes
of dissatisfaction arose. The Act of Parliament regulated the rates of
postage according to stages--2d. in the case of a single letter, for one
stage, 3d. for two stages, and beyond two stages and not exceeding
eighty miles 4d.; but what was meant by the term stage the Act nowhere
defined. Virtually it was in the power of one man, by the simple
expedient of reducing the length of the stages and so increasing their
number, to raise the rate of postage between any two towns in the
kingdom that were not more than a certain number of miles apart. And
this is exactly what Palmer did. From Rochester to Dartford, for
instance, had been one stage. The single stage was replaced by two
stages; and the postage, which had been 2d., became 3d. From Newbury to
Devizes had been two stages. The two stages were increased to three; and
the postage was raised from 3d. to 4d. And so it was throughout the
kingdom. Well might the postmasters-general write, as they wrote under
date the 7th of December 1785, "We are now at a loss in many instances
how to rate letters and what to call by the name of a stage."
But not even the increase of postage which resulted from shortening the
stages gave so much offence as the earlier closing of the Post Office in
Lombard Street. The Post Office had from the earliest times been kept
open to at least twelve o'clock at night, and probably a little later.
It now closed at seven o'clock in the evening, so as to admit of the
mails starting at eight o'clock. Palmer had foreseen that objections
might be raised to the change; but he was little prepared for the storm
of indignation that followed. The first merchants in London, some of
them bearing names still honoured in the city,--Thellusson, Lubbock and
Bosanquet, Herries, Quentin Dick and Hoare,--protested in writing and
afterwards waited on the postmasters-general in a body to support their
protest. The leather-dealers followed suit, a body representing more
than sixty firms. Some held that the Post Office should be kept open
till nine o'clock, and others till ten or even eleven o'clock; but all
were of opinion that seven was too early an hour to close. At a meeting
held at the London Tavern, and presided over by one of the sheriffs,
resolutions were passed, copies of which were afterwards presented to
Pitt in person, not only condemning the early hour of closing but
calling for the adoption of measures with a view "to remove the
inconveniences which had hitherto been experienced from the
establishment of mail-coaches." No wonder if the postmasters-general
doubted the merits of a plan which exposed them to these complaints.
Nor was it only from without that troubles came. The letter-carriers
were grumbling and more than grumbling; and not without reason. For more
than seventy years they had been ringing bells in the streets after the
receiving houses were shut--until 1769 on the three nights of the week
called grand post nights, and since that date on the bye-nights as
well--receiving as their own perquisite 1d. on each letter they
collected. Hence the men had made a comfortable addition to their wages
of 12s. a week; and now, owing to the closing of the Post Office at
seven, the emoluments derived from this source were rapidly dwindling
and promised soon to disappear altogether.
Between Carteret and Tankerville differences now arose which, in view of
subsequent events, it is impossible to pass unnoticed. On the break-up
of the Shelburne administration in 1783, when Tankerville left the Post
Office and Carteret remained, the two postmasters-general had parted
with mutual expressions of regard and goodwill. A questionable
transaction in which Carteret had been concerned, a transaction
partaking of the nature of a corrupt bargain, had indeed come under
Tankerville's notice; but he willingly attributed it to the malign
influence exercised by his predecessor, Lord le Despencer. This
favourable construction his later experience had induced him to modify.
One case in particular which occurred soon after his return to the Post
Office had aroused the most painful suspicions. On Monday the 2nd of
August 1784, the same day as that on which the first mail-coach started,
the Post Office of Ireland was separated from the Post Office of
England. Into the reasons of this separation, being as they were
political, we do not propose to enter. Suffice it to say that the
Government of Ireland took advantage of the occasion to displace Armit,
the secretary to the Irish Post Office, and to reappoint John Lees, who
had been secretary from 1774 to 1781, when he was promoted to the War
Office. On his reappointment Lees wrote to the postmasters-general in
London recapitulating the conditions on which he had been appointed ten
years before, and stating that to those conditions, onerous as they
were, he proposed in the main to adhere. He was indeed under no
obligation in the matter, for he owed his reappointment to the Irish
Government; but of this circumstance he had no desire to avail himself.
Armit had taken over the conditions from Lees; and Lees would now resume
them from Armit. Let us see what the conditions were. In 1774 Barham,
the packet agent at Dover, being compelled by ill-health to retire, was
succeeded by Walcot, the secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, and
Walcot was succeeded by Lees, who was new to the service. Barham, though
superannuated, was during his life to receive from Walcot the full
salary and emoluments of the packet agency, and Walcot was during the
same period to receive from Lees the full salary and emoluments of the
secretaryship. Lees was meanwhile to receive from Walcot a small
allowance for acting as secretary. Thus far there was nothing unusual in
the arrangement. On the contrary, it was an arrangement which in those
days was very commonly made. That which was unusual, and which nowhere
appeared in the official records, was an undertaking into which Lees had
entered to the effect that, after Barham's death, he would make to a
fourth person during that person's life an annual payment of £350. This
engagement Lees, when reappointed in 1784, expressed himself unwilling
to renew. He was quite prepared to resume the payment to Walcot, reduced
only to the same extent as by recent legislation the secretary's
emoluments had been reduced; but the reversionary payment to the
gentleman whom he would designate by the initials A. B. rested on
different grounds. From this he must beg to be released.
Now, who was A. B.? This was the question which Tankerville asked; and
asked in vain. He could obtain no information on the subject. Meanwhile
Carteret, who was extremely displeased and disquieted at the disclosure,
caused an expression of his severe displeasure to be conveyed to Lees
that he should have presumed to make public a transaction which was
obviously designed to be private. Lees replied that, as he would be
unable to keep the engagement, he was bound in honour to state so; that
he had made known nothing more than was absolutely necessary in order
to obtain an acquittance, namely, that after Barham's death an annuity
of £350 had been agreed to be paid to some one; but who this some one
was had been, and would continue to be, a profound secret. In London it
had been whispered, and more than whispered, that A. B. was Carteret
himself. On this point Lees was emphatic. The transaction, he said,
concerns no postmaster-general, either living or dead. "With Lord
Carteret it has personally no more to do than with the King of France."
Tankerville, though profoundly dissatisfied, resolved to let the matter
drop; and during the next eighteen months the feeling of distrust with
which he regarded Carteret did not prevent the two postmasters-general
from working together harmoniously. It was not until June 1786 that an
open rupture occurred. Some furniture had been ordered for the
housekeeper's apartments, and Tankerville, regarding it as of too
luxurious a nature, refused to countersign the bill unless the secretary
could produce a precedent for the expense. This Todd might have had some
difficulty in doing, as no housekeeper had resided on the Post Office
premises since the year 1740; but instead of offering an explanation to
that effect he waited for the next Board meeting, and, having already
procured Carteret's signature to the bill, put it before Tankerville
without remark. Tankerville, who never signed a document without
examining its contents, inquired whether this was not the housekeeper's
bill to which he had taken exception, and, on being answered in the
affirmative, told Todd that he had been guilty of a gross impropriety.
Carteret, who had made no secret of his opinion that it was no part of a
postmaster-general's duty to check tradesmen's accounts, took Todd's
part; whereupon Tankerville, whose temper was always running away with
him, observed that he would do no jobs, and that if a good understanding
between himself and Carteret were only to be procured by such means he
would rather that they should continue on their present terms.
The next business set down for discussion had a termination still more
unfortunate. The office of comptroller of the bye and cross roads had
become vacant, and Carteret, whose turn it was to appoint, had appointed
Staunton, the postmaster of Isleworth. In addition to a salary of £500 a
year, the appointment carried a residence in the Post Office building;
and as the residence occupied by the late comptroller had by Pitt's
desire been given to Palmer, Carteret proposed that Staunton should be
recommended to the Treasury for an allowance of £100 a year as
compensation. Tankerville, who had been in personal communication with
Pitt and ascertained that he would object to an allowance for such a
purpose, declined to join in the recommendation, explaining the reason.
Carteret's remarks implied, or seemed to imply, a doubt whether Pitt had
really been seen on the subject, as alleged. Tankerville again lost his
temper. High words ensued, and the Board broke up, Carteret declaring
that it was impossible they should continue to act as joint
postmasters-general, and that he should at once wait upon Pitt and
inform him to that effect.
Carteret was as good as his word. In three days from the date of the
Board meeting at which the altercation had taken place he waited upon
Pitt; and Pitt, after labouring in vain to effect a reconciliation, at
length dismissed Tankerville. Tankerville, who had been in constant
communication with the minister on the subject of the abuses at the Post
Office, and had sedulously applied himself to their correction, was
hardly less surprised than he was indignant; and restating the origin of
the disagreement between himself and his colleague, he demanded to be
informed in what respects he had been to blame. Pitt replied that he
could not enter into the merits of the question; that all it concerned
him to know was that Carteret was necessary to him in the House of
Lords; and that, as Carteret had expressed himself unable to act any
longer with Tankerville, it had become essential to make another
arrangement.
This decision as between two colleagues, of whom one was as clearly
actuated by honesty of purpose as the other was not, a decision given
too by a minister who had already established a character for purity of
administration, seems so extraordinary that we must look for some
further explanation. The truth we believe to be that owing to an
ungovernable temper Tankerville was simply intractable, and had shewn
himself to Pitt to be so. Even Todd, who with all his faults was
essentially a man of peace, was unable to get on with him. "I am sorry
to say," he wrote on one occasion, "your Lordship is the only
postmaster-general I have not had the happiness to serve under with his
perfect approbation." On another occasion he wrote to Carteret: "I have
had a very unpleasant day of it. His Lordship is so completely jealous
and wrong-headed, so that without entering into unpleasing particulars I
had better leave him to his own thoughts." Tankerville's own letters
afford evidence to the same effect. "I shall not be disposed to talk
coolly on the subject of Mr. Dashwood, or hear anything you may have to
say, unless you can prove him guilty of fraud, which I do not admit, but
now tell you distinctly that I believe Lord Carteret has been indebted
to you for that forced construction." Again, "I do not find that I cool
very fast," Tankerville wrote from Brighton a week or so after the
incident which had excited his ire. Ever his own worst enemy, he now
spoiled a good ease, so far as it was possible to spoil it, by
intemperate writing. Instead of keeping to the main question, he rambled
off into side-issues which were all but irrelevant. Carteret had spoken
of one interview with Pitt. Pitt had expressed himself as though there
had been more than one. The point was absolutely unimportant. Yet
Tankerville fastened upon it, and, declaring that one or the other must
have been guilty of untruth, called upon them as men of honour to
reconcile the discrepancy.
Intemperate as Tankerville's language had been, it was impossible that
things should remain as they were. Nothing but a public inquiry would
satisfy the justice of the case; and on this he was resolved. It was a
matter of regret to him to impeach Carteret's conduct; but there was no
other method of vindicating his own. "The causes of my removal," he
wrote, "shall be made as public as the injury; and, however gratified
your Lordship and those in concert with you may at present feel by the
success of your measures, I will take upon me to foretell that the
triumph will soon be at an end. I have been removed; others will be
disgraced." "When your Lordship," replied Carteret, "shall think proper
to bring this matter before the public, I flatter myself my conduct will
be unimpeached."
A Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry was granted, and met for the first
time on the 16th of May 1787. The session terminated on the 30th of the
same month. Short as the interval was, evidence enough was taken to
substantiate all and more than all that Tankerville had alleged. The
Committee reported that a payment of £350 a year had been exacted from
Lees as a condition of his appointment as secretary to the Post Office
in Ireland; that a payment of £200 a year had been similarly exacted
from Dashwood, the postmaster-general of Jamaica; that, while Lees had
engaged to pay only in a future event, the payment in Dashwood's case
had begun from the date of his appointment; that both payments were in
favour of the person who had been designated by the initials A. B.; that
the transactions, though protested against at the time, had been
insisted upon by Lords Carteret and Le Despencer; and that not only had
no record of them been made in the official books, but they had been
kept carefully concealed. The Committee further reported that scandalous
abuses had been found to exist at the Post Office, abuses which should
be examined into and corrected forthwith; and that of many of these the
First Lord of the Treasury had been specifically informed by Lord
Tankerville before the latter was dismissed.
The chief interest of the inquiry, however, centred in the question--who
was A. B.? A. B. proved to be one Peregrine Treves, a so-called friend
of Carteret's, who had never performed any public service either in the
Post Office or elsewhere. "Are you not a Jew and a foreigner?" asked the
inexorable Committee. "Yes," was the reply. "In consideration of what
services," the Committee continued, "did you receive these grants?"
"From friendship entirely," answered Treves.
Tankerville's prediction had been amply fulfilled. It was not he that
was disgraced. Yet, curiously enough, Carteret made no sign. And even
Pitt did nothing more than expedite the proceedings of a Royal
Commission which was already sitting. This Commission had been appointed
at his instigation some years before to inquire into the duties and the
pay of certain public departments, of which the Post Office was one. It
was now arranged that the Post Office was to be the next to come under
review.
During these dissensions at headquarters Palmer's plan had made steady
progress. Many of the irregularities inseparable from the introduction
of a new system had been corrected. The cross-posts had been fitted to
the mail-coaches, so that failures of connection were daily becoming
fewer; and when the merchants found that answers to their letters were
being received in less than half the usual time, and with a degree of
punctuality never experienced before, their complaints respecting the
early closing of the Post Office appear to have died away. The Post
Office revenue bore evidence to the improved state of things, the net
receipt during the quarter ending the 5th of January 1787 being £73,000,
as against £51,000 during the corresponding quarter of 1784. According
to all experience, the increase in the rates of postage should have had
the effect of reducing the number of letters; but so far was this from
being the case that the number of letters had increased in spite of the
increase of rates. The truth is that clandestine correspondence had to a
large extent ceased. There was no longer any temptation to send by
irregular means, at a cost of two or three shillings, and at the risk of
detection, a letter which would be conveyed at least as expeditiously
and for one-third of that amount by mail-coach.
Palmer, who had to this time been assisted by persons selected by
himself and not belonging to the Post Office, now bestirred himself to
procure for them an established position. Public and private interests
were for once identical. Hitherto there had been only three surveyors
for the whole of England; and of these one had resided in London. At
Palmer's instigation, England was now divided into six postal districts,
and a surveyor allotted to each. A seventh or spare surveyor was held in
readiness to be detached to any part of the kingdom where his services
might be required. Each surveyor was to reside in the centre of his
district, and his functions, shortly stated, were to keep an accurate
record of the posts and of the persons under his charge, to see that
these persons did their duty, to facilitate correspondence and to remedy
complaints. The resident surveyorship, an appointment which had been
created in 1742, was abolished as no longer necessary, Palmer himself
being at hand to give what advice the postmasters-general might require.
The mode of remuneration was also altered. Hitherto the surveyors had
received a salary of £300 a year without any allowance for travelling,
the consequence being of course that they had travelled as little as
possible. For the future the salary was to be only £100; but as an
inducement to them to move about within their own districts, they were
to have one guinea a day when absent from their headquarters. The whole
of the additional appointments were conferred upon Palmer's nominees,
and for the seventh or spare surveyorship he selected Francis Freeling,
a young man of promise, who during the last two years had been actively
engaged in regulating the mail-coaches throughout the country.
It was about this time or a little earlier that the conditions of
Palmer's own employment were, at length, definitely settled, but not by
any means to his own satisfaction. His first stipulation was that,
besides being absolutely free from the control of the postmasters-general,
he should have a commission of 2-1/2 per cent upon all increase in
the net Post Office revenue, which should follow as the result of
his own plan. Thus, the net Post Office revenue before August 1784
being estimated at £150,000, he stipulated for one-fortieth part of
the excess over that amount. To this Pitt agreed; but freedom from the
control of the postmasters-general was a point which it was out of his
power to concede. The Act of Parliament constituting the Post Office
would not admit of it. Even nominal subjection to the postmasters-general
was so irksome to Palmer that he was constantly pressing that a
special Act might be passed to give him perfect freedom. Nor was
this all. The increase in the rates of postage which came into
operation one month after the starting of the first mail-coach was
estimated to produce £90,000 a year, and Pitt deemed it only reasonable
that this amount should be added to the previous revenue of £150,000,
making £240,000 altogether, before Palmer could be allowed to draw his
percentage. Of this variation of the original understanding Palmer
bitterly complained, not seeing apparently that, as the increase of
rates had been recommended by himself, the complaint reflected on his
own singleness of purpose in making the recommendation.
Eventually it was decided that, in addition to a commission of 2-1/2 per
cent upon the net revenue in excess of £240,000, Palmer should receive a
salary of £1500; but even this settlement was not arrived at without
grumbling on Palmer's part, and without serious misgiving on the part of
the Post Office. Pitt highly approved the percentage, holding that it
would serve as a constant incentive to exertion. Tankerville, while not
denying the expediency of such a mode of remuneration, questioned its
legality. Under the Act of Anne, which a subsequent Act had made
perpetual, the Post Office revenue was appropriated to certain specific
purposes; and he doubted the propriety of diverting any part of it as a
reward for services, however meritorious. Clarendon, Tankerville's
successor, entertained the same scruples; and except by the
postmasters-general no appointment within the Post Office could be
made. Palmer's objection, on the contrary, was to the amount of salary,
on the ground that £1500 did not represent the fortieth part of £90,000.
Pitt declined, however, to give way; and on the 11th of October 1786
Palmer was appointed comptroller-general of the Post Office on the terms
prescribed by the minister.
There can be no question that Palmer bargaining for terms is Palmer seen
in his least pleasing aspect. The best that can be said is that he was
candid enough not to disguise his object, which was to amass a fortune.
At Bath he had in his boyhood seen Ralph Allen living in a large house
and dispensing hospitality on an extensive scale, and he could not bring
himself to understand why the difference between his own and Allen's
remuneration should be in the inverse ratio to the value of their
improvements. And not only did Palmer exhibit an unworthy jealousy of
Allen, but he did that good man, as we think, an injustice. When urging
his own claims on the minister, he constantly insisted that Allen, on
the introduction of his plan, had no difficulties to contend with, and
that he kept that plan a secret. Never was there a more untenable
position. That Allen had difficulties to contend with and how he
overcame them we have seen in a preceding chapter; and the charge of
keeping his plan a secret is refuted by the conditions of his contract,
which prevented him from giving an instruction even to his own servants
until it had been submitted to headquarters. No doubt it was not known
until after his death that Allen had derived from the Post Office an
income of £12,000 a year. His wealth had been supposed to come from the
stone-quarries he possessed on Combe Down. But this was not the
contention. What Palmer insisted upon was that, while he had disclosed
his plan, Allen had kept his plan secret, and that, if only on that
ground, the balance of merit was on his own side.
In December 1787 the Commission of Inquiry commenced its labours.
Exactly a century had elapsed since the Post Office had undergone a
similar ordeal, a period too long for any public department to be left
to itself; and meanwhile abuses had taken root and flourished. One
hundred years before there had been no sinecures. Now the principal
officers attended, some of them only occasionally and others not at all;
and attendance, when attendance was given, often extended no later than
to one or two o'clock in the afternoon. The receiver-general, for
instance, attended on three days a week; and the accountant-general
attended once or twice in three months, when the quarterly balance had
to be made up. Court-post employed a deputy, to whom, out of a salary of
£730, he made an annual allowance of £58. The solicitor, like
court-post, was an absentee, but, unlike him, was careful not to part
with even a fraction of his salary. In this case the deputy received as
remuneration one-third part of the law charges incurred--a form of
payment calculated more perhaps than any other to promote litigation. In
the Penny Post Office were three principal officers--a comptroller, an
accountant, and a collector. Of these the first two gave no attendance,
and the third attended only occasionally, their duties being imposed
upon the chief sorter, who, in all but salary, was practically the head
of the department.
Meagre salaries were bolstered up by fees and perquisites, many of them
of an outrageous character. While the senior letter-carrier was rigidly
restricted to 312 candles in the year, a number not perhaps in excess of
his actual requirements, there was hardly an officer reputed to be of
any position in the Post Office, whether an absentee or otherwise, who
was not provided with coals and candles for his private use. Although to
some the supply of these articles was greater than to others, the usual
annual allowance was, in the case of a subordinate, four, and, in the
case of the head of a department, ten chaldron of coals, and in both
cases thirty-two dozen pounds of candles. As the holder of two
appointments, although he discharged the duties of only one of them, the
comptroller of the bye and cross roads received a double allowance. Many
commuted with the tradesmen whose duty it was to supply the articles for
a money payment. Altogether the allowance to Post Office servants for
their private use in town and country, and irrespective of what was
consumed in the official apartments, exceeded in a single year 300
chaldron of coals and 20,000 pounds of candles.
The postmasters-general had long ceased to reside in the Post Office
building; and yet to them was supplied, besides coals and candles, what
was euphoniously termed tinware, by which is to be understood kitchen
utensils. The expenditure on their account under the three heads during
two years and a half was, for coals £2230, for candles £700, and for
pots and pans £150.
Of stationery there was also a gratuitous supply for private as well as
official use. One fee was a peculiarly cruel one, exacted as it was from
a class of public servants who were unable to protect themselves. All
postmasters whose salaries amounted to as much as £20 were forced to
renew their deputations every three years, with no other object than to
enrich the harpies at headquarters. On each renewal the same fee had to
be paid as on appointment, namely £4:11s.; and of this amount 30s. went
to each of the postmasters-general, 10s. to the secretary, 10s. to the
solicitor, and 1s. to the door-keeper. The remainder was for stamp duty.
Postmasters were also required to pay a fee of half a guinea before
receiving a warrant to exempt them from serving in public offices.
Christmas-boxes given by the merchants, and designed for the
letter-carriers and other subordinates, were to a large extent
appropriated by their superiors. From this source the comptroller of the
foreign office, with an official income of £1300, was not ashamed to
derive £34 a year. Others from the same source derived smaller amounts.
Newspapers for reading were supplied in profligate profusion. One head
of department was allowed for his own use two morning and five evening
papers; another was paid £42:16s. a year to supply himself with what
papers he pleased. All, whether absentees or not, received an annual
payment under the title of drink and feast money, the lowest amount
being £1:17s. and the highest £3:17s., and this was in addition to
three or four so-called feasts given annually at the cost of the
department. These with percentages on tradesmen's bills were some of the
fees and perquisites which were now dragged to the light.
Out of the whole number there was only one which, besides being moderate
and unobjectionable, possessed a certain interest as denoting the
connection which had at one time subsisted between the Post Office and
the Crown. This was a fee of 1s. received by the chief sorter at the
General Post Office on the occasion of a birthday in the Royal Family;
and as the Royal Family now consisted of twenty-one members, his
emoluments from this source amounted to one guinea in the year.
There were two points on which the Royal Commissioners appear to have
received less than full information. These were expresses and registered
letters. Expresses, according to the old custom of the post, were still
going at the rate of only six miles an hour, while the mail-coaches were
going at the rate of eight. To this difference the Commissioners called
attention; but they were silent as to the fees which some expresses
paid, being apparently under the impression that all were treated alike.
As a matter of fact, however, expresses had by this time been divided
into two kinds--the public express and the private express. The public
express, that is the express on public affairs, was allowed to pass
without a fee, no doubt because the Post Office dared not impose one;
but on every private express, in addition to the authorised mileage, was
charged, if from London, a fee of 12s. 6d., and if from the country, a
fee of 2s. 6d.; and of course in this, as in every other case, the fees
were for the benefit of individuals.
On the subject of registered letters addressed to places abroad the
Commissioners merely expressed the opinion that the registration fee,
instead of being any longer treated as a perquisite, should be applied
to the use of the public; but they nowhere stated, and perhaps had not
been informed, what this fee was. It may be interesting if we supply the
omission. The fee for registering a packet of value was, outwards[61]
21s., and inwards 5s. It seems incredible, and yet such is the
unquestionable fact. For every letter registered for abroad the
comptroller of the foreign office received 10s. 6d., the
deputy-comptroller 4s. 6d., and six clerks 1s. apiece. One guinea for
registration! And it was all the more monstrous because there can be
little doubt that at one time letters had been practically registered
without any fee at all. An Order in Council dated as far back as July
1556 had ordained "that the poste between this and the Northe should
eche of them keepe a booke and make entrye of every letter that he shall
receive, the tyme of the deliverie thereof unto his hands with the
parties names that shall bring it unto him, whose handes he shall also
take to his booke, witnessing the same note to be trewe." In 1603
another Order in Council passed, requiring that "every post shall keepe
a large and faire leger paper booke, to enter our packets in as they
shalbe brought unto him, with the day of the moneth, houre of the day or
night, that they came first to his handes, together with the name of him
or them, by whom or unto whom they were subscribed and directed." In
1680 Dockwra, when establishing his penny post, was careful to provide
that letters on reaching any one of his seven sorting offices should be
"entered"; and in a mere detail of treatment, it may well be believed,
he followed the practice of the general post. In 1707 letters from
abroad arriving at Harwich were not to be forwarded to the Court at
Newmarket until the addresses had been copied. And more than this. In
1709 two letters between London and Ostend had been delayed, and it
became important to discover where the delay had occurred. "We find
them," wrote the postmasters-general, "both duly entered in Mr. Frowde's
books, and are satisfy'd they were regularly dispatched from this
office." Now Mr. Frowde was comptroller of the foreign office. It may
be added that, small as was the force employed at the end of the
seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, it is difficult
to account for the length of time which was then occupied in dealing
with a mere handful of letters except on the hypothesis that there was a
good deal more to be done than to sort and to tax them. And now the Post
Office, upon no better authority than its own will, was exacting a fee
of 21s. and 5s., according as the letter was outwards or inwards, for
doing what some eighty years before had been done for nothing. The sums
extorted from the public under this head were in 1783 £121, and in the
following year £240.
[61] A foreign registered letter _outwards_ would be a letter registered
as far as Dover or Harwich or Falmouth for transmission abroad, and
possibly on board ship. A foreign registered letter _inwards_ would not
be the exact converse, for there would be no registration from the port
of arrival to London. The fee of 5s. covered the registration of a
letter only from London to its destination.
As regards the working arrangements, Palmer, in virtue of the power he
possessed as comptroller-general, had already corrected those that were
most faulty. Until lately, the letter-carriers' walks had been so
extensive that many of the deliveries could not be accomplished within
five or six hours. Palmer had arranged that no delivery should occupy
more than two hours or two hours and a half at the utmost, counting from
the time of despatch from the General Post Office. It had been the
practice for the junior clerks, the clerks with the least experience, to
sort the letters for delivery, the consequence being that they reached
the letter-carriers' hands in so confused a state that they had to be
sorted again. Hence it had been by no means unusual for an interval of
four or five hours to elapse between the arrival of the last mail and
the going out of the letter-carriers. By appointing some of the most
intelligent letter-carriers to sort the letters in the first instance,
Palmer had reduced the interval to one hour on ordinary, and to one hour
and a half on extraordinary occasions. As many as 400 postmasters had
returned their letter-bills in one week, and on the plea of having been
overcharged had claimed and been allowed deductions. Palmer had checked
this abuse by arranging that in the case of those postmasters who were
in the habit of returning their letter-bills the charges should be twice
told. He had also reduced the amount expended on extra duty by £2000 a
year. Heretofore, if a man had chosen to absent himself, the Post Office
had provided a substitute. For the future the substitute was to be
provided at the absentee's own expense.
But although Palmer had already corrected the most faulty of the
arrangements, some still existed which could not be pronounced good. The
accountant-general was intended to be a check upon the receiver-general;
yet, instead of keeping an independent record of the sums received, he
merely transcribed or caused to be transcribed the entries from the
receiver-general's books. The accountant-general, again, was required to
certify every bill before the postmasters-general passed it for payment;
but as he was not empowered to call for vouchers or for the authority
under which the expenditure had been incurred, his certificate conveyed
nothing more than that the bill had been rightly cast. The accounts
themselves appear to have been rendered in the strangest manner. The
article "Dead Letters," for instance, was made to serve a variety of
purposes. Under this article postmasters were accustomed to claim
chaise-hire, law charges, and even pensions to private persons.
The packet service was a part of the Post Office which the Commissioners
would fain have avoided if they could; but the public voice was too
strong for them. The enormous expenditure which this service involved
had long excited murmurs, and the opportunity which now offered of
investigating the causes of it was one which could not with any regard
to propriety be missed. Accordingly the inquiry was entered upon; but
with a desire to restrict it as far as possible the Commissioners did
not extend their investigations beyond the packet station at Falmouth,
where more than three-fourths of the expenditure was incurred. To
ourselves, who are under no obligation to observe a similar limit,
perhaps a little more latitude may be allowed.
The continental mails by way of Dover and Harwich went at this time only
twice a week; and by a curious arrangement these mails started from the
General Post Office at midnight, although the inland mails for the same
towns and going by the same route started at eight o'clock in the
evening. At Harwich the packet station had abandoned itself to
smuggling. In 1774 two packets, the _Bessborough_ and the _Prince of
Wales_, were seized for having contraband goods on board. Not a single
voyage had these packets made during the last two years without
committing a similar infringement of the law. The Commissioners of
Customs, whose patience was exhausted, now commenced proceedings in the
Court of Exchequer, and were prevailed upon to abandon them only upon
the captains, who were also owners of the vessels, paying by way of fine
two-third parts of their appraised value--amounting to £306 in one case
and to £272 in the other--of which sums one-half was to go to the Crown
and one-half to the officer by whom the goods had been discovered. This
high reward was not long in reproducing the occasion on account of which
it had been given. In November 1777 another seizure took place, this
time of three packets simultaneously, two of them being the same as had
been seized in 1774. The third was the _Dolphin_. On this occasion the
Commissioners of Customs determined that the vessels should be
prosecuted to condemnation. In vain the postmasters-general urged that
the law was a hard one which made the captains responsible for offences
which, it was alleged, they had done their best to check. The customs
authorities were inexorable. It was not long, however, before the Post
Office became possessed of certain facts which, when investigated,
proved beyond a doubt that there had for years past been collusion of
the grossest character. On every voyage contraband goods--chiefly tea,
coffee, and gin--had, with the connivance of the local officers of
customs, been imported in large quantities; and of these only a part, a
comparatively small part, had been seized. Thus, the Post Office
servants received from the goods that were left to them ample, and more
than ample, compensation for those that were taken away; and the
servants of the customs received from their Board in London both credit
and reward for their vigilance. Nor was it by any means certain that the
seizure of the packets in 1774 and again in 1777 was not another phase
of the same collusive arrangement.
At Falmouth the case was somewhat different. Smuggling, indeed, was
going on there just as it was at Harwich. As far back as 1744 the
customs had issued process against the captains of two of the Falmouth
packets for having contraband goods on board. The case is only worthy of
mention as shewing the loose notions which at that time prevailed even
in high quarters on the subject of clandestine traffic. The
postmasters-general of the day, Lord Lovell and Sir John Eyles, told the
Board of Customs in so many words that their conduct was unhandsome. It
was vain, they urged, to endeavour to prevent "these little clandestine
importations and exportations" on board the packets; and if violent
measures were to be resorted to, as in the present instance, no captain
"of real worth and character" would be found to command, and "no fit and
able" seamen to serve. Again, in 1776 the _Greyhound_ packet was seized
at the port of Kingston in Jamaica for attempting to smuggle spirits.
Early in 1788 the _Queen Charlotte_ packet was condemned and sold at the
same port and for the same cause. In 1786 a special agent sent down to
Falmouth by Tankerville reported that, according to common repute, no
packet either proceeded on a voyage or returned from one without
hovering about the coast for the purpose of shipping or unshipping
goods.
But, rife as smuggling was, it was something more than an infringement
of the customs laws that now brought the packet station at Falmouth into
notoriety. During the seventeen years ending the 5th of April 1787, the
cost of the packets had exceeded £1,038,000; and of this amount about
£800,000 had been expended at Falmouth. At the present day, when a
single mail steamer costs perhaps as much as £300,000, the sum of
£1,000,000 sterling would not go far to create and maintain a fleet; but
a century ago it was considered, even when spread over a period of
seventeen years, an enormous expenditure, an expenditure such as, in the
language of the Royal Commissioners, almost to surpass credibility. And
certainly there seems to have been good ground for this opinion. The
packets altogether were only thirty-six in number, of which twenty-one
were stationed at Falmouth. These were of no more than 200 tons burthen,
and were navigated with thirty men, five of them being the property of
the Post Office and fifteen being hired. For each of the hired boats was
paid the annual sum of £2129, and for each of the others the annual sum
of £1529, these sums including the charge of manning and victualling.
The sixteen packets stationed elsewhere than at Falmouth were hired at
ridiculously low prices, at Dover for £412 a year each, at Harwich for
£469, and at Holyhead for £350. To expend upon the packets under such
conditions as these more than £1,000,000 sterling in the course of
seventeen years required no small amount of ingenuity. How was it
managed? This was the question which the Royal Commissioners now set
themselves to solve.
The grossest abuses were found to exist. The hire of the packets had
been paid when they were under seizure for smuggling, and under repair,
and even when they were building. In the case of packets that were
building and under repair the victualling allowance paid when there were
no men to victual had amounted in twelve years and a half to £56,000.
When packets had been taken by the enemy the hire of them had been paid
for months beyond the date of their capture; and this was in addition to
compensation to the owners, which, however old and rotten the packet
might be, was fixed at her original value when taken into the service.
Compensation to the captains had also been given for the loss of their
private property and of provisions. For provisions the compensation had
always been as for six months' supply, although the supply that was
actually on board might not be enough for one month; and for their
private property the captains had been compensated at their own
valuation. Whatever they had asked they had received without examination
and without question. This astounding prodigality indulged in at the
expense of the State is easily explained. The Post Office servants in
London, down even to the chamber-keeper, had shares in the packets; and
of these servants the one who possessed by far the largest number of
shares was Anthony Todd, the secretary. Todd also received a commission
of 2-1/2 per cent upon the entire sum expended on the packet
establishment of the kingdom. Thus, the very man whose duty it was to
check the expenditure had a direct personal interest in making the
expenditure as high as possible.
The salary of the Secretary to the Post Office remained, as it was fixed
in 1703, at £200 a year; and whatever Todd received over and above that
amount, he received without authority. Let us see what his actual
receipts were. In addition to his proper salary of £200, he had what was
called a bye salary of £75. Bye had at one time meant out of course or
clandestine; and this meaning would perhaps not be inappropriate here.
He had for coach hire £100 a year. He had another £100 a year from
Lloyds's coffee-house. He had from fees on commissions and deputations
£154 a year. He had every year twenty chaldron of coal and twelve dozen
of wax and sixty-four dozen of tallow candles, valued by himself at
£103. He had an unfurnished residence with stables in the Post Office
building; and he received annually from the East India Company eight
pounds of tea and two dozen of arrack. But this was by no means all. As
former clerk in the foreign branch, an appointment which he still
retained, he had a salary of £50 and an allowance of £100 a year for
so-called disbursements, which he never made. He had also, in his
capacity of clerk, £15 a year for coach-hire and ten chaldron of coal
and thirty-two dozen of candles, valued at £40. Besides all this, he had
his commission of 2-1/2 per cent upon the entire packet expenditure of
the country, from which source he derived in the year 1782 no less than
£2136. Altogether, Todd's modest salary of £200 a year had, by his own
unaided exertions, been converted into an annual income of more than
£3000.
The extent of Todd's emoluments, his commission on the packet
expenditure, the outrageous character of some of the fees and
perquisites which he and others were receiving, the absenteeism, the
abuses generally--all this had long been known to Pitt. Much he had
heard from Tankerville, and still more, probably, from Palmer. But
before either Palmer or Tankerville became connected with the Post
Office, Pitt had been aware of many, if not most, of the abuses which
prevailed there. As early as 1782 one of his first acts after becoming
Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Shelburne administration was to give
peremptory orders that no more packets were to be either built or
purchased without Treasury authority. For such authority it had hitherto
been the practice to ask before setting up new packets, but not before
replacing old ones--packets that were worn out or alleged to be worn
out, or that had been lost or captured. This was a distinction which had
existed since packets were first established, and to which, nearly a
hundred years before, Cotton and Frankland had attached great
importance. It was now to exist no longer. In 1783 Pitt called for a
return of the fees and perquisites received at the Post Office, and it
was not until after this return had been furnished and possibly in
consequence of it that the Commission of Inquiry was appointed. "Did you
ever communicate this transaction to Mr. Pitt," inquired the
Parliamentary Committee in 1787. "I did," replied Tankerville, "but
found him not ill-informed on the subject in general."
It may seem strange that with the knowledge which he unquestionably
possessed respecting the prevalent abuses Pitt should have allowed them
to go on so long uncorrected. The explanation we believe to be twofold.
In the first place he was unwilling to do or suffer to be done anything
which might interfere with the introduction of Palmer's improvements.
This was a point on which Pitt never ceased to betray the utmost
anxiety. To embark on any general system of reform might conflict with
the new plan. Let the plan be established first and the abuses could be
corrected afterwards. Hence it was, no doubt, that of all the public
offices to be inquired into, the Post Office, in spite of the notoriety
which its abuses had acquired, was taken last. But this, although the
primary explanation, was not, we suspect, the only one. Incorrupt
himself, Pitt was extraordinarily tolerant of corruption in others.
Witness his defence of Melville. Even of Carteret's transaction with
Peregrine Treves he could never be brought to admit more than that it
was not a proper one. This tolerance in others of what he would have
scorned to do himself we attribute to a conviction on his part that
abuses were less to be charged against individuals than as the result of
a bad system which made the abuses possible; and what, if we mistake
not, Pitt had proposed to himself was to bring to bear upon this system
the force of public opinion. A ruthless exposure, we have little doubt,
had been in contemplation; and yet when the time for exposure came, Pitt
held back. Whether it was that the abuses proved too flagrant to be
published with safety or that their correction would involve more time
or more money than could then be spared, the fact remains that, after
receiving the report of the Commission, Pitt locked it up in his
despatch box and kept it there for the space of four years; and not even
the postmasters-general could procure a copy.
But secret as the report of the Commission was kept, the procedure at
the Post Office was about to undergo a radical change. A change indeed
had already begun. Tankerville, on his dismissal in August 1786, had
been succeeded by Lord Clarendon; and Clarendon died in the following
December. Then followed an interval of eight months, during which
Carteret alone administered the Post Office and, as was usual on such
occasions, drew the double salary. At length, as Carteret's colleague,
Pitt appointed Lord Walsingham; and from that moment irregularity and
disorder were at an end. Nothing escaped Walsingham's vigilant eye. To
neglect or evasion of work he shewed no mercy. The man honestly
striving to do his duty had no better friend. His industry and power of
work were simply amazing. All instructions were prepared by him. Not a
single letter of any importance was received at the Post Office without
the answer to it being drafted in his own hand. Generous to a fault with
his own money, he regarded the money of the public as a sacred trust, a
trust which could not be discharged too scrupulously. Carteret's opinion
was well known, that it was no part of a postmaster-general's duty to
check accounts. Walsingham, on the contrary, would allow no account to
be passed until he had checked it; and his checking went a good deal
beyond the casting. Unless the articles were necessary and the charges
reasonable, and unless they were proved to be so to his satisfaction,
the account had a sorry chance of being passed. The official hours of
attendance had hitherto been pretty much what each man chose to make
them. To Walsingham all hours were alike; and at all hours he exacted
attendance from others. "It is utterly impossible," wrote the head of
one department, "for the accounts to be ready for your inspection
to-morrow evening." "I will not fail," wrote the head of another, "to do
myself the honour of waiting upon your Lordship to-morrow morning at
eight precisely."
Walsingham, on entering upon his duties at the Post Office, was
concerned to find that to documents requiring to be signed by the two
postmasters-general Carteret attached his signature first. Carteret's
peerage dated from 1784, and Walsingham's from 1780. Surely the peer of
older creation should sign first; and such, Walsingham found on inquiry,
had been the practice hitherto. Pitt, though overwhelmed with business,
was called upon to decide the momentous question. He was sorry, he said,
that in the preparation of the patent the practice of the Post Office
had been overlooked. It was a strange practice, a practice different
from that of all other public offices. There the senior, the one who was
first to enter the office, took precedence of the junior whatever his
rank; and Carteret having been mentioned first in the patent must
unquestionably sign first. But this, he added, need not be drawn into a
precedent, and, on a new patent passing, the old practice of the office
might be reverted to. We may here mention that a few years later the
Earl of Chesterfield became Walsingham's colleague; but on that occasion
Walsingham does not appear to have raised the question again or to have
been unwilling to conform to the new practice. And, indeed, whether
Walsingham signed before or after Carteret must to every one except
himself have appeared of the least possible importance. Sign in what
order he might, Walsingham's influence soon became paramount. Carteret
might give what instruction he pleased, but unless endorsed by
Walsingham a Post Office servant obeyed it at his peril. Walsingham, on
the contrary, gave instructions without reference to his colleague, and
exacted prompt and implicit obedience.
With many of the qualities of a great man, Walsingham was strangely
wanting in one particular. He had no sense of proportion. A trivial
point hardly deserving of a moment's consideration he would elaborate as
carefully as a measure involving large and important issues; and a
clerical error or a slight indiscretion he would visit as severely as
misconduct of the gravest character. Nor must we omit to mention a habit
in which he indulged to an extent that has probably never been
surpassed. This was a habit of annotating. Nothing came officially
before him, whether a letter or a report or a book, without being
covered in the margin and every available space with notes and queries;
and, to add to the distraction which this mode of criticism seldom fails
to cause, they were in so small and crabbed a hand as to be always
difficult, and sometimes even with the aid of a magnifying-glass
impossible, to decipher.
There was only one person that had the slightest influence with
Walsingham. This was Daniel Braithwaite, who, holding nominally the
situation of clerk to the postmasters-general, was really their private
secretary. Braithwaite was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Of consummate
tact and judgment, and endowed with a peculiar sweetness of disposition,
he contrived during difficult times to tone down asperities and to
accommodate many a dissension which promised to become acute. Passing
through his hands a harsh admonition was turned into a gentle reproof,
and an imperious command into a courteous message. But under this
softness of manner and a deference of language so profound that even
Walsingham quizzed him on the number of "Lordships" he would introduce
into a single letter, there lay concealed a solidity of character which
few would have suspected. Honest Braithwaite he was called, and well he
deserved the epithet. By a simple inquiry, a request for information or
the expression of a doubt, he would nip some wild project in the bud,
and, where occasion required, he would not hesitate to speak his mind
freely. A young man, Stokes by name, who had been appointed to assist
Braithwaite, had miscopied a date in one of Walsingham's numerous
drafts, or rather, feeling sure that the date as it stood was wrong, had
altered it to what he believed to be the right one. Walsingham, who was
absent from London at the time, wrote back that Stokes was to be
suspended. Braithwaite's sense of justice was shocked, and he refused to
carry the order into effect. "If a mistake in copying," he wrote,
"deserves so severe a punishment as suspension, what am I not to fear
for disobedience, and yet I really cannot execute the task your Lordship
has imposed upon me. For God's sake, my dear lord," he proceeded, "let
me most earnestly entreat you to mitigate the severity of this sentence,
and, if a reprimand at the Board is not sufficient, give poor Stokes a
holiday and impose the fine for a substitute upon me. At any rate," he
added, "pray leave the case to be decided at a Board or refer it to Mr.
Todd." Walsingham did refer the case to Todd, but not before he had
sternly demanded of his refractory henchman whether he had never read
Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments. "No," replied Braithwaite, "I have
not read Beccaria on Crimes and Punishments; but Beccaria, say what he
may, will never convince me that it can be right to punish a mistake as
though it were a crime." Honest Braithwaite! He prevailed in the end,
and stood in Walsingham's confidence even higher than before.
At a Board meeting on the 20th of July 1787, less than a fortnight after
taking up his appointment, Walsingham in the presence of the captains
who were ashore, and who had been summoned to London for the occasion,
gave notice of his intention to reduce the packet establishment at
Falmouth. That establishment consisted of twenty-one boats of 200 tons
each, and manned by thirty men. It was proposed that for the future
there should be twenty boats of 150 tons each, and with a complement of
eighteen men. These boats would cost about £3000 apiece to build, and
would not be the property of the Government. The Government would simply
hire them, giving as the price of hire £1350 a year, which was to cover
everything, wages and victualling included. The owners would also have
the passage money, estimated at £150, for each boat. Large as this
reduction was, the Treasury desired that it should be carried further,
that only the boats to America should be of as much as 150 tons, and
that those for the West Indies and for Lisbon should be of 100. The
captains, who had not relished the proposed reduction even to 150 tons,
were half-amused and half-indignant. Why, they asked, should the boats
for America be the largest? Were hurricanes unknown in the West Indies?
And could not the Bay of Biscay boast of tremendous seas? Boats of 100
tons would be positively dangerous. No passenger would go by them; nor
would any merchant trust them with bullion, from the freight of which
the Post Office derived a considerable income.
The postmasters-general had also on their side the result of experience.
In 1745, when the packet service to the West Indies, which had ceased in
1711, was re-established, boats of 100 tons had been tried and had
proved to be altogether insufficient. Moreover, it was in the highest
degree important, as a means of checking smuggling, that the boats
should not be restricted to one route. The intention was that they
should be interchangeable, so that their port of destination should be
uncertain; and to this end the tonnage of one should be the tonnage of
all. The Treasury appear to have remained unmoved by these
representations. At all events no decision was received; and Walsingham,
after waiting for what he no doubt considered an unreasonable time, took
silence for assent and proceeded to carry his recommendations into
effect.
The economical results which had been looked for were not immediately
realised. The boats hitherto in use may not perhaps have been built with
the view of facilitating smuggling; and yet, crowded as they were
between decks with cupboards, they could hardly have been better adapted
to the purpose. In the new boats no receptacles were to be allowed in
which clandestine goods could be concealed; the holds were to be only
large enough to contain the stores and provisions for the voyage; the
seamen were no longer to remain unrestricted as to the size and number
of their boxes; and in other respects stringent regulations were laid
down to prevent illicit traffic. Finding what they called their ventures
stopped, the crews of the packets refused to go to sea without an
increase of pay all round. These ventures, they contended, had been
recognised from time immemorial and went in place of so much wages. How
else would it have been possible for them, many of them men with wives
and families, to subsist on a pittance of 23s. a month? The Post Office
was forced to yield to the demand; and as the immediate result of his
first essay in the cause of economy, Walsingham had the mortification of
seeing the cost of the packet establishment increased by more than £2300
a year.
From Falmouth Walsingham turned his attention to other ports where
packets were stationed. At Dover and at Harwich the establishments were
too small to admit of any reduction. At the latter port, indeed, what
little change took place was on the side of increase, the victualling
allowance being raised from 7-1/2d. a day for each man to 9d., so as to
be uniform with that given at Falmouth; and for the same reason the
seamen's wages were raised from 23s. a month to 28s.
With Holyhead the case was different. Here Walsingham had resolved upon
making a reduction, and it was only on an earnest remonstrance from the
Marquis of Buckingham, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, that he abandoned
his intention. The Holyhead packets were at this time five in number,
and they were of seventy tons each and carried twelve hands. Walsingham
held that this tonnage and complement of men were more than enough; and
Buckingham maintained a directly contrary opinion. Between England and
Ireland, he urged, the number of passengers was increasing every year,
and surely this was not a time to lessen the confidence of the public in
the security of the packets. The danger of navigation in those seas
could not, he felt sure, be appreciated. He had himself crossed the
Channel in all weathers. Once he had been nearly lost, and not on that
occasion alone he had seen the crews, though at their full complement,
absolutely prostrate with their exertions. Could it be known that, for
purposes of passenger traffic, the captains of the Holyhead packets had
recently built and fitted out at their own expense a sloop named the
_Duchess of Rutland_; and that for this sloop, which, although vastly
superior in point of accommodation to any one of the packets, was of no
higher tonnage, the complement had been fixed at twelve hands? This
would shew what was the opinion on the point of those who were most
competent to judge. The fact, moreover, that Ireland had undertaken to
pay to Great Britain the sum of 2d. on every letter passing to and fro
placed the English Post Office under a sort of moral obligation not to
reduce the amount of accommodation and security existing at the time the
undertaking was given. Such were the arguments by which Buckingham
prevailed upon Walsingham to abandon his intention. He at the same time
hinted that there were other objects to which Walsingham's energies
might more properly be directed. "Does your Lordship know," he asked,
"that an immense communication of letters is kept up by the Liverpool
packets[62] which sail weekly to Dublin?"
[62] _i.e._ boats. At Liverpool packets, in the sense of boats
commissioned by Government to carry letters, did not at this time
exist.
One line of packets remains, the line between Milford Haven and
Waterford. Here five boats were employed, of which three were of eighty
tons and the others somewhat less; and the service was six days a week.
This, though the youngest of the packet stations, was by no means the
least interesting. It had been opened in April 1787; and in the first
year the proceeds from passengers alone amounted to more than £1200. No
doubt had been entertained that in the matter of letters there would be
an equally satisfactory account to render; but it soon became evident
that all hopes on this score must be given up. The Irish Post Office was
no longer subject to the Post Office of England; and in the supposed
interests of Dublin, which regarded with jealousy the postal facilities
enjoyed by the southern towns, advantage was taken of this freedom from
control to checkmate the new service. From Waterford the post for Cork
had been used to start at two o'clock in the afternoon, an hour most
convenient for the packets. Under orders from Dublin it was now to start
at twelve; and, as shewing the vexatiousness of the proceeding, an
express leaving Waterford as late as four o'clock would overtake the
mail at Carrick, a distance of no more than fifteen miles. Under the
same orders Limerick was forbidden to send letters by way of Waterford;
and the post between this town and Clonmel was reduced from six days a
week to three. This was a state of things which, under the system of
Home Rule then existing, Walsingham was powerless to remedy. He could
only lift his hands in amazement that such perversity should be
possible.
But it was not exclusively or even mainly to the packet establishment
that Walsingham's attention was directed. There was no part of the Post
Office with which he did not make himself thoroughly acquainted; and in
the course of his investigations nothing struck him more than the
pitiable condition of the clerks of the roads. The case of these men had
been gradually getting worse and worse. It is true that ten years before
a part of the salaries and pensions for which they were responsible had
been transferred to the State; but the relief thus afforded had been
neutralised and more than neutralised by the decrease which had since
taken place in their emoluments from the franking of newspapers. Of
these emoluments, indeed, little now remained. In the seventeen years
from 1772 to 1789 the notices served upon the Post Office by members of
Parliament to send newspapers into the country free had risen from a
little more than 2000 to 7000, and the number of newspapers which these
7000 notices covered amounted to no less than 65,760 a week. In the face
of such competition the special privilege enjoyed by the clerks of the
roads was practically valueless, and Walsingham and Carteret clearly
discerned that to compensate them for the loss of their emoluments by an
increase of salary was an act dictated no less by justice than policy.
The case indeed was urgent if a catastrophe were to be averted; and
Carteret, whose experience led him to believe that the salaries would
not be increased with the consent of the Treasury, proposed to increase
them without. Walsingham was shocked at the audacity of the proposal,
and read his colleague a homily on the constitutional proprieties. "I
know," replied Carteret, "we shall have the power of increasing salaries
with the consent of the Treasury, but many may starve before that
consent comes." Even Walsingham admitted the gravity of the occasion;
and with the full knowledge that at this time no representation from the
Post Office reached the Treasury which did not come under Pitt's own
observation, the two peers, after recommending a substantial measure of
relief, concluded their letter thus: "We shall find ourselves compelled,
if the present weight of Parliamentary and official duties shall make
it impossible for your Lordships to give us the authority we request in
the course of a week, to take it upon ourselves to issue the money at
our own risk, or the persons who are the object of this relief will be
unable to attend their duty, and the business of the office will be
literally at a stand." Whatever Pitt may have thought of the somewhat
unusual terms of this address, he allowed no sign of dissatisfaction to
escape him, and the authority sought was given.
As long as Walsingham confined his attention to the packets and the
clerks of the roads, there was no danger of a collision with Palmer.
Palmer, on the contrary, offered his congratulations to Walsingham on
the improvement which he had been instrumental in making in these
officers' condition. It was when Walsingham gave an instruction which
even indirectly affected the inland posts that Palmer's jealousy was
aroused. This he regarded as his own peculiar domain, a domain upon
which even the postmasters-general themselves were trespassers; and a
trespass or what he considered as such he never lost an opportunity of
resenting. The earliest and not the least curious illustration of these
pretensions appears in the case of the King's coach. In the summer of
1788 the King repaired to Cheltenham for the purpose of drinking the
waters, and Walsingham, who was above all things a courtier, had
arranged that during the royal visit a mail-coach should be stationed at
that town for the exclusive use of His Majesty. The coach was to be a
new one, sent down from London for the occasion, and the leading
contractor on the Cheltenham road, one Wilson by name, was to provide
the horses. The royal visit at an end, the contractor's bill was sent
in, and Palmer, in forwarding it to Walsingham, professed to be
extremely dissatisfied with the magnitude of the charge. On the sale of
the horses and harness alone, after only a month's use, there had been a
loss of £550. "Nothing," he said, "could have been more absurdly or
extravagantly conducted." But the thing was done. It would be useless to
dispute the payment. Besides, it would "soil the compliment" designed
to His Majesty. "We must," he added, "take more care next time, for, had
it been properly settled, the loss at most could not have exceeded
£300."
The actual arrangement for the coach had been made not through Palmer
but through Bonnor, Palmer's lieutenant; and to him Walsingham now
applied for further information. Bonnor's reply was a strange compound
of candour and insolence. It was indeed not to be wondered at, he said,
that his Lordship's indignation should be roused by the magnitude of the
bill. Had the matter been left as originally settled under Mr. Palmer's
orders, Wilson could never have made so monstrous a claim. By those
orders he had been given to understand that, the coach being designed as
a mere compliment to the King, not more than 1d. a mile would be allowed
at the outside. And "so the undertaking stood 'till your Lordship
ordered the circular letter to the horse-keepers respecting Sir George
Baker's[63] being accommodated with the mail horses if he had occasion.
Your Lordship will recollect that I remonstrated against it, and urged
the impossibility of Wilson ever allowing his mail horses to be taken
out of his stables for posting, and the regularity of the work
destroyed, and the cattle drove along by people he knew nothing of; to
which your Lordship was pleased to say that Wilson had no business to
trouble his head about that; that, whatever his expenses were, he should
be paid; and that no feelings of his about his horses or anything else
should prevent the thing being done in the best possible style."...
"Thinking as little in the delivery of the message as your Lordship did
in sending it that such an advantage would be taken, I of course obeyed
the directions, and it seems that this is the ground upon which the
charge is made out as it is."
[63] The King's physician.
Walsingham was not satisfied, and resolved to contest the bill. Palmer
now took alarm, and urged every consideration he could think of to
dissuade Walsingham from his purpose. To have recourse to a Court of Law
might seriously damage his infant undertaking. A legal dispute had been
avoided hitherto, and, with a cunning and refractory set of persons such
as the contractors were, might have the effect of raising the present
terms of conveyance. These terms were low, lower than the Post Office
was likely to obtain again; and the mail-coaches were running smoothly.
It would be a thousand pities to introduce an element of disturbance.
Besides, how unpleasant it would be to his Lordship to be subpoenaed as
a witness; and, in the hands of an expert counsel, how supremely
ridiculous the whole business might be made to appear! The King's jaunt
with a mail-coach in attendance! For his own part, when he had been
unfortunate enough to be imposed upon, he generally found it best to put
up with the imposition and to take more care another time. Nor should it
be forgotten that the matter might have been much worse. When first he
had heard of the arrangement, he had rebuked Bonnor for his
extravagance; and Bonnor had produced two letters from his Lordship in
justification. These letters shewed not only that no expense was to be
spared, but that it had originally been in contemplation to have two
coaches, and that it was only owing to Bonnor's earnest expostulation
that the idea of a second coach had been given up. Surely it was cause
for congratulation that the bill was no higher. Had two coaches been
established instead of one, Wilson might have clapped on another £1000.
As the bill stood, it was a gross imposition, an imposition which must
condemn him in the eyes of all honest men; and yet it would be pure
madness to go to law. These arguments prevailed, and Walsingham
abandoned his intention of contesting the bill. He did not at this time
see, what he saw clearly enough some years later, that in retaliation
upon himself for presuming to interfere Wilson had been cajoled or
coerced into making an exorbitant demand, and that of the several
persons who were concerned in the transaction Wilson himself was the
least to blame.
This may be a convenient place to notice a point in which the practice
of 1788 differed from that of the present time. It was only a few
months after his return from Cheltenham that the King was taken with the
serious illness which so nearly proved fatal. On the 9th of November the
accounts from Windsor were such as to leave little room for hope. On the
10th intelligence reached the Post Office at three o'clock in the
afternoon that, contrary to all expectation, the King was still living;
and on the 14th a form of prayer was issued, to be used in all churches,
for His Majesty's recovery. At the present time a circular of this kind
would reach the Post Office already addressed to the persons for whom it
was intended, and the Post Office would do nothing more than carry and
deliver it like an ordinary letter. But such was not the case in 1788.
The form of prayer, as it was issued by the printer, was sent to the
Post Office in bulk, and the Post Office despatched fifty copies to the
postmaster of each town with instructions to distribute them "with all
possible expedition to the rectors, vicars, or resident ministers of
your town and all places in your delivery." The point is hardly
deserving of mention, for, of course, it would make little difference to
the postmaster whether the copies were sent in bulk or as single
letters. He would be bound to deliver them in either case. It is more
worthy of note that, as the number of Post Offices in England was at
this time only 608, and the area subordinate to each of correspondingly
wide extent, to go over the whole of his delivery at one time as these
instructions obliged the postmaster to do was no slight undertaking, and
one which, owing to the paucity of letters, he had probably not been
required to perform on any previous occasion. In this instance, however,
we may feel sure that a sense of loyalty alone precluded all disposition
to murmur. With far other feelings, it may well be believed, was an
order regarded which had been issued rather more than thirty years
before. The year 1756 was a year of scarcity; and, under direction from
Whitehall, postmasters were to frequent the local markets and to
ascertain and report the price of corn. This is the first instance on
record of postmasters having been employed outside their own proper
duties as such. It may be added that two years later the Duke of
Newcastle sent down in hot haste to Lombard Street to inquire the latest
prices, when it was explained to His Grace that, despite the course
which had been adopted in 1756, the Post Office was not an office for
the collection of agricultural returns.
It is a common practice to laugh at public offices for their rigid
adherence to routine. This, we think, is not quite reasonable. No doubt
it is calculated to excite ridicule, and indeed to irritate beyond all
endurance when a course obviously proper in itself is condemned because,
forsooth, there is no precedent for it; and we are by no means sure that
some public servants would not be all the better for taking to heart the
maxim--Wise men make precedents, only fools require them. But, without
the order and regularity which a strict adherence to routine can alone
produce, the business of a Government department must inevitably drift
into a state of hopeless confusion. This is a truth which persons
outside the public service have always found it hard to accept; as well
indeed as persons inside who have entered late in life or after their
habits are formed. Palmer was of the latter class; and a striking
instance now occurred of his inability to adapt himself to the
requirements of his new situation. Walsingham had asked whether the
surveyors were keeping their journals regularly. These officers, besides
a small salary, were now receiving an allowance of one guinea a day when
travelling; and not only was a journal indispensable in order to shew
whether they had been travelling or not, but the keeping of one had been
made an express condition of the allowance being given. No subordinate
cared to pass on the inquiry to Palmer, implying, as this might seem to
do, a doubt. Walsingham had no such scruple and wrote to Palmer asking
that the journals might be sent to him for examination. Palmer's reply
will explain how it is that the records which now exist respecting
himself and his achievements are so surprisingly few. There were no
journals, he said. The surveyors' own letters, with their bills of
expenses attached, were sufficient evidence of the journeys they had
made. And these bills and letters, he added, as soon as the charges
which they represent have been paid, "are and must be useless paper, for
if I did not constantly clear my office both of their as well as my own
and the other officers' rubbish, I should be buried under it." The
auditors of the imprests had recently made good progress, but,
fortunately for the Post Office, they were still many years in
arrear.[64]
[64] The Post Office accounts for the year 1749 were not passed until
1784; and then only through the exertions of Lord Mountstuart, who had
succeeded Mr. Aislabie as one of the auditors of His Majesty's imprests.
Among Walsingham's correspondents was George Chalmers, a merchant of
Edinburgh. Chalmers was no mere maker of crude and impracticable
suggestions. He had thirty years before been instrumental in shortening
the course of post between Edinburgh and London. Before 1758 the Great
North Mail, as it was called, went three days a week and occupied
eighty-seven hours in going from London to Edinburgh, and 131 hours in
going from Edinburgh to London. Thus, a mail leaving Edinburgh at twelve
at night on Saturday did not reach London until eleven o'clock on Friday
morning. Chalmers, in a paper of singular ability, dwelt upon the
absurdity of the various detentions, ranging from three hours at Berwick
to twenty-four hours at Newcastle, which made the course of post longer
by nearly two days in one direction than in the other, and shewed how,
by avoiding these unnecessary delays and getting rid of a diversion of
twelve miles to York, the distance might be accomplished between London
and Edinburgh in eighty-two hours, and between Edinburgh and London in
eighty-five. The plan was adopted, and some years later, in recognition
of its merits, Chalmers received from the Government a gratuity of £600.
More recently he had prevailed upon the Post Office to increase from
three to six days a week the service between London and Edinburgh, and
from Edinburgh to the principal towns in Scotland; and in London, at
his suggestion, the letter-carriers who collected letters by the sound
of bell, or bellmen as they had begun to be called, were being employed
after nine o'clock at night.
It was not, therefore, as a novice in Post Office matters that Chalmers
now entered into correspondence with Walsingham. His present
representation was in the nature partly of a suggestion and partly of a
complaint. He had been staying some time in London, and was surprised to
find that at the capital of the first commercial nation in the world the
Post Office closed as early as seven o'clock in the evening. He
contended that it ought not to close before ten. But it was in respect
to his own native city of Edinburgh that he felt and expressed himself
most warmly. Edinburgh was without a penny post. He was himself an old
man or he would undertake to farm one, although, in his judgment, the
farming of such an institution, until at least it was well established,
was not for the public interests. But surely, whether farmed or not, a
penny post should be opened without delay, and on his return to
Edinburgh he would let Walsingham know how this could best be done. Nor
was the want of such a convenience by any means the chief thing of which
the inhabitants of Edinburgh had to complain. Since 1758 their post had
not gone out until eight o'clock at night. Now, to suit Palmer's
arrangements, it went out at half-past three in the afternoon; and, more
than this, the diversion to York, which it had cost such pains to get
rid of some thirty years before, had been revived. Thus, between
Edinburgh and London the course of post was actually longer now than
before the introduction of mail-coaches by as much as five hours. Were a
little more consideration to be given to the correspondence of the
country and a little less to the convenience of passengers, more than
these five hours might be saved. At all events the mails might start
from Edinburgh at eight o'clock as before, and from London at ten, and
yet arrive at their destination no later than now. For himself, he
thought it hardly decent that passengers should be allowed to travel by
the same coaches as the mails, and predicted that a time would come when
the mails would have coaches to themselves. Much of this, Chalmers
added, he had pointed out to Palmer some time before, and the only
result was an angry letter which had terminated a friendship of years.
Even as he now wrote, another letter had come to hand in which Palmer
told him, almost in so many words, to mind his own business.
Walsingham was at this time at Old Windsor. Hither it was his habit to
repair whenever he had anything of more than ordinary interest to engage
his attention; and such was the case at the present moment. He had
recently had lent to him, under a pledge of the strictest secrecy, a
copy of the Report of the Royal Commission which had sat upon the Post
Office in the preceding year; and this Report he was now having copied
under his own eye with a view to the preparation of an elaborate
criticism upon it. But though absent from London he relaxed not his hold
upon the Post Office for a single moment. Each morning's post brought to
Lombard Street its own budget of drafts, to be written out fair, of
questions to be answered, of scoldings to be given, and of instructions
to heads of departments in the minutest details of their duty.
Walsingham absent was a far more important personage than Carteret
present; and a mandate from Old Windsor superseded any that might be
given on the spot. It was while Walsingham was thus engaged that he
received one morning from Palmer a few hurried lines, of which the last
were as follows: "You ought not, meaning as well as you do, to be
unpopular anywhere. Nor must you. You fret me now and then, tho' you
don't intend it, and I am angry with myself for it." A visit from Palmer
on the following morning, especially as that morning was Sunday, was
little calculated to lessen the surprise with which Walsingham must have
read this letter. The truth is that Palmer had repaired to Windsor with
the intention of resigning his appointment; but the courteous reception
he met with from Walsingham disconcerted his plan, and he returned to
London as he had come, with the letter of resignation in his pocket.
The reasons which Palmer afterwards gave for his conduct on this
occasion throw a flood of light upon his character. These reasons were:
1st, That Walsingham was ready to listen to proposals for improving the
Post Office, come from what quarter they might, thus leaving it to be
inferred, as Palmer put it, either that he was himself incompetent to
effect improvements or else that there was a sinister design to detract
from his reputation. 2nd, That from himself, though vitally interested
in its contents, a report was being kept which clerks from his own
office had been sent down to Windsor to copy. 3rd, That the same feeling
of distrust was evidenced in the constant pressure which was being put
upon him to require the surveyors to keep journals. How hollow these
reasons were, a very little consideration will shew. In the course of
the correspondence with Chalmers, on which the first of Palmer's reasons
was obviously founded, Walsingham had been careful to state that, while
ready to consider proposals for establishing a penny post in Edinburgh,
he must decline to interfere with any of Palmer's arrangements. The
second reason, though more plausible, was the merest pretext. Not a
month before, with the full knowledge of what was going on at Windsor,
Palmer had offered to send down, if required, the whole of his office to
assist. And more than this. Although Walsingham could not in honour
disclose a document which had been lent to him under a pledge of
secrecy, Palmer must have been perfectly well acquainted with so much of
the Report of the Royal Commission as dealt with his own undertaking,
for it is beyond all question that this part of the Report had been
written by himself. There was no other man living who was capable of
writing it; and even if there had been, the opinions, the
recommendations, the mode of expression, the disparagement of Ralph
Allen, all of which are common to the Report and Palmer's private
writings, unmistakably betray the author. The third reason requires
little remark. Walsingham would have neglected his obvious duty if he
had not taken steps to establish some check upon the travelling expenses
claimed by the surveyors; and the experience of the hundred years which
have since elapsed has failed to devise any better check than the
journal. The keeping of the journal, moreover, had been an express
condition imposed by the Treasury when the allowance of a guinea a day
was authorised.
Walsingham treated Palmer on this occasion with great kindness. Rightly
judging that jealousy was at the root of the whole matter, he followed
up the conversation which had taken place at Windsor by a letter, in
which he exhorted Palmer to speak out, to declare his sentiments freely,
and to dismiss idle apprehensions. Then came a full statement from
Palmer, written, as he expressly declared, "not as a justification but
as an apology for my suspicions," and explaining the object and the
motives of his visit on the preceding Sunday. "Your habits are not my
habits," he concluded; "I would give a great deal for but a part of your
correctness and inveterate attention to business and accounts."
Walsingham's reply, which came by return of post, was an invitation to
dinner. Palmer accepted it, and the courteous and hearty welcome he
received called forth his warmest acknowledgments.
The duty of the mail guards, as their title implies, was to guard and
protect the mails. This body of men, as it existed during the first
forty or fifty years of the present century, was one of which the Post
Office might well be proud. The very nature of their employment
engendered in them a habit of self-reliance and an independence of
character which invested them with a peculiar interest. But it was not
always so. When mail-coaches were first established, Palmer had it in
contemplation to employ retired soldiers as mail guards, on the ground
that soldiers would be accustomed to firearms; but constitutional
objections prevailed and the contractors who furnished the mail-coaches
with horses were required also to furnish firearms arms and the men to
use them. The result was not satisfactory. For economy's sake men were
employed of little or no character, and the weapons with which they were
supplied were of the most worthless description. More than worthless,
they were dangerous. "Cheap things;" they were declared to be, "that
burst and often did mischief." Accordingly, at Palmer's suggestion, the
Post Office undertook to appoint its own mail guards. Honest and
faithful as these men always were, it was only by degrees that they grew
into the fine body they afterwards became. At first the novelty of their
position led them into little excesses such as were never heard of in
later years. Thus, a statute passed in 1790 imposed a penalty of 20s. on
any mail guard who should fire off the arms with which he was entrusted
for any other cause than the protection of the mail; and even this
enactment appears to have been insufficient to correct the abuse against
which it was directed. "These guards," writes Pennant two years later,
"shoot at dogs, hogs, sheep, and poultry as they pass the road; and even
in towns, to the great terror and danger of the inhabitants."[65]
[65] A letter to a member of Parliament on mail-coaches, by Thomas
Pennant, Esq., 1792.
It must not be supposed, because Palmer's name is associated with the
establishment of mail-coaches, that to these his attention was
exclusively confined. In virtue of his appointment as comptroller-general
he exercised control, subject of course to the postmasters-general,
over the whole of the Post Office, the offices of account excepted;
and he now took advantage of this position to create a newspaper
office. Newspapers had long been a source of trouble. By the clerks
of the roads they were not only posted in good time but were tied
up in bundles, covered with strong brown paper, and addressed to the
postmasters of the respective towns, who took out the contents and had
them delivered. So long as the newspapers were thus dealt with, no
inconvenience resulted from their being mixed up with letters; but from
the moment that the distribution passed into the hands of the printers
and dealers the case was different. The newspapers were now posted at
the last moment, and, being clumsily folded and still wet from the
printing press, they damaged and defaced the addresses of the letters
with which they came in contact in the mail bags. The inconvenience had
been tolerated for years. As early as 1782 the postmasters-general had
contemplated the creation of a newspaper office, an office in which
newspapers might be dealt with separately from letters, but nothing had
been done. Palmer now took the matter in hand and carried it through
with his usual vigour. Having satisfied himself that a separate office
was necessary, he forthwith established one, appointed to it eighteen
sub-sorters and fixed their wages; and not even the postmasters-general
were aware of what he was doing until it was done.[66]
[66] At this time the number of newspapers passing through the London
office averaged 80,000 a week, of which 78,000 were from London to the
country and 2000 from the country to London. Mixed, that is wet and dry
together, they were computed to weigh sixteen to the pound.
Such an instance of energy, worthy as we may think it of imitation,
would be impossible on the part of any one who had been brought up in
the public service, because he would have learnt that no wages can be
fixed or new offices created without the consent of the Treasury. In the
Post Office, too, the postmasters-general alone were legally competent
to make appointments. But to Palmer these were the merest trifles, if
indeed he gave them a thought. To create a newspaper office was a right
thing to do, and he had done it; and to haggle about the circumstances
of the doing appeared to him sheer pedantry. Not so thought Walsingham.
It ill accorded with his sense of propriety that a number of new places
should have been created without the requisite authority which the
Treasury alone could give; but that to these places, whether authorised
or not, a subordinate should have presumed to make appointments--a power
which by the postmaster-generals' patent was vested in themselves
alone--struck him as little short of an outrage.
Unfortunately for Palmer, another irregularity on his part came to light
at the same time. The mail guards' wages had been fixed at 13s. a week;
but of this sum Palmer paid only 10s., retaining the balance for the
purpose of providing uniforms, pensions, and an allowance during
sickness. Again, the plan was excellent; but it was unauthorised, and
had the effect of leaving in Palmer's hands, without any means of
checking it, a sum of liberated money amounting to about £900 a year.
Walsingham now called upon Palmer to give the details of his plan, with
a view to its being properly authorised, and to submit the names of
those whom he had appointed to the newspaper office, so that their
appointments might be confirmed. Palmer would do neither the one nor the
other. Walsingham persisted in his demand, and Palmer persisted in his
refusal. No course remained but to submit the matter for Pitt's
decision; and Pitt decided in Walsingham's favour. Palmer, said the
minister, had the power of suspending Post Office servants but not of
appointing them, although the postmasters-general, it might well be
believed, would consent as a matter of favour to accept his nominations.
Pitt also agreed that the mode of dealing with the mail guards' wages
was highly irregular. The decision of the minister was communicated to
Palmer, but it had not the slightest effect upon his conduct. The mail
guards' wages continued to be dealt with as before; and the appointments
to the newspaper office remained unconfirmed.
Pitt's decision was not given until the autumn of 1789; and meanwhile
other matters had occurred to strain the relations between Walsingham
and Palmer. Chief among these was Walsingham's inveterate habit of
scribbling. Both men were endowed with an amount of energy which nothing
could repress; but while Palmer expended himself by rushing from one
part of the country to another as fast as horses could carry him,
Walsingham's sphere of activity was restricted to writing. And well he
exemplified the law that force asserts itself in proportion to the
limits within which it is confined. His notes and questions were
literally endless. At one time all the ingenuity of Lombard Street, with
the assistance of erasers and acids, is being exercised to remove
remarks he has written upon a document which, not being the property of
the Post Office, had to be returned. At another, he has sent for a blank
form of contract, of which only a single copy remains in the Office. "I
implore your Lordship," writes the sender, "to let me have it back, and
that the margin may not be written on." Palmer, to whom pens, ink, and
paper were an abomination, would think nothing of posting a hundred
miles and more to avoid the necessity of writing a letter; and by
Bonnor, Palmer's lieutenant, who always aped his master as far as he
dared, answers to the questions put to him would be withheld altogether
or reserved for the next Board meeting. "I can perceive," wrote Todd to
Walsingham about this time, "you are hurt that neither Mr. Palmer nor
Mr. Bonnor pay a proper regard to your many observations."
Another matter occurred at this time which, while only indirectly
affecting Palmer, was not calculated to promote harmonious relations.
Bonnor, who had sent some accounts to Windsor for Walsingham's
signature, wrote two or three days later, urging that they might be
signed and returned at once, and giving as a reason the importunity of
the letter-carriers. "What these poor oppressed creatures will do," he
said, "I know not. They all came in a body this morning and gave a most
affecting description of the distresses with which their wives and
families laboured, their credit exhausted, not a shilling to buy bread,
and each having between £30 and £40 of hard-earned wages due to them
from a public office whose revenues are every day increasing." This
struck Walsingham as very strange. The letter-carriers were paid by
weekly wages; and what, over and above their wages, they had earned for
extra duty should also have been paid weekly. Besides, the accounts had
been in his hands for only two or three days, whereas for the last
twelve months and more he had been pressing for their production, and
had only now succeeded in getting them.
There was a mystery somewhere, and, as the best means of solving it,
Walsingham called for the vouchers. Bonnor now lost himself in excuses.
The vouchers were essential to his reputation. He could not part with
them. If once they left his hands, they might be lost. It could not but
be known to his Lordship how often this had happened with official
papers passing to and fro. Besides, to inspect the vouchers would be to
pry into his private concerns. This was enough for Walsingham, and he
directed the accountant-general to look into the matter forthwith. The
examination revealed a curious state of things. The amounts which the
letter-carriers had earned for extra duty had not been paid for a whole
year, and a part of the money which had been issued for that purpose had
been applied to the payment of the persons irregularly appointed to the
newspaper office. More than this. The accounts shewed, or professed to
shew, that during the last eighteen months the mail-coach contractors
had received in payment of their services the sum of £20,000; but the
receipts for more than £16,000 of this amount bore no dates, and others
were signed by Bonnor himself. "Signed," to use his own words, "by
myself for money paid by myself to myself." In short, the so-called
vouchers were no vouchers at all. Bonnor now made an apology, which, in
point of abjectness, has probably seldom been equalled; and Walsingham,
unwilling to force matters to extremities, let him off with a sound
dressing. This disclosure did not tend to restore either harmony or
confidence. Palmer, it is true, gave no heed to accounts; but Bonnor was
under his protection, and Palmer resented a censure upon his lieutenant
and friend even more than a censure upon himself.
We doubt whether in England a public department has often been in so
singular a position as that which the Post Office occupied during the
six months beginning with September 1789. Carteret had been
dismissed;[67] and Westmorland, Carteret's successor, whose patent had
been delayed owing to the absence of the law officers from London, had
not even entered upon his duties as postmaster-general before he wrote
to announce his appointment as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Meanwhile
Palmer resolutely withheld obedience from the orders of his chiefs,
backed though those orders were by the minister; and Walsingham was
powerless to act. Minutes indeed he prepared by the score, proposing the
most drastic measures; but Carteret refused to sign because he was on
the point of going out, and Westmorland refused to sign because he had
only just come in, and had no intention of remaining. Walsingham's
signature alone carried no legal force. It was not until the following
March, the March of 1790, that the office of postmaster-general was
again properly filled by the appointment of Lord Chesterfield as
Walsingham's colleague.
[67] How Carteret managed to retain his appointment for more than
eighteen years is not the least perplexing of Post Office problems.
Meanwhile the joint postmaster-generalship had undergone the following
changes:--
Lord Le Despencer } From Jan. 16, 1771,
Right Hon. Henry F. Thynne (afterwards Carteret)} to Dec. 11, 1781.
Right Hon. Henry F. Carteret (sometime Thynne) { From Dec. 11, 1781,
{ to Jan. 24, 1782.
Right Hon. Henry F. Carteret } From Jan. 24, 1782,
Viscount Barrington } to April 25, 1782.
Right Hon. Henry F. Carteret } From April 25, 1782,
Earl of Tankerville } to May 1, 1783.
Right Hon. Henry F. Carteret } From May 1, 1783,
Lord Foley } to Jan. 7, 1784.
Right Hon. Henry F. Carteret, created Lord }
Carteret Jan. 29, 1784 } From Jan. 7, 1784,
Earl of Tankerville (a second time) } to Sept. 19, 1786.
Lord Carteret } From Sept. 19, 1786,
Earl of Clarendon } to Dec. 10, 1786.
Lord Carteret { From Dec. 10, 1786,
{ to July 6, 1787.
Lord Carteret } From July 6, 1787,
Lord Walsingham } to Sept. 19, 1789.
At the risk of interrupting the course of our narrative we cannot
refrain from mentioning here in its chronological order memorial which
was at this time received from certain merchants of the city of London
trading with foreign parts. This memorial, or rather the
counter-memorial to which it gave rise, is interesting if only as
serving to shew that the conservative instinct--an indisposition to
change, is not confined to public offices. The delivery of inland
letters had been recently expedited; but foreign letters continued to be
delivered as of old. Lest the practice in the case of these letters
should seem to be overstated, we give it in the memorialists' own words.
"It is the practice of the Post Office," they write under date the 20th
of January 1790, "if a mail does not arrive before one o'clock to
withhold the delivery of the letters till the next day, and even to
protract the delivery till after the same hour the succeeding day,
provided any other mail be expected or due. This happening on a Saturday
(a case by no means uncommon), the letters are kept back till the
Monday, when three other mails being due, and they not arriving perhaps
till the stipulated hour of one, the delivery of the mail which arrived
on Saturday is not made till between three and four o'clock on the
Monday and sometimes later. Thus the advice of property shipt to a great
amount on which insurances should immediately have been made, the
receipt of remittances on which the credit of many persons may depend,
and the general information so essential in commercial affairs are
cruelly withheld for upwards of fifty hours without the least apparent
necessity." The remedy which the memorialists proposed was moderate
enough. They asked nothing more than that, in the case of mails arriving
before four o'clock in the afternoon, letters might be given out to
persons who should call at the Post Office for them in two or three
hours after the mail had come in, such as were not called for being, at
the expiration of that interval, sent out by letter-carrier; and that,
in the case of mails arriving after four o'clock, the letters might be
delivered at ten o'clock on the following morning.
The unfortunate merchants who signed this memorial little bethought
themselves of the storm they were raising. Other merchants, also trading
with foreign parts and more numerous than those who advocated an
earlier delivery, put forward a counter-memorial strongly protesting
against any change. The custom of postponing until the following day the
delivery of all foreign letters arriving at the Post Office after one
o'clock was, they said, a wise custom, a "custom recommended by our
ancestors," and one that could not be altered save to their own great
prejudice. The original memorial had been studiously kept from
themselves, and "this most extraordinary proceeding" they could only
ascribe to a well-founded apprehension on the part of the promoters that
otherwise the impropriety of the "novelty" which they sought to
introduce would be exposed. The remonstrants added that many and cogent
reasons might be given in support of the existing usage; but, unhappily,
they omitted to state what these reasons were. Doubtless, however,
jealousy lest others should obtain priority of information was at the
bottom of the protest; although it is not very clear how, under a
regulation that was to be common to all, any one in particular would
enjoy an undue advantage.
The Post Office, unassisted in this instance by Palmer, declared the
change to be, if only on account of want of space, impossible. The
average number of letters arriving by each foreign mail were at this
time--from France 2500, from Holland 2000, and from Flanders 1500, or
6000 altogether. At the present day, when as many as 500 sacks full of
letters come by a single mail, and several mails may arrive
simultaneously, 6000 letters more or less make little appreciable
difference. One hour at most is enough for three men to sort them. But
in 1790 the office in which the foreign letters were sorted possessed
but a single table and a single alphabet or sorting rack.
Although want of space was the ostensible reason for refusing an earlier
delivery, there was another, not avowed indeed, and yet which, there can
be no doubt, materially influenced the decision. This will be best
explained in the words of the comptroller of the foreign letter
department. "The delivery of foreign letters," writes this officer to
Walsingham, "is so complicated with _the secret office_[68] that any
alteration will deserve the most serious consideration when you come to
the Board."
[68] Sir Rowland Hill, in his _Autobiography_ (vol. ii. p. 28), does not
hesitate to write as follows: "Incredible as it may appear to my
readers, it is nevertheless true that so late as 1844 a system, dating
from some far distant time, was in full operation, under which clerks
from the foreign office used to attend on the arrival of mails from
abroad, to open the letters addressed to certain ministers resident in
England, and make from them such extracts as they deemed useful for the
service of Government."
It would hardly excite surprise if Chesterfield, on entering upon his
duties in Lombard Street, had fallen under the influence of a colleague
who, besides being possessed of a strong will, had had some years'
experience in Post Office administration; but, as a matter of fact, he
does not appear to have surrendered his private judgment. On one point,
indeed, he took a view somewhat different from Walsingham. Walsingham
regarded Palmer, in so far as he withheld obedience from the
postmaster-generals' orders, as simply an insubordinate servant. To
Chesterfield, on the contrary, Palmer was an object of no common
interest. That two peers of large social influence, deriving their
authority direct from the Crown, and to some extent supported by the
minister, should be held in check by one man, and that man a
subordinate, was an incongruity which struck Chesterfield's imagination.
It amused him. It interested him. He could not withhold his meed of
admiration from the masterful spirit which fought single-handed against
long odds, and not always without success. The very terms Chesterfield
employed, while implying a consciousness of defeat, implied also a
certain amount of homage to the victor. It was always as "our Master,"
"our Dictator," "our Tyrant" that he referred to Palmer; and it is
difficult to believe that a man who could thus playfully express himself
would have proved implacable.
For ourselves, we have little doubt that, if at this time Palmer had
demeaned himself with only moderate reserve, all might yet have been
well; but it must be admitted that, from now till the end of his
official career, his conduct was strangely aggressive. We have already
seen how he made appointments to the newspaper office without reference
to the postmasters-general, and how, in their despite, he retained in
his own hands a considerable balance arising out of deductions from the
mail guards' wages. He now went further. He declined to attend the Board
meetings: he not only omitted but refused to answer inquiries which the
postmasters-general addressed to him; he persistently withheld the
surveyors' journals, if, indeed, he had required journals to be kept; he
claimed to make contracts and to introduce what measures he pleased
without the postmasters-general being so much as consulted; and because
Walsingham and Chesterfield would not admit the claim, he suffered the
contracts to expire, and the mail-coaches were run on mere verbal
agreements. "Except the warrants we have signed," wrote the
postmasters-general in October 1790, "there is no record whatever in our
possession of any of Mr. Palmer's proceedings since his appointment."
From disobedience Palmer proceeded to defiance. We will give
instances. The proprietors of the mail-coach between Carlisle and
Portpatrick had demanded payment at the rate of 2d. a mile, and Palmer
had agreed to the demand. This was just double the usual rate, and the
postmasters-general, fearing that if given on one road it could not be
refused on another, determined, before signing the warrant presented for
payment, to obtain Treasury authority. Palmer, knowing that delay would
thus be caused, protested that no such authority was necessary, and, in
order to enforce his protest, stopped four mail-coaches, for which was
being paid more than the usual allowance of 1d. a mile, namely, the
coach to Falmouth, the coach to Bristol, the coach to Plymouth, and the
coach to Portsmouth--coolly informing the postmasters-general that he
had done so "under the idea that appears to influence their Lordships,
that paying a higher rate to the proprietors on one road might induce
others to make a similar demand." He next inquired whether the
postmasters-general were to be understood as preferring a cart to the
mail-coach, even though a cart should be the more expensive of the two.
As nothing had been said about a cart, the postmasters-general remarked
that this could only be meant for insult. Insult! rejoined Palmer, he
was as little capable of offering an insult as he was of putting up with
one; and then he proceeded to charge the postmasters-general with the
grossest partiality. The postmasters-general had increased the salary of
the postmaster of Tewkesbury beyond what Palmer conceived to be
necessary. He denounced the transaction as extraordinary and ill
advised, and, while himself professing to believe that it proceeded only
from motives of benevolence, expressed his conviction that others would
regard it as "a job." Smuggled goods had been found in the mail-box of
the Dover coach; and coach, horses, and harness had, in consequence,
been seized by the Commissioners of Customs. The same man who, in order
to force a decision, had stopped four mail-coaches in a single morning,
now rated the postmasters-general soundly because they did not at once
and without inquiry take steps to get the Commissioners' proceedings
reversed. "The comptroller-general," wrote Palmer on another occasion,
"has informed their Lordships of his motives for not answering several
of the postmaster-generals' minutes, which he trusts cannot but be
satisfactory to them. The same reasons will prevent him from answering
any others their Lordships may send but such as appear to him absolutely
necessary."
But the particular case which brought matters to a climax was connected
with Scotland. Palmer had sent two officers to Edinburgh, not to promote
the conveyance of mails by coach, but to reform the internal management
of the Scotch Post Office; and these officers had given orders for
various changes to be made. Robert Oliphant was at this time deputy
postmaster-general for Scotland, and from him alone, according to the
terms of his commission, were Post Office servants in Scotland to
receive instructions. It was by mere accident that the postmasters-general
heard of the proceedings of Palmer's agents in Edinburgh, and, as
soon as they did so, they wrote to Oliphant desiring that the
proposed changes might be suspended until he had reported his
opinion upon them and received authority from London for carrying them
into effect. They at the same time wrote to Palmer, sending him a copy
of their letter to Oliphant, and giving him to understand that he had
exceeded his powers.
Palmer now threw off all restraint. He charged the postmasters-general
with superseding his commission; he cautioned them against further
interference with his regulations, and he appealed to the minister, to
whom alone he declared himself to be responsible. It was true, he said,
that he was nominally responsible to the postmasters-general, but,
except for a legal difficulty connected with the constitution of the
Post Office, he would have received an independent appointment. His
commission had been made out as it stood merely as a matter of present
necessity; and that in such circumstances they should venture to
supersede it appeared to him a hasty and ill-advised measure--a measure
not consistent with the judgment and temper which usually guided their
proceedings. He had a profound veneration for the nobility of the
country, and he could give no stronger proof of it than by stating that
he still retained his respect and esteem for them in spite of their
unhandsome conduct. The more he reflected on this conduct, the more he
was struck at the haste and violence of it. Was it reasonable to suppose
that he would consent to carry out his plan in trammels and fetters,
and, liable as the postmasters-general were to change, to submit his
regulations to them to be checked and controlled? The considerations for
which he had received his appointment were twofold--for the good he had
done in the past, and for the good he might do in the future. "When,
therefore," he continued, "your Lordships from mistake or ill-advice
shall send me any commands that I think may go to mischief instead of
good, I shall most certainly not observe them; and if I apprehend ill
consequences from any you may think proper to send to any of the
officers under me, I shall take the liberty, for your Lordships' sake
as well as my own and the public's, to contradict them."
It was impossible that this state of things should continue. Palmer had
appealed to Cæsar; and to Cæsar he should go. Such at least was the
postmaster-generals' intention, and they so far carried it into effect
as to state their case in writing; but an interview with the minister,
though solicited over and over again, the minister always found some
excuse for declining. "We shall wait with the utmost impatience to hear
from you that you have found a leisure moment when we may wait upon you
to explain the nature of the question between Mr. Palmer and us." "The
postmasters-general," they wrote again after a long interval, "present
their compliments to Mr. Pitt. He will see by the enclosed copy of a
minute from Mr. Palmer how totally the business of this Office must
stand still, as far as respects the comptroller-general's department,
till they can have the honour of seeing Mr. Pitt." And again, a
fortnight later, "the postmasters-general present their compliments to
Mr. Pitt, and take the liberty to remind him of the comptroller-general's
two last minutes, and desire to have the honour of waiting upon him
on Wednesday next at any hour he may be pleased to appoint previous
to their holding their usual Board."
But all to no purpose. The truth is that Pitt was heartily tired of
these unhappy dissensions. Palmer was doing, and doing admirably, the
task which he had set himself to do. He might not indeed be all that
could be desired. His conduct might be masterful and his pretensions
absurd. Yet much allowance was to be made for a man who had undertaken a
difficult business, and whose efforts had been crowned with success. And
lamentable as the dissensions might be, there was no certainty that
interference would effect a reconciliation. On the contrary, it might
serve only to widen the breach, and, to judge from the past, this was
the more likely result. And should the breach prove irreparable and a
decision have to be given against the reformer who had done so much for
his country, and from whom yet more was expected, it would be little
short of a disaster. Better that matters should remain as they were than
incur such a risk. We can well believe that some such considerations as
these influenced Pitt in avoiding an interview; and doubtless he was
confirmed in his decision by what he learned from another quarter.
Palmer was a friend of Camden's, and Camden was a friend of Pitt's. To
this common friend Palmer gave his own version of the differences
between himself and his chiefs; and this version, which was altogether
different from the one which the postmasters-general gave, was
studiously impressed upon Pitt to their prejudice.
Thus matters stood when, early in 1792, in consequence of some
discrepancies in the accounts, the postmasters-general determined that
letters for the city by the first or morning delivery should be checked.
Care had been taken that the check should not be of a nature to retard
the delivery; and yet, strangely enough, the delivery became later and
later every day. At length a public advertisement appeared inviting the
merchants and traders to meet at the London Tavern on Wednesday the 15th
February in order to consider the subject. The meeting was held under
the presidency of Alderman Curtis, one of the members of Parliament for
the city; and strong resolutions were passed directing the
postmaster-generals' attention to the delay, and calling upon them to
explain and remove the cause.
Charles Bonnor, the deputy comptroller-general, owed all he possessed to
Palmer. It was by Palmer that he had been brought into the Post Office
in July 1784, and the same influence procured for him shortly afterwards
a salary of £500 and an allowance of £150 a year for a house. Warm in
his attachments as he was fierce in his animosities, the great reformer
extended to Bonnor a confidence which probably no other man possessed,
and during his frequent absences from London kept up with him a
correspondence in which he poured out his inmost thoughts. This person,
stung with jealousy at some fancied coolness on Palmer's part, now
published a pamphlet in which he charged his friend and benefactor with
wilfully delaying the delivery of the morning letters, and then
promoting the meeting at the London Tavern in order to protest against a
mischief of his own making. According to Bonnor, Palmer had spared no
effort to induce persons to attend the meeting, and had furnished
Alderman Curtis, the chairman, with materials for denouncing the Post
Office. All this, it was alleged, had been done in order to bring the
postmasters-general into discredit, and to create a demand that Palmer
might have larger powers given him and be left to deal with Post Office
matters according to his unfettered judgment.
The postmasters-general were overwhelmed with astonishment. At first
they could not bring themselves to believe that the pamphlet was
authentic, and it was not until they had been reassured on this point
that they began to make inquiries. Palmer, of course, denied the charge,
and Bonnor reaffirmed it. Meanwhile the resolutions passed at the London
Tavern had been sent to the Post Office; and the postmasters-general,
not knowing what to believe, simply referred them to Palmer, with a
request that he would explain the cause of the late delivery. Palmer's
reply shews the frame of mind he was in. "The cause of the late
delivery," he answered, "as well as every other existing abuse in the
Post Office, arises from the comptroller-general not having sufficient
authority to correct it." The postmasters-general naturally inquired in
what respects his authority was insufficient to prevent the late
delivery, and to what other abuses he referred. Palmer, without
specifying what these abuses were, replied that among the causes which
had produced them were "an unfortunate difference in opinion, and an
equally unfortunate interference in his office"; and then he proceeded
to ask for larger powers, which the postmasters-general, consistently
with the terms of their patent, were unable to give.
A few days later Palmer did that which should perhaps have been done
before. He suspended Bonnor. The postmasters-general also took action,
but at the very moment when it might have been better if they had
remained passive. They inquired the reason of Bonnor's suspension, and
Palmer returned no reply. After waiting a week, the postmasters-general
decided that, as no reason had been given, the suspension must be taken
off; and Bonnor was directed to resume duty. On presenting himself for
this purpose, however, Palmer refused to give up the key of his room,
and sent him word that, if he dared to come to the Office again, the
constables would have orders to turn him off the premises. The
postmasters-general had put themselves in a false position. If their
intention was to try conclusions with Palmer, they had selected the
worst possible ground. Their only choice now was between submitting to
defiance of their authority and supporting a worthless subordinate
against his illustrious chief. They elected the latter alternative; and
the suspension which had been imposed upon Bonnor was transferred to
Palmer.
An interview with the minister had now become indispensable; and at
length, but not without a great deal of pressure, Pitt fixed the 2nd of
May for the purpose. Chesterfield was at Bath, slowly recovering from an
attack of the gout. He was reluctant to leave his colleague unsupported
on the occasion; and yet for a man who was still far from well it was a
long and tedious journey to London. Should he go or should he not? A
decision could not be longer delayed, as the 1st of May had already
arrived. He ordered horses to be put to his carriage, then he
countermanded them, then he changed his mind again, and finally, in
response to a sudden twinge of the gout, he finally abandoned his
journey, and determined to write to Walsingham a letter such as he might
shew.
Chesterfield, unlike Walsingham, wrote a beautiful hand, a hand that was
clear and easy to read; but on this particular occasion, in order that
Pitt might have no excuse for not reading the letter, he wrote more
clearly and legibly than usual. He had--thus the letter ran--been in
fifty minds whether he should not repair to London and take part in the
interview with Pitt; but he was still so lame that he durst not venture
on so long a journey. His desire to be present had not indeed been
prompted by the slightest doubt as to what Walsingham would do or say.
On the contrary, he had the fullest confidence that his colleague would
strictly adhere to the resolution which they had adopted, that on no
consideration could Palmer remain with them at the Post Office. This
resolution the experience which they had gained since his suspension had
served to strengthen, for how much better and with how much greater
regularity had they gone on since they had in fact as well as in name
been postmasters-general. All this would doubtless be pressed upon Pitt,
and, should he waver in the least, he must be informed of their
ultimatum, which nothing could make them change. If, contrary to
expectation, they should be driven to that option, they must be
satisfied to retire from an office where they had done their duty and
could do it no longer. To the full extent of the resolution they went
hand in hand to Pitt, and this point could not be pressed upon him too
strongly. Should he begin to propose any middle measures, Walsingham
should stop him at once. It would be disgraceful to listen to them. "Our
resolution once taken, no power, no persuasion, no influence ought to
shake it, and I am confident nothing will."
Walsingham waited upon the minister at the appointed time. Pitt received
him courteously indeed, but coldly. Walsingham stated his case. Pitt
said little, but that little clearly shewed that his leanings were in
Palmer's favour. Palmer had done good service to the public. Was it
impossible that he should be restored to duty? Or, much having been
alleged and nothing proved, might not a court of inquiry be held by
which the questions at issue between him and his chiefs should undergo a
thorough and impartial investigation? After these and other questions
had been put and answered, Walsingham produced Chesterfield's letter.
Pitt read it from beginning to end, folded it up, and returned it.
Formal civilities followed, and the interview was at an end. That night
a letter from Walsingham informed Chesterfield that assuredly two
persons would be dismissed from the Post Office, and that of these two
persons Palmer would not be one.
The postmasters-general were in a state of sore perplexity. Of Pitt's
intentions they entertained not the slightest doubt. "The Post Office
chair," wrote Chesterfield, "totters under us"; and again, "I see that
can the ingenuity of man detect a flaw in our proceedings, we are to be
the victims." The doubt which the postmasters-general felt concerned
their own conduct. Rightly or wrongly, they believed that they were
powerful enough to depose the minister, and the question which now
agitated their minds was whether they should have recourse to so violent
a measure, or whether they should simply resign. Bonnor saved them from
the necessity of coming to a conclusion on the point. This person had
hoarded up the private correspondence which, during years of close
intimacy and friendship, had passed between himself and Palmer; and
among the correspondence were many compromising letters. Such of these
as he could readily lay his hands upon Bonnor, with incredible baseness,
now carried to Walsingham, and Walsingham in an evil moment accepted
them.
The temptation was no doubt strong. Even in the eyes of the
postmasters-general themselves it was a comparatively small matter that
they were on the point of losing their places. But it was by no means
immaterial to them that they should appear to Pitt, as they were
conscious of appearing at the present time, in the light of false
accusers, persons who had brought false charges, or at all events
charges which they could not substantiate; and these letters would prove
all, and more than all, that had been alleged or even suspected. They
laid bare the story of the King's coach. They shewed how on that
occasion the contractor had been cajoled into making an exorbitant
charge in order that Walsingham might be deterred from again interfering
in what Palmer regarded as his own peculiar province. They shewed also
how, from that time to the present, a deliberate plot had existed at
headquarters to hinder and thwart Walsingham in everything he
undertook.
And yet they were private letters, letters which had passed under the
seal of confidence. It is by no means the least strange part of a
strange and painful business that it appears never to have crossed the
mind of either Walsingham or Chesterfield that this was a class of
evidence which could not with propriety be used. Bonnor, not content
with the letters he had already produced, searched his correspondence
through from the time that he and Palmer became connected with the Post
Office, and hailed any additional testimony he was able to collect
against his former friend and benefactor with fiendish delight. He
literally revelled in the shameless task he had set himself to perform.
Evidence-hunting he called it. "We shall not only prove all that has
been asserted," he wrote, "but a great deal more; and on the grand point
of his premeditating a thorough and complete confusion in the business
of the inland office, for the declared purpose of thereby disgracing the
postmasters-general, I have proof that for strength and conviction no
holy writ can exceed. But," he added, "I have a great deal to work up
yet."
As soon as the unholy brief was completed, a second interview took place
with the minister. Pitt appears again to have said little, even less
than on the previous occasion. He had been deceived. The
postmasters-general must take their own course. The rest is soon told.
Two official minutes were prepared, the one in Lombard Street and the
other at Whitehall. By the postmaster-generals' minute Palmer, the
insubordinate Post Office servant, was dismissed.[69] By the minister's
minute Palmer, the distinguished Post Office reformer, was granted a
pension equal to double the amount of his salary. His salary was £1500,
and he derived another £1500 a year from his percentage. The pension
which Pitt conferred upon him was £3000. To this was added later on,
after an interval of many years, a Parliamentary grant of £50,000.
[69] Even in such a detail as the manner of dismissal, Pitt shewed his
usual consideration for Palmer. By the minister's direction Palmer was
not to be dismissed in so many words. The postmasters-general were
simply to make out another nominal list of the establishment, and from
this list Palmer's name was to be excluded.
Bonnor--we blush to record it--received as the reward of his infamy the
place of comptroller of the inland department. His promotion brought him
little pleasure. The Post Office servants, with all their faults, were
loyal to the backbone, and they could ill understand being presided over
by one who was branded with the foulest of all private vices, with
treachery to a friend and ingratitude to a benefactor. His subordinates
would hold no communication with him beyond what their strict duty
required. His equals shunned him. Outside the Post Office, go where he
would, he received the cold shoulder. Never was man left more severely
alone. At the end of two years fresh postmasters-general came who, under
the plea of abolishing his appointment, dismissed him with a small
pension. Then he became insolvent, and was thrown into prison. Released
from confinement at the end of the century, he published pamphlet after
pamphlet, having for their object to vindicate what he was pleased to
call his good name; but these vindications, though replete with
professions of honour, proved nothing more than that the writer was a
poltroon as well as a traitor.
CHAPTER XIII
THE NINETIES: OR, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
The spirit of activity which Palmer had infused into the Post Office did
not cease with the cessation of his official career. Those who served
under him had been selected by himself; and they had been selected on
account of qualities which the withdrawal of his dominating influence
was calculated rather to stimulate than to check. These men now came to
the fore, and not only ably sustained their late master's work but
inaugurated important measures of their own.
But before proceeding to chronicle the acts of Palmer's successors, we
propose to give a few particulars which will serve better perhaps than a
mere record of leading events to shew the state of the Post Office at
the time that Palmer left it; and in this relation the project with
which his name is mainly identified shall have precedence.
In 1792 sixteen mail-coaches left London every day, and as many
returned. These were in addition to the cross country mail-coaches, of
which there were fifteen--as, for instance, the coach between Bristol
and Oxford or, as it was commonly called, Mr. Pickwick's coach.[70]
Those leaving London started from the General Post Office in Lombard
Street at eight o'clock in the evening, and they travelled every day,
Sundays included.
[70] Later on, Mr. Pickwick would seem to have extended his operations.
"(Q.) Are you in the habit of working coaches to any great distance from
London? (A.) I work them half-way to Bristol. With Mr. Pickwick of Bath
I work to Newbury."--Evidence of Mr. William Home, taken on the 2nd of
March 1819 before the Select Committee on the Highways of the Kingdom.
There is still extant at the Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand the
model of an old mail-coach, as fresh and as perfect as the day it was
painted. This model bears upon its panels four devices--one a cross with
the motto, _Honi soit qui mal y pense_; another a thistle with the
motto, _Nemo me impune lacessit_; a third a shamrock under a star, with
the motto, _Quis separabit?_ (ah! who indeed?); and a fourth, three
crowns with the motto, _Tria juncta in uno_. It is commonly reputed to
be the model of the first mail-coach, and as such we have seen it
represented in foreign publications. We feel constrained in the
interests of truth to expose this fiction. The first mail-coach ran
between Bristol and London. The model bears upon it the words, "Royal
Mail from London to Liverpool." The first mail-coach carried no outside
passengers. The model has places for several passengers outside. The
first mail-coach began to run on Monday the 2nd of August 1784. On the
model, below one of the devices, appears in small yet legible figures
the date 1783. But although certainly not the model of the first
mail-coach, we are by no means sure that it is not still more
interesting. We have little doubt that it is a model which, before
mail-coaches began to run, was prepared for Pitt's inspection.
In 1787, owing to the faulty construction of the original mail-coach and
the wretched materials of which it was made, hardly a day passed without
one or more accidents. Occasionally, indeed, the Post Office would
receive notice of as many as three and even four upsets or breakdowns in
a single morning. Palmer at once discerned the origin of the disease and
the remedy; and the latter he proceeded to apply with his usual
resolution. Having satisfied himself that a patent coach which was being
constructed at this time fulfilled the necessary conditions more
completely than any other, he agreed with the patentee, one Besant by
name, to supply whatever number of coaches might be required. It was a
mere verbal agreement, an agreement confirmed by no writing of any
kind; yet no sooner was it made than Palmer addressed a circular to all
the contractors of the kingdom, reproaching them with the shameful
condition of their coaches. This, he told them, was due to the miserable
sums they gave to the coach-maker, sums so low as to oblige him to use
the most worthless materials; and as to repairs, even if they made him
an allowance for these, it was so inadequate to the continual mending
which vehicles constructed of such materials required that he merely put
in a clip or a bolt where the fracture might happen to be, and then
returned them in as dangerous a condition as before. Such a state of
things, Palmer continued, would no longer be tolerated, and, as fast as
Besant could turn them out, the new patent coaches would be sent down to
replace those that were now in use. For providing them and keeping them
in thorough repair, for which of course the contractors had to pay, the
patentee's terms would be five farthings a mile or 2-1/2d. a mile out
and in. After this summary fashion did Palmer clear the country of the
mail-coaches of original construction.
In 1792 the only mail-coaches on the road were those supplied by Besant.
They were constructed to carry five passengers, four inside and one out.
The coachman was not a Post Office servant; yet he, like the mail guard,
was provided with uniform. The mail guard carried firearms. He carried
also a timepiece; and this timepiece was regulated to gain about fifteen
minutes in twenty-four hours, so that, when travelling eastwards, it
might accord with real time. Of course, in the opposite direction, a
corresponding allowance was made. The mail guard's position was one of
no little responsibility. Not only were the mails under his personal
charge, but he had to see that the coach kept time, that there was no
undue delay for the purpose of obtaining refreshments, that the harness
was in serviceable condition, and, generally, that matters along the
road were conducted with order and propriety. If in any one or more of
these respects there were any defect, it was the mail guard's duty to
report the circumstance. Should the harness be reported as in had
condition, and the contractors fail to replace it on demand, a new set
was sent down from London at their expense; and should a coach
persistently keep bad time, a superintendent from headquarters was
deputed to travel by it until proper time was kept. This was equivalent
to a heavy fine, as the superintendent travelled free, and for the seat
he occupied a passenger would have been charged at the rate of 4d. a
mile. The fees which at this time it was usual to pay to the mail guard
and coachman were moderate enough, only 1s. apiece at the end of the
"ground"; and if the "ground" was less than thirty miles, only 6d. Even
at this rate the gentlemen of Devonshire bitterly complained that
between Exeter and Taunton they had to pay two coachmen.
The chief superintendent of mail-coaches at this time was Thomas Hasker,
a man whose heart and soul were in his duties. Hasker has left behind
him copies of letters written by himself or by his instructions; and
these letters, though expressed in homely language, throw such a flood
of light upon the ways of the road a century ago that we make no apology
for quoting from them. "The Bristol coach," he writes to the postmaster
of Marlborough, "is the fastest in the kingdom, and you must not detain
it for the coach from Bath." Again, to the postmaster of Ipswich he
writes, "Tell Mr. Foster to get fresh horses immediately, and that I
must see him in town next Monday. Shameful work--three hours and
twenty-two minutes coming over his eighteen miles." The Dover coach had
long been keeping bad time. "I must beg you to attend to this directly,"
writes Hasker to the contractors, "or we shall be obliged to put three
fresh guards on the coach, and keep a superintendent constantly up and
down till time is kept." The contractors for another coach had failed to
replace their harness when desired, and a set had been sent down from
London. "The harness," writes the indefatigable superintendent, "cost
fourteen guineas, but as it had been used a few times with the King's
royal Weymouth [coach], you will be charged only twelve, which sum
please to remit to me." Thanks to the widening of the roads, it is only
in thoroughfares more or less crowded that the device can now be
practised to which the following refers: "Your coachman, Pickard, lost
thirty-seven minutes last night coming up, and by so doing he always
hinders the Manchester coach; he leaving Leicester first keeps on
before, and prevents the other coach from passing. This is the case
every night that Pickard comes up."
But it is the instructions to the mail guards which bring home to us
most vividly the ways of the road a hundred years ago. Thus, to the mail
guards on the Exeter coach: "You are not to stop at any place whatever
to leave any letters at, but to blow your horn to give the people notice
that you have got letters for them; therefore, if they do not choose to
come out to receive them, don't you get down from your dicky, but take
them on to Exeter and bring them back with you on your next journey."
And again to the mail guards on another coach: "If the coachman go into
a public-house to drink, don't you go with him and make the stop longer,
but hurry him out." This hurrying out had sometimes to be applied to
passengers, and not always with success. "Sir," writes Hasker to a mail
guard who had complained of the futility of his efforts in this
direction, "stick to your bill, and never mind what passengers say
respecting waiting overtime. Is it not the fault of the landlord to keep
them so long? Some day when you have waited a considerable time (suppose
five or eight minutes longer than is allowed by the bill), drive away
and leave them behind. Only take care that you have witness that you
called them out two or three times. Then let them get forward how they
can. Let the innkeeper [of the house] where they dine know that you have
received this letter."
While thus urged to correct others, the mail guards had sometimes to be
corrected themselves. Fines ranging from 2s. 6d. to 5s. were imposed for
omitting to date the timetable or for dating it wrongly; and on one
occasion an unfortunate guard was fined as much as one guinea because
some bags for which he should have called at the Stafford Post Office
were left behind. Also to delegate one's duties was strictly prohibited.
"It has been reported to Mr. Hasker," writes Hasker's lieutenant, "that
you send your mail to the Post Office by the person called Boots, and do
not go with it yourself. You have been wrote to two or three times
before on this subject. Therefore, if the irregularity be repeated, you
will certainly be discharged." Occasionally advantage would be taken of
a complaint to read a lesson to the complainant. A mail guard had been
reported for impertinence by certain contractors who were notorious for
the indifferent lights with which they supplied their coach. After
replying that he had been severely rebuked for his conduct, Hasker slily
adds, "but perhaps something may be said for the feelings of a guard
that hears the continual complaints of passengers against bad lights and
the disagreeable smell of stinking oil, especially when through such
things the passengers withhold the gratuity which the guards expect."
On the part of the mail guards, however, the commonest irregularity, and
the irregularity most difficult to check, was the carrying of parcels
and of passengers in excess of the prescribed number. "In
consequence"--so runs a general order which was issued about this
time--"of several of the mail guards having been detected in carrying
meat and vegetables in their mail-box to the amount of 150 pounds weight
at a time, the superintendents are desired to take opportunities to meet
the coaches in their district at places where they are least expected,
and to search the boxes to remedy this evil, which is carried to too
great a length. The superintendents," the order proceeds, "will please
to observe that Mr. Hasker does not wish to be too hard on the guards.
Such a thing as a joint of meat or a couple of fowls or any other
article for their own family in moderation he does not wish to debar
them from the privilege of carrying." Truth compels us to add that at
the time to which we refer it was not only meat and vegetables that the
mail guards carried. They carried also game. In later years the country
gentleman was probably the mail guards' best friend, but at the end of
the last century he did not hesitate to charge them with being in league
with poachers, and not infrequently threatened prosecution. The mail-box
indeed was admirably adapted to purposes of secretion. Occupying a part
of the space which even in these early days was known as the boot, it
opened not, as the boot opened, from behind but from the top,
immediately under the mail guard's feet; and no one but himself had
access to it. Constant were the injunctions to the superintendents to
meet the coaches at unexpected places for the purpose of search.
"Search," writes Hasker, "as many mail-boxes as you can, and take away
all game not directed and anything else beyond a joint for the guard's
family, and send it to the chief magistrate to be disposed of for the
benefit of the poor of the parish." The temptation to carry an extra
passenger or two was even greater than to carry parcels. What degree of
indulgence was shewn to this form of irregularity appears to have
depended upon the part of the coach in which the extra seat was
provided. To be detected in carrying a passenger on the mail-box was
certain dismissal.
Although it is not our intention to treat of mail-coaches otherwise than
as vehicles for the transmission of letters, it may perhaps be permitted
to us to pause here a moment and inquire where, at the end of the last
century, the passengers' luggage can have been stowed. Of the boot a
part, as we have seen, was given up to the mail-box; and the roof, upon
which, within our own recollection, the luggage would be piled to nearly
half the height of the coach itself, was forbidden, or almost forbidden,
ground. "To load the roof of the coach," writes Hasker, "with large
heavy baskets would not only be setting a bad example to other coaches,
but in a very short time no passenger would travel with it." "Such a
thing," he adds, "as a turtle tied on the roof directed to any gentleman
once or twice a year might pass unnoticed, but for a constancy cannot be
suffered." This objection to a load on the roof appears to have been
common to the Sovereign and the subject. In 1796 the Court proceeded to
Weymouth; and, as usual, a royal mail was in attendance. The King, who
took the liveliest interest in the performances of this coach, and
examined the way-bill daily, discountenanced roof-loads. The royal
injunctions on this head Hasker, who was a plain-spoken man and no
courtier, conveyed to, his subordinates thus: "Take care not to load the
royal mail too high, and when any of His Majesty's servants travel by it
do not load the roof upward, as you know he ordered that no luggage
should be put on the top when his servants rode, and, indeed, at all
times. Now upwards [_i.e._ on return from Weymouth to Windsor] there can
be no occasion, for there are waggons and other conveyances to bring the
luggage up." The possible use of waggons and other conveyances
notwithstanding, we cannot help thinking that the traveller by coach of
a hundred years ago must have been content with a far smaller quantity
of luggage than would satisfy the traveller of to-day.
That the roof of the coach, whether loaded or not, had its drawbacks for
travellers is sufficiently evident from Hasker's correspondence. "The
York coachman and guard," he writes after a spell of bad weather which
had rotted the roads, "were both chucked from their seats going down to
Huntingdon last journey, and coming up the guard is lost this morning,
supposed from the same cause, as the passengers say he was blowing his
horn just before they missed him."
The King's interest in his mail-coach was not confined to the inspection
of the way-bill. It was usual, before the Court repaired to Weymouth,
for the coach to make a certain number of trial trips, and the King
would go to the castle gates to see it pass. "His Majesty," writes
Hasker, under date the 12th of August 1794, "came down to the park gate
to see the mail-coach the first and second day, and told me he was much
pleased to see it so well done and regular, and that he was glad Mr.
White did not work it." Mr. White had worked it on a previous occasion,
and had not given satisfaction. At the end of each season the King gave
still more practical proof of the interest he took in his coach by
sending thirty guineas for distribution among the mail guards and
coachmen.
But, gratified as Hasker must have been by these marks of royal
condescension, there was one thing which, with his concurrence, even the
King should not do, and that was, detain the mail. Owing to the letters
from the Court being late, the coach, on several successive days, had
not started from Weymouth until after the appointed hour. Chesterfield
was the minister in attendance, and Hasker addressed to him a letter of
respectful remonstrance. Of course he did not know, he said, whether the
mail had been detained by His Majesty or by His Majesty's
postmaster-general; but in either case he prayed it might be considered
how bad an example it was, and what disorder was being introduced into
the service. According to present arrangements, the coach should leave
Weymouth at four in the afternoon. It might be appointed to leave at
five or even six if desired, and yet reach London on the following day
in time for the last delivery; but whatever hour might be fixed, he
adjured his Lordship that it might be observed.
How completely the mail-coach had by this time extinguished the express
may be judged from the following instruction to the packet agent at
Yarmouth:[71] "You will observe the reason why you keep the mail to send
by the mail-coach is that, tho' you detain it four or five hours, it
arrives as soon at the General Post Office as if sent by express, for
the coach travels in sixteen or seventeen hours, and the express in not
less than twenty or twenty-one, sometimes more." Nor is it less
interesting to note the change of sentiment which had recently taken
place as to the importance of despatch. Only a few years before, as we
have seen, the inhabitants of Shrewsbury had been informed that it could
be of no consequence whether their letters arrived four or five hours
sooner or later. Now, in order to accelerate the letters contained in a
single bag, no expense is to be spared. "If," the same instruction
continues, "any mail arrives within an hour after the mail-coach is
gone, perhaps a post-chaise and four might catch it at Ipswich."
[71] The packet agency had been removed from Harwich to Yarmouth during
the war. Yarmouth, by road, is 124 miles from London.
But, to quit details, the broad results were these. Palmer, when
introducing his plan, had promised security and despatch; but not
economy. On the contrary, he had made no secret of his opinion that the
use of mail-coaches would involve a considerable increase of expense.
The result was a surprise even to himself. Before 1784 the annual
allowance for carrying the mails ranged from £4 to £8 a mile, £8 being
paid where the mails were heavy--as, for instance, on the Great North
Road from London as far as Tuxford. In 1792 the terms on which the mails
were carried were exemption from tolls and 1d. a mile each way, or an
annual allowance of a little more than £3 a mile. Palmer had estimated
the total cost of his plan at £30,000 a year. The actual cost only
slightly exceeded £12,000.
Hardly less reason had he to congratulate himself on the score of
security and despatch. Before 1784 scarcely a week passed without the
mails on one road or another being robbed. So great had the scandal
become that the Post Office built a model cart--a cart wholly
constructed of iron and reputed to be robber-proof. This cart had not
long begun to run before it was stopped by highwaymen and rifled of its
contents. In 1792 eight years had passed since the introduction of
Palmer's plan; and during this period not a single mail-coach had been
either stopped or robbed. This immunity from robbery was in more ways
than one equivalent to a further saving. Before 1784 heavy expenses were
incurred annually for prosecutions. One trial alone, a trial which made
no little noise at the time, namely that of the brothers Weston, cost no
less than £4000. This source of expense had now, of course, disappeared.
As regards despatch, before 1784 the post travelled between five and six
miles an hour. In 1792 the mail-coaches were travelling about seven
miles an hour. Telford had not yet levelled the hills nor Macadam paved
the roads; and rollers were unknown. A speed of seven miles an hour at
the end of the last century was probably far more trying to horses than
a speed of ten miles an hour later on.
It would be beyond our province to inquire--interesting as the inquiry
would be--to what extent the exchange of commodities between town and
town dates from the introduction of mail-coaches; and whether it was not
at this period that, with some noted exceptions, the local repute which
certain towns enjoyed for the manufacture of particular articles began
to spread. Ours is a humbler purpose; or we might be tempted even to
contend that Palmer's plan, by the facilities it afforded for
intercourse, exercised an influence--slow it may be, but none the less
sure--upon the habits and condition of the people.
We will illustrate our meaning. Before the introduction of mail-coaches
in 1784 the town of Penzance in Cornwall was not indeed without a post;
but the post it possessed was hardly worthy of the name. In 1790 letters
were conveyed there by cart from Falmouth regularly six days a week.
Now, of the condition of Penzance not many years before the earlier of
these two dates we are informed on unimpeachable authority. "I have
heard my mother relate," writes Sir Humphry Davy's brother and
biographer, "that when she was a girl[72] there was only one cart in the
town of Penzance, and that if a carriage occasionally appeared in the
streets it attracted universal attention. Pack-horses were then in
general use for conveying merchandise, and the prevailing manner of
travelling was on horseback. At that period the luxuries of furniture
and living enjoyed by people of the middle class at the present time
were confined almost entirely to the great and wealthy; in the same
town, where the population was about 2000 persons, there was only one
carpet, the floors of rooms were sprinkled with sea-sand, and there was
not a single silver fork. The only newspaper which then circulated in
the west of England was the _Sherborne Mercury_, and it was carried
through the country not by the post but by a man on horseback specially
employed in distributing it." Penzance can never be otherwise than a
most interesting town; but one finds it difficult to believe that, after
being brought into communication with the outside world on six days of
the week, it can long have retained its pristine charm and simplicity.
[72] Mrs. Davy was born in 1760.
Let us now see what, at the time of Palmer's retirement, was the
condition of the country Post Offices. Bristol, after long ranking next
to London in wealth and population, had yielded place to other towns.
Foremost among these stood Manchester. Manchester, following suit to the
capital, had recently numbered its streets; it was publishing local
directories; and it enjoyed the reputation of being, the capital itself
not excepted, the dearest town in the kingdom. At the present time the
Post Office at Manchester gives employment to about 1400 persons. In
1792, with the exception of a single letter-carrier, the whole of the
Post Office business there was conducted by an aged widow assisted by
her daughter. Dame Willatt had recently achieved some little local
notoriety. She had, as an inducement to persons to post early, imposed a
late-letter fee. For this proceeding, not at that time uncommon and not
disapproved at headquarters, she had been summoned to the Court of the
Lord of the Manor, and had been cast in damages.
Bath enjoyed a double distinction, a distinction due less probably to
its population as compared with that of other towns than to the fact
that, being Palmer's native place, it was constantly under his eye as it
had been under the eye of Ralph Allen before. This highly-favoured town
was, outside London, the only one in the kingdom which could boast of
what, with any regard to the meaning of words, could be dignified by the
name of a Post Office Establishment; and the postmaster's salary was in
excess of that which any other postmaster received. This salary was £150
a year, and the establishment, over which Ralph Allen's successor
presided, consisted of one clerk and three letter-carriers.
No other town had more than one letter-carrier; and many towns had not
even this. Whether the accommodation was provided or not appears to have
depended less upon the necessities of the place than upon the
disposition of the inhabitants. Thus, the little towns of Sandwich in
Kent and Hungerford in Berkshire, in recognition of the gallant conflict
they had waged with the authorities, had each a letter-carrier of its
own, while Norwich, York, Derby, Newcastle, and Plymouth had none.
Besides Bath only four towns received an allowance for a clerk or
assistant, namely Manchester, Norwich, York, and Leeds. Elsewhere the
postmaster and a letter-carrier, if letter-carrier there was, were the
sole Post Office representatives.
At Bristol the postmaster's salary was £140,--the next highest after
that given at Bath. At Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Chester
the salary was £100; at Exeter, York, Newcastle, Leeds, and Plymouth
£80; at Sheffield £60, to which amount it had been recently raised from
£50; at Derby, Carlisle, and Gloucester £40; at Brighton and Nottingham
£30; at Leicester £25; and at Southampton £20. At Tunbridge the
postmaster, in addition to a salary of £20, received an allowance of
equal amount for keeping an office at Tunbridge Wells. Ripon, despite
the rebuke it had received in 1713 for its audacity in asking for a Post
Office, had now been accommodated with one. At Chepstow pence were still
being paid on the delivery of letters, not because the inhabitants had
not discovered their rights but out of consideration to the aged
postmistress, whose emoluments they were unwilling to diminish.
Birkenhead, Torquay, and Bournemouth,[73] of course, did not exist.
Eastbourne existed indeed, but not as we know it now. Hither the letters
were carried three times a week from Lewes. At Ramsgate, then a village
served from the neighbouring post-town of Sandwich, an office for the
receipt of letters was kept at a cost of £6 a year. The whole of the
Isle of Wight had but one postmaster and one letter-carrier. To the
Channel Islands there was no post.
[73] As late as 1854 Bournemouth received its letters from Poole by
donkey and cart.
On Palmer's retirement the office of chief adviser to the
postmasters-general devolved almost naturally upon Francis Freeling, the
surveyor located at headquarters. Todd still held the appointment of
secretary, but after a service of more than fifty years he was unequal
to the exertion which the exigencies of the time required. Between Todd
and Walsingham, moreover, there was little in common. Their relations,
indeed, had always been most friendly; but the views they entertained on
Post Office questions were more often than not at variance. "It is a
matter of great entertainment to me," wrote Walsingham, as early as
October 1788, "to see how totally we differ in all our official
opinions." From this time Todd took less and less part in the duties of
his office, and confined himself almost exclusively to its social
amenities. This was a sphere in which he excelled. At his table in
Lombard Street the postmasters-general themselves and such as they might
choose to meet them were frequent guests, and "his old hock in his old
parlour" passed into a by-word.
Freeling, on the contrary, possessed advantages which not only pointed
him out as Todd's successor when Todd should be pleased to retire, but
peculiarly fitted him to deal with the circumstances of the moment. In
the prime of life, of good address and prepossessing appearance, and
with a knowledge of every detail of Post Office organisation such as
only constant visits to different parts of the kingdom could give, he
soon contrived to make himself not only useful but indispensable; and
before any long period had expired the postmasters-general appointed him
joint secretary with Todd, an arrangement by virtue of which one was to
be the acting and the other the sleeping partner; one was to do the work
and the other to draw the pay. It was new to the postmasters-general to
have about them some one who was not only able but willing and anxious
to impart information on every official question as it arose, and they
could ill conceal their glee at the altered state of affairs. "One of
the complaints made by us of Mr. Palmer," they wrote about this time,
"was that he did what he thought fit without making the least
communication to the Board, or without there being a single record of
anything which he did or objected to either before or after it was
done"; ... but "Mr. Freeling reports distinctly to us upon every
application that we refer to him, or that is made to the Board,
amounting to above two hundred reports every quarter for the current
business." Freeling was now exposed to a serious danger, a danger to
which many a reputation has succumbed, namely, that of being transformed
from a man of action into a mere scribe; but this was a temptation which
he stoutly resisted. Without relaxing his efforts to maintain and
improve upon Palmer's plan, he was careful not only to keep the
postmasters-general informed of what he was doing, but to do nothing
which had not first been duly authorised.
The period immediately following Palmer's retirement was one rather of
honest endeavour than of solid achievement. The first and most pressing
question to arise was that of insufficiency of accommodation at
headquarters. The inland office, this being the office in which the
mails were made up for despatch, was not only close and ill-ventilated,
but altogether too small for its purpose. More post-towns were required
in various parts of the kingdom; but it was impossible to add to the
number of towns for which bags would have to be made up until more space
should be provided. Some persons thought it would be best at once to
take a step which in any case would probably have to be taken in the not
remote future, and to build a new Post Office on other and more
extensive premises. Such, however, was not the opinion of the
postmasters-general. They were naturally unwilling to advocate the heavy
expenditure which such a measure would involve except upon proof of its
absolute necessity. Mainly on this ground, but also partly because
premises in so central and convenient a position as those which the
present Post Office occupied were not to be had, authority was sought
and obtained for nothing more than the erection of a new inland office.
But, as the postmasters-general found to their cost, it is one thing to
obtain an authority and another thing to carry it into effect. On part
of the ground on which the office was to be erected stood two houses,
the lease of which had not long to run; and the Drapers' Company, to
whom the property belonged, declined to extend the term. This difficulty
was at length overcome, and the houses were in course of demolition,
when projecting into the very centre of the space designed for the new
office was found the wall of an old house belonging to Sir Charles
Watson, and this house he refused to let the Post Office have unless it
would also take seven other houses which he possessed in the immediate
neighbourhood. At the present time houses in and about Abchurch Lane
would probably fetch twenty-five years' purchase. Fifteen years'
purchase was the sum then demanded, and it was considered a hard
bargain. Eventually Watson consented to grant a ninety-nine years'
lease; but it was a lease not only of the single house that the Post
Office wanted, but of all eight houses, seven of which it did not want.
What they called their mortifications and disappointments at an end, the
postmasters-general proceeded to build.
Still more unsatisfactory was the result of an attempt that was made or
intended to be made about this time to improve the post with the
Continent. Communication with France was only twice a week, and
Walsingham desired to treble it. In France, as in England, the post went
to the water's edge on six days of the week, and he could see no reason
why, except on two days, it should stop there. He entertained a strong
opinion that between the two countries communication should be daily.
There was also another matter to be settled with our neighbours. During
a period of sixty-six years, namely, from 1713 to 1779, the postage on a
single letter between London and Paris had been 10d.; and, to avoid the
keeping of accounts, this sum had been collected and retained by the
Post Office of the country in which the letter was delivered. In 1779,
when owing to the war communication between Dover and Calais was
stopped, letters from Paris reached England through Flanders, and on
these letters when put into the post in Paris a charge of 4d. was made
in addition to the 10d. to be paid on delivery in London. It had been
thought that in 1783, on the termination of the war, this charge would
be abandoned, and that the old postage of 10d. would be resumed. Such,
however, was not the case. The Post Office authorities in France adhered
to the 4d. charge and defended it. The old postage of 10d., they argued,
was all very well when they had no packets of their own and England
performed the sea service. But now France had her own packets, and the
distance between Paris and Calais being far greater than between London
and Dover, it could not in reason be expected that on a letter between
the two capitals she would be content with no higher postage than that
which England received. The charge of 4d. upon letters for London when
put into the post in Paris must be maintained, even though they no
longer went through Flanders. It was a matter of internal regulation
with which England had no concern. Without contesting this view of the
case, the home authorities regarded the 4d. charge as a most vexatious
impost. Not only had it the effect of diminishing the correspondence,
but many of the letters which still passed were carried by private hand
from Paris to Dover and there posted, so that the British Post Office
received upon them only 4d. apiece, this being the postage from Dover to
London, instead of 10d., the postage from Paris. In 1787 Palmer had, by
Pitt's direction, gone over to France in order to adjust the matter and
to promote a six days' post between the two countries; but he returned
without effecting either object.
Circumstances now appearing more favourable, Walsingham determined to
make fresh overtures. An emissary had already been selected for the
purpose, and was on the eve of departure when a new and unexpected
difficulty arose; the merchants of London, to whom the intention to
increase the frequency of communication with France had become known,
met to protest against the project. A hundred years before they would
have gone to the Post Office, talked the matter over with the
postmasters-general, and, after an exchange of opinions, an agreement
would have been come to as to what was best to be done. Now they
assembled in their numbers at the London Tavern and resolved "that any
addition to the present number of post days to France or to any other
part of the Continent is unnecessary, and would be highly inconvenient
and injurious to the merchants of London." The resolution was unanimous,
and copies were sent to the postmasters-general and the minister. For
the merchants of London Walsingham entertained a sincere respect; but in
this particular matter, convinced that they did not know what was for
their own good, he determined to proceed in their despite. Unhappily,
however, at this conjuncture the resumption of hostilities with France
extinguished for the time all hopes of improved communication with the
Continent.
Another project, in which the Post Office and the merchants possessed a
common interest and a common desire, was also doomed to failure. The
practice of cutting bank notes into two parts and sending one part by
one post and another by another had now become general. The expedient,
though efficacious, was a costly one. A letter with an enclosure,
however light, paid double postage; and double postage between two
places no farther apart than London and Birmingham was 10d. To send two
halves of a bank note each in a separate letter would, of course, cost
twice that amount. This was a heavy insurance to pay. The Post Office,
in its desire not to discourage a practice which diminished temptation
to dishonesty, was hardly less anxious than the merchants themselves
that the amount should be reduced. Accordingly Walsingham proposed that
in all cases where a bank note was sent by two separate posts the second
letter, that is to say, the letter containing the second half, should,
on proof being given of its contents, be charged with only single
postage. A notice to the public announcing the change had already been
prepared when he learnt to his chagrin that the proposed regulation
would be illegal. In the case of a letter with an enclosure the law
prescribed double postage, and it was no more in the power of the Post
Office to reduce the amount than to forego it altogether.
But these were failures which it is only interesting to record as
evidence that at the Post Office, after Palmer had left it, there was no
want of directing energy or of a desire to study the interests of the
public. It is pleasant to turn to matters in respect to which good
intentions were not unattended with results. But before leaving 1792,
the year in which these disappointments occurred, we must not omit to
notice that it was at the end of this year that the letter-carriers were
for the first time put into uniform. Palmer, who was now playing the
part of the outside critic, condemned the innovation as a piece of
unnecessary extravagance. But Palmer did not know the reasons for it.
The letter-carriers when in private clothes were exposed to temptation
from which the wearing of uniform would protect them; and more than one
recent case had brought the fact into painful prominence. Nor can it be
denied that, so long as there was no distinctive dress, letter-carriers
in want of a holiday were a little apt to take one without permission,
supplying their place by persons of whose character they knew little or
nothing. It was in order to check irregularity of this kind and as a
means of protection to themselves and the public that uniform was now
introduced. The uniform consisted of a scarlet cloth coat with blue
lapels and blue linings of padua; a blue cloth waistcoat, and a hat with
gold band.
It should also be noticed that about this time the Post Office servants
in London were in some measure relieved from the pecuniary cares by
which they had long been oppressed. The Commissioners of Inquiry in
their Report of 1788 had recommended for the Post Office a new
establishment; and now, after an interval of nearly five years, this
establishment was approved by the King in Council. The new salaries were
not high. At the present time they would be considered low; but such as
they were, they were higher than the salaries they replaced. Jamineau's
recent death, moreover, by relieving the clerks of the roads from
payment of the commission[74] which this officer received on all
newspapers with which they dealt, enabled them to reduce their price for
franking, the result being an immediate extension of sale. On the whole,
the Post Office servants in London were, at this time, in comparatively
comfortable circumstances, or at all events above the reach of actual
want. The starvation and bankruptcy with which they had at one time been
threatened had been staved off by a grant, which Pitt renewed year after
year while the Commissioners' Report was under consideration. This grant
amounted to £3000, of which £2000 were for distribution in the sorting
office, and £1000 in the other offices.
[74] This was a commission of three halfpence on every dozen newspapers,
besides one newspaper in every quire.
The year 1793 was signalised by a remarkable development of the penny
post. This institution, which had as yet been established nowhere but in
London and in Dublin, was now to be extended to Edinburgh, to
Manchester, to Bristol, and to Birmingham. In Edinburgh the ground had
been to some extent preoccupied. The keeper of a coffee-house in the
hall of the Parliament House had sixteen years before set up an office
from which letters were delivered throughout the city at 1d. apiece; and
this office still remained open and prospered. To compare Williamson's
undertaking with Dockwra's would be to compare a mouse with an elephant;
and yet it may not be uninteresting to note the different treatment
which the two men received. Dockwra was prosecuted, fined, and his
undertaking confiscated. Williamson was granted a pension. "We have
also," write the postmasters-general under date the 19th of July 1793,
"to beg your Lordship's permission to authorise us to allow to Mr.
Williamson of Edinburgh £25 per annum, he having long had the profits of
1d. a letter on certain letters forwarded through his receiving house at
Edinburgh, which he will lose by our having established a penny post
there. We have made it a rule," they add, "always to propose that those
who suffer in their incomes from regulations which are certainly
beneficial to the public should receive compensation for the loss they
sustain."
At Manchester the establishment of the penny post followed upon other
and important alterations. The inhabitants of that town had long
complained of the inadequacy of their postal arrangements; and measures
had recently been taken, the very extent of which serves to shew how
serious must have been the defects which they were designed to supply.
The aged postmistress was granted a pension of £120, with the reversion
of one-third of that amount to her daughter; and in her room an active
postmaster was appointed at a salary of £300. Four clerks were at the
same time appointed, at salaries ranging from £50 to £100, and five
additional letter-carriers, making six altogether, at wages of 12s. a
week. Thus, Manchester suddenly found itself in possession of a Post
Office establishment with which, outside London, that of no other town
in the kingdom could compare. As a sequel to this important extension of
force a penny post was opened in July 1793; and no sooner had the boon
been conferred upon Manchester than it was extended to Bristol and to
Birmingham.
It is interesting to note what at these three towns was the financial
effect of giving postal facilities. During the year 1794-95 the penny
post brought a clear gain to the revenue--in Manchester, of £586; in
Bristol, of £469; and in Birmingham, of £240. It is a curious fact that,
with this experience to guide them and with an anxious desire to extend
the system, the Post Office authorities, after sparing no pains to
inform themselves on the subject, came to the conclusion that neither
at Liverpool nor at Leeds nor at any other town in England would a penny
post defray its own expenses.
But it was in London that the penny post attained its highest
development. This branch of Post Office business had long been
shamefully neglected. Of the officers concerned in it those above the
rank of sorter were only three in number--a comptroller, an accountant,
and a collector. Of these the collector attended only occasionally, and
the accountant and comptroller not at all. This neglect had its natural
effect upon the receipts. During the last twenty years and more,
notwithstanding the increase which had during this period taken place in
the population and trade of the metropolis, the revenue of the penny
post had remained almost stationary. Up to 1789 the highest sum it had
ever produced in one year was £5157 net. This was in 1784, and for the
five following years the receipts went on decreasing until, attention
having been called to the decline, there was a sudden rebound. In 1792
the revenue was--gross £10,825, and net £5561.
Palmer, who was well aware of the discreditable condition into which the
Penny Post Office had fallen, proposed to take it in farm, and offered
as a consideration to forego his salary and percentage; but this was a
proposal the acceptance of which was strongly deprecated by the
Commissioners of Inquiry who sat in 1788 no less than by the
postmasters-general. It was their unanimous opinion that the penny post
should be retained in the hands of the State. Palmer, still clinging to
the hope that other counsels might prevail, put off effecting
improvements which would afford the strongest arguments against the
adoption of his own proposal; and in 1793, in spite of the changes which
had been going on all around, the Penny Post Office remained much as it
had been during the last twenty years.
The man who now took the reform of the penny post in hand was Edward
Johnson. Johnson was a letter-carrier. He had been appointed by Palmer
or on Palmer's recommendation; and he soon gave proof of more than
ordinary ability. Palmer not infrequently exposed him to a severe
ordeal. When unable or unwilling to attend the postmasters-general
himself, he would send Johnson in his stead, a substitution which they
resented as unseemly; and thus some little prejudice had been excited
against him. This prejudice, however, had disappeared with the cause of
it, and Johnson now stood high, deservedly high, in the
postmaster-generals' favour.
In 1793, in addition to the numerous receiving houses where letters for
the penny post might be taken in, there were in London five principal
offices--one known as the chief Penny Post Office, and situated in
Throgmorton Street, opposite Bartholomew Lane; another called the
Westminster Penny Post Office, and situated in Coventry Street,
Haymarket; a third, the Hermitage Office in Queen Street, Little Tower
Hill; a fourth, the Southwark Office in St. Saviour's Churchyard,
Borough; and a fifth, the St. Clement's Office, in Blackmore Street.
Between these five offices there was little or no connection; at no two
of them were the number of collections or deliveries the same or the
hours at which they were made; the letter-carriers were altogether too
few for the ground which they had to cover, so that punctuality and
despatch were impossible; and even those whose walks lay near the
ten-mile limit, before proceeding to deliver their letters, had to come
to London to fetch them.
Johnson proposed to change all this. He proposed to reduce the number of
principal offices from five to two, retaining only the chief office and
the office in Coventry Street; to increase the number of collections and
deliveries; to give the same number to all parts served by the penny
post, namely, six in the town and three in the suburbs, or, as the
suburbs were then called, "the country," and everywhere, as far as
possible, to observe the same hours; to post these hours up in every
receiving house, so that the public might be made acquainted with them
and act as a check upon their being observed; and, instead of requiring
the letter-carriers in the remoter parts to come to London for their
letters, to send their letters to them by mounted messengers.
Johnson's last proposal, though following almost naturally from what had
gone before, well-nigh staggered the postmasters-general. It was that,
in order to carry his plan into effect, the number of penny post
letter-carriers should be more than doubled. The existing number was
eighty-two, and the number which Johnson proposed was 181. This, even at
the present time--large as are the numbers with which the Post Office
has been accustomed to deal--would be considered a heavy, an
exceptionally heavy, increase. In 1793 it was regarded as portentous,
and the postmasters-general anxiously sought means to reduce it; but
Johnson, besides being perfect master of his subject, possessed two
faculties which by no means always go together. He possessed the faculty
of devising a good scheme and the faculty of explaining it; and the
lucid explanation he now gave convinced the postmasters-general that
they could not do better than adopt his plan in its entirety.
Contrasting the time which a letter took to pass between various parts
of London with the time which it would take if his suggestions were
adopted, Johnson had no difficulty in shewing that from his plan the
public would derive facilities for intercourse to which they had
hitherto been strangers.
There were, perhaps, no two places between which the course of post was
more difficult to manage than Marylebone and Limehouse. Under the
existing plan a letter from one of these two places, however early it
might be posted, might not reach the other on the same day, and, even if
it did so, an answer could not be received before the afternoon of the
following day. Under Johnson's plan a letter might be received, an
answer returned, and the answer answered, all on the same day. Places
less inconveniently situated in relation to each other were to receive a
still larger measure of benefit. Between persons residing in Lombard
Street and the Haymarket, for instance, five letters might pass to and
fro between the hours of eight in the morning and seven in the evening.
This was within the town limits. Within the country limits the general
effect of Johnson's plan may be stated thus: that to letters from London
answers might be returned sooner by two posts if the letters were for
places not more than five miles distant, and, if for places distant
between five and ten miles, sooner by a period ranging from one to three
days. The last-mentioned places, moreover, were to have three posts a
day instead of one post.
Pitt was no less favourably impressed with Johnson's plan than the
postmasters-general were; but before sanctioning it he resolved to await
the passing of an Act for the redress of certain anomalies, or what were
considered to be anomalies, in the practice of the penny post. This Act
was passed in 1794; and immediate steps were taken for carrying the plan
into effect. A proud day for Johnson must have been the 8th of
September. On that day a public notice appeared announcing the changes
that were about to take place; and this notice bore his signature. Only
the other day he had been a letter-carrier, and now, by reason of a
promotion which did hardly more honour to himself than to the
postmasters-general who made it, he signed as deputy-comptroller of the
Penny Post Office.
The financial results of Johnson's plan exceeded all expectation. For
the last year of the old system the gross revenue of the penny post was
£11,000. For the first year of the new system it was £28,560; and for
the second year £29,623. Johnson had proceeded on the principle--a
principle which from the first establishment of the Post Office has
never yet been known to fail--increase facilities for correspondence and
correspondence itself increases.
Johnson had made one mistake, a mistake which he frankly acknowledged
and did his best to repair. He had fixed the wages of the
letter-carriers too low. It was not that he had been indifferent to the
interests of the class from which he had recently emerged, but that he
had feared to overweight a measure which, even as it stood, he had
almost despaired of carrying. The wages, as fixed on his
recommendation, ranged from 9s. to 16s. a week. Then came that terrible
winter--the winter of 1794-95. We have ourselves been witness to an
excessive absence from duty on the part of Post Office servants during
the epidemic of influenza in 1890. But the number that were absent then,
relatively to the whole force, were not to be compared to the number
that were absent in the spring of 1795; neither was their absence due to
so grievous a cause.
In the spring of 1795 the penny post letter-carriers, unlike the
letter-carriers of the general post, had not yet been supplied with
uniform, and, through sheer inability to supply themselves with such
articles of clothing and of food as the severity of the weather
required, nearly one-half of the whole number were unable to follow
their employment. Johnson took great blame to himself for what he had
done; nor did he rest until he had procured for the letter-carriers a
substantial increase all round. This increase ranged from about 2s. to
6s. a week for each man, and involved a total cost of £1600 a year. Also
in matters of detail Johnson effected several improvements, of which we
will mention only one. The receptacle for letters at the receiving
houses in London had hitherto been an open and movable box. The box was
now, on his recommendation, to be fixed and provided with a key. The key
was to be kept by the receiver, and he alone was to have access to the
letters.
The Act of 1794 contained provisions which it is impossible to pass
unnoticed. The penny post from its first establishment in 1681 had
differed from the general post in this--that letters sent by it had to
be prepaid. By the general post prepayment had not indeed been
prohibited, but it had been discouraged; by the penny post it had been
compulsory. This was now altered, and it was left to the option of
persons using the penny post whether they would prepay their letters or
not. It is difficult to repress a pang at the disappearance of a
provision to which Dockwra, the founder of the penny post, attached the
highest importance; and yet it must be admitted that the change was not
made without a reason. Messengers and servants entrusted with letters
to post would destroy the letters for the sake of the pence which had
been given them to pay the postage; and to such an extent had the abuse
been carried that some persons made it a rule not to use the penny post
at all unless they could post their own letters.
Another provision of the Act of 1794 was to relax a restriction imposed
by the Act of Anne. Before 1711 the penny post had been so extended as
to include many places distant from London as much as eighteen and
twenty miles. Then came the Act of Anne, restricting the penny post to a
circuit of ten miles. And now the ten-mile limit was abolished, and the
postmasters-general were empowered, not in London alone but also in
country towns wherever the penny post might be established, to extend it
at their discretion.
A third provision of the Act of 1794 was designed to correct what was
considered a flaw in a previous Act. It is interesting to note what this
flaw was. When Dockwra established his post, he insisted that on letters
going by it the postage should be 1d. and no more. This penny, however,
in the case of letters for places situated beyond the bills of
mortality, was to carry only to the receiving house; for delivery at a
private house was to be paid a second penny, commonly called the
delivery-penny. The Act of Anne merely provided that letters by the
penny post should be charged 1d., and was silent on the subject of the
second or delivery-penny; and a subsequent Act, passed in 1731, made the
delivery-penny legal.
Now what was the consequence of all this? The consequence was that as
between two letters, the one passing from London to a place outside the
bills of mortality and the other passing from a place outside the bills
of mortality to London, there was a difference of postage. In the one
direction the postage was 2d. and in the other 1d. The Act of 1794
imposed a postage of 2d. in both directions; and here we see not indeed
the origin of the twopenny post but the twopenny post fully established.
The reform of the penny post was soon followed by that of the dead
letter office. This office was established in 1784. How, before that
year, dead letters were treated is perhaps one of the obscurest points
of Post Office practice. We know that letters which could not be
delivered and letters which had been missent were always treated
together. We know that in 1716 these letters had become so numerous that
an officer was specially appointed to check them. We know that to Ralph
Allen, fertile as he was in resources, how to deal with this class of
letters was a constant source of perplexity. We know that Todd, writing
to Foxcroft, the deputy postmaster-general of America, in February 1775,
says: "Amongst other regulations made here of late the dead, refused,
and unknown letters returned to this office have been opened by the
proper officers, and returned to the writers"; but without adding who
"the proper officers" were. And we know that as late as 1783 there was
in London a letter-carrier whose special duty it was to "take care of
the unknown and uncertain letters."
But when we have stated this, we have stated all. Whether there was any
recognised mode of dealing with dead letters, or whether any one into
whose hands these letters came dealt with them as he judged best,
according to circumstances, are questions upon which we have absolutely
no information. In 1784 only a part of the dead letters and letters that
had been missent went to the newly-created dead letter office. Another
and larger part, consisting of bye-letters or letters that in the
ordinary course would not reach London, were dealt with in the
bye-letter office. No letter was returned to the writer until after the
expiration of six months, and on its return no postage was charged. In
1790 Palmer reduced from six months to two the period before which
letters were returned, and on his own motion, without reference to the
postmasters-general, charged them with postage. Grave doubts were
entertained as to the legality of this charge, and Pitt, as soon as he
heard of it, ordered it to be discontinued.
In 1793 Barlow, a clerk in the secretary's office, who had charge of the
dead letter office, introduced two changes of practice which, obvious
as they may now appear, were then regarded as evidence of no little
merit. He arranged that missent letters, instead of being sent to London
to be dealt with in the dead letter office, should be forwarded to their
destination from the place where the missending was discovered; and
also--a change which gave great satisfaction in naval and military
circles--that letters for the army and navy should be sent where the
army and navy were known to be, and not to stations and quarters which
they were known to have left simply because the letters were addressed
there.
About the same time the dead letter office received most valuable help
in the discharge of its duties from the publication of what was,
virtually, the first County Directory. For some years past three Post
Office servants had been engaged in compiling a list of all the names
and addresses they could collect throughout the different counties of
England. This list, though still far from complete, now filled six large
folio volumes. The venture which had been undertaken with a view to
profit was financially a failure; but as a means of helping to forward
letters with imperfect addresses it proved an unqualified success.
Thus matters stood in 1795, when Barlow proposed a further reform. The
inspector of the "bye, dead, and missent letters," as they were called,
had neglected his duties. These letters were not sent to London until
they had lain for three months in the country offices, and after their
arrival he had suffered a still longer period to elapse before
proceeding to dispose of them. Barlow now proposed that these letters
also should be placed under his control, and the proposal being
approved, the dead letter office began to assume the shape in which,
though under another name, we know it to-day. To the general practice
one exception was made. On the first opening of penny post offices in
country towns many letters could not be delivered on account of their
imperfect addresses. The novelty and cheapness of the post, it may well
be believed, induced persons to use it who possessed little skill in
writing, and no knowledge of the mode in which superscriptions should be
prepared. It was a duty imposed on the surveyor who was engaged in
establishing the post to open these letters and return them to the
writers on the spot.
Another office was established about this time, an office for dealing
with the American and West Indian letters. The merchants had recently
complained that these letters were continually missent, letters for one
of the West India Islands being sent to another, and letters for places
served from Halifax being sent to Quebec and _vice versâ_. The truth is
that until lately some profit had been derived from the sorting of these
letters; and the most experienced officers, who knew the circulation
abroad almost as well as they knew the circulation at home, had been
glad to sort them. The comptroller of the inland department--for,
curiously enough, it was there and not in the foreign department that
the letters were dealt with--had received one guinea a night and the
clerks 5s. a night for dealing with them; but these unauthorised
additions to salaries had now been stopped, and the West Indian and
American mails were left to be sorted, just as any other mails were
sorted, by seniors and juniors in common.
It was impossible that mistakes should not occur. To assist in the
disposal of inland mails there were what were called circulation lists,
lists shewing to what towns letters for particular places were to be
sent; but in the case of the American and West Indian mails there were
no such aids to inexperience, and the letters were to a large extent
sent haphazard. Freeling now altered this. He procured from abroad
circulation lists corrected to the latest date. Four experienced
officers were selected, who were made specially responsible for the West
Indian and American correspondence; they were to devote to it two hours
a night over and above their ordinary hours; and for this extra
attendance they were each to receive a special allowance of £30 a year.
Freeling's last safeguard is interesting as shewing what may be done
with a limited correspondence. Two books were to be kept, of which one
was to be reserved for Government letters. In this book were to be
entered the date on which each individual letter was posted, the date on
which it was forwarded to Falmouth, and the name of the packet by which
it was despatched. The second book was, in Freeling's own words, "to
contain observations of different kinds to enable the clerks the better
to satisfy the merchants applying for information" respecting the
letters they had posted. It would perhaps be hardly an exaggeration to
say that between England on the one hand and America and the West Indies
on the other there are at the present time more sackfuls of letters
passing than there were single letters one hundred years ago.
About the same time, but a little later, an important change took place
in the treatment of letters arriving from the East Indies in the ships
of the East India Company. These letters came to the India House in
boxes addressed to the directors, and so escaped all but the inland
postage. Some of them indeed did not pay even that, for if addressed to
persons in or near London they were delivered by the Company's servants,
who charged and retained as their own perquisite a fee varying from 2s.
6d. to 10s. 6d. on each letter. The practice was of old date, as old
probably as the East India Company itself, and was held to be not
illegal. It is true that a vessel was forbidden under a penalty of £20
to break bulk or to make entry into port until all letters brought by
the master or his company should be delivered to some agent of the
postmasters-general; but both the captain and the directors were held to
be exempt from liability under this provision, the captain because he
was presumably ignorant of what the boxes contained, and the directors
because the penalty attached to the captain and not to them.
The legality of the practice not being contested, nothing remained but
to make overtures to the directors; and, on this being done, they
readily consented that for the future all letters arriving by their
ships, except such as were for themselves and their friends, should be
forthwith sent to the Post Office to be dealt with as ship letters. The
public derived no little advantage from the change. The postage from
India was actually less than what the company's servants had been
accustomed to exact as fees; and the letters were now delivered at once,
whereas the company's servants would seldom deliver them under three or
four days after their arrival at the India House, and sometimes not for
a whole month.
Contemporaneously with the Act of Parliament regulating the penny post
was passed another establishing a post to the Channel Islands. This was
essentially a war post, a post which, except for the war between England
and France, might have been postponed far into the present century.
Hitherto letters for the Channel Islands had been charged with postage
only as far as Southampton, and from Southampton they had been carried
to their destination by private boat. Again and again had the Post
Office been urged by those who wanted employment for their vessels to
establish a line of packets to the islands; but to all such overtures
the postmasters-general turned a deaf ear. Boats were passing to and fro
regularly four or five times a week, and the owners of these boats were
ready and glad to carry the letters for the ship-letter postage of 1d. a
letter. Why then, it was asked, should the Post Office be at the expense
of maintaining a line of packets which, unless it were put on a footing
out of all proportion to the importance of the service, would give
absolutely less accommodation than that which existed already?
Thus matters stood when war broke out and all communication with the
islands was stopped. Even now the postmasters-general had grave doubts
as to the propriety of establishing a line of packets. It was true that
the correspondence with the Channel Islands was considerable. During the
year 1792 the number of letters on which ship-letter postage had been
paid was 21,570, namely, 20,070 at Southampton and 1500 at Dartmouth and
other ports on the south coast--making, on the assumption that the
letters were as many in the opposite direction, a total correspondence
for the year of about 43,000 letters.
And yet there were serious considerations on the other side. Unless an
Act of Parliament were passed providing a packet rate of postage between
the mainland and the islands, the Post Office would have no exclusive
right of carrying the letters, and the moment the war ceased the packets
might be deserted in favour of the private boats. If, on the other hand,
such an Act were passed, popular as the measure might be while the war
lasted, it could not fail to be unpopular as soon as the war ceased.
Private boats would then be an illegal means of conveyance, and
correspondence would be restricted to the packets, however few these
might be in number, and however wide the intervals between the
despatches.
Another expedient remained, but this was one which had been tried during
the last war, and the postmasters-general were not prepared to repeat
it. The _Express_ packet, Captain Sampson, belonging to the Dover
station, had been temporarily detached to Southampton to keep
communication with the Channel Islands open. As some set-off against the
cost, the Post Office had counted upon saving the ship-letter pence; but
here again the want of an authorised packet postage made itself felt.
Sampson, though in receipt of a salary and at no expense for the boat he
commanded, claimed and received the ship-letter pence, the
postmasters-general regarding themselves apparently as legally
incompetent to resist the demand. Without denying that a line of packets
might be necessary for purposes of State, the postmasters-general now
declined to promote one on Post Office grounds. Of the necessities of
the State they were not the judges, and, if the State required the
adoption of such a measure, it was for others to take the initiative.
The decision at which the Government arrived appears in the Act of 1794,
which established a line of packets between England and the Channel
Islands. The packet station was to be at Weymouth, the passage from
Weymouth being shorter than from Southampton, and Southampton Water
being difficult to leave when the wind was contrary. For a single
letter the postage, over and above all other rates, was fixed at 2d.,
and for a double and treble letter in proportion. Thus the cost of a
single letter from London to the Channel Islands would remain the same
as before. Hitherto there had been paid 4d. for postage from London to
Southampton, 1d. to a factor at Southampton, 1d. for conveyance across,
and 1d. to the island post office--for the islands had a post office,
although it was a private one, and not under the control of the
postmasters-general--making 7d. altogether. Now the charge would be the
same, namely, postage to Weymouth 5d., and 2d. for the packet postage.
By the same Act of Parliament rates of postage were imposed within the
islands similar to those which existed in England.
The abuses of franking now came under notice again. Ten years had
elapsed since the passing of the Act which provided that a letter, to be
exempt from postage, must bear on the outside, as part of its
superscription, its full date written in the member's own handwriting,
and be posted on the date which the superscription bore. Of course, the
object of the provision was to confine the privilege to members
themselves, and to prevent them from obliging their friends at a
distance with franks; but this object was almost universally defeated by
the simple expedient of sending to their friends franks that were
post-dated. It was a common occurrence for franks dated on the same day
and by the same member to be sent from places three or four hundred
miles apart.
The bankers who sat in Parliament were the chief offenders. Little did
they think that an exact account was being kept of every frank that
passed through the London Post Office, or assuredly they would hardly
have ventured to keep their friends and customers supplied, as it was
their practice to do, with the means of evading postage. How many
bankers sat in Parliament in 1794 we are not informed; but whatever the
number was, we know that during the three months ending the 10th of
October in that year there passed through the London Post Office no
less than 103,805 letters franked by them, a number larger by one-fifth
than the letters of the Court and all the public offices of the State
combined.[75] During the same period those members of Parliament who
were merchants and not bankers contented themselves with the
comparatively modest number of 27,111. Two or three years before it had
leaked out that the Government were considering whether a strenuous
effort should not be made to abolish the franking privilege altogether,
and it was no secret to the Post Office that in anticipation of such an
event the banking houses which had a partner in Parliament had concerted
arrangements for sending their letters by the coaches in boxes.
[75] From this time the expression "banker's frank" passed into a
by-word, and was used to denote any frank, whether given by a banker or
not, which was in excess of the prescribed number.
The Government were now resolved that, if the abuses of franking could
not be stopped, they should at all events be restricted, and with this
object a bill was brought in which passed into law in 1795. Under this
statute the weight which a member could frank was reduced from two
ounces to one ounce; no letter was to be considered as franked unless
the member whose name and superscription it bore was within twenty miles
of the town at which it was posted either on the day of posting or on
the day before; and in the course of one day no member was to send free
more than ten letters or to receive free more than fifteen.
The same statute which restrained the abuses of franking made a not
unimportant concession. In an Act passed in 1753 a clause had been
inserted providing that a letter containing patterns or samples, if it
did not weigh as much as one ounce, was to be charged as a double letter
and no more. This was now improved upon. Under the Act of 1795 a packet
of patterns or samples might, on certain conditions, pass as a single
letter. These conditions were that it did not exceed one ounce in
weight, that it was open at the sides, and that it contained no writing
other than the name and address of the sender and the prices of the
articles of which he sent specimens.
A few months later another advance was made. At Lombard Street great
inconvenience had been caused by the late arrival of the letters from
the West End. The sorting began at five o'clock in the evening, and the
mails were despatched at eight; but it was not until nearly seven that
the bulk of the letters from the West End were brought in by the
runners. Thus, while the first two hours of the evening were hours of
comparative idleness, the last hour was one of extreme pressure.
Occasionally, we are told, there would at a quarter before seven o'clock
be lying on the sorting table as many as 14,000 letters, all of which
had to be disposed of by eight. At the present day 14,000 letters would
be regarded as a mere handful. In 1796 it was a number which it taxed
the utmost resources of the Post Office to dispose of within the
allotted time.
How to relieve the pressure between the hours of seven and eight was now
the question to be solved; and the presidents who had succeeded to
Bonnor's place when this person was got rid of suggested that the object
might be attained if, instead of the letters from the West End being
brought to the General Post Office by runners, light carts were employed
to bring them. Two carts would be enough for the purpose. One might
start from Charing Cross and the other from Duke Street, Oxford Street,
picking up bags at the different offices on their way. Thus the letters
would reach Lombard Street earlier by some thirty minutes than
heretofore, and there would be more time to sort and charge them. The
drivers should, of course, be armed. The plan was adopted, and answered
well; and this was the origin of what is called the London Mail-Cart and
Van Service, a service in which are now employed daily as many as 550
vehicles.
Since the introduction of mail-coaches the robbery of mails on the main
roads of the kingdom had entirely ceased. Now and then, but very rarely,
there had been pilfering from a mail-coach as, through the default of
those in charge, it stood at an inn door unguarded; and there had, no
doubt, been one serious case of theft. On the 24th of October 1794 a
man, giving the name of Thomas Thomas, went down by the mail-coach from
London to Bristol, and returned on the following day. This journey he
repeated on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of November, and on the last-mentioned
date, when the guard's back was turned, he took advantage of the
mail-box being left unlocked to steal the mails. But this was a case of
theft, and not of robbery.
During the twelve years which had elapsed since Palmer's plan was
established there had not been one single instance in which a mail-coach
had been molested by highwaymen. Far otherwise was it with the horse and
cross-post mails. In 1796 the distance over which these mails travelled
was, in England, about 3800 miles, and hardly a week passed without
intelligence reaching headquarters that in some part or other of their
course they had been stopped and robbed. Some roads enjoyed an
unenviable notoriety in this respect, as, for instance, the road between
Barton Mills and Lynn in Norfolk, the road between Bristol and
Portsmouth, and, above all, the road between Chester and Warrington.
Between these two places, indeed, the mail had only recently been robbed
on four different occasions.
Manchester and other towns now took the matter up, and urged that
mail-coaches might be established on the roads where the robberies took
place, not because coaches were necessary to carry the letters, but on
account of the security which they afforded. Freeling proposed as an
alternative that the horse and cross-post mails should be guarded. To
supply the existing post-boys, or riders, as they were then termed, with
firearms would have been worse than useless. They were mere boys--many
of them not yet fourteen years of age--and with firearms in their
possession they would have been more likely to shoot themselves than
their assailants. Accordingly, Freeling proposed that no riders should
be employed who, besides being of approved character, were not between
the ages of eighteen and forty-five; that they should each be furnished
with a brace of pistols, a cutlass, and a strong cap for the defence of
the head; and that, in consideration of an increased allowance to be
made by the Post Office, the postmasters whose servants the riders were
should be required to provide them with better horses than those
hitherto in use.
Of all the plans which, through a long course of years, were submitted
to Pitt for the improvement of the posts this was the only one to which
he demurred. He did not, indeed, deny its efficacy; but it would involve
a cost of at least £6000 a year, and, pressed as he was for money, he
declined to say more than that the plan might be carried out if the
persons interested were willing to bear the additional expense, but not
otherwise. For us with our present knowledge it is easy enough to see
that the surest and most popular way of transferring the expense to the
public would have been to cheapen the postage. In 1796 no other way
appeared feasible than to make the postage dearer. To this object the
postmasters-general now devoted themselves, and before many months were
over they had prepared a bill which, with some modifications, was
adopted by the Government and passed into law.
In the new Act, which came into operation on the 5th of January 1797,
the ambiguous term "stage" was dropped, and the whole of the rates were
fixed according to distance, thus--
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ON AND AFTER THE 5TH OF JANUARY 1797. |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
| | Single | Double | Treble | |
| | Letter.| Letter.| Letter.| Ounce.|
| +--------+--------+--------+-------+
| | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ |
|Not exceeding 15 miles | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
|Exceeding 15 and not exceeding | | | | |
| 30 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
|Exceeding 30 and not exceeding | | | | |
| 60 miles | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
|Exceeding 60 and not exceeding | | | | |
| 100 miles | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |
|Exceeding 100 and not exceeding| | | | |
| 150 miles | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |
|Exceeding 150 miles | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |
|To and from Edinburgh | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |
+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+
Within Scotland the rates were raised by 1d. for a single letter, by 2d.
for a double letter, and so on. Another important change was made.
Hitherto, in the case of letters from Portugal and America, the packet
postage had carried them to their destination. For the future these
letters were to be subject to the inland rates as well as the packet
rates. Thus the packet rate from Lisbon had been, on a single letter,
1s. 6d. It was now to be 1s.; but if for London the letter would be
charged with the inland rate of 8d.--this being the postage from
Falmouth--and if for Edinburgh with 8d. more, or 2s. 4d. altogether. As
the packet postage from America remained unchanged, namely, 1s. for a
single letter, the inland rate was in this case a pure addition.
The postmasters-general were now doomed to a serious disappointment.
Their proposal to raise the rates of postage was, there can be no doubt,
dictated, at all events in part, by a desire to carry out the project of
guarding the horse and cross-post mails. Pitt had stated that he would
approve this project if the persons interested would bear the expense of
it; and unquestionably the expense, and much more than the expense, was
thrown upon the persons interested by the higher sums which they had now
to pay for their letters. The postmaster-generals' object, however, had
not been avowed, and no understanding had been arrived at. Their
proposal to raise the rates of postage had met with ready acceptance.
Their proposal to guard the horse and cross-post mails, though repeated
again and again, continued to be rejected.
Although much had been done during the last few years to introduce order
and regularity among the packets, some little mystery still surrounded
their proceedings. In March 1798, out of twenty packets on the Falmouth
station there was not one in port to carry the mails to Jamaica and the
Leeward Islands; and this was the second time within twelve months that
the same thing had occurred. The West India merchants waited on the
postmasters-general to complain. On this occasion an armed cutter was
borrowed from the Admiralty to take out the mails; but the fact remained
that between the 5th of April 1793 and January 1798 no less than
nineteen packets, all of them belonging to the Falmouth station, had
been captured by the enemy, and that the Post Office had had to replace
them at a cost of close upon £50,000.
The merchants demanded, as they had done a year before, that the packets
should be armed. Armed indeed in some sort they were already, but only
with six four-pounders apiece, and with small arms so as to be able to
resist row-boats and small privateers. The merchants urged that this was
not enough. The postmasters-general replied that they could do no more,
that the true policy was not to arm the packets with a view to their
engaging the enemy, but so to construct them that they might outsail
him. The merchants met to consider the reply which had been given, and,
as the result of their deliberations, they prepared a memorial, copies
of which were sent to the postmasters-general and the minister. In this
memorial misgivings were expressed which, even at this distance of time,
it is impossible not to share. During the last three years the average
duration of voyage had been, from Falmouth to Jamaica, forty-five days,
and from Jamaica to Falmouth, fifty-two days. These, as the memorialists
pointed out, were not quick voyages; still less were they quick voyages
for vessels which had been specially constructed with a view to
expedition. It was extraordinary, too, built and equipped as the packets
were, that out of nine that had been recently captured eight should have
fallen a prey to private ships of war, which presumably enjoyed far less
advantages in point of sailing. The conclusion at which the merchants
felt constrained to arrive was that "in the mode of loading or
navigating the packets some abuses exist sufficient to counteract the
advantages of their construction."
And yet, mysterious as their proceedings were, ample evidence is at hand
that the packets were both willing and able to fight as occasion
required. Indeed, to this period belong some of their smartest
engagements. We will give one or two instances. On the evening of the
17th of October 1797 the _Portland_ packet, Captain Taylor, was lying
becalmed off the island of Guadeloupe when a French privateer, the
_Temeraire_, bore down upon her. The privateer carried sixty-eight men
and the packet thirty-two. A light breeze springing up, the _Portland's_
head was got off shore, and for the time she contrived to elude her
antagonist, who followed her all night under easy sail. At daybreak the
same distance separated the two ships as on the preceding evening; but
as the _Temeraire_ began to overtake the _Portland_, Taylor fired the
first shot. The shot was returned, and the privateer hoisting the bloody
flag grappled the _Portland_ and boarded her on the lee quarter. Laying
hold of the jib-stay Taylor ordered it to be lashed to the packet, and
called upon the passengers and crew to open their musketry. A fierce
engagement ensued, which ended in favour of the _Portland_. Out of
sixty-eight men on board the privateer no less than forty-one were
either killed or wounded. A treacherous shot fired after she had struck
her colours carried off the captain of the packet in the moment of
victory, and as he was endeavouring to allay the carnage.
Among the passengers on board the _Portland_ were four military
officers, captains in the English army. That these officers in no small
measure contributed to the result may be taken for granted; but silent
as to their own deeds they extolled in the highest terms the prowess of
the captain and crew, and it was from the independent testimony which
they and the other passengers bore that the gallant action became known
to the postmasters-general.
Another and still more brilliant engagement had taken place a few years
before. On the 27th of November 1793 the _Antelope_ packet, Captain
Curtis, sailed from Port Royal in Jamaica with twenty-nine men. She,
like the _Portland_, had on board a few passengers, among whom were
Colonel Loppinott, an independent witness to the events that followed,
and a young man of the name of Nodin. Nodin had been a midshipman in
the Royal Navy, and, having resigned his commission, was on his way home
to England to seek for other employment.
On the morning of the 1st of December, when the _Antelope_ was about
five leagues off Cumberland harbour in the island of Cuba, the
_Atalanta_, a French privateer, hove in sight and immediately gave
chase. The privateer carried eight carriage-guns and sixty-five men. The
packet carried the usual six four-pounders, and out of her crew of
twenty-nine men four had died of fever and two others were prostrate
from the same cause, so that her complement was practically reduced to
twenty-three. The pursuit continued until the morning of the 3rd, when,
the _Atalanta_ coming within gunshot and hoisting French colours and the
bloody flag, broadsides were exchanged. The two ships now grappled, and
on the part of the privateer an attempt was made to board both fore and
aft. Fore, the assailing party, fifteen in number, were swept away by
the guns; aft, where there were no guns, the assault was also repulsed
but at a cost of life which made the disproportion between the numbers
on the two sides even greater than before. Among those that were killed
in this sally was the captain of the packet; and the mate having been
severely wounded, the command devolved upon John Pascoe, the boatswain.
Another attempt was now made to board, and, like the first, was
successfully resisted.
This result was largely due to Nodin's intrepidity. Standing by the helm
and armed with a pike and a musket he alternately used these weapons
with deadly effect. As the men climbed the sides, he sprang forward and
cut them down with his pike; then he returned to the helm and righted
the ship; then seizing his musket he loaded it and flew to quarters; and
as he was cool and collected and a sure marksman every shot told. On the
repulse of the second attempt to board, the privateer's grappling-rope
was cut and she tried to sheer off; but this Pascoe prevented by lashing
her square sail-yard to the fore-shrouds of the packet. The privateer's
fire now began to slacken, which was only a signal to the others to
renew their energies. The _Antelope_ poured in volley after volley of
small-arms; and at length the marauders cried out for mercy and,
expecting none, some of them jumped into the sea and were drowned.
Altogether, when the bloody flag was torn down from the mast-head of the
_Atalanta_, only thirty men remained out of the sixty-five with which
she had begun the combat; and of these thirty one-half were wounded. The
troubles of the packet were not yet at an end. As the smoke cleared away
she was found to be on fire; and it was not until the mainsail, quarter
cloths, and hammocks had been cut away that she was able to carry her
prize into Anotta Bay.
The officers and crew of the _Antelope_ did not go unrewarded. For
distribution among the survivors and the families of those who had been
killed the House of Assembly in Jamaica voted the sum of 500 guineas;
375 guineas were afterwards presented for the same purpose by the
Society for Encouraging the Capture of French Privateers; the
postmasters-general showered small pensions and gratuities; and--what
was the highest compliment of all--the _Atalanta_, though a droit of
admiralty, was given up to the captors.
It was always when passengers were on board that the Post Office heard
of these brilliant achievements on the part of the packets. We are not
sure that this fact may not help us to unravel the mystery which
perplexed the merchants. May it not be that, when the check exercised by
the presence of passengers was removed, the packets at the end of the
last century, like those of a hundred years before, went in quest of
adventure and matched themselves against superior force or otherwise
engaged in illicit operations? The series of captures which the
merchants could not understand, and, where there were no captures, the
dilatoriness of the voyages, would thus be explained.
The usage of the Post Office one hundred years ago differed in not a few
particulars from the usage of to-day. At the present time no
postmaster-general would think of calling for a daily return of the
number of letters passing through the London office with the amount of
postage paid or to be paid upon them. Yet such a return was, a century
ago, sent to the postmasters-general regularly every morning, and it was
esteemed the most important paper of the day. At the present time any
instruction which may have to be given to the sorting office is entered
in what is called the Order Book; and this book is signed by all whom it
concerns. One hundred years ago, all instructions were made known by the
presidents reading them aloud in the sorting office on Mondays and
Saturdays, when the men were assembled for the purpose. It was thus that
appointments, promotions, and punishments were also announced. One
hundred years ago, when a letter-carrier's walk became vacant, a bell
was rung, and, the letter-carriers being collected together, the vacancy
was offered to the senior, and if the senior declined it, to the next in
rotation, and so on. When a Post Office servant died, his salary was
paid not only to the date of death but to the end of the current
quarter.
Another practice then existed, a practice dictated, as some may think,
by convenience and common sense. It was that counsel engaged in Post
Office cases gave receipts for their fees. In connection with this
practice a curious incident occurred. Walsingham had ordered an
independent inquiry to be made into the solicitor's accounts, and, in
the course of the investigation, the inspector came across a heap of
receipts signed, or purporting to be signed, by some of the most eminent
lawyers of the day. Walsingham had suspected imposition before, and now
he was sure of it. The solicitor, had he been asked, would no doubt have
explained, as indeed was the case, that the practice dated from 1703,
and originated with Godolphin, who, failing to see why counsel engaged
by public offices should be exempt from doing what all other persons
were required to do, issued peremptory injunctions that in legal cases
no more fees should be paid by the Post Office for which receipts were
not given.[76] Instead, however, of addressing himself to the solicitor,
Walsingham referred to Kenyon, the Lord Chief Justice; and Kenyon's
reply, as Walsingham himself admitted, filled him with astonishment. It
was simply that when attorney-general he had always given receipts for
fees from public offices, understanding when he was appointed that such
was the practice, and that it had long been so.
[76] This is Godolphin's letter:--
TREASURY CHAMBERS, _June 8, 1703_.
GENTLEMEN--My Lord Treasurer hath commanded me to signify to you his
Lordship's direction that whenever your Sollicitor shall pay any fees to
any Serjeant or Councellor at law, or give any sum or sums of money for
coppys to any Clerk or Clerks or Officers in any Court or Courts of
Record at Westminster, he shall take a ticket subscribed with the hand
and name of the same Serjeant or Councellor or from the Clerk or Officer
testifying how much he hath received for his fee or hath been paid by
him for coppys, and at what time and how often, according to the statute
in the third year of the reign of King James the First, made and
provided in that behalf, and His Lordship directs you to take care that
what money shall be hereafter expended for law charges relating to the
Revenue under your management, the same be so expressed in the Bill of
Incidents, that it may appear to His Lordship that the above-mentioned
directions have been duly comply'd with.--I am, gentlemen, your most
humble servant,
WILLIAM LOWNDES.
Sir Robert Cotton, Knight, and
Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart.
One more custom we may mention as existing a century ago, a custom which
was then abandoned, but not without manifest reluctance on the part of
those whose interest it was to keep it alive. At the present time our
friends at the Treasury are credited with taking advantage of the
accident of their position to get themselves appointed to the best
situations in all the public offices of the State. One hundred years ago
the blackmail which these gentlemen levied upon the public offices took
another form, a form a little coarser perhaps but less provoking. At the
beginning of each year they exacted tribute which, disguised under the
name of New Year's gifts, were really New Year's extortions. The
correspondence which passed between the Treasury and the Post Office,
when these extortions ceased, unlike official correspondence generally,
is so short and to the point that we cannot do better than give it in
full:--
The TREASURY to the POST OFFICE.
TREASURY CHAMBERS, _Oct. 10, 1797_.
MY LORDS--The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury having
had under their consideration a Report of the Select Committee of
the House of Commons on Finance in the last session of Parliament
respecting this office, I am commanded by their Lordships to
acquaint you that they have determined that the practice of
receiving New Year's gifts by any person in this department shall
be discontinued, and that your Lordships may not send them as
heretofore.--I am, my Lords, etc.,
GEORGE ROSE.
The POST OFFICE to the TREASURY.
GENERAL POST OFFICE, _Jan. 13, 1798_.
MY LORDS--We beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Rose's
letter of the 10th of October acquainting us of your Lordships'
determination that the practice of receiving New Year's gifts by
any person in your department must be discontinued, to which we
shall pay proper attention.
It is necessary to state to your Lordships that Mr. Rose's letter,
although dated the 10th of October 1797, was not brought to this
office until the 1st of January 1798; but it was received in due
time to enable us to attend to the purport of it.--We are, my
Lords, etc.,
CHESTERFIELD.
LEICESTER.
It is needless to add that hitherto these New Year's gifts had been
despatched from the Post Office on the evening of the 31st of December.
Nine years had now passed since the Royal Commissioners had reported
upon the condition of the public offices; and four years had passed
since the Report had seen the light. Pitt had been deliberate enough in
approving the recommendations; but having done so, he had no intention
that they should remain inoperative. And yet he had little confidence
that such would not be the case unless some external influence were
brought to bear. Accordingly recourse was had to an expedient which
might perhaps with advantage be sometimes adopted at the present day.
At Pitt's instigation a Special Committee of the House of Commons was
appointed to ascertain and report how far the recommendations of the
Royal Commissioners had been carried into effect.
The Post Office, on the whole, came well out of the ordeal. Abuses had
been corrected; useless offices had been abolished; and men were no
longer drawing salaries for duties which they did not perform. There
was, however, one notable exception. Todd, the secretary, had during
many years ceased to do any work; yet he had not ceased to draw his full
salary; neither had he ceased to retain his shares in at least one of
the Post Office packets. The Committee denounced his conduct in terms
which far exceeded the ordinary bounds of parliamentary usage. Their
language indeed, as applied to a man of more than eighty years of age,
might even be pronounced to be cruel. And yet scathing as the censure
was, it fell upon callous ears. With a tenacity worthy of a better cause
the old man still clung to his place and his shares. The
postmasters-general now brought pressure to bear. As regards the shares,
which Todd had held unknown to his masters, they insisted upon his
selling them; but his place of secretary they were either unwilling or
unable to wrest from his grasp.
Death at length put an end to the scandal. In June 1798 Todd yielded up
at once his life and his office; and Francis Freeling, according to a
long-standing promise, became Secretary to the Post Office in his
stead.
CHAPTER XIV
FRANCIS FREELING
1798-1817
The name of Francis Freeling has been placed at the head of this
chapter, not because, in devising new means of correspondence or
extending means that already existed, he is to be classed with the
distinguished men who preceded him--with Palmer and Allen, with Dockwra
and Witherings--but because for more than a generation he exercised a
paramount influence in Post Office matters, and during this long period
whatever was done affecting the communications of the country was done
upon his advice.
The first act of importance in which Freeling was concerned after his
appointment as secretary was the establishment of the ship letter
office, an office which owed its origin to the suggestion of Frederick
Bourne, a clerk in the foreign department. Hitherto the packet boats,
where packet boats existed, had been the only means by which
correspondence could be legally sent out of the kingdom; and yet in the
neighbourhood of the Exchange there was hardly a place of public resort
at which letters for America and the West Indies, as well as other
places abroad, were not collected for despatch by private ship. There
was no concealment about the matter. At Lloyds, and the Jamaica, the
Maryland, the Virginia and other coffee-houses, bags were openly hung
up, and all letters dropped into these bags, including those for places
to which there was communication by packet, were taken on board ship,
and, without the intervention of the Post Office, despatched to their
destination, the captains receiving for their transport a gratuity of
2d. apiece.
Illegal as the practice was, Pitt was unwilling to suppress it. The Act
which made it illegal to send by private ship letters which might be
sent by packet had been passed in the time of Queen Anne, and he could
not reconcile it to himself to enforce a law some ninety years old which
had never yet been set in motion. Bourne's idea was to sweep all
ship-letters into the post, and to charge them inwards with a fixed sum
of 4d. and outwards with half the packet rate of postage. If with the
place to which a letter was addressed there was no communication by
packet, the rate was to be fixed at what presumably it would be if such
communication existed. Pitt favoured the idea and adopted it--subject,
however, to one important qualification. Instead of being compulsory the
Act, should an Act be passed, was to be permissive. On this point Pitt
was determined. It was only in return for some service that the Post
Office was entitled to make a charge. And what was the service here? To
seal the bags? This he could not regard as a substantial service--a
service for which a charge should be made. The ship was a private ship,
her commander was not a servant of the Post Office, and the bag of
letters he carried might be, and not infrequently was, for countries in
which neither the Post Office nor any other branch of the British
Government had an accredited agent.
Surely in such circumstances anything in the shape of compulsion was out
of the question, and all that should be done was to invite the merchants
to bring their letters to the Post Office, when the Post Office would
undertake to find a private ship that would carry them. A bill on these
lines was brought in and passed; and on the 10th of September 1799 the
ship letter office was opened, Bourne being appointed to superintend it
under the title of inspector. The new measure failed of its object. On
letters entering the kingdom fourpences were no doubt collected,
because, until these letters had been deposited at the local Post
Office, no vessel was allowed to make entry or to break bulk. But
letters leaving the kingdom left it just as they had been used to leave
it before the ship letter office was established. It was in vain that
the Post Office tempted the keepers of coffee-houses by the offer of
high salaries to become its own agents. All overtures to this end were
resolutely declined; and during many years the letters by private ship
that were sent through the post stood to those that were received
through the same agency in no higher proportion than one to eighteen.
In 1801 the Post Office was called upon to make to the Exchequer a
further contribution to the amount of £150,000. What would have struck
consternation to the hearts of most men was to Freeling a source of
unmixed pleasure. Not only had he a perfect craze for high rates of
postage, but it had long been with him a subject of lament that under
the law as it stood no higher charge was made for a distance of 500
miles than for a distance of 150. This in his view was a glaring defect,
and he now set himself to remedy it. The new rates--which, as he lost no
opportunity of making known, were exclusively of his own devising--were
adopted by the Government, and having passed the Houses of Parliament
came into operation on the 5th of April. As compared with the old rates,
they were as follows:--
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| BEFORE THE 5TH OF APRIL 1801. |
+-----------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+------+
| |Single.|Double.|Treble.|Ounce.|
| +-------+-------+-------+------+
| | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ |
|Not exceeding 15 miles | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
|Above 15 and not exceeding 30 miles| 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
| " 30 " 60 " | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
| " 60 " 100 " | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |
| " 100 " 150 " | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |
|Exceeding 150 miles | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |
+-----------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+------+
+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ON AND AFTER THE 5TH OF APRIL 1801. |
+-----------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+------+
| |Single.|Double.|Treble.|Ounce.|
| +-------+-------+-------+------+
| | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ |
|Not exceeding 15 miles | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
|Above 15 and not exceeding 30 miles| 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
| " 30 " 50 " | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
| " 50 " 80 " | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |
| " 80 " 120 " | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |
| " 120 " 170 " | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |
| " 170 " 230 " | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 |
| " 230 " 300 " | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| " 300 " 400 " | 11 | 22 | 33 | 44 |
| " 400 " 500 " | 12 | 24 | 36 | 48 |
| " 500 " 600 " | 13 | 26 | 39 | 52 |
| " 600 " 700 " | 14 | 28 | 42 | 56 |
|Exceeding 700 miles | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 |
+-----------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+------+
Thus the postage on a single letter was--from London to Brighton, 6d.;
from London to Liverpool, 9d.; and from London to Edinburgh, 1s. A
letter weighing one ounce is now carried from London to Thurso for 1d.
In 1801 the charge was 5s.
On letters to or from places abroad, "not being within His Majesty's
dominions," the postage was at the same time raised by 4d., 8d., 1s.,
and 1s. 4d., according as the letter was single, double, treble, or of
the weight of one ounce.
But there was worse to come. By the Act of 1801 the London penny
post--that post which had been established 120 years before, and which,
its founder had predicted, would endure to all posterity--was swept out
of existence. For us who are now living it is difficult to conceive that
such an enormity should have been possible. Yet there is the fact. After
the passing of the Act of 1801 the London penny post had ceased to be.
Where 1d. had been charged before, the sum of 2d. was to be charged now.
The same Act contained another provision, which it is impossible to
regard otherwise than as a wanton interference with trade. The
Legislature, from the earliest days of the Post Office, had shewn
indulgence to merchants' accounts not exceeding one sheet of paper, to
bills of exchange, invoices, and bills of lading. All these, in the
language of the Act establishing the Post Office--the Act of 1660--were
to be "without rate in the price of the letters"; and a similar
provision was contained in the Act of Anne. Owing, however, to a faulty
construction of the clause it was doubtful whether the exemption was
confined to foreign letters or whether it applied to inland letters as
well. The merchants contended that inland letters were included;
otherwise, as they pointed out, a letter might "go cheaper to
Constantinople than to Bristol." The postmasters-general, on the other
hand, insisted that the exemption applied only to foreign letters, and,
in order to set doubts at rest, they early in the reign of George the
Second procured an Act to be passed declaring their interpretation to be
the right one. As regards foreign letters, therefore, there had never
been the slightest doubt as to either the intention or the practice.
When enclosed in letters going or coming from abroad, merchants'
accounts not exceeding one sheet of paper, bills of exchange, invoices,
and bills of lading had from the first establishment of the Post Office
been exempt from postage; and now after an interval of more than 140
years this exemption, like the penny post, was swept away. Henceforth
these documents were to be charged as so many several letters.
Yet one more provision in the Act of 1801 it is necessary to notice as
introducing a novel principle. This Act gave power to the
postmasters-general to grant postal facilities to towns and villages
where no Post Offices existed, provided the inhabitants were prepared to
pay such sums as might be mutually agreed upon. As the postmasters-general
were already authorised to establish Penny Post Offices wherever
they might see fit out of London, the object of this fresh power
may not be very clear. It was not that the Post Office might be
able to charge for the local service more than 1d. a letter, for in
no single instance, so far as we are aware, was more than 1d. charged,
but that in arranging the local service the Post Office might have a
freedom of action which it did not possess under the statute empowering
it to establish penny posts. In short, the object of the power was to
enable the Post Office, in concert with the inhabitants of the towns and
villages concerned, to try experiments.
As a natural consequence of the high rates of postage, the illegal
conveyance of letters now became general. This was an offence to which
Freeling gave no quarter. Wherever information could be obtained that
letters were being conveyed otherwise than by post, there a prosecution
was instituted. The extent to which the policy of repression was carried
less than a century ago may seem incredible. In Scotland, for instance,
every carrier and every master of a stage-coach as well as many others
were served with notice of prosecution. In that part of the kingdom
alone no less than 1200 prosecutions were instituted simultaneously.
Even Parkin, the solicitor to the Post Office in England, was absolutely
aghast at the zeal of his colleague over the Border, and counselled
moderation. Freeling, on the other hand, expressed entire approval,
declaring that the Scotch solicitor was to be encouraged and not
restrained. Nor were the prosecutions merely nominal. An unfortunate
Post Office servant, or rider as he was called, had been detected in
carrying forty unposted letters. This man, whose wages did not exceed a
few shillings a week, was sued upon each letter, and adjudged to pay
forty separate penalties of 10s. apiece.
Lord Auckland and Lord Charles Spencer were at this time
postmasters-general. Spencer had been only recently appointed. Auckland
had held his appointment for a couple of years, and by virtue of his
seniority took the lead. Seldom, perhaps, has there been a more kindly
postmaster-general, or one who to an equal extent enlivened by sprightly
sallies the dull monotony of official work. The postmaster of Tring had
opened a letter from Freeling to Sir John Sebright. The postmaster
pleaded that the opening was accidental; Freeling maintained that it was
wilful, and recommended the man's dismissal. Auckland ordered him to be
reprimanded for culpable negligence. It may, no doubt, he said, have
been a wilful act; but it may also have been an act of inadvertence.
And then, in order to remove any feeling of soreness which Freeling may
have entertained at his recommendation being set aside, he
good-naturedly added, "_Multi alii hoc fecerunt etiam et boni_." "I
have," he continued, "a fellow-feeling on the occasion. My appetite for
reading is as much sickened as that of any man-cook for the tasting of
high sauces; and yet so lately as last night I tore the envelope of a
letter which a little attention would have shewn was not for me."
On another occasion two postmistresses--the postmistress of Faversham
and the postmistress of Croydon--simultaneously announced their
intention of marrying, each for the third time, and asked that their
offices, which as married women they would be incompetent to continue to
hold, might be transferred to their future husbands. Auckland gave the
permission sought, adding, in the case of the postmistress of Faversham,
"I meet the repeated applications of this active deputy with great
complacency, and in the words of Lady Castlemaine's answer to our
mutton-eating monarch--
'Again and again, my liege, said she,
And as oft as shall please your Majesty.'"
Bennett, the man to whom the postmistress of Croydon was engaged, had
been known to her for some time, and she bore testimony to his
qualifications for the post to which he aspired. "The Croydon lady, who
is also laudably prone to a reiteration of nuptials," wrote Auckland,
"rests her case on grounds less solid. I have no doubt of her judgment
and testimony respecting the ability of Mr. Robert Thomas Bennett; but
for the sake of the precedent the sufficiency should be certified either
by the surveyor of the district, or by the vicar or some principal
inhabitant."
With such pleasantries as these Auckland beguiled the tediousness of
official work; but in serious matters, matters affecting the interests
of the public, he appears to have exerted little will of his own. Once,
indeed, he expressed some misgiving as to the propriety of the course
pursued. It was in the case of the Scotch prosecutions. "I own," he
said, "that I was a little surprised to find that so large a measure as
that of commencing 1200 prosecutions has been undertaken without our
special cognisance; but this circumstance," he added, "is in some degree
explained." The reproof, if reproof it can be called, could hardly have
been milder; and yet as coming from Auckland it was a severe one. It had
not the effect, however--nor probably was it designed to have the
effect--of checking the general policy on which Freeling had embarked.
That policy was one of repression, and in England hardly less than in
Scotland prosecutions went merrily on.
Indeed, the repressive powers of the Post Office, large as they were
already, were yet not large enough to satisfy headquarters. Freeling
discerned clearly enough that, if only a sufficiently high consideration
were offered, persons would always be found to carry letters
clandestinely. Might it not be possible to strike at the source of the
mischief, and make it penal for persons clandestinely to send them? The
tempters would thus be reached as well as the tempted. At all events the
experiment should be tried.
With this object Freeling now devoted himself to the preparation of a
bill, one clause of which rendered liable to penalties persons sending
letters otherwise than by the post. The bill, which was throughout of a
highly penal character, eventually passed into law,[77] but not without
grave misgivings on the part of Eldon, the Lord Chancellor, and
Ellenborough, the Chief Justice. It was only in deference to the urgent
representations of the Post Office that these two eminent men consented
to the introduction of the measure, and, while waiving their objections
to it, they strongly recommended that "great lenity should be used in
its execution." It will be interesting to note how far this
recommendation was acted on.
[77] 42 George III. cap. lxxxi. (June 20, 1802).
Having settled the postage rates to his satisfaction, Freeling obtained
permission to carry out his favourite project of guarding the
horse-mails. The arguments in favour of this measure were overwhelming.
During the five years which had elapsed since the Treasury had refused
their assent, these mails had been stopped and rifled of their contents
on fifteen different occasions; and on the last of these--when the Lewes
mail was robbed in the neighbourhood of East Grinstead--bills had been
stolen to the amount of nearly £14,000. During the same period seven
persons had been executed for participation in these felonies; three
were awaiting trial; and the cost of prosecutions amounted to £2000 or
£3000 a year. The annual cost of Freeling's plan, as he now proposed to
modify it, would not exceed £1500. Moved by these considerations, the
Treasury gave at length the necessary authority, and the horse-posts
throughout the country, except on the less important roads, were
provided with a strong cap for the protection of the head, a jacket, a
brace of pistols, and a hanger.
We have said that during the last five years--the five years ending in
August 1801--the horse-mails had been robbed on fifteen different
occasions. One of these robberies occurred between the towns of Selby
and York. It was a commonplace robbery enough, with little or nothing to
distinguish it from any other; and yet for a reason which will presently
appear we give a copy of the letter in which the particulars were
reported to headquarters:--
To FRANCIS FREELING, Esq.
POST OFFICE, YORK, _Feb. 22, 1798_.
SIR--I am sorry to acquaint you the post-boy coming from Selby to
this city was robbed of his mail between six and seven o'clock this
evening. About three miles on this side of Selby he was accosted by
a man on foot with a gun in his hand, who asked him if he was the
post-boy, and at the same time seized hold of the bridle. Without
waiting for any answer he told the boy he must immediately unstrap
the mail and give it him, pointing the muzzle of the gun at him
whilst he did it. When he had given up the mail, the boy begged he
would not hurt him, to which the man replied he need not be afraid,
and at the same time pulled the bridle from the horse's head. The
horse immediately galloped off with the boy, who had never
dismounted.
He was a stout man dressed in a drab jacket, and had the appearance
of being a hicklar. The boy was too much frightened to make any
other remark on his person, and says he was totally unknown to him.
The mail contained the bags for Howden and London, Howden and York,
and Selby and York. I have informed the surveyor of the robbery,
and have forwarded hand-bills this night to be distributed in the
country, and will take care to insert it in the first papers
published here.--Waiting your further instructions, I remain with
respect, sir, your obliged and obedient humble servant,
THOMAS OLDFIELD.
Let us now go forward to the year 1876. In that year this identical bag,
for which a reward had been offered at the time without result, was
placed in our hands, having been found concealed in the roof of an old
wayside public-house situated not far from the scene of the robbery, and
then in course of demolition. The original documents were called for and
produced; and thus, after an interval of nearly eighty years, the bag
and the official papers in which its loss was reported have come
together and found one common resting-place. Of the identity of the bag
there is no question. Not only do the form and texture proclaim it to be
of the last century, but it bears upon it the word "Selby," and a
medallion with the letters "G. R."[78]
[78] This experience is not to be compared with that of Inspector
Dicker, who in 1839 wrote to the Secretary of the Post Office as
follows:--
"HONOURED SIR ... On arriving at Caxton, in the course of conversation
with the landlord of the Crown Public-House respecting the loss of the
above-mentioned bag, he informed me he had found a mail bag secreted
under an oak floor between the joists that supported the floor in one of
the upper rooms of his house, and that the letters it contained were of
very ancient date, as far back as the year 1702. I requested to be
allowed to see them, and, on his producing them, discovered it to be a
London bag labelled Tuxford. I desired to be allowed to take two of the
letters with me and a bit of the bag, which I gave to Mr. Peacock the
solicitor. The only intelligence I could gain as to the probable cause
of the bag being found there was that a post-rider was robbed and
murdered about the date of the above-mentioned letters." The two letters
are still with the official papers. One of them is undecipherable. The
other is nearly as legible as on the day it was written. In it the
writer announces to his uncle the death of his mother from "the Small
Pox and purples," and states that this disease is devastating the town
of Kirtlington.
The troubles which had long been brewing with the mail-coach contractors
now came to a climax. In 1797 an Act of Parliament had been passed
imposing a duty of 1d. a mile upon all public carriages. The mail-coach
contractors bitterly complained of this impost, and not without reason.
A penny a mile was all they received for carrying the mails, and the new
statute virtually took this 1d. away, leaving them without any payment
at all for their services. It had been overlooked that the mail-coach
was not as other coaches were. The ordinary stage-coach was at liberty
to carry as many passengers as its proprietor pleased, and it was no
unusual thing for eight or nine and even ten to be carried inside, the
number outside being limited only by considerations of safety. The
mail-coach, on the contrary, was rigidly restricted to five
passengers--four inside and one out--and the Post Office rejected all
proposals for so altering the construction of the coach as to admit of
its carrying more.
Then came the year 1799, a year of scarcity, during which all kinds of
horse provender reached unprecedented prices. The Government refused to
bring in a bill exempting the mail-coaches from the new duty; and it
only remained for the Post Office to raise the allowance which the
contractors received from 1d. to 2d. a mile, a measure involving an
additional payment of £12,000 a year. The second penny, however, was
granted only as a temporary allowance, terminable at the end of one year
and three-quarters, and, unlike most allowances given under a similar
condition, it actually ceased at the appointed time.
The clamour of two years before now broke out afresh and with redoubled
force. The tax on public carriages remained; and horse provender had
become no cheaper. Did not justice demand that the additional penny
should continue to be paid? The Post Office was disinclined to contest
the claim; but acting under orders from above--orders which assuredly
would not have been given had Pitt remained minister--it proceeded to
bargain, and at length, after much haggling, the contractors were
prevailed upon to accept one-half of the temporary allowance or an
additional 1/2d. a mile for a further period of eighteen months, viz.
from the 10th of October 1802 to the 5th of April 1804, when the
question was to be again considered. A temporary expedient of this
nature seldom answers; and the present was no exception to the rule.
Eventually the Post Office had to give rather more than need have been
given in the first instance, and after 1804 the mails were carried at an
average rate of 2-1/8d. the single or 4-1/4d. the double mile.
Other alterations followed. To the postmasters' salaries an increase was
made all round, an increase small indeed individually but large in the
aggregate. What had been done for Manchester eight years before was now
done for Liverpool. The Post Office there was remodelled and a penny
post established. An end was, about the same time, put to a most
objectionable arrangement. As a reward for their services in promoting
Palmer's plan, three of the surveyors had been appointed to
postmasterships, and these appointments they held in addition to their
own proper appointments as surveyor. Thus, one of their number was
postmaster of Gloucester, another postmaster of Honiton, and a third
postmaster of Portsmouth.
These appointments were now taken away, but under circumstances
calculated to leave the least possible soreness among those from whom
they were taken. Not only were the salaries of all three raised from
£100 to £150 a year, but the son of the surveyor who was postmaster of
Gloucester was appointed to Gloucester, and the daughter of the one who
was postmaster of Honiton was appointed to Honiton. The postmaster of
Portsmouth, who had neither son nor daughter to succeed him, was, in
accordance with a practice then very common, assigned the sum of £80 a
year out of his successor's salary. This sum he received in addition to
his own salary of £150 as surveyor.
In 1805, for the third time within eight years, the Post Office was
called upon to make a further contribution to the Exchequer; and again
Freeling devoted himself to the congenial task of revising and
increasing the postage rates. Unwilling to destroy the symmetry of his
own handiwork, he simply suggested that to the rates as prescribed by
the Act of 1801 should be added--1d. for a single letter, 2d. for a
double letter, 3d. for a treble letter, and 4d. for a letter weighing as
much as one ounce. The suggestion was adopted, and after the 12th of
March, the date on which the new Act was passed, the postage on a single
letter was--from London to Brighton, 7d. instead of 6d.; from London to
Liverpool, 10d. instead of 9d.; and from London to Edinburgh, 1s. 1d.
instead of 1s.
But this was by no means all. In London, as we have seen, the penny post
had, four years before, been converted into a twopenny post; and now the
twopenny post, in respect to letters for places beyond the general post
limits, was converted into a threepenny one. Thus, Abingdon Street,
Westminster, was within the limits of the general post delivery, but
Millbank was beyond them. Accordingly, a letter for Millbank, even
though posted no farther off than Charing Cross, was to be charged 3d.,
while the charge on a letter to Abingdon Street remained at 2d. as
before.
The Act of 1805 introduced a still further complication. Letters from
the country addressed to any part of London that was outside the limits
of the general post were to be consigned to the twopenny post, and, in
addition to all other postage, to be charged with the sum of 2d. Thus,
of two letters of the same weight delivered at the same time and by the
same person, one, originating in the country, would have to pay 2d., and
the other, originating in London, would have to pay 3d.
To record, therefore, that in 1805 the postage on a single letter--as,
for instance, between London and Plymouth--was 10d., although in one
sense correct, would give an imperfect idea of the real state of the
case. Plymouth was one of the towns which possessed village or
convention posts. Suppose a letter from one of the villages to which
these posts extended to have been addressed to Knightsbridge or any
other part of London situated outside the general post boundary. The
postage would have been not 10d. but 10d. + 2d. + whatever might have
been agreed upon for the village accommodation.
But more than this. There were certain towns through which, though lying
off the direct road, the mail-coaches passed for a consideration. Such
towns were Hinckley in Leicestershire, Atherstone in Warwickshire, and
Tamworth in Staffordshire. Here, in consideration of the accommodation
afforded by the mail-coach passing through, the inhabitants undertook to
pay in addition to all other postage 1d. on each letter. A day came when
they sought to be relieved from this impost. Vain aspiration! Had they
not agreed for a penny a letter? And, for any relief that the Post
Office would give, a penny a letter they should pay to the end of time.
It may safely be affirmed that at the present day no increase of postage
would produce a corresponding increase of revenue. Such, unhappily, was
not the case at the beginning of the century. People did not then write
unless they had something to say which could not be left unsaid without
loss or inconvenience. Trade, moreover, was rapidly expanding, and, as a
consequence of the war, the ports were closed. Thus, correspondence was
driven inland; and upon inland correspondence, unlike correspondence
with foreign parts, the Government received the whole of the postage.
But be the cause what it might, it must be owned that, in respect to the
returns which they brought to the Exchequer, the three increases of
postage made in 1797, 1801, and 1805 answered expectation. This, though
not a justification, is perhaps their best excuse. In 1796, the year
before the first of the three increases was made, the net Post Office
revenue was £479,000; in 1806, the year after the last of them, it was
£1,066,000. The same result is apparent in the case of what, for
distinction's sake, we will still call the London penny post, although
the London penny post had become a twopenny and threepenny one. In 1796
the net revenue derived from this source was £8000; in 1806 it was
£41,000.
Among those who about this time criticised the doings of the Post
Office was William Cobbett. Cobbett was regarded by Freeling as a base
calumniator with whom no terms were to be kept; and yet on a
dispassionate retrospect it is impossible to deny that on the whole his
criticisms were just, and that such of them as appeared in print[79]
were expressed in not intemperate language. At the present time far
stronger language is used every day under far less provocation. Of
Cobbett's numerous subjects of complaint we will mention only two--the
so-called "early delivery" of letters and the treatment of foreign
newspapers; and these have been selected because they serve to
illustrate, better perhaps than any others, the practice of the Post
Office eighty or ninety years ago. The latter of the two subjects serves
also to explain much that would otherwise be inexplicable.
[79] _Weekly Political Register_, Nos. 25 and 26, 21st and 28th Dec.
1805.
The "early delivery"--a species of accommodation confined to London--was
not what its name would seem to imply, because no letters were even
begun to be delivered before nine o'clock in the morning. It was really
a preferential delivery, a delivery restricted to those who chose to pay
for it. For a fee or, as the Post Office preferred to call it, a
subscription of 5s. a quarter or £1 a year, any one residing within
certain limits, including the whole of the city and extending westward
as far as Hamilton Place, could get his letters in advance of the
general delivery. It was managed thus. At nine o'clock or a little after
the letter-carriers started from Lombard Street; and those for the
remoter districts, in addition to their own letters, took letters for
the districts through which they passed in proceeding to their own and,
without waiting for the postage, dropped them at the houses of
subscribers. The postage was collected in the course of the week by the
regular letter-carrier of the district.
Against this preferential delivery, a delivery purchased by individuals
at the expense of the general public, Cobbett very justly inveighed.
Freeling, on the other hand, defended it as a priceless boon to
merchants and traders who desired to receive their letters before the
appointed hour. He omitted to explain, however, why a boon which could
be bought by some could not be given gratuitously to all. It is a
curious fact that this early delivery, essentially unfair as it was,
continued to exist for more than thirty years after the period of which
we are now writing. As late as 1835 and 1836 it was still in vogue, and
not only the merchants and traders of London but the denizens of the
squares were largely availing themselves of it. But it was chiefly in
the city that the practice flourished. Thus, on the morning of the 9th
of May 1828, out of a total of 637 letters for the Lombard Street
district no less than 570 were "delivered early."
The second of Cobbett's complaints, or rather the second which we
propose to notice, had reference to the treatment of foreign newspapers.
What this treatment was at the beginning of the present century may
appear hardly credible to us who live at the end of it. Except at the
letter rate of postage, no newspapers could either enter or leave the
kingdom unless they were franked;[80] and the power of franking them was
restricted to Post Office servants. This power was as old as the Post
Office itself; and so was the practice of exercising it for a
consideration. What was new was an arrangement or understanding between
Freeling and Arthur Stanhope, the head of the foreign department, by
virtue of which Stanhope in conjunction with his subordinates franked
newspapers for the Continent, and Freeling franked those for America and
the British possessions abroad.
[80] What we have here called "franked" newspapers went free in both
directions; but of course it was only newspapers outwards that bore a
signature on the superscription. On those inwards a signature was
immaterial, as they would in any case go, without being charged, direct
from the port of arrival to Lombard Street. Abroad, special arrangements
for their transit and delivery were made from London. Thus, the London
Office by means of its private agency could get an English newspaper
delivered in Paris for 2d. By post, the charge between Calais and Paris
would have been from 3s. to 4s.
Here was a mine of wealth. Newspapers were rapidly increasing in number
and postage was rapidly rising. Of course, so long as the price charged
for franking was kept well below the cost of postage, the demand for
franks would be brisk. Before the century was sixteen years old Freeling
and Stanhope were drawing from this source more than £3000 a year each.
Cobbett had had personal experience of the system. He had paid a visit
to America, and having while there been supplied with a newspaper from
England, he had on his return been presented with a bill for nine
guineas as the price of franking. Not only did he refuse to pay the
bill, and persist in his refusal in spite of repeated applications, but
he inveighed in his paper against the practice which made such a charge
possible. This was in 1802. He now, in December 1805, renewed his attack
upon the Post Office; but this time it was in respect to the manner in
which newspapers were treated on their arrival in England, a treatment
still more extraordinary than that which they received on despatch.
The matter is somewhat complicated, and in order to explain it we must
go back a few years. Till the breaking out of the French Revolution and
the Continental wars which succeeded it, foreign intelligence had long
been uninteresting and was little sought after. The few newspapers that
were published in London had confined themselves almost exclusively to
domestic matters. Then came a sudden change. Domestic matters fell into
the background. The whole country was eager to learn what was taking
place on the other side of the Channel. Newspapers multiplied apace.
Where there was one before, there were now half a dozen, all hungering
for foreign intelligence. Here was an opportunity for the clerks in the
foreign department of the Post Office. These clerks, in conjunction with
their comptroller, had the exclusive right of franking newspapers for
the Continent, just as newspapers circulating within Great Britain were
franked by the clerks of the roads. They had also, by virtue of their
position, unequalled facilities for getting newspapers from abroad, and
of these facilities they now availed themselves to the utmost.
It would not be correct to state that at this time they established a
foreign news-agency, for this they had done long ago; but what had
hitherto been an insignificant business now became a large and important
one. It may be interesting to trace its progress. At the time of which
we are writing--from 1789 onwards--the foreign correspondence was seldom
in course of distribution in London till the afternoon, owing to the
then established custom of waiting till two o'clock for any mail that
might be due. Thus, a foreign mail arriving at three o'clock in the
afternoon of one day might not be delivered until the same hour in the
afternoon of the following day.
Another curious custom prevailed at this time. It was considered right,
as a matter of international courtesy, that no foreign newspapers should
be delivered until the foreign ministers had received their
correspondence; and this correspondence, though delivered separately
from the general correspondence, was seldom delivered earlier. Meanwhile
the newspapers were held in reserve by the clerks, ready to be delivered
to their customers as soon as delivery was permissible by the rule of
the office. This was a state of things which readily lent itself to
malpractices. The person whom the comptroller appointed to distribute
the foreign newspapers was an old woman of the name of Cooper, and in
her custody they remained during the close time, the time during which
the foreign ministers' correspondence was preparing for delivery. This
woman had a son who assisted her in the distribution, a young man of
some ability and of no principle. He was not slow to take advantage of
his position. From the foreign newspapers, while in his mother's
custody, he jotted down the points of interest and sold his jottings to
the London newspapers. The profits he derived from this source assumed
such proportions that in the course of a few years he was reputed to
have amassed a not inconsiderable fortune. From one newspaper alone, the
_Courier_, he received no less than £200 in a single year.
Thus matters went on, save only that owing to the establishment of a
second delivery of foreign correspondence the interval during which
newspapers lay at the Post Office was shortened, until the year 1796,
when Stanhope's appointment as comptroller put an end to one scandal
merely to establish another. No sooner had Stanhope taken up his
appointment than the clerks, who had long protested in vain against
Cooper's conduct, broke out into fresh complaints; and the arrangement
was then made which called forth Cobbett's invective. Why, argued
Stanhope, should not that which Cooper has been doing clandestinely be
done openly and under official sanction? It is true a rule exists that
foreign newspapers must not be delivered in advance of the foreign
ministers' correspondence; but a carefully-compiled summary of the
contents of a newspaper is a very different thing from the newspaper
itself. This, surely, might be delivered to the London editors without a
breach either of the rule itself or of the considerations on which it
was founded.
Such were Stanhope's arguments, and he proceeded to put them into
practice. With few if any exceptions, the editors of the London
newspapers, both morning and evening, fell into the plan. French and
Dutch translators were engaged, and into their hands the foreign
newspapers were placed as soon as they arrived at the Post Office. For
each summary the charge was one guinea, and as there were generally two
summaries a week, the sum which each editor paid was a little over £100
a year. The entire proceeds, after payment of expenses, were divided in
certain proportions between Stanhope and his subordinates.
In 1801 and again in 1802 Cobbett had inveighed against a practice which
thus amerced the editors of the London newspapers; but he might as well
have preached to the winds. The practice was far too remunerative to be
abandoned without a struggle. It is true that no one need take a summary
unless he liked; but if he omitted to take one, it was at the cost of
having only stale news to publish.
At the close of 1805 circumstances were somewhat altered, and Cobbett
renewed his attack. Communication by Dover was closed, and
correspondence from the Continent could reach England only by Holland
and Gravesend. The best arrangements of which the circumstances admitted
were made for keeping up the supply of foreign newspapers and summaries;
but after a while they broke down, and the Post Office was forced to
seek the assistance of the Alien Office. This office had agents at
Gravesend, and undertook during the emergency to do what had hitherto
been done by the Post Office. Cobbett saw his opportunity, and was not
slow to take advantage of it. It had been dinned into his ears that it
was through the Post Office alone that foreign newspapers could be
legally obtained, and that the department could make what arrangements
it pleased for their distribution. But arrangements which in the hands
of the Post Office were tolerated only because they had, or were
supposed to have, legal sanction had now been transferred to the Alien
Office. What, then, asked Cobbett, had become of the law? To this
inquiry the Post Office did not find it convenient to vouchsafe a reply.
But a still more formidable antagonist than Cobbett was about to deliver
an assault. This was the _Times_ newspaper. The _Times_, although among
what Cobbett called "the guinea-giving papers," seldom made use of the
summaries which the guineas purchased, regarding them as meagre and
unsatisfactory. Drawing from other and more fertile sources, it
contrived in the matter of priority of intelligence to distance all
competitors. On one occasion, indeed--a remarkable feat for those
days--it even forestalled the "Court," or, as they were now called, the
"State" letters, which, unlike the ordinary letters, were delivered the
moment the mail arrived. It was in 1807, when George Canning was Foreign
Secretary. Canning had not yet opened his despatches, and was amazed to
find in his morning's paper information of which he had received no
previous notice, and which, as he afterwards found, the despatches
contained. Indignant that his intelligence should have been thus
anticipated, he instantly wrote to the Post Office demanding an
explanation. Angry as Canning was, the reply he received can hardly
have failed to evoke a smile. This reply was that the Continental
newspapers from which the _Times_ had derived its information had been
obtained not from the Post Office but from the Foreign Office, and that
they had reached this office in Canning's own bag under a cover
addressed to himself.
The _Times_ had long protested against the intolerable delay which
foreign newspapers sustained at the Post Office. Especially had it
protested against the absurdity of a system which, while withholding the
newspapers themselves, yet permitted a summary of their contents to be
published. But it had still more personal grounds of complaint. Letters
for the _Times_, sealed letters addressed by permission to the
Under-Secretaries of State, were excluded from the Foreign Office bag
and kept back for the general delivery because, forsooth, the clerks at
the Post Office were pleased to feel sure that these letters contained
foreign newspapers, and feared that by forwarding them they would damage
their own interests.
Such were the amazing liberties taken with correspondence in those days.
No wonder that the _Times_ proceeded to resent the outrage. In its issue
of the 9th of May 1807 appeared an article which, after charging the
Post Office with extortions and with sacrificing public convenience to
the avarice of individuals, proceeded to declare that its administration
was a disgrace to the Government. Freeling's indignation knew no bounds.
That the charge was just never seems to have occurred to him. In his
view it was nothing less than a libel--a libel of the most malignant
character. Never had man been more cruelly wronged than himself. The
postmasters-general, Lords Sandwich and Chichester, had been only four
days in office, and their chief-officer was as yet unknown to them.
Obviously the intention was to damage this officer's reputation in the
eyes of his new masters. But this intention should be frustrated. A
criminal information should be filed. No; not a criminal information,
for thus the aggressor's mouth would be closed. It should be a civil
suit or action at law; and then the aggressor would be at liberty to
tell his own tale, and all the world should see how little justification
there was for his aspersions.
At this time it was not known to Freeling that letters for the _Times_
sent under cover to the Under-Secretaries of State were being diverted
from the ordinary course; and when, a little later on, the fact of
diversion became known to him, the terms in which he expressed his sense
of the impropriety were such as even the aggrieved newspaper would
probably have held to leave nothing to be desired. But to apologise and
arrest proceedings--these were things which would appear not to have
come within the sphere of contemplation. An action had been begun, and
it must proceed to the bitter end. A righteous cause is not necessarily
one that can be defended at law. Such would seem to have been the case
in the present instance, for when the action came on for trial, the
_Times_ failed to appear, and judgment went by default.
Freeling was jubilant over the result. Here was a triumphant vindication
of his own and Stanhope's proceedings. A charge had been brought--a
charge as serious as any that could be levelled against a public
department, and not even an attempt had been made to substantiate it.
This was a happy termination of an unhappy business. So, at least,
thought Freeling; but, as a matter of fact, the business was far from
being terminated yet.
On the 27th of July, within three weeks of his reporting to the
postmasters-general the result of the action at law, appeared a second
article headed "Post Office," in which the iniquities of the system were
ruthlessly exposed. Strong language, indeed--language such as two months
before had brought the _Times_ within the meshes of the law--was
carefully avoided, and the article confined itself to a bare narrative
of facts. But the case against the Post Office lost nothing on this
account. The facts spoke for themselves, and these, stated in their
naked simplicity, constituted an indictment, to the weight of which no
words could add. We can well believe that from this period the _Times_
received its foreign newspapers in due course; but in other respects the
only effect which the appearance of the second article had upon the Post
Office was to spoil the triumph which it was celebrating over the result
of the first. As to changing their practice and setting their house in
order, this appears not to have occurred to either Freeling or Stanhope.
On the contrary, they regarded themselves as deeply-injured persons,
and, by dint of sheer importunity, induced the postmasters-general to
consent to a second prosecution. Wiser counsels, however, prevailed. The
attorney-general, to whom the official papers were sent, took care not
to return them, and to the present day the Post Office is without these
interesting records.
It is time we inquired what measure of success had attended the
experimental posts--the posts by which, under mutual agreement between
the Post Office and the inhabitants, small towns and villages were to be
connected with post towns. Village posts, they were sometimes called;
but more commonly fifth-clause posts, from the clause of the Act under
which they were established. At first they answered well, but in 1807 an
authoritative decision to the effect that franked letters and newspapers
conveyed by a fifth-clause post were exempt from charge tended
materially to disconcert arrangements. Franked letters, though exempt
from charge by the general post, were not exempt either by the penny
posts in the country or by the twopenny post in London; and it had been
taken for granted that they, as well as newspapers, would not be exempt
by the fifth-clause posts.
But it had now been decided otherwise, and this made all the difference.
In arranging these posts nothing more had been aimed at than to make
them self-supporting, and in adjusting the receipts and expenditure
franks and newspapers had been counted as so many letters; but if these
were to be eliminated, the balance would be on the wrong side. A service
that was not self-supporting was, at the beginning of the century,
regarded by the Post Office authorities as an abomination; and saddled
as they were with a number of fifth-clause posts which had ceased to
pay their own expenses, it became a serious question what was best to be
done.
A decision was precipitated by the action of the little town of Olney in
Buckinghamshire. Olney had at one time received from headquarters in
Lombard Street what was called "an allowance in aid of its post"; but
when fifth-clause posts were introduced this allowance ceased, and the
inhabitants, in consideration of their being supplied with an official
messenger from Newport Pagnel, agreed to pay over and above all other
postage the sum of 1d. on each letter delivered. This agreement had now
existed for several years, and the inhabitants had grown a little tired
of it, being of opinion that a private messenger of their own could be
procured on easier terms. Accordingly they petitioned headquarters to
reduce the rate they were paying from 1d. to 1/2d. a letter, and, the
request being refused, they proceeded to consider whether their
agreement should not be terminated.
This having come to Freeling's ears, he stopped the post at once, and
the inhabitants were left to get their letters as best they could. Not
even notice of his intention had been given. Nor was this all. These
capricious and discontented people, he said, should have imposed upon
them a penny post. Under a penny post they would still have their pence
to pay; and the pence would be payable, not, as under the fifth-clause
post, only on the letters delivered, but on those collected as well.
This, while operating as a punitive measure, would have the incidental
advantage of adding to the revenue. Freeling was a bold man, and yet,
bold as he was, his courage deserted him in this instance. At the last
moment, after arrangements had been made for converting the fifth-clause
post into a penny post, the order for conversion was revoked. To impose
a penny post, he argued, would be no injustice; it would not even be a
hardship, and yet these unreasonable people would be sure to represent
it as such. They would urge that at one time their town had received an
allowance in aid of its post; that then a foot-messenger had been
established, and they paid 1d. on each letter delivered; and that now
because they proposed to replace this messenger, as the Act of
Parliament gave them power to do, by a messenger of their own, who would
perform the service at a cheaper rate, an older Act was brought to bear
upon them which, while obliging them to pay 1d. on each letter collected
as well as delivered, made the employment of their own messenger
illegal.
Such were the arguments by which Freeling excused himself to the
postmasters-general, as though an excuse were necessary, for not going
on with the high-handed proceeding he had originally contemplated. In
the result, Olney was given a Post Office of its own, being made in
technical language a sub-office under Newport Pagnel, the post town. A
rule was at the same time laid down to the effect that fifth-clause
posts should no longer be maintained except in the case of small towns.
To connect these with post towns fifth-clause posts might still be
continued; but, in the case of villages and hamlets, they were to be
replaced by penny posts. From this rule the fifth-clause posts received
their death-blow. Such of them as were village posts were promptly
converted into penny posts; and such as were town posts, as the small
towns acquired Post Offices of their own, became gradually merged in the
general posts of the kingdom.
The Post Office, which during the last ten or fifteen years had done
much to impair its own utility, was now to receive a check from without;
and this in respect to a branch of its service which was perhaps least
open to criticism. The mail-coach system had continued to prosper. In
1811 the number of mail-coaches constantly running in Great Britain was
about 220, and the extent of road over which they travelled was between
11,000 and 12,000 miles a day. The country gentry and the commercial
classes vied with each other in demanding an extension of the system.
Towns lying off the main road were glad to pay 1d. a letter in addition
to the postage on condition of the mail-coach passing through them on
its way. The mail-coach, moreover, apart from the facilities it
afforded for communication, brought traffic in its train. It gave, in
the language of the time, publicity to the roads. Palmer had, more than
twenty years before, noticed this result and commented upon it. He found
as a matter of experience that wherever a mail-coach was set up other
traffic followed, and the post-chaises along the road were furbished up
and better conducted.
But popular as the new system was on the whole, there was one class of
persons with whom it was distinctly the reverse. These were the trustees
of the roads. With them the exemption from toll which the mail-coaches
enjoyed was a constant source of complaint. Nor was it calculated to
abate their discontent that the Post Office, in whose favour the
exemption was granted, possessed the power, a power which it constantly
exercised, of indicting the roads if they were not kept in proper
repair. The state of the trusts was at this time far from flourishing.
In the neighbourhood of London and other large towns where traffic was
considerable the tolls were low and the receipts high; but in the
remoter and less populous parts of the kingdom the exact converse held
good. There the tolls were high and the receipts low.
To take the kingdom as a whole, the case stood thus: In very few
instances indeed had any part of the debt on the turnpike trusts been
discharged, and in fewer instances still had a sinking fund been
established with a view to extinction of debt by process of time. With
these rare exceptions, nothing more had been done than to keep up
payment of the interest agreed upon, while in many instances no interest
at all was being paid or interest at a reduced rate. In some instances
indeed, the receipts from the tolls were not enough to defray even the
cost of maintenance and repairs.
It is not to be wondered at if in these circumstances the trustees of
the roads looked with longing eyes to the £50,000 a year which was the
estimated value of the tolls that, except for their exemption, the
mail-coaches would have had to pay. Of course the postmasters-general
were strongly opposed to the surrender of this large amount; and yet
there was one consideration which told heavily against them. It was
this, that in Ireland the mails were not exempt from toll. Under an Act
passed by the Irish Legislature in 1798, an Act which still remained in
force, an account was kept of all tolls leviable at the turnpike gates
through which the mail passed, and this account was paid quarterly by
the Post Office authorities in Dublin. Why, it was asked, could not a
similar system be adopted in Great Britain? It was also urged, and not
without force, that in the matter of weight the mail bore to the coach
which carried it a very small proportion. The coach with its loading
complete weighed from thirty-three to forty cwts., while the mail seldom
weighed more than one cwt. For the sake of so small a proportion was it
equitable that exemption should extend to the whole?
A strenuous and united effort was now made to force the mail-coaches to
pay toll. The question came before Parliament, and a Committee was
appointed to inquire and report. The result could hardly have been in
doubt. It was by the landed proprietors, the men who had seats in
Parliament, that the turnpike roads had been made, and they were
generally the creditors on the turnpike funds. The Committee was
unanimous in recommending that the exemption from toll which the
mail-coaches enjoyed should absolutely cease and determine.
On the Committee's report no action was taken in the session of 1811;
but if the Post Office supposed that the matter would be allowed to
drop, it was doomed to disappointment. Early in the following year
Spencer Perceval forwarded to Lombard Street for any observations the
postmasters-general might have to offer upon it a bill having for its
object to repeal the exemption. The postmasters-general suggested
certain alterations, but upon the subject-matter of the bill, coming as
it did from the Prime Minister, and their views being already well
known, they confined themselves to once more expressing a doubt whether
such a measure could be necessary. In May Perceval was assassinated;
and now the postmasters-general fondly hoped that the matter was at an
end. What then was their dismay at learning a month or two later that
the Government was resolved to proceed with the bill. The same letter
that conveyed this intelligence contained a suggestion as strange as it
was original. This was that, in order to meet complaints, the
mail-coaches on certain roads should be withdrawn. The postmasters-general,
little supposing that such a suggestion could take practical shape,
simply replied that not a whisper had yet reached them to the effect
that mail-coaches were considered in excess; that, on the contrary,
they were being constantly urged to increase the number.
The bill was finally withdrawn; but heavy was the price which had to be
paid. With those who were advocating the measure Vansittart, the new
Chancellor of the Exchequer, effected a compromise behind the back of
the Post Office. There was indeed ample room for a satisfactory
adjustment. For the conveyance of the mails the mail-coach proprietors
received from the Post Office £30,000 a year; they paid to the
Government for stamp duty £40,000 a year; and the exemption which they
enjoyed from toll was estimated to represent £50,000 a year. These
figures seem almost to suggest a feasible arrangement; yet the
compromise actually effected took another form. It was that, in
accordance with the suggestion of a few months before, mail-coaches
should be withdrawn.
Nor was this mere empty talk; Vansittart had pledged himself to specific
performance. And now began a general dis-coaching of the roads. The
mail-coaches running between Warwick and Coventry, between Shrewsbury
and Aberystwith, between Aberystwith and Ludlow, between Edinburgh and
Dalkeith, between Edinburgh and Musselburgh, between Chichester and
Godalming, between Dorchester and Stroudwater--all were discontinued at
once. Notice to quit was served upon the mail-coaches between Worcester
and Hereford, between Hereford and Gloucester, between Hereford and
Brecon, between Alton and Gosport, and between Plymouth and Tavistock.
And, what was hardly less important, numerous applications for
mail-coaches which, except for Treasury interference, would have been
granted, were refused. By Pitt the mail-coach had been regarded as a
pioneer of civilisation; in the eyes of Pitt's successors it was a
mischievous encumbrance.
Vansittart, having dealt one deadly blow at the Post Office, now
proceeded to deal another. The war with France had exhausted the
Exchequer, and, as part of the ways and means, he called upon the Post
Office for a further contribution of £200,000 a year. Once more the
screw was turned; and, oppressive as the postage rates were already,
they were as from the 9th of July 1812 increased as follows:--
+-----------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+------+
| |Single.|Double.|Treble.|Ounce.|
| +-------+-------+-------+------+
| | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ |
| +-------+-------+-------+------+
|Not exceeding 15 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |
|Above 15 and not exceeding 20 miles| 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |
| " 20 " 30 " | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |
| " 30 " 50 " | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |
| " 50 " 80 " | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |
| " 80 " 120 " | 9 | 18 | 27 | 36 |
| " 120 " 170 " | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| " 170 " 230 " | 11 | 22 | 33 | 44 |
| " 230 " 300 " | 12 | 24 | 36 | 48 |
| " 300 " 400 " | 13 | 26 | 39 | 52 |
| " 400 " 500 " | 14 | 28 | 42 | 56 |
| " 500 " 600 " | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 |
| " 600 " 700 " | 16 | 32 | 48 | 64 |
|Above 700 miles | 17 | 34 | 51 | 68 |
+-----------------------------------+-------+-------+-------+------+
This is the highest point to which the rates of postage have ever
attained in this country. Freeling would have resented so much as a
suggestion that the institution which had now for some years been under
his exclusive management was not in the most perfect order to which
human foresight and ingenuity could raise it; and yet to the
dispassionate observer it may be permitted to doubt whether eighty years
ago the Post Office was not in some important particulars more open to
criticism than at any time since its first establishment.
Let us compare for a moment the beginning of the nineteenth with the
end of the seventeenth century. In 1695 the postage from London to
Liverpool or to York or to Plymouth was, for a single letter, 3d.; in
1813 it was 11d. In 1695, wherever letters were being carried
clandestinely, the policy was to supplant; in 1813 the policy was to
repress. In 1695 the King would not consent to a single prosecution even
for the sake of example; in 1813, when the Post Office revenue had
passed from the King to the people, prosecutions were being conducted
wholesale. In 1695 a circuitous post would be converted into a direct
one, even though the shorter distance carried less postage; in 1813 a
direct post in place of a circuitous one was being constantly refused on
the plea that a loss of postage would result. In 1695 London enjoyed the
advantage of a penny post, and this post carried up to one pound in
weight; in 1813 the penny post had been replaced by a twopenny and
threepenny one, and, except in the case of a packet passing through the
general post, the weight was limited to four ounces. In 1813, moreover,
the complications were bewildering. In some places there were
fifth-clause posts, and in others penny posts; and the charge by these
posts was in addition to the charge by the general post. Some towns,
over and above all other charges, paid an additional 1d. on each letter
for the privilege of the mail-coach passing through them. Of two
adjoining houses one might receive its letters free of any charge for
delivery and not the other. This difference was to be found in towns
where building was going on--as, for instance, at Brighton--old houses
being considered within, and new houses without, what was called the
usage of delivery.
In London itself the complications, if possible, were more bewildering
still. The threepenny post began where the twopenny post ended. Thus far
the practice was simple enough. But the general post limits did not
coincide with the limits of the twopenny post: and the limits of both
the twopenny post and the general post differed from those of the
foreign post. Indeed, it is probably not too much to say that in 1813
there was not a single town in the kingdom at the Post Office of which
absolutely certain information could have been obtained as to the charge
to which a letter addressed to any other town would be subject. More
than ten years later Post Office experts examined before a Committee of
the House of Commons were unable to state what, even on letters
delivered in London, would in certain cases be the proper postage.
It may here be asked how it was that with rates so oppressive and so
vexatiously levied the public were induced to tolerate them. The
mail-coaches were popular except with the road trustees; and there is
reason to think that even these, or at all events the principal persons
among them, only professed a dislike which they did not really feel. The
Post Office packets were also popular, and well they deserved to be,
distinguishing themselves as they were about this time by deeds of even
more than usual daring.
But these considerations, added to the personal popularity which
Freeling himself enjoyed, are altogether insufficient to account for the
extraordinary patience of the public under the treatment which eighty or
ninety years ago they endured at the hands of the Post Office. The
explanation we believe to be that the heavy rates of postage, and not a
few of the vexations incidental to the levying of them, were tacitly
accepted as a part, a necessary part, of the load of taxation which the
people were called upon to bear as a consequence of the war in which
England was engaged. We further believe that, in respect to its acts of
aggression, the Post Office escaped criticism mainly because its
proceedings, irritating as they were to individuals, were not generally
known. This want of publicity is specially noticeable in the matter of
prosecutions. At the present day a single prosecution undertaken by the
Post Office would be the subject of comment in every newspaper in the
kingdom. Eighty or ninety years ago, numerous as the Post Office
prosecutions were, there was not a newspaper in the kingdom that
gratuitously published particulars or even announced the fact. Often
did the postmasters-general lament this reticence, believing as they did
that to make known their repressive measures, and the amount of
penalties inflicted, must have a deterrent effect upon the illicit
traffic; and at length, for want of any better means of securing
publicity, they gave directions that, wherever a prosecution took place,
hand-bills giving full particulars were to be struck off and affixed to
the doors of the local inns.
The question which two years before had agitated the minds of the road
trustees was now revived in Scotland. Among those who pressed for the
establishment of mail-coaches none were more persistent than the large
landed proprietors north of the Tweed; and as soon as their demands were
acceded to, none were louder in their denunciations of the injustice
which exempted mail-coaches from toll. The Government yielded at length
to the pressure that was brought to bear, and in 1813 an Act was passed
repealing, so far as Scotland was concerned, exemption from toll in the
case of mail-carriages with more than two wheels. The same Act, in order
to indemnify the Post Office for the loss it would thus sustain, imposed
an additional postage of 1/2d. upon every letter conveyed by mail-coach
in Scotland.
The Post Office was not quite fairly treated in this matter. No sooner
had the Act passed than the trustees of the roads raised the tolls. At
the old rates the mail-coaches, had they not been exempt, would have had
to pay £6865 a year; at the new rates, now that they were exempt no
longer, they had to pay £11,759 a year, or more by nearly £6000 than the
additional 1/2d. of postage had been estimated to yield. Nor was this
all. Some of the Road Acts contained a clause empowering the trustees to
demand the sum of 1d. for every outside passenger. This power had never
yet been exercised; but now the demand was rigorously enforced in the
case of passengers by the mail-coaches, and by these coaches only.
Thus unhandsomely dealt with, the Post Office proceeded to do in
Scotland what under other circumstances it had done two years before in
England. It reduced the number of its coaches. This excited many
murmurs. From Glasgow, for instance, a mail-coach had been running
through Paisley to Greenock. This was now replaced by a horse post, and
the district was not only relieved from the payment of the additional
postage of 1/2d. a letter, but--a boon which had long been earnestly
sought--was given three posts a day instead of two. Yet all three towns
refused to be comforted, and bitterly reproached the postmasters-general
for depriving them of their mail-coach. The convenience of travellers,
however, was not a matter of which the Post Office took any account. The
Post Office was concerned with the transmission of letters; and wherever
these could be transmitted with the same or nearly the same expedition
and at less expense by other means, the mail-coaches were discarded.
About this time two measures were introduced which shew a strange
forgetfulness of what had gone before. Of these one was a reorganisation
of the returned letter office, and the other the passing of a fresh Ship
Letter Act. Hitherto, of the letters which could not be delivered only
those had been returned to the writers which contained property or
enclosures of apparent importance. The others had been torn up and sold
as waste paper. Now all were to be presumed to be of importance to the
writers and to be returned accordingly. The propriety and even the
legality of charging such letters had been questioned in Palmer's time,
and Pitt had decided that they were not to be charged. This was now
forgotten, and the Post Office proceeded not only to return every letter
that could not be delivered, but to charge it with postage. To Freeling,
who regarded the Post Office as a mere engine of taxation, the
temptation was no doubt a strong one. The measure, before being
definitively adopted, had been tried experimentally for one year; and it
was found that out of 189,000 letters returned to the writers more than
135,000 were accepted, producing a clear revenue of £4421.
By the new Ship Letter Act the charge on a single letter arriving by
private ship was raised from 4d. to 6d., and, what was far more
important, no letters were to be sent by private ship except such as had
been brought to the Post Office to be charged. The directors of the East
India Company, who would seem to have strangely overlooked the bill
during its passage through the House, implored the Government to get the
Act repealed. It was true, they urged, that their official
correspondence was exempted from the operation of the Act; but dependent
on them in the East was a small army of servants whose private letters
had hitherto gone free, and, under the provisions of the Act, would go
free no longer. With the East Indies there was no communication by
packet, and surely it was introducing a new principle for the Post
Office to make a charge where it did not perform a service. Did not the
charge in such a case become a mere tax upon letter-writing?
Freeling, on the other hand, maintained that no new principle was
involved, inasmuch as the previous Act, the Act of 1799, recognised the
sending of letters by ships other than packet boats and charging them
with postage. This was perfectly true; but he forgot to add that,
whereas the Act of 1799 was permissive, the Act of 1814 was compulsory,
that under the one Act it was optional with the senders of letters
whether they would take them to the Post Office or not; and under the
other, if they did not take them to the Post Office, they rendered
themselves liable to severe penalties. He might indeed have gone
further, and said that in 1799 Pitt and the whole of the administration
of which Pitt was the head scouted the very idea of anything in the
shape of compulsion being employed in the matter.
The Ship Letter Act of 1814 proved a complete failure. It contained no
provision obliging private ships to carry letters, and the private ships
between England and India were almost entirely in the hands of the East
India Company. No wonder, therefore, that the Company, when asked
whether it might be announced to the public that bags would be made up
at the Post Office to be conveyed by their ships, replied in the
negative. The Court of Directors, their letter said, are not without
hopes that Parliament will consent to revise the Act, and meanwhile they
"do not see fit to authorise the commanders or owners of any of their
ships to take charge of any bag of letters from the Post Office
subjected to a rate of postage for sea conveyance." Freeling was filled
with dismay. "A vital impediment," he exclaimed, "to the execution of
the Act."
The expectations of the India House were not disappointed. In the next
session of Parliament the Act of 1814 was replaced by another which
granted larger exemptions to the Company and disarmed its opposition.
The later Act gave power to the Post Office to establish a line of
packets to India and the Cape of Good Hope, and, until a line should be
established, to employ as packets any ships it pleased, including ships
of war. The mails were to go once a month. By packet--in which term is
included the ship which the Post Office might be pleased to designate as
packet for the occasion--the postage on a single letter was fixed at 3s.
6d.; by private ship it varied according to direction, outwards 1s. 2d.
and inwards 8d.
Such were the main provisions of the Act of 1815; but there were others
which introduced new principles. As a result of the action of the East
India Company in the preceding year, it was now for the first time made
compulsory upon private ships to carry letters when required to do so by
the Post Office,[81] and the Post Office was empowered to pay for their
carriage a reasonable sum. This sum was to go by way of remuneration to the
owners of the vessels, and to be in addition to a gratuity of 2d. a letter
which the commander was to receive as his own perquisite. A still more
important provision, a provision which assuredly could not have emanated
from the Post Office, was one in favour of newspapers. By packet the
postage on a letter to India or the Cape weighing as much as one ounce was
to be 14s.; on a newspaper of no greater weight, if stamped and in a cover
open at the side or end, it was to be 3d. This was the first enactment
that provided for newspapers going outside the limits of the United
Kingdom for less than the letter rate of postage.
[81] One of the first, if not the very first, against whom proceedings
were taken under this provision of the statute was Robert Wetherall,
master of the ship _Albinia_, from Gravesend to the Cape of Good Hope.
Wetherall had at the last moment refused to take the mails on board,
consisting of 173 letters. On the advice of the law officers the Post
Office contemplated proceeding against him by indictment; but the
Government decided to proceed by information, with a view apparently to
give to the case greater importance and notoriety.
What was virtually a most interesting experiment was now about to be
tried. To India and the Cape the Post Office had no packets of its own;
and before private ships could be employed as packets, the consent of
the owners had to be obtained and the amount of payment to be agreed
upon. Practically, the Post Office was at the mercy of others. Mails had
to be sent once every month; ships of war could not always be employed;
and should the shipping interest combine, the postmasters-general would
have to pay pretty much what owners chose to demand. To the credit of
that interest nothing in the shape of combination took place. During the
first sixteen months the mails were despatched five times by His
Majesty's ships, four times by ships of the East India Company, and
seven times by ships belonging to private owners. His Majesty's ships
carried the mails, of course, without charge. The East India Company,
with admirable generosity, placed their ships at the disposal of the
Post Office and refused to receive any payment. And the ships belonging
to private owners were engaged, the first of them for £500 and the other
six for sums ranging from £50 to £150. Altogether, the sum expended
during more than a year and a quarter in transporting the mails to India
and the Cape of Good Hope did not exceed £1250; and the postage during
the same period amounted to £11,658. In the following year, the year
1817, even better terms were obtained, the owners of private ships
engaged as packets receiving in no case more than £125, and in one case
as little as £25.
The East India Company's generosity was not reciprocated by the Post
Office. His Majesty's ship _Iphigenia_, which was lying at Portsmouth,
had been appointed to carry out the mails, and the India House had sent
down its despatches to be put on board. In strictness these despatches
should have been sent through the Post Office, inasmuch as the
_Iphigenia_ had been appointed a packet for the occasion; but as the
India House paid no postage on its correspondence, whether sent by
packet or by ships of its own, it was a mere technical irregularity.
Freeling maintained, however, that there was an important distinction
which ought to be observed. It was true that no question of postage was
involved. It was also true that the India House would have been at
liberty to put its despatches on board the _Iphigenia_ had she been
sailing for India without being appointed a packet boat; but as she had
been so appointed, the intervention of the Post Office was necessary,
and without that intervention the commander ought not to have received
them. Accordingly, Freeling urged upon the Government, though happily
without success, that orders should be sent to Portsmouth to have the
despatches removed from the ship to the local Post Office, to be there
kept until instructions should be received from Lombard Street that they
might be again taken on board.
On the close of hostilities in 1815 domestic matters began once more to
occupy a place in men's thoughts; and it was next to impossible that the
Post Office should escape attention. Its heavy and capricious charges,
its high-handed proceedings, its disregard of the public requirements,
its prosecutions, its constant indictment of roads which it largely used
and yet contributed nothing to maintain, and, above all, the fact that
its administration was virtually in the hands of one man, and that man
not the nominal head, who could be reached by constitutional
means--signs were not wanting that these and other matters had created
an amount of dissatisfaction which must sooner or later find
expression. Yet Freeling either could not or would not see. Were not his
immediate superiors, the postmasters-general, satisfied with his
management, so satisfied indeed that they seldom, if ever, found it
necessary to pay a visit to Lombard Street? And had not the
contributions which, under his guidance, the Post Office kept pouring
into the Exchequer raised him high in the Chancellor's favour? If so,
what more could a loyal and industrious public servant desire?
That Freeling was elated with what he considered his unbounded success
is clear from a letter which about this time was written to the
Treasury, enclosing a return of the Post Office revenue, and shewing how
it had responded to the successive increases of rate which had been
imposed during his tenure of the office of secretary. This letter,
drafted by himself, as all the official letters were, though signed by
the postmasters-general, concluded thus: "We flatter ourselves that we
shall not be considered as exceeding the limits of our duty in drawing
your Lordships' attention to a circumstance which has made a strong
impression on ourselves in the course of our inquiry, namely, that the
office of secretary during the whole of this flourishing period has been
executed by the same faithful and meritorious servant of the Crown." The
return, with a copy of this letter appended, was afterwards presented to
Parliament.
There is no more tolerant assembly in the world than the House of
Commons; and yet even the House of Commons is intolerant of egotism. It
may have been, and probably was, a mere coincidence, but the fact
remains that from the date of the presentation of this return Freeling's
influence began to wane.
CHAPTER XV
IRELAND
1801-1828
At the Union with Ireland the Irish Post Office was not merged into the
Post Office of England as the Scotch Post Office was merged at the Union
with Scotland. The existence of two separate establishments, presided
over by different heads, who had not always the same objects in view,
and were influenced by different considerations, was not unattended with
inconvenience.
Between the Post Offices of the two parts of the kingdom, moreover,
there were differences not only of practice but of law, the statutes
passed during the seventeen years that the Post Offices were separate
not having been repealed at the time of the Union. Thus, the law which
regulated franking was stricter in Ireland than in England, although, it
must be confessed, the practice was looser. The law prohibiting the
illicit conveyance of letters was also stricter. In England the Post
Office was not empowered to search for letters; in Ireland the Post
Office might search both vehicles and houses from sunrise to sunset. In
England the mail-coaches were exempt from toll; in Ireland no such
exemption was allowed. In Ireland, again, the Post Office was legally
bound not, as in England, to deliver letters but only to carry them; and
except in Dublin there was not a single letter-carrier in the kingdom.
Even the constitution of the two Post Offices, though apparently
similar, was really different. In Ireland, as in England, there were
two heads commonly called joint postmasters-general; but whereas in
England the assent of both was necessary to make a decision operative,
in Ireland the assent of one was sufficient. This, while probably
designed to facilitate the despatch of public business, was, as will be
seen later on, attended with a curious result, a result which the
framers of the statute can have little contemplated.
Of such differences of practice as were not rendered necessary by any
difference of law it may be sufficient to mention a few. In England the
mail-coach contractors supplied horses only; in Ireland they supplied
coaches as well. In England the contract was for short periods and for
short distances, seldom for more than one or two stages; in Ireland,
where there was little or no competition, the contract was for the whole
of the road over which the coach travelled, and for as much as twenty
and even thirty years. Meanwhile no alteration was possible except with
the contractors' assent. In England the horse-posts were provided upon
the most advantageous terms of which each particular case would admit;
in Ireland the obligation to provide them was imposed upon the local
postmasters, who received for the service, cost what it might, one
uniform rate of 5d. a mile. In London there was no despatch on Sundays;
in Dublin the mails were despatched on Sundays as on other days. In
Dublin, again, the men who collected letters by the sound of bell,
bellmen as they were now called, received not as in London 1d. a letter
but 1d. a house, a difference of which the inhabitants were wont to shew
their appreciation by sending to a single house for delivery to the
letter-carrier the letters of an entire street.
In Dublin there was one institution to which there was no counterpart in
London. This was the British Mail Office, an office set apart for the
management of the mails passing between England and Ireland. Other mails
were dealt with in the Inland Office; but those to and from England were
considered of such paramount importance as to deserve exceptional
treatment. At the present day the term "office" as applied to the public
service conveys the notion possibly of a palace and certainly of a
building or part of a building consisting of several rooms. The British
Mail Office, though destined to play a not unimportant part in the
history of the Irish Post Office at the beginning of the present
century, consisted of one room only, and this room was exactly six feet
square.
The establishment of this office was one of many measures which owed
their origin to Lord Clancarty, who was joint postmaster-general with
Lord O'Neill from 1807 to 1809. Clancarty enjoyed an honourable
distinction. Other postmasters-general were habitual absentees, their
visits to the Post Office, if visits they made, being confined to the
rare occasions on which they passed through Dublin on their way to
London and back. Clancarty, on the contrary, devoted to his official
duties all the powers of a keen intellect and a singularly energetic
nature. Shortly after his appointment he proceeded to London, and having
made himself master of the system pursued in the Inland Office in
Lombard Street, returned to Dublin, resolved that, as far as
circumstances would permit, a similar system should be established
there.
A formidable difficulty, however, presented itself in the different
hours of attendance in the London and Dublin offices. In London the
attendance was daily, on every night and every morning; in Dublin it was
only on alternate days, on every other night and every other morning.
How to get rid of this difference was the question which Clancarty now
set himself to solve. There was at this time in the Inland Office a
clerk of the name of Donlevy, whose parts pointed him out as qualified
to take the lead among his fellows. Clancarty sent for this young man,
and told him that under the plan which was about to be introduced he
would have to attend daily. Donlevy objected that a plan which would
involve such attendance was an unreasonable, an oppressive plan, and
that no man's constitution, strong as he might be, would stand it.
"But," said Clancarty, "I will make you vice-president." "My Lord,"
replied Donlevy, "I am very much obliged to you; but under the
conditions proposed I would not accept even the office of president."
"Very well," rejoined Clancarty, laying his watch on the table, "I will
give you three hours to consider of it." Long before the three hours had
expired, Donlevy, who knew the character of the man with whom he had to
do, and what would be the penalty of refusal, had accepted the
vice-presidentship, and opposition to the introduction of daily
attendance was at an end.[82]
[82] Clancarty was afterwards appointed joint postmaster-general of
England. This appointment he held from 30th September 1814 to 6th April
1816, but he never took it up. Between the dates mentioned he was
employed on missions abroad.
But Clancarty was an exception to the general rule. Lord Rosse, who
succeeded him and remained postmaster-general in conjunction with
O'Neill for more than twenty years, was, like his colleague, an habitual
absentee; and the consequence was to place large power in the hands of
the chief permanent officer on the spot. This was Edward Smith Lees, who
had been appointed joint secretary with his father in 1801, and who on
his father's death some years afterwards became sole secretary. The
power which Lees must in any case have possessed as chief resident
officer was enormously increased by the fact to which we have already
referred, that the signature of either of the two postmasters-general
was sufficient. Of this fact Lees took advantage to an extent which may
seem incredible. If the particular postmaster-general to whom the case
was referred agreed to the course recommended, no reference to the other
appears to have been considered necessary; but if he did not agree, a
reference to the other took place without the fact of disagreement being
made known, or even an intimation that his colleague had been consulted.
By thus playing off one postmaster-general against the other, Lees
generally contrived to secure approval of his own recommendations; but
when, as occasionally happened, such approval could not be obtained from
either, he claimed and exercised the right, as chief officer on the
spot, to take his own course.
Thus Lees, like Freeling, was an autocrat within his own domain; but the
means by which the two men attained this result were essentially
different. Freeling kept the postmasters-general informed of every
incident, however trivial. Lees gave no information which could with
decency be withheld. Freeling supported his views by a perfect wealth of
explanation. Lees explained no more than enough to carry his point.
Freeling's candour, like his loyalty, knew no bounds. It is to his
candour, indeed, that we owe our materials for criticising his own
proceedings. Lees's candour and loyalty, on the contrary, so far as
these can be said to have had any existence, were held in rigid
subjection to considerations of expediency and personal advantage.
The circumstances attending the appointment of Lees's brother, a
searcher in the Customs at Wexford, to a position in the secretary's
office only inferior in point of rank and emolument to his own, well
exemplify the mode in which the business of the Irish Post Office was
conducted during the first two or three decades of the present century.
The minute appointing him was signed, not by O'Neill and Rosse, nor by
either of them, but by one of Lees's own subordinates, and purported to
embody a decision come to at a Board at which the two postmasters-general
were present. "At the Board"--so ran the minute--"present the Earls."
The whole thing was a fiction from beginning to end. The Earls had
not been present, and there had been no Board. Indeed, as Lees was
afterwards forced to admit before a Committee of the House of Commons,
during a period of twenty years that O'Neill and Rosse had been
joint postmasters-general and he their secretary, he had seen them
only once together in the same room, and that was in the drawing-room
at Parsonstown.
The example set in high quarters was not without its effect below. Every
one seems to have been left to do pretty much as he liked. The force was
maintained at a level very far in excess of the actual requirements, and
it was no uncommon thing for one-half of the entire number to absent
themselves without notice in a single morning. Some of the clerks never
attended at all, while others gave to their Post Office duties only such
fragments of their time as they could snatch from other and more
lucrative employments. Thus, one was a clerk in a private bank, another
a clerk in a merchant's office, a third was a surgeon, several held
appointments under the Customs or the Imprest Office, and many were
practising attorneys. To most of these the object of holding an
appointment in the Post Office appears to have been not so much the
salary attaching to it as the privilege which they enjoyed, or rather
which they assumed to themselves, of sending and receiving their letters
free. The attorneys, indeed, were credited with a still less respectable
motive. All, as soon as a mail arrived, helped themselves to their own
letters and the letters of the firms in which they were interested. The
president of the Inland Office held a valuable appointment in the Bank
of Ireland, and was not in a position to check on the part of his
subordinates a license which he allowed to himself. The
receiver-general, the highest financial officer on the establishment,
was a private banker and money-lender, and, beyond signing the
balance-sheet at stated periods, the only Post Office function he
performed was to frank his own correspondence.
That in Ireland the Post Office arrangements were made subservient to
private interests does not admit of a doubt. A suspicion will indeed now
and again cross the mind that even in England the readiness to raise the
rates of postage, and the hostility shewn to newspapers except when
supplied by the clerks of the roads, were not unconnected with personal
considerations; but what in the case of England is at best only a matter
of suspicion becomes in the case of Ireland an absolute certainty. In
Ireland, as in England, the clerks of the roads had from the first
establishment of the Post Office enjoyed the privilege of franking
newspapers; but soon after the British Mail Office had been established
by Clancarty, two other clerks, styling themselves express clerks,
undertook to supply newspapers express. Their plan was very simple. In
London the newspapers were made up in a parcel addressed to the express
clerks; and these clerks had in readiness messengers of their own, who
proceeded to deliver the newspapers as soon as they arrived in Dublin
and without waiting, as others had to do, for the sorting of the mail.
This alone would have given to the express clerks a considerable
advantage over the ordinary news-vendor. But, more than this, the
British mail was irregular in its arrival, and the latest hour in the
evening at which a delivery by letter-carrier took place in Dublin was
seven o'clock. The express clerks delivered the English newspapers by
their own messengers as late as eleven o'clock.
In the case of the country the advantage which the express clerks
enjoyed was still greater. The mails for the interior of Ireland left
the Inland Office in Dublin at seven o'clock in the evening; but under a
rule, on the observance of which the authorities rigidly insisted, no
mails from the British Mail Office were to be received in the Inland
Office for despatch the same evening unless they were brought there
ready sorted full twenty minutes before that hour. Practically,
therefore, as the sorting occupied about twenty-five minutes, mails from
England arriving later than a quarter past six were detained until the
following evening. No such detention, however, was sustained by the
express newspapers, which, addressed as they were to the express clerks,
could be forwarded up to the last moment. It may readily be supposed
that, with such advantages in their favour, the express clerks and the
clerks of the roads, for the two bodies had amalgamated and formed one
common purse, found many customers. That they realised and fully
appreciated their position will be seen from the following advertisement
which was issued no longer ago than April 1822:--
BRITISH NEWSPAPER OFFICE, GENERAL POST OFFICE.
The clerks of roads and clerks of express newspapers having, under
the authority of the postmasters-general, reformed their
establishment in this department for the transmission of British
and foreign newspapers, lottery, commercial, army and navy lists,
periodical and other publications, the nobility and gentry of
Dublin are respectfully informed that they can be supplied with
those articles either by an express delivery (which is made by
special messengers immediately on the arrival of the packets) or by
the regular course of post.
Country correspondents will have a peculiar advantage, as upon all
occasions when a packet arrives before the despatch of the inland
mails but too late for general transmission, their newspapers will
be forwarded at the last possible moment.
Newspapers exchanged at pleasure any time during the period of
subscription.
Subscriptions to be paid in advance.
Further particulars known by application to Messrs. Leet and De
Joncourt, General Post Office, who will receive subscriptions.
Daily attendance from twelve till four o'clock.
London daily newspapers to Dublin by general delivery, £10:17:6 per
annum.
Leet and De Joncourt were the two express clerks; but among the clerks
of the roads, on whose behalf they wrote as well as their own, was Lees,
the secretary, who participated in the profits derived from the sale of
newspapers, and received the lion's share.
The news-vendors bitterly complained. That the newspapers supplied by
the express clerks and clerks of the roads should be exempt from
postage[83] was bad enough; but that they should also enjoy priority of
transmission and delivery was past all endurance. How was it possible to
compete under such conditions as these? The booksellers also complained,
for the express service, though originally confined to newspapers, had
now extended to periodicals as well. On a _Quarterly_ or _Edinburgh
Review_, for instance, when sent by coach from Dublin into the country,
the bookseller's customers had to pay for carriage from 1s. 8d. to 2s.
6d., whereas the express clerks and clerks of the roads sent it, through
the medium of the post, carriage free. A heavier indictment remains. The
law permitted the examination of newspapers passing through the post
with a view to ascertain whether they contained unauthorised enclosures;
and it was confidently alleged that of this power the Post Office
servants took advantage in order to retard the transmission and delivery
of newspapers that were not supplied by themselves. A ring, the
news-vendors maintained, had been formed at the Post Office, and they
were the victims.
[83] At one time the express newspapers went all the way from London to
Dublin post free; but this, at the date of the advertisement, had been
stopped, and as far as Holyhead their carriage was now being provided
for under an arrangement with the London agents. From Holyhead to
Dublin, however, they still went in the mail free of postage, and on
arrival in Dublin such of them as were destined for the country were
franked by the clerks of the roads.
The management of what was technically termed the alphabet appears to
have been influenced by similar considerations. This was nothing more
than a rack with divisions corresponding to the letters of the alphabet,
into which might be sorted ready for delivery all correspondence
addressed to the Post Office to be called for. Such was its primary
object; but in course of time the bankers and merchants, finding that
through the alphabet they could get their letters sooner than if
delivered by letter-carrier--as soon indeed as the mail arrived--made
use of this expedient for their ordinary correspondence, readily paying
for the accommodation a fee ranging from three to five guineas a year.
This had gone on for a considerable period, when Lees appears to have
been suddenly seized with compunction at the unfairness of a practice
which, in the matter of delivery, gave to one man an advantage over
another; and he issued instructions that henceforth, after the arrival
of each mail, there should be a certain interval during which letters
should not be delivered from the alphabet. The pretence imposed upon no
one. Men readily discerned that in proportion as the advantages of the
alphabet were restricted the express service was rendered more valuable.
It would be unjust to the memory of the Irish Post Office of seventy
years ago not to mention here one good practice and, as far as we know,
the only good one that then existed. By virtue of an arrangement with,
the War Office, soldiers' wives, on presentation of a formal document
with which the military authorities provided them, could draw from any
Post Office in the kingdom a certain sum of small amount until the
entire sum mentioned in the document was exhausted. Thus, a soldier's
wife desirous of joining her husband could pass from one end of the
country to another, and, without carrying anything in her pocket, could
be supplied with money on her way. Of this practice, curiously enough,
not a vestige now remains.
It is also pleasant, amid so much indifference as was at that time
exhibited to the convenience of the public, to be able to record one
instance to the contrary. Thomas Whinnery, the postmaster of Belfast,
had read an account of the alphabet at Liverpool--how the letters were
sorted into a rack according to the initials of the merchants to whom
they were addressed, so as to be ready to be delivered when they should
be called for--and he resolved to introduce something of the same kind
into his own office. Instead, however, of adopting the alphabetical
order he assigned to each merchant a particular number, letting him know
what his number was, and instead of a fixed rack as at Liverpool he
contrived a revolving one; and this, with the numbers conspicuously
exhibited over each division, he placed in full view of a window opening
to the street. Thus, any one looking through the window could see for
himself whether there were any letters for him, and was saved the
trouble of inquiring.
Equality of treatment as between man and man had not yet become one of
the canons of the Post Office, and even Whinnery, well-meaning as he
was, made a distinction as remarkable as it was invidious. Belfast not
being supplied with an official letter-carrier, he employed a man of his
own to deliver the letters, and charged on their delivery 1d. apiece.
The letters, however, instead of all being delivered at one time, were
arbitrarily divided into two classes, termed particular letters and
ordinary letters; and the delivery of the ordinary letters was not begun
until that of the particular letters was finished, a difference in point
of time of two and a half hours. In order to maintain the distinction,
the man had actually to go over the same ground twice. Particular
letters were defined to be letters for merchants and other busy men,
letters to which it was presumably of importance that replies should be
given promptly.
We have said that in Ireland the mail-coach contracts were not, as in
England, for short distances but for the whole of the road over which
the coach travelled. The explanation is that, while in England the local
inn-keepers were eager to horse the mail for one or two stages, in
Ireland, where the coach had to be provided as well as the horses, the
venture was too serious to be undertaken lightly, and the contracts fell
into the hands of a few persons of means who dictated pretty much their
own terms. Thus, in Ireland the cost of conveying the mails by coach was
considerably higher than in England, though forage and labour were
cheaper.[84]
[84] In 1823 the Irish mail-coaches travelled daily a distance of 1450
miles at a cost to the Post Office of more than £30,000 a year, while in
England the cost over the same number of miles would have been only
£7500. From this, however, it is not to be understood that in one
country the cost was four times as heavy as in the other, because the
Irish mile was longer than the English one by about two furlongs, and in
England the contractors did not, as they did in Ireland, provide the
coaches.
All this was soon to be changed. In one of the early years of the
century a young lad had arrived in Dublin, a lad without means and
without friends, a foreigner who was unable to speak one word of
English, and yet who, despite these drawbacks, did for the country of
his adoption more probably than was accomplished by all the legislation
that took place during the fourscore years and more over which his life
extended. This was Charles Bianconi, a man to whom the Post Office owes
a debt of gratitude which, as it seems to us, has never been
sufficiently recognised. After serving an eighteen months'
apprenticeship to a foreign print-seller in a small way of business,
Bianconi passed the next two or three years of his life in hawking
prints about the country on his own account, and in 1806, at the age of
twenty, he turned carver and gilder and opened a shop at
Carrick-on-Suir. From Carrick he removed shortly afterwards to
Waterford, and finally settled down at Clonmel.
The experience of these few years determined Bianconi's future career.
While roaming over the country with his prints for sale, he had had
forcibly impressed upon him the difference between a pedlar like himself
who was doomed to tramp on foot and his more fortunate fellow who could
post or ride on horseback. At Carrick the want of facilities for
travelling had been brought home to him in a hardly less cogent manner.
Gold-leaf for the supply of his shop he had to fetch from Waterford, and
Waterford is distant from Carrick twelve or thirteen miles. Between the
two towns, however, the only means of communication was by water, and by
water, owing to the windings of the river, the distance is twenty-four
miles. A single boat, moreover, was then the only public conveyance,
and, besides being obliged to wait for the tide, it took from four to
five hours to accomplish the journey. From this time Bianconi appears to
have become possessed with the idea that his mission in life was to
devise some cheap and easy means of communication between town and town.
Imbued with this notion, he gave up his shop in the summer of 1815, and
started a single-horse car for the conveyance of passengers from Clonmel
to Cahir, a distance of about eight miles. At the end of the same year
he started similar cars from Clonmel to Cashel and Thurles, and from
Clonmel to Carrick and Waterford. From such humble beginnings sprang
that splendid service of cars which, extending from Sligo and
Enniskillen in the north to Bandon and Skibbereen in the south, and from
Waterford and Wexford in the east to Galway and Belmullet in the west,
carried passengers daily over more than 4000 miles of road at an average
cost to each passenger of 1-1/4d. a mile.
But we are anticipating. The Post Office, largely as it availed itself
in later years of the means of communication which Bianconi placed at
its disposal, was slow to perceive the advantage which his enterprise
offered. The country postmasters were wiser in their generation. Located
on the spot, and with their perception quickened by the motive of
self-interest, they made use of the cars as fast as these were put on
the roads. No sooner had a car been started from Clonmel than the
postmaster sent by it the mails which he had been used to send by
horse-post. For this service he received an allowance of 5d. a mile.
Bianconi performed the service for him for an allowance of 2-1/2d. a
mile. The same thing took place elsewhere. It was not until the year
1831, when the Post Office of Ireland was amalgamated with that of
England, that Bianconi was brought into direct relations with
headquarters. Meanwhile, through a strange lack of vigilance on the part
of the Irish authorities, his very existence was ignored, and the
postmasters continued to receive 5d. a mile for a service which,
wherever Bianconi's cars extended, they were getting done for one-half
of that amount.
But it is not only with the Irish Post Office in relation to its
internal affairs that this chapter proposes to deal. The communication
between England and Ireland or rather between the capitals of the two
countries had, since the Act of Union, been under constant review, and
it becomes important to see how, during the first two or three decades
of the present century, this communication stood both by sea and by
land.
By the Act of 1784, which made the Irish Post Office independent of that
of Great Britain--an Act not repealed by the Union--Great Britain and
Ireland were to receive, in respect to letters passing between the two
countries, each its own proportion of the postage. The Channel service
remained; and with this Ireland was to have nothing to do, at all events
in the first instance. Great Britain was to provide the packets and to
receive the packet postage. Ireland, on the other hand, until she should
have established packets of her own, was to receive from Great Britain
the sum of £4000 a year "in lieu as well of the profits of the said
packets as in compensation for other purposes." This arrangement appears
to have worked smoothly enough until after 1801, when, owing to the
increase of correspondence as a consequence of the Union, the Irish Post
Office began to complain that the conditions were hard, and that Great
Britain had the best of the bargain. Surely, under the very terms of the
statute, Ireland was entitled to have packets of her own; and if this
were denied her, did not justice demand that the conditions should be
reconsidered? The question had come before successive Governments and
always with the same result--that the existing arrangement was not to be
disturbed. What Pitt and Portland and Perceval had decided was not to be
done Lees now proceeded to do on his own account.
We doubt whether travellers of the present day who cross from Holyhead
to Dublin in the magnificent boats which modern science has provided
have any idea of the misery to which our grandfathers were exposed in
making the passage. His Majesty's packets afforded the best, if not the
only means of transit; and these were six in number, and ranged from 80
to 100 tons in burthen. Customs duties were at this time levied on goods
passing between the two countries, and passengers' luggage was subjected
to strict examination. Thus, to the discomforts of a sea-passage made in
vessels of light tonnage were added the vexations incidental to a
rigorous search of personal baggage; and these vexations were rendered
all the greater by faulty arrangements. Passengers were unnecessarily
detained, and often, even after detention, had to proceed on their
journey leaving their luggage behind. In course of time, indeed, an
exception was made in the case of peers and members of Parliament. After
December 1819, as the result of incessant complaints, the luggage of
these privileged persons was allowed to pass unexamined on their giving
a certificate on honour that it contained no articles liable to duty;
but at the time of which we are writing, the year 1813, all travellers,
whether of high or low degree, were treated alike.
Despite conditions which at the present day would be considered
intolerable, the number of passengers carried to and fro by the Holyhead
packets was between 14,000 and 15,000 a year;[85] and there can be no
doubt that the advantage which the British Post Office derived from
this traffic was considerable. It is true that the fares went to the
captains; but of course, except for the fares, the Post Office would
have had to pay more for its packets. These were supplied at an annual
cost of £365 apiece, or £2190 altogether; and such being the terms on
which boats could be hired, Lees was confirmed in his opinion that
Ireland would do better if, instead of receiving from Great Britain a
compensation allowance of £4000 a year, she were to provide her own
packets and share the packet postage.
[85] The exact number of passengers in the year 1814 was 14,577, made up
as follows: Cabin passengers, 12,142; passengers' servants, 1136; hold
passengers, 1299.
Freeling took a different view. The better the bargain was for the
British Post Office, the more determined he was that with his consent
the terms should not be altered. And, more than this, he little relished
the prospect of competition between English and Irish packets. Indeed,
so long had he been accustomed to deal with a monopoly that the very
name of competition was hateful to him. At this very time he tried, and
tried in vain, to repress a boat which had been set up between Weymouth
and the Channel Islands in opposition to the packets. Another similar
attempt which he made a little later was hardly more successful. The War
Office had chartered vessels to convey troops between Bristol and
Waterford, and these vessels had assumed the title of "Government
Packets," a title which, according to Freeling, induced persons to go by
them who would otherwise have gone by the Post Office packets from
Milford. Lord Palmerston was then Secretary at War, and we think we see
the twinkle in his eye as he replied to Freeling's letter of
remonstrance. Freeling's objection was of course to the Bristol boats
being styled packets, but he had spoken of them by the title by which
they were known of "Government Packets." The contractors, wrote Lord
Palmerston, had been directed to drop the word Government forthwith, and
the boats would henceforth be called War Office packets, to distinguish
them from the packets employed by the Post Office.
Attached to the Irish Post Office, by virtue of a contract which had
yet some years to run, were boats called wherries. Originally designed
to carry between the two countries special messengers and despatches
during the period immediately succeeding the Union, they had long lost
their original character, and were now being employed in picking up what
goods and passengers they could, and transporting them across the
Channel in opposition to the packets. These boats were not ill adapted
to the purpose which Lees had in hand. On the 19th of July 1813 he
despatched a letter to Freeling, incidentally mentioning that "as the
intended packet station at Howth had sufficient depth of water for the
vessels belonging to the Irish Post Office, it was in contemplation,
until such time as the regular packets should be stationed there, that
the mails from Ireland should be despatched in its own vessels, and
that, as soon as the arrangements now in progress should be completed,
the measure would take effect." This letter was received in London on
the 23rd of July, and on the next day intelligence reached Lombard
Street that the mail from Ireland had been refused to the British packet
and had been given to the Irish wherry.
And now might be witnessed a most unedifying spectacle--in Dublin Lees
placarding the walls of the city with advertisements,[86] vaunting the
merits of his own packets; at Holyhead the authorised packets arriving
without the mails, and the mails being brought by boats which did not
arrive until after the mail-coach for London had started; and in London
Freeling wringing his hands and invoking the aid of the Government to
check the vagaries of his brother-secretary on the other side of the
Channel. "For the first time," he wrote, "the postmasters-general of
Great Britain have not the means of redressing grievances connected with
their own department, and the most serious remonstrances may be expected
from the merchants and traders of London on this alarming and
unnecessary evil."
[86] The following are copies of the advertisements referred to:--
"The Howth Royal Mail-Coach sets out every evening at seven o'clock from
the Cork Coach Office, 12 Dawson Street, where passengers and luggage
will be booked, and arrives at Howth at a quarter after eight, when the
packet will immediately sail (independently of the tide) with the Irish
mails and passengers for Holyhead. From the admirable construction of
these vessels for fast sailing and excellent accommodation the passage
from the pier at Howth to Holyhead will on the average be performed in
one-third less time than by the _Pigeon House_. Besides, as no more than
eight or ten passengers will be admitted into any one of these packets,
the public, on the score of expedition and comfort, will soon experience
the advantage of going to Holyhead by Howth.
"Passengers by the mail-coach have a preference as to berths in the
packets.
"_July 21, 1813._"
"Howth Royal Mail-Coach, well guarded, sets out from the Cork Coach
Office, No. 12 Dawson Street, at seven o'clock every evening with mails
and passengers to His Majesty's express packets at Howth, from whence
one of these excellent vessels sails at half after eight o'clock every
night for Holyhead.
"_July 31, 1813._"
The prediction was a safe one. Not only were the mails often one day
behindhand in arriving in London, but the letters they brought were
charged with an additional rate of postage in respect of the distance
between Dublin and Howth. The merchants flocked to the Post Office to
inquire the reason. No reason could be given them, and they were invited
to let their applications for a return of the charge stand over until
the postmasters-general should have informed themselves on the subject.
Some assented; others accused the postmasters-general of trifling, and
demanded instant redress. Matters had thus gone on for a fortnight when
Lord Liverpool, to whom an appeal had been made, directed that the
wherries should be withdrawn. One is left to suppose that this direction
cannot have been communicated in the proper quarter, for as a matter of
fact it had no result. In vain the captains of the packets applied at
the Dublin Post Office for the British mails. All such applications met
with a flat refusal, and the mails continued to be sent by the wherries
as before. At length an end was put to the scandal, but not until it had
lasted for more than six weeks.
The question now arose whether for the forty-four days during which the
wherries had acted as packets the compensation of £4000 a year which
Ireland received from Great Britain should not be withheld. Freeling had
not only taken it for granted that such would be the case, but had been
unable to conceal his regret that this was the only penalty of which the
circumstances would admit. Liverpool, however, decided otherwise. Lees
might have been wrong-headed and even perverse, but there could be no
doubt that law was on his side. Accordingly, the compensation was paid
for the period during which the packets had not carried the mails, and
not long afterwards the Government brought in a bill raising the amount
which Ireland was to receive from £4000 a year to £6000.
We now pass over six years. In July 1819 a curious invention, which had
for some little time been in practical operation on the Thames between
London and Margate, was brought into use between Holyhead and Dublin.
This was no other than a vessel propelled by steam. Two vessels of this
class were now set up by private individuals styling themselves the
Dublin Steam Packet Company; and of this company, to the amazement of
the authorities in Lombard Street, Lees had become a director. The
quality which the new vessels possessed of being able to go against wind
and tide, and the comparative speed with which they accomplished the
passage, soon commended them to the favour of the public; and the
consequence was a reduction to the extent of nearly one-half in the
number of passengers by the Post Office packets.[87] The matter was
serious, for it was in consequence of the fares which the captains
received that they let their boats to the Post Office at little more
than a nominal sum: and of course this sum would have to be increased
according as the fares diminished.
[87] By the Post Office packets the number of passengers between
Holyhead and Dublin during the years 1818-20 was as follows:--
Year. Number of
Passengers.
1818 13,128
1819 12,956
1820 7,468
Private steam packets began to ply in July 1819.
We now see the Post Office at its best. Not possessing in the case of
passengers a monopoly such as influenced and often perverted its action
in the case of letters, the department proceeded to do much as private
persons with sufficient capital at command would have done in similar
circumstances, namely to build better boats than those already employed,
and endeavour by the superior excellence of its service to recover the
custom it had lost. Orders were given for two steam packets, the best
that Boulton and Watt could build; and on the 31st of May 1821 the
_Royal Sovereign_, of 206 tons burthen, with engines of 40 horse-power,
and the _Meteor_, of somewhat smaller dimensions, began to ply.
"Hitherto," wrote the postmasters-general eight days later, "they have
answered the most sanguine expectations that had been formed of them;
the letters have been delivered in Dublin earlier than was ever yet
known, and Ireland has expressed herself grateful for the attention that
has been shewn to her interests."
The Post Office behaved in this matter with a moderation which was
altogether wanting where its monopoly was concerned. To be outdone by a
private company, to employ inferior boats, boats of an obsolete type and
of a low rate of speed--this would not be creditable to a public
department, still less to a department whose special function it was to
carry the correspondence of the country at the highest speed attainable;
and properly enough the Post Office might take steps to establish its
pre-eminence. But it would be quite another thing for a public
department to undersell a private company, and, by charging lower fares,
to run its boats off the line. This, it appeared to the authorities in
Lombard Street, would exceed the bounds of fair competition. Accordingly
the fares by the Post Office steam packets were fixed at the same
amounts as those charged by the company; and these fares were somewhat
higher than those which had been charged by the sailing packets. By
sailing packet, for instance, the charge for a cabin passenger had been
one guinea, by steam packet it was £1:5s.; for a horse the steam packet
charge was £1:10s. as against one guinea by sailing packet, and for a
coach £3:5s. as against three guineas.
These charges, which were fixed with the express object of not exposing
the company to undue competition, had not been long in force before
Parliament intervened. The Select Committee on Irish Communication
protested in the interests of the public against the raising of the
fares, and the Post Office was constrained to submit. The substitution
of steam packets for sailing packets bore immediate fruit. The number of
passengers carried by the Post Office between Holyhead and Dublin, which
in 1820 had sunk to 7468, rose in 1821 to 13,737 and in 1822 to more
than 16,000; and for some years the Holyhead packets were not only
self-supporting but produced a clear gain to the revenue of more than
£6000 a year.
The change which had been made at Holyhead was not long in extending
itself to other packet stations from which there was communication with
Ireland. Between Milford and Waterford sailing packets were replaced by
steam packets in April 1824, and between Portpatrick and Donaghadee in
May 1825. By sailing packet the average duration of voyage between the
last-mentioned stations had been seven hours and forty-eight minutes.
During the winter of 1825-26, a winter unexampled for the derangement of
sea-communication, the average time which the little Post Office
steamers _Arrow_ and _Dasher_ took to perform the voyage was less than
three hours and a half.
And yet, despite these exertions to maintain its superiority, the Post
Office was not to remain in undisputed possession of the Irish traffic.
Private steamers had begun to ply between Liverpool and Dublin, and the
fares by these steamers were lower than by the Post Office packets from
Holyhead. As a natural consequence, the passenger traffic to which the
Post Office looked to recoup itself for the heavy expense to which it
had been put in replacing sailing packets by steam packets was diverted
to Liverpool.
Nor was it only in the matter of passengers that the Post Office lost by
the competition. Its reputation also suffered. The mails for Ireland
left Liverpool at three o'clock in the afternoon, before the Exchange
was closed, and reaching Holyhead by way of Chester and Llangollen at
six o'clock on the following morning, did not arrive in Dublin until the
afternoon. The private steamers, on the contrary, did not leave
Liverpool until the business of the day was over, and arrived in Dublin
on the following morning. Hence comparisons were drawn not favourable to
the Post Office; and it by no means tended to allay dissatisfaction that
the owners of the private steamers were refused permission to carry the
mails. This they had offered to do, in one case for nothing more than
exemption from harbour and light dues; but at that time, strange as it
may appear to us with our present experience, it was a fixed principle
with the Post Office that private firms even of the highest eminence
were not to be entrusted with the carriage of the public correspondence.
Accordingly it was decided that between Liverpool and Dublin the Post
Office should run its own packets, and the new service began on the 29th
of August 1826. The opening was marred by a lamentable disaster. Early
in September the _Francis Freeling_ packet, a recently-built cutter
named after the secretary, and reputed to be the finest vessel of its
kind afloat, foundered during a heavy gale and all the passengers and
crew were lost.
The new service, while an unquestionable convenience to the public, did
not altogether satisfy the Post Office. It is true that, as a
consequence of the increased accommodation, the letters for Ireland
passing through Liverpool nearly doubled in number; but this
satisfactory result was not without alloy. During the past few years the
art of building as applied to steamboats had made rapid progress; and
not only were the packets on the Liverpool station larger than those
stationed at Holyhead, the horse-power of the engines being 170 in the
one case as against 40 in the other, but they were altogether better
equipped. The fares by the Liverpool route as fixed by the Post Office
were also relatively lower, and to any one proceeding from London or the
large manufacturing towns of the North the distance to be travelled by
road was shorter. As a consequence, the diversion of traffic from
Holyhead to Liverpool, notwithstanding the longer sea voyage, proceeded
still more rapidly than when the steamers from the latter port were in
private hands; and the Holyhead service, which had for some years
produced a clear profit of many thousand pounds a year, was now carried
on at a loss.
To the Post Office authorities, indeed, there was in connection with the
four packet stations in communication with Ireland only one thing which
gave them unqualified satisfaction. It was this--that to the Post Office
belonged the credit of being first to demonstrate by practical
experience that, to use Freeling's words, "steam vessels could force
their way at all seasons of the year and in weather in which no sailing
vessel, be her qualities what they might, would attempt to put to sea."
Whether the claim is well founded or not we have no means of judging; we
only know that it was made.
By land, at the beginning of the present century, communication with
Ireland was in a more backward state than it was by water; and since the
Union a very general opinion had prevailed that this communication
should be improved. It would perhaps be too much to say that the British
Post Office proved obstructive in the matter; but there can be no doubt
that it did not lend the assistance it might have done, and the reasons
are obvious. In the first place, a little soreness existed. No sooner
had the Act of Union passed than the Government decided that between
London and Dublin there must be an express in both directions daily.
This, as the postmasters-general pointed out, would cost more than £4000
a year, and, as it was not required for Post Office purposes, the Post
Office should not bear the cost. Accordingly the question as to the
source from which the cost should be defrayed was reserved for future
consideration; but after the express was well established, the Post
Office received notice that it must defray the cost itself, and it
continued to do so for twenty years and more. This was always a sore
point with Freeling, and he constantly adduced it as an instance of
unremunerative work.
Another reason which kept Lombard Street back from assisting to improve
the communication with Ireland was that the British and Irish Post
Offices approached the subject from different points of view. With the
British Post Office the main object, an object which in its judgment was
sufficiently well attained already, was the transmission of letters;
with the Irish Post Office, as indeed with that section of the public
which could best make its voice heard, the main object was the transport
of passengers. Yet a third reason, we can well believe, was the
conviction that for any improvement that might be made, though primarily
for the sake of Ireland, the British and not the Irish Post Office would
have to pay. These three reasons, we cannot doubt, were at the root of
the manifest indisposition displayed by the British Post Office to meet
what had gradually become a very general demand.
The first strenuous effort to induce the authorities in Lombard Street
to improve the communication with Ireland was made in 1805, the prime
mover in the matter being John Foster, the Chancellor of the Irish
Exchequer. At this time the mail-coach between London and Holyhead went
by a circuitous route through Chester. Foster maintained that it should
go direct through Coventry and Shrewsbury. By Coventry the distance was
264 miles, and by Chester 278 miles--a difference, in point of time, of
more than two hours.
It was alleged that by the shorter route other delays which now took
place might be avoided; but how important was a saving of even two hours
may be judged from the fact that the time of the mail-coach leaving
Holyhead was fixed with reference, not to the arrival of the packet
from Dublin, but to the arrival of the coach in London. All the
mail-coaches were timed to reach London early in the morning, so that
the letters they brought might go out by the morning delivery. To effect
this object, the mail-coach by the Chester route had to leave Holyhead
at seven o'clock in the morning, an hour by which it was barely possible
for the packet from Dublin to have arrived. During the whole of the year
1804, for instance, the Dublin mails arrived at Holyhead in time to
catch the coach to London on only twelve occasions; and, of course, when
the mails did not catch the coach, they had to remain idle at Holyhead
until the following morning.
If, argued Foster, the route be by Shrewsbury and Coventry, the coach
can leave Holyhead so much later that the occasions on which the Dublin
mail does not arrive in time to catch it will be not as now the rule but
the exception. Freeling set the suggestion aside as impracticable. The
coach, he maintained, must go through Chester. At Chester centred all
the correspondence from the great manufacturing towns of the North, from
Liverpool and Manchester, from Hull, Halifax, and Leeds, indeed from all
parts of Yorkshire and many other counties besides. Was this
correspondence of no account? Or was it suggested that a second
mail-coach should be established? Already the Post Office was paying
many thousand pounds a year for an express service between London and
Holyhead which it did not require. Could it in reason be expected to
incur the further expense which a second mail-coach would involve? The
thing was impossible, and the project could not be entertained.
Foster, though silenced for the time, was not convinced. In 1808 the
subject was mooted again. Clancarty, who had recently been appointed
joint postmaster-general with O'Neill, had arrived in London, prepared
to argue the point with all the energy of his energetic nature. Foster
was unable to come; but he had sent a memorandum which no one who was
not thorough master of the subject could have produced. A meeting was
appointed at Lord Hawksbury's office. Freeling poured out all the old
objections, and proceeded to contend, as he had contended three years
before, that the project was impracticable. But one was present there
who did not believe in impracticabilities. This was the new Chief
Secretary for Ireland, Sir Arthur Wellesley. Wellesley's opinion was
emphatic--that all other considerations must be made subordinate to the
one grand purpose of facilitating communication between the two capitals
of London and Dublin. Freeling had encountered a stronger will than his
own. What had been impossible before was possible now, and that very
evening arrangements were begun to be devised for accelerating the Irish
mails.
Even now, what little was done was done grudgingly. The mail-coach from
London which ran through Oxford and Birmingham to Shrewsbury was
extended from Shrewsbury to Holyhead, and was met at Llangollen by an
express from Chester bringing the cross-post correspondence. Thus
matters remained for nine years, when, under pressure which the Post
Office could no longer resist, the Coventry route was adopted. The Post
Office opposed the change to the last, even though a Parliamentary
Committee had recommended it, and an address in its favour had been
presented to the Prince Regent. At length Vansittart, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, brought his authority to bear, and in July 1817 a
mail-coach by way of Coventry began to run, accomplishing the distance
between London and Holyhead in thirty-eight hours.
But in order to facilitate communication between England and Ireland a
good deal more was required than to set up an additional coach or to
send an existing coach by another and shorter route. The roads of the
country were still in a state to make rapid travelling impossible. Much,
no doubt, had been done to improve them. Between the years 1760 and 1809
no less than 1514 Turnpike Acts had been passed, and under the turnpike
system the roads were better than before. Still the making of them had
been entrusted to incompetent hands, and they were constructed on false
principles. For the bed or foundation of the roads improper or
insufficient materials had been used. Little or no attention had been
paid to drainage. Few roads were provided with side channels. Not
seldom, indeed, the sides were encumbered with huge banks of mud which
had accumulated to the height of six, seven, and even eight feet. Not
only had convexity of surface, as a means of carrying off the water,
been disregarded, but the road was frequently hollow in the middle and
everywhere cut into deep ruts. High hedges and trees were still allowed
to intercept the action of the sun and wind, the importance of a rapid
evaporation of moisture being as yet unrecognised. Even the roads
themselves had been laid out on no fixed principle. Their lines of
direction were, almost without exception, identical with the footpaths
of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country; and these, doubtless to
avoid the bogs and marsh lands, and possibly also for purposes of
observation, had invariably followed the hills.
Hence it came to pass that almost every road of any importance was both
steep and crooked. Where there were no hills and the roads passed across
wet and flat land, they were almost always below the level of the
adjacent fields, the mud having been carried away by constant use. While
such was the general state of the roads during the first twenty years of
the present century, the road between Shrewsbury and Holyhead, over
which a mail-coach had been travelling since the summer of 1808, was
notoriously one of the worst in the kingdom. "To Kenneage,[88] six miles
of narrow road; scarcely room for two carriages to pass, and much out of
repair; in winter, the drivers say, the ruts are up to the bed of the
coach." "From Kenneage to Capel Curig, road narrow and wants walling to
prevent carriages falling down precipices 300 or 400 yards
perpendicular." "From Capel Curig to Bangor, side of the road unguarded,
and many accidents may happen to passengers by the coach running off the
road as the mail passes here in the dark." Thus wrote the assistant
superintendent of mail-coaches in 1808, and nothing had since been done
to remedy defects.
[88] _i.e._ Kinniogga, the old name for Cernioge.
The mail along this line, of road was now to be carried at a higher rate
of speed than before, and, if only on this ground, it would have been
necessary at least to remove actual causes of danger. Even before 1817,
however, Parliamentary Commissioners had been appointed for the
improvement of the Holyhead road; and these Commissioners had summoned
to their aid the first of that line of illustrious men who, during the
last eighty years, have transformed the face of England. This was Thomas
Telford, who had already achieved distinction by the roads he had made
in the Highlands of Scotland.
Telford commenced operations in the autumn of 1815; and now for the
first time in England, or at all events for the first time since the
ancient ways were laid down by the Romans, a road was to be constructed
on scientific principles. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made
straight, and the rough places plain." This--we say it without
irreverence--is what literally came to pass. Easy inclinations, ample
breadth, perfect drainings, complete protection, and a smooth and hard
surface--these were the distinguishing characteristics of the road which
Telford now made between Holyhead and Shrewsbury. A road that had been
one of the worst in the kingdom was now the very best. In summer it was
not even dusty, and in winter was free from dirt. Frost and rain
produced upon it but trifling and superficial effects. To crown all, the
Menai Straits were spanned by a noble bridge, where before there had
been only an inconvenient ferry.
While Telford was thus raising the business of road-making to the level
of an art, John Loudon Macadam was demonstrating of what materials the
surface of a road should be made. Macadam had travelled about the
kingdom much as John Palmer had travelled about some thirty years before
in pursuit of a different object, and, as the result of long
observation, he had come to the conclusion that the surface of roads
should be made of broken stones; and having in 1816 been appointed
general surveyor of roads in the British district he proceeded to put
his views into practice. With success to recommend it, the new system
spread like wildfire, and "a macadamised road" soon became a household
word.
Nor was it to the business of road-making alone that science now lent
her aid. What force of traction or power is required to draw carriages
over different kinds of road, in what line of direction the power can be
best applied--what, in other words, is the proper angle for the traces,
and what in the case of hills is the highest inclination up which horses
can go at a trot and down which they can with safety be driven at full
speed--these were some of the questions which now engaged the attention
of the scientific world. Some thirty years before, Walsingham and
Chesterfield when postmasters-general had dabbled in matters of the
kind;[89] but now they were reduced to the form of mathematical problems
and received a mathematical solution.
[89] "God knows whether we are to remain postmen or not, or whether all
the lights which philosophy is now throwing upon coach-making are not to
be left by us as an official legacy to some more pliant
successors."--Chesterfield to Walsingham, 22nd April 1792.
The excellence of the road constructed between Holyhead and Shrewsbury
brought into bold relief the imperfections of the road between
Shrewsbury and London. To this road, which, in comparison with the
other, had at one time been pronounced good and was now pronounced
execrable, Telford proceeded to apply the same principles as before. He
raised the valleys, lowered or avoided the hills, and corrected
deviations. To give only one instance--an instance taken from the second
stage out of London--the old road from Barnet to South Minims ascended
three steep and long hills; the new road avoided two of these hills
altogether, and at the same time was shorter than the old one by more
than 600 yards. And so it was in a greater or less degree all the way
from London through St. Albans to Coventry, and thence through
Birmingham and Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury.
It should also be mentioned that at this time, while the country roads
were hollow in the centre instead of convex, the roads in and about
London within a radius of about ten miles were the exact contrary. Here
convexity, as a means of carrying off water, had been pushed to so
absurd an extent that the road was in the form of a slanting roof, and a
carriage, unless kept in the centre, was on a dangerous slope. This,
which had been a prolific source of accidents, Telford now altered. The
effect of his operations upon the first stage out of London, the
Highgate Archway Road as it was called, is perhaps best described in the
words of one of the principal mail-coach contractors. Before Telford
took this road in hand, he wrote, "It was all we could do to walk up
both sides of the archway with six horses, and now we can trot up with
our heaviest loads with four."
The road from London to Shrewsbury, in continuation of the one from
Shrewsbury to Holyhead, was completed in 1828, and, corresponding
alterations having been made in the eight miles of road which connect
Howth and Dublin, a line of communication was established between the
capitals of England and Ireland such as, until the days of railways,
could hardly have been improved. Some few years before, when the Post
Office had received orders to accomplish the distance between London and
Holyhead in thirty-eight hours, Hasker, the experienced superintendent
of mail-coaches, while zealously applying himself to carry the orders
into effect, had felt it incumbent upon him as a loyal servant to make a
protest in writing against the "extraordinary expedition projected." It
would, he urged--and no doubt rightly so as the road then was--be
inhuman to horses and dangerous to life. This extraordinary expedition
was at the rate of seven miles an hour. Along the Parliamentary Road the
distance was accomplished, without hurt to horses and with perfect
safety, at the rate of ten miles an hour, and the London and Holyhead
coach soon became one of what were known as the "crack" coaches of the
kingdom.
Meanwhile the Post Office had shewn its appreciation of Telford's
achievement in a remarkable manner. It had imposed an additional charge
of 1d. upon every letter carried over Conway Bridge, and a second penny
for carriage over the Menai Straits.[90]
[90] The postage between Liverpool and Dublin by way of Holyhead was
13d., as thus made up:--
Inland postage to Holyhead 9d.
For the Conway Bridge 1d.
For the Menai Bridge 1d.
Sea postage 2d.
----
13d.
----
CHAPTER XVI
THE BEGINNING OF THE END
1817-1836
We must now go back a few years. On the cessation of hostilities with
France the state of the finances occupied a large share of men's
thoughts, and among the plans for relieving the burden upon the taxpayer
none perhaps was more obvious than to abolish sinecures and useless
offices.
On the 16th of February 1817 Mr. Lambton, member for the county of
Durham, gave notice of motion for a return shewing the number of Boards
which had been held by the postmasters-general during the last twenty
years, and distinguishing the names of the places where such Boards had
been held and the persons by whom they were attended. The Post Office
was in a flutter. Just twenty years before, the Commissioners of Inquiry
into Public Offices had recommended, and the recommendation had been
approved by the House, that a Board should be held by the
postmasters-general at least once a week; and from that date to the
present not a single Board had been held. The position was no doubt
embarrassing, and not the less so because the postmasters-general, Lords
Chichester and Salisbury, were the one at Stanmer and the other at
Hatfield. Nothing could be done without the concurrence of both, and at
such distances, little as would be thought of them now, it was a tedious
process eighty years ago to arrive at a common understanding.
Freeling, who regarded it as little short of an outrage that the two
noble peers, his masters, should be thus called to account, appealed to
the Chancellor of the Exchequer to have the terms of the motion altered;
but Vansittart refused, and the return was granted and ordered to be
laid on the table of the House. Of course it was necessary to admit that
no Boards had been held; but the work of the Post Office, the return
went on to state, did not lend itself to Boards. Boards could be held
only at intervals, and the work of the Post Office was so continuous and
pressing that, without detriment to the public interests, it could not
be kept waiting for a single day. A daily transmission of papers to the
postmasters-general was, therefore, necessary; and by such means the
business was better conducted than it would be by any system of Boards.
Such was the substance of the return which was now laid before the
House. Eventually the matter was referred to a friendly Committee, and
the appointment of second postmaster-general escaped for a time.
But it was for a time only. In May 1822, on the motion of Lord Normanby,
an address to the throne was adopted in the following terms: "His
Majesty's faithful Commons, relying upon His Majesty's gracious
disposition expressed in answer to former addresses of that House to
concur in all such measures of economy as the exigencies of the time
require, and in such reductions in the civil department of the State as
may be consistent with due consideration for the public service, humbly
pray that His Majesty will be graciously pleased to give directions that
the office of one of the postmasters-general may be abolished and the
salary thereby saved to the revenue." It was Lord Salisbury, as the
junior of the two postmasters-general, that was affected by the
resolution of the House. Many men, incensed by such treatment, would
have thrown up their appointments in disgust. Lord Salisbury did nothing
of the kind. The very day he received official intimation that the
address had been acceded to by the King he gave directions that his
salary should be stopped;[91] but the appointment of postmaster-general
he retained, and to the duties of it he gave at least as much attention
as before. It was not until his death a year later that Lord Chichester
was appointed sole postmaster-general, and the Post Office received the
constitution under which it still remains.
[91] The official intimation was received at the Post Office on the 28th
of May. On the same day Lord Salisbury wrote to the receiver-general as
follows:--
GENERAL POST OFFICE, _May 28, 1822_.
SIR--I have received instructions from the Lords Commissioners of His
Majesty's Treasury to acquaint you that on the 5th of July next you are
to retain in your hands the salary of £2500 hitherto paid to me as joint
postmaster-general.--I am, etc., SALISBURY.
R. Willimott, Esq., Receiver-General.
Other economies followed. All periodical increases of salary were
suspended and salaries were for the first time made subject to abatement
in order to provide a superannuation fund.[92] The effect of these two
measures was to reduce the Post Office servants to a state of
destitution not very far short of that from which Pitt had rescued them
some thirty years before. It must not be thought, however, that
ministers imposed upon others conditions to which they were unwilling to
submit themselves. On the contrary, they procured an Order in Council to
be passed reducing their own salaries and those of all the great
officers of State by 10 per cent, and the reduction was to continue for
five years. The desire to be just and equal was present; the one thing
wanting was a due sense of the difference between superfluity and need.
[92] The sums abated were afterwards returned. It was not until 1834
that abatements towards superannuation were imposed by statute.
And now a blow which had long been impending fell. This was the transfer
from the Post Office to the Admiralty of the packets stationed at
Falmouth. The question had been discussed again and again during the
war; but how it came to be revived at this particular time is not very
clear. There had indeed been a mutiny among the seamen at Falmouth, and
the packets had been temporarily removed to Plymouth; but many years
had since elapsed, and now, so far as appeared, matters were perfectly
quiet. We only know that at the instance of Lord Liverpool a memorandum
was prepared by Lord Melville, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and that
after a sharp paper-warfare between him and Freeling the arguments in
favour of the change prevailed. At Falmouth thirty packets were
employed, nearly double the number at all the other stations put
together; and these thirty packets with their crews of 600 seamen, whose
deeds of daring had often shed lustre on the Post Office, were now made
over to another department. Freeling was in despair. This little fleet
had, next perhaps to the mail-coaches, been the object of his keenest
solicitude; and it gave him little consolation that the packets at the
other stations--at Dover and Harwich, at Weymouth, Milford, Holyhead,
and Portpatrick, were to remain under the charge of the Post Office.
Some little comfort, however, was at hand. Steam packets being beyond
the means of the captains to purchase, the Government provided them and
purchased the sailing packets, which they replaced, at a valuation. Thus
the Post Office became once more absolute owner of its own boats. This,
though by no means reconciling Freeling to the loss of the Falmouth
packets, was at all events some compensation. "The steam flotilla
belonging to the Post Office," he was able to write in 1827, "consists
of no less than nineteen vessels complete, to the aggregate amount of
4000 tons, with machinery equal on the whole to the power of 1540
horses."
Exaggerated opinions have been expressed as to the speed of the
mail-coaches during the first two decades of the present century. In
1821 few mail-coaches travelled as much as eight miles an hour, and only
one mail-coach attained to a speed of nine miles, and that for only part
of the journey. The exact rates of travelling are shewn in the following
table:--
1821.
+---------------+-------+---------+----------+----------+-------------+
| | Number| Hour | Hour | Rate of | |
| MAIL COACH | of | of | of |Travelling| Remarks. |
|FROM LONDON TO | Miles.|Despatch.| Arrival. | per hour.| |
+---------------+-------+---------+----------+----------+-------------+
| | M. F.| | | M. | |
|Berwick | 341 6 | 8.0 P.M.| 6.15 P.M.| 7-13/16 | The rates of|
|Berwick to | | | | |travelling |
| Edinburgh | 59 4 | -- | 2.55 A.M.| 7-2/16 |include |
|Birmingham | 110 2 | 8.0 P.M.|10.0 A.M.| 7-13/16 |stoppages for|
|Bristol | 122 4 | " | " | 8-10/16 |change of |
|Carlisle by | | | | |horses, but |
| Manchester | 311 4 | " | 1.30 P.M.| 8-5/16 |not stoppages|
|Carlisle by | | | | |for refresh- |
| Boroughbridge| 302 6 | " | 1.40 P.M.| 7-10/16 |ment and for |
|Carlisle to | | | | |Post Office |
| Glasgow | 103 2 | -- | 4.50 A.M.| 7-4/16 |business. |
|Chester | 191 0 | 8.0 P.M.|10.50 P.M.| 7-8/16 | |
|Chester to | | | | | |
| Holyhead | 88 0 | -- | 7.5 A.M.| 7-7/16 | |
|Dover | 73 4 | 8.0 P.M.| 6.45 A.M.| 7 | For a |
|Exeter | 176 2 | " | 7.40 P.M.| 7-11/16 |considerable |
|Exeter by Bath | 194 0 | " | 7.50 P.M.| 8-7/16 |part of the |
|Gloucester | 111 0 | " |10.0 A.M.| 8-3/16 |distance the |
|Holyhead | 264 6 | " | 6.50 A.M.| 7-15/16 |London and |
|Leeds | 196 0 | " |11.25 P.M.| 7-8/16 |Bristol |
|Liverpool | 207 4 | " |12.10 A.M.| 7-6/16 |coach |
|Norwich by | | | | |travelled at |
| Ipswich | 114 4 | " |11.0 A.M.| 7-14/16 |the rate of |
|Ipswich to | | | | |nine miles an|
| Yarmouth | 54 2 | -- |11.56 A.M.| 7-15/16 |hour. |
|Poole | 117 4 | 8.0 P.M.|11.20 A.M.| 7-14/16 | |
|Portsmouth | 72 6 | " | 6.45 A.M.| 7-1/16 | |
|Worcester | 114 4 | " |10.40 A.M.| 8-7/16 | |
+---------------+-------+---------+----------+----------+-------------+
It was not until some fourteen or fifteen years later, when the main
roads of the kingdom had passed under Telford's hands and vehicles of
lighter build had been introduced, that mail-coaches attained the speed
which is very commonly ascribed to an earlier period. In 1836 there were
in England 104 mail-coaches, all drawn by four horses. Of these the
fastest was the Liverpool and Preston coach, which travelled at the rate
of ten miles and five furlongs an hour; and the slowest was the coach
between Canterbury and Deal, which travelled at the rate of only six
miles an hour. The average speed of all the mail-coaches in 1836, namely
eight miles and seven furlongs an hour, was actually higher than the
highest speed attained by any one mail-coach in 1821. It should be
added that in 1821, as in 1836, the number of passengers by a mail-coach
was limited to four inside and four out. On some mail-coaches, indeed,
no more than three outside passengers were allowed.
But the mail-coach at the beginning of the present century did something
more than carry mails and passengers. It was the great disseminator of
news. In times of excitement men would stand waiting along the mail
roads and learn the latest intelligence as shouted to them from the tops
of the coaches. It may well be believed that this mode of communication
did not tend to either accuracy or completeness of statement. We cannot,
therefore, be surprised that on important occasions or occasions on
which false or inexact intelligence might lead to mischief recourse
should have been had to the expedient of printing hand-bills, and
sending them to the postmasters with instructions to distribute them in
their respective towns. The following are specimens of hand-bills which
were so distributed:--
LONDON, _February 10, 1817_.
The statement in the morning papers that several persons have been
arrested by warrants from the Secretary of State is true.
The meeting was held this morning at Spa Fields; but the arrests
which have taken place and the precautions adopted by Government
caused everything to end peaceably and the town is perfectly quiet.
* * * * *
_17th November 1818._
Her Majesty the Queen expired at one o'clock this day.
* * * * *
The following hand-bill sent to the different ports where vessels from
Jamaica were likely to arrive is interesting in so far as it shews the
exceptional facilities which, even seventy or eighty years ago, the Post
Office possessed for making inquiries:--
GENERAL POST OFFICE, _February 10th, 1821_.
Mr. Freeling requests the postmaster to make inquiries of the
master of any ship arriving from Jamaica into the state of the Duke
of Manchester's health, and inform him of the result by the first
post.
Of the reason of this solicitude we are not aware.
Police notices, notices giving particulars of crimes which had been
committed and offering rewards for the apprehension of the criminals,
were similarly dealt with. These, like the hand-bills of which specimens
have been given, were sent from Lombard Street under cover to the
postmasters with instructions to circulate them in their respective
towns. The propriety of this proceeding is not free from doubt. Of
course, every department of the State is interested in the detection and
punishment of crime; and yet it may be a question whether by taking an
active part in the distribution of these documents the Post Office was
not to some extent identifying itself with a class of business from
which, for obvious reasons, it had better hold itself aloof.
While changes were taking place in other directions, the regulations for
the transmission of newspapers through the post remained as they had
been at the beginning of the century. Within the United Kingdom
newspapers could not pass free except under the frank of either members
of Parliament or of the clerks of the roads. To the Continent of Europe
and to the colonies they could pass only at the letter rate of postage
unless they were franked, in the case of the Continent, by the
comptroller or clerks of the foreign department, and, in the case of the
colonies, by Freeling. This privilege of franking was to the Post Office
servants who possessed it a source of considerable profit. Freeling's
share alone amounted to nearly £3000 a year; but he, unlike his
subordinates, claimed to frank not newspapers alone but the _Edinburgh_
and _Quarterly Reviews_ and other publications of a like nature.
The West India merchants had long writhed under this exaction, and now
at their instance Joseph Hume, the member for Montrose, brought the
matter under the notice of the House of Commons. The practice had only
to be made known in order to secure condemnation. A bill was brought in
and passed extinguishing the privilege so far as the colonies were
concerned, empowering the Treasury to grant compensation for the loss of
it, and providing for the transmission of newspapers at easy rates.
These rates were, from the United Kingdom to the colonies, 1-1/2d. and,
from the colonies to the United Kingdom, 3d. for each newspaper, the
reason for the difference of charge being that the paper would bear a
stamp-duty in one direction and not in the other.
In the case of newspapers for the Continent the franking privilege
remained untouched. It may seem strange that this should have been so;
indeed, not more than two or three years had elapsed before members of
Parliament were expressing surprise that the Act which had taken away
the privilege in respect to one class of newspapers had not taken it
away also in respect to the other. But the explanation, we think, is
simple. Some nine or ten years before it had been rumoured that in the
case of all Post Office servants the franking privilege was to be
abolished, and those who would have been injured by its abolition
proceeded to shew cause why in their own case an exception should be
made. Only by those who franked to the Continent were even plausible
reasons given; and there can be little doubt that, at all events to some
extent, the same reasons operated now. These were that over a great part
of the Continent, except for the arrangements made by the Post Office
servants in Lombard Street, English newspapers could not circulate at
all or could circulate only under most onerous conditions. In France
their circulation was prohibited. To Holland they could not be sent
unless ordered by some postmaster there. In Germany and Sweden, unless
so ordered, they could not pass through the post except at the letter
rate of postage. In Portugal the letter rate of postage was always
charged. In Russia, besides being charged 7s. 6d. apiece, they were
generally delayed and not seldom suppressed altogether. These obstacles
had been overcome by the private arrangements made from Lombard Street,
and, if these should be disallowed, the transmission of newspapers to
the Continent, instead of being facilitated, would be rendered more
difficult and costly. Thus in 1816 argued those who were interested in
the maintenance of the privilege, and we can well understand that in
1825 much the same considerations prevailed.
The same Act of Parliament which imposed upon newspapers to the colonies
a postage of 1-1/2d. allowed newspapers within the United Kingdom to
pass through the post free from any postage at all. This was the effect
of the Act, but it was accomplished in a roundabout manner. By a statute
passed early in the century[93] a member of Parliament was required, in
order to send his newspapers free, to sign his name on the outside in
his own handwriting, and, in order to receive them free, to have them
addressed to some place of which he had given previous notice in writing
at the Post Office. By the present statute these provisions were
repealed. A newspaper, to be exempt from postage, need no longer bear
the signature of a member of Parliament and need no longer be addressed
to a place of which previous notice had been given. In other words,
newspapers might pass through the post free; and as a consequence the
franking privilege possessed by the clerks of the roads was at an end.
[93] 42 George III. cap. lxiii. sec. 10.
This, it might naturally be supposed, was a signal epoch in the history
of the Post Office. As a matter of fact, it was nothing of the kind. For
many years past the law had been disregarded. It had indeed been
insisted upon that a newspaper, in order to pass free, must bear a
member's name, without which the full letter rate of postage would be
charged; but by whom the name was written, whether it was written at all
or only printed, and whether the use of it had been authorised, had long
ceased to be considered material. So well was this understood that some
of the largest news-vendors in the kingdom adopted a member's name
without the slightest reference to the member himself, and had it
printed on their newspaper-covers.
This laxity in the case of newspapers may appear all the more
extraordinary in view of the stringency which was observed in other
matters. The Chelsea pensioners had by statute enjoyed the privilege of
sending and receiving letters at low rates of postage. Freeling never
rested until the statute was repealed. At the close of hostilities with
France letters which had been detained in Paris since the war broke out
in 1803 were forwarded to London, and the merchants urged that they
might be delivered free. The Treasury were in favour of granting the
request; but Freeling energetically opposed it. The delivery of such
letters free, he insisted, would be a plain breach of the law. On a
dissolution of Parliament those who had been members lost their
privilege in the matter of franking; and yet it might be supposed that a
short period of grace would have been allowed, a period sufficient to
admit of letters which were already in the post being delivered free.
Nothing of the kind. These letters were surprised in course of transit
and charged with postage.[94]
[94] This is the circular which was issued to postmasters on the
occasion of a dissolution:--
"The Parliament is dissolved. The franks of this evening are necessarily
charged with postage, and you will immediately charge all letters and
packets excepting the letters franked by such public officers as are by
law at all times exempted from postage. Full instructions will be sent
to-morrow."
Lord Salisbury when at the Post Office contrasted the stringency of
later years with the laxity which prevailed in his early manhood. "In
the year 1778," he wrote, "and in many succeeding ones while I took the
field with the militia it was the constant practice to write on all
regimental papers the words, 'On His Majesty's service,' which insured a
free delivery; but in process of time the Post Office became rather
stricter and more attentive, and then such a superscription was charged
except when addressed to peers and members of Parliament, and I have
frequently paid for such letters overweight without getting any
redress."
When such strictness was observed in other matters, one can only wonder
at the liberties which were allowed to be taken with newspapers, and it
appears all the more strange because the very act which in the case of
newspapers was countenanced and encouraged was in the case of letters a
highly penal offence. Was it not for forging a single frank, the frank
of Sir William Garrow, that the clerical impostor, Halloran, was in 1818
sentenced to seven years' transportation? The plain truth would seem to
be that vested interests were so deeply involved in the matter of
newspapers that there was on the part of the Post Office the utmost
indisposition to make them the subject of legislative enactment; and
yet, without some concessions to the news-vendors, it would have been
impossible to resist the pressure which would have been brought to bear.
This, we doubt not, is the true explanation; and it will account for
much that is otherwise dark and obscure. It will explain why that which
was regarded as a heinous offence in the case of letters was sanctioned
and encouraged in the case of newspapers; why, enormously as the
circulation of newspapers within the United Kingdom increased during the
first quarter of the present century, we look in vain for any
legislative enactment regulating the conditions under which, except when
sent or received by members of Parliament, they might pass through the
post; and why in 1825, when at length they had conceded to them the
right to pass free, the concession was enacted in an indirect and
circuitous manner.
So far, therefore, as inland newspapers were concerned, the practical
effect of the statute which now passed was little more than to make law
correspond with usage. During many years newspapers had been passing
through the post, as they were to pass for the future, free. The only
difference was that, in order to secure exemption, it was no longer
necessary to go through the farce of either writing or printing the name
of some member of Parliament on the outside of the cover. The clerks of
the roads were unaffected by the statute. The advantage which these
officers had at one time derived from their franking privilege had
already been lost to them through the action of the Post Office in
evading the law; and we can well believe that even so they considered
themselves fortunate in being permitted to escape with their
newspaper-business. This business, long after they had begun to compete
with the news-vendors on equal terms, was of large dimensions. During
the year 1829, out of 11,862,706 newspapers despatched from London into
the country, 1,207,794 or more than one-tenth of the whole number were
despatched by the clerks of the roads.
But it was not only in respect to newspapers that the House of Commons
began about this time to manifest in the proceedings of the Post Office
an interest such as it had never taken before. Committee after Committee
was appointed to report upon the communications of the country, upon
roads, mail-coaches, and steam packets; but without any definite result.
Obviously the House was not satisfied with things as they were, and yet
did not well see how to improve them. Only one man appears to have had a
clear perception of what he wanted, and to have been possessed of the
requisite ability to carry his object. This was Sir Henry Parnell,
chairman of the Select Committee on the Holyhead Road, a Committee the
title of which only inadequately denotes either its scope or importance.
Parnell, presuming on the authority which this position gave him, and
convinced no doubt of the feasibility of his scheme of improvement,
adopted towards the Post Office an air of superiority which was
peculiarly galling to Freeling, who for the first time in his life found
himself dictated to in respect to matters in which he had hitherto been
regarded as supreme. The effect of this Committee was not only to keep
the Post Office busily employed in the preparation of returns but to put
it on the defensive.
Another inquiry which was going on contemporaneously contributed to the
same result. Early in the reign of George the Fourth a Commission had
been appointed to inquire into the state of the revenue, and this
Commission, which began with the Post Office in 1823, did not report the
result of its labours until 1829. Meanwhile the Post Office, which was
practically on its trial, put forward as few proposals as possible; and
even from those that were put forward the Treasury withheld assent on
the pretext that the Commission had not yet reported. Hence followed
the somewhat curious result that the very period during which the House
of Commons began to manifest an interest in the Post Office was on the
part of the Post Office itself a period of more than ordinary inaction.
And yet the period in question, though not remarkable for Post Office
progress, is by no means an uninteresting one if only because within its
limits the old and the new are brought together in striking contrast. In
1818 the express office in the Haymarket is closed, an office which had
been established in 1797 for the purpose of facilitating the receipt and
despatch of Government expresses. In 1821 gas, or oil-gas as it was then
called, is introduced into the Post Office, and at once asserts its
superiority over oil in point not only of illuminating power but of
cheapness as well. In 1822 the Post Office, by virtue of a warrant under
the royal sign-manual, is cleared of its irrecoverable debts. These have
been accumulating during a period of 137 years--since 1685, when the
Post Office was first taken out of farm, and now amount to £62,141.
About the same time Thomas Gray, writing from Brussels, advocates the
introduction of steam engines on iron railways and predicts that, once
established, they will absorb the carrying trade of the kingdom and
displace mail-coaches. In 1823 Brunel, who has already achieved
distinction, offers his services in the construction of a steam engine
which shall prove as efficient and as safe at sea as when employed on
land. The brilliant engineer receives no encouragement, and Gray
receives not even the courtesy of an answer. In the same year passes
away at Tunbridge Wells, James Sprange, the courtly old postmaster, who
up to the date of his last illness might be seen pacing the Pantiles
scrupulously dressed in the costume of the reign of George the Second,
even to the long ruffles. In 1825 Glasgow is pleading, and pleading in
vain, for a Post Office which shall not be kept at a shop. In 1828 the
Roman Catholic peers are once more protesting against the outrage which
precludes them, on the score of their religion, from exercising the
privilege of franking. In 1829 Waghorn is vainly striving to induce the
Post Office to co-operate in facilitating communication with the East.
The inferiority of sailing vessels to vessels propelled by steam has now
been conclusively established, and steam packets are being placed on
every station. Not the Holyhead Road alone but all the great roads of
the kingdom have passed under Telford's hands and are beginning to
assume the condition in which we see them to-day. And all this while
postage remains at the ridiculously high level at which it was fixed in
1812. To Windsor the charge on a single letter is still 6d., to
Birmingham 9d., and to Liverpool 11d. Letters are still held up to a
strong light to see whether they contain an enclosure or not, and are to
be charged as single or as double. The first general delivery in St.
James' Square is not begun before twelve o'clock in the day or finished
much before one. Offices for the receipt of general post letters are
still kept separate and distinct from those for the receipt of letters
for the twopenny post. By the twopenny post the postage is not
necessarily 2d., but, according as it is a twopenny post letter, a
general post letter, or a foreign letter, may be 3d., 2d., or nothing.
On a letter for abroad the fee for registration is still one guinea.[95]
An additional penny is still charged upon every letter that crosses the
Conway or the Menai Bridge. Two hundred and seventy-five post towns
still remain without a free delivery, and--what proves a constant source
of contention between the Post Office and the inhabitants--even in those
towns in which the letters are delivered free, the limits of the free
delivery are not defined.
[95] Since 1814 receipts had been given for registered letters. In that
year Mr. H. M. Raikes, of 4 Portman Square, represented that he
frequently sent valuable parcels of diamonds between this country and
Holland, and that these parcels he insured, but that, to be certain of
recovering his insurance should any casualty happen, "the London
merchant ought to have some proof in his possession of his having
delivered such a packet into the charge of the Post Office." If, he
added, the clerks would give a receipt, the merchant would gladly give
them for their trouble an additional guinea. The suggestion to charge a
second guinea was not adopted; but from that time a receipt had been
given for a registered letter in the following form:--
FOREIGN POST OFFICE.
LONDON 181
It is hereby certified that ......... has registered at this office a
sealed packet said to contain .......... addressed to ...............
which will be forwarded to ............. by the mail of this evening;
but for its safe conveyance this office is not responsible.
(_Signature_) ....................
Twenty years before, the office in Gerrard Street, the headquarters of
the twopenny post in Westminster, had been enlarged. Of this office,
which ranked next in importance to the General Post Office in Lombard
Street, the postmasters-general wrote in 1809--not, surely, without a
touch of exaggeration: "The sorting office, where fourteen persons are
generally employed at a time and nearly one-half of which is occupied by
tables, is only seventeen feet long by thirteen wide"; and, again, "The
letter-carriers' office, in which fifty persons are employed at a time
and one-fourth of which is occupied by tables, is but eighteen feet by
sixteen." Such were the conditions under which, until lately, the Post
Office servants had been accustomed to work; and now on a site rich in
historical associations is rapidly approaching completion a stately
edifice which not only provides ample and even lavish accommodation for
the present, but will, it is confidently predicted, suffice for all
time.
The new Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand was opened on the 23rd of
September 1829. Little more than sixty years have since elapsed, and the
building has been shorn of its chief attraction, the central hall, and
has otherwise been so altered internally that even the accomplished
architect, were he to revisit us, would probably fail to recognise his
own handiwork. Of the old Post Office in Lombard Street, with its courts
and its alleys and its interesting associations, not a fragment remains.
Part of the site was retained for Post Office purposes, and is now
occupied by what is known as the Lombard Street Branch Office; part was
thrown into the street then forming, and to be called after the King,
King William Street; and the remainder was sold, and has long been
covered with banks and counting-houses.
It were much to be wished, if only for his own reputation and peace of
mind, that Freeling had now retired. Full of years, recently created a
baronet, of ample means, and enjoying the confidence of the Government
as probably civil servant had never enjoyed it before, he could not have
selected a better moment for relinquishing the duties of his arduous
post. But a man who has been accustomed to exercise power is seldom
willing to give it up. And in Freeling's case we suspect there was an
additional reason. Of the large income which he derived from the Post
Office, exceeding £4000 a year, considerably more than two-thirds was
compensation for the loss of the franking privilege; and this
compensation, according to a well-understood rule, was not to count for
pension. As the fees which had been received for the exercise of the
privilege must have ceased on retirement, so the compensation was to
cease also.
That Freeling would have received a special pension is beyond doubt; but
even a special pension, with the utmost goodwill on the part of the
Government, could not have approached the amount of his official income.
And of this Freeling must have been well aware, for grumblings were
already to be heard. The Commissioners of Revenue Inquiry, indeed, had
gone so far as to question his right to receive any fees at all, and,
even assuming such right to exist, had impugned the conduct of the
Government in fixing the amount of his compensation at close upon £3000
a year.
The removal into the new building was celebrated by two important steps
in advance. Two branch offices were opened, one at Charing Cross and the
other in Oxford Street, where letters were received without a fee until
half-past six o'clock in the evening. Up to this time, except in Lombard
Street, no office for the receipt of letters had been kept open later
than five o'clock. A still more important step was the earlier delivery
of letters in the morning. This was accomplished within the city by the
employment of additional letter-carriers, and in the more distant parts
by conveying the men to their walks in vehicles. A whole hour was thus
gained. In the west end of London the delivery had not been completed
until between twelve and one o'clock. It was now to be completed, except
on Mondays, when the greater number of letters caused delay, between
eleven and twelve.
It will be convenient here to notice, though not strictly in
chronological order, a third step in advance which took place about a
year later, a step regarded as of little moment at the time, and yet one
which, in view of subsequent events, was of the highest importance. On
the 11th of November 1830 the first mail was sent by railway, this being
the mail between Liverpool and Manchester. Except as the opening of a
new era, the fact would hardly deserve to be recorded, for many years
had yet to pass before railways became sufficiently general to afford to
the Post Office any sensible relief. Meanwhile the roofs of the
mail-coaches groaned under the weight of the mails. Time had been when
no mail was allowed to be put on the roof or elsewhere than in the
mail-box; but, as the correspondence increased, the Post Office was
forced to countenance a practice of which it highly disapproved. What,
except for the railways, would have happened on the introduction of
penny postage is a question into which, happily, we need not inquire.
The new Post Office had not been long occupied before the Government
changed hands, and Earl Grey came into power with the Duke of Richmond
as postmaster-general. It is not often that a change of Government
affects the proceedings of the Post Office. One postmaster-general may
be more active than another, or he may take a more lively and personal
interest in the questions with which he has to deal; but there must,
from the nature of the case, be a continuity of policy which can seldom
be broken. Nor was there in this respect any exception to rule in the
present instance. And yet the peer who now assumed the direction of the
Post Office adopted a mode of procedure so different from that of his
immediate predecessors that it is impossible to pass over the occasion
in silence.
Richmond on his appointment as postmaster-general declined to receive
any salary; and having formed this determination on the ground that the
office was notoriously a sinecure, he straightway proceeded to shew that
a sinecure was the very thing which in his hands the office was not to
be. He devoted himself heart and soul to his new duties. Early and late,
at his private residence as well as the Post Office, he was in constant
and personal communication with officers of all classes from the highest
to the lowest. Nothing like it had been seen since the days of
Walsingham. He frequented the sorting office, saw for himself how the
work was done, and with many a kindly word encouraged the men to do
their best. With his own hands he on one occasion opened a bag for the
colonial office, and, in confirmation of the suspicion which had
prompted the act, found it full of letters for bankers, army agents, and
others, representing postage to the amount of £60.
Yet hard as he laboured, the Duke's repugnance to receive remuneration
for his services could not be overcome. Learning that his salary
remained undrawn, the Treasury addressed to him a letter of gentle
remonstrance. To this letter he returned no reply. Fourteen months later
the Treasury wrote again. To gratuitous service there were, in their
Lordships' opinion, serious objections. The Lord Privy Seal had declined
to receive the salary annexed to his office, and a Select Committee of
the House of Commons had expressed disapproval of the step as being
inconsistent with the wishes and the dignity of the country. Could that
be right on the part of the postmaster-general which had been held to be
wrong in the case of the Lord Privy Seal? Richmond now yielded, feeling
that it would be indelicate, if not disrespectful to the House, to force
gratuitous service where he was authoritatively informed gratuitous
service would not be welcome; but while yielding he managed to draw as
little of the arrears of salary as possible. His appointment as
postmaster-general bore date the 14th of December 1830, and the views
of the Committee were for the first time made known to him at the end of
April. The end of April, he was pleased to say, was an inconvenient time
to begin. It was a broken quarter. He would, in deference to the opinion
of the Committee, draw salary from the 5th of July but not before.
Richmond had been only a short time at the Post Office when he had a
most invidious task to perform. This was the carrying out of the
arrangements consequent upon the consolidation of the Irish Post Office
with the Post Office of Great Britain. The state of things arising from
the maintenance within the United Kingdom of two independent Post
Offices had long been felt to be intolerable. Until four or five years
before, not only had the rates of postage in Ireland been different from
those in England, but on a letter passing from one part of the kingdom
to another both the English and the Irish rates had been charged. This
had now been altered,[96] but the inconvenience of the dual control
remained. A letter from Ireland might have miscarried or been delayed.
The postmaster-general of England could not answer for its course except
on this side of the Channel, and for further particulars the complainant
had to be referred to Dublin. The English packets were timed to arrive
in Ireland at a particular hour; but on the goodwill of the authorities
in Dublin it depended whether the Irish posts corresponded or whether,
as had not been unknown to be the case, their times were perversely
fixed so as to keep the English mails waiting.
[96] 7 and 8 George IV. cap. xxi.
Nor was this all. The Revenue Inquiry Commissioners had recently
reported upon the Irish Post Office, and the evidence, on which their
report was based, revealed the existence of scandalous abuses such as no
Government could suffer to continue. For nearly fifty years the Irish
Post Office had been independent of the Post Office of Great Britain,
and it was now determined that this independence should cease. In 1831
an Act was passed incorporating the two Post Offices into one, and
Richmond's patent as postmaster-general of Great Britain had hardly
been completed before another passed constituting him postmaster-general
of the United Kingdom.
Upon Richmond as postmaster-general of Ireland as well as England and
Scotland it now devolved to sweep out the Augean stable; and his stern
sense of duty peculiarly qualified him for the task. Rosse and O'Neill
had ceased to be postmasters-general of Ireland upon the Act of
incorporation passing. Lees, their secretary, was removed from Dublin to
Edinburgh. Only those who had performed their duties in person were
retained. All others were summarily dismissed and pensions were refused
to them. In the result the Irish establishment was reduced in point of
numbers by one-half, and in point of cost by nearly £10,000 a year; and
this after the salaries of those who were retained had been increased
all round.
One important function had yet to be performed. This was to audit the
Irish accounts, which had not been audited for fourteen years, and were
known to be in a state of the utmost confusion. The receiver-general,
who carried on the private business of banker and money-lender, had
recently died, and speculation was high as to what further scandals the
audit would reveal. All preparations had been made, and the persons
selected for the task were on the point of starting for Dublin when
intelligence reached London that the receiver-general's bond was not
forthcoming. It had, shortly after his death, been surrendered under an
instruction from Lees which, like the instruction which conferred upon
his brother a valuable appointment, purported to have been given at a
Board at which were present "the earls." The earls, as a matter of fact,
had not been present and had never been consulted on the point. As it
was felt that in the absence of the bond an audit would be of little
use, the Government abandoned their intention, and the Irish Post Office
accounts from 1817 to 1831 remain unaudited to the present day.
Lord Althorp was at this time Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
position which he assumed towards the Post Office was probably unique.
Ordinarily, between the Treasury and the Post Office there is a certain
amount of antagonism which, deplorable as it may be, is not difficult to
understand. The Post Office wants to spend money; the Treasury wants to
save it. The Post Office knows by experience that it must sow before it
can reap; the Treasury, while ready enough to reap, has a rooted
aversion to sowing, and resolutely shuts its eyes to the fact that
between the two processes there is a direct and necessary connection.
All this was reversed in Althorp's time. Often, during his tenure of
office, might be witnessed the strange spectacle of a Chancellor of the
Exchequer urging the Post Office to adopt some improvement, and the Post
Office attempting to frighten him with the bogey of cost.
The first matter on which Althorp brought his authority to bear was the
boundary of the general post delivery. The limits of this delivery were
irregular and capricious in the extreme. Of two streets, possibly
adjoining streets, one might receive its general post letters for the
general post rate alone, while the other, though at no greater distance
from St. Martin's-le-Grand, had to pay the twopenny rate as well.
The question now forced itself into prominence. Belgrave Square had been
laid out, and the houses were being occupied as fast as they could be
built. Those of the occupiers who were members of Parliament found to
their chagrin that every letter they received cost them 2d., for the
franking privilege did not clear the twopenny post; and, of course, by
those who were not members of Parliament, 2d. had to be paid in addition
to any other postage to which their letters might be liable. Althorp
insisted that the general post limits should be not only extended but
fixed on some definite principle. But what was the principle to be?
Contiguity of building? This was held to be impracticable. A line drawn
on such a basis would extend beyond Brentford on the west to Hampstead
and Highgate on the north, and beyond Clapham on the south. A line drawn
according to parishes would be little better. The parish of St.
Pancras, which nearly touched Holborn in its southern extremity,
extended as far as Finchley in the north, and the parish of Lambeth
reached nearly to Croydon.
Another course would be to draw a circle of which the Post Office should
be the centre, and let all letters within this circle be delivered free;
but even with a radius of no more than three miles, the additional cost
would be £25,000 a year. This was an outlay which the Post Office could
not recommend, and, if it were incurred, the Government must take the
responsibility. Althorp was not to be daunted, and after April 1831 the
general post limits extended for a distance of three miles from St.
Martin's-le-Grand. A little later, the threepenny post was extended to a
radius of twelve miles. This, boon as it was considered to be sixty
years ago, was shorter by some miles than the radius of the penny post
when Queen Anne ascended the throne.
Althorp was hardly less determined on the subject of the packets. It had
been a matter of principle with Freeling, that to all places beyond the
sea to which there was regular communication the Post Office should
carry its own mails. That they should be carried in vessels belonging to
private persons, however respectable these persons might be, appeared to
him to be unworthy of the English Government, and on this ground many an
advantageous offer had been refused.
Althorp held a different opinion, and an opportunity soon offered of
carrying his own view into effect. From Harwich the mails to Holland and
to Hamburg were still carried by sailing packet, and the merchants of
London, regarding this as an anachronism, urged that the sailing packets
might be replaced by steam packets. The request was not unreasonable,
but, unwilling that the Government should be at the cost of substituting
one description of packet for the other, Althorp directed that the
service should be put up to public competition. Here we see the first
application of a principle which in the result has furnished us with a
fleet of packets such as no other country in the world can produce. The
tender of the General Steam Navigation Company was accepted, though
saddled with the condition that its vessels should start from the
Thames. This was a death-blow to Harwich. The sailing packets for Sweden
were, indeed, still retained there; but in little more than eighteen
months the Swedish Government contracted for the mails to be forwarded
from Hull, and Harwich as a packet station was closed.
But of all the changes which Althorp introduced perhaps the most
important, and certainly the one which excited most opposition at the
Post Office, was the abolition of the newspaper privilege. The number of
newspapers sent by post from London into the country had, within the
last fifty or sixty years, increased enormously. In 1764 they averaged
3160 a day, in 1790 the daily average was 12,600, and in 1830 it had
risen to 41,412. The rate of increase, moreover, was advancing. In 1829
the total number of such newspapers was 11,862,000, and in 1830
12,962,000; and more than one-tenth part of the whole number was
supplied by the clerks of the roads.
The news-vendors now took the matter up in earnest. A general meeting
was held to protest against the Post Office servants being any longer
allowed to compete with the private dealers, and a petition to the same
effect was presented to Parliament. This called forth a vigorous
rejoinder from Freeling, and it is interesting to note by what arguments
he defended his position. So far, he said, from the news-vendors having
any ground of complaint against the Post Office servants, it is the Post
Office servants who have reason to complain of the news-vendors. For
their own interest and advantage a few persons engaged in a trade of
modern creation are endeavouring by clamour to deprive others of the
remains of an old and long-established privilege, which they exercise
not only under the sanction of immemorial usage, but by the direct
authority of Acts of Parliament. It is not as though the public were
interested in the question. The public have absolutely no interest in
it, except indeed to this extent--that, if what remains of the
privilege be withdrawn, they will be asked to compensate those whose
incomes are reduced in consequence, and to provide higher salaries for
their successors; and this "for the sole purpose of transferring their
authorised official remuneration to the pockets of a few individuals
who, having been admitted to a participation in what was originally an
exclusive privilege, have now thought proper to set up a claim to the
whole."
Such were Freeling's arguments, but Althorp was not convinced by them.
By his direction the privilege was withdrawn as from the 5th of April
1834, and those whose incomes suffered were handsomely compensated. Thus
ended a practice which had existed from the first establishment of the
Post Office, and which, while the Post Office was still in its infancy,
may perhaps have had this to justify it--that except for the franking
privilege possessed by the clerks of the roads the provinces would
probably have had to go without even the few copies of newspapers which
at that time found their way there.
It may appear strange that, while Althorp was thus applying his sturdy
common sense to the affairs of the Post Office, no steps were taken to
correct what most needed correction--the exorbitant rates of postage.
Our own belief is that in a very short time, had the Government of which
he was a member remained in office, a reduction would have been made,
and that it was to this result that he and Richmond, who worked hand in
hand together, were preparing the way. As to Richmond's views on the
matter there can be little doubt. Under previous Governments the Post
Office had been accustomed in exceptional cases to appeal to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to mitigate the severity of its own rates by
the exercise of a dispensing power; but Richmond set his face against
the practice, insisting that the law should be obeyed until it was
altered; and, after being released from the trammels of office, he was
one of the first to propose an alteration.
But if such were indeed Althorp and Richmond's intention, we cannot
regret that it was not carried into effect. The illustrious man who
gave us penny postage had not yet directed his attention to the subject;
and, as he tells us himself, it was with him a matter of long and
careful consideration whether he should devote his energies to the
reform of the Post Office or to the improvement of the printing machine.
If in 1834 only a moderate reduction had been made in the extortionate
rates of postage which were then in force, Rowland Hill might not have
embarked upon his plan, and, even if he had done so, that plan might
have failed to evoke from the public sufficient support to overcome
opposition in high quarters. In proportion to the extent of the evil did
men welcome the remedy.
Meanwhile, although the demand for cheap postage had not yet taken
shape, profound dissatisfaction existed with the conduct of the Post
Office. This, under the reformed Parliament, was perhaps to be expected
in any case; but there were special circumstances which contributed to
the result. Nearly five years had elapsed since the Royal Commission of
Inquiry had reported upon the Post Office, and nothing had since been
done to carry its recommendations into effect.
It is not difficult to understand this inaction. In Freeling's view the
Post Office had been brought to a pitch of perfection such as it had
never reached before, and he regarded it as little short of sacrilege
that a body of outside novices should presume to lay its hands upon the
sacred ark which he had now for more than a generation been moulding
into form. Of the change of opinion which the labours of the Commission
had wrought he appears to have been utterly unconscious. Hitherto the
Post Office had been regarded as a marvellous mystery, which none but
experts could understand. This mystery had now been invaded, and men
were beginning to wonder, not, as in the past, at the things which the
Post Office was able to do, but how it was that these things were not
done better.
The Commission had also brought to light the existence of abuses, and
these on one pretext or another had remained uncorrected. We will give a
single instance. The Money Order Office had been established in 1792
with the object of facilitating the transmission of small sums from one
part of the country to the other by means of orders drawn on the
different postmasters. The plan was excellent and deserved success. The
only objection to it was that the enterprise was a private one,
undertaken by a few Post Office servants for their own benefit, and that
to make it remunerative to the projectors required from the authorities
an amount of favour which they had no right to bestow. Originally there
had been no limit to the amount for which a money order might be
drawn;[97] but long before 1829, in order to prevent interference with
the banking interest, the limit had been fixed at £5:5s.; and the
commission chargeable was at the rate of 8d. in the £1 on the sum
remitted. Of this amount 3d. went to the postmaster who issued the
order, 3d. to the postmaster who paid it, and the residue to the
proprietors.[98]
[97] At the outset in 1792 the limit had indeed been fixed at £5:5s.;
but even in the first year this limit was largely exceeded. During the
three months ending the 10th of October 1800, 697 money orders were
issued, viz. 220 in London and 477 in the country, representing an
aggregate amount of £8863, or at the rate of more than £12 apiece.
[98] Among the records of the Post Office is still preserved a money
order drawn by one postmaster upon another at the beginning of the
century. A facsimile of it is given in the Appendix.
Seeing that the postage on a single letter between two towns no farther
apart than London and Bristol was at this time 10d., it will be obvious
that in respect to orders for small sums the enterprise would have been
conducted at a loss unless the correspondence on money order business
had been exempt from postage. And such indeed was the case. All letters
passing from London to the country were impressed with the official
stamp, and those passing from the country to London were enclosed in
printed covers addressed to the secretary, and bearing, immediately
below the secretary's name, that of the proprietors, "Stow and Company."
For correspondence between themselves on money order business the
postmasters were supplied with franks sent down from London in blank.
Strongly as the Commission of Inquiry had animadverted on this abuse,
nothing had been done to correct it, and the franking privilege was, for
money order purposes, being as freely used as ever.
The returns which the House of Commons called for about this time, and
the returns which the Post Office furnished, shew, more forcibly perhaps
than anything else, in what direction men's minds were tending, and how
hollow was the foundation on which a part of the Post Office system
rested. More than sixty years had elapsed since the Law Courts decided
that inhabitants of post towns were entitled to a gratuitous delivery of
their letters. The House now inquired at how many post towns a charge on
delivery was still being made, and by what authority. The return
furnished by the Post Office shewed the number of towns to be
eighty-nine, and after giving as the authority for the charge
"immemorial usage," went on to state that "the payment is not compulsory
if the parties choose to object."
It was still the practice to hold up to a strong lamplight every letter
that passed through the post in order to see whether it was a single or
a double one; and the House called upon the Post Office to state by what
authority this was done. The Post Office, having no authority to adduce,
returned an evasive reply. The House next called for the number of
persons who had been prosecuted in the course of the year for the
illegal conveyance of letters. The Post Office return shewed that on
this ground, during the last twelve months, as many as 341 prosecutions
had taken place, many of them involving a large, and some of them a very
large, number of persons, and that the cases were still more numerous in
which, in order to avoid prosecution, the transgressors had submitted to
fines. And how had the revenue been prospering meanwhile? A return
called for by the House in April 1834 answers the question. During the
last ten years, despite the increase of population, the net Post Office
revenue had actually declined. In 1824 the receipts were £2,055,000
gross and £1,438,000 net, as against £1,391,000 net and £2,062,000 gross
in 1833.
In 1834 Earl Grey was succeeded by Viscount Melbourne; and one of the
first acts of the new Government was to appoint another Commission of
Inquiry into the Post Office, with directions to ascertain and report
how it was that the recommendations of the former Commission had not
been carried out. These recommendations were now set down one by one,
and the Post Office was called upon to explain, opposite to each,
whether any and, if so, what steps had been taken to give effect to it.
One or two of them had indeed been adopted--such, for instance, as the
recommendation that Post Office servants should cease to deal in
newspapers--but only under compulsion. Others affecting the internal
administration of the Post Office were certainly not feasible. But there
remained not a few which, while excellent in themselves, had been
discarded on the merest pretext.
The Commissioners had recommended that the "early," that is the
preferential, delivery of letters should be discontinued. The Post
Office replied that it was impossible. The Commissioners had recommended
that, instead of the receiving houses for general post letters being
separate and distinct from those for the letters of the twopenny post,
every receiving house should take in letters of both kinds. The Post
Office replied that the existing arrangement was the best adapted not
only to the convenience of the public but to the business of the
department. The Commissioners had recommended that the letter-carriers,
instead of being separated into general post, twopenny post, and foreign
letter-carriers, should all form one corps and deliver letters of every
description. The Post Office replied--a reply all the more extraordinary
inasmuch as the very arrangement which the Commissioners recommended was
already in force both in Edinburgh and Dublin--that "it would be
productive of the greatest confusion and delay."
The last of the recommendations to which we shall refer was that "the
total charge upon all letters should be expressed in one taxation." The
Post Office replied that it was "not possible for country postmasters to
know the precise line of demarcation between the general post and
twopenny post deliveries." In other words, no postmaster could know
what, in the case of letters for London--and, it might have been added,
for any other town than his own--the proper charge should be. This was
no pretext. It was, on the contrary, perfectly true; and perhaps no more
striking testimony could be afforded to the unsoundness of the system
then in vogue.
It is impossible to conceive that on Freeling's part there can have been
anything in the shape of contumacy, still less of defiance; but we are
by no means sure that the House of Commons did not incline to that view.
Be that as it may, however, the Post Office was in bad odour, and an
unfortunate series of incidents which occurred about this time little
tended to remove the unfavourable impression which the unwillingness to
carry out the Commissioners' recommendations had created. The House, at
the instance of the Select Committee on Steam Navigation, had called for
a return of the casualties which within a given period had happened to
the Irish packets. The return furnished by the Post Office omitted two
accidents in which one of the members of the Committee had himself
assisted; and the Committee forthwith ordered the attendance of a
witness from the Post Office to explain the omission. Another return
contained obvious errors, and was sent back to the Post Office to be
corrected.
But the two returns which excited most comment referred to the mileage
allowance received by the mail-coach contractors, and to the Money Order
Office. As regards the mileage allowance the only reply vouchsafed by
the Post Office was that it "has not the means of furnishing any account
of the amount paid." The return as regards the Money Order Office was
still more unfortunate. The ground on which this office had been
condemned by the Revenue Inquiry Commissioners was that it was carried
on for the benefit of individuals, and yet in so far as its
correspondence was exempt from postage, at the expense of the revenue.
Several years had since passed, and the House, not doubting that the
abuse had been corrected, called for a return shewing the amount of
postage derived from letters containing money orders, and to what
purpose it was applied. "The Money Order Office"--thus ran the return
which the Post Office furnished--" is a private establishment, and the
business is carried on by private capital under the sanction of the
postmaster-general; but as no accounts connected in any degree with it
are kept at the Post Office, no return can be made by the
postmaster-general to the order of the House of Commons." The House was
highly incensed, and ordered that, both as regards the Money Order
Office and the mileage allowance, proper returns should be rendered at
once.
The energy of the new Commission had now nearly brought the Post Office
into trouble. The contract for the supply of mail-coaches was in the
hands of Mr. Vidler of Millbank, who had held it for more than forty
years, and little had been done during this period to improve the
construction of the vehicles he supplied. Designed after the pattern in
vogue at the end of the last century, they were, as compared with the
stage-coaches, not only heavy and unsightly but inferior both in point
of speed and accommodation. Moreover, the charge made for them, namely,
2-1/2d. a mile in England and 2d. a mile in Scotland, was considered to
be high; and the Commissioners, altogether dissatisfied with the manner
in which the contract had been performed, arranged with the Government
not only that the service should be put up to public tender, but that
Vidler should be excluded from the competition. This decision was
arrived at in July 1835, and the contract expired on the 5th of January
following. To invite tenders would occupy time, and, after that
mail-coaches would have to be built sufficient in number to supply the
whole of England and Scotland. A period of five or six months was
obviously not enough for the purpose, and overtures were made to Vidler
to continue his contract for half a year longer. Vidler, incensed at the
treatment he had received, flatly refused. Not a day, not an hour,
beyond the stipulated time would he extend his contract, and on the 5th
of January 1836 all the mail-coaches in Great Britain would be withdrawn
from the roads.
A man less loyal than Freeling or endued with less generous instincts
might have felt a twinge of satisfaction at this result of interference
with what he considered his own domain. But such emotion, if indeed he
felt it, was not suffered to appear. With a difficulty to overcome, some
of his old energy returned, and when the 5th of January arrived there
was not a road in the kingdom from Wick to Penzance on which a new
mail-coach was not running.
It was now that the mail-coaches reached their prime. Eight or nine
miles an hour had hitherto been their highest speed, and now, with
vehicles of lighter build, the speed was advanced to ten miles an hour
and even more. Truth compels us to add that while the fastest mail-coach
on the road, the coach between Liverpool and Preston, travelled at the
rate of ten miles and five furlongs an hour, a private coach
accomplished within the hour rather more than eleven miles. This was the
coach between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, of which Captain Barclay of Ury
was the proprietor. Besides coachman and guard it carried fifteen
passengers, namely, four inside and eleven outside, while a mail-coach
carried four in and four out or eight altogether. Nor would Captain
Barclay admit that, in order to attain this high rate of speed, recourse
need be had to anything like furious driving. Nothing more, he
maintained, was necessary than to keep the horses at a "swinging trot."
Freeling's success in averting a breakdown with the mail-coaches did
little or nothing to arrest the tide which had set in against him. After
exercising an influence such as probably no civil servant had exercised
before, he found himself discredited and the object of vehement and not
over-scrupulous attack. Of the ministers under whose orders he had acted
not a few had passed away, and none were in a position to share his
responsibility, while their successors only knew him as identified with
a system which had become unpopular. Owing to an unusually rapid
succession of postmasters-general,[99] he was without even the solace
and support which a chief of some years' standing might have given him.
Single-handed, the old man had maintained a gallant defence; but his
spirit was now broken. In the midst of his exertions to prevent any
interruption of travelling facilities the House of Commons had called
for a return which was calculated to wound him deeply. This return
implied not only that he had been guilty of gross mismanagement, but
that his salary was higher than he was entitled to receive, that he was
drawing unauthorised emoluments, and that the Post Office was made
subordinate to his personal interests.
[99] Five within a single year. The Duke of Richmond ceased to be
postmaster-general in July 1834; and he was followed by Lord Conyngham,
Lord Maryborough, Lord Conyngham a second time, and Lord Lichfield, the
last of whom was appointed in May 1835.
To the outside world Freeling maintained much the same demeanour as
before, and few would have suspected the weight that pressed at his
heart; but in the solitude of his study he was an altered man. There he
brooded over the past and contrasted it with the present. Notes jotted
down haphazard on official papers that chanced to be on his table reveal
the inner workings of his mind. We know few sadder records. He recalls
the time when Governments consulted him and he stood high in favour with
the public. He cannot forget how, in the course of debate in the House
of Commons, his own proficiency and devotion to duty were urged as
reasons for not retaining the second appointment of postmaster. In the
recollection of those happy days he endeavours to find consolation for
the calumny and detraction of the present. He repudiates as unfounded
the charge that he has long ceased to consult the interests of the
public, and affirms that in this cause he has of late years laboured
even more abundantly than he did of old.
Then there is a break, after which he takes up his pen again. "Cheap
postage,"--to this effect 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[100] has charged me
not to let the 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 manufacturer have the materials
of his trade carried for him gratuitously or at so low a rate as to
leave no margin of profit?"
[100] The Right Hon. Thomas Spring Rice.
Here the manuscript abruptly ends. It is dated the 24th of June 1836.
Within sixteen days from that date Francis Freeling was no more.
* * * * *
We have done. From 1836 downwards the story of the Post Office is told,
far better than we could tell it, in the Autobiography of Sir Rowland
Hill and the reports which, since 1854, the department has issued
annually. The story of the preceding period is less well known, if
indeed it be known at all. To tell the earlier story--to trace the Post
Office from its humble beginnings down to the time when the illustrious
reformer took it in hand--this has been the extent of our object, and no
one perhaps is more conscious than ourselves how imperfectly it has been
accomplished.
APPENDIX
SUCCESSION OF POSTMASTERS-GENERAL FROM 1660 TO 1836
From 1660 to 1667 the Post Office was in farm, the farmers being--
1660 to 1663.
Henry Bishopp. Rent, £21,500.
Bishopp surrendered his patent, which was for seven years, in 1663.
1663 to 1667.
(Being residue of Bishopp's term.)
Daniel O'Neile. Rent, £21,500.
1667 to 1685.
Henry, Earl of Arlington.
Rent for later part of the term, £43,000.
Office managed, at first, by Sir John Bennet, Lord Arlington's
brother, and afterwards by Colonel Roger Whitley.
1685 to 1689.
Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester.
(For part of the time Lord Treasurer.)[101]
Office managed by Philip Frowde, Esq., under the title of Governor.
[101] The concentration of the offices of Lord Treasurer and
Postmaster-General in one person served to facilitate the transaction of
Post Office business in a manner which those who have had experience of
the present system will not be slow to understand. Take, for instance,
the question of increasing a Post Office servant's salary. At the
present time the Postmaster-General may be thoroughly convinced himself
that an increase is called for, but--what is a very different matter--he
has also to convince the Treasury. In 1686 the Postmaster-General's own
conviction was enough. The following will serve as an illustration.
Thomas Cale, Postmaster of Bristol, applies for an increase of salary,
and Frowde, the Governor, satisfies Rochester that an increase will be
proper. Forthwith issues a document, of which the operative part is as
follows:--"You are therefore of opinion that the said salary (£50) is
very small considering the expense the petitioner is att, and his
extraordinary trouble, Bristoll being a greate Citty, but you say that
you doe not think all the things he setts downe in the aforesaid accompt
ought to be allowed him, the example being of very ill consequence, for
(as you informe me) you doe not allow either candles, packthread, wax,
ink, penns or paper to any of the Postmasters, nor office-rent, nor
returnes of mony, you are therefore of opinion that tenn pounds per
annum to his former salary of £50 will be a reasonable allowance, and
the petitioner will be therewith satisfied, these are therefore to pray
and require you" to raise his salary from £50 to £60 accordingly.
ROCHESTER.
WHITEHALL TREASURY CHAMBERS, _Dec. 13, 1686_.
July 1689 to March 1690.
Colonel John Wildman.
1690 to 1708.
Sir Robert Cotton, Knight, and
Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart.
1708 to 1715.
Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart., and
Sir John Evelyn, Bart.
1715 to 1721.
Charles, Lord Cornwallis, and
James Craggs, Esq.
1721 to 1725.
Edward Carteret, Esq., and
Galfridus Walpole, Esq.
1725 to 1732.
Edward Carteret, Esq., and
Edward Harrison, Esq.
Christmas 1732.
Edward Carteret alone to Midsummer 1733.
1733 to 1739.
Edward Carteret, Esq., and
Thomas, Lord Lovell, afterwards Earl of Leicester.
1739 to 1744.
Thomas, Lord Lovell, and
Sir John Eyles, Bart.
1744 to 1745.
Thomas, Earl of Leicester (sometime Lord Lovell) alone.
1745 to 1758.
Thomas, Earl of Leicester, and
Sir Everard Fawkener, Knight.
1758 to 1759.
Thomas, Earl of Leicester, alone.
June 2, 1759 to November 27, 1762.
William, Earl of Bessborough, and
Hon. Robert Hampden.
November 27, 1762 to September 23, 1763.
John, Earl of Egmont, and
Hon. Robert Hampden.
September 23, 1763 to July 19, 1765.
Thomas, Lord Hyde, and
Hon. Robert Hampden.
July 19, 1765 to December 29, 1766.
William, Earl of Bessborough, and
Thomas, Lord Grantham.
December 29, 1766 to April 26, 1768.
Wills, Earl of Hillsborough, and
Francis, Lord Le Despencer.
April 26, 1768 to January 16, 1771.
John, Earl of Sandwich, and
Francis, Lord Le Despencer.
January 16, 1771 to December 11, 1781.
Francis, Lord Le Despencer, and
Right Hon. Henry Frederick Thynne, afterwards Carteret.
December 11, 1781 to January 24, 1782.
Right Hon. Henry Frederick Carteret (sometime Thynne) alone.
January 24 to April 25, 1782.
William, Viscount Barrington, and
Right Hon. Henry Frederick Carteret.
April 25, 1782 to May 1, 1783.
Charles, Earl of Tankerville, and
Right Hon. Henry Frederick Carteret.
May 1, 1783 to January 7, 1784.
Thomas, Lord Foley, and
Right Hon. Henry Frederick Carteret.
January 7, 1784 to September 19, 1786.
Charles, Earl of Tankerville, and
Right Hon. Henry Frederick Carteret. (Created Baron Carteret,
January 29, 1784.)
September 19 to December 10, 1786.
Thomas, Earl of Clarendon, and
Henry Frederick, Lord Carteret.
December 10, 1786 to July 6, 1787.
Henry Frederick, Lord Carteret, alone.
July 6, 1787 to September 19, 1789.
Henry Frederick, Lord Carteret, and
Thomas, Lord Walsingham.
September 19, 1789 to March 13, 1790.
Thomas, Lord Walsingham, and
John, Earl of Westmorland.
March 13, 1790 to July 28, 1794.
Thomas, Lord Walsingham, and
Philip, Earl of Chesterfield.
July 28, 1794 to March 1, 1798.
Philip, Earl of Chesterfield, and
George, Earl of Leicester.
March 1, 1798 to February 27, 1799.
George, Earl of Leicester, and
William, Lord Auckland.
February 27, 1799 to March 31, 1801.
William, Lord Auckland, and
George, Lord Gower.
March 31, 1801 to July 19, 1804.
William, Lord Auckland, and
Lord Charles Spencer.
July 19, 1804 to February 20, 1806.
Lord Charles Spencer and
James, Duke of Montrose.
February 20, 1806 to May 5, 1807.
Robert, Earl of Buckinghamshire, and
John Joshua, Earl of Carysfort.
May 5, 1807 to June 6, 1814.
John, Earl of Sandwich, and
Thomas, Earl of Chichester.
June 6 to September 30, 1814.
Thomas, Earl of Chichester, alone.
September 30, 1814 to April 6, 1816.
Thomas, Earl of Chichester, and
Richard, Earl of Clancarty.
April 6, 1816 to June 13, 1823.
Thomas, Earl of Chichester, and
James, Marquess of Salisbury.
Since Lord Salisbury's death on the 13th of June 1823, no second
Postmaster-General has been appointed.
June 13, 1823 to July 4, 1826.
Thomas, Earl of Chichester.
July 4, 1826 to September 17, 1827.
Lord Frederick Montague.
September 17, 1827 to December 14, 1830.
William, Duke of Manchester.
December 14, 1830 to July 5, 1834.
Charles, Duke of Richmond.
By his first patent, dated the 14th of December 1830, the Duke was
appointed Postmaster-General of Great Britain; and by a second patent,
dated the 14th of April 1831, he was appointed Postmaster-General of
Great Britain and Ireland.
July 5 to December 31, 1834.
Francis Nathaniel, Marquess Conyngham.
December 31, 1834 to May 8, 1835.
William, Lord Maryborough.
May 8 to May 30, 1835.
Francis Nathaniel, Marquess Conyngham.
May 30, 1835, to September 15, 1841.
Thomas William, Earl of Lichfield.
SUCCESSION OF SECRETARIES TO THE POST OFFICE DOWN TO 1836.
The appointment of Secretary was created by Treasury Warrant
dated the 20th of June 1694.
1694 to 1700.
Name uncertain; but probably Willboyl.
[In 1694 the Postmasters-General urge the creation of the appointment of
Secretary; in 1697 they speak of "having sent our Secretary down to
Worcester"; and in October 1701, when reporting on a paper which had
been referred to them as far back as June 1699, they explain that "by
the death of our late Secretary y^e paper has been mislaid and but very
lately recovered." That there was a Secretary during this period is,
therefore, beyond doubt.
During the same period the Post Office letter books are written in a
handwriting as peculiar as it is good; and in the same handwriting, of
the identity of which there can be no question, there is in the
Frankland-Blaithwaite correspondence, until lately in the possession of
Sir Thomas Phillipps, a letter from the General Post Office dated the
27th of May 1697, and docketed thus, the docket having obviously been
written at the time of receipt:--"From Mr. Willboyl, Commissioner of the
Post Office." Now, Commissioner of the Post Office he certainly was not,
there being at that time no such appointment; but it is probable that he
was Secretary, and that with this official title, which had been only
recently given, Blaithwaite was not acquainted.]
1700 to 1714.
Benjamin Waterhouse.
1714 to 1715.
Henry Weston.
1715 to 1721.
James Craggs.
1721 to (about) 1730.
Joseph Godman.
(About) 1730 to 1737.
W. Rouse.
1737 to 1738.
Thomas Robinson.
September 1738 to July 1742.
John David Barbutt.
July 1742 to December 1762.
George Shelvocke.
December 1762 to July 1765.
Anthony Todd.
July 1765 to January 1768.
Henry Potts.
January 1768 to June 1798.
Anthony Todd (again).
June 1798 to July 1836.
Francis Freeling.
[Illustration: FACSIMILES OF FRANKS written before and after 1784, when
the obligation to date was imposed.
_Before._
The Duke of Grafton, First Lord of the Treasury from 1766 to 1770,
commonly called Junius Grafton from the attacks made upon him by
Junius.]
[Illustration: _After._
The Earl of Sandwich, nicknamed by the satirists of the period Jemmy
Twitcher. "See Jemmy Twitcher shambles--stop, stop, thief"--an allusion
to his shambling gait.
Lord Sandwich was postmaster-general from 1768 to 1771, and afterwards
First Lord of the Admiralty.]
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PAID MONEY ORDER of the year 1802.]
INDEX
Abdy, Sir Robert, 38
Abercorn, James, Earl of, his unreasonable complaint, 153
Absenteeism, in England, 231;
in Ireland, 371
Alien Office, assists the Post Office in procuring foreign newspapers,
347
Allen, Ralph, postmaster of Bath, takes in farm the bye and cross-post
letters, 147;
conditions of his contract, 147;
success of his enterprise, 148;
is thwarted by the postmasters, 149;
his contract renewed, 150;
nature of his plan and his special qualifications for carrying it into
effect, 155;
his local knowledge, 157;
his difficulties with the postmasters, 157 _seq._;
as a means of check lays down certain propositions, 161;
instances of imposition practised by postmasters, 163;
by post-boys, 164;
by carriers and others concerned in the illegal conveyance of letters,
165;
the liberality of his arrangements, 166;
his course of procedure contrasted with that of the
postmasters-general, 168;
pays higher rent and increases the frequency of the post every seven
years when his contract is renewed, 169;
his injunction about the use of expresses, 182;
his death, 185;
his character, 186;
is an object of jealousy to Palmer, 230
Alphabet, 374;
ingenious one in use at Belfast, 375
Althorp, John Charles, Viscount, urges on Post Office improvements, 415;
fixes the limits of the general post delivery, 416;
throws the packet service open to public competition, 417;
abolishes the newspaper privilege enjoyed by the clerks of the roads,
418;
contemplates apparently a reduction of postage, 419
America, posts set up in, 110;
first postmaster of New York, 111;
and of Virginia and Maryland, 111;
establishment of what was virtually a penny post between England and
America, 113;
American posts become self-supporting, 116;
postmasters ejected from their offices, 207
Amsterdam, practice at, on arrival of the mails, 174
Anne, Queen, treatment of letters for, when in residence at Newmarket, 98
_Antelope_ packet, Captain Curtis, gallant action with privateer, 321
Apertures, introduction of, on the outside of post offices, 180
Argyll, John, Duke of, 64
Arlington, Henry Bennet, Earl of, appointed postmaster-general, 34
Armit, secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, displaced by Lees, 221
Ashburnham manuscripts, 20
Ashurst, Mr. Justice, his judgment touching the free delivery of
letters, 200
Aston, Mr. Justice, his judgment touching the free delivery of letters,
200
Attorneys, their provisional resolution to withhold postage on writs,
178;
hold appointments in the Dublin Post Office, 371
Auckland, William Lord, postmaster-general, his pleasantries, 333
Auditors of the imprests, 256 _note_
Austria, liberties taken with post-horses by travellers in, 5 _note_
Aylsham, Norfolk, post established to in 1733, 167
Baker, Sir George, physician to George the Third, 252
Bank of England notes, robbery of, from mail evokes important legal
decision, 183;
origin of cutting bank notes when sent by post, 206;
contemplated reduction of postage on letters containing second halves
of bank notes, 298
Bankers' franks, meaning of term, 315 _note_
Barbutt, John David, secretary to the Post Office, 185
Barclay, Captain, of Ury, high speed of his coach, 426
Barclay's plot, expresses sent on discovery of, 63
Barham, Edmund, packet agent at Dover, terms of his agreement with
Walcot, secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, 222
Barlow, clerk in the secretary's office, modifies the practice of the
Dead Letter Office, 308
Barnstaple, private post set up to Exeter in 1633, 17
Bath asserts its right to a free delivery, 198;
right admitted and letter-carrier appointed, 202;
slowness of post between Bath and London, 208;
amount of toll between the same towns, 210;
Post Office Establishment at Bath and amount of the postmaster's salary
in 1792, 292
Beccaria, Bonesana, his essay on Crimes and Punishments, 245
Belfast, ingenious "alphabet" in use at, 375;
peculiar usage of delivery, 375
Belgrave Square, included in the limits of the general post delivery, 416
Bell, Colonel, comptroller of the Inland Office, particulars of charge
against, 185 _note_
Bells, letters collected by ringing of, introduction of system, 121;
and its termination, 123 _note_;
bellmen in England and in Ireland paid on different principle, 367
(196, 221, 257)
Bernard, Sir Robert, 192
Besant's patent coaches, 282
Bethnal Green, a second penny on penny post letters improperly charged
at, 203
Bianconi, Charles, his enterprise, 376
Bigg, Stephen, his enterprise as a farmer of the posts, 60
Billingsley, Henry, a broker, carries letters of foreign merchants, 13;
and is consigned to prison, 14
Bills of exchange and of lading to and from foreign parts exempt from
postage until 1801, exemption then withdrawn, 331
Birmingham, one of many towns in which a free delivery of letters had
ceased, 197;
free delivery restored and letter-carrier appointed, 202;
salary of postmaster in 1792, 293;
penny post opened at, 300
Bishopp, Henry, farmer of the posts, 33, 34
"Black-box"; the box in which the correspondence of the Secretary of
State for Scotland was carried, 53
Blaithwaite, William, Secretary of War, remonstrated with on his abuse
of the franking privilege, 132
Blome's _Britannia_, 35
Bonnor, Charles, deputy comptroller-general of the Post Office, his
conduct in the matter of the king's coach, 252;
delays replies to the postmaster-general's inquiries, 264;
practises deception, 264;
his base ingratitude, 274;
is suspended by Palmer, 275;
suspension removed by the postmasters-general, 276;
his treachery, 278, 279;
receives the reward of infamy, 280
Boulton and Watt build the first steamboats used by the Post Office, 384
Bourne, Frederick, clerk in the foreign department of the Post Office;
suggests the establishment of a Ship Letter Office, 328
Bournemouth, mode of receiving its letters in 1854, 293 _note_
Bowen, passenger by packet; brings news of the victory at Oudenarde, 105
Boyle, Henry, Secretary of State, charges the packet agent at Harwich
with receiving a bribe, 89
Bracken, Henry, author of _The Gentleman's Pocket Farrier_, his device
to obtain exemption from postage, 161
Braithwaite, Daniel, clerk to the postmasters-general, his honesty of
purpose, 244
Brighton, salary of the postmaster of, in 1792, 293
Brill, The, 73, 83, 88
Bristol, course of post between Bristol and Exeter in 1660, 29;
and in 1696, 57;
salary of the postmaster of, in 1690, 50;
and in 1792, 293;
first mail-coach starts from Bristol, 213;
penny post opened there, 300;
revision of postmaster's salary in 1686, Appendix, _note_
Brown, sub-agent of packets at Ostend, his clandestine letter, 106
Brunel, Sir Marc Isambard, offers to construct a steam engine for the
Post Office packets, 408
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, letter endorsed by, in 1627, 20
Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, son of the preceding, tedious
course of letter addressed to, in 1666, 34.
Buckingham, George Grenville Nugent Temple, Marquis of, Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland, deprecates reduction of packet establishment at
Holyhead, 248
Burlamachi, Philip, is appointed Master of the Posts, 21;
his title contested, 21;
is consigned to prison, 22
Bye-letters, probable meaning of the term in Queen Elizabeth's
reign, 4;
its certain meaning in 1690 and after, 52, 147;
postage upon bye-letters intercepted, 52, 53, 134 _note_;
Bye-Letter Office, 308
Bye-nights, 46
Byng, Sir George, 102, 104
Cadogan, Brigadier-General, packet detained for, 87
Camden, John Jeffreys, Earl, promotes Palmer's plan, 212;
gives to Pitt Palmer's version of his differences with the
postmasters-general, 274
Candles, inordinate supply of, to Post Office servants, 231
Canning, George, charges the Post Office with forestalling his
intelligence, 347
Carlisle, salary of postmaster of, in 1792, 293
Carriers allowed to carry letters under restrictions, 19;
restrictions more clearly defined, 129
Carteret, Edward, postmaster-general from 1721 to 1739. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part IV.
Carteret, Henry Frederick, Lord, postmaster-general from January 1771
to September 1789. _See_ Postmasters-General, Parts V. and VI.
Carts, first employment of, in London for bringing letters to the
General Post Office, 316
Castello, a prisoner on board packet, 88
Chalmers, George, his suggestions, 256;
excites Palmer's jealousy, 259
Channel Islands without an official post in 1792, 294;
official post provided, 312;
rates of postage, 314
Charing Cross, opening of branch office at, 411
Charlemont, Lord, his misunderstanding as to packet charges, 86
Charles, Archduke, 78, 86
Chelsea pensioners, their privilege of sending and receiving letters at
low rates of postage withdrawn, 404
Chenal, captain of packet, rebuked by the postmasters-general, 94 _note_
Chepstow, the inhabitants of, though under no obligation, continue to pay
pence on the delivery of their letters, 293
Chester, in 1720 the only town outside London with two Post Offices, 151;
salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Chesterfield, Philip, Earl of, postmaster-general from March 1790 to
March 1798. _See_ Postmasters-General, Part VII.
Chichester, Thomas, Earl of, postmaster-general from May 1807 to July
1826. _See_ Postmasters-General, Part VIII.
Christmas boxes, intercepted, 232
Clancarty, Richard, Earl of, postmaster-general of Ireland from 1807 to
1809; and of England from September 1814 to April 1816. [This
latter appointment he did not take up.] His decision of character,
instance of, 368;
advocates facilities of communication between England and Ireland, 389
Clarendon, Thomas, Earl of, postmaster-general from September to December
1786, 229, 242
Clerks of the roads, their duties, 47;
their salaries, 49;
are allowed to frank newspapers, 49;
their franking privilege invaded, 191;
mischief resulting from a reduction of their emoluments, 193;
their financial troubles, 206, 250;
extent of their newspaper business after newspapers become exempt from
postage, 407
Clermont, William Henry, Earl of, deputy postmaster-general of Ireland,
194
Clies, Francis, captain of packet, his audacious smuggling, 90;
his attention to religious observances, 90;
strikes his colours, 94
Coals supplied to Post Office servants in profligate profusion, 231
Cobbett, William, inveighs against the early or preferential delivery,
342;
and against the treatment of foreign newspapers, 343
Coke, Sir John, his indignant protest against the claim of the foreign
merchants to have a post of their own, 12
Colours, special colours assigned to the Post Office boat employed in
the Pool, 74;
the colours of the packets altered at the Union with Scotland, 117
Comer, postmaster of Tunbridge Wells in 1725, 153
Common Council of London, The, sets up a post of their own to Scotland,
24
Compensation for losses by the penny post, 38;
when ceased to be given, 188
Conspiracies against the State, to check these the original object of the
Post Office monopoly, 7;
danger chiefly apprehended from the Continent, 9;
Coke's opinion on the subject, 13;
the same opinion expressed in the Act of 1657, 28
Constables, the duty of, in certain cases, to seize horses for the
service of the posts, 3, 6
Convention posts, establishment of, 332;
their failure and the reason, 350;
are gradually absorbed, 352
Conway Bridge, additional rate of postage on letters passing over, 395
Conyngham, Francis Nathaniel, Marquess of, postmaster-general from July
1834 to January 1835, and again from May 8 to May 30, 1835, 427
_note_
Cornwall, its posts improved in 1704, 62
Cornwallis, Charles, Lord, postmaster-general from 1715 to 1721. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part III.
Cotton, Sir Robert, postmaster-general from 1690 to 1708. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part I.
Counsel in Post Office cases required to give receipts for their fees,
324
Country letter, meaning of term, 147
_Courier_ newspaper, sum paid by the, for early intelligence from the
Post Office, 345
Couriers originally employed to carry letters on affairs of State, 2
Court, The, at one time the centre of all the posts, 3;
a trace of the old state of things to be found in an existing statute,
99
Court letters, definition of, in 1706, 83 _note_;
mails detained for the Court letters, 211;
these letters, unlike others, delivered the moment they arrived, 347
Court-post, his duties, 99;
duties performed by deputy, 231
Coventry, Sir Thomas, Attorney-General, afterwards Lord Keeper, holds De
Quester's appointment to be valid, 11;
cajoles Stanhope into surrendering his patent, 23
Craggs, James, postmaster-general from 1715 to 1721. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part III.
Crichton, Doctor, refuses to pay his fare by packet, 86
Cromwell, Thomas, Brian Tuke's letter to, on the paucity of the posts, 1
Crosby, Brass, 192
Cross-posts, first post of the kind set up, 57;
cross-post letters, definition of the term, 147
Croydon, postmistress of, Auckland's pleasantry on her marriage for the
third time, 334
Culverden, captain of packet boat, engages in smuggling, 89
Culvert, member of Parliament, expostulated with as to the irregular use
of his frank, 141 _note_
Curtis, Alderman, 274, 275
Customs, Commissioners of, lodge a complaint against the captain of the
_Expedition_ packet, 90;
represent that smuggling is carried on by packet from Ostend, 103;
take proceedings against some of the Harwich packets, 237;
are charged by the postmasters-general with unhandsome conduct, 238;
seize the Dover mail-coach, 271
Dacre, Lord, superscription on Protector Somerset's letter addressed to,
20
Dartmouth, William, Lord, his attention called to the late arrival at the
Post Office of the Court letters, 211
Dashwood, Francis, postmaster-general of Jamaica, exaction from, as a
condition of his appointment, 226
Davy, Mrs., her account of the condition of Penzance before 1784, 291
Day, John, sent from London in 1733 to establish a post at Aylsham in
Norfolk, his instructions, 167
Dead letters, treatment of, a source of perplexity to Allen, 158;
irregular payments claimed under cover of, 236;
Dead Letter Office, 307;
returned letters charged with postage, 360
Decypherer, the chief, 171
De Joncourt, express clerk, 373
Delivery, claim made by several towns to have their letters delivered
free resisted by the Post Office and question tried at law, 197;
claim allowed by the Courts, 200;
decision carried out grudgingly, 203;
hour of delivery of foreign letters in 1790, 267;
early, that is preferential, delivery, 342;
hour of delivery in St. James's Square between 1820 and 1830, 409;
in the country, limits of free delivery not defined, 410;
morning delivery in London accelerated, 411;
limits of general post delivery fixed at three miles, 417;
recommendation of Royal Commission to abolish early or preferential
delivery not carried out, 423
Delivery penny, meaning of term, 69
Denmark, Frederick the Second, King of, his letter of complaint to Queen
Elizabeth, 8 _note_
De Quester, Matthew, appointed postmaster for foreign parts out of the
King's dominions, 10;
his appointment offends Lord Stanhope, 10;
is superseded by the Privy Council, 12;
is restored at the instance of Sir John Coke, 13;
assigns his patent, 14
Derby, salary of the postmaster of, in 1792, 293
Dereham, Sir Thomas, Court-post, his duties, 99
Derrick, Samuel, Master of the Ceremonies at Bath, his account of Ralph
Allen, 186 _note_
Despatch of mails, hour of, in 1690, 47;
and until 1784, 211;
indignation caused by the change then made, 220
Devonshire, William, Duke of, course of post between Chesterfield and
Manchester altered in 1736 at the instance of, 166
Directories, 195, 309
Distances, inaccuracy of, as computed by the Post Office, 175
Dockwra, William, establishes a penny post in London, 36;
his right contested and case decided against him, 40;
is granted a pension and, on the penny post being absorbed into the
Post Office, is appointed comptroller, 41;
is dismissed, 41;
provision made by, for the care of general post letters, 68;
contrast between Dockwra and Povey, 122
Donlevy, William, 368
Double letter, definition of, 139
Dover, a packet station, 73;
packets to Flanders provided by the packet agent, 103;
engage in smuggling, 103;
and bring news clandestinely, 106;
the Dover mail-coach seized by the Customs, 271
Drink and feast money, 50, 232
Dublin, Post Office establishment at, in 1690, 53;
penny post proposed at, in 1703, 69;
and opened in 1773, 196;
the clerks at the castle surrender their franking privilege, 194;
the roof of the Dublin Post Office falls in, 207;
office in Dublin styled British Mail Office, account of, 367;
abuses, 370
Dummer, Edmund, Surveyor of the Navy, builds packets for the Harwich
station, 75;
also for the West India service, 78;
undertakes this service himself, 79;
his miscalculations, 79;
ill-fortune attends him, 81;
his bankruptcy and death, 109
Early, _i.e._ preferential, delivery, 342, 423
Eastbourne, mode of receiving its letters in 1792, 293
East India Company, send to the Post Office letters received at the India
House, 311;
object to the provisions of the Ship Letter Act, 361;
procure its alteration, 362;
their generosity, 363;
unhandsome return contemplated by the Post Office, 364
East Indies, rates of postage to the, in 1815, 362
Edinburgh, post to, set up by the city of London, 24;
Post Office establishment at, in 1707, 117;
horse-post between Edinburgh and Glasgow refused by the Treasury, 136;
course of post between London and Edinburgh accelerated in 1758, 180;
and increased in frequency in 1765, 195;
Edinburgh Post Office falls into decay, 207;
penny post established at, 300
Eldon, John, Lord, reluctantly assents to the giving of repressive
powers, 335
Elections, Parliamentary, Post Office servants prohibited from
intermeddling in, 128;
and from voting at, 206
Ellenborough, Edward, Lord, 335
Evelyn, Sir John, postmaster-general from 1708 to 1715. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part II.
Exeter, private post set up between, and Barnstaple in 1633, 17;
course of post between Exeter and Bristol in 1660, 29;
in 1696, 57;
salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Expresses, 63, 83;
when to be sent from Dover, 107;
employment of, becomes more general about the middle of the eighteenth
century, 182;
is jealously restricted, 182;
their number reduced on the establishment of mail-coaches, 214;
fees on expresses, 233;
express sent daily to and from Ireland after the Union, 387
Express clerks, 371
Express office, Haymarket, 408
Eyles, Sir John, postmaster-general from 1739 to 1744, 238
Falmouth, packet station opened at, in 1689, 75;
closed and reopened, 77;
packet regulations, 82;
systematic smuggling, 89, 238;
packet agent also victualler, 95
Fares, by packet to Holland before and after 1689, 76;
by steam packet and by sailing packet, comparative statement, 385
Farmers of the Post Office, their popularity and the reason of it, 59;
are ruined by increase of postage and converted into managers, 136;
as managers prove useless, 138
Farra, John, is supplied with a special travelling order, 131 _note_
Faversham, marriage of the postmistress, 334
Fees, exacted from postmasters, 232;
received by the chief sorter on the occasion of royal birthdays, 233;
on expresses, 233;
on the registration of foreign letters, 233
Ferrers, Countess, 182
Fielding, Henry, his tribute to Ralph Allen, 186
"Fifth-clause" posts, 350-352
Firearms, worthless quality of those originally supplied to mail guards,
261
Fire of London, intelligence of, takes five days to reach Worthing, 34
Flemings, resort to London, where they introduce the manufacture of wool
into cloth, 8;
instance of value set upon cloth made in London, 8 _note_
Flying coach, 63, 67
Flying packet, meaning of the term, 63 (108)
Flying-post, 63 _note_
Foreign bottoms, employment of, by the Post Office illegal, 98
Foreign merchants claim to set up a post of their own to the Continent,
9;
claim conceded by the Privy Council, 12;
and repudiated by Coke, 13
Foster, John, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, his efforts to improve
communication with Ireland, 388
France, Post Office treaty with, imperfectly observed, 77;
a new one made and its onerous conditions, 138;
postage on letters from, increased, 296;
improvement of communication with, deprecated by merchants of London,
298
Franking, abuses of, in 1711, and means taken to check them, 132;
effect of franking upon the Post Office revenue, 142;
becomes the subject of Parliamentary enactment, 189;
conditions altered, 189;
franking in Ireland, 190;
of newspapers inland, 191;
franking privilege possessed by the clerks at Dublin Castle
surrendered, 194;
franks to be dated and are otherwise restricted, 216;
further restrictions imposed, 315;
franks do not clear either the penny, the twopenny, or the convention
posts, 350;
franking privilege withdrawn in the case of newspapers to and from the
Colonies, 402;
privilege remains in the case of newspapers to and from the Continent,
403;
and in the case of newspapers circulating within the United Kingdom
gradually disappears, 404;
franked letters charged immediately on dissolution of Parliament, 405;
franking privilege withheld from Roman Catholic Peers, 408;
abuse of franking in the case of the Money Order Office, 421;
specimens of franks, Appendix
Frankland, Sir Thomas, postmaster-general from 1690 to 1715. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part I.
Frankland, William, son of the preceding, Comptroller of the Inland
Office, in attendance upon the Queen at Newmarket, 99
Franklin, Benjamin, his dismissal, 203;
amicable relations with, not suspended, 204
Free delivery. _See_ Delivery
Freeling, Sir Francis, appointed surveyor, 228;
appointed joint secretary with Todd, 294;
devises new arrangements for the sorting of the American and West
Indian mails, 310;
his project for guarding the horse and cross-posts, 317, 335;
becomes sole secretary, 327;
his craze for high rates of postage, 330;
his zeal in repressing illicit correspondence, 333;
is checked by Auckland, 335;
procures additional measures of repression, 335;
recommends increase of postage rates, 340;
his estimate of Cobbett, 342;
his emoluments from franking newspapers, 344;
his indignation at criticisms in the _Times_ newspaper, 348;
brings an action, 348;
contemplates a high-handed proceeding towards the town of Olney in
Buckinghamshire, 351;
procures a charge to be made on returned letters, 360;
his contention with the India House in the matter of ship letters, 361;
urges a technical adherence to the provisions of the statute, 364;
his elation at the increase of the Post Office revenue, 365;
contrast between Freeling and Lees, 370;
his difference with Lees, 381;
his claim for the Post Office in the matter of steam vessels, 387;
opposes improvement of communication with Ireland, 389;
his interview with Sir Arthur Wellesley, 390;
attempts to get terms of a hostile motion altered, 397;
his dismay at the transfer of the Falmouth packets from the Post Office
to the Admiralty, 399;
his strictness in Post Office matters, 404;
is irritated by Sir Henry Parnell's assumption of superiority, 407;
the probable reason for not resigning on the opening of the new Post
Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, 411;
his view that the packet service should not be thrown open to public
competition opposed by Althorp, 417;
defends the newspaper privilege enjoyed by the clerks of the roads,
418;
his attitude towards the Royal Commission, 420;
averts a breakdown with the mail-coaches, 426;
becomes the object of vehement attack, 426;
broods over the past, 427;
his death, 428
Frizell, William, 14
Frowde, Ashburnham, comptroller of foreign office, 234
Furness, Sir Harry, 174
Gardner, penny postman, murder of, 183 _note_
Garrow, Sir William, his frank forged, 406
Gas, introduction of, into the Post Office, 408
General Steam Navigation Company undertakes first packet contract, 418
George the Third, when at Cheltenham or at Weymouth is attended by a
mail-coach, 251;
his illness and distribution of a prayer for his recovery, 254;
his interest in his coach, 288;
objects to roof-loading, 288;
attends trial trip, 288;
distributes largesse among mail guards and coachmen, 289
Gerrard Street, crowded condition of Post Office in, 410
Glasgow petitions for a horse-post to Edinburgh, 136;
and for a post office which shall not be kept at a shop, 408
Gloucester protests against certain houses being excluded from the free
delivery, 199;
salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Godolphin, Sidney Godolphin, Earl of, his rebuke to the
postmaster-general, 106;
insists upon communication with the army in Flanders being improved,
107;
his instruction about extraordinary payments, 137;
directs that in Post Office cases Counsel shall give receipts for their
fees, 324 (121, 124, 125)
Grafton, Augustus Henry, Duke of, specimen of his frank, Appendix
Grand mail, 83
Grand Post Nights, 46, 221
Granville, Lord, urges improvement of the Cornish posts, 62
Gratuities, on delivery of letters, 52, 61, 62, 152, 166;
legality of, questioned in the case of towns, 197;
question decided in favour of the public, 200;
still being charged, 422
Gray, Thomas, his prediction that mail-coaches would be displaced by
railways, 408
Grey, Charles, Earl, 412, 423
Grosvenor, Sir Richard, member for Chester, expostulated with as to the
irregular use of his frank, 141
Groyne, The, 75, 77
Guide to accompany post-horses when two are taken, 18
Guildhall Library, letter preserved in, showing tardy course of post in
1666, 34
Halfpenny carriage set up by Povey, 121
Halloran, a clerical impostor, 406
Hamburg, practice at, on arrival of the mails, 174
Hamilton, Andrew, acts as Neale's agent for setting up posts in North
America, 110;
his suggestions for improving the posts, 112;
acquires Neale's patent, 116;
dies and the patent is surrendered to the Crown, 116
Hamilton, John, son of the preceding, appointed deputy postmaster-general
of America, 116
Harley, Robert, afterwards Earl of Oxford, raises the rates of postage,
124;
attempts to trace the writer of an anonymous letter, 181
Harwich, a packet station, 73;
number and strength of its packets, 75;
packet regulations, 82;
a hot-bed of smuggling, 91, 237;
its exorbitant charges, 96;
is closed as a packet station, 418
Hasker, Thomas, chief superintendent of mail-coaches, his pithy
instructions, 284;
is complimented by the King, 288;
will not suffer even the King to detain the mail-coach, 289;
enters a protest against the speed of the Holyhead mail, 394
Hayman, Peter, first postmaster of Virginia and Maryland, 111
Heath, Sir Robert, Solicitor-General, 11
Hickes, Prideaux's servant, imprisonment of, 22
Highwaymen, rewards for apprehension of, 183;
refrain from attacks upon mail-coaches, 290;
confine their attention to horse and cross-posts, 317;
instances of the recovery of mail bags stolen by, 336
Hill, Sir Rowland, 269 _note_, 420, 428
Hippisley, Sir John, 20
Hiver, Richard, 192
Holt, Sir John, Chief Justice, his opinion respecting compensation for
losses by post, 188 _note_
Holyhead, packet service at beginning of eighteenth century performed
with regularity, 82;
contemplated reduction of the packet establishment deprecated by the
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 248;
conditions of passage between Holyhead and Dublin in 1813, 379
Hompesch, Baron, packet detained for, 87
Horn, when to be blown, 4;
a man on horseback blowing a post-horn assigned as a device for Post
Office colours, 75 _note_
Horses, to be kept in readiness for affairs of State, 2;
two to be kept at every post-house, 4;
use of, obtained under false pretences, 5;
overridden, overladen, and not always paid for, 5, 51;
charge for post-horses in 1603, 6;
in 1635, 18;
in 1660, 30;
not to be supplied except at post-houses, 6;
to be attended by a guide when two are hired, 18;
not to be let when the post is expected, 18;
not to be taken without the consent of the owners, 30;
only indirectly a source of revenue, 30;
monopoly of letting horses continued to the Post Office by the Act of
1711, 130;
control exercised by the Post Office over horses for travellers merely
nominal, exception given, 131;
charges for post-horses increased by the erection of milestones, 176;
monopoly of letting post-horses withdrawn, 205
Horse and cross-posts, project for checking robberies of, 317;
authority withheld, 318;
eventually given, 335
Hostages taken on capture of a packet, 93;
instance of inhuman treatment of, 94
Houses numbered, 195;
their not being so a hindrance to the Post Office, 36, 151
Hume, David, 29
Hume, Joseph, 402
Hungerford selected to try the question of free delivery, 198;
question decided in favour of the public and a letter-carrier
appointed, 202, 293
Illicit conveyance of letters, between town and town and between the
country and London, 54;
is stimulated by increase in the rates of postage, 134, 141;
becomes less after the introduction of mail-coaches, 227;
prosecutions for, 333;
return to the House of Commons, 422
Impressment, persons employed on the packets exempt from, 84;
specimen of protection order, 84 _note_
Instructions to the sorting office communicated by word of mouth, 324
Insurance an essential condition of Dockwra's penny post, 38;
this condition abandoned, 188
Invoices to and from abroad exempt from postage until 1801, exemption
then withdrawn, 331
Ipswich asserts its right to a free delivery, 198;
right admitted and letter-carrier appointed, 202
Ireland, tardiness of post to, before 1635, 16;
postage to, 18;
method of Post Office business in 1690, 53;
abuse of franking in 1773, 190;
clerks at the castle surrender their franking privilege, 194;
posts to and within Ireland improved, 195;
Penny Post Office opened in Dublin, 196;
the roof of the Dublin Post Office falls in, 207;
the Irish Post Office separated from that of England, 221;
effects of the separation in the case of correspondence by the Milford
Haven and Waterford route, 249;
between the Irish and English Post Offices differences in point of law,
366;
and of practice, 367;
office in Dublin styled British Mail Office, account of, 367;
and improper use made of it, 371;
Clancarty's energy and decision of character, 368;
Lees, secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, his mode of conducting
business, 369;
Lees contrasted with Freeling, 370;
the postmasters-general absentees, 370;
absence also of the subordinates and other abuses, 371;
the express clerks and clerks of the roads deal in newspapers and are
given undue advantages, 371;
account of the alphabet, 374;
ingenious one in use at Belfast, 375;
arrangement in favour of soldiers' wives, 374;
peculiar mode of delivery at Belfast, 375;
mail-coach contracts in Ireland different from those in England, 376;
Charles Bianconi, 376;
arrangement between Ireland and Great Britain in the matter of the
packets, 378;
Lees is dissatisfied with it, 380;
and sets it aside, 381;
Freeling's indignation, 382;
sailing packets replaced by steam packets, 383;
effect upon the number of passengers carried by the Post Office, 385;
Irish traffic diverted from Holyhead to Liverpool, 385;
and Liverpool made a packet station, 386;
except in the matter of the packets, indisposition of the British Post
Office to improve communication with Ireland, 387;
such improvement urged by Foster, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer,
388;
and resisted by Freeling, 389;
Freeling forced to give way, 390;
the Irish Post Office consolidated with the Post Office of Great
Britain, 414;
and the Dublin establishment reformed, 415;
the auditing of the Irish accounts rendered futile, 415
Iron mail-cart stopped and rifled of its contents, 290
Isle of Wight, its Post Office establishment in 1792, 294
Jackson, a passenger by packet without a pass, 89
Jacob, Giles, 188 _note_
Jamaica, Post Office establishment in, and sea rates fixed, 78;
duration of voyage to and fro in 1798, 320;
House of Assembly vote sum of money in recognition of the gallant
defence of the _Antelope_ packet, 323
James, Duke of York, afterwards James II., opposes introduction of the
penny post, 37;
wrests it out of Dockwra's hands, 40;
suffers the clerks of the roads to retain their newspaper privilege,
49
Jamineau, Isaac, purveyor of newspapers to the clerks of the roads, 300
Jeffreys, Sir George, afterwards Lord, inflicts exorbitant fine upon
Edmund Prideaux, son of the Master of the Posts, 27
Johnson, Edward, letter-carrier, improves the penny post, 302;
is appointed deputy comptroller, 305
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 209 _note_
Jones, distiller of Old Street, St. Luke's, his action against the Post
Office, 203
Kent, post through the county of, more carefully nursed than any other, 9
Kenyon, Lloyd, Lord, when Attorney-General, gives receipts for fees in
Post Office cases, 325
King's coach, deception practised on Walsingham in the matter of the, 251
King's messengers, their complaint against the Post Office on the
erection of milestones, 176
Lambton, John George, moves for a return of the number of Post Office
Boards, 396
Lancashire, the badness of its posts in 1699, 60
Le Despencer, Francis, Lord, postmaster-general from 1766 to 1781, 221,
226
Leeds, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Lees, Sir John, secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, his testimony to
the abuse of franking, 191;
having been transferred to the War Office, recapitulates conditions on
which he accepts reappointment to the Post Office, 221;
recapitulation gives offence to Carteret, 222;
and leads to Carteret's exposure, 226
Lees, Sir Edward Smith, son of the preceding, also secretary to the Post
Office in Ireland, his method of conducting business, 369;
deals in newspapers, 373;
his instruction respecting the alphabet, 374;
his difference with Freeling, 381;
becomes a director of the Dublin Steam Packet Company, 383;
is transferred to Edinburgh, 415;
his unauthorised surrender of the receiver-general's bond, 415
Leet, express clerk, 373
Leicester, the Corporation of, binds itself to keep post-horses for the
use of the Sovereign, 2;
salary of postmaster at, in 1792, 293
Leicester, George, Earl of, postmaster-general from 1794 to 1799, 326
Letter-carriers, their pay in 1690, 49;
as late as 1772, none employed except in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin,
197;
are appointed at certain other towns, 202;
in London their interests suffer from the earlier closing of the Post
Office, 221;
are put into uniform, 299;
the sufferings of some of their number during the winter of 1794-95,
306;
select their walks according to seniority, 324;
deliver letters according to classes, one class for general post
letters, another for penny or twopenny letters, and a third for
foreign letters, 423
Letters, on affairs of State originally sent by courier, 2;
particulars of, when sent by post, to be carefully recorded, 4;
letters on other than the affairs of State received at the post-houses,
4;
not, without the authority of the Master of the Posts, to be collected,
carried, or delivered, 6;
notice that none are to be sent except through the post served on the
merchants of London, 9;
letters detected in being illicitly conveyed to be sent to the Privy
Council, and their bearers apprehended, 10;
what letters excepted from monopoly, 18;
are given precedence over travellers, 18;
circulate mainly through London, 29;
their mode of distribution, 47;
clandestine conveyance of, 54;
number of penny post letters for the suburbs of London at the end of
the seventeenth century, 69;
letters for America and Jamaica charged with postage, although there
was no packet service, 78;
clandestine conveyance of, stimulated by increase of postage, 134;
definition of single and double letter, 139;
Allen's injunction to check illegal conveyance of, 165;
are examined by means of a strong light, 171, 409, 422;
penalty for opening letters, 171;
letters containing patterns or samples, whether to be charged as single
or double letters, 177;
right to make, on the delivery of letters, any charge beyond the
postage contested, 197;
memorials for and against the earlier delivery of foreign letters in
London, 267;
average number of letters for each foreign mail in 1790, 268;
treatment of dead and missent letters before and after 1793, 308;
return of the number of letters passing through the London Post Office
submitted to the postmasters-general daily, 324;
made penal not only to carry letters, but to send them otherwise than
through the post, 335;
on the delivery of letters, despite the decision of the Courts, a
charge beyond the postage continues to be made, 422;
owing to the complication of rates, not possible to express the total
charge upon a letter in one taxation, 423
Lewis XIV. assembles a squadron before Dunkirk, 101;
his delay in refusing to sign the preliminaries of peace, 105
Lichfield, Thomas William, Earl of, appointed postmaster-general May
1835, 427 _note_
Lincolnshire, the paucity of its posts before 1705, 61
Liverpool, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293;
penny post established at, 339;
is opened as a packet station, 386
Liverpool, Robert, Earl of, mediates between Freeling and Lees, 382;
transfers the Falmouth packets from the Post Office to the Admiralty,
399
Lloyds supplied by the Post Office with ship news, 218
Loppinott, Colonel, 321
Losses by post, compensation for, 38;
when ceased to be given, 188
Lovell, Mary, receiver in St. James's Street, Lord Abercorn's complaint
against, 153
Lovell, Thomas, Lord, afterwards Earl of Leicester, postmaster-general
from 1733 to 1759, 167;
receives a threatening letter, 183 _note_;
his loose notions about smuggling, 238
Lowndes, William, Secretary to the Treasury, takes charge of the Post
Office Bill of 1711, 124;
overbears Swift, the solicitor to the Post Office, 126;
confounds gross and net revenue, 145 (325 _note_)
Macadam, John Loudon, introduces new method of road-making, 392
Macaulay, Lord, his account of the fine inflicted upon Edmund Prideaux,
son of the Master of the Posts, 27;
his statement that a part of the Post Office revenue was derived from
post-horses questioned, 30 (39)
Mackerness, Thomas, postmaster of Chipping Norton, 163
Macky, John, packet agent at Dover, proceeds to Flanders, 102;
receives a remarkable caution, 103;
having become contractor for the Dover and Ostend packet service,
his boats engage in illicit operations, 103;
and bring news clandestinely, 106;
is commissioned to settle posts for the army, his excellent
arrangements, 107
Maddison, George, 205
Magistrates, the duty of, in certain cases, to seize horses for the
service of the posts, 3, 6;
are enjoined to see that horses are procured at the post-houses alone,
9
Maidstone, excellency of the delivery at, in the seventeenth century, 48;
amount of the postmaster's salary, 50
Mails, hour of despatch of the, from the General Post Office in 1690, 47;
after 1784, 220;
cost of conveyance of, before and after the introduction of
mail-coaches, 290;
are exempt from toll in Great Britain but not in Ireland, 354;
exemption withdrawn in Scotland, 359
Mail bags, curious instances of recovery of, 337
Mail-carts, mail-cart made of iron rifled of its contents, 290;
first used in London to bring letters to the General Post Office, 316
Mail-coaches, begin to run, 213;
rapid extension of the system, 214;
system deprecated by some of the leading merchants, 220;
their effect upon expresses, 214;
upon the illicit conveyance of letters, 227;
a mail-coach in attendance upon the King when at Cheltenham, 251;
are put off the road by Palmer, 270;
number of, in 1792, 281;
model of mail-coach preserved at the Post Office, 282;
mail-coaches of new pattern supplied, 283;
number of passengers by, restricted, 283, 401;
roof-loading, and objections to it, 287, 412;
roof not always safe, 288;
mileage allowance in the case of mail-coaches, 290;
their freedom from attacks by highwaymen, 317;
become liable to a duty of one penny a mile, 337;
are diverted from the direct route for a consideration, 341;
number of, in 1811, 352;
their unpopularity with road trustees, 353;
question considered of withdrawing their exemption from toll, 354;
mail-coaches withdrawn instead, 355;
in Scotland, are made liable to toll, 359;
and their number is reduced, 360;
speed of mail-coaches, 399, 426;
the mail-coach the great disseminator of news, 401;
supply of mail-coaches thrown open to public competition, immediate
result, 425
Mail guards, not originally Post Office servants, 260;
their little excesses, 261;
their wages, 263;
treatment of their wages a cause of difference between Walsingham
and Palmer, 263;
their position one of responsibility, 283;
their fees, 284;
specimens of instructions to, 285;
carry parcels and game, and suffer to be carried excess-passengers,
286, 287
Main, George, deputy-postmaster of Edinburgh, 117
Maîtres de poste in Canada, 205
Managers, sometime farmers, of the Post Office, 137
Manchester, its Post Office establishment in 1792, 292;
establishment increased and Penny Post Office opened, 301
Manley, Captain John, Post Office farmed by, 27
Manley, Isaac, deputy-postmaster of Dublin, 69 _note_
Mansfield, William, Earl of, his opinion upon compensation for losses
by the post, 188 _note_;
his judgment as to the duty of the Post Office in the matter of
delivering letters, 198
Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, interests himself in the post with
Flanders, 101 (104, 107)
Maryborough, William, Lord, postmaster-general from December 31, 1834 to
May 8, 1835, 427 _note_
Master of the Posts, his duties, 2;
no one not authorised by, allowed to collect, carry, or deliver
letters, 6;
his salary and emoluments, 12
Melbourne, William, Viscount, 423
Melville, Robert, Viscount, advocates transfer of the Falmouth packets
to the Admiralty, 399
Menai Straits, additional rate of postage imposed on letters crossing
the, 395
Merchants' accounts to and from abroad exempt from postage until 1801,
exemption then withdrawn, 331
Merchant adventurers. _See_ Foreign Merchants
Methuen, Sir Paul, ambassador to Portugal, calls attention to the
irregular proceedings of the packets, 91
Mileage allowance, in case of mail-coaches, 290;
higher in Ireland than in England, 376;
flippant return to the House of Commons on the subject of, 424
Miles, difference between measured and computed miles, 175
Milestones, erection of, 175;
their effect upon the charge for post-horses, 176
Milford Haven and Waterford, packet service between, 249
Missent letters, treatment of, before and after 1793, 309
Money Order Office, 420;
the subject of a flippant return to the House of Commons, 424;
facsimile of a money order issued in 1802, Appendix
Monopoly of the Post Office, origin of, in the matter of letters and of
post-horses, 7;
confined in the first instance to the county of Kent, 9;
confirmed by Act of Parliament, 27;
withdrawn as regards post-horses, 205
Mountstuart, John, Viscount, 256 _note_
Murray, Robert, reputed to have been the first to suggest the penny post,
36
Neale, Thomas, obtains grants for setting up posts in North America,
110;
his pecuniary difficulties, 112;
offers to surrender his patent, 115;
patent passes on his death to Andrew Hamilton, 116
Newcastle, Thomas Holles Pelham, Duke of, his orders about the packets
countermanded by Pelham, 173;
sends to the Post Office to inquire the price of corn, 255
Newcastle, salary of the postmaster in 1792, 293
News, hunger after, 50;
the postmasters-general the great purveyors of, 104;
news disseminated by the mail-coaches, 401
Newspapers, franking of, by the clerks of the roads, 49;
are received from abroad by Post Office servants in advance of the
general public, 175;
conditions of franking newspapers altered, effect of alteration, 191,
250;
copies of, supplied to Post Office servants, 232;
newspaper office established, 261;
number and weight of newspapers passing through the Post Office in
1788, 262 _note_;
treatment of foreign newspapers, 343;
newspaper agency at the Post Office largely developed, 344;
London newspapers supplied by the Post Office with early intelligence
from abroad, 346;
newspapers, though franked, not exempt from postage by the penny,
twopenny, and convention posts, 350;
postage on newspapers for the East Indies reduced below the letter
rate, 363;
improper dealing with newspapers in Ireland, 372;
on newspapers to and from the Colonies special rates established
and franking privilege withdrawn, 402;
this privilege retained in the case of newspapers for the Continent,
403;
newspapers circulating within the United Kingdom exempted from postage,
404;
extent of newspaper business conducted by the clerks of the roads in
1829, 407;
in 1830, 418;
newspaper business finally withdrawn, 419
Newton, Sir Isaac, 66
New Year's gifts, extortion of, 325
Nicholas, Sir Edward, 20
Nodin, passenger on board the _Antelope_ packet, his gallantry, 321
Normanby, Henry Constantine, Viscount, proposes abolition of the office
of second postmaster-general, 397
North, Frederick, Lord, 206;
receives singular reply from the Post Office, 218
Northampton, Countess of, 63
Northey, Sir Edward, 143
Northumberland, Hugh, Earl of, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 194
Nottingham, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Ogilby, John, calls attention to the difference between measured and
computed miles, 175 _note_
Oldfield, Thomas, postmaster of York, 337
Oldmixon, 26
Old Street, St Luke's, a second penny charged on penny post letters
addressed to, 203
Oliphant, Robert, deputy postmaster-general for Scotland, 271
Olney, Buckinghamshire, attempts to improve its post and the consequence,
351
O'Neile, Daniel, farmer of the posts, 33, 34
O'Neill, Charles Henry St. John, Earl, postmaster-general of Ireland
from 1807 to 1831, 368 _seq._, 415
Onslow, Denzil, 185
Opening of letters, during the Commonwealth, 28;
under James II., 44;
practice systematically carried on under Walpole's administration, 170;
continued, as regards foreign letters, until 1844, 269 _note_
Ordnance, Board of, 86
Ormonde, James, Duke of, 70
Oxenbridge, Clement, reduces postage, 29;
receives an appointment under the Post Office, 32
Oxford Street, branch post office opened in, 411
Packets (sailing), packet establishment in 1690, 45;
are forbidden to carry merchandise in times of war, 76;
regulations for control of, 82;
carry their own surgeon, 84;
are not, without a pass, to carry passengers, 85;
or goods, 88;
fares are not sufficiently made known and inconvenience arises,
instances given, 86;
curious assortment of goods sent free by packet, 88;
packets bring both passengers and goods without passes, 89;
engage in smuggling, 89;
are forbidden to give chase, 93;
are not entitled to the prizes they take, 93;
agreement with prizes honourably observed as a rule, exceptions given,
94;
are victualled at Falmouth and at Harwich on different principles,
objections to both systems, 95;
copy of letter-bill by the _Prince_ packet, 97;
transport recruits with disastrous results, 97;
must be of English build, 98;
engage with privateers, 101;
are placed on a peace footing, 108;
colours altered on Union with Scotland, 117;
sufficiency of the burthen and crew of the Falmouth packets questioned
by the merchants, 173;
the packets generally meet with a series of disasters, 207;
wholesale smuggling on the part of the Harwich packets, 237;
inordinate growth of the packet expenditure, 238;
and the reason, 239;
packets established between Milford Haven and Waterford, 249;
representation by the merchants as to the number of packets captured,
320;
their gallant actions with privateers, 321;
probable explanation of these actions occurring only when passengers
were on board, 323;
mode of procuring packets for the East Indies and the Cape in 1815, and
their cost, 363;
arrangement in the matter of packets between Great Britain and Ireland,
378;
steps taken by the Dublin Post Office to set the arrangement aside,
381;
sailing packets replaced by steam packets between Holyhead and Dublin,
384;
between Milford Haven and Waterford, 385;
between Portpatrick and Donaghadee, 385;
the Falmouth packets transferred to the Admiralty, 398
Packets (steam), between Holyhe ad and Dublin, charges by, as compared
with sailing packets, 385;
number of passengers before the introduction of steam, 383 _note_;
and after, 385;
number of steam packets possessed by the Post Office in 1827, 399;
packet service thrown open to public competition, 417;
Irish steam packets, defective return to the House of Commons in the
matter of, 424
Pajot, director of the French posts, his obstinacy, 77;
his unreasonableness, 138
Palmer, John, his activity, 208;
general sketch of his plan, 209;
his plan is brought to the notice of Pitt, 212;
and is tried on the Bath road, 213;
extends his plan, 214;
induces Pitt to raise the rates of postage, 215;
alleges obstruction, 217;
alters the length of the stages, 219;
his plan is opposed by the merchants, 220;
opposition dies away, 227;
procures appointment of his nominees, 228;
conditions of his own appointment, 228;
his jealousy of Allen, 230;
expedites the morning delivery in London, and introduces an improved
method of business, 235;
imposes upon Walsingham in the matter of the King's coach, 251;
his treatment of official papers, 256;
pays an unexpected visit to Walsingham at Old Windsor, 258;
betrays his jealousy, 259;
establishes, but without the necessary authority, a newspaper office,
261;
and a mail guards' fund, 263;
is called to account by Walsingham, 263;
takes umbrage at a rebuke administered to his deputy, Bonnor, 265;
disobeys orders, 266;
becomes aggressive and defiant, 270;
and appeals to Pitt, 272;
is charged by Bonnor with promoting a public meeting antagonistic to
the postmasters-general, 275;
suspends Bonnor, 275;
is suspended himself, 276;
is dismissed, 279;
receives a pension and, later on, a Parliamentary grant, 280;
general result of his plan, 290 (299, 302, 353)
Palmerston, Henry John, Viscount, his humorous reply to Freeling, 380
Parkin, Anthony, solicitor to the Post Office, 333
Parnell, Sir Henry, 407
Pascoe, John, boatswain of the _Antelope_ packet, his gallant resistance
to the attack of a privateer, 322
Patterns and samples, letters containing, and being less than one ounce
in weight, whether to be charged single or double, 177;
question tried at law, 178;
settled by Act of Parliament, 179;
concessions in favour of, 315
Pay. _See_ Wages
Pelham, Henry, countermands Newcastle's orders about the packets, 173
Pennant, Thomas, 261
Penny post, its introduction by Dockwra, 36;
general plan of, 37;
carries up to one pound in weight, 37;
includes a system of insurance, 38;
days on which it does not go, 39;
increases number of country letters, 40;
is absorbed into the General Post Office, 40;
establishment of, in 1690, 45;
stimulates the clandestine conveyance of letters into London, 54;
on its acquisition by the State its general conditions remain
unchanged, 67;
number of penny post letters for the suburbs at the end of the
seventeenth century, 69;
its contemplated extension to Dublin in 1703, 69;
affects the number of ship letters, 73;
is without legal sanction, 119;
legal sanction given, 128;
its limits restricted to ten miles, 129;
the charge of a second penny on all letters delivered outside the bills
of mortality made legal, 143;
weight carried by the penny post reduced from one pound to four ounces,
188;
compensation for losses by the, when ceased to be given, 188 _note_;
attempts made by the Post Office to charge a second penny within the
bills of mortality, 203;
principal officers of the penny post absentees, 231;
stagnation of the penny post, 302;
the post is improved by Johnson, a letter-carrier, 302;
financial result, 305;
prepayment, hitherto optional, made compulsory, 306;
restriction on limits withdrawn, 307;
the charge of a second penny, heretofore confined to letters delivered
at places outside the bills of mortality, imposed upon letters
coming therefrom, 307;
the penny post converted into a twopenny post, 331;
and the twopenny post into a threepenny one, 340. _See_ twopenny and
threepenny posts
Penzance, its post before and after 1784, 291
Pepys, Samuel, 84 _note_
Perceval Spencer, 354, 379
Percival, Joseph, a passenger by packet without a pass, 89
Pickwick, "Mr. Pickwick's coach," 281
Pitt, William, his attention is called to Palmer's plan, 212;
sweeps away frivolous objections and desires that it may be tried, 213;
raises the postage rates, 215;
relaxes the restrictions upon franking, 217;
dismisses Tankerville, 224;
settles conditions of Palmer's appointment, 229;
his knowledge of abuses at the Post Office and his unwillingness to
expose them, 241;
suppresses report of Royal Commission, 242;
authorises increase of salary to the clerks of the roads, 251;
declares Palmer's proceedings to be irregular, 263;
turns a deaf ear to the postmaster-general's request for an interview,
273;
interview at length granted, 277;
a second interview, 279;
acquiesces in Palmer's dismissal and grants him a pension, 279;
makes to Post Office servants a periodical grant pending a revision of
the establishment, 300;
promotes plan for improving the penny post, 305;
disallows practice of charging returned letters, 308;
modifies arrangements for dealing with ship letters, 329;
his precepts in this matter afterwards disregarded, 361
Plymouth, salary of the postmaster in 1792, 293
_Political Register_, its criticisms on Post Office practice, 342
Pope, Alexander, his lines on Ralph Allen, 186
Portage, 29
Portland, William Henry, Duke of, 379
Portland Packet, Captain Taylor, its gallant action with privateer, 321
Postage, introduction of, 18;
settled by Act of Parliament, 27;
original meaning of term, 29 _note_;
rates of postage in 1635, 18;
in 1657 and 1660, 28;
in 1711, 127;
in 1765, 187;
in 1784, 216;
in 1797, 318;
in 1801, 331;
in 1805, 339;
in 1812, 356;
device resorted to in order to evade high rates of, 142;
rates lapse through effluxion of time, 180;
rates of postage between London and the Channel Islands and within the
islands themselves, 314;
from Portugal and America, 319;
financial result of increase of rates, 341;
bewildering complications, 357;
extraordinary toleration of the public, explanation suggested, 358;
an additional rate imposed in Scotland on withdrawal of exemption from
toll, 359;
and on letters passing over the Menai Straits or Conway Bridge, 395;
rates of postage to the East Indies in 1815, 363;
instances of exorbitant rates, 409
"Poste for the Pacquet," 5 _note_
Post-boys, 164
Post-coaches, 214
Post-haste, 20
Post-horn. _See_ Horn
Post-horses. _See_ Horses
Post-houses, to have horses in readiness, 4;
horses not to be let except at, 6;
pay of keepers of, in arrear, 15
Postilions, 107
Postmarks, introduction of, 38
Postmasters, their duties in 1690, 48;
their salaries, 50;
their grievances, 51;
their contingent advantages, 52;
intercept postage on bye-letters, 52, 53;
their correspondence exempt from postage, 160;
their moderation on the erection of milestones, 177;
are enjoined to frequent the local markets and report the price of
corn, 254;
salaries of certain postmasters in Scotland in 1707, 118;
in England in 1792, 293
Postmasters-General (I.) [Cotton and Frankland, 1690 to 1708], their
simple-mindedness, 45;
their accessibility, 46;
their concern about the illicit correspondence, 53;
their powerlessness to check it, 56;
let the posts out to farm, 58;
refuse to sublet the penny post, 69;
their difference with Pajot, minister of the French posts, 77;
remonstrate with captains of packets at Falmouth, 89;
and at Harwich, 91;
chuckle over the capture of a prize, 93;
their rebuke to the captain of a Falmouth packet, 94 _note_;
instance of their rough-and-ready justice, 95;
take vigorous measures to protect the packets from Flemish privateers,
101;
their admonition to the packet agent at Dover, 102;
act as purveyors of news to the Court, instances given, 104;
advocate cheap postage to America, 114;
become, at the Union with Scotland, responsible for the Scotch posts,
117;
their inaction, explanation suggested, 119;
action forced upon them, 120;
are contrasted with their successors, 185, 202
Postmasters-General (II.) [Frankland and Evelyn, 1708 to 1715], their
interview with Godolphin, 106;
their instruction about expresses from Dover, 107;
treat personally with Povey, 123;
Frankland ceases to be a member of Parliament, 128;
concern themselves only slightly about travellers, 130;
take measures to check the abuse of franking, 133;
in vain urge the appointment of surveyors, 134;
negotiate new treaty with France, 138;
quit office on accession of George the First, 139
Postmasters-General (III.) [Cornwallis and Craggs, 1715 to 1721], are
amazed at the absence of check in the Post Office, 140;
note how little the increase in the rates of postage has added to the
revenue, 141;
and how largely it has stimulated the abuse of franking, 142;
their dispute with the merchants, 142;
convict Lowndes of a ludicrous error, 145;
their harsh treatment of their secretary, 152
Postmasters-General (IV.) [Edward Carteret and Walpole, 1721 to 1725],
their kindness to subordinates, 152;
their interview with Abercorn, 154.
[From 1725 to 1733 Carteret had for his colleague Edward Harrison, and
from 1733 to 1739 Lord Lovell.]
Carteret establishes a post to Aylsham, 167
Postmasters-General (V.) [Henry Frederick, Lord Carteret and, for the
second time, Tankerville, 1784 to 1786], collect opinions on
Palmer's plan and submit them to Pitt, 213;
entertain doubts as to its feasibility, 218;
their differences between themselves, 221;
their open rupture, 223;
Tankerville is dismissed by Pitt, 224;
his ungovernable temper, 225
Postmasters-General (VI.) [Carteret and Walsingham, 1787 to 1789],
Walsingham's industry and thoroughness, 243;
questions Carteret's right to sign first, 243;
his preponderating influence, 244;
his habit of annotating and execrable handwriting, 244, 263;
reduces packet establishment at Falmouth, 246;
is dissuaded from carrying out a similar reduction at Holyhead, 248;
is powerless to control the correspondence by the Milford packets, 249;
in conjunction with Carteret procures increase of salary for the clerks
of the roads, 250;
is imposed upon in the matter of the King's coach, 251;
calls for the surveyors' journals, 255;
his correspondence with Chalmers, 256;
receives an unexpected visit from Palmer, 258;
detects Palmer's jealousy and endeavours to allay it, 260;
calls Palmer to account for acting without authority, 263;
exposes Bonnor's attempt at deception, 265;
Carteret's dismissal, 266;
Walsingham inquires into the solicitor's accounts, 324
Postmasters-General (VII.) [Walsingham and Chesterfield, 1790 to 1794],
Chesterfield's playful allusions to Palmer, 269;
Palmer sets the postmasters-general at defiance, 270;
they seek in vain an interview with Pitt, 273;
receive assurances from Bonnor of Palmer's disloyalty, 275;
remove Bonnor's suspension and suspend Palmer, 276;
Chesterfield's letter, 276;
Walsingham's interview with Pitt, 277;
feel confident of their own dismissal, 278;
are furnished with evidence by Bonnor, 278;
have a second interview with Pitt and dismiss Palmer, 279;
contrast Palmer's reticence in official matters with Freeling's wealth
of explanation, 295;
Walsingham attempts to improve communication with France, 296;
and to reduce postage on letters containing the second halves of bank
notes, 298;
give attention to coach-building, 393
Postmasters-General (VIII.) [Chichester and Salisbury, 1816 to 1823],
are called upon for a return of the number of Post Office Boards,
396;
address to the Throne praying that one of the two offices of
postmaster-general be abolished, 397;
Salisbury stops his own salary, and on his death Chichester becomes
postmaster-general sole, 398;
Salisbury's testimony to increase of stringency in Post Office matters,
405
Post Office, origin of its monopoly, 7;
monopoly confined in the first instance to the county of Kent, 9;
a Post Office opened in the city of London, 20;
dispute for its possession, 21;
becomes the subject of Parliamentary enactment, 27;
its position in 1680, 39;
is the only receptacle for letters in London, 40;
description of it, 46;
relations between the Post Office and the Treasury, 57;
the Post Office becomes unpopular and the reasons, 170 _seq._;
its retrogression, 184;
assumes a new character, 202;
loses monopoly of letting post-horses, 205;
Post Office buildings in Edinburgh and Dublin fall into decay, 207;
indignation caused by the earlier closing of the Post Office in London,
220;
this office enlarged, 295;
state of the Post Office as between the years 1695 and 1813 compared,
356;
the Post Office disseminates news, 401;
and police notices, 402;
becomes object of interest to the House of Commons, 407;
is cleared of more than a century of debt, 408;
a new post office opened in St. Martin's-le-Grand, 410
Post-runners, 118
Posts, paucity of, in time of Henry the Eighth, 1;
their close connection with the Sovereign, 3;
instructions for the regulation of, 4;
designed not only to carry the letters of the Sovereign, but for the
use of persons travelling on the Sovereign's concerns, 4;
posts originally maintained at loss to the Crown, 7;
at the beginning of the seventeenth century only four in number, 8;
of these the post to Dover the most important, precautions taken lest
this post should be used for designs against the State, 9;
decadence of the posts, 15;
improved by Witherings, 16;
to be self-supporting, 17;
thrown open to the public, 18;
let out to farm, 25;
rent paid in 1650, 25;
in 1653, 27;
in 1660, 33;
in 1667, 34;
in 1657 become the subject of Parliamentary enactment, 27;
their inadequacy to meet public demands, 34;
even where they existed, their existence not generally known, 35;
at what intervals they left London in 1680, 36;
regarded as vehicles for the propagation of treason, 43;
again let out to farm, 58;
resumed by the State, 137;
as late as 1728, not of general concern, 152
Povey, Charles, sets up a halfpenny post, 121;
contrast between him and Dockwra, 122;
his insolence, 122;
is proceeded against and cast in damages, 123
Prideaux, Edmund, takes part with Burlamachi against Warwick, 21;
rescues the mail from Warwick's servants, 22;
brings the imprisonment of his own servant before the House of
Commons, 22;
becomes Master of the Posts, 23;
his activity, 24;
suppresses unauthorised post to Scotland, 25;
makes profit out of the posts and is called upon to pay rent, 25;
is dismissed, 25;
retains an interest in the posts, 26;
Oldmixon's estimate of his character, 26;
destination of a part of his wealth, 27
Prideaux, Edmund, son of the preceding, 27
Prior, Matthew, negotiates Post Office treaty with France, 138
Prior Park, 185
Prizes, practice observed on capture of, 93
Prosecutions, for the illicit conveyance of letters, 333;
measures taken to secure their publicity, 359;
return to the House of Commons on the subject of, 422
Protection order, specimen of, 84 _note_
Quartering of soldiers, a grievance to postmasters, 51
Quash, Ralph Allen's predecessor as postmaster of Bath, 147
Queen's letters, meaning of term in 1706, 83 _note_
Queen's servants not exempt from fare by packet, 86
Queensberry, James, Duke of, 64
Raikes, a diamond merchant, suggests the giving of receipts for
registered letters, 409 _note_
Railways, prediction concerning, 408;
first mail sent by railway, 412
Ramsgate, cost of Post Office at, in 1792, 293
Randolph, Thomas, Master of the Posts to Queen Elizabeth, 3
Receiving offices, first opened in London, 37;
generally kept at public-houses, 68;
to remain open on six nights a week instead of three, 196;
letter-boxes at, to be closed and fixed, 306;
receiving offices for twopenny post letters separate and distinct from
offices for letters by the general post, 409, 423
Recruits, exemption of, from fare by packet, 85;
disputes with officers in charge of, 87;
packets employed for transport of, 97
Registration, exorbitant fees for, of foreign letters, 233;
amount of these fees in 1783 and 1784, 235;
receipts for foreign registered letters begin to be given, 409 _note_
Returned Letters. _See_ Dead letters
Revenue of the Post Office, surrendered by the Crown to the public,
in part, in 1711, 126;
and wholly, in exchange for a Civil List, in 1760, 189;
amount of, from 1635 to 1694, 46;
in 1710 and 1721, 144;
in 1787 as compared with 1784, 227;
in 1796 and 1806, 341;
in 1824 and 1833, 422
Richmond, Charles, Duke of, postmaster-general from December 1830 to July
1834, declines to receive salary, 413;
his industry, 413;
becomes postmaster-general of Ireland as well as Great Britain, and
reforms the Dublin establishment, 414;
contemplates, apparently, a reduction of postage, 419
Ripon, Post Office at, refused in 1713, 151;
in possession of one in 1792, 293
Roads, condition of, in 1691, 65;
during the first two decades of the nineteenth century, 390;
begin to be constructed on scientific principles, 392;
Macadam's plan for dealing with the surface of, 392;
difference between roads in the country and roads in the neighbourhood
of London, 394
Rochester, Lawrence Hyde, Earl of, postmaster-general from 1685 to 1689,
43, 74 _note_, 110, Appendix _note_
Rogers, captain of packet, engages in smuggling, 89
Roof-loading of mail-coaches, 287, 412
Rosencrantz, the Danish envoy, to be specially accommodated on board
Harwich packet, 87
Rosse, Laurence, Earl of, postmaster-general of Ireland from 1809 to
1831, 369, 415
Rotterdam, practice at, on arrival of the mails, 174
Royal boroughs of Scotland, 208
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Post Office in 1787, 227, 230;
in 1823, 407;
recommendations of this last Commission not carried into effect, 420;
another Commission appointed to ascertain the reason, 423;
this Commission procures the contract for mail-coaches to be thrown
open to public competition, 425
Runners, 118
Rye-House Plot, the cause of a Post Office proclamation, 43
Sailors on board the packets, their conditions of service, 83;
receive pensions for wounds, 85;
their wages withheld, 91;
their wages increased, 248
St. John, Henry, afterwards Viscount Bolingbroke, 211
St. Leonards, Shoreditch, a second penny on penny post letters improperly
charged at, 203
St. Martin's-le-Grand, opening of Post Office at, 410
Salaries. _See_ Wages
Salisbury, James, Marquess of, postmaster-general from 1816 to 1823.
_See_ Postmasters-General, Part VIII.
Samples. _See_ Patterns
Sampson, captain of packet, 313
Sandwich, John, Earl of, postmaster-general from 1768 to 1771, 172;
specimen of his frank, Appendix
Sandwich, John, Earl of, son of the preceding, postmaster-general from
1807 to 1814, 348
Sandwich, Kent, asserts its right to a free delivery, 197;
right admitted and letter-carrier appointed, 202, 293
Scotland, tardiness of communication with, before 1635, 16;
communication expedited by Witherings, 16;
postage to Scotland, 18;
post to Edinburgh set up by the City of London, 24;
extent of correspondence with Scotland in 1690, 53;
Scotch posts placed under the postmasters-general of England, 117;
salaries of Scotch postmasters, 118;
course of post between London and Edinburgh accelerated in 1758, 180,
256;
in 1765 posts to and within Scotland increased in frequency, 195;
Post Office in Edinburgh no longer habitable, 207;
internal administration of Scotch Post Office revised by Palmer, 271;
penny post established in Edinburgh, 300;
postage rates within Scotland raised, 319;
wholesale prosecutions for illicit correspondence, 333;
exemption from toll withdrawn and an additional postage rate imposed,
359;
unhandsome conduct of the road trustees, 359;
roads discoached, 360
Search, powers of, refused by the House of Commons, 128
Sebright, Sir John, his letter accidentally opened, 333
Secretary of State, clerks in the office of, compensated for the loss of
the newspaper privilege, 193
Secretary of the Post Office, appointment of, created in 1694, 70
Secret Office, 170, 269
Sharpus, postmaster of New York, 111
Sheffield, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Shelburne, William, Earl of, 212
Ship letters, origin of ship letter money, 73;
by means of the penny post evade full postage, 73;
number of, in 1686, 74;
pence paid upon, without legal sanction, 119;
legal sanction given, 128;
ship letter office established, 328;
rates on, increased and restrictions imposed, 361;
restrictions modified, 362;
made compulsory upon private ships to carry mails, 362
Ship news supplied by the Post Office to Lloyds, 218
Shipwrecked seamen pass free by packet, 85
Shrewsbury, curious reply to petition from, for earlier post, 218
Single letter, definition of, 139
Smart and bounty money, 85
Smuggling, on board the packets at Falmouth, 89, 238;
at Harwich, 91, 237;
at Dover, 103;
in the Dover mail-coach, 271
Soldiers' wives, when travelling supplied with money through the medium
of the Post Office, 374
Solicitor to the Post Office, appointment of, created in 1703, 70;
an absentee and his duties performed by deputy, 231;
his accounts inspected by Walsingham's direction, 324
Somerset, Protector, superscription of his letter to Lord Dacre, 20
Sorters, pay of, in 1690, 49
Southampton, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Speed of post in Queen Elizabeth's time, 4;
in time of James the First, 6;
at the end of the seventeenth century, 62;
between London and Falmouth and London and Harwich, at the beginning
of the eighteenth century, 83;
under Allen's contract, 148;
in 1765, 187;
after 1784, 290;
speed of Holyhead mail-coach before and after Telford's improvement
of the road, 394;
of mail-coaches generally in 1821 and 1836, 399, 426
Spencer, Lord Charles, postmaster-general from 1801 to 1806, 333
Spitalfields, a second penny improperly charged on penny post letters
addressed to, 203
Sprange, James, postmaster of Tunbridge Wells, 408
Spring Rice, Thomas, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 428
Stage, inconvenience resulting from term not being defined, 219;
term dropped as unit of charge, 318
Stanhope of Harrington, John, Lord, Master of the Posts, 10;
resents what he conceives to be an invasion of his patent, 10;
dies and is succeeded as Master of the Posts by his son, 11
Stanhope of Harrington, Charles, Lord, Master of the Posts, son of the
preceding, vigorously asserts his rights, 11;
vacillating decisions of the Privy Council, 12;
surrenders his patent, 20;
alleges cajolery, 23
Stanhope, Arthur, comptroller of the foreign department, his emoluments
from franking, 344;
supplies newspapers with summaries of foreign intelligence, 346
Stanhope, James, Secretary of State, 64
Stanwix, Colonel, 97
State letters, 83 _note_
Staunton, John, postmaster of Isleworth; appointed comptroller of the
bye and cross-roads, 224
Steam packets, first employment of, by the Post Office, 384
Stock Exchange, The, outwits the Post Office, 106
Stockdale, a highwayman, execution of, 183 _note_
Stokes, William, 245
Stone, George, Receiver-General, a defaulter, 185
Stowmarket, its position and its trade unknown to Allen, 157
Strangers' post. _See_ Foreign merchants
Sudbury, duties and salary of postmaster in 1690, 50
Sunderland, Charles, Earl of, 89
Surveyors, appointment of, refused by the Treasury, 134;
afterwards sanctioned, 140;
their original functions, 134;
their functions and emoluments after 1786, 228;
their journals, 255, 259;
cease to hold postmasterships in addition to their appointments as
surveyors, 339
Swift, Richard, solicitor to the Post Office, prepares Post Office bill
of 1711, 125;
is overborne by Lowndes, secretary to the Treasury, 126
Tankerville, Charles, Earl of, postmaster-general from April 1782 to May
1783, and again from January 1784 to September 1786. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part V.
Telford, Thomas, takes in hand the road between Holyhead and Shrewsbury,
392;
between Shrewsbury and London, 393;
other roads, 409
Thanet, Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of, undertakes to establish a penny
post in Dublin, 69
"Thorough poste," 5 _note_
Thrale, Mrs., 209 _note_
Threepenny post, 340, 417
Thurloe, John, secretary, assumes direction of the Post Office in
1655, 27;
intercepts letters, 28
Thurlow, Edward, Attorney-General, afterwards Lord Chancellor; his
opinion as to the duty of the Post Office in the matter of
delivering letters, 198, 201
Thynne, Henry Frederick, afterwards Carteret. _See_ Postmasters-General,
Parts V. and VI.
Timepieces, mode of regulating mail-guards', 283
_Times_ newspaper, its priority of intelligence, 347;
its criticisms on Post Office procedure, 348;
proceedings against, taken by Freeling, 349
Tinware, supply of, to the postmasters-general, 232
Todd, Anthony, secretary to the Post Office; his correspondence with
Benjamin Franklin, 204;
his indifference, 218;
comments upon Tankerville's temper, 225;
his compromising position in respect to the packets, 240;
his emoluments, 240;
his remark upon Bonnor's dilatory replies, 264;
devotes himself to social amenities, 294;
unknown to the postmasters-general, retains his shares in the packets,
327;
his death, 327
Toll, mail-coaches exempt from, in England and Scotland but not in
Ireland, 354;
exemption withdrawn in Scotland, 359
Townshend, Horatio, Lord, 64
Townshend, Charles, deprecates alarm because a letter is sent by express,
182
Travellers, obtain use of post-horses under false pretences, 5;
are not to be supplied with horses except at the post-houses, 6;
paucity of travellers, 15;
are not to be supplied with horses when the post is expected, 18;
have to pay more for horses after the erection of milestones, 176;
their restriction to post-houses for a supply of horses withdrawn, 205
Treasury, its relations to the Post Office, 57, 416;
refuses the appointment of surveyors, 134;
refuses a horse-post between Edinburgh and Glasgow, 136;
experience of its ways a bar to the suggestion of improvements, 169;
extorts blackmail, 325
Treves, Peregrine, the recipient of Carteret's bounty, 226
Tring, the postmaster of, opens a letter addressed to Sir John Sebright,
333
Tuke, Sir Brian, Master of the Posts to Henry the Eighth, his letter to
Thomas Cromwell, 1;
his duties, 2;
explanation suggested of statement in his letter, 4
Tunbridge, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
Tunbridge Wells, old-fashioned postmaster of, in 1823, 408
Turnpikes, condition of the trusts at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, 353;
number of Turnpike Acts passed between 1760 and 1809, 390
Twopenny post, a second penny charged by Dockwra on delivery of letters
in the outskirts of London, 38;
this second penny not legally sanctioned until 1730, 143;
the twopenny post thus established in one direction established also
in the other, 307;
the penny post converted into a twopenny post, 331;
and the twopenny post into a threepenny one, 340;
the revenue of the twopenny post as compared with that of the penny
post, 341;
the crowded condition of the twopenny Post Office in Westminster, 410
Tyrconnel, Richard Talbot, Earl of, opens the mails at Dublin Castle, 53
Uniform, letter-carriers put into, 299
Urin, captain of packet, makes wrong port, 89
Vanderpoel, packet agent at the Brill, 92
Vansittart, Nicholas, Chancellor of the Exchequer, insists upon
mail-coaches being withdrawn from the roads, 355;
raises the rates of postage, 356;
changes the route of the Holyhead coach, 390;
refuses to get the terms of a hostile motion altered, 397
Van Vrybergh, Envoy Extraordinary from the States-General, 101
Venetian Ambassador, the, protests against the opening of his letters, 28
Vidler, his contract for the supply of mail-coaches terminated, 425
Village posts. _See_ Convention posts
Viner, Sir Robert, 70
Wade, General, 146
Wages and salaries, of Post Office servants in 1690, 49;
of seamen on board the packets, 83;
of certain postmasters in England, 50, 293, and in Scotland, 117;
of mail-guards, 263
Waghorn, Thomas, 409
Wainwright, postmistress of Ferrybridge, her original mode of supplying
an omission, 159
Walcot, John, secretary to the Post Office in Ireland, terms of his
agreement with Barham, packet agent at Dover, 222
Walpole, Sir Robert, maintains an office for the opening of letters,
170
Walpole, Galfridus, postmaster-general from 1721 to 1725. _See_
Postmasters-General, Part IV.
Walpole, Horace, precautions taken by, to secure his correspondence
against inspection, 172
Walsingham, Thomas, Lord, postmaster-general from July 1787 to July
1794. _See_ Postmasters-General, Parts VI. and VII.
Warwick, Robert, Earl of, acquires Witherings's patent and claims
possession of the letter office, 21;
attempts to obtain it by force, 22;
continues to assert his claim, 23
Warwick, course of post to, altered in 1695, 57
Waterhouse, Benjamin, Secretary to the Post Office, 131 _note_
Watson, Sir Charles, 296
Way letter, meaning of term, 147
Weights to be attached to sea-borne mails, 82
Wellesley, Sir Arthur, sets aside objections to improving communication
with Ireland, 390
West Indies, packets to the, established, 78;
amount of correspondence in 1705, 80;
service discontinued in 1711, 109;
resumed in 1745, 173;
improved arrangements for disposing of the West Indian mails, 310
Westmorland, John, Earl of, postmaster-general from September 1789 to
March 1790, 266
Weston, Henry, secretary to the Post Office, harsh treatment of, 152
Weston brothers, trial of, 290
Wetherall, Robert, master of ship _Albinia_, proceedings against, for
refusing to take mails on board, 362 _note_
Weymouth, constituted a packet station, 313
Whinnery, Thomas, postmaster of Belfast, his revolving "alphabet," 375;
his mode of delivery, 375
Whitworth, Richard, 192
Wildman, Colonel John, postmaster-general from July 1689 to March
1690, 44
Willatt, Dame, postmistress of Manchester in 1792, 292;
granted a pension, 301
Willes, Doctor, Dean of Lincoln, afterwards Bishop of St. Davids; the
"chief Decypherer," 171
Willes, Mr. Justice, his judgment upon the question of free delivery, 200
William III., confers a pension upon Dockwra, 41;
refuses to exempt postmasters from the quartering of soldiers, 51;
is unwilling to prosecute for the illegal conveyance of letters, 54;
his opinion as to the requirements of a mail packet, 75;
the soundness of that opinion confirmed, 76
Williamson, Peter, sets up an office for the delivery of letters in
Edinburgh, 300
Willimott, Receiver-General, 398 _note_
Wilson, mail-coach contractor, his exorbitant bill for horsing the
King's coach, 251
Witherings, Thomas, succeeds De Quester as foreign postmaster, 14;
is commissioned to examine into the inland posts, 14;
suggests a scheme of reorganisation, 16;
introduces postage, 17;
contemplates posts being self-supporting, 17;
but not, apparently, a source of revenue, 19;
becomes postmaster for both inland and foreign letters, 20;
his appointment is sequestered, 21;
assigns his patent, 21
Wolters, Dirick, a suspected person, to be searched for at Harwich, 88
Worthing, course of post from London to, in 1666, 34
Wren, Sir Christopher, surveys the Post Office premises in Lombard
Street, 71
York, salary of postmaster in 1792, 293
[Illustration: Bugler on galloping horse]
_J. D. & Co._
_Printed by R. & R. CLARK, Edinburgh._
* * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Page 339 "further period of eighteen months, viz. from the 10th of
October 1892 to the 5th of April 1804" changed to October 1802
according to context.
Two changes were made according to the errata:
Page 324 "that the practice dated from 1713" changed to 1703.
Page 339 "further period of eighteen months, viz. from the 10th of October
1892 to the 5th of April 1804" changed to October 1802 according to
context.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The History of the Post Office - From Its Establishment Down to 1836" ***
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