ORIGIN OF FRANKING PRIVILEGE IN ENGLAND.
The English franking privilege was the natural parasite of such a system, where the true idea of a post-office was entirely forgotten. Its origin belongs to this argument. It was in 1657, beneath the sway of the great Protector, while the Postage Act was before the House, that Sir Christopher Pack is reported as saying, “The design of the bill is very good for trading and commerce; … as to that of letters passing free for members, it is not worth putting in an Act”;[35] and this is the earliest allusion to “letters passing free for members.” The idea showed itself again just after the Restoration, while the Act of 12 Charles II., c. 35, was under discussion. The proposition to frank all letters to or from members of Parliament during the session was carried on a division and after considerable debate, in the course of which Sir Heneage Finch, so eminent as lawyer and judge, characterized it as “a poor mendicant proviso, and below the honor of the House.” Among its partisans was Sir George Downing, a graduate in the first class of Harvard College. The Speaker, Sir Harbottle Grimston, was unwilling to put the question, saying, “I am ashamed of it.”[36] The Lords struck it out of the bill, ostensibly for the reasons which had actuated the Opposition in the Commons, but really because there was no provision that their own letters should pass free. Although the proposition failed at that time to obtain legislative sanction, yet the object was accomplished indirectly. In the indenture with the contractor to whom the Post-Office was farmed occurred a proviso for the free carriage of all letters to or from the King, the great officers of State, “and also the single inland letters only of the members of the present Parliament during the continuance of this session of this Parliament.”[37] And thus began the “franking privilege” in England. Defeated in Parliament, it was smuggled into a Post-Office contract. With such an origin, it became a mere perquisite of office; and afterward, when sanctioned by statute, it was employed at the mere will of its possessor, who sometimes distributed his franks among his friends and sometimes sold them for a price.[38]