"Now whilst the Bye and Way Letters continued to be conveyed in so precarious and unsafe a way, as is shewn above, it was thought hard to punish such as undertook to convey them in a speedier and safer manner. But from a Time that this Branch of the Revenue was put under a just regulation, in consequence of the contract with Mr. Allen, all such Persons who were any way concerned in this illegal collection and conveyance of Letters, were by proper Officers employed by him, strictly enquired after, and when detected, the most notorious of them punished as a terror to the rest."—Ralph Allen's Narrative, 2nd December 1761 (Ralph Allen's Bye, Way and Cross Road Posts, London, 1897, pp. 6 and 18).
[53] "Upon the next renewal of his Contract, which was in the Year 1741, the Postmasters-General, after largely expressing, as usual, their sense of the integrity of his conduct, and the services he had done to the Public, told him they judged it but reasonable to expect some addition to his rent of £6,000 a Year for the Bye, Way and Cross Road Letters, altho' he should still continue to support and increase the produce of the Country Letters for the Benefit of the King. To which, Mr. Allen answered, that their expectations of additional rent appeared very reasonable to him, and which he should have made in his own way (a way he was going to open to them) had they not themselves proposed it. That there are two ways of giving this additional Rent: the one was by paying a further some of money yearly, such as he could afford to his Majesty's use without any advance to public commerce, the other was by paying his Majesty, and immediately too, a much larger sum than he could in the first way pretend to advance, in causing a considerable increase of the produce of the London and Country Letters by means of extending and quickening the correspondence of London and several of the most considerable Trading Towns and Cities thro'out the Kingdom; a project that would be of infinite advantage to commerce. Which of these two ways the Postmasters-General would think fit to prefer, he left to themselves to consider; who on duly weighing all circumstances, did not in the least hesitate to prefer the latter method.
"Upon which Mr. Allen agreed to erect, at his own Expence, one every day cost from London to Bath, Bristol, and Glocester towards the West; and from London to Cambridge, Lynn, Norwich, and Yarmouth towards the East; and to all intermediate places in both quarters: and—that all the increase of the postage of Letters thus conveyed between London and the several places, East, and West of it above-mentioned, should, without any charge or deduction, be paid in directly for his Majesty's use, as well as all the increase of the Country Letters within that District, that is, such Letters as pass between one Country Town and another thro' London.
"All this was accordingly done and executed conformable to the terms of the contract."—Ibid., pp. 25-6.
Similar extensions were made at the renewals of the lease in 1748 and 1755.
[54] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25, § 5.
[55] "It is certain that the alteration of the rates of Postage in the year 1765 has not been attended with every good consequence then expected from it and has been some loss to the Revenue."—Mr. Draper, District Surveyor, British Official Records, 1783.
[56] "At a time when the mail leaving London on Monday night did not arrive at Bath until Wednesday afternoon, he (Palmer) 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, although the cost by stage-coach was, porterage included, 2s. and by post 4d."—H. Joyce, History of the Post Office, pp. 208-9. Cf. D. Macpherson, op. cit., vol. iv. p. 54.
[57] "If the present hours fixed at all the offices of the Kingdom with the greatest care and attention to that regular plan of correspondence which has been established after long experience were to be altered it would throw into the greatest confusion for the present and would be many years before it could be restored to the degree of perfection it now has."—Observations on Mr. Palmer's Plan by Mr. Draper, District Surveyor (British Official Records, 1783).
"Indeed, it is a pity that the Author of the Plan should not first have been informed of the nature of the Business in question, to make him understand how very differently the Posts and Post Offices are conducted to what he apprehends, and that the constant Eye that has been long kept towards their improvement in all Situations and under all Circumstances has made them now almost as perfect as can be without exhausting the Revenue arising therefrom."—Observations on Mr. Palmer's Plan by Mr. Hodgson, District Surveyor. Ibid.