[399] Archiv für Post und Telegraphie, 1880, p. 279.
[400] 22nd August 1874.
[401] When in 1700 Dockwra was dismissed from the comptrollership, one of the charges against him was that he forbade the acceptance of band-boxes or other parcels over 1 pound in weight—to the great inconvenience of traders and the peril of many sick folk who might have received "phisick" by the Penny Post.
[402] 5 Geo. III, cap. 25.
[403] "In 1839 Sir John Burgoyne wrote to complain that, for a packet of papers sent to him at Dublin, which had been forwarded from some other part of Ireland by mail-coach, as a letter, instead of a parcel (i.e. a coach-parcel), he had been charged a postage of £11; that is to say, for a packet which he could easily have carried in his pocket, he was charged a sum for which he could have engaged the whole mail-coach, i.e. places for four inside and three outside passengers, with their portmanteaus, carpet bags, etc."—The Post Office of Fifty Years Ago, London, 1890, p. 7.
[404] "It has been suggested that if the proportional charge on Letters by Weight was more gradual, many Things which now pass as Parcels by the Mails and augment the Profit of the Proprietors would be sent by the Post on Account of the superior Safety.
"It is certain that great Numbers of small Parcels are sent by the Mail Coaches at an inferior Rate of Carriage, which, considering this Establishment as a Species of exclusive Carrying Trade, must subtract considerably from its Revenue." Seventh Report, July, 1797 (Commons Reports, vol. xii. p. 189).
[405] E.g., in 1829 the Secretary reported: "With respect to the conveyance of Pamphlets and Periodical Publications by the Post, Treasury has expressed itself to me as decidedly hostile to any such infraction of the carrying Trade of the Country. It is moreover physically impossible. We have the greatest difficulty in conveying Letters, Newspapers, and official packets; many of the official forms, etc., remain some days until we can take them by the Mail Coaches." And in 1847, when Sir Rowland Hill put forward his proposal for a Book Post, Colonel Maberley, then Secretary, said: "The Post ought to be confined to small packets as much as possible and to convey large packets only when the necessity is urgent." He was especially afraid of the inconvenience which would be caused to foot-messengers.—British Official Records. Cf. 10 & 11 Vict., cap. 85, § 2.
[407] As they had always done. "The Post Office has recently absolutely entered into competition with the Railway Companies. As carriers, the Companies derived considerable profit from parcels. The Post Office, finding that railways afford the means of carrying any quantity of bulk, has seen fit to undertake the conveyance of books and other parcels at very reduced postal rates. If the Post Office should extend its operations a little further, it must be brought into absolute antagonism with the Companies. Books are heavier articles than laces or muslins, or many other fabrics, the conveyance of which enters largely into railway receipts. The Post Office having made book parcels profitable, may try to turn to account the conveyance of other, whether lighter or heavier, articles of trade. It might be thought advisable to carry a small valuable parcel to Aberdeen for 2d., a rate at which Railway Companies, having to pay interest on capital, certainly cannot hope to compete with a department which insists on the right of travelling on their roads at the mere actual cost. You will not, therefore, fail to see that the Post Office arrangements may be carried to a point at which great injustice would be done to Railway Companies."—Robert Stephenson before the Institution of Civil Engineers, January 1856 (S. Smiles, Life of George Stephenson, London, 1857, p. 525).