[62] i.e. boats. At Liverpool packets, in the sense of boats commissioned by Government to carry letters, did not at this time exist.
[63] The King's physician.
[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.
[65] A letter to a member of Parliament on mail-coaches, by Thomas Pennant, Esq., 1792.
[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.
[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. |
[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."
[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.
[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.