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.