[33] This is an allusion to the period antecedent to 1657.
[34] These runners or post-boys carried the mail through the whole journey, resting by the way. It was not, according to common repute, until about the year 1750 that the mail began to be carried from stage to stage by different post-boys.
[35] In London the practice continued until the end of 1846; and in Dublin, which was the last town in the United Kingdom to give it up, until September 1859.
[36] Even the notice to the public announcing the change was as unapologetic as it well could be:—"These are to give notice that by the Act of Parliament for establishing a General Post Office all letters and packets directed to and sent from places distant ten miles or above from the said office in London, which before the second of this instant June were received and delivered by the officers of the penny post, are now subjected to the same rates of postage as general post letters; and that for the accommodation of the inhabitants of such places their letters will be conveyed with the same regularity and dispatch as formerly, being first taxed with the rates and stamped with the mark of the General Post Office; and that all parcels will likewise be taxed at the rate of 2s. per ounce, as the said Act directs."
[37] Chamberlayne's State of England, 1710.
[38] The following letter affords an instance of the exertion of authority referred to in the text:—
To the Deputys between London and Tinmouth.
General Post Office,
April 6, 1708.Gentlemen—The bearer hereof, Mr. John Farra, being directed by order of the Lord High Treasurer to proceed to Tinmouth on the publick affairs of the Government, I am ordered by the postmasters-general to require you to furnish the said gentleman with a single horse [i.e. a horse without a guide] if required through your several stages, he being well acquainted with the roads and coming recommended by such authority, which by their order is signified by, Gentlemen, your most humble servant,
B. Waterhouse,
Secretary.
[39] In documents intended for the public eye it was the practice of the postmasters-general—and it was by them that these warrants were prepared—to speak of an existing abuse as an abuse that was past. This was, of course, to avoid giving offence.
[40] "And whereas divers deputy postmasters do collect great quantities of post letters called by or way letters and, by clandestine and private agreements amongst themselves, do convey the same post in their respective mails, or by bags, according to their several directions, without accounting for the same or endorsing the same on their bills, to the great detriment of Her Majesty's revenues."—9 Anne, cap. x. sec. 18.