The by-letters occasioned uneasiness to Whitley, because he was entirely in the hands of the postmasters for the accounting of them. He thus defines them:—"By by-letters I mean all letters of your stage and branch sent by your agents or boys, to any place but London or beyond it." The revenue from this class of letters was a matter of arrangement between the Deputy Postmaster-General and the country postmasters, the former finding it a convenient plan to farm this correspondence to the postmasters. Whitley distrusted the returns of by-letters made by his agents, as the following letters to Postmasters show:—"I wonder at your great mistake in your by-letters; the account you give me amounts to much more by the year, and yet I have good reason to believe (I speak it without any disrespect or reflection on you) that I have not account of the fourth part of your stage. Your servants may be negligent, and boys abuse you; however, I am at the loss; but resolve, where I find any injustice of that kind hereafter, to sue the bond, and doubt not but some postmasters will be so kind and honest as to give me true information." Again, "I find a great decay in our by-letters of late. I hope you are a person of more integrity than to design (by this means) to beat down the price. Do not do it; I have other measures to go by; you will but wrong yourself as well as me. You do not offer the third part of the value. However, to avoid suspicion, the trouble of accounts, and possibly suits at law, I will let you have it for thirty pounds the year (Hull gives fifty), and take the benefit of by-letters into the bargain. You know I could have other chapmen." Colonel Whitley may have had painful experience of law suits, for he expresses himself to one of his postmasters in the following strain:—"Being forced by Mr. Vaughan's ill-payment to have recourse to the law to get my money, I cannot meet with a sincere attorney, but they juggle and will not serve the writ, pretending they cannot; wherefore, relying much on your kindness and ingenuity, and having no other way to get my right, I send the enclosed writs to you." He gives directions as to the serving of them, and adds, that "it will be an extraordinary kindness to me."
On the 5th July 1673, Whitley wrote his views on the subject of conformity to the postmaster of Belford (Mr. Carr) in the following safe terms. In some respects the letter is amusing. It runs:—"I think it not only convenient but necessary for every postmaster to conform to the late law about the sacrament and oaths; not that it will anyway concern me or this office, only in the safety and wellbeing of those that relate to it. I pray consult the law itself, being too nice a point for me to give my opinion of, and the judges themselves are shy in the matter; but on the one hand you are sure not to err, therefore that is the safest way." The postmaster of Ware having, by a like omission, got himself into trouble, is thus written to:—"I am sorry to hear that information is given into the Exchequer of your neglect in not taking the oath of allegiance and supremacy and the test lately ordained by Parliament.[6] I fear this may be troublesome to you, it being unsafe for anyone to bear an office that will not conform to the laws established."
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Andrew Marvell says of Bennet that he "got of the poor indigent Cavaliers' money £26,000, and other wayes near £40,000 more."
[5] The property of Sir Philip Mainwaring, Bart., of Peover Hall, Knutsford, by whose courtesy they have been consulted.
[6] The declaration required was in the following terms:—"I do believe that there is not any transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the elements of bread and wine, at or after the consecration thereof, by any person whatsoever."
As compared with the sober and temperate style of official correspondence in the present day, when a civilly expressed request is generally held to convey all the force of a direct command, Whitley's letters to his deputies savour of smartness and incisiveness that are somewhat striking. Mr. Pye, the deputy at Morpeth, having quarrelled with some of the postmasters at neighbouring post stages, by sending travellers bound for Scotland by the road through Owler (Wooler) instead of by Belford and Berwick, Whitley had to fall upon him. One of Whitley's letters to Mr. Pye is as follows:—"I understand you well and your designs, but you shall not prevail with me (for all your specious arguments or applications to great persons) to countenance you in your indirect ways. As for the Scottish lord that pufft at my letter, I value it not. I would rather he did so than applaud me for doing otherwise," etc. The postmasters were very tenacious of their rights as to the posting work, which was probably the most remunerative part of their business, and they did not stick at trifles in asserting these rights. The postmaster of Dartford, Mr. Glover, got into trouble in December 1675 by laying hands upon several French gentlemen of quality, Monsieur Vendome among the rest. It appears that these persons had hired horses in London for their journey; but on reaching Dartford they were pulled off their horses, and forced to take post horses from the deputy.