Down to the year 1673, Liverpool was without a horse post. Correspondence took place in that year between Whitley and the Mayor of the town with the view of improving the service. In one letter Whitley writes:—"I agree with you that the trade of that industrious place ought to have quicker despatch in its correspondence, and may deserve a horse post as well for expedition of letters as conveniency of travellers; but if the charge be imposed on the office, the benefit will not balance the expense." Negotiations were thereafter entered upon with Alderman Chanler of Liverpool, with a view to his taking up the work. The proposal was "to carry the Preston mail from Warrington to Wigan (as it is now done), to send to Liverpool by a horse post, also to Prescod and Ormskirk (if a foot post will not be as convenient to this latter), and to carry the mail back again to Knutsford; and I hope you will do this for forty pounds per annum." Previous to 1673 Irish letters from Manchester were carried up to London, to be thence forwarded to their destination by way of Chester and Holyhead, from which latter place the Irish packets sailed. In this year, however, a more direct circulation was arranged: the Manchester letters being carried south to Stone in Staffordshire, where, striking the post road for Holyhead, they were carried forward with the London mails for Ireland. Between London and South Wales the transit of letters was of the slowest possible kind, and gave rise to much complaint. On the 24th July 1673, Mr. Courcy, postmaster of Pembroke, is written to on the subject in these terms:—"Yours of the 16th came not to hand till the 23rd, the usual despatch of the South Wales posts, 7 or 8 days in the way; if you can tell me who opens your bag I know how to have satisfaction, but without that discovery I am in the dark, and know not what to do."
In London at this period there must have been but one delivery a day by letter-carrier. This appears by the terms of a complaint made to the postmaster of Harwich concerning the late arrival of the mails, which resulted either in the keeping the "letter-carriers in the office to attend your bag, or not issue out your letters till the next morning." The country mails were at this time due to arrive in the very early hours of the morning. In 1676, there were at least seven branch post offices in London for the receipt of letters for the mails, and from these offices letters were required to be sent up to the central office nightly as despatches were made every week-day for one or other of the roads, or for foreign parts.
The packet service was the occasion of much trouble and anxiety. The French and Flanders packet boats sailed from Dover, and those for Holland from Harwich. Whitley had a great deal of correspondence with the agents at these two ports on the subject of their irregular proceedings. To the agent at Dover he writes:—"There is an information that the boats stay at Calais (sometimes) 24 hours after the mail is on board to take in goods, and that occasions the irregular coming over of the mails." The agent at Harwich is informed that "the Commissioners of Customs complain that you refuse to enter and pay custom for some rack wine which you (or some of your masters) lately took up at sea; they are much offended at it." The same agent has conveyed to him, "Lord Arlington's command to require the masters of the Holland packet boats not to refuse passage to any English soldiers that shall desire to come over in their boats; but that care be taken, as soon as they arrive in England, to secure them and put them into safe custody. This you are to give them in charge and see it strictly observed." The soldiers here referred to were doubtless deserters from the English force in Holland, with which country we were then (1672) at war. Peace, following this war, was proclaimed in London on the 28th February 1674, and the same night an express was despatched to the Duke of Lauderdale, a member of the Cabal, then at Edinburgh. It no doubt contained tidings of the peace. The instructions issued to the postmasters for the special urgency of the express were as follows:—"All postmasters between London and Edinburgh are hereby required to forward this express with all possible expedition, and not detain it in any stage for the ordinary maile, but hast itt away as soon as received, as they will answer the contrary.
"Dated at the Generall Letter Office in London past six att night this 28th Feb. 1674."
Colonel Whitley was greatly annoyed by the neglect to secure letters from the merchant fleets when they arrived off our coasts. On this subject he writes to the agent at Deal:—"I am much troubled to find so small an account of letters from the great merchant fleet that came lately into the Downs. Such a fleet was wont to allow me 7 or 8000 letters, and now I have not so many hundreds. There was certainly a great neglect in your boats, which, turning so much to my loss, I know not how to pass by." In a similar matter the agent at Dover is remonstrated with. "I wonder," says Whitley, "how I came to be disappointed of the great abundance of ship letters that came in with the last fleet, and were brought on shore at Dover by the pursers and others—great bags and portmantlesfull. Here they are carried to the Exchange and round the town in great quantities, and those they cannot get off they bring to this office. The parties confess that they brought them on shore at Dover without control." Dissatisfaction was also given through the irregular carriage of freight by the packet boats. "I have yours of the 3rd," says Whitley to the Dover agent, "but do not understand why your masters should pretend to such a privilege as to carry over silver or any commodities in the packet boats without giving me account thereof. I find that that practice hath been longer, and is more used than you mention. I expect satisfaction. The Harwich packet boats would not carry over oysters without my order, and give me account of all they do; but I know it much otherwise at Dover." The good opinion thus expressed of the virtues of the Harwich people was not of long duration, for a few days later we find Whitley writing the agent there in the following very irate fashion:—"You are very brisk in yours of the 6th; perhaps I may be so too when I see you. I deny that you ever told me of your bringing over any goods in the Packet Boats upon your own or any merchant's account without paying for them; and why should you do it? Are not the boats mine? Should I suffer you or others to drive so profitable a trade in my boats, and by the assistance and management of my servants (as those seamen are that I pay wages to), and I to have no benefit for freight, nor thanks, but the contrary? I need not tell you how this comes to be a prejudice to me; you are not so ignorant as to require information in the case; you are free to follow any lawful callings, but not at my charges, in my boats, and with my seamen. You cannot justify it (as you say you can); but I will justify that in this and other things you are ungrateful, and (perhaps I shall make it appear) unjust too. I have deserved better from you."
On the 21st September 1675, a letter is written to the agent at Deal, wherein Whitley puts his finger on the cause of the neglects at that port. "I am daily tormented," says he, "with the complaints of the merchants, and my ears are filled with the noise of seamen's wives and others concerning the neglect of their letters, who are now fully resolved to redress themselves to His Majesty.... It will be proved that your boats very seldom go on board with letters, to force the seamen to come ashore to drink at your house.... They go on board other ships with brandy and other liquors."
The boats sailing in the packet service to and from Holland were Galiot-Hoys, of which three were regularly engaged—two of 60 tons and one of 40 tons, and in each six men were employed. The tonnage of these boats was not greater than that of a decently-sized Stonehaven fishing boat; yet they were supposed to provide adequate accommodation for passengers. In 1675, the passenger fare from Harwich to Holland was 12s. In February 1674, a proposal was on foot for conveying letters from Flanders and Holland to Spain and Portugal by way of England, but it does not appear that the plan was given effect to. The idea was to set up a packet service for this purpose from Plymouth to some port in Spain, the boats to be employed being of 40, 50, or 60 tons, "with good conveniency of cabins, and able to encounter storms," and furnished with crews of not under seven or eight good men. In one of his letters on this subject Whitley writes, that "the gentleman that demands £50 per mensem for a vessel of 60 tons is much out of the way"; and he adds, "I have two of that burthen to Holland at a less rate." A service of this kind from Plymouth is stated to have been kept up in Cromwell's time; but possibly the reference is to the packets set up by Charles I. when he was in the West of England and at war with the Parliamentary party. The port of despatch then was Weymouth.
Whitley was very sympathetic over the hardships to which the seamen were exposed in his service. To the agent at Dover he writes, on the occasion of a disaster:—"I am very much afflicted for the loss of Mr. Lambert, who had the character of an honest, able man. It was a great mercy that the rest were preserved. I pray God send us good accounts of our other boats, with better weather. We must resign ourselves and all our concernments to the will of God, and depend on His providence." On another occasion, he expresses himself thus:—"I pray God keep our men and boats in safety these terrible storms; I assure you my heart aches often for them." About the same period, Whitley deplores the loss of the captain of one of the Dublin packet boats, who was washed overboard.