[586] Jo. H. C., 1745-50, pp. 751-2.
[587] 26 Geo. III, c. 13, secs. 7, 8.
[588] 5 Geo. III, c. 25. The principle of payment in advance was not popular. A man in England writing to his brother in Virginia in 1764 says, "Very often of late I have been so foolish, I should say unfortunate previously to pay for the letters coming to you.... To my great concern I have been since assured that such letters never go forward but are immediately thrown aside and neglected. I believe I wrote to you three or four times this last winter by this method and am since informed of this their fate. You may form a great guess of the truth of it by or by not receiving them" (Notes and Queries, 4th ser., xii, p. 125).
[589] 24 Geo. III, sess. 2, c. 37.
[590] 27 Geo. III, c. 9. In 1767 a rate of 2d. for a single letter was established between Whitehaven (Cumberland) and the Port of Douglas (Isle of Man) (7 Geo. III, c. 50).
[591] 37 Geo. III, c. 18.
[592] 33 Geo. III, c. 60.
[593] 39 Geo. III, c. 76.
[594] When the temporary peace of Amiens was concluded in 1802, the rates for single letters from London to France were reduced to 10d., from London to the Batavian Republic to 12d. (42 Geo. II, c. 101).
[595] 41 Geo. III, c. 7.