The Newspaper Office which had been illegally established by Palmer was continued after his dismissal. Walsingham had objected to it on the ground that Palmer had no right to appoint any officials without his consent. Previously all newspapers had been forwarded to the postmasters free of postage by the "Clerks of the Roads." Now that they might be sent with the letters, they were brought in at the last moment still wet from the press so that they defaced the writing on the letters sent in the same bag.[197] In 1784 a Dead Letter Office was also established. Previously, dead and missent letters had been handed to a clerk in the General Office. During Allen's farm of the cross and bye post letters, missent letters were no longer forwarded to London, but any postmaster, into whose hands they came, was instructed to place them on the right track.[198] Four years later a third office was instituted, a Money Order Office. No order could be issued for more than five guineas and the fee for that sum was 4s. 6d. It was started as a private speculation by some of the postal officials and so remained until 1838 when it was taken over by the General Post Office.[199]

The policy of the Post Office with reference to the registration of letters containing valuables varied with the nature of the enclosure and the manner in which it was sent. On ships' letters sent from England, the registration fee was one guinea, and a receipt was given to the person sending a registered letter. The fee for a letter coming into the kingdom was only 5s.[200] If bank notes were enclosed in a letter, it received no special attention from the Post Office. If gold or silver was sent in a letter marked "money letter," the postmaster placed it in a separate envelope and made a special entry on the way bill, which was repeated at every office it passed through. No special fee was charged for the extra attention bestowed upon these letters until 1835 when the Postmaster-General was allowed to charge a fee for their registration in addition to the ordinary postage.[201] The Money Order Department, still a private undertaking, had its fees reduced from 6d. to 3d. on sums not exceeding £2 and from 18d. to 6d. on sums exceeding £2 but not more than £5.[202]

At the same time that the General Post was being reformed, a former letter carrier by the name of Johnson was improving the Penny Post. The six principal receiving-houses which Dockwra had instituted had been reduced to five and were now still further reduced to two. The subsidiary receiving-houses in the shops and coffee-houses were increased and the number of letter carriers more than doubled. Six regular deliveries for the city proper and three for the suburbs were introduced. Before 1793 the deliveries in the city had not been made at the same time, for the carriers had to go to one of the main receiving-houses to get their letters. The deliveries were now made as near the same time as possible all over the city and the delivery hours were posted so that people might know when to expect the carriers and thus act as a check upon them. Mounted messengers conveyed the letters to those carriers who delivered in distant parts of the city.[203]

In 1794 an act was passed "to regulate the postage and conveyance of letters by the carriage called the Penny Post." The rate for letters posted in London, Westminster, Southwark and the suburbs for any place within these places and their suburbs remained one penny. Letters sent from these places to any place outside paid 2d. as before. Hitherto letters sent from outside to London, Westminster, Southwark and the suburbs had paid only one penny. This was raised by the act of 1794 to 2d. It was also provided that the postage for Penny Post letters need not be paid in advance. This would increase the expense but the idea was probably to secure greater safety in the delivery of letters. Finally, the surplus revenue at the end of each quarter was to be considered part of the revenue of the General Post.[204]

The changes introduced by Johnson and the act of 1794 were in the right direction. This seems a reasonable conclusion not so much on account of the increase in net product, which was not great, as on account of the increase in gross product, showing that the number of letters and parcels sent by the Penny Post had doubled. The financial condition of the Penny Post before and after the reform is shown by the following figures:—

Average Yearly
Gross Product		Average Yearly
Expense		Average Yearly
Net Product
1790-1794£11,089£5289£5800
1795-1797£26,283£18,960£7323[205]

London was not the only place which could boast a Penny Post in 1793. The system was extended in that year to Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol, and Birmingham, while Dublin had been so favoured since 1773. It is almost unnecessary to add that in all these places, it was a pronounced success from a financial and social point of view.[206]

In 1801 the London Penny Post which had lasted for 120 years was practically swept out of existence, for 2d. was then charged where a penny had formerly been the rate. An exception was made in the case of letters passing first by the General Post, for on these the old rate still held.[207] Four years later, the limits of the Twopenny Post, as it was called, were restricted to the General Post Delivery and 3d. was charged for letters crossing the bounds of this delivery. This was called the Threepenny Post.[208] The effect of the increased rates and the growth of population in the metropolis is shown by the increase in gross receipts, which rose from £11,768 in 1703 to £96,089 in 1816 and to £105,052 in 1823. During the same period, the number of letter carriers was increased from 181 to 235, and nineteen officials were added to the establishment.[209]

Although the General, the Twopenny, and the Threepenny Posts, were all under one management, no attempt was made to harmonize their methods of procedure until 1831. Letters for the General Post were often entrusted to the Twopenny Post but the receiving-houses of both Posts were frequently established in the same street and close together. The General Post had seventy receiving-houses in the city, the Twopenny Post 209, the Threepenny Post 200 more in the suburbs and adjoining country. In addition there were 110 "bellmen" who collected letters from door to door, ringing their bells as they went. They charged one penny for each letter collected.[210] The General Post receiving-houses closed at 7 P.M., the Twopenny receiving-houses at 8 P.M., but letters might be posted at the Charing Cross Office until 8.30 and at the General Office until 9 P.M.[211] At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were three deliveries, by the Inland, Foreign, and Twopenny Post carriers. The limits of the Inland Post Delivery were very irregular and left out a large part of the populous suburbs. The Foreign Post Delivery was also very irregular and still more restricted in area. The Twopenny Post Delivery included London, Westminster, Southwark and their suburbs, and was the most extensive. Letters were delivered by the Threepenny Post within an irregular area bounded on the inside by the Twopenny Delivery and extending nearly twelve miles from the General Post Office. The separate delivery of foreign letters was abolished first and all foreign letters were delivered by the General Post carriers, and in 1831 the deliveries of the General and Twopenny Posts were made co-extensive, extending to a distance of three miles from the General Office at St. Martin's-le-Grand. Three years later the Twopenny Post building in Gerard Street was given up and all Twopenny Post letters henceforth were sent to the General Post Office building to be sorted.[212]

The regular collections of Twopenny Post letters were made at 8 A.M., 10 A.M., 12 M. and 2, 5 and 8 P.M. Deliveries were made at the same hours in the morning, at noon, and at 2, 4 and 7 o'clock in the afternoon. A letter posted at or before 8 A.M. was sent for delivery at 10 A.M. and so on. The letters collected were taken to the General Office by horsemen to be sorted. Two sets of men were employed, one collecting while the other delivered.[213] There was an additional "early delivery" as it was called. The carriers on the way to their own "walks" delivered letters to subscribers, who paid 5s. a quarter for the accommodation thus afforded. The postage for letters so delivered was not paid until the carriers called again on their regular delivery.[214] In 1837 the times of the regular deliveries were changed to every second hour from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M. and collections were made at the same hours.[215] In the Threepenny Post limits, there were on an average three deliveries a day but those towns which had a General Post delivery received only two a day from the Threepenny Post. Letters were sent by horsemen or mail carts for delivery. The same receiving-houses were used for General and Threepenny Post letters.[216]