run night and day between Edinburgh and Scotland and the City of London, to go thither and come back again in six days:" branch posts were also to be established with all the principal towns on the road: the rates of postage were fixed at 2d. under 80 miles; 4d. for 140 miles; 6d. beyond; and 8d. to Scotland. This is conclusive evidence that a regular post-office establishment existed nearly ten years before Prideaux had anything to do with the post-office.
In 1640, a proclamation was issued by the Long Parliament, by which the offices of Foreign and Inland Postmaster (then held by Witherings) were sequestrated into the hands of one Philip Burlamachy, a city merchant. Soon after this we find a Committee of the Commons, with "Master Edmund Prideaux" for chairman, inquiring into the matter.
In 1644, a resolution of the Commons declared that "Edmund Prideaux, Esq., a member of the House," was "constituted master of the posts, messengers, and couriers."
In 1649 Prideaux established a weekly conveyance to every part of the kingdom; and also appears to have introduced other judicious reforms and improvements,—indeed he seems to have been the Rowland Hill of those days; but he has not the slightest claim to be considered as the "Inventor of the Post-office." The mistake may have arisen from a misapprehension of the following statement frown Blackstone: "Prideaux first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation, thereby saving to the public the charge of maintaining postmasters, to the amount of 7000l. per annum."
I have not been able to obtain any particulars of Prideaux's personal history.
Mercurii.
Jememutha Magna.
Edmund Prideaux and the First Post-office.—See the Appendix to the Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons on the Detaining and Opening of Letters at the Post-Office, 1844, which contains copies of numerous documents furnished by Mr. Lechmere and Sir Francis Palgrave.
Arun.
[We avail ourselves of this opportunity of inserting the following extract from Mr. Rowland Hill's Post-Office Reform; its Importance and Practicability, p. 86. of the third edition, published in 1837, as it shows clearly the use which Mr. Rowland Hill made of the story in his great work of Postage Reform; and that Miss Martineau had clearly no authority for fathering the story in question upon that gentleman:—