PALMER AND THE MAIL-COACH ERA.
We have now arrived at a most important epoch in the history of the
English Post-Office. Fifteen years after the death of Mr. Allen, John
Palmer, one of the greatest of the early post-reformers rose into
notice. To give anything approaching to a proper account of the eminent
services that Palmer rendered towards the development of the resources
of the Post-Office, it is requisite that we notice the improvements
which had been made up to his time in the internal communications of the
country. Trade and commerce, more than ever active, were the means of
opening out the country in all directions. Civil engineering had now
acquired the importance and dignity of a profession. This was the age of
Brindley and Smeaton, Rennie and Telford, Watt and Boulton. Roads were
being made in even the comparatively remote districts of England;
bridges were built in all parts of the country; the Bridgewater and
other canals were opened for traffic, whilst many more were laid out.
And what is perhaps more germane to our special subject, many
improvements were apparent in the means of conveyance during the same
period.[51] While, on the one hand, the ordinary stage-coach had found
its way on to every considerable road, and was still equal to the usual
requirements, the speed at which it travelled did not at all satisfy the
enterprising merchants of Lancashire and Yorkshire. So early as 1754, a
company of merchants in Manchester started a new vehicle, called the
"Flying Coach," which seems to have owed its designation to the fact
that the proprietors contemplated an acceleration in the speed of the
new conveyance to four or five miles an hour. It started with the
following remarkable prospectus:--"However incredible it may appear,
this coach will actually (barring accidents) arrive in London in four
days and a half after leaving Manchester." In the same year a new coach
was brought out in Edinburgh, but the speed at which it travelled was no
improvement on the old rate. It was of better appearance, however; and
the announcement heralding its introduction to the Edinburgh public
sought for it general support on the ground of the extra comfort it
would offer to travellers. "The Edinburgh stage-coach," says the
prospectus, "for the better accommodation of passengers, will be altered
to a new genteel two-end glass machine, hung on steel springs,
exceedingly light and easy, to go (to London) in ten days in summer and
twelve in winter."[52] Three years afterwards, the Liverpool merchants
established another "flying machine on steel springs," which was
designed to, and which really did, eclipse the Manchester one in the
matter of speed.[53] Three days only were allowed for the journey
between Liverpool and London. Sheffield and Leeds followed with their
respective "fly-coaches," and by the year 1784 they had not only become
quite common, but most of them had acquired the respectable velocity of
eight miles an hour.
The post-boy on horseback travelling at the rate of three or four miles
an hour, had been an institution since the days of Charles II., and now,
towards the close of the eighteenth century, the Post-Office was still
clinging to the old system. It was destined, however, that Mr. Palmer
should bring about a grand change. Originally a brewer, Mr. Palmer was,
in 1784, the manager of the Bath and Bristol theatres. He seems to have
known Mr. Allen, and to have been fully acquainted with his fortunate
Post-Office speculations. In this way, to some extent, but much more,
doubtless, through his public capacity as manager of two large theatres,
he became acquainted with the crude postal arrangements of the period.
Having frequently to correspond with the theatrical stars of the
metropolis, and also to journey between London and the then centres of
trade and fashion, he noticed how superior the arrangements were for
travelling to those under which the Post-Office work was done, and he
conceived the idea of improvements.
Palmer found that letters, for instance, which left Bath on Monday night
were not delivered in London until Wednesday afternoon or night; but the
stage-coach which left through the day on Monday, arrived in London on
the following morning.[54] Not only did the existing system of mail
conveyance strike him as being exceedingly slow, but insecure and
otherwise defective. As he afterwards pointed out, he noticed that when
tradesmen were particularly anxious to have a valuable letter conveyed
with speed and safety, they never thought of giving it into the safe
keeping of the Post-Office, but were in the habit of enclosing it in a
brown paper parcel and sending it by the coach: nor were they deterred
from this practice by having to pay a rate of carriage for it far higher
than that charged for a post-letter. Robberies of the mails were so
frequent, that even to adopt the precaution recommended by the
Post-Office authorities, and send valuable remittances such as a bank
note, bills of exchange, &c. _at twice_, was a source of endless trouble
and annoyance, if it did not prove entirely ineffective. Who can wonder
at the Post-Office robberies when the carelessness and incompetency of
the servants of the Post-Office were taken into account? A curious
robbery of the Portsmouth mail in 1757 illustrates the careless manner
in which the duty was done. The boy who carried the mail had dismounted
at Hammersmith, about three miles from Hyde Park Corner, and called for
beer, when some thieves took the opportunity to cut the mail-bags from
off the horse's crupper, and got away undiscovered. The French mail on
its outward-bound passage _viâ_ Dover was more than once stopped and
rifled before it had got clear of London. A string stretched across a
street in the borough through which the mail would pass has been known
to throw the post-boy from his horse, who, without more ado, would
coolly retrace his steps, empty-handed, to the chief office, and report
the loss of his bags. What could be expected, however, in the case of
raw, unarmed post-boys, when carriages were stopped in broad daylight in
Hyde Park, and even in Piccadilly itself, and pistols pointed at the
breasts of the nobility and gentry _living close at hand_? Horace
Walpole relates that he himself was robbed in Hyde Park in broad
daylight, in a carriage with Lord Eglinton and Lady Albemarle.
Mr. Palmer, however, was ready with a remedy for robbery, as well as for
the other countless defects in the existing postal arrangements. He
began his work of reform in 1783, by submitting a full scheme in a
lengthy report to Mr. Pitt, who was at that time Prime Minister. He
commenced by describing the then existing system of mail transmission.
"The post," he says, "at present, instead of being the quickest, is
almost the slowest conveyance in the country; and although, from the
great improvements in our roads, other carriers have proportionately
mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever." The system is also
unsafe; robberies are frequent, and he saw not how it could be otherwise
if there were no changes. "The mails," continued Palmer, "are generally
intrusted to some idle boy without character, mounted on a worn-out
hack, and who, so far from being able to defend himself, or escape from
a robber, is more likely to be in league with him." If robberies were
not so frequent as the circumstances might lead people to suppose, it
was simply because thieves had found, by long practice, that the
mails were scarcely worth robbing--the booty to be obtained being
comparatively worthless, inasmuch as the public found other means of
sending letters of value. Mr. Palmer, as we have before stated, knew of
tradesmen who sent letters by stage-coach. Why, therefore, "should not
the stage-coach, well protected by armed guards, under certain
conditions to be specified, carry the mail-bags?" Though by no means the
only recommendation which Mr. Palmer made to the Prime Minister, this
substitution of a string of mail-coaches for the "worn-out hacks" was
the leading feature of his plans. Evincing a thorough knowledge of his
subject (however he may have attained that knowledge), and devised with
great skill, the measures he proposed promised to advance the postal
communication to as high a pitch of excellence as was possible. To lend
to the scheme the prospect of _financial_ success, he laboured to show
that his proposals, if adopted, would secure a larger revenue to the
Post-Office than it had ever yet yielded; whilst, as far as the public
were concerned, it was evident that they would gladly pay higher for a
service which was performed so much more efficiently. Mr. Pitt, who
always lent a ready ear to proposals which would have the effect of
increasing the revenue, saw and acknowledged the merits of the scheme
very early. But, first of all, the Post-Office officials must be
consulted; and from accounts[55] which survive, we learn how bitterly
they resented proposals not coming from themselves. They made many and
vehement objections to the sweeping changes which Palmer's plans would
necessitate. "The oldest and ablest officers in the service" represented
them "not only to be impracticable, but dangerous to commerce and the
revenue."[56] The accounts of the way in which they met some of his
proposals is most amusing and instructive. Thus, Palmer recommended Mr.
Pitt to take some commercial men into his councils, and they would not
fail to convince him of the great need there was for change. He also
submitted that the suggestions of commercial men should be listened to
more frequently, when postal arrangements for their respective districts
should be made. Mr. Hodgson, one of the prominent officers of the
Post-Office, indignantly answered that "it was not possible that any set
of gentlemen, merchants, or outriders (commercial travellers, we
suppose), could instruct officers brought up in the business of the
Post-Office. And it is particularly to be hoped," said this gentlemen,
with a spice of malice, "if not presumed, that the surveyors need no
such information." He "ventured to say, that the post as then managed
was admirably connected in all its parts, well-regulated, carefully
attended to, and not to be improved by any person unacquainted with the
whole. It is a pity," he sarcastically added, "that Mr. Palmer should
not first have been informed of the nature of the business in question,
to make him understand how very differently the post and post-offices
are conducted to what he apprehends."
Mr. Palmer might not be, and really was not, acquainted with all the
working arrangements of the office he was seeking to improve: yet it
was quite patent to all outside the Post-Office that the entire
establishment needed remodelling. Mr. Hodgson, however, and his
_confrères_ "were amazed," they said, "that any dissatisfaction, any
desire for change, should exist." The Post-Office was already perfect in
their eyes. It was, at least, "almost as perfect as it can be, without
exhausting the revenue arising therefrom." They could not help,
therefore, making a united stand against any such new-fangled scheme,
which they predict "will fling the commercial correspondence of the
country into the utmost confusion, and which will justly raise such a
clamour as the Postmaster-General will not be able to appease." Another
of the principal officers, a Mr. Allen, who seems to have been more
temperate in his abuse of the new proposals, gave it as his opinion,
"that the more Mr. Palmer's plan was considered, the greater number of
difficulties and objections started to its ever being carried completely
into execution."
From arguing on the general principles involved, they then descend to
combat the working arrangements of the theatre-manager with even less
success. Mr. Palmer complains that the post is slow, and states that it
ought to outstrip all other conveyances. Mr. Hodgson "could not see
_why_ the post should be the swiftest conveyance in England. Personal
conveyances, I apprehend, should be much more, and particularly with
people travelling on business." Then followed Mr. Draper, another
official, who objected to the coaches as travelling too fast. "The
post," he said, "cannot travel with the expedition of stage-coaches, on
account of the business necessary to be done in each town through which
it passes, and without which correspondence would be thrown into the
utmost confusion." Mr. Palmer had proposed that the coaches should
remain fifteen minutes in each town through which they passed, to give
time to transact the necessary business of sorting the letters. Mr.
Draper said that half an hour was not enough, as was well enough known
to persons at all conversant with Post-Office business. Living in this
age of railways and steam, we have just reason to smile at such
objections. Then, as to the appointment of mail-guards, Mr. Palmer
might, but Mr. Hodgson could, see no security, though he could see
endless trouble, expense, and annoyance in such a provision. "The man
would doubtless have to be waited for at every alehouse the coach
passed." He might have added that such had been the experience with the
post-boys under the _régime_ which he was endeavouring to perpetuate.
Mr. Palmer stipulated, that the mail-guards should in all cases be well
armed and accoutred, and such officers "as could be depended upon as
trustworthy." But the Post-Office gentlemen objected even to this
arrangement. "There were no means of preventing robbery with effect,[57]
as the strongest cart or coach that could be made, lined and bound with
iron, might easily be broken into by determined robbers," and the
employment of armed mail-guards would only make matters worse. Instead
of affording protection to the mails, the following precious doctrine
was inculcated, that the crime of murder would be added to that of
robbery; "for," said the wonderful Mr. Hodgson, "when once desperate
fellows had determined upon robbery, resistance would lead to murder"!
These were peace and non-resistance principles with a vengeance, but
principles which in England, during the later years of Pitt's
administration, would seldom be heard, except in furtherance of some
such selfish views as those which the Post-Office authorities held in
opposition to Mr. Palmer's so-called innovations.
Mr. Palmer's propositions also included the timing of the mails at each
successive stage, and their departure from the country properly
regulated; they would thus be enabled to arrive in London at regular
specified times, and not at any hour of the day or night, and might, to
some extent, be delivered simultaneously. Again: instead of _leaving_
London at all hours of the night, he suggested that all the coaches for
the different roads should leave the General Post-Office at the same
time; and thus it was that Palmer established what was, to the stranger
in London for many years, one of the first of City sights. Finally, Mr.
Palmer's plans were pronounced impossible. "It was an impossibility,"
his opponents declared, "that the Bath mail could be brought to London
in sixteen or eighteen hours."
Mr. Pitt was less conservative than the Post-Office authorities. He
clearly inherited, as an eloquent writer[58] has pointed out, his
father's contempt for impossibilities. He saw, with the clear vision for
which he was so remarkable, that Mr. Palmer's scheme would be as
profitable as it was practicable, and he resolved, in spite of the
short-sighted opposition of the authorities, that it should be adopted.
The Lords of the Treasury lost no more time in decreeing that the plan
should be tried, and a trial and complete success was the result. On the
24th of July, 1784, the Post-Office Secretary (Mr. Anthony Todd) issued
the following order:--"His Majesty's Postmasters-General, being inclined
to make an experiment for the more expeditious conveyance of mails of
letters by stage-coaches, machines, &c., have been pleased to order that
a trial shall be made upon the road between London and Bristol, to
commence at each place on Monday, the 2d of August next." Then follows a
list of places, letters for which can be sent by these mail-coaches, and
thus concludes: "All persons are therefore to take notice, that the
letters put into any receiving-house before six of the evening, or seven
at this chief office, will be forwarded by these new conveyances; all
others for the said post-towns and their districts put in afterwards, or
given to the bellmen, must remain until the following post at the same
hour of seven."
The mail-coaches commenced running according to the above advertisement,
not, however, on the 2d, but on the 8th of August. One coach left London
at eight in the morning, reaching Bristol about eleven the same night.
_The distance between London and Bath was accomplished in fourteen
hours._ The other coach was started from Bristol at four in the
afternoon on the same day, reaching London in sixteen hours.
Mr. Palmer was installed at the Post-Office on the day of the change,
under the title of Controller-General. It was arranged that his salary
should be 1,500_l._ a-year, together with a commission of two and a half
per cent. upon any excess of net revenue over 240,000_l._--the sum at
which the annual proceeds of the Post-Office stood at the date of his
appointment.
The rates of postage, as we have before incidentally pointed out, were
slightly raised--an addition of a penny to each charge; but,
notwithstanding this, the number of letters began at once, and most
perceptibly, to increase. So great was the improvement in security and
speed, that, for once, the additions to the charges were borne
ungrudgingly. Coaches were applied for without loss of time by the
municipalities of many of our largest towns,[59] and when they were
granted--as they appear to have been in most of the instances--they were
started at the rate of six miles an hour. This official rate of speed
was subsequently increased to eight, then to nine, and at length to ten
miles an hour.[60]
The opposition to Mr. Palmer's scheme, manifested by the Post-Office
officials before it was adopted, does not seem to have given way before
the manifest success attending its introduction. Perhaps Mr. Palmer's
presence at the Council Board did not conduce to the desirable unanimity
of feeling. However it was, he appears for some time to have contended
single-handed with officials determinately opposed to him. When goaded
and tormented by them, he fell into their snares, and attempted to carry
his measures by indirect means. In 1792, when his plans had been in
operation about eight years, and were beginning to show every element of
success, it was deemed desirable that he should surrender his
appointment. A pension of 3,000_l._ was granted to him in consideration
of his valuable services. Subsequently he memorialized the Government,
setting forth that his pension fell far short of the emoluments which
had been promised to him, but he did not meet with success. Mr. Palmer
never ceased to protest against this treatment; and his son,
Major-General Palmer, frequently urged his claims before Parliament,
until, in 1813, after a struggle of twenty years, the House of Commons
voted him a grant of 50,000_l._ Mr. Palmer died in 1818.
Now that Mr. Palmer was gone from the Post-Office, his scheme was left
to incompetent and unwilling hands. All the smothered opposition broke
out afresh; and if it had been less obvious how trade and commerce, and
all the other interests promoted by safe and quick correspondence, were
benefited by the new measures; and if it had not been for the vigilant
supervision of the Prime Minister--who had let the reformer go, but had
no intention of letting his reforms go with him--all the improvements of
the past few years might have been quietly strangled in their infancy.
Though we know not what the country lost in losing the guiding-spirit,
it is matter of congratulation that the main elements of his scheme were
fully preserved. Though the Post-Office officials scrupled not to
recommend some return to the old system, Mr. Palmer's plans were fully
adhered to until the fact of their success became patent to both the
public and the official alike. In the first year of their introduction,
the net revenue of the Post-Office was about 250,000_l._ Thirty years
afterwards the proceeds had increased sixfold, to no less a sum than a
million and a half sterling! Though, of course, this great increase is
partly attributable to the increase of population, and the national
advancement generally, it was primarily due to the greater speed,
punctuality, and security which the new arrangements gave to the
service. Whilst, financially, the issue was successful, the result, in
other respects, was no less certain. In 1797, the greater part of the
mails were conveyed in one-half of the time previously occupied; in some
cases, in one-third of the time; and on the cross-roads, in a quarter of
the time, taken under the old system. Mails not only travelled quicker,
but Mr. Palmer augmented their number between the largest towns. Other
spirited reforms went on most vigorously. Three hundred and eighty
towns, which had had before but three deliveries of letters a-week, now
received one daily. The Edinburgh coach required less time by sixty
hours to travel from London, and there was a corresponding reduction
between towns at shorter distances. Ten years before the first Liverpool
coach was started, a single letter-carrier sufficed for the wants of
that place; before the century closed, _six_ were required. A single
letter-carrier sufficed for Edinburgh for a number of years;[61] now
_four_ were required.
No less certain was it that the mails, under the new system, travelled
more securely. For many years after their introduction, not a single
attempt was made, in England, to rob Palmer's mail-coaches. It is
noteworthy, however, that the changes, when applied to Ireland, did not
conduce to the greater security of the mails. The first coach was
introduced into Ireland in 1790, and placed on the Cork and Belfast
roads, a few more following on the other main lines of road. Though
occasionally accompanied by as many as _four_ armed guards, the
mail-coaches were robbed, according to a competent authority, "as
frequently as the less-aspiring riding-post."
Not many months after the establishment of mail-coaches, an Act
was passed through Parliament, declaring that all carriages and
stage-coaches employed to carry his Majesty's mails should henceforth be
exempt from the payment of _toll_, on both post- or cross-roads.
Previously, all post-horses employed in the same service travelled free
of toll. This Act told immediately in favour of the Post-Office to a
greater extent than was imagined by its framers. Innkeepers, who, in
England, were the principal owners of stage-coaches,[62] bargained for
the carriage of mails, very frequently at merely nominal prices. In
return, they enjoyed the advantages of the coach and its passengers,
travelling all roads free of toll.
Arrived at the end of the century, we find the mail-coach system is now
an institution in the country. Other interests had progressed at an
equal rate. Travelling, as a rule, had become easy and pleasant. Not
that the service was performed without any difficulty or hindrance. On
the contrary--and it enters within the scope of our present object to
advert to them--the obstacles to anything like a perfect system seemed
insurmountable. Though the difficulties consequent on travelling, at the
beginning of the present century, were comparatively trifling on the
_principal post-roads_, yet, when new routes were chosen, or new
localities were designed to share in the common benefits of the new and
better order of things in the Post-Office, these same difficulties had
frequently to be again got over. Cross-roads in England were greatly
neglected--so much so, in fact, that new mail-coaches which had been
applied for and granted, were often enough waiting idle till the roads
should be ready to receive them. The Highway Act of 1663, so far as the
roads in remote districts were concerned, was completely in abeyance.
Early in the century we find the subject frequently mentioned in
Parliament. As the result of one discussion, it was decided that every
inducement should be held out to the different trusts to make and repair
the roads in their respective localities; while, on the other hand, the
Postmaster-General was directed by the Government to indict all
townships who neglected the duty imposed upon them. Under the Acts of 7
& 8 George III. c. 43, and 4 George IV. c. 74, commissioners were
appointed to arrange for all necessary road improvements, having certain
privileges vested in them for the purpose. Thus, they recommended that
certain trusts should have loans granted to them, to be employed in
road-making and mending. Mr. Telford, at his death, was largely employed
by the Road Commissioners--the improvements on the Shrewsbury and
Holyhead road being under his entire superintendence. And it would seem
that the above-mentioned road needed improvement. When, in 1808, a new
mail-coach was put on to run between the two places, no fewer than
twenty-two townships had to be indicted by the Post-Office authorities
for having their roads in a dangerous and unfinished state.
In Scotland and Ireland, great improvements had also been made in this
respect, considering the previously wretched state of both countries,
Scotland especially. At a somewhat earlier period, four miles of the
best post-road in Scotland--namely, that between Edinburgh and
Berwick--were described in a contemporary record as being in so ruinous
a state, that passengers were afraid of their lives, "either by their
coaches overturning, their horses stumbling, their carts breaking, or
their loads casting, and the poor people with burdens on their backs
sorely grieved and discouraged;" moreover, "strangers do often exclaim
thereat," as well they might. Things were different at the close of the
last century; still, the difficulties encountered in travelling, say by
the Bar, may well serve to show the internal state of the country.
"Those who are born to modern travelling," says Lord Cockburn,[63] "can
scarcely be made to understand how the previous age got on. There was no
bridge over the Tay at Dunkeld, or over the Spey at Fochabers, or over
the Findhorn at Forres. Nothing but wretched peerless ferries, let to
poor cotters, who rowed, or hauled, or pushed a crazy boat across, or
more commonly got their wives to do it.... There was no mail-coach north
of Aberdeen till after the battle of Waterloo.... I understand from
Hope, that after 1784, when he came to the bar, he and Braxfield rode a
whole north circuit; and that, from the Findhorn being in a flood, they
were obliged to go up its bank for about _twenty-eight miles_, to the
Bridge of Dulsie, before they could cross. I myself rode circuits when I
was an Advocate Depute, between 1807 and 1810." A day and a half was
still, at the end of the last century, taken up between Edinburgh and
Glasgow. In 1788, a direct mail-coach was put on between London and
Glasgow, to go by what is known as the west coast route, _viâ_
Carlisle.[64] The Glasgow merchants had long wished for such a
communication, as much time was lost in going by way of Edinburgh. On
the day on which the first mail-coach was expected, a vast number of
them went along the road for several miles to welcome it, and then
headed the procession into the city. To announce its arrival on
subsequent occasions, a gun was fired. It was found a difficult task,
however, to drive the coach, especially in winter, over the bleak and
rugged hills of Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire; the road, moreover, was
hurriedly and badly made, and at times quite impassable. Robert Owen,
travelling between his model village in Lanarkshire and England, tells
us[65] that it often took him two days and three nights, incessant
travelling, to get from Manchester to Glasgow in the coach, the greater
part of the time being spent north of Carlisle. On the eastern side of
the country, in the direct line between Edinburgh and London, a grand
new road had been spoken of for many years. The most difficult part,
viz. that between Edinburgh and Berwick, was begun at the beginning of
the present century, and in 1824, a good road was finished and opened
out as far south as Morpeth, in Northumberland. A continuation of the
road from Morpeth to London being greatly needed, the Post-Office
authorities engaged Mr. Telford, the eminent engineer, to make a survey
of the road over the remaining distance. The survey lasted many years. A
hundred miles of the new Great North Road, south of York, was laid out
in a perfectly straight line.[66] All the requisite arrangements were
made for beginning the work, when the talk of locomotive engines and
tramways, and especially the result of the locomotive contest at
Rainhill in the year 1829, had the effect of directing public and
official attention to a new and promising method of travelling, and of
preventing an outlay of what must have been a most enormous sum for the
purposes of this great work.[67] The scheme was in abeyance for a few
months, and this time sufficed to develop the railway project, and
demonstrate its usefulness to the postal system of the country. But we
are anticipating matters, and must, at any rate, speak for a moment of
the services of Mr. Macadam. The improvements which this gentleman
brought about in road-making had a very sensible effect on the
operations of the mail-coach service. Most of the post-roads were
_macadamized_ before the year 1820, and it was then that the service was
in its highest state of efficiency. Accelerations in the speed of the
coaches were made as soon as ever any road was finished on the new
principle. From this time, the average speed, _including stoppages_, was
nine miles, all but a furlong. The fastest coaches (known as the "crack
coaches" from this circumstance, and also for being on the best roads)
were those travelling, in 1836, between London and Shrewsbury
(accomplishing 154 miles in 15 hours), London and Exeter (171 miles in
17 hours), London and Manchester (187 miles in 19 hours), and London and
Holyhead (261 miles in 27 hours). On one occasion, the Devonport mail,
travelling with foreign and colonial letters, accomplished the journey
of 216 miles, including stoppages, in 21 hours and 14 minutes.
In 1836, there were fifty four-horse mails in England, thirty in
Ireland, and ten in Scotland. In England, besides, there were forty-nine
mails of two horses each. In the last year of mail-coaches, the number
which left London every night punctually at eight o'clock was
twenty-seven; travelling in the aggregate above 5,500 miles, before they
reached their several destinations. We have already stated how the
contracts for _horsing_ the mail-coaches were conducted; no material
change took place in this respect up to the advent of railways. Early in
the present century, it was deemed desirable that the mail-coaches
should all be built and furnished on one plan. For a great number of
years, the contract for building and repairing a sufficient number was
given (without competition) to Mr. John Vidler. Though the Post-Office
arranged for building the coaches, the mail contractors were required to
pay for them; the revenue only bearing the charges of cleaning, oiling,
and greasing them, an expense amounting to about 2,200_l._ a-year. In
1835, however, on a disagreement with Mr. Vidler, the contract was
thrown open to competition, from which competition Mr. Vidler, for a
substantial reason, was excluded. The official control of the
coaches, mail-guards, &c., it may here be stated, was vested in the
superintendent of mail-coaches, whose location was at the General
Post-Office.
Had Hogarth's pencil transmitted to posterity the _tout ensemble_ of a
London procession of mail-coaches, or of one of them at the door of the
customary halting-place (what Herring has done for the old Brighton
coach the "_Age_," with its fine stud of blood-horses, and a real
baronet for driver), the subject could not but have occasioned marked
curiosity and pleasure. No doubt he would have given a distinguished
place to the guard of the mail. The mail-guard was no ordinary
character, being generally _d'accord_ with those who thought or
expressed this opinion. Regarded as quite a public character,
commissions of great importance were oftentimes intrusted to him. The
country banker, for example, would trust him with untold wealth. Though
he was paid only a nominal sum by the Post-Office authorities for his
official services, he was yet enabled to make his position and place a
lucrative one, by the help of the regular perquisites and other
accidental windfalls which we need not further specify. Gathering _en
route_ scraps of local gossip and district intelligence, he was often
"private," and sometimes "special," correspondent to scores of different
people. The _Muddleton Gazette_, perhaps the only newspaper on his line
of road, was submissively dependent upon him. More of him anon: here we
would only add that he had special duties on special occasions. The
mail-coach was looked for most anxiously in times of great excitement.
During the trial of Queen Caroline, says Miss Martineau, "all along the
line of mails, crowds stood waiting in the burning sunshine for news of
the trial, which was shouted out to them as the coach passed."[68]
Again, at the different stages in the history of the Reform Bill, the
mail-roads were sprinkled over for miles with people who were on the
_qui vive_ for any news from London, and the coachman and guards on the
top of the coaches shouted out the tidings.[69] When the Ministry
resigned, many of the guards distributed handbills which they had
brought from London, stating the facts.
In these days of cheap postage and newspapers in every household, it may
be difficult to comprehend the intense interest centring in the
appearance of the mail on its arrival at a small provincial town. The
leather bag of the Post-Office was almost the undisputed and peculiar
property of the upper ten thousand. When there was good reason to
suppose that any communication was on its way to some member of the
commonalty, speculation would be eager among the knot of persons met to
talk over the probable event. Thus we may understand with what eagerness
the mail would be looked for, and how the news, freely given out,
especially in times of war, would be eagerly devoured by men of all
ranks and parties.
It only remains to notice, in conclusion, the annual procession of
mail-coaches on the king's birthday, which contemporaries assure us was
a gay and lively sight. One writer in the early part of the century goes
so far as to say that the cavalcade of mail-coaches was "a far more
agreeable and interesting sight to the eye _and the mind_ than the gaud
and glitter of the Lord Mayor's show," because the former "made you
reflect on the advantages derived to trade and commerce and social
intercourse by this _magnificent establishment_" (the Post-Office).
Hone, in his _Every-day Book_, writing of 1822, tells us that George
IV., who was born on the 12th of August, changed the annual celebration
of his birthday to St. George's-day, April 23d. "According to custom,"
says he, "the mail-coaches went in procession from Millbank to Lombard
Street. About twelve o'clock, the horses belonging to the different
mails with entire new harness, and the postmen and postboys on horseback
arrayed in their new scarlet coats and jackets, proceed from Lombard
Street to Millbank and there dine; from thence, the procession being
re-arranged, begins to march about five o'clock in the afternoon, headed
by the general post letter-carriers on horseback. The coaches follow
them, filled with the wives and children, friends and relations, of the
guards or coachmen; while the postboys sounding their bugles and
cracking their whips bring up the rear. From the commencement of the
procession, the bells of the different churches ring out merrily and
continue their rejoicing peals till it arrives at the Post-Office again,
from whence the mails depart for different parts of the kingdom." Great
numbers assembled to witness the cavalcade as it passed through the
principal streets of the metropolis. The appearance of the coachmen and
guards, got up to every advantage, and each with a large bouquet of
flowers in his scarlet uniform, was of course greatly heightened by the
brilliancy of the newly-painted coach, emblazoned with the royal arms.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] No one who has read _Roderick Random_ can forget the novelist's
description of his hero's ride from Scotland to London. As it is
generally believed to be a veritable account of a journey which Smollett
himself made about the middle of the last century, the reader may be of
opinion that the improvement here spoken of was not so great as it might
have been. Roderick, however, travelled in the "_stage-waggon_" of the
period. He and his faithful friend Strap having observed one of these
waggons a quarter of a mile before them, speedily overtook it, and,
ascending by means of the usual ladder, "tumbled into the straw under
the darkness of the tilt," amidst four passengers, two gentlemen and two
ladies. When they arrived at the first inn Captain Weazel desired a room
for himself and his lady, "with a separate supper;" but the impartial
innkeeper replied he "had prepared victuals for the passengers in the
waggon, without respect of persons." Strap walked by the side of the
waggon, changing places with his master when Roderick was disposed to
walk. The mistakes, the quarrels, and the mirth of the passengers, are
told by the novelist with a vivacity and humour which would have been
admirable but for their coarseness. After five days' rumbling in the
straw, the passengers get quite reconciled to each other; "nothing
remarkable happened during the remaining part of our journey, _which
continued six or seven days longer_."
There were also a few bad roads. Arthur Young, in his famous _Tour in
the North of England_, has described a Lancashire turnpike-road of about
the same period in the following vigorous phraseology:--"I know not in
the whole range of language terms sufficiently expressive to describe
this infernal road. To look over a map and perceive that it is a
principal road, one would naturally conclude it to be at least decent;
but let me most seriously caution all travellers who may purpose to
travel this terrible country to avoid it as they would the devil, for a
thousand to one they will break their necks or their limbs by
over-throws or breakings-down. They will here meet with ruts which
actually measured four feet deep and floating with mud, and this only
from a wet summer; what, therefore, must it be after a winter? The only
mending which it in places receives is the tumbling in some loose
stones, which serve no other purpose but jolting a carriage in the most
intolerable manner. These are not merely opinions, but facts, for I
actually passed three carts broken down in these eighteen miles of
execrable memory." The road in question was that between Wigan and
Preston, then a regular post-road and now on the trunk line of mail
conveyance into Scotland.
[52] Chambers' _Traditions of Edinburgh_, vol. i. p. 168.
[53] Baines's _History of Lancashire_, p. 83.
[54] The Bath post was no exception. The letters which left London at
two o'clock on Monday morning did not reach Worcester, Norwich, or
Birmingham till the Wednesday, Exeter not till Thursday, and Glasgow and
Edinburgh for about a week.
[55] _Vide_ Report of the Committee of House of Commons in 1797, on "Mr.
Palmer's Agreement for the Reform and Improvement of the Post-Office and
its Revenue," p. 115.
[56] Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the state of the
Public Offices in 1788.
[57] Post-Office robberies had been exceedingly numerous within a few
years of the change which Palmer succeeded in inaugurating. Though one
prosecution for a single robbery cost the authorities no less a sum than
4,000_l._, yet they regarded the occurrences as unavoidable and simply
matters of course.
[58] Mr. M. D. Hill, in _Fraser's Magazine_, November, 1862.
[59] The Liverpool merchants were the first to petition the Treasury for
the new mail-coach. "This petition being complied with in the course of
a few months, the letters from London reached Liverpool in thirty hours.
At first these coaches were small vehicles, drawn by two horses, which
were changed every six miles. They carried four passengers, besides the
coachman and guard, both dressed in livery, the latter being armed to
the teeth, as a security against highwaymen."--Baines's _History of
Liverpool_. In October, 1784, York applied for a mail-coach, to pass
through that place on its way to the North.
[60] This velocity was not attained without considerable misgivings and
distrust on the part of travellers. When the eight was increased to ten
miles an hour, the public mind was found to be in different stages of
alarm and revolt. Vested interests indulged in the gloomiest forebodings
on those who should thus knowingly spurn the way of Providence.
Lord-Chancellor Campbell relates that he was frequently warned against
travelling in the mail-coaches improved by Palmer, on account of the
fearful rate at which they flew, and instances were supplied to him of
passengers who had died suddenly of apoplexy from the rapidity of the
motion.
[61] Sir Walter Scott relates that a friend of his remembered the London
letter-bag arriving in Edinburgh, during the year 1745, with but one
letter for the British Linen Company. About the same time the Edinburgh
mail is said to have arrived in London, containing but one letter,
addressed to Sir William Pulteney, the banker.
[62] In Ireland, on the contrary, the trade was in the hands of two or
three large contractors, who charged heavily for work only imperfectly
performed. Until the introduction of railways, the mail service of
Ireland, owing to the absurd system adopted, was always worked at a
greater cost, comparatively, than in England. In 1829, the Irish
service, of considerably less extent, cost four times as much as the
entire mail establishment of England. Mr. Charles Bianconi has been the
Palmer of Ireland. In the early part of the present century he observed
the want of travelling accommodation and formed plans for serving the
country by a regular system of passenger-cars. He succeeded in inducing
the different postmasters (who, up to the year 1830, had the conveyance
of mails in their own hands, getting certain allowances for the service
from Government, and then arranging for carriage in the cheapest way
possible) to let him carry their mails. This he did at a cheap rate,
stipulating, however, that he should not be required to run his cars at
any inconvenient time for passenger traffic. On the amalgamation of the
English and Irish Offices in 1830, Mr. Bianconi, who had now established
a good reputation, entered into contracts with the general authorities
to continue the work, though on a larger scale than ever, the extent of
which may be judged by the fact that in 1848 he had 1,400 horses
employed. The growth and extent of railway communication necessarily
affected his establishment, but, with unabated activity, Mr. Bianconi
directed his labours into new districts when his old roads were invaded
by the steam-engine and the rail. He is described to have been "ready at
a moment's notice to move his horses, cars, and men to any district,
however remote, where any chance of business might show itself." A year
or two ago this indefatigable man was still busy, and held several
postal contracts; his establishment (1860) consisting of 1,000 horses,
and between sixty and seventy conveyances, daily travelling 3,000 or
4,000 miles and traversing twenty-two counties.
[63] _Memorials of his Time_, vol. i. p. 341.
[64] Dr. Cleland, in his _Statistical Account of Glasgow_, tells us that
before this time, viz. in 1787, the course of post from London to
Glasgow was by way of Edinburgh, _five_ days in the week. Only five
mails arrived in Glasgow from London on account of no business being
transacted at the Edinburgh Office on Sundays. It now occurred, however,
to some one of the astute managers of the Post-Office, that the _sixth_
mail, which the Sunday regulations of the Edinburgh Office prevented
being passed through that medium, might be sent by the mail-coach to
Carlisle, while a supplementary coach should travel every sixth night
between Carlisle and Glasgow. This was done, and the result was the
saving of an entire day between London and Glasgow. The other mails
continued, as usual, for twelve months longer, it having taken the
authorities the whole of that time to discover that the five mails,
which required _five_ days to reach Glasgow by way of Edinburgh, might,
like the sixth, be carried by way of Carlisle, in _four_ days. Dr.
Cleland, however, does not seem to have perceived that there might be
some other reason for adhering to the old route, such as increased
outlay, &c.
[65] _Life of Robert Owen._ _Written by himself._ London, 1857.
[66] Smiles' _Lives of the Engineers_.
[67] _Ibid._
[68] _History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace_, vol. i. p.
257.
[69] _Ibid._ vol. ii. p. 62.