CHAPTER XIII

THE NINETIES: OR, ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

The spirit of activity which Palmer had infused into the Post Office did

not cease with the cessation of his official career. Those who served

under him had been selected by himself; and they had been selected on

account of qualities which the withdrawal of his dominating influence

was calculated rather to stimulate than to check. These men now came to

the fore, and not only ably sustained their late master's work but

inaugurated important measures of their own.

But before proceeding to chronicle the acts of Palmer's successors, we

propose to give a few particulars which will serve better perhaps than a

mere record of leading events to shew the state of the Post Office at

the time that Palmer left it; and in this relation the project with

which his name is mainly identified shall have precedence.

In 1792 sixteen mail-coaches left London every day, and as many

returned. These were in addition to the cross country mail-coaches, of

which there were fifteen--as, for instance, the coach between Bristol

and Oxford or, as it was commonly called, Mr. Pickwick's coach.[70]

Those leaving London started from the General Post Office in Lombard

Street at eight o'clock in the evening, and they travelled every day,

Sundays included.

[70] Later on, Mr. Pickwick would seem to have extended his operations.

"(Q.) Are you in the habit of working coaches to any great distance from

London? (A.) I work them half-way to Bristol. With Mr. Pickwick of Bath

I work to Newbury."--Evidence of Mr. William Home, taken on the 2nd of

March 1819 before the Select Committee on the Highways of the Kingdom.

There is still extant at the Post Office in St. Martin's-le-Grand the

model of an old mail-coach, as fresh and as perfect as the day it was

painted. This model bears upon its panels four devices--one a cross with

the motto, _Honi soit qui mal y pense_; another a thistle with the

motto, _Nemo me impune lacessit_; a third a shamrock under a star, with

the motto, _Quis separabit?_ (ah! who indeed?); and a fourth, three

crowns with the motto, _Tria juncta in uno_. It is commonly reputed to

be the model of the first mail-coach, and as such we have seen it

represented in foreign publications. We feel constrained in the

interests of truth to expose this fiction. The first mail-coach ran

between Bristol and London. The model bears upon it the words, "Royal

Mail from London to Liverpool." The first mail-coach carried no outside

passengers. The model has places for several passengers outside. The

first mail-coach began to run on Monday the 2nd of August 1784. On the

model, below one of the devices, appears in small yet legible figures

the date 1783. But although certainly not the model of the first

mail-coach, we are by no means sure that it is not still more

interesting. We have little doubt that it is a model which, before

mail-coaches began to run, was prepared for Pitt's inspection.

In 1787, owing to the faulty construction of the original mail-coach and

the wretched materials of which it was made, hardly a day passed without

one or more accidents. Occasionally, indeed, the Post Office would

receive notice of as many as three and even four upsets or breakdowns in

a single morning. Palmer at once discerned the origin of the disease and

the remedy; and the latter he proceeded to apply with his usual

resolution. Having satisfied himself that a patent coach which was being

constructed at this time fulfilled the necessary conditions more

completely than any other, he agreed with the patentee, one Besant by

name, to supply whatever number of coaches might be required. It was a

mere verbal agreement, an agreement confirmed by no writing of any

kind; yet no sooner was it made than Palmer addressed a circular to all

the contractors of the kingdom, reproaching them with the shameful

condition of their coaches. This, he told them, was due to the miserable

sums they gave to the coach-maker, sums so low as to oblige him to use

the most worthless materials; and as to repairs, even if they made him

an allowance for these, it was so inadequate to the continual mending

which vehicles constructed of such materials required that he merely put

in a clip or a bolt where the fracture might happen to be, and then

returned them in as dangerous a condition as before. Such a state of

things, Palmer continued, would no longer be tolerated, and, as fast as

Besant could turn them out, the new patent coaches would be sent down to

replace those that were now in use. For providing them and keeping them

in thorough repair, for which of course the contractors had to pay, the

patentee's terms would be five farthings a mile or 2-1/2d. a mile out

and in. After this summary fashion did Palmer clear the country of the

mail-coaches of original construction.

In 1792 the only mail-coaches on the road were those supplied by Besant.

They were constructed to carry five passengers, four inside and one out.

The coachman was not a Post Office servant; yet he, like the mail guard,

was provided with uniform. The mail guard carried firearms. He carried

also a timepiece; and this timepiece was regulated to gain about fifteen

minutes in twenty-four hours, so that, when travelling eastwards, it

might accord with real time. Of course, in the opposite direction, a

corresponding allowance was made. The mail guard's position was one of

no little responsibility. Not only were the mails under his personal

charge, but he had to see that the coach kept time, that there was no

undue delay for the purpose of obtaining refreshments, that the harness

was in serviceable condition, and, generally, that matters along the

road were conducted with order and propriety. If in any one or more of

these respects there were any defect, it was the mail guard's duty to

report the circumstance. Should the harness be reported as in had

condition, and the contractors fail to replace it on demand, a new set

was sent down from London at their expense; and should a coach

persistently keep bad time, a superintendent from headquarters was

deputed to travel by it until proper time was kept. This was equivalent

to a heavy fine, as the superintendent travelled free, and for the seat

he occupied a passenger would have been charged at the rate of 4d. a

mile. The fees which at this time it was usual to pay to the mail guard

and coachman were moderate enough, only 1s. apiece at the end of the

"ground"; and if the "ground" was less than thirty miles, only 6d. Even

at this rate the gentlemen of Devonshire bitterly complained that

between Exeter and Taunton they had to pay two coachmen.

The chief superintendent of mail-coaches at this time was Thomas Hasker,

a man whose heart and soul were in his duties. Hasker has left behind

him copies of letters written by himself or by his instructions; and

these letters, though expressed in homely language, throw such a flood

of light upon the ways of the road a century ago that we make no apology

for quoting from them. "The Bristol coach," he writes to the postmaster

of Marlborough, "is the fastest in the kingdom, and you must not detain

it for the coach from Bath." Again, to the postmaster of Ipswich he

writes, "Tell Mr. Foster to get fresh horses immediately, and that I

must see him in town next Monday. Shameful work--three hours and

twenty-two minutes coming over his eighteen miles." The Dover coach had

long been keeping bad time. "I must beg you to attend to this directly,"

writes Hasker to the contractors, "or we shall be obliged to put three

fresh guards on the coach, and keep a superintendent constantly up and

down till time is kept." The contractors for another coach had failed to

replace their harness when desired, and a set had been sent down from

London. "The harness," writes the indefatigable superintendent, "cost

fourteen guineas, but as it had been used a few times with the King's

royal Weymouth [coach], you will be charged only twelve, which sum

please to remit to me." Thanks to the widening of the roads, it is only

in thoroughfares more or less crowded that the device can now be

practised to which the following refers: "Your coachman, Pickard, lost

thirty-seven minutes last night coming up, and by so doing he always

hinders the Manchester coach; he leaving Leicester first keeps on

before, and prevents the other coach from passing. This is the case

every night that Pickard comes up."

But it is the instructions to the mail guards which bring home to us

most vividly the ways of the road a hundred years ago. Thus, to the mail

guards on the Exeter coach: "You are not to stop at any place whatever

to leave any letters at, but to blow your horn to give the people notice

that you have got letters for them; therefore, if they do not choose to

come out to receive them, don't you get down from your dicky, but take

them on to Exeter and bring them back with you on your next journey."

And again to the mail guards on another coach: "If the coachman go into

a public-house to drink, don't you go with him and make the stop longer,

but hurry him out." This hurrying out had sometimes to be applied to

passengers, and not always with success. "Sir," writes Hasker to a mail

guard who had complained of the futility of his efforts in this

direction, "stick to your bill, and never mind what passengers say

respecting waiting overtime. Is it not the fault of the landlord to keep

them so long? Some day when you have waited a considerable time (suppose

five or eight minutes longer than is allowed by the bill), drive away

and leave them behind. Only take care that you have witness that you

called them out two or three times. Then let them get forward how they

can. Let the innkeeper [of the house] where they dine know that you have

received this letter."

While thus urged to correct others, the mail guards had sometimes to be

corrected themselves. Fines ranging from 2s. 6d. to 5s. were imposed for

omitting to date the timetable or for dating it wrongly; and on one

occasion an unfortunate guard was fined as much as one guinea because

some bags for which he should have called at the Stafford Post Office

were left behind. Also to delegate one's duties was strictly prohibited.

"It has been reported to Mr. Hasker," writes Hasker's lieutenant, "that

you send your mail to the Post Office by the person called Boots, and do

not go with it yourself. You have been wrote to two or three times

before on this subject. Therefore, if the irregularity be repeated, you

will certainly be discharged." Occasionally advantage would be taken of

a complaint to read a lesson to the complainant. A mail guard had been

reported for impertinence by certain contractors who were notorious for

the indifferent lights with which they supplied their coach. After

replying that he had been severely rebuked for his conduct, Hasker slily

adds, "but perhaps something may be said for the feelings of a guard

that hears the continual complaints of passengers against bad lights and

the disagreeable smell of stinking oil, especially when through such

things the passengers withhold the gratuity which the guards expect."

On the part of the mail guards, however, the commonest irregularity, and

the irregularity most difficult to check, was the carrying of parcels

and of passengers in excess of the prescribed number. "In

consequence"--so runs a general order which was issued about this

time--"of several of the mail guards having been detected in carrying

meat and vegetables in their mail-box to the amount of 150 pounds weight

at a time, the superintendents are desired to take opportunities to meet

the coaches in their district at places where they are least expected,

and to search the boxes to remedy this evil, which is carried to too

great a length. The superintendents," the order proceeds, "will please

to observe that Mr. Hasker does not wish to be too hard on the guards.

Such a thing as a joint of meat or a couple of fowls or any other

article for their own family in moderation he does not wish to debar

them from the privilege of carrying." Truth compels us to add that at

the time to which we refer it was not only meat and vegetables that the

mail guards carried. They carried also game. In later years the country

gentleman was probably the mail guards' best friend, but at the end of

the last century he did not hesitate to charge them with being in league

with poachers, and not infrequently threatened prosecution. The mail-box

indeed was admirably adapted to purposes of secretion. Occupying a part

of the space which even in these early days was known as the boot, it

opened not, as the boot opened, from behind but from the top,

immediately under the mail guard's feet; and no one but himself had

access to it. Constant were the injunctions to the superintendents to

meet the coaches at unexpected places for the purpose of search.

"Search," writes Hasker, "as many mail-boxes as you can, and take away

all game not directed and anything else beyond a joint for the guard's

family, and send it to the chief magistrate to be disposed of for the

benefit of the poor of the parish." The temptation to carry an extra

passenger or two was even greater than to carry parcels. What degree of

indulgence was shewn to this form of irregularity appears to have

depended upon the part of the coach in which the extra seat was

provided. To be detected in carrying a passenger on the mail-box was

certain dismissal.

Although it is not our intention to treat of mail-coaches otherwise than

as vehicles for the transmission of letters, it may perhaps be permitted

to us to pause here a moment and inquire where, at the end of the last

century, the passengers' luggage can have been stowed. Of the boot a

part, as we have seen, was given up to the mail-box; and the roof, upon

which, within our own recollection, the luggage would be piled to nearly

half the height of the coach itself, was forbidden, or almost forbidden,

ground. "To load the roof of the coach," writes Hasker, "with large

heavy baskets would not only be setting a bad example to other coaches,

but in a very short time no passenger would travel with it." "Such a

thing," he adds, "as a turtle tied on the roof directed to any gentleman

once or twice a year might pass unnoticed, but for a constancy cannot be

suffered." This objection to a load on the roof appears to have been

common to the Sovereign and the subject. In 1796 the Court proceeded to

Weymouth; and, as usual, a royal mail was in attendance. The King, who

took the liveliest interest in the performances of this coach, and

examined the way-bill daily, discountenanced roof-loads. The royal

injunctions on this head Hasker, who was a plain-spoken man and no

courtier, conveyed to, his subordinates thus: "Take care not to load the

royal mail too high, and when any of His Majesty's servants travel by it

do not load the roof upward, as you know he ordered that no luggage

should be put on the top when his servants rode, and, indeed, at all

times. Now upwards [_i.e._ on return from Weymouth to Windsor] there can

be no occasion, for there are waggons and other conveyances to bring the

luggage up." The possible use of waggons and other conveyances

notwithstanding, we cannot help thinking that the traveller by coach of

a hundred years ago must have been content with a far smaller quantity

of luggage than would satisfy the traveller of to-day.

That the roof of the coach, whether loaded or not, had its drawbacks for

travellers is sufficiently evident from Hasker's correspondence. "The

York coachman and guard," he writes after a spell of bad weather which

had rotted the roads, "were both chucked from their seats going down to

Huntingdon last journey, and coming up the guard is lost this morning,

supposed from the same cause, as the passengers say he was blowing his

horn just before they missed him."

The King's interest in his mail-coach was not confined to the inspection

of the way-bill. It was usual, before the Court repaired to Weymouth,

for the coach to make a certain number of trial trips, and the King

would go to the castle gates to see it pass. "His Majesty," writes

Hasker, under date the 12th of August 1794, "came down to the park gate

to see the mail-coach the first and second day, and told me he was much

pleased to see it so well done and regular, and that he was glad Mr.

White did not work it." Mr. White had worked it on a previous occasion,

and had not given satisfaction. At the end of each season the King gave

still more practical proof of the interest he took in his coach by

sending thirty guineas for distribution among the mail guards and

coachmen.

But, gratified as Hasker must have been by these marks of royal

condescension, there was one thing which, with his concurrence, even the

King should not do, and that was, detain the mail. Owing to the letters

from the Court being late, the coach, on several successive days, had

not started from Weymouth until after the appointed hour. Chesterfield

was the minister in attendance, and Hasker addressed to him a letter of

respectful remonstrance. Of course he did not know, he said, whether the

mail had been detained by His Majesty or by His Majesty's

postmaster-general; but in either case he prayed it might be considered

how bad an example it was, and what disorder was being introduced into

the service. According to present arrangements, the coach should leave

Weymouth at four in the afternoon. It might be appointed to leave at

five or even six if desired, and yet reach London on the following day

in time for the last delivery; but whatever hour might be fixed, he

adjured his Lordship that it might be observed.

How completely the mail-coach had by this time extinguished the express

may be judged from the following instruction to the packet agent at

Yarmouth:[71] "You will observe the reason why you keep the mail to send

by the mail-coach is that, tho' you detain it four or five hours, it

arrives as soon at the General Post Office as if sent by express, for

the coach travels in sixteen or seventeen hours, and the express in not

less than twenty or twenty-one, sometimes more." Nor is it less

interesting to note the change of sentiment which had recently taken

place as to the importance of despatch. Only a few years before, as we

have seen, the inhabitants of Shrewsbury had been informed that it could

be of no consequence whether their letters arrived four or five hours

sooner or later. Now, in order to accelerate the letters contained in a

single bag, no expense is to be spared. "If," the same instruction

continues, "any mail arrives within an hour after the mail-coach is

gone, perhaps a post-chaise and four might catch it at Ipswich."

[71] The packet agency had been removed from Harwich to Yarmouth during

the war. Yarmouth, by road, is 124 miles from London.

But, to quit details, the broad results were these. Palmer, when

introducing his plan, had promised security and despatch; but not

economy. On the contrary, he had made no secret of his opinion that the

use of mail-coaches would involve a considerable increase of expense.

The result was a surprise even to himself. Before 1784 the annual

allowance for carrying the mails ranged from L4 to L8 a mile, L8 being

paid where the mails were heavy--as, for instance, on the Great North

Road from London as far as Tuxford. In 1792 the terms on which the mails

were carried were exemption from tolls and 1d. a mile each way, or an

annual allowance of a little more than L3 a mile. Palmer had estimated

the total cost of his plan at L30,000 a year. The actual cost only

slightly exceeded L12,000.

Hardly less reason had he to congratulate himself on the score of

security and despatch. Before 1784 scarcely a week passed without the

mails on one road or another being robbed. So great had the scandal

become that the Post Office built a model cart--a cart wholly

constructed of iron and reputed to be robber-proof. This cart had not

long begun to run before it was stopped by highwaymen and rifled of its

contents. In 1792 eight years had passed since the introduction of

Palmer's plan; and during this period not a single mail-coach had been

either stopped or robbed. This immunity from robbery was in more ways

than one equivalent to a further saving. Before 1784 heavy expenses were

incurred annually for prosecutions. One trial alone, a trial which made

no little noise at the time, namely that of the brothers Weston, cost no

less than L4000. This source of expense had now, of course, disappeared.

As regards despatch, before 1784 the post travelled between five and six

miles an hour. In 1792 the mail-coaches were travelling about seven

miles an hour. Telford had not yet levelled the hills nor Macadam paved

the roads; and rollers were unknown. A speed of seven miles an hour at

the end of the last century was probably far more trying to horses than

a speed of ten miles an hour later on.

It would be beyond our province to inquire--interesting as the inquiry

would be--to what extent the exchange of commodities between town and

town dates from the introduction of mail-coaches; and whether it was not

at this period that, with some noted exceptions, the local repute which

certain towns enjoyed for the manufacture of particular articles began

to spread. Ours is a humbler purpose; or we might be tempted even to

contend that Palmer's plan, by the facilities it afforded for

intercourse, exercised an influence--slow it may be, but none the less

sure--upon the habits and condition of the people.

We will illustrate our meaning. Before the introduction of mail-coaches

in 1784 the town of Penzance in Cornwall was not indeed without a post;

but the post it possessed was hardly worthy of the name. In 1790 letters

were conveyed there by cart from Falmouth regularly six days a week.

Now, of the condition of Penzance not many years before the earlier of

these two dates we are informed on unimpeachable authority. "I have

heard my mother relate," writes Sir Humphry Davy's brother and

biographer, "that when she was a girl[72] there was only one cart in the

town of Penzance, and that if a carriage occasionally appeared in the

streets it attracted universal attention. Pack-horses were then in

general use for conveying merchandise, and the prevailing manner of

travelling was on horseback. At that period the luxuries of furniture

and living enjoyed by people of the middle class at the present time

were confined almost entirely to the great and wealthy; in the same

town, where the population was about 2000 persons, there was only one

carpet, the floors of rooms were sprinkled with sea-sand, and there was

not a single silver fork. The only newspaper which then circulated in

the west of England was the _Sherborne Mercury_, and it was carried

through the country not by the post but by a man on horseback specially

employed in distributing it." Penzance can never be otherwise than a

most interesting town; but one finds it difficult to believe that, after

being brought into communication with the outside world on six days of

the week, it can long have retained its pristine charm and simplicity.

[72] Mrs. Davy was born in 1760.

Let us now see what, at the time of Palmer's retirement, was the

condition of the country Post Offices. Bristol, after long ranking next

to London in wealth and population, had yielded place to other towns.

Foremost among these stood Manchester. Manchester, following suit to the

capital, had recently numbered its streets; it was publishing local

directories; and it enjoyed the reputation of being, the capital itself

not excepted, the dearest town in the kingdom. At the present time the

Post Office at Manchester gives employment to about 1400 persons. In

1792, with the exception of a single letter-carrier, the whole of the

Post Office business there was conducted by an aged widow assisted by

her daughter. Dame Willatt had recently achieved some little local

notoriety. She had, as an inducement to persons to post early, imposed a

late-letter fee. For this proceeding, not at that time uncommon and not

disapproved at headquarters, she had been summoned to the Court of the

Lord of the Manor, and had been cast in damages.

Bath enjoyed a double distinction, a distinction due less probably to

its population as compared with that of other towns than to the fact

that, being Palmer's native place, it was constantly under his eye as it

had been under the eye of Ralph Allen before. This highly-favoured town

was, outside London, the only one in the kingdom which could boast of

what, with any regard to the meaning of words, could be dignified by the

name of a Post Office Establishment; and the postmaster's salary was in

excess of that which any other postmaster received. This salary was L150

a year, and the establishment, over which Ralph Allen's successor

presided, consisted of one clerk and three letter-carriers.

No other town had more than one letter-carrier; and many towns had not

even this. Whether the accommodation was provided or not appears to have

depended less upon the necessities of the place than upon the

disposition of the inhabitants. Thus, the little towns of Sandwich in

Kent and Hungerford in Berkshire, in recognition of the gallant conflict

they had waged with the authorities, had each a letter-carrier of its

own, while Norwich, York, Derby, Newcastle, and Plymouth had none.

Besides Bath only four towns received an allowance for a clerk or

assistant, namely Manchester, Norwich, York, and Leeds. Elsewhere the

postmaster and a letter-carrier, if letter-carrier there was, were the

sole Post Office representatives.

At Bristol the postmaster's salary was L140,--the next highest after

that given at Bath. At Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Chester

the salary was L100; at Exeter, York, Newcastle, Leeds, and Plymouth

L80; at Sheffield L60, to which amount it had been recently raised from

L50; at Derby, Carlisle, and Gloucester L40; at Brighton and Nottingham

L30; at Leicester L25; and at Southampton L20. At Tunbridge the

postmaster, in addition to a salary of L20, received an allowance of

equal amount for keeping an office at Tunbridge Wells. Ripon, despite

the rebuke it had received in 1713 for its audacity in asking for a Post

Office, had now been accommodated with one. At Chepstow pence were still

being paid on the delivery of letters, not because the inhabitants had

not discovered their rights but out of consideration to the aged

postmistress, whose emoluments they were unwilling to diminish.

Birkenhead, Torquay, and Bournemouth,[73] of course, did not exist.

Eastbourne existed indeed, but not as we know it now. Hither the letters

were carried three times a week from Lewes. At Ramsgate, then a village

served from the neighbouring post-town of Sandwich, an office for the

receipt of letters was kept at a cost of L6 a year. The whole of the

Isle of Wight had but one postmaster and one letter-carrier. To the

Channel Islands there was no post.

[73] As late as 1854 Bournemouth received its letters from Poole by

donkey and cart.

On Palmer's retirement the office of chief adviser to the

postmasters-general devolved almost naturally upon Francis Freeling, the

surveyor located at headquarters. Todd still held the appointment of

secretary, but after a service of more than fifty years he was unequal

to the exertion which the exigencies of the time required. Between Todd

and Walsingham, moreover, there was little in common. Their relations,

indeed, had always been most friendly; but the views they entertained on

Post Office questions were more often than not at variance. "It is a

matter of great entertainment to me," wrote Walsingham, as early as

October 1788, "to see how totally we differ in all our official

opinions." From this time Todd took less and less part in the duties of

his office, and confined himself almost exclusively to its social

amenities. This was a sphere in which he excelled. At his table in

Lombard Street the postmasters-general themselves and such as they might

choose to meet them were frequent guests, and "his old hock in his old

parlour" passed into a by-word.

Freeling, on the contrary, possessed advantages which not only pointed

him out as Todd's successor when Todd should be pleased to retire, but

peculiarly fitted him to deal with the circumstances of the moment. In

the prime of life, of good address and prepossessing appearance, and

with a knowledge of every detail of Post Office organisation such as

only constant visits to different parts of the kingdom could give, he

soon contrived to make himself not only useful but indispensable; and

before any long period had expired the postmasters-general appointed him

joint secretary with Todd, an arrangement by virtue of which one was to

be the acting and the other the sleeping partner; one was to do the work

and the other to draw the pay. It was new to the postmasters-general to

have about them some one who was not only able but willing and anxious

to impart information on every official question as it arose, and they

could ill conceal their glee at the altered state of affairs. "One of

the complaints made by us of Mr. Palmer," they wrote about this time,

"was that he did what he thought fit without making the least

communication to the Board, or without there being a single record of

anything which he did or objected to either before or after it was

done"; ... but "Mr. Freeling reports distinctly to us upon every

application that we refer to him, or that is made to the Board,

amounting to above two hundred reports every quarter for the current

business." Freeling was now exposed to a serious danger, a danger to

which many a reputation has succumbed, namely, that of being transformed

from a man of action into a mere scribe; but this was a temptation which

he stoutly resisted. Without relaxing his efforts to maintain and

improve upon Palmer's plan, he was careful not only to keep the

postmasters-general informed of what he was doing, but to do nothing

which had not first been duly authorised.

The period immediately following Palmer's retirement was one rather of

honest endeavour than of solid achievement. The first and most pressing

question to arise was that of insufficiency of accommodation at

headquarters. The inland office, this being the office in which the

mails were made up for despatch, was not only close and ill-ventilated,

but altogether too small for its purpose. More post-towns were required

in various parts of the kingdom; but it was impossible to add to the

number of towns for which bags would have to be made up until more space

should be provided. Some persons thought it would be best at once to

take a step which in any case would probably have to be taken in the not

remote future, and to build a new Post Office on other and more

extensive premises. Such, however, was not the opinion of the

postmasters-general. They were naturally unwilling to advocate the heavy

expenditure which such a measure would involve except upon proof of its

absolute necessity. Mainly on this ground, but also partly because

premises in so central and convenient a position as those which the

present Post Office occupied were not to be had, authority was sought

and obtained for nothing more than the erection of a new inland office.

But, as the postmasters-general found to their cost, it is one thing to

obtain an authority and another thing to carry it into effect. On part

of the ground on which the office was to be erected stood two houses,

the lease of which had not long to run; and the Drapers' Company, to

whom the property belonged, declined to extend the term. This difficulty

was at length overcome, and the houses were in course of demolition,

when projecting into the very centre of the space designed for the new

office was found the wall of an old house belonging to Sir Charles

Watson, and this house he refused to let the Post Office have unless it

would also take seven other houses which he possessed in the immediate

neighbourhood. At the present time houses in and about Abchurch Lane

would probably fetch twenty-five years' purchase. Fifteen years'

purchase was the sum then demanded, and it was considered a hard

bargain. Eventually Watson consented to grant a ninety-nine years'

lease; but it was a lease not only of the single house that the Post

Office wanted, but of all eight houses, seven of which it did not want.

What they called their mortifications and disappointments at an end, the

postmasters-general proceeded to build.

Still more unsatisfactory was the result of an attempt that was made or

intended to be made about this time to improve the post with the

Continent. Communication with France was only twice a week, and

Walsingham desired to treble it. In France, as in England, the post went

to the water's edge on six days of the week, and he could see no reason

why, except on two days, it should stop there. He entertained a strong

opinion that between the two countries communication should be daily.

There was also another matter to be settled with our neighbours. During

a period of sixty-six years, namely, from 1713 to 1779, the postage on a

single letter between London and Paris had been 10d.; and, to avoid the

keeping of accounts, this sum had been collected and retained by the

Post Office of the country in which the letter was delivered. In 1779,

when owing to the war communication between Dover and Calais was

stopped, letters from Paris reached England through Flanders, and on

these letters when put into the post in Paris a charge of 4d. was made

in addition to the 10d. to be paid on delivery in London. It had been

thought that in 1783, on the termination of the war, this charge would

be abandoned, and that the old postage of 10d. would be resumed. Such,

however, was not the case. The Post Office authorities in France adhered

to the 4d. charge and defended it. The old postage of 10d., they argued,

was all very well when they had no packets of their own and England

performed the sea service. But now France had her own packets, and the

distance between Paris and Calais being far greater than between London

and Dover, it could not in reason be expected that on a letter between

the two capitals she would be content with no higher postage than that

which England received. The charge of 4d. upon letters for London when

put into the post in Paris must be maintained, even though they no

longer went through Flanders. It was a matter of internal regulation

with which England had no concern. Without contesting this view of the

case, the home authorities regarded the 4d. charge as a most vexatious

impost. Not only had it the effect of diminishing the correspondence,

but many of the letters which still passed were carried by private hand

from Paris to Dover and there posted, so that the British Post Office

received upon them only 4d. apiece, this being the postage from Dover to

London, instead of 10d., the postage from Paris. In 1787 Palmer had, by

Pitt's direction, gone over to France in order to adjust the matter and

to promote a six days' post between the two countries; but he returned

without effecting either object.

Circumstances now appearing more favourable, Walsingham determined to

make fresh overtures. An emissary had already been selected for the

purpose, and was on the eve of departure when a new and unexpected

difficulty arose; the merchants of London, to whom the intention to

increase the frequency of communication with France had become known,

met to protest against the project. A hundred years before they would

have gone to the Post Office, talked the matter over with the

postmasters-general, and, after an exchange of opinions, an agreement

would have been come to as to what was best to be done. Now they

assembled in their numbers at the London Tavern and resolved "that any

addition to the present number of post days to France or to any other

part of the Continent is unnecessary, and would be highly inconvenient

and injurious to the merchants of London." The resolution was unanimous,

and copies were sent to the postmasters-general and the minister. For

the merchants of London Walsingham entertained a sincere respect; but in

this particular matter, convinced that they did not know what was for

their own good, he determined to proceed in their despite. Unhappily,

however, at this conjuncture the resumption of hostilities with France

extinguished for the time all hopes of improved communication with the

Continent.

Another project, in which the Post Office and the merchants possessed a

common interest and a common desire, was also doomed to failure. The

practice of cutting bank notes into two parts and sending one part by

one post and another by another had now become general. The expedient,

though efficacious, was a costly one. A letter with an enclosure,

however light, paid double postage; and double postage between two

places no farther apart than London and Birmingham was 10d. To send two

halves of a bank note each in a separate letter would, of course, cost

twice that amount. This was a heavy insurance to pay. The Post Office,

in its desire not to discourage a practice which diminished temptation

to dishonesty, was hardly less anxious than the merchants themselves

that the amount should be reduced. Accordingly Walsingham proposed that

in all cases where a bank note was sent by two separate posts the second

letter, that is to say, the letter containing the second half, should,

on proof being given of its contents, be charged with only single

postage. A notice to the public announcing the change had already been

prepared when he learnt to his chagrin that the proposed regulation

would be illegal. In the case of a letter with an enclosure the law

prescribed double postage, and it was no more in the power of the Post

Office to reduce the amount than to forego it altogether.

But these were failures which it is only interesting to record as

evidence that at the Post Office, after Palmer had left it, there was no

want of directing energy or of a desire to study the interests of the

public. It is pleasant to turn to matters in respect to which good

intentions were not unattended with results. But before leaving 1792,

the year in which these disappointments occurred, we must not omit to

notice that it was at the end of this year that the letter-carriers were

for the first time put into uniform. Palmer, who was now playing the

part of the outside critic, condemned the innovation as a piece of

unnecessary extravagance. But Palmer did not know the reasons for it.

The letter-carriers when in private clothes were exposed to temptation

from which the wearing of uniform would protect them; and more than one

recent case had brought the fact into painful prominence. Nor can it be

denied that, so long as there was no distinctive dress, letter-carriers

in want of a holiday were a little apt to take one without permission,

supplying their place by persons of whose character they knew little or

nothing. It was in order to check irregularity of this kind and as a

means of protection to themselves and the public that uniform was now

introduced. The uniform consisted of a scarlet cloth coat with blue

lapels and blue linings of padua; a blue cloth waistcoat, and a hat with

gold band.

It should also be noticed that about this time the Post Office servants

in London were in some measure relieved from the pecuniary cares by

which they had long been oppressed. The Commissioners of Inquiry in

their Report of 1788 had recommended for the Post Office a new

establishment; and now, after an interval of nearly five years, this

establishment was approved by the King in Council. The new salaries were

not high. At the present time they would be considered low; but such as

they were, they were higher than the salaries they replaced. Jamineau's

recent death, moreover, by relieving the clerks of the roads from

payment of the commission[74] which this officer received on all

newspapers with which they dealt, enabled them to reduce their price for

franking, the result being an immediate extension of sale. On the whole,

the Post Office servants in London were, at this time, in comparatively

comfortable circumstances, or at all events above the reach of actual

want. The starvation and bankruptcy with which they had at one time been

threatened had been staved off by a grant, which Pitt renewed year after

year while the Commissioners' Report was under consideration. This grant

amounted to L3000, of which L2000 were for distribution in the sorting

office, and L1000 in the other offices.

[74] This was a commission of three halfpence on every dozen newspapers,

besides one newspaper in every quire.

The year 1793 was signalised by a remarkable development of the penny

post. This institution, which had as yet been established nowhere but in

London and in Dublin, was now to be extended to Edinburgh, to

Manchester, to Bristol, and to Birmingham. In Edinburgh the ground had

been to some extent preoccupied. The keeper of a coffee-house in the

hall of the Parliament House had sixteen years before set up an office

from which letters were delivered throughout the city at 1d. apiece; and

this office still remained open and prospered. To compare Williamson's

undertaking with Dockwra's would be to compare a mouse with an elephant;

and yet it may not be uninteresting to note the different treatment

which the two men received. Dockwra was prosecuted, fined, and his

undertaking confiscated. Williamson was granted a pension. "We have

also," write the postmasters-general under date the 19th of July 1793,

"to beg your Lordship's permission to authorise us to allow to Mr.

Williamson of Edinburgh L25 per annum, he having long had the profits of

1d. a letter on certain letters forwarded through his receiving house at

Edinburgh, which he will lose by our having established a penny post

there. We have made it a rule," they add, "always to propose that those

who suffer in their incomes from regulations which are certainly

beneficial to the public should receive compensation for the loss they

sustain."

At Manchester the establishment of the penny post followed upon other

and important alterations. The inhabitants of that town had long

complained of the inadequacy of their postal arrangements; and measures

had recently been taken, the very extent of which serves to shew how

serious must have been the defects which they were designed to supply.

The aged postmistress was granted a pension of L120, with the reversion

of one-third of that amount to her daughter; and in her room an active

postmaster was appointed at a salary of L300. Four clerks were at the

same time appointed, at salaries ranging from L50 to L100, and five

additional letter-carriers, making six altogether, at wages of 12s. a

week. Thus, Manchester suddenly found itself in possession of a Post

Office establishment with which, outside London, that of no other town

in the kingdom could compare. As a sequel to this important extension of

force a penny post was opened in July 1793; and no sooner had the boon

been conferred upon Manchester than it was extended to Bristol and to

Birmingham.

It is interesting to note what at these three towns was the financial

effect of giving postal facilities. During the year 1794-95 the penny

post brought a clear gain to the revenue--in Manchester, of L586; in

Bristol, of L469; and in Birmingham, of L240. It is a curious fact that,

with this experience to guide them and with an anxious desire to extend

the system, the Post Office authorities, after sparing no pains to

inform themselves on the subject, came to the conclusion that neither

at Liverpool nor at Leeds nor at any other town in England would a penny

post defray its own expenses.

But it was in London that the penny post attained its highest

development. This branch of Post Office business had long been

shamefully neglected. Of the officers concerned in it those above the

rank of sorter were only three in number--a comptroller, an accountant,

and a collector. Of these the collector attended only occasionally, and

the accountant and comptroller not at all. This neglect had its natural

effect upon the receipts. During the last twenty years and more,

notwithstanding the increase which had during this period taken place in

the population and trade of the metropolis, the revenue of the penny

post had remained almost stationary. Up to 1789 the highest sum it had

ever produced in one year was L5157 net. This was in 1784, and for the

five following years the receipts went on decreasing until, attention

having been called to the decline, there was a sudden rebound. In 1792

the revenue was--gross L10,825, and net L5561.

Palmer, who was well aware of the discreditable condition into which the

Penny Post Office had fallen, proposed to take it in farm, and offered

as a consideration to forego his salary and percentage; but this was a

proposal the acceptance of which was strongly deprecated by the

Commissioners of Inquiry who sat in 1788 no less than by the

postmasters-general. It was their unanimous opinion that the penny post

should be retained in the hands of the State. Palmer, still clinging to

the hope that other counsels might prevail, put off effecting

improvements which would afford the strongest arguments against the

adoption of his own proposal; and in 1793, in spite of the changes which

had been going on all around, the Penny Post Office remained much as it

had been during the last twenty years.

The man who now took the reform of the penny post in hand was Edward

Johnson. Johnson was a letter-carrier. He had been appointed by Palmer

or on Palmer's recommendation; and he soon gave proof of more than

ordinary ability. Palmer not infrequently exposed him to a severe

ordeal. When unable or unwilling to attend the postmasters-general

himself, he would send Johnson in his stead, a substitution which they

resented as unseemly; and thus some little prejudice had been excited

against him. This prejudice, however, had disappeared with the cause of

it, and Johnson now stood high, deservedly high, in the

postmaster-generals' favour.

In 1793, in addition to the numerous receiving houses where letters for

the penny post might be taken in, there were in London five principal

offices--one known as the chief Penny Post Office, and situated in

Throgmorton Street, opposite Bartholomew Lane; another called the

Westminster Penny Post Office, and situated in Coventry Street,

Haymarket; a third, the Hermitage Office in Queen Street, Little Tower

Hill; a fourth, the Southwark Office in St. Saviour's Churchyard,

Borough; and a fifth, the St. Clement's Office, in Blackmore Street.

Between these five offices there was little or no connection; at no two

of them were the number of collections or deliveries the same or the

hours at which they were made; the letter-carriers were altogether too

few for the ground which they had to cover, so that punctuality and

despatch were impossible; and even those whose walks lay near the

ten-mile limit, before proceeding to deliver their letters, had to come

to London to fetch them.

Johnson proposed to change all this. He proposed to reduce the number of

principal offices from five to two, retaining only the chief office and

the office in Coventry Street; to increase the number of collections and

deliveries; to give the same number to all parts served by the penny

post, namely, six in the town and three in the suburbs, or, as the

suburbs were then called, "the country," and everywhere, as far as

possible, to observe the same hours; to post these hours up in every

receiving house, so that the public might be made acquainted with them

and act as a check upon their being observed; and, instead of requiring

the letter-carriers in the remoter parts to come to London for their

letters, to send their letters to them by mounted messengers.

Johnson's last proposal, though following almost naturally from what had

gone before, well-nigh staggered the postmasters-general. It was that,

in order to carry his plan into effect, the number of penny post

letter-carriers should be more than doubled. The existing number was

eighty-two, and the number which Johnson proposed was 181. This, even at

the present time--large as are the numbers with which the Post Office

has been accustomed to deal--would be considered a heavy, an

exceptionally heavy, increase. In 1793 it was regarded as portentous,

and the postmasters-general anxiously sought means to reduce it; but

Johnson, besides being perfect master of his subject, possessed two

faculties which by no means always go together. He possessed the faculty

of devising a good scheme and the faculty of explaining it; and the

lucid explanation he now gave convinced the postmasters-general that

they could not do better than adopt his plan in its entirety.

Contrasting the time which a letter took to pass between various parts

of London with the time which it would take if his suggestions were

adopted, Johnson had no difficulty in shewing that from his plan the

public would derive facilities for intercourse to which they had

hitherto been strangers.

There were, perhaps, no two places between which the course of post was

more difficult to manage than Marylebone and Limehouse. Under the

existing plan a letter from one of these two places, however early it

might be posted, might not reach the other on the same day, and, even if

it did so, an answer could not be received before the afternoon of the

following day. Under Johnson's plan a letter might be received, an

answer returned, and the answer answered, all on the same day. Places

less inconveniently situated in relation to each other were to receive a

still larger measure of benefit. Between persons residing in Lombard

Street and the Haymarket, for instance, five letters might pass to and

fro between the hours of eight in the morning and seven in the evening.

This was within the town limits. Within the country limits the general

effect of Johnson's plan may be stated thus: that to letters from London

answers might be returned sooner by two posts if the letters were for

places not more than five miles distant, and, if for places distant

between five and ten miles, sooner by a period ranging from one to three

days. The last-mentioned places, moreover, were to have three posts a

day instead of one post.

Pitt was no less favourably impressed with Johnson's plan than the

postmasters-general were; but before sanctioning it he resolved to await

the passing of an Act for the redress of certain anomalies, or what were

considered to be anomalies, in the practice of the penny post. This Act

was passed in 1794; and immediate steps were taken for carrying the plan

into effect. A proud day for Johnson must have been the 8th of

September. On that day a public notice appeared announcing the changes

that were about to take place; and this notice bore his signature. Only

the other day he had been a letter-carrier, and now, by reason of a

promotion which did hardly more honour to himself than to the

postmasters-general who made it, he signed as deputy-comptroller of the

Penny Post Office.

The financial results of Johnson's plan exceeded all expectation. For

the last year of the old system the gross revenue of the penny post was

L11,000. For the first year of the new system it was L28,560; and for

the second year L29,623. Johnson had proceeded on the principle--a

principle which from the first establishment of the Post Office has

never yet been known to fail--increase facilities for correspondence and

correspondence itself increases.

Johnson had made one mistake, a mistake which he frankly acknowledged

and did his best to repair. He had fixed the wages of the

letter-carriers too low. It was not that he had been indifferent to the

interests of the class from which he had recently emerged, but that he

had feared to overweight a measure which, even as it stood, he had

almost despaired of carrying. The wages, as fixed on his

recommendation, ranged from 9s. to 16s. a week. Then came that terrible

winter--the winter of 1794-95. We have ourselves been witness to an

excessive absence from duty on the part of Post Office servants during

the epidemic of influenza in 1890. But the number that were absent then,

relatively to the whole force, were not to be compared to the number

that were absent in the spring of 1795; neither was their absence due to

so grievous a cause.

In the spring of 1795 the penny post letter-carriers, unlike the

letter-carriers of the general post, had not yet been supplied with

uniform, and, through sheer inability to supply themselves with such

articles of clothing and of food as the severity of the weather

required, nearly one-half of the whole number were unable to follow

their employment. Johnson took great blame to himself for what he had

done; nor did he rest until he had procured for the letter-carriers a

substantial increase all round. This increase ranged from about 2s. to

6s. a week for each man, and involved a total cost of L1600 a year. Also

in matters of detail Johnson effected several improvements, of which we

will mention only one. The receptacle for letters at the receiving

houses in London had hitherto been an open and movable box. The box was

now, on his recommendation, to be fixed and provided with a key. The key

was to be kept by the receiver, and he alone was to have access to the

letters.

The Act of 1794 contained provisions which it is impossible to pass

unnoticed. The penny post from its first establishment in 1681 had

differed from the general post in this--that letters sent by it had to

be prepaid. By the general post prepayment had not indeed been

prohibited, but it had been discouraged; by the penny post it had been

compulsory. This was now altered, and it was left to the option of

persons using the penny post whether they would prepay their letters or

not. It is difficult to repress a pang at the disappearance of a

provision to which Dockwra, the founder of the penny post, attached the

highest importance; and yet it must be admitted that the change was not

made without a reason. Messengers and servants entrusted with letters

to post would destroy the letters for the sake of the pence which had

been given them to pay the postage; and to such an extent had the abuse

been carried that some persons made it a rule not to use the penny post

at all unless they could post their own letters.

Another provision of the Act of 1794 was to relax a restriction imposed

by the Act of Anne. Before 1711 the penny post had been so extended as

to include many places distant from London as much as eighteen and

twenty miles. Then came the Act of Anne, restricting the penny post to a

circuit of ten miles. And now the ten-mile limit was abolished, and the

postmasters-general were empowered, not in London alone but also in

country towns wherever the penny post might be established, to extend it

at their discretion.

A third provision of the Act of 1794 was designed to correct what was

considered a flaw in a previous Act. It is interesting to note what this

flaw was. When Dockwra established his post, he insisted that on letters

going by it the postage should be 1d. and no more. This penny, however,

in the case of letters for places situated beyond the bills of

mortality, was to carry only to the receiving house; for delivery at a

private house was to be paid a second penny, commonly called the

delivery-penny. The Act of Anne merely provided that letters by the

penny post should be charged 1d., and was silent on the subject of the

second or delivery-penny; and a subsequent Act, passed in 1731, made the

delivery-penny legal.

Now what was the consequence of all this? The consequence was that as

between two letters, the one passing from London to a place outside the

bills of mortality and the other passing from a place outside the bills

of mortality to London, there was a difference of postage. In the one

direction the postage was 2d. and in the other 1d. The Act of 1794

imposed a postage of 2d. in both directions; and here we see not indeed

the origin of the twopenny post but the twopenny post fully established.

The reform of the penny post was soon followed by that of the dead

letter office. This office was established in 1784. How, before that

year, dead letters were treated is perhaps one of the obscurest points

of Post Office practice. We know that letters which could not be

delivered and letters which had been missent were always treated

together. We know that in 1716 these letters had become so numerous that

an officer was specially appointed to check them. We know that to Ralph

Allen, fertile as he was in resources, how to deal with this class of

letters was a constant source of perplexity. We know that Todd, writing

to Foxcroft, the deputy postmaster-general of America, in February 1775,

says: "Amongst other regulations made here of late the dead, refused,

and unknown letters returned to this office have been opened by the

proper officers, and returned to the writers"; but without adding who

"the proper officers" were. And we know that as late as 1783 there was

in London a letter-carrier whose special duty it was to "take care of

the unknown and uncertain letters."

But when we have stated this, we have stated all. Whether there was any

recognised mode of dealing with dead letters, or whether any one into

whose hands these letters came dealt with them as he judged best,

according to circumstances, are questions upon which we have absolutely

no information. In 1784 only a part of the dead letters and letters that

had been missent went to the newly-created dead letter office. Another

and larger part, consisting of bye-letters or letters that in the

ordinary course would not reach London, were dealt with in the

bye-letter office. No letter was returned to the writer until after the

expiration of six months, and on its return no postage was charged. In

1790 Palmer reduced from six months to two the period before which

letters were returned, and on his own motion, without reference to the

postmasters-general, charged them with postage. Grave doubts were

entertained as to the legality of this charge, and Pitt, as soon as he

heard of it, ordered it to be discontinued.

In 1793 Barlow, a clerk in the secretary's office, who had charge of the

dead letter office, introduced two changes of practice which, obvious

as they may now appear, were then regarded as evidence of no little

merit. He arranged that missent letters, instead of being sent to London

to be dealt with in the dead letter office, should be forwarded to their

destination from the place where the missending was discovered; and

also--a change which gave great satisfaction in naval and military

circles--that letters for the army and navy should be sent where the

army and navy were known to be, and not to stations and quarters which

they were known to have left simply because the letters were addressed

there.

About the same time the dead letter office received most valuable help

in the discharge of its duties from the publication of what was,

virtually, the first County Directory. For some years past three Post

Office servants had been engaged in compiling a list of all the names

and addresses they could collect throughout the different counties of

England. This list, though still far from complete, now filled six large

folio volumes. The venture which had been undertaken with a view to

profit was financially a failure; but as a means of helping to forward

letters with imperfect addresses it proved an unqualified success.

Thus matters stood in 1795, when Barlow proposed a further reform. The

inspector of the "bye, dead, and missent letters," as they were called,

had neglected his duties. These letters were not sent to London until

they had lain for three months in the country offices, and after their

arrival he had suffered a still longer period to elapse before

proceeding to dispose of them. Barlow now proposed that these letters

also should be placed under his control, and the proposal being

approved, the dead letter office began to assume the shape in which,

though under another name, we know it to-day. To the general practice

one exception was made. On the first opening of penny post offices in

country towns many letters could not be delivered on account of their

imperfect addresses. The novelty and cheapness of the post, it may well

be believed, induced persons to use it who possessed little skill in

writing, and no knowledge of the mode in which superscriptions should be

prepared. It was a duty imposed on the surveyor who was engaged in

establishing the post to open these letters and return them to the

writers on the spot.

Another office was established about this time, an office for dealing

with the American and West Indian letters. The merchants had recently

complained that these letters were continually missent, letters for one

of the West India Islands being sent to another, and letters for places

served from Halifax being sent to Quebec and _vice versa_. The truth is

that until lately some profit had been derived from the sorting of these

letters; and the most experienced officers, who knew the circulation

abroad almost as well as they knew the circulation at home, had been

glad to sort them. The comptroller of the inland department--for,

curiously enough, it was there and not in the foreign department that

the letters were dealt with--had received one guinea a night and the

clerks 5s. a night for dealing with them; but these unauthorised

additions to salaries had now been stopped, and the West Indian and

American mails were left to be sorted, just as any other mails were

sorted, by seniors and juniors in common.

It was impossible that mistakes should not occur. To assist in the

disposal of inland mails there were what were called circulation lists,

lists shewing to what towns letters for particular places were to be

sent; but in the case of the American and West Indian mails there were

no such aids to inexperience, and the letters were to a large extent

sent haphazard. Freeling now altered this. He procured from abroad

circulation lists corrected to the latest date. Four experienced

officers were selected, who were made specially responsible for the West

Indian and American correspondence; they were to devote to it two hours

a night over and above their ordinary hours; and for this extra

attendance they were each to receive a special allowance of L30 a year.

Freeling's last safeguard is interesting as shewing what may be done

with a limited correspondence. Two books were to be kept, of which one

was to be reserved for Government letters. In this book were to be

entered the date on which each individual letter was posted, the date on

which it was forwarded to Falmouth, and the name of the packet by which

it was despatched. The second book was, in Freeling's own words, "to

contain observations of different kinds to enable the clerks the better

to satisfy the merchants applying for information" respecting the

letters they had posted. It would perhaps be hardly an exaggeration to

say that between England on the one hand and America and the West Indies

on the other there are at the present time more sackfuls of letters

passing than there were single letters one hundred years ago.

About the same time, but a little later, an important change took place

in the treatment of letters arriving from the East Indies in the ships

of the East India Company. These letters came to the India House in

boxes addressed to the directors, and so escaped all but the inland

postage. Some of them indeed did not pay even that, for if addressed to

persons in or near London they were delivered by the Company's servants,

who charged and retained as their own perquisite a fee varying from 2s.

6d. to 10s. 6d. on each letter. The practice was of old date, as old

probably as the East India Company itself, and was held to be not

illegal. It is true that a vessel was forbidden under a penalty of L20

to break bulk or to make entry into port until all letters brought by

the master or his company should be delivered to some agent of the

postmasters-general; but both the captain and the directors were held to

be exempt from liability under this provision, the captain because he

was presumably ignorant of what the boxes contained, and the directors

because the penalty attached to the captain and not to them.

The legality of the practice not being contested, nothing remained but

to make overtures to the directors; and, on this being done, they

readily consented that for the future all letters arriving by their

ships, except such as were for themselves and their friends, should be

forthwith sent to the Post Office to be dealt with as ship letters. The

public derived no little advantage from the change. The postage from

India was actually less than what the company's servants had been

accustomed to exact as fees; and the letters were now delivered at once,

whereas the company's servants would seldom deliver them under three or

four days after their arrival at the India House, and sometimes not for

a whole month.

Contemporaneously with the Act of Parliament regulating the penny post

was passed another establishing a post to the Channel Islands. This was

essentially a war post, a post which, except for the war between England

and France, might have been postponed far into the present century.

Hitherto letters for the Channel Islands had been charged with postage

only as far as Southampton, and from Southampton they had been carried

to their destination by private boat. Again and again had the Post

Office been urged by those who wanted employment for their vessels to

establish a line of packets to the islands; but to all such overtures

the postmasters-general turned a deaf ear. Boats were passing to and fro

regularly four or five times a week, and the owners of these boats were

ready and glad to carry the letters for the ship-letter postage of 1d. a

letter. Why then, it was asked, should the Post Office be at the expense

of maintaining a line of packets which, unless it were put on a footing

out of all proportion to the importance of the service, would give

absolutely less accommodation than that which existed already?

Thus matters stood when war broke out and all communication with the

islands was stopped. Even now the postmasters-general had grave doubts

as to the propriety of establishing a line of packets. It was true that

the correspondence with the Channel Islands was considerable. During the

year 1792 the number of letters on which ship-letter postage had been

paid was 21,570, namely, 20,070 at Southampton and 1500 at Dartmouth and

other ports on the south coast--making, on the assumption that the

letters were as many in the opposite direction, a total correspondence

for the year of about 43,000 letters.

And yet there were serious considerations on the other side. Unless an

Act of Parliament were passed providing a packet rate of postage between

the mainland and the islands, the Post Office would have no exclusive

right of carrying the letters, and the moment the war ceased the packets

might be deserted in favour of the private boats. If, on the other hand,

such an Act were passed, popular as the measure might be while the war

lasted, it could not fail to be unpopular as soon as the war ceased.

Private boats would then be an illegal means of conveyance, and

correspondence would be restricted to the packets, however few these

might be in number, and however wide the intervals between the

despatches.

Another expedient remained, but this was one which had been tried during

the last war, and the postmasters-general were not prepared to repeat

it. The _Express_ packet, Captain Sampson, belonging to the Dover

station, had been temporarily detached to Southampton to keep

communication with the Channel Islands open. As some set-off against the

cost, the Post Office had counted upon saving the ship-letter pence; but

here again the want of an authorised packet postage made itself felt.

Sampson, though in receipt of a salary and at no expense for the boat he

commanded, claimed and received the ship-letter pence, the

postmasters-general regarding themselves apparently as legally

incompetent to resist the demand. Without denying that a line of packets

might be necessary for purposes of State, the postmasters-general now

declined to promote one on Post Office grounds. Of the necessities of

the State they were not the judges, and, if the State required the

adoption of such a measure, it was for others to take the initiative.

The decision at which the Government arrived appears in the Act of 1794,

which established a line of packets between England and the Channel

Islands. The packet station was to be at Weymouth, the passage from

Weymouth being shorter than from Southampton, and Southampton Water

being difficult to leave when the wind was contrary. For a single

letter the postage, over and above all other rates, was fixed at 2d.,

and for a double and treble letter in proportion. Thus the cost of a

single letter from London to the Channel Islands would remain the same

as before. Hitherto there had been paid 4d. for postage from London to

Southampton, 1d. to a factor at Southampton, 1d. for conveyance across,

and 1d. to the island post office--for the islands had a post office,

although it was a private one, and not under the control of the

postmasters-general--making 7d. altogether. Now the charge would be the

same, namely, postage to Weymouth 5d., and 2d. for the packet postage.

By the same Act of Parliament rates of postage were imposed within the

islands similar to those which existed in England.

The abuses of franking now came under notice again. Ten years had

elapsed since the passing of the Act which provided that a letter, to be

exempt from postage, must bear on the outside, as part of its

superscription, its full date written in the member's own handwriting,

and be posted on the date which the superscription bore. Of course, the

object of the provision was to confine the privilege to members

themselves, and to prevent them from obliging their friends at a

distance with franks; but this object was almost universally defeated by

the simple expedient of sending to their friends franks that were

post-dated. It was a common occurrence for franks dated on the same day

and by the same member to be sent from places three or four hundred

miles apart.

The bankers who sat in Parliament were the chief offenders. Little did

they think that an exact account was being kept of every frank that

passed through the London Post Office, or assuredly they would hardly

have ventured to keep their friends and customers supplied, as it was

their practice to do, with the means of evading postage. How many

bankers sat in Parliament in 1794 we are not informed; but whatever the

number was, we know that during the three months ending the 10th of

October in that year there passed through the London Post Office no

less than 103,805 letters franked by them, a number larger by one-fifth

than the letters of the Court and all the public offices of the State

combined.[75] During the same period those members of Parliament who

were merchants and not bankers contented themselves with the

comparatively modest number of 27,111. Two or three years before it had

leaked out that the Government were considering whether a strenuous

effort should not be made to abolish the franking privilege altogether,

and it was no secret to the Post Office that in anticipation of such an

event the banking houses which had a partner in Parliament had concerted

arrangements for sending their letters by the coaches in boxes.

[75] From this time the expression "banker's frank" passed into a

by-word, and was used to denote any frank, whether given by a banker or

not, which was in excess of the prescribed number.

The Government were now resolved that, if the abuses of franking could

not be stopped, they should at all events be restricted, and with this

object a bill was brought in which passed into law in 1795. Under this

statute the weight which a member could frank was reduced from two

ounces to one ounce; no letter was to be considered as franked unless

the member whose name and superscription it bore was within twenty miles

of the town at which it was posted either on the day of posting or on

the day before; and in the course of one day no member was to send free

more than ten letters or to receive free more than fifteen.

The same statute which restrained the abuses of franking made a not

unimportant concession. In an Act passed in 1753 a clause had been

inserted providing that a letter containing patterns or samples, if it

did not weigh as much as one ounce, was to be charged as a double letter

and no more. This was now improved upon. Under the Act of 1795 a packet

of patterns or samples might, on certain conditions, pass as a single

letter. These conditions were that it did not exceed one ounce in

weight, that it was open at the sides, and that it contained no writing

other than the name and address of the sender and the prices of the

articles of which he sent specimens.

A few months later another advance was made. At Lombard Street great

inconvenience had been caused by the late arrival of the letters from

the West End. The sorting began at five o'clock in the evening, and the

mails were despatched at eight; but it was not until nearly seven that

the bulk of the letters from the West End were brought in by the

runners. Thus, while the first two hours of the evening were hours of

comparative idleness, the last hour was one of extreme pressure.

Occasionally, we are told, there would at a quarter before seven o'clock

be lying on the sorting table as many as 14,000 letters, all of which

had to be disposed of by eight. At the present day 14,000 letters would

be regarded as a mere handful. In 1796 it was a number which it taxed

the utmost resources of the Post Office to dispose of within the

allotted time.

How to relieve the pressure between the hours of seven and eight was now

the question to be solved; and the presidents who had succeeded to

Bonnor's place when this person was got rid of suggested that the object

might be attained if, instead of the letters from the West End being

brought to the General Post Office by runners, light carts were employed

to bring them. Two carts would be enough for the purpose. One might

start from Charing Cross and the other from Duke Street, Oxford Street,

picking up bags at the different offices on their way. Thus the letters

would reach Lombard Street earlier by some thirty minutes than

heretofore, and there would be more time to sort and charge them. The

drivers should, of course, be armed. The plan was adopted, and answered

well; and this was the origin of what is called the London Mail-Cart and

Van Service, a service in which are now employed daily as many as 550

vehicles.

Since the introduction of mail-coaches the robbery of mails on the main

roads of the kingdom had entirely ceased. Now and then, but very rarely,

there had been pilfering from a mail-coach as, through the default of

those in charge, it stood at an inn door unguarded; and there had, no

doubt, been one serious case of theft. On the 24th of October 1794 a

man, giving the name of Thomas Thomas, went down by the mail-coach from

London to Bristol, and returned on the following day. This journey he

repeated on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of November, and on the last-mentioned

date, when the guard's back was turned, he took advantage of the

mail-box being left unlocked to steal the mails. But this was a case of

theft, and not of robbery.

During the twelve years which had elapsed since Palmer's plan was

established there had not been one single instance in which a mail-coach

had been molested by highwaymen. Far otherwise was it with the horse and

cross-post mails. In 1796 the distance over which these mails travelled

was, in England, about 3800 miles, and hardly a week passed without

intelligence reaching headquarters that in some part or other of their

course they had been stopped and robbed. Some roads enjoyed an

unenviable notoriety in this respect, as, for instance, the road between

Barton Mills and Lynn in Norfolk, the road between Bristol and

Portsmouth, and, above all, the road between Chester and Warrington.

Between these two places, indeed, the mail had only recently been robbed

on four different occasions.

Manchester and other towns now took the matter up, and urged that

mail-coaches might be established on the roads where the robberies took

place, not because coaches were necessary to carry the letters, but on

account of the security which they afforded. Freeling proposed as an

alternative that the horse and cross-post mails should be guarded. To

supply the existing post-boys, or riders, as they were then termed, with

firearms would have been worse than useless. They were mere boys--many

of them not yet fourteen years of age--and with firearms in their

possession they would have been more likely to shoot themselves than

their assailants. Accordingly, Freeling proposed that no riders should

be employed who, besides being of approved character, were not between

the ages of eighteen and forty-five; that they should each be furnished

with a brace of pistols, a cutlass, and a strong cap for the defence of

the head; and that, in consideration of an increased allowance to be

made by the Post Office, the postmasters whose servants the riders were

should be required to provide them with better horses than those

hitherto in use.

Of all the plans which, through a long course of years, were submitted

to Pitt for the improvement of the posts this was the only one to which

he demurred. He did not, indeed, deny its efficacy; but it would involve

a cost of at least L6000 a year, and, pressed as he was for money, he

declined to say more than that the plan might be carried out if the

persons interested were willing to bear the additional expense, but not

otherwise. For us with our present knowledge it is easy enough to see

that the surest and most popular way of transferring the expense to the

public would have been to cheapen the postage. In 1796 no other way

appeared feasible than to make the postage dearer. To this object the

postmasters-general now devoted themselves, and before many months were

over they had prepared a bill which, with some modifications, was

adopted by the Government and passed into law.

In the new Act, which came into operation on the 5th of January 1797,

the ambiguous term "stage" was dropped, and the whole of the rates were

fixed according to distance, thus--

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

| ON AND AFTER THE 5TH OF JANUARY 1797. |

+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+

| | Single | Double | Treble | |

| | Letter.| Letter.| Letter.| Ounce.|

| +--------+--------+--------+-------+

| | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ | _d._ |

|Not exceeding 15 miles | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |

|Exceeding 15 and not exceeding | | | | |

| 30 miles | 4 | 8 | 12 | 16 |

|Exceeding 30 and not exceeding | | | | |

| 60 miles | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 |

|Exceeding 60 and not exceeding | | | | |

| 100 miles | 6 | 12 | 18 | 24 |

|Exceeding 100 and not exceeding| | | | |

| 150 miles | 7 | 14 | 21 | 28 |

|Exceeding 150 miles | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |

|To and from Edinburgh | 8 | 16 | 24 | 32 |

+-------------------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+

Within Scotland the rates were raised by 1d. for a single letter, by 2d.

for a double letter, and so on. Another important change was made.

Hitherto, in the case of letters from Portugal and America, the packet

postage had carried them to their destination. For the future these

letters were to be subject to the inland rates as well as the packet

rates. Thus the packet rate from Lisbon had been, on a single letter,

1s. 6d. It was now to be 1s.; but if for London the letter would be

charged with the inland rate of 8d.--this being the postage from

Falmouth--and if for Edinburgh with 8d. more, or 2s. 4d. altogether. As

the packet postage from America remained unchanged, namely, 1s. for a

single letter, the inland rate was in this case a pure addition.

The postmasters-general were now doomed to a serious disappointment.

Their proposal to raise the rates of postage was, there can be no doubt,

dictated, at all events in part, by a desire to carry out the project of

guarding the horse and cross-post mails. Pitt had stated that he would

approve this project if the persons interested would bear the expense of

it; and unquestionably the expense, and much more than the expense, was

thrown upon the persons interested by the higher sums which they had now

to pay for their letters. The postmaster-generals' object, however, had

not been avowed, and no understanding had been arrived at. Their

proposal to raise the rates of postage had met with ready acceptance.

Their proposal to guard the horse and cross-post mails, though repeated

again and again, continued to be rejected.

Although much had been done during the last few years to introduce order

and regularity among the packets, some little mystery still surrounded

their proceedings. In March 1798, out of twenty packets on the Falmouth

station there was not one in port to carry the mails to Jamaica and the

Leeward Islands; and this was the second time within twelve months that

the same thing had occurred. The West India merchants waited on the

postmasters-general to complain. On this occasion an armed cutter was

borrowed from the Admiralty to take out the mails; but the fact remained

that between the 5th of April 1793 and January 1798 no less than

nineteen packets, all of them belonging to the Falmouth station, had

been captured by the enemy, and that the Post Office had had to replace

them at a cost of close upon L50,000.

The merchants demanded, as they had done a year before, that the packets

should be armed. Armed indeed in some sort they were already, but only

with six four-pounders apiece, and with small arms so as to be able to

resist row-boats and small privateers. The merchants urged that this was

not enough. The postmasters-general replied that they could do no more,

that the true policy was not to arm the packets with a view to their

engaging the enemy, but so to construct them that they might outsail

him. The merchants met to consider the reply which had been given, and,

as the result of their deliberations, they prepared a memorial, copies

of which were sent to the postmasters-general and the minister. In this

memorial misgivings were expressed which, even at this distance of time,

it is impossible not to share. During the last three years the average

duration of voyage had been, from Falmouth to Jamaica, forty-five days,

and from Jamaica to Falmouth, fifty-two days. These, as the memorialists

pointed out, were not quick voyages; still less were they quick voyages

for vessels which had been specially constructed with a view to

expedition. It was extraordinary, too, built and equipped as the packets

were, that out of nine that had been recently captured eight should have

fallen a prey to private ships of war, which presumably enjoyed far less

advantages in point of sailing. The conclusion at which the merchants

felt constrained to arrive was that "in the mode of loading or

navigating the packets some abuses exist sufficient to counteract the

advantages of their construction."

And yet, mysterious as their proceedings were, ample evidence is at hand

that the packets were both willing and able to fight as occasion

required. Indeed, to this period belong some of their smartest

engagements. We will give one or two instances. On the evening of the

17th of October 1797 the _Portland_ packet, Captain Taylor, was lying

becalmed off the island of Guadeloupe when a French privateer, the

_Temeraire_, bore down upon her. The privateer carried sixty-eight men

and the packet thirty-two. A light breeze springing up, the _Portland's_

head was got off shore, and for the time she contrived to elude her

antagonist, who followed her all night under easy sail. At daybreak the

same distance separated the two ships as on the preceding evening; but

as the _Temeraire_ began to overtake the _Portland_, Taylor fired the

first shot. The shot was returned, and the privateer hoisting the bloody

flag grappled the _Portland_ and boarded her on the lee quarter. Laying

hold of the jib-stay Taylor ordered it to be lashed to the packet, and

called upon the passengers and crew to open their musketry. A fierce

engagement ensued, which ended in favour of the _Portland_. Out of

sixty-eight men on board the privateer no less than forty-one were

either killed or wounded. A treacherous shot fired after she had struck

her colours carried off the captain of the packet in the moment of

victory, and as he was endeavouring to allay the carnage.

Among the passengers on board the _Portland_ were four military

officers, captains in the English army. That these officers in no small

measure contributed to the result may be taken for granted; but silent

as to their own deeds they extolled in the highest terms the prowess of

the captain and crew, and it was from the independent testimony which

they and the other passengers bore that the gallant action became known

to the postmasters-general.

Another and still more brilliant engagement had taken place a few years

before. On the 27th of November 1793 the _Antelope_ packet, Captain

Curtis, sailed from Port Royal in Jamaica with twenty-nine men. She,

like the _Portland_, had on board a few passengers, among whom were

Colonel Loppinott, an independent witness to the events that followed,

and a young man of the name of Nodin. Nodin had been a midshipman in

the Royal Navy, and, having resigned his commission, was on his way home

to England to seek for other employment.

On the morning of the 1st of December, when the _Antelope_ was about

five leagues off Cumberland harbour in the island of Cuba, the

_Atalanta_, a French privateer, hove in sight and immediately gave

chase. The privateer carried eight carriage-guns and sixty-five men. The

packet carried the usual six four-pounders, and out of her crew of

twenty-nine men four had died of fever and two others were prostrate

from the same cause, so that her complement was practically reduced to

twenty-three. The pursuit continued until the morning of the 3rd, when,

the _Atalanta_ coming within gunshot and hoisting French colours and the

bloody flag, broadsides were exchanged. The two ships now grappled, and

on the part of the privateer an attempt was made to board both fore and

aft. Fore, the assailing party, fifteen in number, were swept away by

the guns; aft, where there were no guns, the assault was also repulsed

but at a cost of life which made the disproportion between the numbers

on the two sides even greater than before. Among those that were killed

in this sally was the captain of the packet; and the mate having been

severely wounded, the command devolved upon John Pascoe, the boatswain.

Another attempt was now made to board, and, like the first, was

successfully resisted.

This result was largely due to Nodin's intrepidity. Standing by the helm

and armed with a pike and a musket he alternately used these weapons

with deadly effect. As the men climbed the sides, he sprang forward and

cut them down with his pike; then he returned to the helm and righted

the ship; then seizing his musket he loaded it and flew to quarters; and

as he was cool and collected and a sure marksman every shot told. On the

repulse of the second attempt to board, the privateer's grappling-rope

was cut and she tried to sheer off; but this Pascoe prevented by lashing

her square sail-yard to the fore-shrouds of the packet. The privateer's

fire now began to slacken, which was only a signal to the others to

renew their energies. The _Antelope_ poured in volley after volley of

small-arms; and at length the marauders cried out for mercy and,

expecting none, some of them jumped into the sea and were drowned.

Altogether, when the bloody flag was torn down from the mast-head of the

_Atalanta_, only thirty men remained out of the sixty-five with which

she had begun the combat; and of these thirty one-half were wounded. The

troubles of the packet were not yet at an end. As the smoke cleared away

she was found to be on fire; and it was not until the mainsail, quarter

cloths, and hammocks had been cut away that she was able to carry her

prize into Anotta Bay.

The officers and crew of the _Antelope_ did not go unrewarded. For

distribution among the survivors and the families of those who had been

killed the House of Assembly in Jamaica voted the sum of 500 guineas;

375 guineas were afterwards presented for the same purpose by the

Society for Encouraging the Capture of French Privateers; the

postmasters-general showered small pensions and gratuities; and--what

was the highest compliment of all--the _Atalanta_, though a droit of

admiralty, was given up to the captors.

It was always when passengers were on board that the Post Office heard

of these brilliant achievements on the part of the packets. We are not

sure that this fact may not help us to unravel the mystery which

perplexed the merchants. May it not be that, when the check exercised by

the presence of passengers was removed, the packets at the end of the

last century, like those of a hundred years before, went in quest of

adventure and matched themselves against superior force or otherwise

engaged in illicit operations? The series of captures which the

merchants could not understand, and, where there were no captures, the

dilatoriness of the voyages, would thus be explained.

The usage of the Post Office one hundred years ago differed in not a few

particulars from the usage of to-day. At the present time no

postmaster-general would think of calling for a daily return of the

number of letters passing through the London office with the amount of

postage paid or to be paid upon them. Yet such a return was, a century

ago, sent to the postmasters-general regularly every morning, and it was

esteemed the most important paper of the day. At the present time any

instruction which may have to be given to the sorting office is entered

in what is called the Order Book; and this book is signed by all whom it

concerns. One hundred years ago, all instructions were made known by the

presidents reading them aloud in the sorting office on Mondays and

Saturdays, when the men were assembled for the purpose. It was thus that

appointments, promotions, and punishments were also announced. One

hundred years ago, when a letter-carrier's walk became vacant, a bell

was rung, and, the letter-carriers being collected together, the vacancy

was offered to the senior, and if the senior declined it, to the next in

rotation, and so on. When a Post Office servant died, his salary was

paid not only to the date of death but to the end of the current

quarter.

Another practice then existed, a practice dictated, as some may think,

by convenience and common sense. It was that counsel engaged in Post

Office cases gave receipts for their fees. In connection with this

practice a curious incident occurred. Walsingham had ordered an

independent inquiry to be made into the solicitor's accounts, and, in

the course of the investigation, the inspector came across a heap of

receipts signed, or purporting to be signed, by some of the most eminent

lawyers of the day. Walsingham had suspected imposition before, and now

he was sure of it. The solicitor, had he been asked, would no doubt have

explained, as indeed was the case, that the practice dated from 1703,

and originated with Godolphin, who, failing to see why counsel engaged

by public offices should be exempt from doing what all other persons

were required to do, issued peremptory injunctions that in legal cases

no more fees should be paid by the Post Office for which receipts were

not given.[76] Instead, however, of addressing himself to the solicitor,

Walsingham referred to Kenyon, the Lord Chief Justice; and Kenyon's

reply, as Walsingham himself admitted, filled him with astonishment. It

was simply that when attorney-general he had always given receipts for

fees from public offices, understanding when he was appointed that such

was the practice, and that it had long been so.

[76] This is Godolphin's letter:--

TREASURY CHAMBERS, _June 8, 1703_.

GENTLEMEN--My Lord Treasurer hath commanded me to signify to you his

Lordship's direction that whenever your Sollicitor shall pay any fees to

any Serjeant or Councellor at law, or give any sum or sums of money for

coppys to any Clerk or Clerks or Officers in any Court or Courts of

Record at Westminster, he shall take a ticket subscribed with the hand

and name of the same Serjeant or Councellor or from the Clerk or Officer

testifying how much he hath received for his fee or hath been paid by

him for coppys, and at what time and how often, according to the statute

in the third year of the reign of King James the First, made and

provided in that behalf, and His Lordship directs you to take care that

what money shall be hereafter expended for law charges relating to the

Revenue under your management, the same be so expressed in the Bill of

Incidents, that it may appear to His Lordship that the above-mentioned

directions have been duly comply'd with.--I am, gentlemen, your most

humble servant,

WILLIAM LOWNDES.

Sir Robert Cotton, Knight, and

Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart.

One more custom we may mention as existing a century ago, a custom which

was then abandoned, but not without manifest reluctance on the part of

those whose interest it was to keep it alive. At the present time our

friends at the Treasury are credited with taking advantage of the

accident of their position to get themselves appointed to the best

situations in all the public offices of the State. One hundred years ago

the blackmail which these gentlemen levied upon the public offices took

another form, a form a little coarser perhaps but less provoking. At the

beginning of each year they exacted tribute which, disguised under the

name of New Year's gifts, were really New Year's extortions. The

correspondence which passed between the Treasury and the Post Office,

when these extortions ceased, unlike official correspondence generally,

is so short and to the point that we cannot do better than give it in

full:--

The TREASURY to the POST OFFICE.

TREASURY CHAMBERS, _Oct. 10, 1797_.

MY LORDS--The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury having

had under their consideration a Report of the Select Committee of

the House of Commons on Finance in the last session of Parliament

respecting this office, I am commanded by their Lordships to

acquaint you that they have determined that the practice of

receiving New Year's gifts by any person in this department shall

be discontinued, and that your Lordships may not send them as

heretofore.--I am, my Lords, etc.,

GEORGE ROSE.

The POST OFFICE to the TREASURY.

GENERAL POST OFFICE, _Jan. 13, 1798_.

MY LORDS--We beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Rose's

letter of the 10th of October acquainting us of your Lordships'

determination that the practice of receiving New Year's gifts by

any person in your department must be discontinued, to which we

shall pay proper attention.

It is necessary to state to your Lordships that Mr. Rose's letter,

although dated the 10th of October 1797, was not brought to this

office until the 1st of January 1798; but it was received in due

time to enable us to attend to the purport of it.--We are, my

Lords, etc.,

CHESTERFIELD.

LEICESTER.

It is needless to add that hitherto these New Year's gifts had been

despatched from the Post Office on the evening of the 31st of December.

Nine years had now passed since the Royal Commissioners had reported

upon the condition of the public offices; and four years had passed

since the Report had seen the light. Pitt had been deliberate enough in

approving the recommendations; but having done so, he had no intention

that they should remain inoperative. And yet he had little confidence

that such would not be the case unless some external influence were

brought to bear. Accordingly recourse was had to an expedient which

might perhaps with advantage be sometimes adopted at the present day.

At Pitt's instigation a Special Committee of the House of Commons was

appointed to ascertain and report how far the recommendations of the

Royal Commissioners had been carried into effect.

The Post Office, on the whole, came well out of the ordeal. Abuses had

been corrected; useless offices had been abolished; and men were no

longer drawing salaries for duties which they did not perform. There

was, however, one notable exception. Todd, the secretary, had during

many years ceased to do any work; yet he had not ceased to draw his full

salary; neither had he ceased to retain his shares in at least one of

the Post Office packets. The Committee denounced his conduct in terms

which far exceeded the ordinary bounds of parliamentary usage. Their

language indeed, as applied to a man of more than eighty years of age,

might even be pronounced to be cruel. And yet scathing as the censure

was, it fell upon callous ears. With a tenacity worthy of a better cause

the old man still clung to his place and his shares. The

postmasters-general now brought pressure to bear. As regards the shares,

which Todd had held unknown to his masters, they insisted upon his

selling them; but his place of secretary they were either unwilling or

unable to wrest from his grasp.

Death at length put an end to the scandal. In June 1798 Todd yielded up

at once his life and his office; and Francis Freeling, according to a

long-standing promise, became Secretary to the Post Office in his

stead.