Whereas by an Act of Parliament made in the Last Session of Parliament,
Intituled, An Act for Establishing a General Post-Office for all
Her Majesties Dominions, and for Settling a Weekly Sum out of the
Revenues thereof, for the Service of the War, and other Her Majesties
Occasions,[1] It is Enacted, That from and after the First Day of
this Instant June, there be One General Letter-Office and Post-Office
Established in the City of London, from whence all Letters and Packets
may be with speed and expedition sent into any Part of the Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, or to North-America, the West-Indies, or to
any other of Our Dominions or Territories, or to any other Kingdom or
Country beyond the Seas; at which said Office all Returns and Answers
may be Received. And that One Master of the said General Letter-Office
and Post-Office shall be appointed by Us, under Our Great Seal of
Great Britain, by the Name and Stile of our Postmaster General: And
that no Person or Persons whatsoever, in any Part of Our Kingdoms of
Great Britain and Ireland, or other Our Plantations or Colonies in the
West-Indies and America, other than Our Postmaster General for the
time being, and his Deputies, Servants, and Assigns, shall presume to
Receive, Take up, Order, Dispatch, Convey, Carry, Recarry, or Deliver
any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets of Letters, other than to and
from any Town or Place to or from the next Post-Road or Stage appointed
for that Purpose, above Six Miles from a General Office; and other
than and except such Letters as shall respectively concern Goods sent
by Common known Carriers of Goods, by Carts, Waggons, or Pack-Horses,
and which shall be respectively Delivered with the Goods such Letters
do concern, without Hire or Reward, or other Profit or Advantage for
Receiving or Delivering such Letters; and except Letters of Merchants
and Masters, Owners of any Ships, Barques, or Vessels of Merchandize,
or any the Cargo or Lading therein, sent on Board such Ships, Barques,
or Vessels of Merchandize, whereof such Merchants or Masters are
Owners, and Delivered by any Masters of any such Ships, Barques, or
Vessels of Merchandize, or by any other Person Employed by them for the
Carriage of such Letters, according to their respective Directions, so
as such Letters be Delivered to the respective Persons to whom they
shall be Directed, without Paying or Receiving any Hire or Reward,
Advantage or Profit for the same in anywise; and except Commissions
or the Returns thereof, Affidavits, Writs, Process or Proceeding, or
Returns thereof, Issuing out of any Court; and also any Letter or
Letters to be sent by any Private Friend or Friends in their way of
Journey or Travel, or by any Messenger or Messengers sent on purpose,
for or concerning the private Affair of any Person or Persons; or
make any Collection of Letters, or Set up or Employ any Foot-Post,
Horse-Post, or Packet-Boat, or other Vessel or Boat, or other Person
or Persons, Conveyance or Conveyances whatsoever, for the Receiving,
Taking up, Ordering, Dispatching, Conveying, Carrying, Recarrying,
or Delivering any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets of Letters,
by Sea or by Land, or on any River within Our Dominions, or by means
whereof any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets of Letters, shall be
Collected, Received, Taken up, Ordered, Dispatched, Conveyed, Carried,
Recarried, or Delivered, by Sea or Land, or on any River within Our
Dominions (other than as before Excepted;) or shall presume to Keep,
Provide or Maintain Horses or Furniture, for the Horsing of any Person
or Persons Riding Post, (that is to say) Riding several Stages upon a
Post-Road, and Changing Horses, or shall Lett to Hire, or Furnish any
Person or Persons whatsoever with Horses or Furniture for Riding Post,
as aforesaid, on any of the Post-Roads or Stages now or hereafter to
be Appointed, with or without a Guide or Horn, for Hire or Reward, or
on any Agreement or Promise of Reward, or whereby he or they may have
any Profit or Advantage, on pain of Forfeiting the Sum of Five Pounds
of British Money for every several Offence against the Tenor of the
said Act, and also of the Sum of One hundred Pounds of like British
Money for every Week that every Offender against the same Act shall
Collect, Receive, Take up, Order, Dispatch, Convey, Carry, Recarry, or
Deliver any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets of Letters, by Sea
or Land, or on any River within Our Dominions (other than as before
excepted;) or that shall presume to Set up, Continue, or Employ any
Foot-Post, Horse-Post, or Packet-Boat, or other Vessel or Boat, or any
other Person or Persons, Conveyance or Conveyances whatsoever, for
the Receiving, Taking up, Ordering, Dispatching, Conveying, Carrying,
Recarrying, or Delivering of any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets
of Letters, by Sea or Land, or on any River within Our Dominions, as
aforesaid; which said Penalties and Forfeitures are to be Sued for,
and Recovered in such Courts, and to be Received and Divided in such
manner, and for such Uses, as in the said Act is for that purpose
mentioned, together with full Costs of Suit. But it is by the said
Act Provided, That if the Postmaster doth not or cannot Furnish any
Person Riding in Post, with sufficient Horses, within one Half Hour
after Demand, then such Person is at Liberty to Provide himself as he
can to the next Stage, and so at every Stage where he shall not be
Furnished, as aforesaid; and the Person who shall Furnish such Horses
shall therefore by [be] liable to any Penalty by reason thereof. And
by a Proviso contained in the said Act, it is Declared, That nothing
in the Exception above mentioned contained, shall be construed to
extend to give any Licence or Authority to any Common known Carriers
of Goods, by Carts, Waggons, or Pack-Horses, their Servants or Agents,
to Receive, Collect or Deliver, with or without Hire, any Letter or
Letters, Packet or Packets of Letters whatsoever, that do not concern
Goods in their Carts, Waggons, or on their Pack-Horses; nor to any
Owners or Drivers of Stage-Coaches; nor to any Masters, Owners or
Commanders of Boats called Passage-Boats, sailing between any Part of
Great Britain or Ireland, and any Parts or Places beyond the Seas, or
their Servants or Agents; nor to any Passenger or Passengers on Board
such Boats or Vessels; nor to the Owners or Watermen on Board of any
Boat, Barge, or Vessel, Passing or Repassing on any River or Rivers,
to and from any Parts of Great Britain and Ireland, North-America, or
the West-Indies, or other Our Dominions or Territories, although such
Drivers of Stage-Coaches, Owners, Masters or Commanders of Boats called
Passage-Boats, or Passengers therein, Owners or Watermen on Board of
any such Boat, Barge, or Vessel, Passing or Repassing on any such River
or Rivers, as aforesaid, do not receive any Hire or Reward, or other
Advantage for the same; but that all such Carriers, Owners, and Drivers
of Stage-Coaches, Owners, Masters or Commanders of Passage-Boats, and
the Passengers therein, and all Owners and Watermen on Board of any
Boat, Barge, or Vessel, Passing or Repassing on any River or Rivers, to
or from any the Parts and Places aforesaid, Collecting and Delivering
Letters, as aforesaid, though without Hire or Reward, shall be Deemed
and Taken, and are thereby Declared to be Persons Offending against
the said Act, and to Forfeit and Pay such Sum and Sums of Money, as
Persons Collecting, Receiving, Taking up, Conveying, and Delivering of
Letters for Hire, or Setting up, Employing and Maintaining any Posts
contrary to the said Act, or that are or shall be concerned therein,
are therein, as is herein before mentioned, Enacted to Forfeit and
Pay. And by another Proviso in the said Act it is Declared, That
nothing in the said Act contained should extend to give Licence to any
Person or Persons whatsoever, to make Collection of Letters in or near
the City of London, or Suburbs thereof, under Pretence of Conveying
the same to any Part or Place in the said City or Suburbs, or to the
General Post-Office of the said City, without the Licence and Leave
of the Postmaster General for the time being; and that any Person or
Persons Acting contrary thereunto, should Forfeit and Pay as Persons
Collecting, Receiving, Carrying, Recarrying, and Delivering Letters
contrary to the said Act, are thereby Enacted to Forfeit and Pay, and
to be Recovered, as aforesaid, with full Costs of Suit. And by the
said Act it is further Enacted, That all Letters and Packets, that
by any Master of any Ship or Vessel, or any of his Company, or any
Passengers therein, shall or may be brought to any Post-Town, or which
shall arrive or touch at any Post belonging to any Post-Town within
any of Our Dominions, or any the Members thereof, or which shall be
on Board any Ship or Vessel that shall or doth touch or stay at any
such Post-Town, (other than such Letters as are before excepted) shall
by such Master, Passengers, or other Person or Persons, be forthwith
delivered to the Deputy or Deputies only of such Postmaster General
for the time being, by him appointed for such Place or Post-Town,
and to be by such Deputy or Deputies sent Post unto the said General
Post-Office, to be delivered according to the several and respective
Directions of the same, upon pain of Forfeiting the Sum of Five Pounds
of British Money for every several Offence against the Tenor of the
said Act, to be Recovered in manner aforesaid, with full Costs of Suit.
And for the Encouragement of all such Masters of Ships or Vessels,
or such other Persons, on their Arrival at such Ports, as aforesaid,
from any Parts beyond the Seas, to deliver unto the Deputy or Deputies
of such Postmaster General for such Place or Post-Town at which they
shall so touch or arrive, all such Letters and Packets as they shall
respectively have on Board such Vessel or Vessels, every such Master or
other Person, for every Letter or Packet of Letters he or they shall
so deliver unto such Deputy or Deputies, shall receive the Sum of One
Peny of such Deputy or Deputies, he or they Signing such Certificate
as in the said Act is mentioned. And We being Willing and Desirous
that Our Good Subjects should have Early and Sufficient Notice of the
Penalties and Forfeitures before mentioned, to the end they may avoid
Incurring the same, and that the Revenue granted by the said Act may be
duly answered to Us, and all Frauds in Prejudice of the same prevented,
have thought fit, and do by this Our Royal Proclamation (by and with
the Advice of Our Privy Council) Notifie and Declare to all Our Loving
Subjects the Purport and Tenor of the said several Parts of the said
Act, hereby Requiring and Commanding all Persons concerned to conform
themselves to the said Act.
Given at Our Court at Kensington, the Twenty third Day of June, 1711.
In the Tenth Year of Our Reign.