The reduction of letter postage from two cents per half-ounce to two
cents per ounce, which took effect July 1st, suggests a few words in
regard to postal matters in general. The collection of news by
post-carriers is said to have originated in the regular couriers
established by Cyrus in his Persian kingdom about 550 B.C. Charlemagne
employed couriers for similar purposes in his time. The first
post-houses in Europe were instituted by Louis XI. of France.
Post-chaises were invented in the same country. In England in the reign
of Edward IV., 1784, riders on post-horses went stages of the distance
of twenty miles from each other in order to convey to the king the
earliest intelligence of war. Post communication between London and most
towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland existed in 1935. The penny-post
was first set up in London and its suburbs in 1681 as a private
enterprise, and nine years later became a branch of the general post.
Mail coaches, for the conveyance of letters, began to run between London
and Bristol in 1784. The postal system of the American colonies was
organized in 1710. Franklin, as deputy postmaster-general for the
colonies, established mail-coaches between Philadelphia and Boston in
1760. Previous to 1855 the rates of postage were according to distance.
The uniform three-cent rate was adopted in 1863. Money-order offices
were instituted in England as early as 1792. They were established in
this country in 1864, and there is no safer way to remit small amounts.
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