ROADS AND SPEED
Sir Brian Tuke, writing in 1533, said that the only roads in the kingdom
over which letters were regularly conveyed were from London to Dover and
London to Berwick.[362] The road to Berwick had been in use in 1509[363]
but had evidently been discontinued, for Sir Brian says in his letter
that postmen were appointed to it in the year that he wrote. Regular
posts were established between London and Portsmouth when the fleet was
there and discontinued as soon as it left, so that it can hardly be
included among the regular roads.[364] Between 1580 and the accession of
James I, there was a distinct revival in postal affairs within and
without the kingdom. The posts on the London-Holyhead road had been
discharged for some time and Irish letters were conveyed to London by
the postmaster at Chester.[365] In 1581 Gascoyne, the acting
Postmaster-General, was ordered to appoint stages and postmen on this
old route.[366] A letter patent was issued, calling upon all Her
Majesty's officers to assist him in so doing, and a warrant was signed
for the payment of £20 to defray his expenses. The Rye-Dieppe posts were
also reorganized, principally for the conveyance of letters to and from
France.[367] Bristol ranked next to London in size and importance, but
it was not until 1580 that orders were given to horse and man the road
between the two cities,[368] and only in the following decade were posts
also laid from London to Exeter and somewhat later from Exeter to
Plymouth.[369] This illustrates as well as anything the fact that the
early English postal system was mainly political in its aims. The great
post roads were important from a political rather than an economic
standpoint. It was necessary to keep in close touch with Scotland
because the Scotch would always stand watching. The wild Irish needed a
strong hand and it was expedient that English statesmen should be well
acquainted with things Irish. The post to and from the continent was
quite as necessary to keep them informed of French and Spanish politics.
[362] _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app., p. 32 (7).
[363] _L.& P. Hen. VIII_, vii, pt. 2, p. 1444.
[364] _A. P. C._, 1556-58, pp. 249-309.
[365] _Ibid._, 1571, 75, p. 201; _Cal. S. P. D._, 1547-80, p. 265.
[366] _Cal. S. P. Ire._, 1574-85, p. 176; _A. P. C._, 1580-81, p. 131.
[367] Hist. MSS. Com., _Rep._, 13, app., pt. 4, p. 89.
[368] _A. P. C._, 1580-81, p. 211.
[369] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1581-90, p. 712; _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app., p.
43 (21).
In conveying letters the postman who started with them did not, on the
regular roads, proceed through to the place where they were directed,
but carried them only over his stage to the next postman. By this method
a fair rate of speed should have been maintained, for the horses' path
in the middle of the road was as a rule not so bad as seriously to
impede travelling.[370] Nevertheless complaints about the tardiness of
the post are numerous. Lisle, the Warden of the Marches, said that
letters from London were nearly five days in reaching him at
Alnwick.[371] Nine days from London to Carlisle was considered too slow
but it often took that long, notwithstanding that the letters were
marked twice "for life, for life."[372] The Earl of Sussex complained to
Cecil that they never arrived in York under three days. He expected too
much, however, for three days from London to York was considered good
speed.[373] According to a post label made out in 1589, the distance
from Berwick to Huntingdon was accomplished in ninety-one hours. By the
mileage tables then published, the distance was 203 miles, giving an
average speed of only a little over two miles an hour. It is only fair
to add that the real distance was 282 miles, and this would raise the
speed to about three miles an hour.[374] The distance from Dover to
London was covered in twelve hours, from Plymouth to Hartford Bridge in
forty-four hours, from Portsmouth to Farnham in five hours, from
Weymouth to Staines via Sherborne in five days, but this must have been
exceptionally long.[375]
[370] Hist. MSS. Com., _Rep._, 14, app., pt. 8, p. 35.
[371] _L. & P. Hen. VIII_, 1543, p. 4.
[372] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1547-65, p. 360.
[373] _Ibid._, 1566-79, p. 109.
[374] _Ibid._, 1580-1625, p. 278.
[375] Hist. MSS. Com., _Hatfield House_, pt. 7, pp. 174, 168, 332, 358.
Orders were given to the postmen in 1603 that they should not delay the
mails more than fifteen minutes at each stage and that they should
travel at the rate of seven miles an hour in summer and five in
winter.[376] This was an ideal but seldom realized. Complaints continued
to come in pretty constantly during the first thirty-five years of the
seventeenth century.[377] Secretary Conway wrote to Secretary Coke that
the posts must be punished for their tardiness.[378] Even those from
London to Dover were reprimanded and they had hitherto given the best
satisfaction. The postmaster at Dover was threatened with imprisonment
unless he mended his ways.[379] Letters were either not delivered at all
or were needlessly delayed on the road. Some of the postmasters, who
held lucrative positions, were themselves absentees and their work was
performed by their agents, who were often incompetent, and this sort of
thing was connived at by the Postmaster-General, from whom their
positions were bought. The postmen themselves acknowledged their
tardiness but said that they were able to do no better, since they had
received no wages for several years.[380] One had been paid nothing for
over two years,[6] another had received no wages for seven years,[381]
and finally in 1628 a petition was presented to the Privy Council from
"all the posts in England, being in number ninety-nine poor men." This
petition prays for their arrears, due since 1621, the amount unpaid
being £22,626, "notwithstanding the great charge they are at in the
keeping of many servants and horses to do His Majesty's service."[382]
The Council did not grant their petition, for two years later £25,000
were still due them.[383]
[376] _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app., pp. 38-40 (28).
[377] Six days from London to Holyrood House (_Cal. S. P. D._, 1611-18,
p. 44). Five hours from Sittingbourne to Canterbury (12 miles) (_ibid._,
1619-23, p. 610). Nine hours from Sittingbourne to Dover (_ibid._,
1625-26, p. 256).
[378] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1619-23, p. 564.
[379] _Ibid._, 1625-26, pp. 43, 168.
[380] _Ibid._, 1627-28, p. 307.
[381] _Ibid._, 1623-25, p. 141; 1627-28, p. 307.
[382] _Ibid._, 1628-29, p. 184.
[383] _Ibid._, 1629-31, p. 379.
The Council of State gave directions in 1652 for roads to be manned
between Dover and Portsmouth, Portsmouth and Salisbury, London and
Yarmouth, and London and Carlisle through Lancaster.[384] Hitherto,
Carlisle had to depend upon a branch post from the great North Road.
Dover and Portsmouth had no direct connection nor had Bristol and
Exeter, but letters between these places passed through London. These
orders formed part of the directions given to the farmer of the posts in
the following year.[385] Cromwell seems to have recognized the
impracticability of enforcing the speed limit ordered by Elizabeth in
the case of the ordinary mails. He issued orders that in future only
public despatches or letters from and to certain high officials should
be sent by express, and such despatches and letters must be carried at a
speed of seven miles an hour from the first of April to the thirtieth of
September, and five miles an hour the rest of the year.[386]
[384] _Ibid._, 1652-53, p. 312.
[385] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1652-53, p. 449.
[386] _Ibid._, 1655, pp. 285-86.
Toward the close of the seventeenth century, more attention was directed
to the slowness of the posts and the delays along the road. The average
speed on the great roads varied from three to four miles an hour,
anything below three miles generally calling for reproof. For instance,
the posts on the Portsmouth road were reprimanded for travelling only
twenty-two miles in ten hours.[387] It was said that it took the
Yarmouth mail sixty-six hours to travel less than one hundred miles. The
post labels were an important check upon the postmaster's carelessness.
Each postmaster was supposed to mark the time that he received the mail
on a label attached to it for that purpose. In this way no postmaster
marked the speed that his own postboy made and each was a check upon his
neighbour.[388] Lord Arlington gave orders in 1666 for this practice to
be enforced more strictly. In addition to marking the time of arrival,
the time of departure was also to be added.[389] A year later a further
improvement was made by the use of printed labels, containing also
directions as to speed. The names of the post towns through which the
mail must pass were also added, and blanks were left for the postmasters
to fill in the hours of arrival and departure.[390]
[387] _Ibid._, 1661-62, p. 385.
[388] _Ibid._, 1665-66, p. 19.
[389] _Ibid._, 1666-67, p. 384.
[390] _Ibid._, 1667-68, p. 116. From copies of these labels made out in
1666 and 1667 we know exactly how long it took to convey the mails
between London and the important cities of the kingdom although the time
varied more or less at different trips and different seasons.
_Between_ _Hours_
London and Yarmouth From 29 to 32
Plymouth 50 58
York 39 42
Chester 30 56
Bristol 25 30
Gloucester 20 26
Portsmouth 15 23
Edinburgh 73 103*
Newcastle 57 81
Manchester 32 48
Preston 47 58
Dover 19 22
Southampton 18 23
(_Cal. S. P. D._, 1667-68, pp. 117, 118, 120,
121; 1666-67, pp. 388, 389.)
* Reproved for slowness.
It was often difficult to tell the relative position of places in
England from the post towns. The Post Office had for its own use a
table of places along the great roads,[391] and from the middle of the
seventeenth century, private individuals began to publish road maps. On
these maps, the post towns are marked by a castle with a flag flying
from it. Some of them are quite artistically done and represent on a
large scale every important road in England with the places where branch
roads leave them. One map has each road outlined on a long scroll, and
it gives the rivers, brooks, bridges, elevations, villages, post towns,
forests, and branch roads throughout the whole distance.[392] In 1668,
Hicks, in writing to Arlington's secretary, advised him not to have a
new map of the post roads printed, fearing the great changes that might
thereby be produced in the Post Office. He says: "When Parliament sees
how all the branches lie and most of them carried on at the charge of
those in the country concerned, they will try to have them carried
through by the Postmaster-General, which will be very chargeable."[393]
[391] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1673-75, p. 494.
[392] John Ogilby, _Itinerarium Angliae_, 1675.
[393] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1667-68, p. 543.
At the close of the seventeenth century, the five great roads to
Edinburgh, Holyhead, Bristol, Plymouth, and Dover remained practically
unchanged. The Plymouth road had been continued to Falmouth and the
Northern Road now passed through York. The greatest changes noticeable
are in the Southern and Eastern counties. In the South, nearly all the
coast towns were now connected with the Falmouth road, and the post ran
to the extreme southwest of Cornwall. Portsmouth had a direct service
from London through Arundel and Chichester. There were branches from the
Falmouth road to several towns in Dorset and Somerset, but as a rule the
country between the two great roads to the West was poorly supplied. A
new road of considerable importance ran from Maidenhead on the Bristol
road through Abingdon, Gloucester, Cardiff, and Swansea to Milford,
where there was a packet boat for Ireland. From this road there were a
few unimportant branches to the North.
In the Northeast, the post road to Edinburgh now passed through York to
Northallerton. From York there was a branch to Scarborough and Whitby. A
new road left the Edinburgh road at Royston, about forty miles from
London, and passed along the coast nearly parallel to the great road,
through Newmarket, Lynn, Boston, and Hull to Bridlington. Another branch
left Newmarket for Norwich and the seacoast towns of northern Norfolk.
An important road left London for Yarmouth, with branches to the coast
towns of Suffolk. One new road ran through the midland counties, leaving
the Holyhead road about thirty miles from London and passing through
Sheffield, Manchester, and Preston to Carlisle. Derby was supplied by an
east and west road from Grimsby to Manchester. Liverpool had a post road
to Manchester. In 1683, provision was made for an extension of the post
roads by an order issued to the Postmaster-General to set up posts
between the market towns and the nearest post towns. These were called
bye-posts. It was to them that Hicks had objected as leading to
increased expense. At the same time orders were given for a map to be
printed, showing where all these bye-posts were situated so that people
might know where to address their letters.[394]
[394] _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app., p. 91 (64).
In Ireland, there were three main post roads, running from Dublin
through Ulster, Munster, and Connaught.[395] There were practically no
post roads worthy of the name in Scotland. That part of the great North
Road beyond the Tweed was English rather than Scotch. Between Edinburgh
and Glasgow there was a foot-post. The mail was also carried between
Glasgow and Portpatrick.[396] In 1699, the length of the roads in
America over which the mails passed was 700 miles. These roads connected
the principal towns along the Atlantic coast.[397]
[395] Joyce, p. 53.
[396] _Cal. T. B. & P._, 1739-41, p. 240; _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app.,
p. 94 (67); _Acts of the Parl. of Scotland_, ix, p. 417 (5 Wm. III).
[397] _Cal. T. P._, 1697-1702, p. 280.
In 1696, the Postmaster-General reported favourably on the establishment
of a cross post road between Bristol and Exeter.[398] The report was
approved, and two years later Bristol and Exeter had direct postal
communication. Colonial and foreign letters for Bristol, after their
arrival in Falmouth, still went via London.[399] Towns adjacent to
Bristol and Exeter, which might have been connected with the cross post,
remained separated. For example, the post went from London through
Cirencester to Wotton-under-Edge, which was within fourteen miles of
Bristol, yet letters from Cirencester to Exeter went via London.[400]
The Exeter-Bristol cross post proved a success. After it had been in
operation three years, it produced over £350 net profits a year. The use
of cross posts was advocated as leading to the conveyance of a larger
number of letters, and private individuals started to establish
them.[401] In 1700, the post road from Exeter to Bristol was continued
to Chester through Worcester and Shrewsbury.[402] Three years later, a
direct road was ordered between Exeter and Truro, but it seems to have
been discontinued after one year's trial.[403]
[398] _Ibid._, 1657-96, p. 55.
[399] Latimer, _Annals of Bristol_, p. 488.
[400] _Cal. T. P._, 1697-1702, pp. 21-22.
[401] _Ibid._, 1697-1702, p. 56.
[402] _Ibid._, 1702-07, p. 26.
[403] _Ibid._, 1702-07, p. 134.
The post roads throughout the kingdom had not been measured correctly. A
mile on the London-Edinburgh road was fully ten furlongs. This had
resulted in a decreased revenue from post horses and often unjustifiable
reprimands for slowness. By a provision in the act of 1711, it was
ordered that all the post roads in the kingdom should be measured. This
was to be done by officials appointed by the Postmaster-General and the
measurements left in the general offices in London, Edinburgh, and
Dublin.[404]
[404] 9 Anne, c. 11.
As the seventeenth century had seen the extension of roads in the
southern and eastern counties of England, so the eighteenth century was
marked by the establishment of posts in those parts of the kingdom most
affected by the industrial revolution. The country about Birmingham,
Kidderminster, and Worcester was to share in the better postal
facilities offered by the mail coaches. Lancashire and the West Riding
of York were not debarred from the use of Palmer's innovation. This was
especially the case in Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Halifax, and
Leeds, for where industrial expansion paved the way, the coaches were
sure to follow.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the roads in Ireland were
attracting considerable attention, and it was the slow speed made by the
mail carts there which was a primary cause in producing any improvement.
The Postmasters-General were directed to cause surveys to be made and
maps drawn of those roads in Ireland over which the mail passed. The
roads were to be levelled so that the ascent or descent should be no
more than one foot in thirty-five wherever this was practicable, the
expense to be borne by the county or barony.[405] This was in 1805, and
the next year the Grand Jury was given the power to call for another
survey, and the surveyor whom they appointed was to decide as to the
necessity for a change in the direction of the road. Copies of all Grand
Jury presentments were to be made to the Postmasters-General.[406] In
1813 the Grand Juries were empowered to present for damages accruing to
owners and occupiers of land, such damages to be raised by the county
and advanced from the consolidated fund.[407]
[405] 45 Geo. III, c. 43.
[406] 46 Geo. III, c. 134.
[407] 53 Geo. III, c. 146.
After 1817, the Postmasters-General were able to report a considerable
acceleration in the speed at which the mails were carried. This was
owing largely to the introduction of a lighter and more improved type of
mail coach, and after 1821 the use of steam packet boats in the case of
the transportation of the Irish and continental mails. Letters leaving
London at 8 P.M. on Tuesday for Ireland had not been delivered in Dublin
until 10 A.M. on Friday. In 1817 they arrived on Thursday in time for
delivery on that day.[408] In 1828, the coaches travelled from London to
Holyhead, a distance of 261 miles, in twenty-nine hours and seventeen
minutes. Four years later the time had been reduced to twenty-eight
hours.[409] By the introduction of one of the patent mail coaches on the
Yarmouth road, the inhabitants of that town were enabled to answer their
letters a day earlier. The coach left London at the usual time (8 P.M.),
arriving in Yarmouth at 11.40 A.M., returning at 3 P.M. on the same
day.[410] The mails to Manchester and Liverpool travelled at the rate of
nine miles an hour over the greater part of the road.[411] The average
speed varied from eight to nine miles an hour. To give the exact
figures, the highest speed attained in England was ten miles and five
furlongs an hour, the slowest six miles, and the average eight miles and
seven furlongs.[412] In Ireland the highest speed attained by the mail
coaches was nine miles and one furlong an hour, the slowest speed six
miles and seven furlongs, and the average eight miles and two
furlongs.[413] Mail carts drawn by two horses were also used largely in
Ireland for the conveyance of the mails, and by these the speed was not
so great. The highest speed made by them was seven miles and five
furlongs an hour, the slowest five miles and one furlong, and the
average six miles and three furlongs.[414] In Scotland the highest
speed was ten miles and four furlongs an hour, the slowest seven miles,
and the average eight miles and two furlongs.[415]
[408] London _Times_, 1817, Aug. 28, p. 2.
[409] _Rep. Commrs_., 1830, xiv, p. 347; 1831-32, xvii, p. 7.
[410] London _Times_, 1819, July 17, p. 2. Yarmouth is distant from
London 124 miles.
[411] _Ibid._, 1821, Aug. 23, p. 3.
[412] _Acc. & P._, 1836, xlv, 364, pp. 2 f. The following times are
given in _Rep. Commrs._, 1830, xiv:--
p. 348 London to Liverpool 22 hrs. 7 min., distance 202 miles
p. 349 London to Bristol 13 14 122
p. 350 Bristol to Milford 19 38 149
p. 351 London to Carlisle 34 7 311 (via Leeds)
p. 352 Carlisle to Portpatrick 11 32 85
p. 353 Bristol to Birmingham 10 29 87
[413] _Acc. & P._, 1836, xlv, 364, p. 4. The following times are given
in _Rep. Commrs._, 1830 xiv:--
p. 354 Dublin via Cashell to Cork 22 hrs. distance 126 miles
p. 355 Cork to Waterford 12 hrs. 4 min., 72
p. 356 Dublin to Belfast 13 15 80
p. 356 Donaghadee to Belfast 2 24 14
[414] _Acc. & P._, 1836, xlv, 364, p. 7.
[415] _Ibid._, 1836, xlv, 364, p. 5.
The mails which left London at 8 P.M. arrived in Holyhead at 12.6 A.M.
on the next day but one. The packet left Holyhead twenty-five minutes
later for Howth. The packet left Howth at 4 P.M. for Holyhead, and the
mails for London left Holyhead at 12.15 A.M. The passage across the
Irish Sea took from five to eight hours. The London coach arrived in
Milford at 5.27 A.M., travelling at a rate of eight miles an hour, and
twenty-five minutes after its arrival, the packet left for Dunmore.
Another left Dunmore with the mails at 12 P.M., and the coach left
Milford for London at 7.30 P.M.[416] The London mail coach arrived at
Portpatrick at 10.27 P.M., fifty hours and twenty-seven minutes from
London. The packet did not leave Portpatrick until 6.10 A.M., after the
arrival of the Glasgow mail, which left Glasgow at 4.45 P.M., arriving
at 5.6 A.M. The packet left Donaghadee at noon, and the mail left
Portpatrick at 4 P.M., arriving in Glasgow at 6 A.M. Ordinarily the
passage across took four hours. The London mail coach arrived in
Liverpool at 6 P.M., twenty-two hours from London, and left at 10.30
P.M. Packets sailed from Liverpool and Kingstown at 5 P.M. and 5.15
P.M., the time for crossing being about fourteen hours. No London
letters went via Liverpool until 1841.[417]
[416] _Rep. Commrs._, 1831-32, xvii, pp. 7, 373-74.
[417] _Ibid._, 1831-32, xvii, pp. 373-74.
The method used to ensure a rapid transmission of the mails by the
coaches was as follows: Time bills were issued to the guards of the
different coaches. On these bills were printed the speed that should be
made from stage to stage, and it was the guard's duty to fill in the
time made by the coach on which he rode. Penalties were inflicted for
any mistakes which he might make or any failure on his part to leave the
bill in the office at the end of his route. On some of the time bills it
was set forth that a fine of one shilling was payable by the proprietor
for each minute that the coach was late and he might recover it from the
guard or coachman if the delay was due to the negligence of either of
them. The coachmen were ordered to make up any time lost on the road
and to report the horse keepers if they were at fault.[418]
[418] _Rep. Commrs._, 1837, xxxiv, 7th rep., app., nos. 40-45.
The chief cause for delay was the lack of close connection between the
mail coaches and the packets to and from Ireland. In 1837 the London
mail arrived in Holyhead at 11 P.M., but the packet did not leave for
Kingstown until 8 A.M., a change having been made in the time of
sailing.[419] Letters from England were detained in Dublin eleven hours
before their departure for the rest of the island.[420] More than one
third of the Irish letters for England left Kingstown by the day packet
at 9 A.M., remaining in Holyhead from 3 P.M. to 4 A.M., with the
exception of the letters for Chester and Manchester, which were
forwarded by a special coach.[421]
[419] _Ibid._, 1837, xxxiv, 7th rep., app., no. 11. The packet leaving
Holyhead at 6.30 P.M. carried letters from Birmingham, brought by the
coach from that place, but took no London letters (_Acc. & P._, 1841,
ix, p. 9).
[420] _Rep. Commrs._, 1831-32, xvii, p. 325.
[421] _Ibid._, 1837, xxxiv, 7th rep., app., no. 11.
The packets from Liverpool started shortly before the arrival of the
London mail. The Commissioners proposed that they should be detained
until it had arrived, but this was not done until ten years later.[422]
The packets at Portpatrick always waited for the mails from Glasgow, and
as these were nearly always late, letters from Carlisle and Northern
England were necessarily detained.[423] The station at Milford had
always given the most trouble. From a financial point of view it was the
least satisfactory, and English letters for the south of Ireland often
went through Holyhead. The packet left Waterford[424] for Milford at 12
P.M., arriving in Milford about noon, but the mail did not leave for
London until 7.30 P.M.[425] English letters for Ireland via Milford were
detained from ten to thirteen hours in Waterford.[426]
[422] _Ibid._, 1831-32, xvii, pp. 5-9; _Acc. & P._, 1841, xix.
[423] _Rep. Commrs._, 1831-32, xvii, pp. 5-9.
[424] Sometimes the packet left Dunmore. See _Rep. Commrs._, 1831-32,
xvii, pp. 373-4.
[425] _Ibid._, 1831-32, xvii, pp. 5-9, 373-74.
[426] _Ibid._, p. 325.
Before the introduction of Penny Postage, the use of railways had only
started. In 1837, it was objected that the railways could never be of
much use in this respect because they could not travel at night for
fear of accidents. In answer to this objection it was pointed out that
trains between Liverpool and Manchester and Leeds and Selby found no
difficulty in that respect.[427] In 1837, mails were carried between
Manchester and Liverpool at a rate of twenty miles an hour, and these
trains left both Liverpool and Manchester as late as 5 P.M.[428] The
Postmaster-General was given authority by Parliament to require any
railway to carry mails either by ordinary or special train and to
regulate the speed to the maximum of the fastest passenger train, as
well as to control places, times and duration of stoppage and the times
of arrival, provided that such regulations were reasonable. He might
require the exclusive use of a carriage, if necessary, provided either
by the railway or himself as seemed better to himself. In 1844 he was
allowed to order a speed not in excess of twenty-seven miles an hour but
he complained that he was unable to enforce his regulations although the
speed was increasing. In 1855 a parliamentary committee reported in
favour of a deduction of payment for irregularity on the part of the
railways and the fining of the Post Office for irregularity in dealing
with mail to be entrusted to the railways, the amounts of such
deductions and fines to be a matter of contract, and in addition it was
advised that the Postmaster-General's demands with reference to speed
should be certified by the Railway Department of the Board of Trade to
be consistent with safety. In conformity with this resolution, the
Postmaster-General proposed to pay a bonus to the railways when their
trains were on time and to exact a penalty from either the railway or
the Post Office whichever were the offender, but the proposition was, as
a rule, not very favourably received by the railways.[429]
[427] _Rep. Com._, 1837-38, xx, pt. 1, p. 469, no. 17.
[428] _Rep. Commrs._, 1837, xxxiv, 7th rep., app., no. 13.
[429] 1 and 2 Vict., c. 98; 7 and 8 Vict., c. 85; _Rep. Com._, 1854, xi,
411, p. xiii; _Rep. P. G._, 1857, p. 7.