Title: The History of the Post Office, from Its Establishment Down to 1836
Author: Herbert Joyce
Release date: December 17, 2011 [eBook #38328]
Language: English
Credits: E-text prepared by Adrian Mastronardi, The Philatelic Digital Library Project
E-text prepared by Adrian Mastronardi,
The Philatelic Digital Library Project
(http://www.tpdlp.net),
Julia Neufeld,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)
| CHAPTER I | |
| Introduction—Master of the Posts—Posts centred in the Sovereign—Instructions | |
| for their Regulation—Travelling Post—Object of the Post | |
| Office Monopoly | 1 |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The Post through the County of Kent—This Post put under the care of De | |
| Quester—Stanhope of Harrington, as Master of the Posts, asserts his | |
| Rights—Vacillating Decisions of the Privy Council—Sir John Coke—Thomas | |
| Witherings | 8 |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Decadence of the Posts—Witherings's Plan—Introduction of Postage—Concessions | |
| to the common Carrier—Post-haste—Witherings appointed | |
| Master of the Inland as well as the Foreign Posts—His Dismissal—Philip | |
| Burlamachi—Dissensions between the Lords and Commons—Edmund | |
| Prideaux appointed Witherings's Successor | 15 |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| Prideaux's Activity—Unauthorised Post set up to Scotland—System of | |
| Farming—Prideaux ceases to be Master of the Posts—Secretary Thurloe—The | |
| Posts become the Subject of Parliamentary Enactment—Rates of | |
| Postage—Letters circulate through London—The Travelling Post not a | |
| Source of Revenue—Clement Oxenbridge | 24 |
| CHAPTER V | |
| Frequent Change of Farmers—Tediousness of the Course of Post—Existence | |
| of the Posts not a matter of common Knowledge—Dockwra's Penny | |
| Post—Introduction of Postmarks—Penny Post incorporated into the | |
| General Post—Dockwra's Dismissal | 33 |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| Posts regarded as Vehicles for the Propagation of Treason—Wildman—Cotton | |
| and Frankland—Post Office Establishment—Revenue—Building in | |
| Lombard Street—Dispersion of Letters—Salaries and Wages—Newspapers—Drink | |
| and Feast Money—Post-horses—Quartering of Soldiers—Postmasters' | |
| Emoluments—Scotland—Ireland—Bye-letters—Illicit | |
| Traffic—Treasury Control—Post Offices grouped together and let out to | |
| farm—Stephen Bigg—Expresses—Flying Packets—State of the Roads—Progress | |
| of the Penny Post—Appointment of Secretary and Solicitor—Purchase | |
| of Premises in Lombard Street | 43 |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| State of the Packet Service—Ship Letters—Special Boats built for the | |
| Harwich Station—M. Pajot, Director of the French Posts—Establishment | |
| of West India Packets—Edmund Dummer, Surveyor of the Navy—Regulations | |
| for the Management of the Packet Stations—Conditions | |
| of Employment—Smart and Bounty Money—Passes required for Passengers—and | |
| for Goods—Regulations habitually infringed—Smuggling—Packets | |
| forbidden to give Chase—Practice on Capture of a Prize—Packet | |
| Stations at Falmouth and at Harwich conducted on different Principles—Packets | |
| employed to carry Recruits—Letters not to be carried in Foreign | |
| Bottoms—Court-Post—Restoration of Packet Service with Flanders—John | |
| Macky, Packet Agent at Dover—The Postmasters-General act as | |
| Purveyors of News to the Court—Their Interview with Godolphin—Posts | |
| set up for the Army in Flanders—Packet Establishment placed on | |
| a Peace Footing—Dummer's Bankruptcy and Death | 72 |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| American Posts—Thomas Neale—Andrew Hamilton—Ocean Penny Postage—Posts | |
| transferred to the Crown—Become self-supporting | 110 |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| Condition of the Post Office in Scotland at the time of the Union—Inaction | |
| of the English Post Office—Charles Povey—William Lowndes—Diversion | |
| of Postage from the Crown to the Public—Postage Rates increased—Electoral | |
| Disabilities—Restrictions on the common Carrier—Modification | |
| of the Penny Post—Post-horses—Franking—Illicit Traffic in Letters—Treasury | |
| Inconsistency—Post Office Farmers converted into Managers—Treaty | |
| with France—Matthew Prior—Single and Double Letters—Change | |
| of Postmasters-General—Disagreements with Merchants—Twopenny | |
| Post—Comparative Statement of Revenue—Gross and Net Revenue | |
| confounded | 117 |
| CHAPTER X | |
| Allen's Contract—General Review—The Secretary's Dismissal—Earl of Abercorn's | |
| Complaint—Sketch of Allen's Plan—His Qualifications for carrying | |
| it into effect—His local Knowledge—His Difficulties with Postmasters—Post-boys—Illegal | |
| Conveyance of Letters—Contrast between Allen's Mode | |
| of Procedure and that of the Post Office—Posts increased in Frequency—Opening | |
| of Letters—Falmouth Packets—Late Delivery of Foreign | |
| Letters—Erection of Milestones—Letters containing Patterns and Writs—Apertures | |
| to Letter-boxes—Expresses—Highwaymen—Bank Notes—Decadence—Allen's | |
| Death | 146 |
| CHAPTER XI | |
| Penny Post—Franking—Newspapers—Clerks of the Roads—Numbering of | |
| Houses—Scotch and Irish Posts—Receiving Offices—Gratuities on Delivery—Appeal | |
| to the Courts—Appointment of Letter-carriers—Attempt | |
| to curtail the Limits of the Penny Post frustrated—Benjamin Franklin—Post | |
| Office Monopoly in matter of Horses abolished—Disfranchising Act—Causes | |
| of Disquietude | 187 |
| CHAPTER XII | |
| Palmer's Plan—Objections—First Mail-coach—Post-coach—Increase in Rates | |
| of Postage—Restrictions upon Franking—Obstruction alleged—Anthony | |
| Todd—Transitional Period—Stages—Earlier Closing of the General | |
| Post Office—Emoluments from Bell Ringing—Internal Dissensions—Tankerville's | |
| Dismissal—Corruption—Surveyors—Conditions of Palmer's | |
| Appointment—Abuses—Fees and Perquisites—Expresses—Registration—Palmer's | |
| Improvements—Packet Service—Smuggling—Flagitious Expenditure—Todd's | |
| Emoluments—Pitt's Indisposition to expose Abuses—Lord | |
| Walsingham—Daniel Braithwaite—Essays in Cause of Economy—Milford | |
| Haven and Waterford Packets—Pitiable Condition of the Clerks | |
| of the Roads—The King's Coach—His Illness and Prayer for his Recovery—Strange | |
| Treatment of Official Papers—George Chalmers—Palmer's | |
| Jealousy—Mail Guards—Creation of a Newspaper Office—Walsingham | |
| attempts to check Irregularities—His inveterate Habit of Scribbling—Exposes | |
| an Attempt at Imposition—Curious Practice as regards the | |
| Delivery of Foreign Letters—Earl of Chesterfield—Insubordination on | |
| Palmer's Part—Appeal to Pitt—Charles Bonnor—Palmer's Suspension—Chesterfield's | |
| Letter—Interview with Pitt—A Second Interview—Palmer's | |
| Dismissal—Bonnor's Promotion | 208 |
| CHAPTER XIII | |
| Model of Mail coach—Patent Coaches—Thomas Hasker—His pithy Instructions—Roof-loading—The | |
| King's Interest in his Coach—General Result | |
| of Palmer's Plan—Condition of the country Post Offices—Francis Freeling—Enlargement | |
| of the General Post Office—Communication with | |
| France—Bank Notes cut in half—Letter-carriers put into Uniform—Grant | |
| to Post Office Servants—Development of the Penny Post—Edward | |
| Johnson—Excessive Absence among the Letter-carriers—By the Penny | |
| Post prepayment ceases to be compulsory—The Ten-mile Limit—Origin | |
| of the Twopenny Post—Dead Letter Office—American and West Indian | |
| Correspondence—Correspondence for the India House—Post with the | |
| Channel Islands—Further Restrictions on Franking—Bankers' Franks—Patterns | |
| and Samples—Metropolitan Cart Service—Horse and Cross | |
| Posts—Rates of Postage increased—Mysterious doings of the Packets—Brilliant | |
| Engagements—Post Office Usage—Counsels' Fees—New Years' | |
| Gifts—Todd's Indifference to Censure—His Death | 281 |
| CHAPTER XIV | |
| Ship-letter Office—Increase in Rates of Postage—Abolition of the Penny | |
| Post—Invoices and Bills of Lading—Convention Posts—Prosecutions—Auckland's | |
| Pleasantries—Repressive Powers—Guarding the Horse-mails—Recovery | |
| of stolen Mail Bag—Troubles with Contractors—Surveyors | |
| deprived of their Post Offices—Rates of Postage again increased—Threepenny | |
| Post—Post Office Revenue—William Cobbett—Early or Preferential | |
| Delivery—Treatment of Foreign Newspapers—Newspaper Summaries—The | |
| Times—Olney Post—-Death-blow to Convention Posts—Turnpike | |
| Trusts—Exemption from Toll—Roads discoached—Yet further | |
| Increase in Rates of Postage—Bewildering Complications—Want of | |
| Publicity—Exemption from Toll abolished in Scotland—Returned-letter | |
| Office—New Ship-letter Act—Mail Service to India and the Cape—Generosity | |
| of the East India Company—Eulogistic Letter | 328 |
| CHAPTER XV | |
| The Irish Post Office—British Mail Office—Earl of Clancarty—Edward Smith | |
| Lees—Abuses—Express Clerks and Clerks of the Roads—Alphabet—Provision | |
| for Soldiers' Wives—Thomas Whinnery, Postmaster of Belfast—Charles | |
| Bianconi—Holyhead Packets—Opposition Packets started by | |
| Lees—Steam Packets—Competition—Land Communication with Ireland—London | |
| and Holyhead Coach—Sir Arthur Wellesley—State of the | |
| Roads—Road between Holyhead and Shrewsbury—Thomas Telford—John | |
| London Macadam—Road between Shrewsbury and London—Postage | |
| over the Conway and Menai Bridges | 366 |
| CHAPTER XVI | |
| Appointment of Second Postmaster-General abolished—Other Economies—Transfer | |
| of the Falmouth Packets to the Admiralty—Speed of Mail-coaches—Mail-coaches | |
| the Disseminators of News—Newspapers—Sir | |
| Henry Parnell—Royal Commission—General Review—Gerrard Street—Headquarters | |
| of the General Post Office removed to St. Martin's-le-Grand—Branch | |
| Offices—Morning Delivery expedited—First Mail sent by Railway—Duke | |
| of Richmond—Incorporation of the Irish Post Office with | |
| the Post Office of Great Britain—Lord Althorp—Limits of the General | |
| Post Delivery—Packet Service put up to public Competition—Abolition | |
| of the Newspaper Privilege—Dissatisfaction with the Post Office—Money | |
| Order Office—Unsatisfactory Returns to the House of Commons—Indisposition | |
| to carry out Reforms—More unsatisfactory Returns—New Contract | |
| for Mail-coaches—Freeling's Despondency—and Death | 396 |
| APPENDIX | 429 |
| INDEX | 439 |
The early history of the posts is involved in some obscurity. What little is known on the subject is touched upon in the first Annual Report of the Post Office, the Report for 1854; but the historical summary there given is, as it purports to be, a summary only. The object of the following pages is nothing more than to fill up the gaps and to supply some particulars for which, though not perhaps without interest, an official report would be no fitting place. The origin and progress of an institution which has so interwoven itself with the social life of the people as to have become one of the most remarkable developments of modern civilisation can hardly, we think, be considered a subject unworthy of study.
It seems almost certain that until the reign of Henry the Eighth, or perhaps a little earlier, no regular system of posts existed in England, and that then and for some considerable time afterwards the few posts that were established were for the exclusive use of the Sovereign. "Sir," writes Sir Brian Tuke to Thomas Cromwell in 1533, "it may like you to understonde the Kinges Grace hathe no moo ordinary postes, ne of many days hathe had, but bitwene London and Calais ... and sens October last, the postes northewarde.... For, Sir, ye knowe well that, except the hakney horses bitwene Gravesende and Dovour, there is no suche usual conveyance in post for men in this realme as is in the accustumed places of France and other parties." Sir Brian Tuke held the appointment of Master of the Posts, and he had received the King's commands to set up posts "in al places most expedient."
Before Henry's reign the only letters of which any record exists, letters to or from the Court and on affairs of State, were sent by couriers employed for the particular occasion. These couriers, styled "Nuncii" and "Cursores," appear to have answered to the Queen's messengers of our own time, and, as is evident from records still extant and dating back to the reign of Henry the Third, must have formed an important branch of the royal establishment.
To establish posts and to control them when established was not all or nearly all that Brian Tuke had to do. He had also to see, even where no posts existed, that the royal couriers were not kept waiting for horses; and this probably was his original function. The horses were provided by the townships, and the townships were kept up to their duty by the Master of the Posts. In some cases, indeed, special provision appears to have been made. At Leicester,[1] for instance, the members of the Corporation bound themselves under penalty to keep four post-horses in constant readiness for their Sovereign's use; but this can hardly have been a common practice. Where horses were not provided voluntarily, the magistrates and constables had orders to seize them wherever they could be found.
The close connection between the posts and the Sovereign continued long after the reign of Henry the Eighth. In 1572 Thomas Randolph, Master of the posts to Queen Elizabeth, rendered an account of the charges to which he had been put in the execution of his trust during the preceding five years; and in this account, which is given in considerable detail, not a single post is mentioned without some qualification identifying it with the person of the Sovereign—a post daily serving Her Majesty, a post for Her Majesty's service and affairs, a post during the time of Her Majesty's progress, a post for the conveyance of Her Majesty's letters and those of her Council. As late as 1621 all the posts of the kingdom, which even then were only four in number, started from the Court. I. "The Courte to Barwicke," i.e. the post to Scotland. II. "The Courte to Beaumoris," i.e. the post to Ireland. III. "The Courte to Dover," i.e. the post to the Continent. IV. "The Courte to Plymouth," i.e. the post to the Royal Dockyard.
The setting up of a post for a particular purpose and letting it drop as soon as the purpose had been answered was another peculiarity of these early times. The post to Plymouth, ordained in 1621 to be one of the standing posts of the kingdom, had been dropped since 1611, having then been declared to be unnecessary except in time of war. Even the post to Ireland had at one time been dropped and was not revived until 1598. In the same year a second post to Ireland, Irish affairs being then considered to require "oftner dispatches and more expedition," was set up by way of Bristol, and this in its turn disappeared. Indeed, it would probably not be too much to say that at the beginning of the seventeenth century no post set up in England during a war had lasted longer than the war itself. This practice of dropping a post as soon as it had served its purpose, a practice which must almost necessarily have existed from the earliest times, would seem to explain Brian Tuke's meaning when, after stating that in 1533 except those he mentioned "the Kinges Grace hathe no moo ordinary postes," he adds, "ne of many days hathe had."
For the regulation of the posts the earliest instructions of which we have any record were issued by Queen Elizabeth. Every "post" was to keep and have constantly ready two horses at least, with suitable "furniture." He was to have at least two bags of leather well lined with baize or cotton, and a horn to blow "as oft as he meets company" or four times in every mile. He was, after receiving a packet, to start within fifteen minutes, and to run in summer at the rate of seven miles an hour and in winter at the rate of five. The address of the packet and the day and the hour at which he received it were to be carefully entered in a book to be kept for the purpose. But the packets which were thus to be treated were only such as should be on the Queen's affairs or the affairs of State. "All others" are dismissed in a word. These, the instructions state, are "to passe as by-letters." To pass as by-letters probably means that the letters were to go when and as best they might, but that the post was not to go for the purpose of taking them. This view is confirmed by an order of the subsequent reign, that "no pacquets or letters," except such as were on the King's affairs, should "binde any poste to ride therewith in post." But be the meaning what it may, the expression seems to shew that even in the reign of Elizabeth letters other than State letters had begun to be sent to the post-houses, and that such letters, if barely recognised, were yet not excluded.
But the conveyance of the Sovereign's letters was not the only purpose which the posts as originally established were designed to serve. Another and hardly less important purpose was that there should be stationed and in constant readiness, at given distances along the chief roads of the kingdom, a relay of horses by which persons travelling on their Sovereign's concerns, even though not the bearers of letters, might pass between one part of the country and another. Of this second purpose a few words implanted in the English language, such as post-horse, post-boy, and travelling-post, are all that we have now left to remind us. But long after the public had been admitted to the free use of the post, the two objects of providing for letters and providing for travellers continued to be treated as inseparable. Hence the history of the posts during the seventeenth century and far into the eighteenth becomes complicated with the history of travelling.[2]
Indeed, there can be little doubt that it was as a means of travelling and not as a means of correspondence that the post first came to be used by others than those employed on affairs of State. Writing, during the sixteenth century, was an accomplishment possessed by comparatively few, whereas any one might have occasion to travel; and the resources of travelling, so far as these partook of an organised system, were in the hands of the Sovereign. Wherever there were posts, it was at the Sovereign's charge and for the Sovereign's use that horses were maintained; and where there were no posts, it was only for the use of the Sovereign that the townships were under obligation to supply horses. The natural consequence followed. People pretended to be travelling on their Sovereign's affairs who were really travelling on affairs of their own, and so procured the use of horses which would otherwise have been denied them. The horses, moreover, were overridden and overloaded, and the persons by whom they were hired not rarely forgot to pay for them.[3]
No sooner had James the First come to the throne than he issued a proclamation having for its object to check these abuses. Only those were to be deemed to be travelling on public affairs who held a special commission signed by one or more of the principal officers of State. No horse was to be ridden, in summer, above seven miles an hour, and in winter above six; nor yet, without the knowledge and consent of the owner, beyond the next stage. The load, besides the rider, was not to exceed thirty pounds in weight. Persons riding with special commission were to pay for each horse 2-1/2d. a mile, besides the guide's groats, and "others riding poste with horse and guide about their private businesses" were to make their own terms. In all cases payment was to be made in advance. The proclamation contained another and most important provision, the effects of which were felt far into the next century. This was that, wherever posts existed, those who had the horsing of the posts were also to have the exclusive letting of horses to travellers. If the post-houses could not supply horses enough, the local constables with the assistance of the magistrates were to make good the deficiency.
The proclamation of 1603 was soon followed by another, prohibiting all persons not being duly authorised by the Master of the Posts from being concerned in the collecting, carrying, or delivering of letters. The effect, therefore, of the two proclamations together was that, except by private hand, no letter and, except along the bye-roads where posts did not exist, no traveller could pass between one part of the kingdom and another without coming under the observation of the Government. It has been suggested that the State monopoly of letters had its origin in a desire on the part of the Sovereign to reserve to himself the revenue which the letters brought; but in 1609, when the monopoly was created, the posts were maintained at a clear loss to the crown of £3400 a year, and this loss, as matters then stood, the erection of every fresh post would serve to increase. However it may have been in after years, the original object of the monopoly, the object avowed indeed and proclaimed, was that the State might possess the means of detecting and defeating conspiracies against itself. A system such as this object implies is absolutely abhorrent to our present notions; and yet it is a fact beyond all question that the posts in their infancy were regarded and largely employed as an instrument of police. It was not until the reign of William the Third that they began to assume their present shape of a mere channel for the transmission of letters.
But we are anticipating. In 1609 the cloud which obscures the earlier history of the posts begins to break, and from that year it is possible to present a tolerably connected narrative of their progress.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the established posts were only four in number,—the post to Scotland, the post to Ireland, the post to Plymouth, and the post to Dover; and of these the most important by far, because the most used, was the last, the post through the county of Kent. It was through this county that the high-road to the Continent lay, and, while commercial relations as between one town and another within the kingdom were yet a thing of the future, the foreign trade of the country had already reached very considerable proportions. The persecutions in France and the Low Countries had driven a large number of foreigners to London, and here the Flemings introduced the manufacture of wool into cloth. In this commodity alone the exports from England to the Netherlands in the time of Philip the Second amounted to five millions of crowns annually.[4] In education no less than manufactures the Flemings were far in advance of our own countrymen. There was scarcely a peasant among them that could not both read and write. While, therefore, the other three posts of the kingdom were still being little used except for letters on affairs of State, the post to the Continent had already become matter of public concern.
This post had long been jealously watched, the foreign merchants in London claiming to send their letters by their own agents, and the Crown insisting that they should be sent only through the established channel. It was an old feud, extending far back into the sixteenth century. In 1591 a proclamation on the subject had been issued. This, in respect to the post through the county of Kent, established that State monopoly of letters which was not made general until eighteen years afterwards. It was to the protection of the same post that the proclamation of 1603 had been directed, the proclamation reserving to those who horsed the posts the exclusive right of letting horses to travellers. But these measures had been of little avail. The foreign merchants still employed their own agents to carry their letters, and these agents, instead of resorting to the post-houses, still procured horses where and as best they could.
Once more recourse was had to a proclamation, which differed little from others that had gone before except in one important particular. This was the open avowal that among the chief cares of the State it had been and continued to be by no means the least "to meete with the dangerous and secret intelligences of ill-affected persons, both at home and abroad, by the overgreat liberty taken both in writing and riding in poste, specially in and through our countie of Kent." The magistrates were enjoined to take care that horses were procured at the post-houses alone. No letters were to be sent except through the post, and notice to this effect was to be served upon all the merchants of the city of London, "both strangers and others." Unauthorised persons suspected of having letters upon them were, before entering or leaving the kingdom, to be searched. And any packets or letters found to be illicitly conveyed were to be sent up to the Privy Council, and the bearers of them to be apprehended and kept in safe custody pending the Council's orders.
At this time the office of Master of the Posts was held by Lord Stanhope of Harrington, and under Lord Stanhope, to superintend the foreign post, was employed a foreigner of the name of De Quester. This man, with the assistance of his son, appears to have discharged his duties efficiently. He made communication with the Continent both cheaper and more expeditious. His promptitude in forwarding the public despatches had attracted the attention of his Sovereign. In 1619, in recognition of these services, the King created the control of the foreign post into a separate appointment, independent of Lord Stanhope, and conferred it upon De Quester and his son, under the title of "Postmaster of England for Foreign parts out of the King's Dominions."
It is possible that De Quester's appointment, though ostensibly a reward for good service, was dictated in part by policy. But if designed to appease the foreign merchants, it signally failed of its object. The truth seems to be that they were animated by feelings of profound distrust. Many years later, when De Quester had retired, the English merchants, in a petition to the King, protested against the choice of a successor being left to the "strangers." This, they said, would be to their own great prejudice. Even the letters patent by which that successor was appointed give as a reason for not letting the strangers have a post of their own that thus the secrets of the realm would be disclosed to foreign nations. Such being the feelings on one side, it would be strange indeed if they had not also existed on the other.
De Quester's appointment, while displeasing to the foreign merchants, gave dire offence to Lord Stanhope. The letters patent by which this peer held his office had expressly declared that not only the internal posts of the kingdom were to be under his direction, but also those "beyond the seas within the King's dominions." This expression, repeated from former patents, applied, no doubt, to Calais. And yet, could it in reason be contended that his rights were not being infringed if the post through which all letters between London and the Continent passed were transferred to other hands? Except for the practice of granting offices in remainder, Stanhope's death at this time would have settled the difficulty. As a matter of fact, however, the difficulty had only begun. By a deed granted thirteen years before, his son and successor in the title succeeded also to the office of Master of the Posts, and it soon became evident that the younger Stanhope had no intention, without a struggle, of letting the grant to himself be whittled away by a subsequent grant to another. The Council, not composed of laymen alone, but comprising among its members Coventry, soon to become Lord Keeper, and Heath, the Solicitor-General, advised the King that "both grants might well stand together, being of distinct places." Stanhope rejoined that his was "an ancient office tyme out of minde," and that by prescription it carried with it the control of letters passing between England and the Continent as well as others. Again the Council reported against his claim. In support of it, they said, no patent or proofs had been adduced before them more ancient than the time of Henry the Eighth.
Stanhope, who remained unconvinced, now proceeded to assert his rights, or what he conceived to be his rights, with remarkable vigour. He caused De Quester to be molested in the discharge of his duties; he placarded the city of London, cautioning all persons against sending letters except by his own agents; he instituted proceedings in the Court of King's Bench; and he even stirred up the foreign merchants to make common cause with himself against the intruder.
The probable explanation of Stanhope's conduct is that De Quester's appointment touched him in that most sensitive part, the pocket. His salary as Master of the Posts was £66:13:4 a year, and this he would of course receive in any case; but on letters to the Continent there were certain fees to be paid, a fee of 8d. on each letter to or from Amsterdam, and a like sum between London and Antwerp or London and Hamburgh, and these, as seems to have been admitted in the suit at law, were the motive cause.
In vain the King proclaimed against Stanhope's proceedings. The Privy Council met to consider the question as between him and De Quester, and separated without coming to a conclusion. Four more meetings were held, and with an equally unsatisfactory result. Clearly there was a conflict of opinion at the Council Board. Meanwhile the decisions as regards the merchants were marked by extraordinary vacillation. First, the Merchant Adventurers were "to have a post of their owne choice" to the city of Hamburgh and town of Delph, "where the staples of cloth are now fetched or to such other place or places whither the same shall happen to be removed"; then they were summoned before the Council to shew cause why they also should not send their letters by De Quester; then the concession was not only confirmed in the case of the Merchant Adventurers, but extended to all other "Companies of Merchants"; and then in the case of these other companies the concession was withdrawn, but only, in the course of a few weeks, to be restored. Only few restrictions were imposed. No one carrying the merchants' letters was to "keepe any publick office," to "hange up any Tables," or to "weare any Badge"; nor was he to be employed until his name had been submitted to the Secretary of State for approval. It was also provided that in times of war or danger the Secretary of State, if he required it, was to be "made acquainted" with the letters and despatches which the messenger carried.
The final decision of the Council, which left the merchants in possession of a post of their own, practically superseded De Quester's appointment, and this drew forth an indignant protest from Sir John Coke. The two Secretaries of State, of whom Coke was one, had been specially charged with the protection of De Quester's office, and the decision had been arrived at in their absence. Meanwhile a broker, of the name of Billingsley, was carrying the merchants' letters, and the same man was being employed by Stanhope. Coke's indignation knew no bounds. "I confess," he said, "it troubleth me to see the audacity of men in these times, and that Billingsley, a broker by trade, should dare to attempt thus often to question the King's service, and to derive that power of foreign letters unto merchants which in all states is a branch of regal authority." Can any place in Christendom be named where merchants are allowed to send their letters except through the authorised post? It is true that, as an act of grace, the Merchant Adventurers here have been suffered to send and receive their letters by private hand; but such letters have been only to and from their own mart towns and concerning their private business. That this man of theirs should be suffered to carry any letters he please—letters from merchants in general, and even from ambassadors, is a thing that has never been heard of nor durst any attempt it before. "Indeed the merchants' purse hath swayed very much in other matters in former times, but I never heard that it encroached upon the King's prerogative until now." A pretty account will those who are charged with the peace of the realm be able to give in their places "of that which passeth by letters in or out of the land if every man may convey letters, under the covers of merchants', to whom and what place he pleaseth." Coke went so far as to suggest that advantage had been taken of a small attendance at the Council Table to extort the concession from the King upon wrong or imperfect information. Surely His Majesty cannot have been informed "how unfit a time this is to give liberty to every man to write and send what he list."
Nor did Coke's indignation confine itself to words, for it is impossible not to conclude that he was at the bottom of the high-handed proceeding that followed. Stanhope had gained his suit at law; yet the Council, far from revoking De Quester's patent, granted him an order consigning Billingsley to prison. It was not until he had been there for three months that Parliament, which had recently passed a vote against arbitrary imprisonments, petitioned the King for his release.
Of the final issue of the contest nothing is known. But it seems probable that the foreign merchants were not deterred by the treatment which Billingsley had received from keeping up a post of their own. Other and more serious matters were beginning to occupy the attention of the Court, and it may well be believed that irregularities which had been challenged before might now be allowed to pass unnoticed. Be that as it may, in 1632 De Quester, who had lost his son, and had become old and infirm, associated with himself in the execution of his office two men named Frizell and Witherings, and to these persons he shortly afterwards assigned his patent. Frizell appears to have been little more than a sleeping partner; but Witherings soon established a high character for ability and powers of organisation. The foreign post had not been under his charge for more than three years before the King commissioned him to examine also into the inland posts, and to put them on another and better footing.
Armed with the King's commission, Witherings lost no time in applying himself to his task. And, indeed, the state of things which he found existing afforded ample scope for his energies. Except to Plymouth and through the county of Kent, posts existed rather in name than in reality. Nominally there was a post to Scotland, and this post James had busied himself in improving, in anticipation of his progress to London; but since then it had languished and died, or nearly died, of inanition. Between the kingdoms of England and Scotland there had, up to the date of Witherings's commission, as expressed in the commission itself, been no certain or constant intercourse. The only remaining post, the post to Ireland, was in an equally forlorn condition.
This decadence can only be attributed to two causes, the paucity of travellers and the necessities of the King. Had travellers been numerous, the posts would have been kept up for the sake of the profit to be derived from the letting of horses. In the absence of travellers, the keepers of the post-houses were dependent upon their established wages, and these had long remained unpaid. As far back as 1628 a petition on the subject had been presented to the Council. The "99 poore men," as the petitioners styled themselves, had received no wages for nearly seven years; the arrears then due to them amounted to £22,626; some of them were already in prison, and many more were threatened with arrest. In 1635, as a consequence, doubtless, of their necessitous condition, they had ceased to keep horses, and letters were being carried on foot. In this manner a distance of only sixteen to eighteen miles was accomplished in a day, and to obtain from Scotland or from Ireland a reply to a letter written in London took "full two monthes."
Witherings was not long in producing his plan. Within the city of London was to be appointed an office or counting-house for the receipt and despatch of letters, and thence were to be established trunk lines of post to the principal towns of the kingdom, with corresponding branch posts, either foot posts or horse posts, according to distance, to the smaller towns. The branch posts were to be so fitted to the main posts that there was to be no waiting on the part of either; and these latter were to start and return at stated times, and to run night and day so as to cover 120 miles in twenty-four hours. From London to Edinburgh the course of post which had been full two months was to be only six days; and to Holyhead or Plymouth and back the distance was to be accomplished in the same time. Even Witherings himself appears to have been carried away by the brilliancy of the prospect. "Anie fight at sea," he says, "anie distress of His Majestie's ships (which God forbid), anie wrong offered by anie other nation to anie of ye coastes of England or anie of His Majestie's forts ... the newes will come sooner than thought."
An example has been left us of the process to be followed. The letters for Scotland were to be put into a "portmantle" directed to Edinburgh, into which were also to be put small bags containing letters for towns on the same line of road. At Cambridge, for instance, as soon as the Portmantle arrived, the bag for that town was to be taken out, and a foot-post, "with a known badge of His Majestie's arms," was upon the market days to go to all towns within six, eight or ten miles, and there deliver the letters, at the same time receiving any that might be handed to him. These he was to bring back to Cambridge in time for the return-post from Scotland. The return was to be on a particular day, and at a particular hour, and the letters were to be ready without fail, "upon the verie instant comeing back of the portmantle." The same process was to be adopted at Huntingdon and all other towns on the road.
It was an essential part of Witherings's plan that the posts should be not only regular and certain but also self-supporting. During the earlier part of the century they had been maintained at a cost to the Crown of £3400 a year, and this was a burden which the Crown was no longer in a position to bear. That they should be made to pay their own way was, therefore, an indispensable condition. But how was this to be accomplished? Witherings's sagacity left him at no loss for a reply. He discerned that to carry a letter is to perform a service for which a payment may fairly be demanded in return; and that the demand would meet with a ready response must have been plain to him from what he saw going on in the west of England. In 1633, or two years before he produced his plan, the Mayor and Aldermen of Barnstaple had set up a post between their town and Exeter. This post was to leave Barnstaple every Tuesday at 7 o'clock in the morning, and to be in Exeter early on the following day, in time to catch the King's post on its way from Plymouth to London. The King's post was maintained at the expense of the King; but for the local service, as a means of defraying the cost, the Corporation imposed a small charge, a charge of 6d. for a single letter and of 8d. for a double one. Other towns in Devonshire had adopted a similar course. That Witherings was aware of the existence of these posts is evident from the special allusion that is made to them in the Proclamation which he prevailed upon the King to issue;[5] and it was their success, probably, which suggested his own undertaking. Concluding that what private enterprise was effecting on a small scale the State would be able to effect on a large one, he proposed—and the proposal received the royal sanction—that for every letter sent by post a "port" or charge for carriage should be levied after the following rates:—