POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS (1681).
The Government monopoly of Post Office business dates back to the reign of James I., who appointed a Postmaster to have the "sole taking up, sending, and conveying of all packets and letters concerning our serviceor business to be despatched to foreign parts," others being forbidden to convey letters; and our postal system was first really founded by an Act of Parliament in 1656 "to settle the postage of England, Scotland, and Ireland." It ordered the erection of one general post office, and one officer styled the Postmaster-General of England and Comptroller of the Post Office. Private individuals occasionally attempted to establish postal services, and in 1680 William Dockwra set up a profitable penny post for London. This, like Povey's halfpenny post in 1708, was suppressed by a lawsuit, and the management and profits of the Post Office were definitely attached to the Government.
This Office is now kept in Lombard Street, formerly in Bishopsgate Street; the profits of it are by Act of Parliament settled on his Royal Highness the Duke of York. But the King, by Letters Patents, under the Great Seal of England, constitutes the Postmaster General.
From this General Office, letters and packets are despatched—
To France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Flanders, Switzerland, Denmark, Kent, and the Downs.
To Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Ireland, Scotland, and all parts of England and Wales.
To all parts of Kent and the Downs.
To France, Spain, Italy, and all parts of England and Scotland.
To Flanders, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark Holland, Kent, and the Downs.
All parts of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.
Letters are returned from all parts of England and Scotland, certainly every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; from Wales every Monday and Friday; and from Kent and the Downs every day; but from other parts more uncertainly, in regard of the sea.
A letter containing a whole sheet of paper is convey'd 80 miles for 2d., two sheets for 4d., and an ounce of letters for 8d., and so proportionably; a letter containing a sheet is conveyed above 80 miles for 3d., two sheets for 6d., and every ounce of letters for 12d. A sheet is conveyed to Dublin for 6d., two for 1s/-, and an ounce of letters for 12d.
This conveyance by post is done in so short a time, by night as well as by day, that every twenty-four hours the post goes 120 miles, and in five days an answer of a letter may be had from a place 300 miles distant from the writer.
Moreover, if any gentleman desire to ride post, to any principal town of England, post-horses are always in readiness (taking no horse without the consent of his owner), which in other Kings' reigns was not duly observed; and only 3d. is demanded for every English mile, and for every stage to the post-boy, 4d. for conducting.
Beside this excellent convenience of conveying letters, and men on horseback, there is of late such an admirable commodiousness both for men and women of better rank, to travel from London, and to almost all the villages near this great City, that the like hath not been known in the world, and that is by stage-coaches, wherein one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather, and foul ways, free from endamaging one's health or body by hard jogging, or over-violent motion; and this not only at a low price, as about a1s/- for every 5 miles, but with such velocity and speed as that the posts in some foreign countries make not more miles in a day; for the stage-coaches, called the flying-coaches, make 40 or 50 miles in a day, as from London to Oxford or Cambridge, and that in the space of twelve hours, not counting the time for dining, setting forth not too early, nor coming in too late.