An important post-office statute was passed under the protectorate in 1656, and re enacted by 12 Car. IL c. 35. It ruled that there should be one general post-office and one postmaster-general for. England, who was to have the horsing of all through posts and persons riding post. A tariff was established for letters, English, Scotch, Irish, and foreign, and the only non-governmental posts allowed to continue were those of the uni versities and the Cinque ports.
In 1685 a penny-post was set up for the conveyance of letters and parcels hetWeen different parts of London and its suburbs. It was a private speculation, originating with one Robert Murray, an upholsterer, and assigned by him to Mr. William Docwray. When its success became apparent, it was complained of by the duke of York, on whom the post-office revenues had been settled, as an encroachment on his rights; a decision of the court of king's bench adjudged it to be a part of the royal establishment, and it was thereupon annexed to the crown. In this way began the London district-post, which was improved and made a twopenny-post in 1801, and continued as a separate establishment from the general post down to 1854.
The first legislative enactment for a Scottish post-office was passed in 1695, prior tc which time the posts out of Edinburgh had been very few and irregular. About 1700 the posts between the capitals were so frequently robbed near the borders, that acts were passed both by the parliament of England and that of Scotland, making robbery cf the post punishable with death and confiscation. The post-office of Ireland is of later date than that of Scotland. In the time of Charles I., packets between Dublin and Chester, and between Milford-Haven and Waterford, conveyed government dispatches; and after the restoration, the rate of letter-postage between London and Dublin was fixed at 6d.
Act 3 Anne, c. 10, repealed the former post-office statutes, and put the establishment on a fresh basis. A general post-office was instituted in London for the whole British dominions, with chief offices in Edinburgh, Dublin, New York, and other places in the American colonies, and one in the Leeward islands. The whole was placed under the control of an officer appointed under the great seal, called the postmaster-general, who was empowered to appoint deputies for the chief offices. Rates higher than those for merly charged were settled for places in the British dominions, and also for letters to foreign puts. A survey of post rotels was ordered for the ascertainment of distances. Letters brought from abroad by private ships were ordered to be handed over to the deputy-postmasters of the ports, who were to pay the master a penny for each letter. A complete reconstruction of the cross-post system was effected in 1720, by Ralph Allen, postmaster of Bath, to whom the lords of the treasury granted a lease of the cross-posts for life: at his death they came under the control of the postmaster gen eral. The rates of postage were further raised by act 1 Geo. HI. c. 25, which also gives
permission for the establishment of penny posts iu other towns, as in London. The Edinburgh penny-post was instituted in 1766, by one Peter Williamson, a native of Aberdeen, whom the authorities induced to take a pension for the good-will of the con cern, and merged it in the general establishment.
Mail-coaches owe their origin to Mr. John Palmer, manager of the Bath and Bristol theaters, who, in 1783, submitted to Mr. Pitt a scheme for the substitution of coaches, protected by armed guards, for the boys on horseback, who till then conveyed the mail. After much opposition from the post-office authorities, his plan was adopted, and Mr. Palmer, installed at the post-office as controller-general, succeeded in perfecting his system, greatly increasing the punctuality, speed, and security of the post, and adding largely to the post-office revenue.
In 1837 a plan of post-office reform was suggested by Mr. (afterward sir) Rowland Hill, the adoption of which has not only immensely increased the utility of the post office, but changed its whole administration. Its principal features were the adoption of a uniform and low rate of postage, a charge by weight, and prepayment. The change met with much opposition from the post-office authorities, but was eventually carried by a majority of 100 in the house of commons, becoming law by 3 and 4 Vie. c. 96. The new•system came into full operation on Jan. 10, 1840. Previously to the change, mem bers of parliament had the right of sending their letters free, but this privilege of frank Lag was entirely abolished. A penny was adopted as the uniform rate for every inland letter not above half an ounce. Facilities for prepayment were afforded by the intro duction of postage-stamps, and double postage was levied on letters not prepaid. Arrangements were made for the registration of letters; and the money-order office, by a reduction of the commission charged for orders, became available to an extent which it, had never been before. As far back as 1702 a money-order office had been established as a medium for sailors and soldiers to transmit their savings, and its benefit had after- • ward been extended to the general public; but the commission charged had been so high that it was only employed to a very limited extent. The immediate result of the changes introduced in 1840 was an enormous increase in the amount of correspondence, arising in part from the cessation of the illicit traffic in letters, which had so largely pre vailed before; but for some years there was a deficit in the post-office revenue. The reduction of postage-rates was, however, a reduction of taxation, and if the exchequer lost revenue from one source., it gained it in other ways.