took one month to reach Edinburgh. He accomplished the feat in three days, for a postage of 8d. The post then yielded £5,000 a year. Under the Commonwealth it was farmed to contractors. The second postal reformer, John Hill, of York, placed relays of horses from that city to London, and began to carry letters at half rates. He aimed at establishing a penny post for England, with a 2d. rate to Scotland, and a 4d. one to Ireland. But the farmers complained, and his men were 'trampled down' and hunted off the road by the soldiery of Cromwell. Hill published a spirited protest, a copy of which may be seen at the British Museum.
In 1688 the Merry Monarch had to provide for his brother James, and generously settled the Post-Office on him (having, indeed, very little else to settle). We can understand the illiberal way in which reformers were now treated. One instance will suffice. Two men, Dockwra and Murray, set up a London Penny Post, which ultimately was left in the hands of Dockwra alone. He carried, registered and insured, both letters and parcels weighing less than 1 pound, for 1d. each. He had a chief office, seven sorting offices, and some 500 receiving houses and wall-boxes, with hourly collections, and ten deliveries daily. Just as he had elaborated his system he was pounced upon by the Duke of York, who stopped his proceedings, but continued the penny post for his own benefit.
Charles appointed a Postmaster-General for Scotland. It is curious that, down to 1715, the Scottish mails were carried by foot-runners. In 1711 the Secretary of State was empowered to order the opening of any letter. The rates were then 8d. per letter for eighty miles, 4d. for a greater distance, and 6d. to Edinburgh or Dublin. In 1720 cross-road posts were established by Ralph Allen.
In 1782 John Palmer, lessee of the Bath Theatre, proposed to send the mails by the stage-coaches instead of by postboys. So numerous were highway robberies that an official notice advised people to send banknotes in halves. 'The mails,' wrote Palmer, 'are generally
