CHAPTER V.

POSTAL TRANSMISSION-POST-CHAISES

AND POST-BOYS.

Early letter-carriers and postal systems-The first English PostFurther postal organisation-The Penny Post-Post-chaises and post-boys-Postillions - Post-horses - Post-houses, postmasters, and post-boys-Two good Conservatives-Rules of posting-yard.

BEFORE speaking about post-chaises and post-boys it would be as well to speak not only of the origin of the word post but of the actual transmission of letters by road, since coaches and horses have been largely employed on the road in the transmission of letters and the conveyance of travellers. Although the word post should perhaps be confined to the transmission. of letters only, it has somehow extended itself and obtained a wider signification, since it gave a name to a carriage and to the men employed to ride the horses that drew it.

It is difficult to trace the origin of the word post as applied to travelling. It is defined by some lexicographer as being the means by which letters or travellers are transported with rapidity and ease from place to place; the name is supposed to be derived from the Latin positus, placed, because horses were placed at certain distances on the routes. Posts seem to have had their origin amongst the Persians. Darius, the first son of Hystaspes, caused couriers, with saddlehorses, to be always ready at different stations throughout the empire at a distance of one day's journey from

each other, in order that there might be no delay in getting reports from the provinces.

During the Empire an institution similar to the modern post was established by Augustus among the Romans.

In Germany, France, and Italy, during the ninth century, there existed messengers who travelled on horseback; they were, however, only employed for the Government. The use of carrier pigeons, introduced from the East, had only a short duration in Europe. With the progress of commerce, however, the necessity for having posts made itself felt, and in all the largest cities of Germany mounted messengers and stagecoaches began to be established; letters were also placed in the charge of travellers, merchants, and butchers, who rode about the country to buy cattle.

Pedestrian messengers who took charge of letters and money for the students were maintained by the University of Paris in the beginning of the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth century Louis XI. established for his own use mounted messengers, and instituted post stations at intervals of four French miles on the principal roads of France. During the next century Charles VIII. extended this institution for the use of the court.

The first post was established in Germany by Roger I., in the latter part of the fifteenth century.

In 1516 another was established by his son between Brussels and Vienna. Charles V., V., on account of the vastness of his estates, desired to have news as quickly as possible, and caused a permanent riding-post to be established from the Netherlands through Liége, Trèves, Wurtemburg, Augsburg, and the Tyrol to Italy.

After the death of Charles V., Leonard of Thurn

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and Taxis, who had established the post, was appointed Postmaster-General to the Empire. As long as the Empire existed this postal system lasted.

Austria and Prussia in 1850 formed an international post compact, in which, after a time, Bavaria, Saxony, and various other States joined. At first the stage-coaches were united with the post-offices; but this arrangement was, in that country as well as in others, greatly altered and modified by the introduction of railways. In France, shortly after the beginning of the seventeenth century, the system of posts began to receive more regular attention, a Controller-General of Posts being appointed. The post was then farmed out to private speculators till the expiration of the last lease, and the establishment reverted to the King at a time when it produced an income of more than 11,000,000 francs. Until the Revolution, which took away all such privileges, the Post-Masters enjoyed great immunities. The present rates in France, as regards letters, were established by the decree in 1854.

The Russian internal postage fees are very moderate, notwithstanding the difficulty of travelling, owing to the severity of the climate and want of good roads; the charge for each letter in that large Empire amounts to no more than ten copecks, about twopencehalfpenny.

In Denmark the post is on the German model, and managed very much with a view to revenue, and the same is the case in Sweden. In Norway there is an independent post carried on especially by steamboats, which visit the whole coast. In the Netherlands the English system of post seems to be followed, and in Holland the French.

Posts were first established in the English colonies in North America in 1639. The celebrated Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster-General to the American colonies in 1753; he remained in that position till 1774, when the British Government very foolishly dismissed him.* Many improvements were introduced during his superintendence. The postal charge in America upon ordinary local letters is one cent, which is one halfpenny; upon letters not exceeding half-anounce in weight, addressed to any distance within three thousand miles, three cents, equal to three-halfpence; and when sent upwards of that distance ten cents, fivepence; and all letters have to be prepaid.

The English postal system commenced in the reign of Edward III., but it was not exactly a public institution. In Edward IV.'s reign post-houses were placed at intervals of twenty miles along the main roads; and, in the north, a military post was established to communicate with the army during the invasion of Scotland. It is uncertain at what period the public were permitted to make use of this institution. Before the reign of Charles I., merchants, tradesmen, and professional men resorted to less secure methods of conveying their letters, or employed express messengers at great expense. It must have been in these days that the word "express" originated, used in connection with particular haste and speed. Lexicographers define it, when taken in this sense, as a messenger or vehicle sent with haste on a particular errand; any vehicle sent with a special message.

*This made him very hostile towards England, although America was merely the country of his adoption, he being an emigrant. After the Declaration of Independence he became a naturalised subject of the United States, but the bent of his inclinations may have been decided by his dismissal from Government employment.

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Of late years a railway-train, which travels at a high rate of speed, has been called an express; but it evidently originated in the early days of posting, and in America and other parts of the world where public vehicles act as regular stage-coaches on common roads, or where horsemen are employed to transmit the mails, the word express is frequently used. In the principal cities and universities there were messengers who performed long journeys on horseback or on foot, and returned with answers to letters.

With the assistance of Matthew Le Quester, James I. established a system of forwarding letters to foreign countries; before that time this had been done by private enterprise. In 1632 Charles I. by a proclamation forbade letters being sent out of the kingdom except through the post-office, and three years afterwards he established a system of post for England and Scotland, which was carefully and judiciously regulated. This was followed by the abolition of all local and private posts, and the income of the post-offices was claimed by the King. The newlyestablished post was placed under the control of Thomas Witherings. About the same time Charles, in connection with Louis XIII. of France, established an international post between London and Paris, while the private post, which had hitherto existed between Rye and Dieppe, was abolished. During the period of the civil wars these institutions suffered severely, but they recovered when peace and tranquillity was restored. A member of the House of Commons, named Edmund Prideaux, suggested alterations in the postal system, one of which was a weekly conveyance of letters to all parts of the kingdom, whereby the public were saved £7000 per annum. The greatest advance, however, was made in the postal