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435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
104
He
might
have
added
that
such
had
been
the
experience
with
the
post-boys
under
the
régime
which
he
was
endeavouring
to
perpetuate.
Mr.
Palmer
stipulated,
that
the
mail-guards
should
in
all
cases
be
well
armed
and
accoutred,
and
such
officers
"as
could
be
depended
upon
as
trustworthy."
But
the
Post-Office
gentlemen
objected
even
to
this
arrangement.
"There
were
no
means
of
preventing
robbery
with
effect,[57]
as
the
strongest
cart
or
coach
that
could
be
made,
lined
and
bound
with
iron,
might
easily
be
broken
into
by
determined
robbers,"
and
the
employment
of
armed
mail-guards
would
only
make
matters
worse.
Instead
of
affording
protection
to
the
mails,
the
following
precious
doctrine
was
inculcated,
that
the
crime
of
murder
would
be
added
to
that
of
robbery;
"for,"
said
the
wonderful
Mr.
Hodgson,
"when
once
desperate
fellows
had
determined
upon
robbery,
resistance
would
lead
to
murder"!
These
were
peace
and
non-resistance
principles
with
a
vengeance,
but
principles
which
in
England,
during
the
later
years
of
Pitt's
administration,
would
seldom
be
heard,
except
in
furtherance
of
some
such
selfish
views
as
those
which
the
Post-Office
authorities
held
in
opposition
to
Mr.
Palmer's
so-called
innovations.
Mr.
Palmer's
propositions
also
included
the
timing
of
the
mails
at
each
successive
stage,
and
their
departure
from
the
country
properly
regulated;
they
would
thus
be
enabled
to
arrive
in
London
at
regular
specified
times,
and
not
at
any
hour
of
the
day
or
night,
and
might,
to
some
extent,
be
delivered
simultaneously.
Again:
instead
of
leaving
London
at
all
hours
of
the
night,
he
suggested
that
all
the
coaches
for
the
different
roads
should
leave
the
General
Post-Office
at
the
same
time;
and
thus
it
was
that
Palmer
established
what
was,
to
the
stranger
in
London
for
many
years,
one
of
the
first
of
City
sights.
Finally,
Mr.
Palmer's
plans
were
pronounced
impossible.
"It
was
an
impossibility,"
his
opponents
declared,
"that
the
Bath
mail
could
be
brought
to
London
in
sixteen
or
eighteen
hours."
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