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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
106
At
the
same
period
to
which
we
refer,
there
were
only
three
letter-carriers
in
Manchester,
four
at
Bristol,
and
three
or
four
at
Birmingham;
but
in
each
case
only
one
was
allowed
by
the
Department,
the
others
being
employed
as
extras,
and
provided
for,
no
doubt,
by
a
special
tax
upon
the
letters
delivered.
This
system
of
charging
extra
for
delivery
would
seem
to
have
been
open
to
abuse,
for
we
find
that
in
1791
the
Postmaster-General
called
for
explanation
of
an
exceptional
charge
at
Eton,
in
a
Minute
as
follows:--"Let
the
Comptroller-General
inquire
who
serves,
and
by
whose
authority,
the
parts
of
the
country
circumjacent
to
the
Eton
delivery,
as
they
charge
no
less
a
sum
than
3d.
for
each
letter,
in
addition
to
the
postage,
for
all
letters
delivered
at
Upton,
which
is
not
above
a
mile
from
the
College."
And
the
Postmaster-General
makes
this
very
wise
observation
on
the
practice--"This
enormous
expense
for
letters
must
check
and
ruin
all
correspondence,
and
essentially
hurt
the
revenue."
At
the
end
of
last
century
and
beginning
of
this--and
indeed
it
may
be
said
throughout
the
whole
term
of
the
existence
of
the
Post-office--humble
petitions
were
always
coming
up
from
postmasters
for
increase
of
pay,
and
from
these
we
know
the
position
in
which
postmasters
then
were.
The
postmaster
of
Aberdeen
showed
that
in
1763,
when
the
revenue
of
his
office
was
L717,
19s.
4d.,
with
something
for
cross
post-letters,
probably
about
L400,
his
salary
had
been
L93,
15s.;
while
in
1793,
with
a
revenue
of
over
L2500,
his
whole
salary
was
only
L89,
15s.,
and
out
of
this
he
had
to
pay
office-rent
and
to
provide
assistance,
fire,
wax,
candles,
books,
and
cord.
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