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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
135
The
high
rates,
while
they
failed
to
increase
the
Post-Office
revenue,
undoubtedly
led
to
the
evasion
of
the
postage
altogether.
Illicit
modes
of
conveyance
were
got
up
and
patronised
by
some
of
the
principal
merchants
in
the
kingdom.
Penal
laws
were
set
at
defiance,
and
the
number
of
contraband
letters
became
enormous.
Some
carriers
were
doing
as
large
a
business
as
the
Post-Office
itself.
On
one
occasion
the
agents
of
the
Post-Office
made
a
seizure,
about
this
time,
of
eleven
hundred
such
letters,
which
were
found
in
a
single
bag
in
the
warehouse
of
certain
eminent
London
carriers.
The
head
of
the
firm
hastened
to
seek
an
interview
with
the
Postmaster-General,
and
proffered
instant
payment
of
500l.
by
way
of
composition
for
the
penalties
incurred,
and
if
proceedings
against
the
firm
might
not
be
instituted.
The
money
was
taken,
and
the
letters
were
all
passed
through
the
Post-Office
the
same
night.[76]
For
one
case
which
was
detected,
however,
a
hundred
were
never
made
known.
The
evasion
of
the
Post-Office
charges
extended
so
far
and
so
wide
that
the
officials
began
to
declare
that
any
attempt
to
stop
the
smuggling,
or
even
to
check
it,
was
as
good
as
hopeless.
Prosecutions
for
the
illicit
conveyance
of
letters
had,
in
fact,
ceased
long
before
the
misdemeanours
themselves.
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