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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
155
For
example,
when
a
member
of
Parliament
had
no
place
of
residence
in
London,
and
was
living
out
of
the
United
Kingdom,
if
he
had
his
letters
addressed
to
a
public
office,
or
to
any
solicitor,
banker,
or
other
agent,
he
was
not
entitled
to
have
his
letters
free
of
postage,
but,
if
so
directed
and
delivered,
the
postage
had
to
be
paid.
Again,
when
a
member
kept
up
a
residence
in
London,
but
had
his
letters
directed
to
another
place,
the
member
ceased
to
enjoy
the
privilege
as
regards
such
letters;
as
he
also
did
when
letters
were
addressed
to
his
residence
in
the
country,
and
he
happened
to
be
elsewhere
at
the
time
of
their
delivery.
Then
a
Catholic
peer
dying,
who
had
never
taken
his
seat,
and
being
succeeded
by
his
brother,
who
was
a
Protestant,
the
question
is
raised
whether
the
latter
could
claim
to
use
the
franking
privilege
before
the
issue
of
the
writ
calling
him
to
the
House
of
Peers;
and
the
legal
decision
is
given
that
he
could
not
so
exercise
the
privilege.
Keeping
the
members
within
proper
bounds
must
evidently
have
been
a
task
for
the
officers
of
the
Post-office
requiring
both
vigilance
and
determination.
But
there
was
another
kind
of
fraud
carried
on
under
the
privilege
granted
to
soldiers.
A
surveyor
in
Scotland
thus
referred
to
the
irregularity
as
observed
in
Scotland
in
1797:--
"As
there
is
so
much
smuggling
of
letters
already
in
Scotland,
and
reason
to
suspect
it
will
increase
from
the
additional
rates,
it
is
matter
of
serious
concern
to
the
Revenue
to
obtain
a
clear
legal
restriction;
and
I
wish
you
to
represent
it
to
the
Board
at
London,
in
case
it
may
not
be
too
late
to
offer
any
hints
from
the
distant
situation
we
are
in.
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