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318
The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance
·
James Wilson Hyde
160
A
CAUTION.
To
all
Coach-Masters,
Carriers,
Higlers,
Ship
Masters
employed
Coastwise,
Newsmen,
Watermen
and
Others.
Having
received
repeated
Information
that
Letters
are
illegally
collected,
carried
and
delivered,
to
the
great
Injury
of
the
Public
Revenue,
and
it
being
the
wish
of
this
Office
rather
to
prevent
than
punish,
and
that
the
unwary
may
be
made
acquainted
with
the
Penalties
they
are
subject
to;
I
am
directed
to
give
this
Public
Notice,
that
from
the
Date
hereof,
every
Effort
will
be
used
to
detect
and
punish
all
Persons
so
offending.--The
Penalties
for
which
are
FIVE
POUNDS
FOR
EVERY
LETTER
SO
COLLECTED,
CARRIED,
OR
DELIVERED,
WHETHER
FOR
HIRE
OR
NOT,
AND
ONE
HUNDRED
POUNDS,
FOR
EVERY
WEEK
SUCH
PRACTICE
IS
CONTINUED.
By
Command
of
the
Postmaster
General,
Johnson
Wilkinson,
Surveyor.]
In
August
1794,
at
the
Warwick
Assizes,
a
carrier
between
Warwick
and
Birmingham
was
convicted
of
illegally
collecting
and
carrying
letters,
when
penalties
amounting
to
L1500
were
incurred;
but
the
prosecution
consented
to
a
verdict
being
taken
for
two
penalties
of
L5
each,
with
costs
of
the
suit.
A
report
of
the
period
observed
that
"this
verdict
should
be
a
warning
to
carriers,
coachmen,
and
other
persons,
against
taking
up
letters
tied
round
with
a
string
or
covered
with
brown
paper,
under
pretence
of
being
parcels,
which,
the
learned
judge
observed,
was
a
flimsy
evasion
of
the
law."
The
very
cheap
postage
which
we
now
enjoy
has
removed
the
inducement
in
a
large
measure
to
commit
petty
frauds
of
this
kind
on
the
Post-office
Revenue,
and
the
commission
of
such
things
may
now
be
said
to
belong
to
an
age
that
is
past.
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