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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
203
No
inconsiderable
part
of
the
Committee's
time
was
taken
up
in
the
production
and
examination
of
records,
acts,
and
precedents
bearing
on
the
subject.
The
officers
of
the
State
Paper
Office
and
other
high
Government
functionaries
produced
records
and
State
papers
of
great
importance,
from
which
we
learn
many
interesting
particulars
of
early
postal
history.
At
some
risk
of
being
charged
with
anachronism,
we
have
thought
it
desirable
to
introduce
these
details
in
the
order
of
the
subject
under
treatment.
James
I.
in
establishing
a
foreign
post,
was
more
anxious
that
Government
secrets
should
not
be
disclosed
to
foreign
countries,
"which
cannot
be
prevented
if
a
promiscuous
use
of
transmitting
foreign
letters
and
packets
should
be
suffered,"
than
that
the
post
should
be
of
use
to
traders
and
merchants.
There
was
a
motive
for
the
jealous
monopoly
of
postal
communications;
and
if
the
proclamation
from
which
the
above
is
taken
(Rymer's
Foedera)
is
not
clear
on
the
subject,
the
following
extract
from
a
letter
written
by
the
one
of
James's
secretaries
to
the
other,
Lord
Conway,
is
sufficiently
explicit:
"Your
Lordship
best
knoweth
what
account
we
shall
be
able
to
give
in
our
place
in
Parliament
of
that
which
passeth
by
letters
in
and
out
of
the
land,
if
every
man
may
convey
letters
as
he
chooseth."
Sir
John
Coke,
the
writer
of
the
above,
would
seem
to
have
got
rid
of
the
difficulty
in
a
thorough
manner,
if
we
may
believe
an
English
letter-writer
addressing
a
friend
in
Scotland,
when
he
wrote,
"I
hear
the
posts
are
waylaid,
and
all
letters
taken
from
them
and
brought
to
Secretary
Coke."[118]
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