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Her Majesty's Mails
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William Lewins
40
It
does
not
appear
why
Prideaux's
connexion
with
the
Post-Office
was
dissolved,
nor
yet
exactly
when.
Probably
his
more
onerous
duties
as
first
law
officer
of
the
Government
demanded
all
his
time
and
energy.
However
it
was,
we
hear
no
more
of
him
after
his
victory
over
the
then
formidable
City
magnates.
During
the
remaining
years
of
Cromwell's
life,
the
revenues
of
the
Post-Office,
wonderfully
augmented
by
Prideaux's
management,
were
farmed
for
the
sum
of
10,000l.
a
year
to
a
Mr.
John
Manley.
During
Manley's
tenure
of
office,
the
proceeds
must
either
have
increased
with
marvellous
rapidity,
or
the
contracts
were
under
estimated;
for
when,
in
1659,
Manley
left
the
Post-Office,
he
calculated
that
he
had
cleared
in
that
and
some
previous
years
the
sum
of
14,000l.
annually.
A
Parliamentary
Committee
instituted
a
strict
scrutiny
into
the
proceeds
of
the
office
in
the
first
year
of
the
Restoration,
at
which
period
it
became
necessary
that
a
new
Postmaster-General
should
be
appointed.
It
was
agreed
by
the
members
of
this
Committee
to
recommend
that
a
much
higher
sum
be
asked
from
the
next
aspirant
to
the
office,
inasmuch
as
they
found
that
Mr.
Manley,
instead
of
over-estimating
his
receipts,
had
erred
on
the
other
side,
and
that
they
could
not
have
come
far
short
of
the
annual
sum
of
20,000l.
The
result
of
the
Committee's
investigation
was,
that
Mr.
Henry
Bishop
was
only
appointed
to
the
vacant
place
on
his
entering
into
a
contract
to
pay
to
Government
the
annual
sum
of
21,500l.
In
estimating
the
increase
of
Post-Office
revenue
from
year
to
year,
it
must
be
borne
in
mind
that
a
considerable
item
in
the
account
was
derived
from
the
monopoly
in
post-horses
for
travelling,
which
monopoly
had
been
secured
under
Cromwell's
ordinances,
and
re-secured
under
12
Car.
II.
c.
35.
By
this
Act,
no
traveller
could
hire
horses
for
riding
post
from
any
but
authorized
postmasters.[17]
This
statute
remained
in
force,
under
some
limitations,
till
1779.
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