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435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
78
The
Treasury
Lords
are
slow
to
sanction
what
appeared
to
them
to
be
a
sacrifice
of
revenue,
and
from
the
frequent
applications
which
were
made
to
them
by
deputy
postmasters
in
the
early
part
of
last
century
to
settle
accounts
of
long
standing,
or
remit
the
arrears
owing
to
the
Government,
we
may
imagine
that
their
hands
were
full
and
their
temper
soured.
Many
postmasters
in
the
West
of
England
now
petitioned
the
Treasury
to
the
effect
that
they
had
been
nearly
ruined
in
the
times
of
His
Majesty
King
William,
"through
much
spoiling
of
their
horses
by
officers
riding-post
in
the
late
blessed
Revolution."
Others
grumble
at
the
lowness
of
their
salaries.
It
was
all
very
well,
they
argued,
that
the
deputies,
during
the
civil
wars
or
at
the
Revolution,
should
be
contented
with
low
salaries,
because
they
were
exempted
from
having
soldiers
quartered
upon
them,
but
now
that
the
time
of
peace
had
come,
they
submitted
that
their
salaries
should
be
raised.
The
Act
of
Queen
Anne
provided
for
one
Postmaster-General.
How
it
came
to
be
altered
is
not
clear;
but
it
is
nevertheless
certain
that,
for
the
greater
part
of
the
eighteenth
century,
the
office
was
jointly
held
by
two
chiefs.
All
letters
and
mandates
bore
the
signature
of
both
of
them;
though
it
seems
probable
that
the
work
of
the
office
was
equitably
divided
between
the
two
gentlemen,
the
one
taking
charge
principally
of
the
inland
business,
while
the
other
managed
the
packets.
The
duties
of
the
latter
department
were
much
more
onerous
than
might
be
supposed,
when
viewed
in
the
light
of
the
history
of
that
period.
As
we
have
not
yet
directed
attention
to
this
department
of
the
Post-Office,
we
may
here
state
that
some
curious
accounts
survive
of
the
infancy
of
the
postal
sea-service,
during
the
former
part
of
last
century,
when
Sir
Robert
Cotton
and
Sir
Thomas
Frankland
shared
its
management.
In
those
sad
times
when
war
was
raging,
and
French
privateers
covered
every
sea,
our
Postmasters-General
were
anxious,
though
shrewd
and
active
men.
The
general
orders
to
the
captains
of
the
vessels
under
their
control
were
such
as,
under
the
circumstances,
they
ought
to
be:
"You
must
run
while
you
can,
fight
when
you
can
no
longer
run,
and
throw
the
mails
overboard
when
fighting
will
no
longer
avail."
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