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1
435
Her Majesty's Mails
·
William Lewins
99
Mr.
Palmer,
however,
was
ready
with
a
remedy
for
robbery,
as
well
as
for
the
other
countless
defects
in
the
existing
postal
arrangements.
He
began
his
work
of
reform
in
1783,
by
submitting
a
full
scheme
in
a
lengthy
report
to
Mr.
Pitt,
who
was
at
that
time
Prime
Minister.
He
commenced
by
describing
the
then
existing
system
of
mail
transmission.
"The
post,"
he
says,
"at
present,
instead
of
being
the
quickest,
is
almost
the
slowest
conveyance
in
the
country;
and
although,
from
the
great
improvements
in
our
roads,
other
carriers
have
proportionately
mended
their
speed,
the
post
is
as
slow
as
ever."
The
system
is
also
unsafe;
robberies
are
frequent,
and
he
saw
not
how
it
could
be
otherwise
if
there
were
no
changes.
"The
mails,"
continued
Palmer,
"are
generally
intrusted
to
some
idle
boy
without
character,
mounted
on
a
worn-out
hack,
and
who,
so
far
from
being
able
to
defend
himself,
or
escape
from
a
robber,
is
more
likely
to
be
in
league
with
him."
If
robberies
were
not
so
frequent
as
the
circumstances
might
lead
people
to
suppose,
it
was
simply
because
thieves
had
found,
by
long
practice,
that
the
mails
were
scarcely
worth
robbing--the
booty
to
be
obtained
being
comparatively
worthless,
inasmuch
as
the
public
found
other
means
of
sending
letters
of
value.
Mr.
Palmer,
as
we
have
before
stated,
knew
of
tradesmen
who
sent
letters
by
stage-coach.
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