The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance

At the same period to which we refer, there were only three letter-carriers in Manchester, four at Bristol, and three or four at Birmingham; but in each case only one was allowed by the Department, the others being employed as extras, and provided for, no doubt, by a special tax upon the letters delivered. This system of charging extra for delivery would seem to have been open to abuse, for we find that in 1791 the Postmaster-General called for explanation of an exceptional charge at Eton, in a Minute as follows:--"Let the Comptroller-General inquire who serves, and by whose authority, the parts of the country circumjacent to the Eton delivery, as they charge no less a sum than 3d. for each letter, in addition to the postage, for all letters delivered at Upton, which is not above a mile from the College." And the Postmaster-General makes this very wise observation on the practice--"This enormous expense for letters must check and ruin all correspondence, and essentially hurt the revenue." At the end of last century and beginning of this--and indeed it may be said throughout the whole term of the existence of the Post-office--humble petitions were always coming up from postmasters for increase of pay, and from these we know the position in which postmasters then were. The postmaster of Aberdeen showed that in 1763, when the revenue of his office was L717, 19s. 4d., with something for cross post-letters, probably about L400, his salary had been L93, 15s.; while in 1793, with a revenue of over L2500, his whole salary was only L89, 15s., and out of this he had to pay office-rent and to provide assistance, fire, wax, candles, books, and cord.