ISogal Itngtitutiott of ffireat ISrftaiu. 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, April 4, 1862. 



SiE Henry Holland, Bart. M.D. D.C.L. F.R.S. Vice-President, 



in the Chair. 



Mr. Commissioner Hill, 



BBOOEDBK OP BIBMINGHAM. 



On the Post-office. 



The first indication of a letter post is stated by German authors to 

 have been found in the republic of the Hanse Towns as early as the 

 thirteenth century. Shortly afterwards it was adopted by the Teutonic 

 knights, who, like him of the Canterbury Tales, made war on the in- 

 fidels in Lithuania and the adjacent districts eastward. We may next 

 trace a line of posts in the Tyrol, laid down in the reign of the Em- 

 peror Maximilian, who naturally desired to connect Lombardy with 

 his Austrian dominions. The merit of this project is given by his- 

 torians to the Lombard princes of the house of Thurn and Taxis, as 

 they were designated after their removal ft> Germany. Under the 

 Emperor Charles V. they established a line from Vienna to Brussels, 

 thus connecting the Empire with its outlying possessions in Flanders. 

 Until the reign of Henry VIII., letters in England were conveyed by 

 special messengers — sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback — and, 

 again, by carriers who, as we learn from Shakespeare, had no relays, the 

 same horse either carrying its pack or drawing its cart from day to day. 

 How far England was behind some other nations in very important 

 social arrangements is indicated by the circumstance that long before 

 we had a post for inland letters, the foreign merchants resident here en- 

 joyed a stated interchange of correspondence with the Continent. This 

 undertaking had its origin during the reign of Henry VIII., or prior 

 to its commencement. In that of James I., from a complaint by the 

 English merchants that the foreign postmaster delayed their letters, 

 the King took the appointment into his own hands. It might be fairly 

 presumed, even in the absence of direct evidence, that the postboy who 

 carried despatches or accompanied the traveller during a stage of his 

 journey to take back the post-horse, would be induced now and then to 

 carry a private letter, so that in the course of years a usage profitable 

 Vol. III. (No. 36.) 2 i 



