1862.] on the Post-office. 459 



carriers belonging to each being still confined to their former duties, 

 so that they would often be found in the same street, and not seldom 

 would meet at the same door ; whereas if one had handed over his 

 letters to the other, and had then retired, the work might have been 

 performed just as well. It would hardly obtain belief, but for the 

 notoriety of the fact, that this waste of labour, which to the public was 

 a waste of money constantly increasing, survived to the year 1854. 

 So dear, from long association, had this absurdity become to oflficial 

 men, that although it was attacked in the report of the Commissioners 

 of Inquiry as early as 1829, and although its abolition was an object 

 of earnest desire with the author of Penny Postage, who included the 

 change in his proposal when he submitted it to the nation and to 

 Parliament, yet it was not until fourteen years after he entered upon 

 the administration of the Post-office that he was enabled to overcome 

 the impediments which the usage of nearly two centifries had accu- 

 mulated in the way of this obvious improvement. Until 1720 the lines 

 of postal communication had been radial from each metropolis of the 

 three kingdoms, the number of cross-posts being comparatively few. 

 But in that year the well-known Ralph Allen, then at the head of the 

 Bath Post-office, made a contract with the Government to establish a 

 cross-post between the cities of Exeter and Chester, by way of Bristol, 

 Gloucester, and Worcester, thus connecting the West of England with 

 the mail route to Ireland, and giving postal intercommunication with 

 many towns of importance. His terms were — to bear himself all the 

 cost of the service, to pay a fixed rent, and to retain the surplus. This 

 contract was renewed and extended from time to time, so as to include 

 other branches of road, and terminated only with his death in 1764. 

 Mr. Palmer (a great name in the annals of the Post-office) says the 

 net profits of this contract to its holder amounted to 12,000/. a year, 

 or in the total to rather more than half a million ! This is the only 

 instance of unclouded good fortune in the career of postal reformers. 

 Eighteen years after the death of Allen appears John Palmer, pro- 

 prietor and manager of the theatres of Bristol and Bath. The most 

 obvious feature of his plans was the substitution of mail-coaches for 

 boys on horseback, or for mail-carts, though he introduced many other 

 improvements. He encountered much opposition, but the Minister, 

 the younger Pitt, adopted his plans, and Mr. Palmer was employed to 

 carry them into effect. His opponents bided their time, and two years 

 afterwards, when his plans were yet only in partial operation, he had 

 to encounter another struggle, and was defeated. The Minister, 

 although he gave up the inventor, retained the invention. It had been 

 agreed that Palmer was to have 1 500/. a year, and 2^ per cent, upon 

 all excess of revenue beyond a fixed sum. When ejected from the 

 Post-office, not only did his salary terminate, but instead of his 2i per 

 cent, he was obliged to accept a life annuity of 3000/. This, even at 

 that early date, was below the proceeds of his percentage, while the 

 rapidly advancing revenue soon made the difference far wider. He 

 appealed against this injustice, and eventually obtained a Par- 



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