CHAPTER V GUARDS 



ARMED guards for the prote6lIon of the mail- 

 coaches were from the first an outstanding 

 feature of Mr. Palmer's scheme for complete 

 postal reform. The Post Office officials, how- 

 ever, eyed them dubiously and entertained grave doubts 

 as to their probity, declaring that the ale houses by 

 the way would prove potent fadtors for their un- 

 doing. 



When Mr. Palmer's plan came into force, the mail- 

 guards gave the lie dired to the Post Office, anent their 

 predileftion for strong drink, but came perilously near 

 fulfilling another of the objedions raised against their 

 institution. The heads of the department had expressed 

 their horror at the idea of providing the guards with 

 weapons of defence, declaring that such a course would 

 inevitably lead to wholesale murder. That it did not was 

 more by accident than design, for the first mail guards 

 were so inflated with the importance of their position, 

 and so exceedingly joyous in the possession of that 

 fearsome weapon the blunderbuss, that they testified 

 their delight in such sportive ways that the public were 

 in a state of extreme terror. Before the mail-guards had 

 been in existence for the space of one month, it was 

 found necessary to issue stringent regulations forbidding 

 them to fire off their blunderbusses when passing through 

 towns or villages. 



Apparently, the blunderbuss possessed an immense 



fascination for the guards and, like a small boy with a 



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