THE EARL Y MAIL- CO A CHES 1 6 1 



and to set the pace to everything else on the road. 

 Thus once again the Post Office commanded the 

 utmost expedition, and to the mail-coaches those 

 travellers flocked who desired the quickest, the 

 most dignified, and the safest method of pro- 

 gression in that age. 



The first results of the mail-coach system were 

 of a very mixed nature. The course of post was, 

 it is true, greatly accelerated, hut the rates of 

 postage were immediately raised, and although 

 the added convenience was well worth the extra 

 charge — which, after all, was much less than the 

 surreptitious sending of letters by stage-coach had 

 been — people grumbled. By the ordinary postboj^s 

 the charge for a single letter had been a j)enny 

 for one stage, twopence for two stages, and three- 

 pence for any higher distance up to eighty miles. 

 Over that distance the charge Avas fourpence. 

 The postboys' stages ranged from ten to as many 

 as fourteen miles. Under the new dispensation 

 the postage was raised at once to twopence the 

 first stage, and the stages themselves were rarely 

 more than seven or eight miles, and often shorter. 

 Correspondence going longer distances enjoyed, it 

 is true, a reduction ; for two stages cost threepence 

 and distances exceeding two stages and not more 

 than eighty miles were rated at fourpence. 



The short-distance correspondence therefore 

 paid from three to four times as much as under 

 the old order of things, and long-distance letters 

 a penny more ; but all alike shared the advantage 

 of the mail-coaches' comparative immunity from 

 VOL. I. 11 



