THE LATER MAILS 9 



Olio hand required better roads, and on the other 

 deprived the rural Trusts of a great part of their 

 income, the Government shoukl at least j^ay off 

 the debts of the various turnpikes. But nothing 

 was done ; the mails continued to go free, and 

 in the end the iniquity was perpetrated of suffer- 

 ing the local Turnpike Acts to lapse and the 

 roads to be dispiked before the Trusts had paid 

 off their loans. The greater number of Trust 

 "securities " therefore became worthless, and the 

 investors in them ruined. 



Mail-coaches continued to go toll-free to the 

 very last in England, although from 1798 they 

 had paid toll in Ireland. In Scotland, too, the 

 Trusts Avere treated Avith tardy justice, and in 

 1813 an Act Avas j^assed repealing the exemption 

 in that kingdom. But Avliat the Post Office re- 

 linquished Avith one hand it took back Avitli the 

 other, clapping on a halfpenny additional postage 

 for each Scotch letter. It Avas like the children's 

 game of " tit-for-tat." But it did not end here. 

 The Trusts raised their tolls against the mail- 

 coaches, and smiled superior. It AA^as then the 

 Department's call, and it responded by imme- 

 diately taking off a number of the mails. That 

 ended the game in favour of St. Martin 's-le- 

 Grand. 



Although Parliament never repealed the 

 exemption for the Avhole of the United Kingdom, 

 it caused an estimate to be prepared of the annual 

 cost of paying tolls, should it ever be in a mind 

 to grant the Trusts that relief. It thus appeared. 



