220 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



Posts were first established in the EngHsh colonies 

 in North America in 1639. The celebrated Benjamin 

 Franklin was appointed Postmaster-General to the 

 American colonies in 1 753 ; he remained in that position 

 till 1774, when the British Government very foolishly 

 dismissed him.* Many improvements were introduced 

 during his superintendence. The postal charge in 

 America upon ordinary local letters is one cent, which 

 is one halfpenny ; upon letters not exceeding half-an- 

 ounce in weight, addressed to any distance within three 

 thousand miles, three cents, equal to three-halfpence ; 

 and when sent upwards of that distance ten cents, 

 fivepence ; and all letters have to be prepaid. 



The English postal system commenced in the reign 

 of Edward III., but it was not exactly a public insti- 

 tution. In Edward IV.'s reign post-houses were 

 placed at intervals of twenty miles along the main 

 roads ; and, in the north, a military post was estab- 

 lished to communicate with the army during the 

 invasion of Scotland. It is uncertain at what period 

 the public were permitted to make use of this institu- 

 tion. Before the reign of Charles I., merchants, 

 tradesmen, and professional men resorted to less secure 

 methods of conveying their letters, or employed ex- 

 press messengers at great expense. It must have been 

 in these days that the word " express " originated, 

 used in connection with particular haste and speed. 

 Lexicographers define it, when taken in this sense, as a 

 messenger or vehicle sent with haste on a particular 

 errand ; any vehicle sent with a special message. 



* This made him very hostile towards England, although 

 America was merely the country of his adoption, he being an 

 emigrant. After the Declaration of Independence he became a 

 naturalised subject of the United States, but the bent of his incli- 

 nations may have been decided by his dismissal from Government 

 employment. 



