LOMBARD STREET 7 



bill of exchange, with a notarial ticket affixed to it, 

 was taxed with three rates of postage. 



As for franking, that gave no particular trouble, 

 care at least being taken in the latter days not to pass 

 a pack of hounds or a roomful of furniture, as at 

 earlier periods, and to see that no Member of Parlia- 

 ment exceeded his rightful number of daily franks. 

 This was easy enough, as all letters under frank 

 passed through the chief office. I do not think franks 

 were available by cross-post. 



The privilege of franking, Pennant says, was first 

 claimed by the Commons in 1660, and allowed to 

 both Houses by the Crown in the following 3^ear. 

 It was asserted, in 1763, that the loss occasioned by 

 the abuse of this privilege was not much less than 

 two hundred thousand pounds, and in 1839 actually 

 more than three hundred thousand pounds. But, 

 however long franking had been in existence, the 

 4th of George III., a.d. 1764, is the first legislative 

 enactment on the subject. 



By 1802, so far from being alarmed at the abuses 

 and loss of revenue of which the franking privilege 

 admitted. Parliament, with much gusto, and by fresh 

 enactment, allowed each of its members to send ten 

 and receive fifteen letters per diem, weighing an ounce 

 apiece, free of postage. 



Franks were necessarily supervised at the Post- 

 Office; once, tradition has it, rather too much so. 

 For the chief officer on duty at the Lombard Street 

 Post-Office on the evening of Tuesday, September 29, 



