About two years after this period, the Post as the medium of communication, became so insecure, that in 1638 a person in England wrote to his friend in Scotland--"I hear the Posts are waylaid, and all letters taken from them, and brought to Secretary Cooke; therefore will I not, nor do you, send by that way hereafter." The Post at this time was called the Merchant Post, but it did not prosper.[5] In 1649, the Commonwealth took the Scottish Posts under its jurisdiction, and in connection with that measure they appear to have removed many, if not all the officers. The Posts were then placed upon a better footing, and the system was still further improved by Cromwell. In 1654 the Postage from England to Scotland was lowered to 4d. sterling. In 1656 the revenues of the Post Office in Great Britain and Ireland were farmed to John Manley, Esq., who was appointed Postmaster-General, and the rate of Postage in Scotland was fixed at 2d. for a single letter under 80 miles, for all distances above 80 miles 3d., to England 4d., and to Ireland 6d.[6] On the 16th December 1661, Charles II. re-appointed Robert Mein "Sole Keeper of the Letter Office in Edinburgh," an office from which he had been removed during the Commonwealth.[7] By grant under the Privy Seal, dated at Whitehall on the 14th September 1662, King Charles II. bestowed upon Patrick Grahame of Inchbrakie the office of Postmaster-General of Scotland[8]--"officium precipui magistri cursoris lie Postmaster-Generall et Censoris omnium cursorum dicti regni Scotie"--for all the days of his life, with power to appoint Postmasters at the stages necessary for forwarding the King's letters from place to place. The grant conveyed to Grahame all the rights and privileges which any Postmaster-General had previously enjoyed in Scotland, and specially bestowed on him a salary of £500 Scots yearly.[9] On the 16th September 1662, the Privy Council of Scotland commissioned Robert Mein, merchant,[10] and Keeper of the Letter Office, Edinburgh, to establish posts between Scotland and Ireland, and ordained that Linlithgow, Kilsyth, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Dumboag, Ballintrae, and Port Patrick, should be stages on the route, and granted him the sum of £200 sterling, to build a packet boat to carry the Mail from Port Patrick to Donaghadee, and further gave him the sole privilege of carrying letters on this line of road, for which he was allowed to charge for each letter to Glasgow, 2s. Scots, and from thence to any part within Scotland, 3s. Scots, and for letters to Ireland, 6s. Scots.[11]