Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-Office — John Shaqi
Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-OfficeLewins, William
History
Her Majesty's Mails: An Historical and Descriptive Account of the British Post-Office
Lewins, William
Postal service -- Great Britain
should be changed to "Chief Postmaster." Thomas Randolph was the first
"Chief Postmaster" of England.
Under the Tudor dynasty, marvellous strides were taken in the social
progress of the country. The habits of a great nation can, of course,
only change slowly; but, notwithstanding, the England of the
Plantagenets was a different country to the England which Elizabeth left
in 1603. The development of trade, which really commenced with the
Tudors, gave the first great impulse to a new social era. People began
to feel more interest in each other, and as this became manifest, the
demand for interchange of thought and news became more and more urgent.
In the reign of Henry VIII. the English people began a considerable
trade with Flanders in wool. A commercial treaty subsequently gave free
ingress and egress to the ships of both nations. The change that this
new trade wrought was immediate and striking. English rural districts
which had before been self-supporting--growing their own corn and
feeding their own cattle--now turned their corn-land into pasture-land,
and sought grain among their neighbours. The dissolution of the
monasteries under the same monarch had the effect, among other results,
of scattering broadcast over the country those who had previously lived
together and enjoyed almost a monopoly of learning. The Reformation
civilized as well as christianized the people. Other causes were at work
which operated in opening out the country, and encouraging habits of
locomotion and the spread of intelligence generally. Amongst many such,
were changes, for instance, in the routine of law procedure, introduced
by Henry. Up to his time, courts of arbitration had sat from time
immemorial within the different baronies of England, where disputes,
especially those between landlord and tenant, were cheaply and equitably
adjusted. Now, such cases were ordered to be taken to London, and
country people found themselves compelled to take journeys to London and
sue or be sued at the new courts of Westminster.[7]
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