At the Restoration this settlement of the Post-Office was confirmed in almost all its particulars. The statute 12 Car. II. c. 35 re-enacts the ordinance of the Commonwealth, and on account of its being the earliest recognised statutory enactment, is commonly known as the "Post-Office Charter." It remained in full force until 1710. The following is the important preamble to the statute in question: "Whereas for the maintainance of mutual correspondencies, and prevention of many inconveniences happening by private posts, several public post-offices have been heretofore erected for carrying and recarrying of letters by post to and from all parts and places within England, Scotland, and Ireland, and several posts beyond the seas, the well-ordering whereof is a matter of general concernment, and of great advantage, as well for the preservation of trade and commerce as otherwise." It does not appear _why_ Prideaux's connexion with the Post-Office was dissolved, nor yet exactly _when_. Probably his more onerous duties as first law officer of the Government demanded all his time and energy. However it was, we hear no more of him after his victory over the then formidable City magnates. During the remaining years of Cromwell's life, the revenues of the Post-Office, wonderfully augmented by Prideaux's management, were farmed for the sum of 10,000_l._ a year to a Mr. John Manley. During Manley's tenure of office, the proceeds must either have increased with marvellous rapidity, or the contracts were under estimated; for when, in 1659, Manley left the Post-Office, he calculated that he had _cleared_ in that and some previous years the sum of 14,000_l._ annually. A Parliamentary Committee instituted a strict scrutiny into the proceeds of the office in the first year of the Restoration, at which period it became necessary that a new Postmaster-General should be appointed. It was agreed by the members of this Committee to recommend that a much higher sum be asked from the next aspirant to the office, inasmuch as they found that Mr. Manley, instead of over-estimating his receipts, had erred on the other side, and that they could not have come far short of the annual sum of 20,000_l._ The result of the Committee's investigation was, that Mr. Henry Bishop was only appointed to the vacant place on his entering into a contract to pay to Government the annual sum of 21,500_l._ In estimating the increase of Post-Office revenue from year to year, it must be borne in mind that a considerable item in the account was derived from the monopoly in post-horses for travelling, which monopoly had been secured under Cromwell's ordinances, and re-secured under 12 Car. II. c. 35. By this Act, no traveller could hire horses for riding post from any but authorized postmasters.[17] This statute remained in force, under some limitations, till 1779.