[45] As an example of the summary proceedings of those days, we may here just note the remarks which Mr. Pitt made in his place in Parliament when he proposed this increase, calculating that the change would produce at least 120,000_l._ additional revenue out of the Post-Office. The tax upon letters, said he, could be calculated with a great degree of certainty, and the changes he had to propose would _by no means reduce the number sent. It was idle to suppose that the public would grumble in having to pay just one penny additional for valuable letters safely and expeditiously conveyed._ He proposed "to charge all letters that went one stage and which now paid one penny in future the sum of 2_d._, and this would bring in the sum of 6,230_l._ All that now pay 2_d._ paying an additional penny would yield 8,923_l._ Threepenny letters paying another penny would produce 33,963_l._ The increase of fourpenny letters would produce 34,248_l._" The cross-roads he could not speak of with great certainty, but he thought they might calculate on at least 20,000_l._ from that source, and so on, till the estimated sum was reached. [46] _Domestic Annals of Scotland._ By Mr. R. Chambers. Vol. ii. p. 142. [47] _A Short Account of Scotland_, published in London in 1702. [48] The wording of the qualifying clauses in the proclamations of stage-coaches, &c. are very various, and sometimes exceedingly amusing. In England the Divine Hand was generally recognised in the formula of "God willing," or, "If God should permit." On the contrary, the human element certainly preponderated--whether it was meant so or not--in the announcement made by a carrying communication between Edinburgh and a northern burgh, when it was given out that "a waggon would leave the Grass market for Inverness every Tuesday, God willing, but on Wednesday _whether or no_." [49] It will be remembered that the late lamented Prince Consort laid the foundation-stone of this structure in 1862, being the last occasion on which he assisted at any public ceremony. For further information of the Scotch Office, see Mr. Lang's _Historical Summary of the Post-Office in Scotland_. [50] Appendix to Postmaster-General's Third Report, supplied by Mr. Anthony Trollope, then one of the Post-Office Surveyors for Ireland. CHAPTER V. PALMER AND THE MAIL-COACH ERA.