E-text prepared by Richard Tonsing, deaurider, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 59310-h.htm or 59310-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/59310/59310-h/59310-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/59310/59310-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/cu31924030165538 Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). HISTORY OF THE POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE [Illustration: M M & Co.] [Illustration: Frontispiece. WINDSOR CASTLE—CAPT. ROGERS, COMMANDER.] HISTORY OF THE POST-OFFICE PACKET SERVICE BETWEEN THE YEARS 1793–1815 Compiled from Records, Chiefly Official by ARTHUR H. NORWAY London Macmillan and Co. and New York 1895 All rights reserved ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE. My acknowledgments are due to Mrs. Ball, of Roscarrach, Falmouth, for permission to make use, in illustrating this work, of four pictures in her possession, namely, two of the action of the “Duke of Marlborough” with the “Primrose” one of the “Windsor Castle,” and one of the “Hinchinbrooke” To Mr. Burton, of the Old Curiosity Shop, Falmouth, I am indebted for an illustration of Russell’s Wagons; and to many other friends, in Cornwall and elsewhere, for very kind assistance and advice. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. FALMOUTH IN THE OLDEN TIME, 1 CHAPTER II. LAX ADMINISTRATION, 13 CHAPTER III. A FIRMER RULE, 35 CHAPTER IV. THE WEST INDIA MERCHANTS, 56 CHAPTER V. THE END OF THE ABUSES, 83 CHAPTER VI. THE NORTH SEA PACKETS, 106 CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND FRENCH WAR, 120 CHAPTER VIII. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM, 147 CHAPTER IX. TWO BRILLIANT YEARS, 171 CHAPTER X. THE MUTINY AT FALMOUTH, 197 CHAPTER XI. THE OUTBREAK OF THE AMERICAN WAR, 222 CHAPTER XII.