The limit of weight for packets sent by the penny post was also extended, parcels of considerable size and weight being accepted. The rate of postage, however, remained uniform at a penny. One of the charges against Dockwra in later years, when he was dismissed from the office of Comptroller of the Penny Post, to which he had been appointed under William III, was that he forbade the taking in of any but very small band-boxes, and all parcels over 1 pound in weight.[537] The penny post was found to be a great convenience to Londoners and dwellers in the vicinity.[538] It facilitated both local intercourse and, through its connection with the General Post, general intercourse with all parts of the country. It was also advantageous in a way which was not satisfactory to the Postmaster-General. For some years before its establishment there had been much difficulty from the evasion of postage resulting from the illicit transmission of letters. Carriers, especially, made a business of the conveyance of letters. The difficulty had been so serious that in the reigns both of Charles II and of James II special officers had been appointed whose duty it was to search any person or vehicle suspected of carrying clandestine mails. The establishment of the penny post led to a very large development of this traffic. Previously, when the carriers arrived with the letters, there was no means at their disposal for effecting distribution and delivery within London, other than by themselves delivering the letters individually, or by employing special messengers, or, in the last resort, by employing the General Post, to avoid whose charge was the whole object of entrusting letters to the carriers. The penny post removed this difficulty, and the public were not slow to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded.[539] The penny post did not, however, mark the limit of possibility in the way of cheap postal facilities. In 1708 Charles Povey established a halfpenny post in London, and found this low rate profitable. His undertaking, like that of Dockwra, proved to be an infringement of the monopoly of the Postmasters-General, and was suppressed within a few months, although Povey was very reluctant to discontinue his service.[540]