--_Report from Secret Committee on the Post Office_ (_Commons_), 1844, Appx., pp. 55-6. (iv) THE MONOPOLY AND THE GENERAL FARM OF THE POSTS. No. 1. "Whereas heretofore sundry wayes have bene devised to redresse the disorders among the postes of our realme in generall, and particularly to prevent the inconveniences, both to our owne service and the lawfull trade of the honest merchants, by prohibiting that no persons whatsoever should take upon them, publiquely or privately, to procure, gather up, receive ... any packets or letters to or from the countreys beyond the seas, except such our ordinarie posts and messengers for those parties, etc."--royal Proclamation, April 26th 1591. No. 2. "There has long been a constant trade betwixt London and Norwich in sundry sorts of stuffs and stockings made in Norwich and Norfolk, which trade has always been maintained by the merchants of Norwich employing their stocks in buying wares of the makers and sending them up weekly in carts by common carriers to London, whence they are dispersed into all parts of this kingdom, and also exported to foreign parts, in which intercourse of trade we always had our letters safely and speedily carried by our common carrier, by a horseman, not in manner of postage by change of horses, but as is usual by common carriers, and for little or no charge to us. Of late Mr. Witherings has intercepted our letters and molested our carriers, forbidding them to carry any of our letters otherwise than to go along with their carts, and no faster."--Petition to Privy Council, 1638; J. W. Hyde, _The Post in Grant and Farm_, London, 1894, p. 131. No. 3.