For a long time letters had been entrusted to the bags of the post-boys, who travelled on horseback at the rate of about three and a half miles an hour. Mr John Palmer, the originator of mail coaches, in the year 1784 gave the following statement to the Government:--“The Post at present, instead of being the swiftest, is almost the slowest conveyance in the country; and though, from the great improvement in our roads, other carriers have proportionably mended their speed, the post is as slow as ever. Rewards have been frequently offered by the Postmaster-General for the best constructed mail-cart, or some plan to prevent the frequent robbery of the mail, but without effect.” Palmer, who resided at Bath, went on to state, “that the coach diligence, which left Bath at four o’clock on Monday afternoon, would deliver a letter in London about ten on Tuesday morning, whilst the post would not deliver a letter until Wednesday morning. The only advantage of the post was its greater cheapness. The post charged only fourpence from Bath to London for each letter, whilst one by the coach diligence cost two shillings. Nevertheless, many persons, both at Bath and Bristol, sent by the dearer and quicker mode, and all over the kingdom, wherever diligences[8] were established, they obtained the patronage of the public.” At first any improvement on the Post was warmly opposed by the officials and committees of the Houses of Parliament, and it was declared impossible that letters could be brought from Bath to London, only one hundred and eight miles, in eighteen hours, _i.e._, six miles an hour. After some careful experiments, and a struggle of two years, Mr Palmer’s system was adopted, and his new-fashioned mail coaches were accepted to convey the mails. For some years the mail coaches did not run at more than six miles an hour: they were built in a cumbrous form to carry six persons inside. In this same year (1786) the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., began to erect the pavilion at Brighton, bringing fashionable company into the mere fishing hamlet which it then was. The effect upon the traffic was very great, and led to the reform of the whole of the south and south-western roads, and in 1820, thirty-five years later, no less than seventy coaches daily visited and left Brighton.