to and from Holland might go via Calais through France and Flanders, or by sailing packet to Nieuport and thence through Flanders, or directly from Harwich to Helvoetsluys. The mail for Holland left London every Tuesday and Thursday night. The route was along the Yarmouth road as far as Colchester and then directly to Harwich. The Harwich boats were stopped for a short time in 1672,[460] but after William's accession they were in such constant service that it was necessary to hire extra boats.[461] Orders were often given to delay them until the arrival of an express from the King and on other occasions they were hurried off before their regular time for departure.[462] [452] _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app., p. 58 (37). [453] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1639-40, p. 457. [454] _Ibid._, 1640, p. 163. [455] _Ibid._, 1660-61, p. 82. [456] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1661-62, p. 56. [457] _Ibid._, 1664-65, p. 489. [458] _Ibid._, 1693, p. 57. [459] _Ibid._, 1667, p. 440. [460] _Ibid._, 1667-68, p. 428; 1672, p. 189. [461] _Ibid._, 1690-91, p. 119. [462] _Ibid._, 1690-91, p. 552. It was agreed by a contract signed by the French and English Postmasters-General in 1698 that the mails, as soon as they arrived in Dover from Calais or in Calais from Dover, should be forwarded by "express" to London and Paris respectively. This was done in England, but in France the foreign mail continued to be sent at the regular time of departure and, as there was only one mail a day, English letters might have to remain in Calais for nearly twenty-four hours, if the packet from Dover happened to be late. Cotton and Frankland remonstrated but Mr. Pajot, the French Postmaster-General, returned no answer. The English Postmasters-General had agreed to pay about £2500 a year to Mr. Pajot for the conveyance of English letters through France. One or two instalments were paid before the war broke out.[463] Nothing further was done until after the Treaty of Utrecht, when a commission was sent to France to negotiate a new postal agreement. Pajot refused to accept a lump sum and declared that each letter passing through France must pay the ordinary postage according to the French rates. Objection was taken to this as the French rates were higher than the English, but objections were of no avail. Pajot, who carried matters with a high hand, gained his point. By the act of 1711, the postage for a single letter through France to Italy was 15_d._, and by the terms of the new treaty with France, 21 sous would have to be paid by the English Postmasters-General for the conveyance of a letter through France.[464] [463] Joyce, p. 77. [464] _Ibid._, p. 139.