By the Ship Letter Act of 1814, no letters were to be sent by private ships except such as had been brought to the Post Office to be charged. The directors of the East India Company had protested against this section of the act. It is true that they were allowed to send and receive letters by the ships of their own company, but in India there was a small army of officials in their service whose letters had hitherto gone free. For that matter it had been the custom for the company to carry for nothing all letters and papers which were placed in the letter box at the East India House.[608] Petitions were presented against an attempt on the part of the Post Office to charge postage on letters to and from India when conveyed by private vessels.[609] The company refused to allow its vessels to be used as packet boats or even to carry letters at all. It was in consequence of all this opposition that the act of 1815 was passed, giving more favourable treatment to letters to and from India. By this act no person sending a letter to India was compelled to have it charged at the Post Office and the masters were compelled to carry letters if the Postmasters-General ordered them. The company now withdrew all opposition and even refused to accept any payment for the use of their vessels in conveying letters.[610] Notwithstanding the favourable exception made in the case of letters to and from the East Indies, there was still discontent over the high rates charged by the Post Office for the conveyance of letters by the regular packet boats and by private vessels, when carrying letters entrusted to the Post Office.[611] In 1819 the sea postage on any letter or package not exceeding three ounces in weight from Ceylon, Mauritius, the Cape, and the East Indies was placed at 4_d._ If it exceeded three ounces in weight, it was charged 12_d._ an ounce. The sea postage on letters and packages to Ceylon, etc., not exceeding three ounces in weight, was placed at 2_d._ If the weight was more than three ounces, the charge was 12_d._ an ounce. The postage on letters and packages from England was payable in advance. Newspapers were charged a penny an ounce.[612] [608] London _Times_, 1814, Oct. 8, p. 3; 1815, Jan. 19, p. 3. [609] _Parl. Deb._, 1st ser., xxx, col. 766; xxxi, col. 220. [610] Joyce, p. 363. [611] The _Calcutta Monthly_ complained that the new rates had rendered correspondence less frequent. "The so-called packet boats are often two or three months slower than private vessels" (London _Times_, 1818, Oct. 30, p. 3). [612] 59 Geo. III, c. 111; London _Times_, 1820, Jan. 24, p. 3.