The franking privilege may reasonably be considered in connection with the history of postal rates, nor should its effect in reducing the revenue of the Post Office be neglected. The Council of State gave orders in 1652 that all public packets, letters of members of Parliament, of the Council, of officers in the public service, and of any persons acting in a public capacity should be carried free. This is the first record that we have concerning the free carriage of members' letters, a privilege which later gave so much trouble and was so much abused.[627] The next year the Post Office farmers agreed to carry free all letters to and from members of Parliament provided that letters written by such members as were not known by their seals should be endorsed, "These are for the service of the Commonwealth," and signed by the members themselves or their clerks.[628] Nothing was said in the act of 1660 about the conveyance of the letters of members of Parliament and they were carried free only by act of grace. The House of Commons had passed a clause of the bill providing for the free conveyance of the letters of members of their own House. This had exasperated the Lords, who, since they could not amend the clause so as to extend the privilege to themselves, had dropped it.[629] In 1693, the attention of Cotton and Frankland was called to the manner in which franking was being abused. Men claimed the right to frank letters to whom the Postmasters-General denied it, and members of Parliament were accused of bad faith in the exercise of their privilege. The custom had arisen of enclosing private letters in the packet of official letters. A warrant was issued in 1693 to the effect that in future no letters were to go free except those on the King's affairs, and the only persons to send or receive them free were the two principal Secretaries of State, the Secretary for Scotland, the Secretary in Holland, the Earl of Portland, and members of Parliament, the latter only during the session, and for forty days before and after, and for inland letters alone. Each member was to write his name in a book with his seal so that no one might be able to counterfeit his signature.[630] [627] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1651-52, p. 507. [628] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1652-53, p. 449. [629] _Parliamentary History of England_, iv (1660-88), col. 163. [630] _Cal. T. P._, 1557-1696, p. 281.