The fifth class, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Irish Surveyors, had unlimited franking rights within Ireland. All the letters of these five classes were subject to the following restrictions with the exception of the third class. The whole superscription of the letters sent must be in the hand of the privileged person, with his name and the name of the post town from which the letters were sent together with the date, and on that date or the day before, the writer must be within twenty miles of the place where the letters were posted. The other five classes were made up of subordinate members of departments, clerks, secretaries etc. when writing or receiving letters on official business. Every such letter had to be superscribed with the name of the office and the seal and name of the writer.[673] [673] 7 Wm. IV. and 1 Vict., c. 35. It appeared from a report of a committee appointed to investigate postal affairs that the total number of franks had increased from 3,039,000 in 1810 to 4,142,000 in 1820; 4,792,000 in 1830 and 5,270,000 in 1837. Of these, members of the two Houses were responsible for 2,028,000; 2,726,000; 2,814,000 and 3,084,000 at the above dates respectively.[674] In concluding their report the Committee recommended the abolition of Parliamentary franking.[675] This advice was followed and improved upon two years later when franking and the privilege of sending or receiving letters free were abolished, except in the case of petitions to the Queen or Parliament not exceeding 32 ounces in weight.[676] [674] _Rep. Com._, 1837-38, xx, 2d rep., app., p. 109. [675] _Ibid._, xx, 3d rep., p. 62. [676] 3 and 4 Vict., c. 96. Recent attempts by certain members of Parliament to revive the franking privilege have fortunately been unsuccessful (_Parl. Deb._, 4th ser., lxxxi, col. 1407; civ, col. 360).