The History of the Post Office, from Its Establishment Down to 1836Joyce, Herbert
History
The History of the Post Office, from Its Establishment Down to 1836
Joyce, Herbert
Postal service -- Great Britain -- History
Thus matters stood when, early in 1792, in consequence of some
discrepancies in the accounts, the postmasters-general determined that
letters for the city by the first or morning delivery should be checked.
Care had been taken that the check should not be of a nature to retard
the delivery; and yet, strangely enough, the delivery became later and
later every day. At length a public advertisement appeared inviting the
merchants and traders to meet at the London Tavern on Wednesday the 15th
February in order to consider the subject. The meeting was held under
the presidency of Alderman Curtis, one of the members of Parliament for
the city; and strong resolutions were passed directing the
postmaster-generals' attention to the delay, and calling upon them to
explain and remove the cause.
Charles Bonnor, the deputy comptroller-general, owed all he possessed to
Palmer. It was by Palmer that he had been brought into the Post Office
in July 1784, and the same influence procured for him shortly afterwards
a salary of £500 and an allowance of £150 a year for a house. Warm in
his attachments as he was fierce in his animosities, the great reformer
extended to Bonnor a confidence which probably no other man possessed,
and during his frequent absences from London kept up with him a
correspondence in which he poured out his inmost thoughts. This person,
stung with jealousy at some fancied coolness on Palmer's part, now
published a pamphlet in which he charged his friend and benefactor with
wilfully delaying the delivery of the morning letters, and then
promoting the meeting at the London Tavern in order to protest against a
mischief of his own making. According to Bonnor, Palmer had spared no
effort to induce persons to attend the meeting, and had furnished
Alderman Curtis, the chairman, with materials for denouncing the Post
Office. All this, it was alleged, had been done in order to bring the
postmasters-general into discredit, and to create a demand that Palmer
might have larger powers given him and be left to deal with Post Office
matters according to his unfettered judgment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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