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
In 1805, for the third time within eight years, the Post Office was
called upon to make a further contribution to the Exchequer; and again
Freeling devoted himself to the congenial task of revising and
increasing the postage rates. Unwilling to destroy the symmetry of his
own handiwork, he simply suggested that to the rates as prescribed by
the Act of 1801 should be added--1d. for a single letter, 2d. for a
double letter, 3d. for a treble letter, and 4d. for a letter weighing as
much as one ounce. The suggestion was adopted, and after the 12th of
March, the date on which the new Act was passed, the postage on a single
letter was--from London to Brighton, 7d. instead of 6d.; from London to
Liverpool, 10d. instead of 9d.; and from London to Edinburgh, 1s. 1d.
instead of 1s.
But this was by no means all. In London, as we have seen, the penny post
had, four years before, been converted into a twopenny post; and now the
twopenny post, in respect to letters for places beyond the general post
limits, was converted into a threepenny one. Thus, Abingdon Street,
Westminster, was within the limits of the general post delivery, but
Millbank was beyond them. Accordingly, a letter for Millbank, even
though posted no farther off than Charing Cross, was to be charged 3d.,
while the charge on a letter to Abingdon Street remained at 2d. as
before.
The Act of 1805 introduced a still further complication. Letters from
the country addressed to any part of London that was outside the limits
of the general post were to be consigned to the twopenny post, and, in
addition to all other postage, to be charged with the sum of 2d. Thus,
of two letters of the same weight delivered at the same time and by the
same person, one, originating in the country, would have to pay 2d., and
the other, originating in London, would have to pay 3d.
To record, therefore, that in 1805 the postage on a single letter--as,
for instance, between London and Plymouth--was 10d., although in one
sense correct, would give an imperfect idea of the real state of the
case. Plymouth was one of the towns which possessed village or
convention posts. Suppose a letter from one of the villages to which
these posts extended to have been addressed to Knightsbridge or any
other part of London situated outside the general post boundary. The
postage would have been not 10d. but 10d. + 2d. + whatever might have
been agreed upon for the village accommodation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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