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
Three suits of clothes for some nobleman's ladies at the Court of
Portugal.
A box of medicines for the use of the Earl of Galway.
As the packets and everything on board of them were exempt from
examination by the Customs authorities, there are no means of knowing
how far a pass, where a pass had been obtained, was confined to its
ostensible object. But it is impossible not to entertain suspicions on
the subject. On one occasion the Portuguese envoy obtained permission to
send by the packet six cases, which he certified to contain arms for the
use of his Sovereign. The lightness of the packages when brought to the
scale excited suspicion, and on examination they were found to contain
not arms but dutiable goods. To a tradesman at Truro, in exception to
rule, a pass had been granted which authorised him to send by the Lisbon
packet ten tons of hats. Ten tons weight of hats, or what purported to
be hats, had long been exported, and yet more and more hats were being
regularly despatched by every packet.
But although without passes goods and passengers were prohibited on
board the packets, it is certain that the prohibition was habitually
infringed. The packet agents' instructions were to keep a record of the
names and quality of all passengers, and to transmit a copy to London.
Even if this were a complete and faithful record, the postmasters-general
could not know that each passenger had produced his pass. The
Secretaries of State, however, appear to have possessed some means
of information unknown to the Post Office, and, in the matter of
passengers, they were continually complaining of the regulations being
broken. At one time it is Mr. Joseph Percival, a merchant of Lisbon, who
comes over without a passport--which, from the tenor of Lord
Sunderland's letter, the postmasters-general apprehend to be "an affair
of moment." At another it is a Mr. Jackson who, also without a passport,
crosses from Harwich to Holland. In this case Mr. Secretary Boyle
affirms that the packet agent received a bribe of two guineas. To let
passengers come by the Harwich packets without passports, he declares
later on, has become a common practice.
In the matter of goods the evidence of irregularity is still stronger.
Captain Culverden of the _Queen_ packet boat brings into Falmouth
thirty-six bags and seven baskets of salt, and there lands it
clandestinely. Captain Rogers smuggles over twenty bags and one cask of
the same material. Captain Urin from the West Indies makes Plymouth
instead of Falmouth. Stress of weather is pleaded in excuse; but the
postmasters-general feel sure that he might have made Falmouth, had he
not "had private instructions otherwise." "We are uneasie," they say,
"thus to find the West India boats for the most part driven to Plymouth,
or to Liverpool or some port contrary to what is prescribed by our
instructions."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account