at the toll-houses, and calling sometimes for rum, sometimes for whisky, the keepers sharing in the refreshments, which were purchased with stolen money. On one occasion the boy opened a parcel intrusted to him, and from a letter inside abstracted a twenty-shilling note. Whether to render himself all the more redoubtable on the road, over a section of which he travelled in the dark, or for some other purpose, is not clear, but with six shillings of the aforesaid sum he bought a sword, and with two shillings a pistol, the balance going in drink. The occupation of riding the mail was not for one so young: yet it was found that full-grown men often gave more trouble than boys; and it may be here remarked that the adventure of Davie Mailsetter in the 'Antiquary' is no great exaggeration of the service of postboys at the period to which it refers. The poor boy Shearer was put upon his trial before the Circuit Court of Justiciary at Aberdeen; and when called upon to plead, confessed his guilt. There was every disposition on the part of the public prosecutor, and of the presiding judge, to let the case go as lightly as possible against the prisoner--doubtless on account of his youth; but the law had to be vindicated, and the sentence passed was that of transportation for a period of seven years. Since then humanity has made progress, and no such punishment would be inflicted in such a case nowadays. Exposed to all the inclemency of the seasons, both by night and day; having to weather snowstorms and suffer the drenchings of heavy rain; to grope a way through the dense fogs of our climate, and endure the biting frosts of midwinter; or yet to face the masked highwayman on the open heath, or the footpad in the deep and narrow road,--these were the unpleasantnesses and the dangers which beset the couriers of the Post-office in past years, ere the department had grown to its present robust manhood. As to the exposure in wintry weather, it is stated that postboys on reaching the end of their stages were sometimes so benumbed with the cold that they had to be lifted out of their saddles. Some idea of what the postboys suffered may be gathered from the adventure of the Rothbury to Morpeth mail driver in the snowstorm of the 1st March 1886. This man, Robert Paton, left Rothbury with two horses, and another was sent from Morpeth to meet him. On his way two of the horses succumbed to fatigue, and these, with the mail-cart, were left behind in charge of a companion, while Paton proceeded on the third horse, that sent from Morpeth, to his destination. One of the horses abandoned was so knocked up that it had to be left in the snow till next day. At one time the snow would just reach the horses' knees, at another the animals would be plunging desperately through quickly forming wreaths, in snow reaching half-way up their shoulders, and then an open stretch of country would expose them to the fury of the blinding storm. Paton had started from