Penny Postage

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 52, 28 December 1905, Page 18

Penny Postage

The penny post has extended to Egypt and the Su. dan. Soon it will circle the Empire round about, with the prospect of becoming in time an international institution. As far back as the last two years of Charles 11. the first British penny post, was established in London by an upholsterer named Robert Murray. In his ' Soci^i Life in England from the Restoration to the Revolution,' Sydney says (pp. 227r8) : 'The post which rwas' inaugurated by Murray was quickly placed under the control of William Docwra, the regulations being that ef& letters which did not exceed a pound in weight, and any sum of money which did not exceed ten pounds in value, should be conveyed at a cost of one penny within the city and suburbs, and of two pence to any distance within a circuit of ten miles.' The fate of this first British penny post is told on p. 229 of the same work : ' The system was loadly denounced by the Protestants as a contrivance, on the part of notorious- Papists, to facilitate the communication of their (plots of rebellion one to another. , The infamous Titus Oates assured the public that he was convinced of the complicity of the Jesuits in the scheme.' The city porters murmured against the innovation, from motives of personal .profit. The? upshot of the agitation was the haling of Docwra before the Court of King's Bench, which mulcted him in damages and costs, and suppressed the penny post.