The Post in Grant and Farm. By 3. W. Hyde.
(A. and a Black.)—There seem to have been great struggles and disputes in the seventeenth century over the Postmastership, which was usually granted to some one, who in his turn farmed the sub- ordinate posts. Any infringement was jealously resented, and the Postmaster for Cie time being spent much of his leisure sum- moning people for breaking in upon his monopoly. There was no provision for public correspondence, it was entirely for Court and Government purposes, so that if the postman did his best, for a consideration of course, to accommodate the public, numerous efforts were made by private persons to help themselves. Such attempts ended in prison, as a rule, and the reader will find there- fore that a certain romance attached to the Post in the seventeenth century.
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