Page 134 - British Post Office Notices 1666 to 1799
P. 134
1760-1769
-- 6 7 0 2 NEWS (General Post-Office, July, 1767)
NOTICE is hereby given, that by an Act passed the last Sessions of Parliament, "For amending certain Laws relating to
the Revenue of the Post-Office, and for granting Rates of Postage for the Conveyance of Letters and Packets between
Great Britain and the Isle of Man, and within that Island," it is enacted,
That if any Deputy, Clerk, Agent, Letter-Carrier, Post-Boy, or Rider, or any other Officer or Person whatsoever
employed, or to be hereafter employed, in receiving, stamping, sorting, charging, carrying, conveying, or delivering Letters
or Packets, or any other Business relating to the Post-Office, shall, from and after the first Day of November, 1767, secrete,
embezzle or destroy, any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets, Bag or Mail of Letters, which he, she or they, shall and may
be respectively entrusted with, or which shall have come to his, her or their Hands or Possession, containing any Bank-
Note, Bank Post-Bill, Bill of Exchange, Exchequer-Bill, South-Sea or East-India Bond, Dividend Warrant of the Bank,
South-Sea, East-India, or any other Company, Society, or Corporation, Navy or Victualling, or Transport Bill, Ordnance
Debenture, Seaman's Ticket, State-Lottery Ticket or Certificate, Bank Receipt for Payment on any Loan, Note of
Assignment of Stock in the Funds, Letter of Attorney for receiving Annuities or Dividends, or for selling Stock in the
Funds, or belonging to any Company, Society or Corporation, American Provincial Bill of Credit, Goldsmiths or Bankers
Letter of Credit, or Note for, or relating to the Payment of Money, or other Bond or Warrant, Draught, Bill, or Promissory
Note whatsoever, for the Payment of Money; or shall steal and take, out of any Letter or Packet, that shall come to his, her
or their Hands or Possession, any such Bank-Note, Bank Post-Bill, Bill of Exchange, &c. &c. &c. (as before enumerated)
every such Off ender or Offenders, being thereof convicted, shall be deemed guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as a
Felon, without Benefit of Clergy.
That from and after the said first Day of November, 1767, if any Person or Persons whatsoever shall rob any Mail or
Mails, in which Letters are sent or conveyed by the Post, of any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets, Bag or Mail of Letters,
or shall steal and take, from or out of any such Mail or Mails, or from or out of any Bag or Bags of Letters, sent or
conveyed by the Post, or from or out of any Post-Office, or House or Place for the Receipt or Delivery of Letters or
Packets, sent, or to be sent by the Post, any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets, although such Robbery, Stealing or
Taking, shall not appear, or be proved, to be a Taking from the Person, or upon the King's Highway, or to be a Robbery
committed in any Dwelling-House, or in any Out-House belonging to a Dwelling-House, and although it shall not appear
that any Person or Persons were put in Fear by such Robbery, Stealing or Taking, yet such Offender or Offenders, being
thereof convicted, shall be deemed guilty of Felony, and shall suffer Death as a Felon, without Benefit of Clergy.
That if any Deputy, Clerk, Agent, Letter-Carrier, Officer, or other Person whatsoever, employed in any Business
relating to the Post-Office, shall take and receive into his, her or their Hands or Possession, any Letter or Letters, Packet or
Packets, to be forwarded by the Post, and receive any Sum or Sums of Money therewith, for the Postage thereof, shall, after
the said first Day of November, 1767, burn or otherwise destroy any Letter or Letters, Packet or Packets, by him, her or
them so taken in or received; or if any such Deputy, Clerk, Agent, Letter-Carrier, Officer, or other Person whatsoever, so
employed, or hereafter to be so employed, shall advance the Rate or Rates of Postage, upon any Letter or Letters, Packet
or Packets, sent by the Post, and shall secrete and not duly account for the Money by him, her, or them received for such
advanced Postage; every such Offender or Offenders, being thereof convicted, shall be deemed guilty of Felony.
That Letters conveyed by Packet-Boats, between Whitehaven, or any other convenient Port in Great Britain and
Douglas, or any other convenient Port in the Isle of Man, shall pay (over and above all other Rates of Postage) the
following Rates or Sums, viz. every single Letter Two-pence, every double Letter Four-pence, every treble Letter Six-pence,
every Ounce Weight Eight-pence, and so in Proportion for every Packet of Deeds, Writs and other Things.
That from the fifth Day of July, 1767, it shall be lawful for his Majesty's Post-Master-General to establish Post-Offices
and Post-Roads within the said Isle of Man, wherever it shall appear to him to be necessary and convenient; and to take, for
the inland Port of all Letters and Packets, sent and conveyed by the Post within the said Isle, such Rates of Postage, in
Proportion to the Number of Miles, or Stages, such Letters and Packets are carried by the Post, as are established for the
inland Port of Letters and Packets in England.
That from the said fifth Day of July, 1767, all and every the Clauses, Provisions, Powers, Privileges, Advantages,
Disabilities, Penalties, and Methods for the Recovery of the same, and all other Matters and Things contained in an Act
made in the ninth Year of the Reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intitled, "An Act for establishing a General Post-
Office for all her Majesty's Dominions, and for seitling a weekly Sum out of the Revenues thereof for the Service of the
War, and other her Majesty's Occasions," and not repealed or altered by any subsequent Law; or contained in any other Act
or Acts whatsoever, relating to the Post-Office, shall extend, and be deemed and construed to extend, to the said Isle of
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