Page 152 - British Post Office Notices 1666 to 1799

1780-1789

NOTICES FOR THE YEARS 1780-1789

-- 8 0 0 1 0004 [circa 1780]

Instructions Relating to the Bye-Letters.

WHEN the Mails are to· be dispatched from your Offices, you are always to stamp, carefully tax, and tell over the
Letters; then enter, in your Post-bills to the several Offices you correspond with, the exact Number and Value both of the
paid and unpaid Letter sent, tie them up together with the Bill, put them closely in the Bag, and seal it with a fair
Impression of your Office-seal.
You are constantly to send Post-bills to the several Offices, if even you have no Letters to accompany them.
For the Bye-letters you are to keep Accounts, called Vouchers, according to the Form herewith given you - Enter from
your Post-bills, in the proper Columns on the sent Side of the Voucher, the Number and Value of the unpaid Letters which
you send to the respective Offices, and the Number only of the paid Letters; reckoning both the unpaid and the paid
Letters, at ld. 2.d. or 4d. according to the Distance of the Stage to which you send them.
On the arrival of the Mails, you are carefully to tell over the Letters received, to see whether they agree in Number
and Value with the Entries in the Post bills sent with them; which Bills you are to preserve, that recourse may be had to
them in case of a Difference between your Accounts and those of the Deputies you correspond with.
If any Deputy should neglect to send you a Post-bill, whether there be Letters from his Stage or not write to him by
the next Post to send you the Bill wanting.
You are to enter in the proper Columns, on the Received Side of the Voucher, the Number and Value of the unpaid
Letters which you receive from the several Offices, according as the Deputies have entered them in their Post-bills, though the
Deputies should have omitted to enter them in their Bills. The short Letters (that is, such as come from, or are directed to
Places short of the next Office to yours) you are to Account for entering the Value of them in the Column for that Purpose
on the Received Side of the Voucher.
If any of the Deputies should neglect to charge you with Letters which ought to have been charged upon your Office,
you are to account for the Postage of such Letters, entering the Sum of them every Post, as an undercharge on yourself, in
the Column for that Purpose, on the Received Side of the Voucher. - If the Deputies should charge you with more Letters
than ought to have been charged upon your Office, claim Credit for them of William Fortescue, Esq; Surveyor and
Comptroller of the Bye and Cross Road Letter-office at Dublin, in the Account of missent and overcharged Letters
hereunto annexed.
A Voucher is to contain the Account of Bye-letters for a full Calendar Month, excepting that at Lady-day, Midsummer,
Michaelmas, and Christmas, it must end with the old Quarter-days, viz. SthApril, SthJuly, lOth October, and SthJanuary, all
inclusive; and the remaining Post-days of the Month are to be carried to the next Voucher.
At the End of the Month, sum up all the Articles for unpaid, undercharged, and short Letters on the Received Side of
the Voucher; transfer the Totals to a Column for that Purpose on the same Side; then add, in. one Article, all the paid
Letters entered on the sent Side; and lastly, sum up the whole. -The Voucher thus finished must be sent to Mr. Fortescue,
at the General Post-Office, Dublin, by the very first Post after the Expiration of every month.
The Bye-dead-letters together with this Abstract must be inclosed to Mr. Fortescue, and no one else, at the End of
every 10 October, 5 January, 5 April, and 5 July, and you will have Allowance for the whole, otherwise not. On each Letter
you are to write the Reason why it was not ddlivered, and none of them must be opened.
With the Dead-letters, you are likewise to send the Covers of the Bye-letters which have been charged to Members of
Parliament, and of those which have been overcharged to other Persons, always marking upon each of them how much the
Overcharge was. - If the Covers cannot be had, a Receipt under the Hand of the Person overcharged will be allowed; but in
these Receipts, besides the Date and the Sum overcharged, the Place from whence the Letters came must be mentioned;
otherwise it cannot be known whether the Overcharge belongs to the Dublin, or the Bye-letters.
The missent Bye-letters that have been charged to you, you are constantly to forward as directed, by the very first Post
after you receive them, always charging them upon the Deputies to whom you send them, among the Letters from your own
Stage. _.
For missent and overcharged Bye-letters, for Overcharges on Bye-post-bills, and all other Allowance whatsoever on
the Bye-letters, you are to enter in the annexed Account, in the following Manner: Enter the Amount, Overcharges,
Missents, &c. according as they happen, always putting the Date in the Margin, and mentioning to whom the Allowances

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