Page 231 - British Post Office Notices 1666 to 1799

Charles 2

make diligent Searches for all Mailes, Buggets and Baggs in any Ships, Vessel, Waggon, Coach, or other Unlawful or
Unlicensed Carriage; And all such Letters which they find to be conveyed or carried contrary to Law, to Seize and send up
to one of His Majesties Principal Secretaries of State, or to some or more of the Lords of His Majesties Privy Council,
together with the Names of the Persons Offending, to the end such further Proceeding may be had, as shall be found
agreeable to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm. And that no man hereafter may complain for want of a Settled Post in or
near particular By-Towns, or Places lying on the Post-Road which Complaint hath hitherto been made the excise or
pretence for sending and carrying of Letters by other indirect and unlawful Conveyances: His Majesty doth hereby also
Require, and Command the Post-Master General for the time being, That upon OT before the Fourteenth day of September
next, to take effectual care for the Conveyance of all By-Letters by Establishing Correspondencies at the least Charge, and
greatest ease that maybe to the Country, in all considerable Market-Towns with the next adjacent Post-Stage; And that he
cause a Map or Card thereof to be forthwith Printed, to the end that all His Majesties Subjects may know where, and to
what Place to address their respective Letters. And His Majesty doth further Charge and Command all and every Person or
Persons other than the Post-Master General for the time being, his Deputies or Assigns, That they presume not to prepare
or provide any Horses or Furniture to let to Hire unto, or in all or any the Through Posts, and Persons Riding Post by
Commission, OT without, to and from all and every the Parts and Places of England, Scotland, and Ireland, where any Post-
Roads are or shall be Settled and Established, unless the Post-Master General, his Deputies or Assigns, shall first fail to
provide and Furnish the Person or Persons so Riding Post with sufficient Horses and Furniture, within the space of half an
hour after Demand, thereof made, as they will answer the contrary at their Perils.
Given at our Court at Windsor the 25th of August 1683, In the Five and thirtieth Year of Our Reign.

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