icitly recognized by statute,[265] but the
same Act gave a severe blow to the whole system by authorizing members
of Parliament to send newspapers free of postage. The members did not
confine the exercise of the privilege to newspapers sent by or to them
for their own use, but granted orders for free postage to booksellers
and newsagents on a liberal scale.[266] The booksellers naturally cut
the prices charged by the Clerks of the Road. The charge of the latter
had been [L]5 a year for a daily paper, and [L]2 10s. a year for an evening
paper. The booksellers in 1770 advertised a charge of [L]4 a year for a
daily paper, and [L]2 a year for an evening paper.[267] As a result a
large part of the traffic went to the booksellers, and the profits of
the Clerks of the Road fell so rapidly that it was soon found necessary
to relieve them of the charges on their profits.[268]

Efforts were made to check the abuse of the privilege of franking of
newspapers held by members of Parliament under the Act of 1764. An Act
of 1802 (42 Geo. III, cap. 63) required not only that the member should
sign the newspaper packets, but that the whole superscription, together
with the date of posting and the name of the post-town in which the
paper was intended to be posted, should be in his handwriting. The
member must, moreover, himself be in the post-town where the paper was
posted on the date shown on the paper. These regulations were not long
maintained. They were probably too stringent to be enforced, and in the
course of a few years the appearance on the newspaper or wrapper of any
member's name, whether written by himself or by any other person, or
even printed, was sufficient to secure free transmission through the
post. In 1825 the conditions were definitely repealed, and newspapers
became legally entitled to free transmission by post.[269]

There were reasons why the Government and the Post Office did not
suppress the extension of the privilege accorded to newspapers. At this
time heavy general taxes were imposed on newspapers--the paper duty,
the advertisement duty, and the stamp duty.

These charges had been first imposed in the early years of the
eighteenth century, when newspapers were changing character, and they
were in the nature of restrictions on the liberty of the Press, a
continuation of the restrictions which had previously been maintained by
means of Licensing Acts.[270] Newspapers were at that time ceasing to be
mere chron