rate, and the inland rate from Falmouth to its
destination. An addition of 4d. was also made to the rates on letters to
or from places abroad, other than places in the colonies. In 1805 an
additional penny was laid on letters between Great Britain and the
American Colonies.

The Act of 1711 had made illegal the despatch by private ship of letters
which could be sent by the regular packets; but for places to which no
packet service existed, shipmasters were free to accept and carry
letters, and to charge what fees they chose. So far as it directed that
all letters for places abroad should be sent by packet where a packet
service existed, the Act was ineffective. From the chief coffee-houses
in the City of London it was customary to collect letters to be sent in
this way by private ship where no packet service existed. This practice
was extended to those places to which there was a packet service, and
became generally recognized. Shipmasters usually charged a fee of 2d.
per letter,[687] and the whole traffic was conducted independently of
the Post Office.

No attempt was made to collect postage on letters conveyed by private
ship, whether received or despatched by such ship, except in respect of
transmission within the kingdom. The penny authorized by the Act of 1711
went to the master of the ship. About the year 1790 Frederick Bourne, a
clerk in the foreign department of the Post Office, suggested a scheme
which should bring all ship letters into the post and subject them to
postage for foreign transmission. He proposed that inward ship letters
should be charged a uniform rate of 4d., and outward letters should be
charged half the packet rate; for those places to which there was no
packet rate, the rate was to be based on what the packet rate might be
presumed to be if a packet service existed. In view of the long period
during which the provisions of the Act of Anne had not been enforced in
this respect, Pitt was unwilling to attempt to suppress the illegal
practice which had grown up. He considered that in respect of outward
letters the service performed by the Post Office, which amounted to no
more than sealing the bags and handing them to the shipmaster, was
insufficient to justify compulsory payment of packet postage. The
proposal was therefore adopted only as a permissive measure: merchants
were given the option of handing their letters to the Post Office. The
Act authorizing the change empowered the Post Office t