were any way concerned in this illegal collection and
conveyance of Letters, were by proper Officers employed by him, strictly
enquired after, and when detected, the most notorious of them punished
as a terror to the rest."--Ralph Allen's Narrative, 2nd December 1761
(Ralph Allen's _Bye, Way and Cross Road Posts_, London, 1897, pp. 6 and
18).

[53] "Upon the next renewal of his Contract, which was in the Year 1741,
the Postmasters-General, after largely expressing, as usual, their sense
of the integrity of his conduct, and the services he had done to the
Public, told him they judged it but reasonable to expect some addition
to his rent of [L]6,000 a Year for the _Bye, Way and Cross Road
Letters_, altho' he should still continue to support and increase the
produce of the Country Letters for the Benefit of the King. To which,
Mr. Allen answered, that their expectations of additional rent appeared
very reasonable to him, and which he should have made in his own way (a
way he was going to open to them) had they not themselves proposed it.
That there are two ways of giving this additional Rent: the one was by
paying a further some of money yearly, such as he could afford to his
Majesty's use without any advance to public commerce, the other was by
paying his Majesty, and immediately too, a much larger sum than he could
in the first way pretend to advance, in causing a considerable increase
of the produce of the _London and Country Letters_ by means of extending
and quickening the correspondence of London and several of the most
considerable Trading Towns and Cities thro'out the Kingdom; a project
that would be of infinite advantage to commerce. Which of these two ways
the Postmasters-General would think fit to prefer, he left to themselves
to consider; who on duly weighing all circumstances, did not in the
least hesitate to prefer the latter method.

"Upon which Mr. Allen agreed to erect, at his own Expence, one every day
cost from London to Bath, Bristol, and Glocester towards the _West_; and
from London to Cambridge, Lynn, Norwich, and Yarmouth towards the
_East_; and to all intermediate places in both quarters: and--that all
the increase of the postage of Letters thus conveyed between London and
the several places, East, and West of it above-mentioned, should,
without any charge or deduction, be paid in directly for his Majesty's
use, as well as all the increase of the _Country Letters_ within that
District, that is, su