n this country. Letters were conveyed by common
carriers at the rate, probably, of three or four miles an hour. Flesh
and blood couldn't stand that, you know, so about the close of the
century, places, or `posts,' were established in some parts of the
country, where horses could be hired by travellers, and letters might be
conveyed. The post-boys of those days evidently required spurring as
well as their horses, for letters of the period have been preserved with
the words `_Haste, post haste_' on their backs. Sometimes the writers
seem to have been in a particularly desperate hurry. One letter,
written by a great man of the period, had on the back of it the words,
`In haste; post haste, for thy life, for thy life, for thy life;' and it
is believed that this was no idle caution, but a threat which was apt to
be carried out if the post-boy loitered on the way."

It may be remarked that Solomon's language became more refined as he
proceeded, but lapsed into a free-and-easy style whenever he became
jocular.

"The first horse-posts," continued the lecturer, "were established for
military purposes--the convenience of the public being deemed quite a
secondary matter. Continental nations were in advance of England in
postal arrangements, and in the first quarter of the sixteenth century
(1514) the foreign merchants residing in London were so greatly
inconvenienced by the want of regular letter conveyance, that they set
up a Post-Office of their own from London to its outports, and appointed
their own Postmaster, but, quarrelling among themselves, they referred
their dispute to Government. James the First established a Post-Office
for letters to foreign countries, for the benefit of English merchants,
but it was not till the year 1635--in the reign of Charles the First--
that a Post-Office for inland letters was established. It was ordained
that the Postmaster of England for foreign parts `should settle a
running post or two to run night and day between Edinburgh and London,
to go thither and come back again in six days, and to take with them all
such letters as shall be directed to any post-town in or near that
road.'

"In 1640 the Post-Office was placed under the care and superintendence
of the Principal Secretary of State, and became one of the settled
institutions of the country.

"Here, then, we have what may be considered the birth of the
Post-Office, which is now pretty nigh two centuries and a half old. And