"Soon after that a great man arose named Ralph Allen. He obtained a
lease of the cross posts from Government for life at 6000 pounds a year.
By his wisdom and energy he introduced vast improvements in the postal
system, besides making a profit of 12,000 pounds a year, which he lived
to enjoy for forty-four years, spending much of his fortune in charity
and in the exercise of hospitality to men of learning and genius.

"About the middle of last century--the eighteenth--the Post-Office,
although greatly increased in efficiency, was an insignificant affair
compared with that of the present day. It was bound to pay into the
Exchequer 700 pounds a week. In Ireland and Scotland improvements also
went on apace, but not so rapidly as in England, as might have been
expected, considering the mountainous nature of these countries. In
Scotland the first modern stage-coach was introduced in 1776. The same
year a penny post was started in Edinburgh by a certain Peter Williamson
of Aberdeen, who was a keeper of a coffee-stall in the Parliament House,
and his experiment was so successful that he had to employ four carriers
to deliver and collect letters. These men rang a bell on their rounds
and wore a uniform. Others soon entered into competition, but the
Post-Office authorities came forward, took the local penny post in hand,
and pensioned Williamson off.

"It was not till the end of the century that the Post-Office made one of
its greatest and most notable strides.

"The Mail-coach Era followed that of the post-boys, and was introduced
by Mr John Palmer, manager of the Bath theatre. The post-boys had
become so unbearably slow and corrupt that people had taken to sending
valuable letters in brown paper parcels by the coaches, which had now
begun to run between most of the great towns. Palmer, who afterwards
became Controller-General of the Post-Office, proposed that mail-bags
should be sent by passenger-coaches with trusty and armed guards. His
advice, after some opposition, was acted on, and thus the mails came to
travel six miles an hour, instead of three or four--the result being an
immediate increase of correspondence, despite an increase of postage.
Rapidity, security, regularity, economy, are the great requisites in a
healthy postal system. Here, then, was an advance in at least two of
these. The advance was slight, it is true, but once more, I repeat, we
ought not to turn up our noses at the day of small things