354 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [North Bridge.
the postage to England was lowered to 4d. ; and
to zd. for a single letter within eighty miles. On
the 16th of December, 1661, Charles 11. reappointed
Robert Muir ?sole keeper of the
letter-ofice in Edinburgh,? from which he had
been dismissed by Cromwell, and Azoo was given
him to build a packet-boat for the Irish mail.
In 1662 Sir Williani Seaton was succeeded as
Postmaster-General of Scotland by Patrick Grahame
of Inchbraikie, surnamed the BZac.4, who bore the
Garter at the funeral of Montrose, and who, according
to the Privy Seal Register, was to hold that office
for life, with a salary of A500 Scots yearly. In
1669 the Privy Council established a post between
Edinburgh and Aberdeen, twice weekly, ?? wind
and weather serving.?? A letter was conveyed forty
miles (about sixty English) for 2s. Scots ; and for
one an ounce weight the charge was 7s. 6d. Scots ;
for every single letter carried above eighty miles
within Scotland the rate was 4s. Scots; while for
one an ounce weight fos. Scots (it. rod. English)
was charged. In 1678 the coach with letters
between Edinburgh and Glasgow was drawn by six
horses, and performed the journey there and back
in six days !
In 1680 Robert Muir, the postmaster, was imprisoned
by the Council for publishing the Nms
Leiter, before it was revised by their clerk.
? What offended them was, that it bore that the
Duke of Lauderdale?s goods were shipping for
France, whither his Grace was shortly to follow,
which was a mistake.??
In r685 the intelligence of the death of Charles
XI., who died on the 7th of February, was received
at Edinburgh about one in the morning of the Ioth,
by express from London. In 1688 it occupied
three months to convey the tidings of the abdication
of James VII. to the Orkneys.
In 1689 the Post-office was put upon a new
footing, being sold by roup ?to John Blau, apothecary
in Edinburgh, he undertaking to carry on
the entire business on various rates of charge for
letters, and to pay the Government 5,100 nierks
(about A255 sterling) yearly for seven years.?
And in October that year William Mean of the
Letter Office was committed to the Tolbooth, for
retaining certain Irish letters until the payment
therefor was given him. In 1690 the Edinburgh
post-bag was robbed in the lonely road near Cockburnspath,
and that the mails frequently came in
with the seals broken was a source of indignation
to the Privy Council. In 1691, John Seton (brother
of Sir George Seton of Garlton) was committed
to the Castle for robbing the post-bag at Hedderwick
Muir of the mail with Government papers.
To improve the system of correspondence
throughout the kingdom, the Scottish Parliament,
in 1695, passed a new ?Act for establishing a
General Post-office in Edinburgh, under a Postmaster-
General, who was to have the exclusive
privilege of receiving and despatching letters, it
being only allowed that carriers should undertake
that business on lines where there was no regular
post until such should be established. The rates
were fixed at 2s. Scots for a single letter within
fifty Scottish miles, and for greater distances in
proportion. It was also ordained that there should
be a weekly post to Ireland, by means of a packet
at Port Patrick, the expense of which was to be
charged on the Scottish office. By the same law
the Postmaster and his deputies were to have
posts, and furnish post-horses along all the chief
roads to all persons ?at three shillings Scots for ilk
horse-hire for postage, for every Scottish mile,?
including the use of furniture and a guide. It
would appear that on this footing the Post-office in
Scotland was not a gainful concern, for in 1698
Sir Robert Sinclair of Stevenston had a grant of
the entire revenue with a pension of A300 sterling
per annum, under the obligation to keep up the
posts, and after a little while gave up the charge as
finding it disadvantageous. . . . Letters coming
from London for Glasgow arrived at Edinburgh in
the first place, and were thence dispatched westward
at such times as might be convenient.? *
The inviolability of letters at the Post-office was
not held in respect as a principle. In July, 1701,
two letters from Brussels, marked each with a
cross, were taken by the Postmaster to the Lord
Advocate, who deliberately opened them, and
finding them ?of no value, being only on private
business,? desired them to be delivered to those to
whom they were addressed ; and so lately as 1738,
the Earl of Islay, in writing to Sir Robert Walpole
from Edinburgh, said, ?? I am forced to send this
letter by a servant, twenty miles out of town, where
the Duke of Argyle?s attorney cannot handZe it;?
and in 1748 General Bland, commanding the forces
in Scotland, complained to the Secretary of State
?that his letters at the Edinburgh Post-office were
opened 6y order of a nobZe dufie,?
From 1704 till the year of the Union, George
Main, jeweller, in Edinburgh, accounted ?? for the
duties of the Post-ofice within Scotland, leased
him by the Lords of the Treasury and Exchequer
in Scotland? during the three years ending at
Whit Sunday, for the yearly rent of 11,500 merks
Scots, or A;r,~gq 8s. Iod. sterling, subject to de-
* ?Domestic Annals of Scotland,? VoL IIL
