Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 5.djvu/339

A.D.1784.] The duties on bricks and tiles were most strongly opposed, as affecting brick-makers rather than the public, because stone and slates were not included. These duties were, however, carried, and the bill passed; but, great discontent arising regarding the duties on coals and on licences to deal in excisable commodities, the chancellor of the exchequer was obliged to produce a supplementary budget, and, after withdrawing these duties, to lay others on the sale of ale, on gold and silver plate, on the exportation of lead, on postage of letters, at the same time limiting the privilege of franking.



It was high time that the latter practice was put under regulation, for the privilege was enormously abused. Till this time, a simple signature of a member of parliament, without name of the post town whence it was sent, or date, freed a letter all over the kingdom. Many persons had whole quires of these signatures, and letters were also addressed to numbers of places where they did not reside, so that, by an arrangement easily understood, the persons they were really meant for received them post-free. The loss to government by this dishonest system was calculated at one hundred and seventy thousand pounds a-year. By the present plan, no member was to permit any letter to be addressed to him except at the place where he actually was; and he was required, in writing a frank, to give the name of the post town where he wrote it, with the dates of day and year, and to write himself the whole address.

The last great act of this session was one of genuine liberality, being the restoration of the estates forfeited by the Scottish rebels in 1745. Forty years had now elapsed since this forfeiture; the population of the highlands had become as loyal as that of any other part of the kingdom; the estates had remained in trust under the crown, and it was a measure calculated particularly to conciliate the people of Scotland. Mr. Dundas introduced the bill, and observed that lord Chatham had been the first to put an end to the remembrances of past feuds, and had, with admirable success, called the inhabitants of the highlands to aid in the defence of the country at large. They had responded with a spirit and a valour that had been equally honourable to them and the nation, and he felt assured that, had the late