Page:The empire and the century.djvu/343

 have made the correspondence more easy and cheape, the number of letters have been thereby much increased.'

Unfortunately, the true bearing of these words was not perceived till a century and a half had elapsed. The old letter-books contain several such articles as this: 'Your business cannot be settled until Sir T. Frankland, who hath a fitte of the gout, shall be somewhat recovered.' But when recovered, Sir Thomas was ready to hear everybody, and do what was right for them. Thus, James Vickers petitioned for compensation. As his packet, the Grace Dogger, lay off Dublin Bay, she was seized by a French privateer, the crew of which stripped the packet of everything, 'leaving not so much as a spoon, or a naile hooke to hang anything on,' and exacted fifty guineas for releasing the dismantled craft. Granted.

Anne, widow of John Paghall, master of the Barbabella packet, seeks compensation for the loss of her husband, who died a prisoner in Dunkirk. Granted.

The Postmasters-General ordered that compensation for wounds received in their service should be awarded by scale. Amputation above the knee or elbow brought the sufferer, if he survived the rough surgery of those days, a pension of £8 a year; below the joint, a pension of 20 nobles. A man received £5 if he lost an eye, and £14 if he lost both eyes.

The packet-masters were allowed to carry passengers. At the close of the seventeenth century the fares from Harwich to Holland were raised from 12s. and 6s. for first and second class passengers to 20s. and 10s.; but it was ordered that 'recruits and indigent persons shall still have their passage free.' In May, 1695, a Harwich packet had a crew of twenty-one men, all told, and an agent; and the total for wages was £50 a month.

The strangest postal parcels were franked by packets even in war time. We find entries like the following:

'Fifteen couple of hounds for the King of the Romans.' (One can imagine the uproar raised by thirty