POST, a particular mode of travelling. A person is said to travel post in contradistinction to common journey travelling, when in place of going on during his whole journey in the same vehicle, and with the same horses, he stops at different stages, to provide fresh horses or carriages for the sake of greater convenience and expedition. As he thus uses the same mode of travelling that is employed for the common post, he is said to travel post, or in post, i. e. in the manner of a post.
In tracing the origin of posts, it has already been remarked, that the more ancient establishments of this kind were fully as much for travelling stations as the conveyance of letters. The relays of horses provided at these public stations for the messengers of the prince, were occasionally, by special license, allowed to be used by other travellers who had sufficient interest at court. Frequent demands of this nature would suggest the expedient of having in readiness supplies of fresh horses or carriages over and above what the public service required, to be hired out to other travellers on payment of an adequate price. We find, therefore, that in former times the postmasters alone were in use to let out horses for riding post, the rates of which were fixed in 1548 by a statute of Edward VI. at one penny per mile. In what situation the state of the kingdom was with regard to travelling post for more than a century after this period, we cannot now certainly discover; but in the statute re-establishing the post-office in 1660, it is enacted, that none but the postmaster, his deputies, or assigns, shall furnish post-horses for travellers; with a proviso, however, that if he has them not ready in half an hour after being demanded, the traveller shall be at liberty to provide himself elsewhere.
The same prohibition is contained in the act establishing the Scots post-office in 1695, as well as in the subsequent act of Queen Anne, erecting the general office for the united kingdom. It is doubtful, however, whether it was ever strictly enforced. By an explanatory act of 26 Geo. II. the prohibition is confined to post-horses only, and every person declared to be at liberty to furnish carriages of every kind for riding post. This regulation has, in fact, done away the prohibition, as hardly any person now thinks of travelling post, except in a carriage.
The rate fixed by the act 1695, in Scotland, for a horse riding post, was threepence per Scotch mile. By the act 9 Anne, c. 10. threepence a mile without, and fourpence a mile with, a guide, was the sum fixed for each horse riding post. The increase of commerce, and necessity for a speedy communication between different parts of the kingdom, have brought the mode of travelling post so much into use, that upon every great road in the kingdom post-chaises are now in readiness at proper distances; and the convenience of posting is enjoyed in Britain to a degree far superior to what is to be met with in any other country whatever.
Posting at last appeared to the legislature a proper object of taxation. In 1779 the first act was passed, imposing duties on horses hired either by themselves or to run in carriages travelling post; the duties were, one penny per mile on each horse if hired by the mile or stage, and one shilling per day if hired by the day. Every person letting out such horses was also obliged to take out a license at five shillings per annum. These duties were next year repealed, and new duties imposed, of one penny per mile on each horse hired by the mile or stage, and 1s. 6d. on each if hired by the day. A number of additional regulations were at the same time enacted for securing these duties. An addition of one halfpenny per mile, or threepence per day, for each horse riding post, was imposed in 1785, by Stat. 25 Geo. III. c. 51. The duty is secured, by obliging every letter of horses to deliver to the person hiring them a ticket, expressing the number of horses hired,
and either the distance in miles to be travelled, or that the horses are hired by the day, as the case happens to be. These tickets must be delivered to the bar-keeper at the first turnpike through which the traveller passes; and the turnpike-keeper gives, if demanded, what is termed an exchange ticket, to be produced at the next turnpike. The stamp-office issues to the person licensed to let post-horses such a number of these tickets as is required, and these must be regularly accounted for by the person to whom they are issued. As an effectual check upon his account, the turnpike-keeper is obliged to return back to the stamp-office all the tickets he takes up from travellers. Evasions are by these means rendered difficult to be practised without running a great risk of detection. In 1787, for the more effectually levying the post-horse duties, a law was passed, authorising the commissioners of the stamp-office to let them to farm by public auction, for a sum not less than the produce in the year ending first August 1786.
In the advertisement published by the commissioners in consequence of this law, previous to the receiving proposals for farming them, the total amount of the duty for Great Britain is stated to have been, at the period above referred to 117,873l. The sum for which that duty was farmed in 1794 amounted in all to 140,030l. of which the district of North Britain was 6000l.
Soon after the tax was imposed, considerable difficulties were raised about the meaning of the term posting, and what mode of journey should subject travellers to duty. The old law, Stat. 9 Anne, c. 10. explained posting to be "travelling several stages, and changing horses;" but the acts imposing the posting duties expressly declare, that "every horse hired by the mile or stage shall be deemed to be hired to travel post, although the person hiring the same doth not go several stages upon a post road, or change horses;" and that "every horse hired for a day or less period of time, is chargeable with the duty of three halfpence per mile, if the distance be then ascertained; and if the distance be not then ascertained, with 1s. 6d. each horse." Horses hired for any less time than two days are by these acts to be deemed to be hired for a day. An action was brought in 1788, in the court of exchequer at Edinburgh, to determine whether several disputed cases fell under the meaning of the act, and were liable to duty, when the following decisions were given:
Saddle-horses both hired and paid by the mile, and saddle-horses hired originally for an excursion, but afterwards paid by the mile, were found liable to duty according to the number of miles paid for; carriage-horses, where the carriage is hired and paid for only at the usual rate of outgoing carriages, and no more, whether the person hiring it does or does not return in it, were found liable to duty only for the number of miles out; but if the carriage be hired and paid for, or actually paid for, though not originally hired, at the usual rate of carriages employed both to carry out and bring back the same company, the duty was found to be exigible according to the number of miles both out and home taken together. Hackney-coaches in Edinburgh, hired and paid for less than two miles, were found liable to duty for one mile.
No duty was found to be exigible on saddle-horses hired
hired for a mere excursion, and paid for accordingly, where the distance neither is nor can be ascertained; on hackney-coaches employed in the streets for less than a mile, or for an excursion or round of visits merely; and on horses or carriages hired for a journey of three days or more, and paid for accordingly, or paid for at the rate of three days, though the journey should actually be performed in two full travelling days. The general rule of these decisions was, that in every case, except unascertainable distance, or journeys exceeding two days, the mode of travelling fell under the legal definition of posting. The only point that may seem doubtful in the judgments here stated, is that where the duty is found chargeable by the number of miles both going and returning. Yet as the law expressly declares, that horses hired by the mile or stage are to be deemed posting, and as the number of miles for which they are hired can only be ascertained by the number paid for, it is clear, that where an addition to the outgoing charge is made on account of bringing back the person hiring the carriage, the carriage in that case is actually hired and paid for according to the number of miles both out and home, and the duty must fall to be rated accordingly. The doubtful points being now settled by the above decisions, the mode of levying the duty in Scotland has been regulated agreeably to them ever since the matter was thus determined.