are certain officers chiefly employed under the direction of the secretaries of state, and always in readiness to be sent with all kinds of dispatches foreign and domestic. By virtue of the secretaries warrants, they also take up persons for high treason, or other offences against the state. The prisoners they apprehend are usually kept at their own houses, for each of which they are allowed 6s. 8d. per day by the government: and when they are sent abroad, they have a rated allowance for their journey, viz. 30l. for going to Paris, Edinburgh, or Dublin; 25l. for going to Holland; and to other places in the same proportion; part of which money is advanced for the expense of their journey. Their standing salary is 45l. per annum; and their posts, if purchased, are esteemed worth 300l. But these sums have now probably been increased. The messengers wait 20 at a time, monthly, and are distributed as follows, viz. four at court, five at one secretary's office, five at another, two at the third for North Britain, three at the council office, and one at the lord chamberlain's of the household.

in Scotland. See LAW, Part III.

MESSENGERS of the Exchequer, are four officers who attend the exchequer, in the nature of pursuivants, and carry the lord treasurer's letters, precepts, &c.

MESSENGER of the Press, a person who, by order of the court, searches printing-houses, booksellers shops, &c. in order to discover the printers or publishers of seditious books, pamphlets, &c.