Note 255 — II THE RATE FOR NEWSPAPERS
Reading edition
E.g., "To Mr. Neale, Deale, 27 Nov. 1674.
" ... You should give me a Constant Accompt (as mr Lodge was wont to doe) of all Newes that happens in your Parts. It is Expected from me at Whitehall, and much wondered at, yt my officers doe not give me ye first, and best Accompt of all that Passes, all Newes, Comeing (Probably) first to theire hands. I Pray be Carefull, and punctuall herein hereafter. I shall be ready, in all things (as I have bin) to shew myself
Yrs, &c."
—Documents from Peover Hall, British Official Records.
"The Post Office Packets in those days were carriers of news as well as of the mails. The officers had instructions to record most carefully in their journals full details of any events of public importance occurring in the countries which they visited. These journals, which frequently contained news later and more authentic than any which had yet reached London, were sent up from Falmouth immediately after the arrival of the Packets, and lay at the Post Office open to the inspection of the merchants."—A. H. Norway, History of the Post Office Packet Service, London, 1895, p. 37.
"An old instruction was renewed in 1812, that all postmasters should transmit to me (the Secretary), for the information of his Majesty's Postmaster-General, an immediate account of all remarkable occurrences within their districts, that the same may be communicated, if necessary, to his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State. This has not been invariably attended to, and I am commanded by his Lordship to say, that henceforward it will be expected of every Deputy."—Cited (without giving source) by J. W. Hyde, A Hundred Years by Post, London, 1891, p. 91.
"The mail-coach it was that distributed over the face of the land, like the opening of apocalyptic vials, the heartshaking news of Trafalgar, of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Waterloo."—De Quincey, The English Mail-Coach.